Gamer Chapter 25 - Battle Prelude Pt.1

Probably too much talking, not enough action.
That comes of splitting up a larger chapter I guess.

------------------------------------------------------------

A smile on my face, I summoned a *Torchlight* which floated in front of my hands, colored light green. Entering the meditative state, I could see the mana thread connected to me and feel the spell, tiny droplets of mana floating through to fuel the spell as it floated in front of me.

A single thought, the light turned blue and I widely grinned. Another thought was all it took to send it moving away from me, floating to the end of the hallway where I then effortlessly sent it moving back. Then I sucked the mana away from the spell, reversing the flow of mana in the connection.

More accurately however, I tried to. My mana reserves were full and the mana just evaporated into the air as tiny invisible streamers from my pores. Interesting actually, the majority of the mana was evaporated from my fingers as I would expect but across my body were still tiny outputs of mana. Probably a leap in logic, but its likely I can cast spells from more than my hands.

However from these experiments I could already see what my favorite part about this new skill was, I had no need at all to focus on maintaining the spell or the connection. The gamer ability handled it all for me.

When I learned this from manually creating the connection the second I lost focus on it the connection shattered and the spell was disrupted, bursting apart in a flare of light. But using the gamer ability, I had no need at all to focus on the connection, forgetting about it as it hovers there un.o.btrusively until I turn back to it, my mind always sensing the small connection but easily ignoring it.

Summoning Torchlight's in earnest, I spammed them into the air with their lights reduced with the tint of green. Several hundred lights swam in the air around me before I began to slow down, the sensations of hundreds of connections slowly making me dizzy. Slowly my mana declined, the drain overwhelming my regeneration.


Then I began to control them, swirling the lights through the air and pulsing through the colors of the rainbow in simultaneous harmony. Red, yellow, blue, I pulsed through them as if we were at a rave party as the sole guard looked on in fascinated wonder.

Then Lily's door slammed open, squinting through the brightness as she glared at me behind her hand.

"Knock it off" she snapped, taking another breath as if going to say something more. Closing her mouth, she spun back around and stormed into her room as I killed the lightshow, leaving a solitary red light hovering over the terrified guard in mourning.

I couldn't help but smile, it was the first time I had seen her ruffled. Not terrified, not sad. But ruffled. Her messed up hair also was a little cute.

Sitting back on the couch and staring at the light in thought, I began to wonder what other alternatives I could explore with this.. Not much really, I only knew a few spells. A sustained light beam would probably work, similar to a floating spotlight, as would controlling lightball through the air. But honestly, those two spells are kind of useless in their current state. Wonder how realistic lasers are.

The other spells I had at my disposal were gravity cloak and gravity well. Gravity cloak would be the most useful, and gravity well could potentially be deadly if I moved it somewhere nasty, say their skull. But as for Gravity Cloak, its probably time to try that out.

That of course, being flight. I had done it before, but the sudden jolts as you need to switch out Gravity Cloak's just for the tiniest modification to your flight plan was quite nausea inducing. Especially because this essentially made a smooth flight impossible as you would need to gradually increase and decrease the speeds instead of doing this in a sudden and single change.

Applying a gravity cloak to my body, I sent a command through my connection and slowly floated up into the air. My stomach felt a little queasy at the loss of gravity, but I can deal with it. I can also deal with the eternal falling sensation, it honestly isn't that bad. Just disorientating.

Testing it out, I slowly began to accelerate down the hallway, my body smoothly flying through the air carefreely. De-accelerating as I reached the end of the hall I was pretty pleased to note the lack of discomfort in the actual flight, the sickening motion having disappeared. The only thing that was a downside to this would be the weightless sensation, but as I said before its a minor downside. Not really sure how I can go about fixing that either.

The other minor problem is not knowing what to do with your arms and legs, especially when gravity wasn't in the equation. But I'd dealt with this problem before and the only real solution was to hold a pose as you flew, even if it felt unnatural.

I began to show off to the guard who watched in utter fascination as I glided through the air, holding a graceful poise as I tested my control. Speeding up and testing de-acceleration I moved through the paces as I tested my limits. Eventually I could no longer take it, stomach crying quits as I began to settle back down to the ground.

If I ever do this as a method of transportation, I'll probably see about using something to stand on. Then again, it could be difficult trying to balance the platform as well as perfectly negating weight. Maybe if whoever is riding on it knows to stand perfectly still.

Feet touching the floor, I discarded the gravity cloak as I turned to the guard with malicious intentions and a kind smile "Want to try it?"

He hesitated, a slight tinge of fear on his face as he licked his lips nervously. Glancing towards Lily's door, he paused a few seconds before deciding with a hesitant smile. "If its no trouble". Stepping closer as I gestured, the spell was applied.

Silent screams of horror, his body trembling with fear and fright. The next hour was the worst night of his life as he flew at neck-break speeds, arms flailing uselessly and eyes pleading for mercy. Not a sound did he dare make as I flew him dangerously near the walls, skimming alongside the ceiling and suddenly braking just before hitting the wall as I experimented and tested my control.

Coming her of her room the next morning, Lily noticed the s.h.i.+vering guard and seemed to hide a small smile. Sending the guard on a small errand she looked at me before returning to her room "Best wake up Kane"

Lazily getting up, I stumbled to his door and rapped on it, collapsing back on the couch as Kane opened it in record time with a confused look when he noticed Lily wasn't up. He looked at me with eyebrows raised before silently beginning to wait for the princess as he leaned against the wall, unwilling to ask me to move over on the couch.

