Chapter 2: Chapter 2 – How To Cast

They circle around her like sharks toying with their prey, occasionally jumping at her just to test her reflexes, always jumping back in fear of an actual attack. Whether you’re enjoying the sight, too scared to go help the poor girl, or don’t care enough to help a complete stranger, everybody stands by and watches. Thanks to my philosophy, I fall into the third category, not willing to break my moral code of not being a hero more than I already have. The sight of eight men harassing what looks like an early teenage girl does make my stomach turn, their words truly testing my resolve to the persona I’ve built for myself.

 

“C'mon, just come with us up to Adam’s balcony for a little, it’ll be fun, I promise,” One relentlessly spews, the girl shaking her head with an ironclad resolve. She strangely refuses to talk, opting to gesture with ferocity like a mime. Before my theories about the reasoning could bake, eggs fly at the boys, covering them in yolk and anger, swinging their heads around to find the culprit.

 

“The girl’s obviously not interested, so can you Home Alone rejects leave her alone now?” Amelia yells, walking up to my side.

 

“Yeah, pressuring a girl half your age to hook up with you isn’t the best way to attract the woman who's legal,” A boy, Aku, jumps in, joining Ame by my side. Both of them look at me, waiting for me to say something. They widen their eyes in response to my silence, pressuring me into a position I was adamantly trying to avoid.

 

“You guys just look dumb,” I add after a sigh, submitting to the role forced onto me. The eight men walk away from the young girl and approach the three of us, fury in their strides.

 

“You three are finished!” One yells, the entire group charging directly at us. I take another deep sigh before running away with Aku and Amelia. The past seven days have consisted of running from conflicts, cutting our way through the constant flow of the busy streets and through alleyways, vaulting fences in a hurry to avoid direct consequences. Although very tiring, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t fun, a smile always under my mask as we bolt from one side of The Mesa to the next. We always end up on the edge of The Mesa, one step away from the endless void. Specifically, the westernmost part, a river flowing directly into the infinity, an endless waterfall.

 

“What do you guys think is down there?” Amelia asks. 

 

“A big tentacle monster with tendrils as long as skyscrapers, just waiting to snatch you up!” Aku jokes, wiggling his arms in the air. Amelia scoffs at the goofy answer, obviously hoping for something more serious.

 

“Why would there be a tentacle monster in an endless void?” Amelia asks with a giggle.

 

“We don’t know if it's endless. It has to end somewhere, slowly filling up by this river over here, and hundreds of thousands years in the future, when everybody here has graduated, The Mesa will flood and feel the wrath of the tentacle monster,” Aku explains, going into a surprising amount of detail.

 

“You’re stupid, Aku,” Ame laughs.

 

“Well if I’m so dumb then what do you think is down there, Ame?” Aku challenges.

 

“A portal to No Man’s Land, duh,” Amelia answers, her delivery making it feel obvious.

 

“Hell no, No Man’s Land is the easternmost part of the world, you wouldn’t go down to get there dumbass,” Aku firmly rejects.

 

“Then why does every graduate they send to No Man’s Land jump down, huh?” Amelia questions.

 

“Do I look like Bruno or Olympia? I don’t know why, but if it was a portal then they would tell us that,” Aku argues.

 

“It’s still more likely than a tentacle monster and The Mesa flooding,” Amelia rebuts.

 

“Whatever, Mofu, what do you think?” Aku asks me, swiftly ending the ensuing argument. I take a moment to form my theory, staring into the abyss.

 

“Nothing,” I say, confusing my partners.

 

“C'mon, use your imagination a little, Mofu,” Amelia pushes me.

 

“Nothing. Nothing and everything,” I elaborate, further perplexing Amelia and Aku.

 

“You just contradicted yourself man,” Aku scolds.

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“You asked me to try to find color in the black, to make something out of nothing. It's obviously nothing, but every color mixed together can make black. So, theoretically, it’s just as much nothing as it is everything, so I agree with everything you two said just as much as I disagree with everything you two said,” I describe.

 

“I never thought about it like that,” Amelia says. She sits down at the edge, getting lost in the absence of matter. 