When the guard returned to his post Kane couldn't help but notice the way the guard acted, the tension on his face. Kane looked at me quizzedly, opened his mouth to say something then paused, only to slowly close it again. He shook his head "I don't want to know" he sighed.

Teasingly I asked "Want to see my new trick?" as the guard shuddered, but with a shake of his head he ignored me, waiting for Lily.

Today we have another battle, set to begin in the afternoon. Of the three armies left in the tournament there is me, Ilan, and Caron. Due to Caron having the smaller army of fifteen hundred men we had been matched with them, the winner of that battle to fight Ilan's army a week later.

Of course because we had a battle today Lily didn't want to go visiting, instead we would be spending the day indoors before heading out to the battlefield. As was the custom every morning, we headed to the dining hall where Sjen's family awaited.

His family consisted of him, his son Halin and Halin's wife Seline. No no, I know what you are thinking but Sjen is old, and Halin was definitely in his 20's as was Seline. I do wonder if people in this country marry in their teenaged years, but this didn't seem to have happened here. Be interesting though.

But anyhows, sitting at the table on one end were his family with both Lily and Kane sitting close to them. In contrast I sat with more than 4 chairs between myself and Kane, the furthest I was able to sit without being rude. Namely because Sjen and his family absolutely loved to attempt to draw me into their conversations, seeking out information and attempting to get on my good side.

Its not that its a bad thing, but rather they try to get me to spill information I didn't want to say, attempting to draw me closer in their conversations and have a closer relations.h.i.+p as a result. I didn't like the way they seemed to try manipulate me, but again I can't outright refuse them, they do have good intentions at heart.. Probably.

Servants began to carry in dishes as we sat, conversation died down as we ate. Everyone's reactions towards me had been improving, fear no longer rampant on their expressions at the sight of me. Lily never did seem to express any sort of closeness to me after the first battle, but she had grown comfortable with talking to me. But Kane, our relations.h.i.+p seems to have gone cold. Sjen, Halin and Seline had conceptions about me at first, but given that I didn't actually do anything.. They quickly adapted to my presence.

Kind of weird if you think about it, I mean I did kill a ton of people. Anyhows directly after we finished eating Halin immediately began to strike a conversation with me, he's incredibly interested in me, saying he's never met anyone quite like me. He doesn't mean magic either, asking questions about several strange habits of mine and the way I didn't seem to sleep.

So the morning pa.s.sed quietly, we moved into another room shortly after as the table was cleared. Sjen was more than happy to spend the day with her, and of course both Halin and Seline are more than happy to accompany their new ruler. If I recall correctly Sjen has been promised a high position already, not sure about Halin.

Everyone began to sit in a circle of couches, I leaned against a wall in a effort not to join in the conversation. But seeing Lily point at a spot next to Kane.. No real option, he didn't seem very pleased as he was forced to shuffle over to make room.

Honestly the next couple of hours were pretty boring, everybody talking with more than several attempts to drag me into the conversation I had no interest in. Partly because they were talking about medieval things with great enthusiasm for progress, imagine this super hard metal that comes from iron! And partly because I was wondering what else I could do with magic now that I had a ability to retain a connection to the spells I cast.

One such thought was the possibility to create floating eyeb.a.l.l.s, perhaps by streaming their vision into streams of mana or something? Fun idea, no idea if its possible or can work. h.e.l.l, I can't even do much beyond changing the entire color of my light spells. I'd need to at least gain the ability to have the same spell do different colors.

That wouldn't be a fundamental part of light mana, but more of the spell formation.

Regardless, they talked politics, budgets, planning for the future and general gossip about the uses of several n.o.bles and merchants like old house wives. Kane didn't say much as the time dragged on, and Lily wasn't required to talk much as Halin practically carried the entire conversation on his back.

He soon turned the conversation towards tactics, talking over famous battles and the battles that had occurred in the past two weeks, blatantly trying to drag me into the conversation with invites of "Have you heard of the Erich's Pin tactic Jon?" which of course I hadn't, not being from this world.

As should be fairly obvious by now, I have zero interest in tactics and planning my fights ahead, especially if you have the ability to fight the entire battle on the fly using pure might. Not saying its a good thing, and its pretty useful to have a plan if things go south. But when I can just bulldoze my way through an entire army using the power of brute strength.. Tactics seem to lose meaning. Even if I thought I was in trouble, I can easily kill their commander. And with the ability to fly, I can pick them off if they are obvious to see.

Infact, they hinted more than a few times I should do just that. Kill the enemy commander, minimize loss of life. Why make enemies, Halin reasoned. Unless I have a proper reason?

Certainly it would make life for Lily easier, but if I don't level up now then in the next world I run the very real possibility of having a tougher time. Actually come to think of it, ever since I hit the stat cap the only real things I can increase are DEX, VIT and AGI. And its pretty inhuman already. But again, its nice to have stat points I can a.s.sign if things go bad, or if I decide to practice rift magic.

And its not like I need to care that much about Lily, I'm not going to be in this world in two weeks.

They began to pressure me, subtly asking for a promise to kill Caron the moment the battle started. Slowly the pressure began to build, every other question being directed to me even as they spoke to each other. It became sort of like a game to Halin, he seemed to find great fun in it as I constantly sought new ways to defuse his loaded questions. But luckily for me when things seemed inescapable with a promise about to exit my lips, a man dressed in reputable black entered the room.

"I have a message from the War General" he spoke quietly, words penetrating the very air as Halin's enthusiastic gestures died mid-word.

The butler paused, relis.h.i.+ng the attention he had and as the expectant silence began to draw out he finally spoke.

"Lord Caron has backed out of the tournament, Ilan will be fighting in the afternoon"