 

“You three are so incredibly late to practice I’ve gotten over my anger while looking for you imbeciles,” Olympia states, scaring the soul out of us all. Amelia in her frightened state accidentally falls off the edge of The Mesa, sending us all into a frenzy. Diving for the girl, my hand latches onto her forearm. Aku joins me at the edge of the grand nothing, prying Amelia from its fangs. She lay on the ground shocked while Aku and I indulge in a deep sigh of relief, Olympia overseeing the entire exchange. “Well I’m sure that scare has relieved you of any desire of being on the edge of The Mesa, so come. Mofu has to begin his regiment.” We all make our way back to the center of the city and onto the eightieth floor of the tower in the middle of the city, ten floors up from our apartment, and enter a training room. “You two go get changed, I’ll finish explaining things to Mofu.” Amelia and Aku both nod, walking into changing rooms as Olympia turns to me. “So, where did Bruno leave off last week?”

 

“I need to know what a sector is, and why I can have two, as well as what a Reflector is,” I inform.

 

“Ah, right. Reflectors are the graduates of The Mesa, warriors sent to planets all over the galaxy to fight the evils of life, protecting those who need protection, a symbol of hope. Sectors are essentially umbrella terms for subclasses of combat. Usually, the council scouts a group of pupils, and puts them through a series of tests to determine what sector they fit in the best, and they can choose a class based on which sector they're in. If a pupil can fit just as well in multiple sectors, they choose which one they want to go into first and can pick up a second or maybe third after they’ve mastered their first sector. Amelia and Aku are perfect examples. Amelia started as a gunslinger, and once she mastered that she mastered blacksmithing. Aku originally chose the berserker sector, then went into the cleric sector and is working on mastering that,” Olympia explains.

 

“Ok, so how do I take these tests to see what sectors I’m eligible for?” I question, eager to get on the same playing field as the people I’m starting a fight with everyday.

 

“I’ve had my eye on you for about three years now, so there’s no need for that. You have extremely high agility and geographical knowledge, which makes you perfect for the summoner sector. Your ability to improvise and keep a cool head also makes you a nice fit for the medieval sector, so pick your poison” Olympia informs.

 

“Summoner sounds much cooler,” I say.

 

“Which is your more dominant side?” Olympia asks, letting out a small chuckle. I hold up my left arm, Olympia grabbing it and examining my wrist. “This transitions nicely into what you’re about to learn about next, armaments.” Olympia holds up an amethyst looking gem before placing it into my wrist, pain refusing to climb through my body as the gem enters my body.“Armaments are the weapons used by a Reflector. You can withdraw your weapon by applying pressure to whichever wrist the armament seed is, and it will materialize into your hand, although it might be different for you. Try it.” Running my fingers on my left wrist, I search for any proof of an armament seed being inserted. No bumps, bruises, or scars, just a violet light in the center of my wrist. I press on it slightly before small purple spheres swarm out and around my body, materializing into a Korat cat, black as the void. Its eyes as well as the inside of its ear are the same color as the collar on its neck boasting my name, a deep gold.

 

“Olympia, this is very much a cat and even more not a combat weapon,” I say, confused on what my eyes are witnessing.

 

“Summoners have different armaments, as this korat IS your weapon. It's your guide to the world of spirit contracts and beast taming, it just so happens you got a cat and not something a little more ferocious looking. He’ll grow in size and strength as you grow, and a korat is one of the rarest beast armaments you can get, the only other person that owns one is myself,” Olympia informs. “Now then, every pupil, regardless of their class, also gets a magic type. Yours is electricity, so as soon as those two buffoons are done changing, we’ll work on you getting accustomed to using magic as well as your korat.” I pick up the cat, its collar jingling as it ascends into the air. Its soft, black fur brushes against the palms of my hands, a surprisingly nice scent emanating from the small creature. I bring it close to my face, its golden eyes gazing upon my black eye cover. Amelia and Aku emerge from the changing rooms as I examine the cat, searching for any uses other than looking cute. 

 

“Of all the things Olympia told us about, you becoming anything other than a summoner was a laughable theory,” Amelia says. Aku laughs in agreement, raising some questions in my mind.

 

“What do you mean by that?” I ask, bewildered at the statement.

 

“Olympia gossips about you more than she does about me, almost as if YOU were her son. Her and Amelia have been fangirling over you for like two years now,” Aku explains. My mind gets blown away by the insane statement he said casually, almost like it was common knowledge. Before I could address it, Olympia interjects.

 

“Enough talk, let's begin. Aku, you and Ame lucked out today, you two are going to teach Mofu about casting magic as your warmup,” Olympia states, Aku and Amelia cheering from behind me. “Mofu, your first assignment is to hit me with your electric magic.” Olympia walks to the other side of the room while Aku comes to my side, excitement in his face. I set the korat back on the floor before giving Aku my attention.

 

“So casting isn’t as hard as most people make it out to be. It entirely relies on you keeping a level head as your emotional state in battle, as it determines whether or not you can cast and how powerful it is,” He starts. “Most of the time it's best to maintain neutrality, you can cast powerful spells the quickest like that. The more emotional you get, the less consistent your magic becomes. Are you following so far?” Aku explains. I nod, showing my absorption of the information. “Great. So Reflectors use the Izard Scale, which is an easy way of determining the emotional levels of someone at any given moment. You can use it by observing facial expressions and body language. It scales it 1-30, so you’d want to stay in between 12-17. If you’re too emotional, your casting will be less strategic and easy to dodge and counter. Too low and your casting will decrease drastically in power, speed, and range. If you’re not in the middle, you want to be at either 1 or 30. There, your casting is at its most potent. Think of it as filtering water. 1 on the scale is completely clean water. It contains nothing other than the two hydrogen and one oxygen. It's straight H20. 30 is water before any filters whatsoever. It contains minerals, bacteria, all the bad shit you don’t want in water. 1 is emotionless, 30 is way too many emotions. 2 and 29 are dead zones, meaning those are the places on the scale that make it impossible to cast, so avoid those at all costs. Still with me?” I once again nod in understanding, a signal for Aku to continue. “Now, when it comes to actually casting, there are multiple ways reflectors do it. Some imagine their magic as water going through a pipe, and casting as turning on the faucet, others chant incantations for very specific spells, so it really is just what works best for you. I see my magic as going to the bathroom. When you first realize you need to go, you can wait. But once you wait too long, your body goes into a timer. Normal casting is that first realization of needing to go to the bathroom, and big mega powerful spells are when your body sets itself on a timer.” 

 

“Don’t do that, Mofu,” Amelia interjects. She grabs my left arm and holds it out in front of me. “Imagine you have a ball in your palm, ok?” My mind obeys the command, conjuring up the image. “Now to get this ball out of your palm, you need to send it across the room. Try to do that.” I take a deep breath, imagining the situation. The ball appears in my left palm, smooth and weighty. A warm sensation envelops my feet before rising through my legs, into my torso all the way up to my neck, eventually entering my left arm. I can feel it right at the tip of my fingers, the center of my palm rapidly rising in heat. I strain my arm, attempting to force it out, instead resulting in the warmth dissipating. “You can’t force it. Casting is almost like building a fire. You can’t add too much fuel when it’s only an ember because you’ll snuff out the flame. Let the flame grow before tossing lumber into it.” I try again, the warm sensation returning. It follows the same path as before, reaching my hand quicker. I follow Amelia’s suggestion, letting the warmth sit and grow. It leaves the tips of my fingers, all the warmth sitting in the palm of my hand. It circles around itself as it rises in heat, slowly burning my palm. Within a minute, it feels like I’m holding an inferno. I strain my arm again, this time instead of the heat dissipating, it morphs into a giant bolt of electricity, flashing through the room and crashing into the other side of it in an instant, leaving a deep burn on the wall. The recoil forces me off of my feet, my left arm on fire from the casting. I roll on the floor in pain, holding my arm close to my chest. “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you it’ll hurt on your first few tries.”

 

“How do you forget to tell me something like that?!” I holler, gritting my teeth through the pain. It feels like my muscles are snakes, all wrapping around each other trying to escape my skin. It slowly starts to dissipate as I rise back to my feet, Olympia laughing across from me. “It felt like I was holding the sun right before I fired the bolt.”

 

“Yeah, the hotter your palm gets, the more powerful the spell, the more you’re going to feel whatever element you have on your arm afterwards. Try to cast when it feels like you’re holding a heating pad instead of the sun,” Aku suggests. I put my arm up again, and take another deep breath. Following Aku’s advice, a much smaller bolt of electricity flies through the room at intense speed headed directly towards Olympia’s chest. She waves her hand at it, sending it back towards me. It strikes me in the chest quicker than I could react, returning me to my back. My breath staggers as my body goes numb, my brain struggling to comprehend the pain trying to infiltrate my consciousness. Amelia enters my view from above, laughing hysterically as my senses slowly come back to me. I blink rapidly as my arms break free from the numbness, propping me up so I can catch my breath.

 

“I thought I was just supposed to hit you,” I yell at Olympia, frustrated at the retaliation.

 

“You are. I never said I wasn’t allowed to deflect your attacks back at you. I hope you didn’t think this would be easy,” Olympia yells back, amusement laced in her tone of voice. I rise to my feet, mentally preparing for the battle to ensue.

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