Ascension of the elder

"Yo Kyle who's that more meat on the slab?"

Dylan to the left of me.

"Oh god why'd you bring in the OAP's are we that desperate to be inclusive?"

Susan to the right of me.

"Is it time for pancakes?"

And I'm stuck in the middle with Elena.

This could be considered the perfect storm with the three fools all descending on people far stronger than they are. Bob had a vein on his temple twitching while Winona narrowed her eyes while she looked at those who had just spoken.

Elena was largely left out of this glare as she was simply after some food and even if it was directed her way Kyle didn't think she would be bothered by it.

Sometimes to advance it is best to retreat or in Kyle's case pretend nothing is happening and hope for the best, so with this in mind Kyle began a conversation with some of the nearby house members while their eyes would occasionally flick to Dylan, Susan, Bob and Winona.

"What do you mean meat for the grinder?"

Bob asked with obvious irritation, Dylan looked at Kyle quickly but seeing he was ignoring him decided to keep digging the hole he had made for himself.

"Well when new people come to dinner that usually means we have new people to join our training. If you're anything like the rest you'll get smashed, crushed then minced before you come out shiny spanking new."

Bob's twitch had now shifted to just above his eye and his hands were balled into fists which made cracking sounds. The conversation between Susan and Winona wasn't proceeding any better.

"What's an OAP by the way?"

"Well it's an abbreviation standing for "old age pensioner" I thought that at your age you should be relaxing not joining this circus."

This even made Kyle twitch a bit as Susan had not only insulted his grandmother but had insulted everyone here in a roundabout way. Susan was going to have some one on one training it looked like.

"Who are you calling old there dear?"

Winona put some extended emphasis when she called Susan dear and Kyle put his hand around Elena's waist while gradually moving further down the table and hopefully out of the combat zone.

"Well you have to admit you are rather old. It's nothing to ashamed of rather you should revel in the years that have passed."

Susan concluded with a satisfied smirk, Winona felt an apocalyptical rage flow through her mind. This uncontrolled anger seeped out from her and began to affect the surrounding mana, causing small objects to begin to rise from the table.

This unfocused wave of mana often happened during second stage mage training but by the third stage it would be almost unheard of for a mage to lose control like this. Unfortunately Winona had met a wild Susan, Susan had used taunt and it was super effective.

Bob was also angry but was suddenly distracted as a salt shaker floated in front of his face, quickly looking to his side he saw Winona looking at Susan with glowing white eyes. Bob did what any god fearing husband would do in this situation.

"RUN AWAY!!"

Kyle felt Winona's magic beginning to go haywire and turned his soul sight towards her. He could see the storm of mana flashing around her and could also see the situation was exacerbated by certain parts of her mind being affected by the incorrect flow of mana.

He found himself once again cursing the flawed cultivation techniques the empire foisted on their people. It looked like the technique Winona was using dampened her emotions most of the time, but when they broke loose their strength was much stronger than other times.

Susan and Dylan saw Winona and realised this pair of seniors shouldn't have been messed with but could only lament their actions before they too sought cover. Everyone had already been watching what was happening and prepared to go on the defence.

Kyle decided that was enough and with a simple flick of a finger Winona's mana dispersed. This wouldn't affect her and her mana would quickly return. Winona sat there stunned for a moment, when a mages mana runs wild it is almost impossible to contain it without having specialised formations laid out.

This is one of the reasons mages are only trained in the capital as they have the facilities in place to disperse a mages uncontrolled mana bursts. Winona was also aware that it was Kyle who dispersed her mana as she felt a disruptive energy come from his direction.

Looking to Kyle she saw him looking in her direction with an unimpressed expression on his face. Winona became nervous as she felt Kyle may have been disappointed with her for losing control, as his grandmother she wanted Kyle to be proud of her.

"The empire really is trash, once you've taken your seals I'll immediately train you with our technique it'll cure the problems with your uncontrolled mana release."

Winona was happy that Kyle didn't blame her for losing control, but as she saw him grinning at her then looking at the three behind her.

Bob felt cold sweat on his back when Kyle turned his gaze in his direction, "why is my battle instinct telling me to run" he wondered. Usually he would trust in this instinct that had been honed after years of combat and surviving situations he shouldn't.

Susan and Dylan also had cold sweats but in their minds was the same though, "damn we did it again, can I get out of this?" They looked at each other quickly, sizing up the competition thinking if they could throw the other to the lions they might escape. They knew however this wasn't going to happen when they heard Kyle.

"Yes I think I will personally train all four of you."

Dylan had suffered more of Kyle's personal training than anyone else, when Kyle said this he could almost see a bleeding sun appearing behind Kyle before he shook his head and the sun was gone.

Winona's mind was on something else however, how did Kyle disrupt her mana because as far as she was aware the only way to contain a mana burst was to have a stronger barrier, but as she was a third stage cultivator Kyle shouldn't have been able to do this with a simple gesture.

"Kyle what did you do to me?"

Susan picked up on Winona's words and turned a suspicious gaze to Kyle. She had also trained as a mage and without Kyle's technique knew of the pitfalls in mage cultivation. Maria trained distantly from others in case of disruption as this was her only choice previously.

"Was that a new element?"

Susan asked as she knew Kyle had discovered a different form of magic but hadn't yet trained her in it.

"No from my studies the higher forms are not elemental magic."

"So it is a higher form! You told me you weren't going to train it."

"No I said you shouldn't, I know what you're like and I'd like to keep my city in one piece thank you."

"Fine so what is this new magic grouping called?"

Susan wasn't happy but she knew her own mind and believed Kyle was probably right but she would never admit it, but her curiosity for this magical branch knew no bounds.

"I'm thinking of calling this new branch the esoteric branch. And what you just saw was 'Null' magic."

"Well what does it do then?"

Susan asked in apparent excitement and with sparkly eyes. Bob and Dylan had no idea what they were talking about so had somehow begun to arm wrestle to decide a winner while Winona was listening in on the conversation between Kyle and Susan.

"You saw what it does disruption, dissipation or absorption of mana."

"Well that seems pretty useless if I'm honest."

Susan seemed a little put out that this "higher magic" seemed so boring. Winona on the other hand realised some of its potential.

"So this will dispel mana, so any element or array could be broken or shielded against using this magic."

Susan had understanding dawn on her face. If this was true a mages greatest advantage would mean nothing.

"Yes and no, all pure mana constructs would break down but if magic was used to manipulate something physical to attack the null field wouldn't protect against that."

Susan and Winona began thinking about the application of this and began discussing with each other the merits and demerits.

"Right you four eat up and grab some sleep you're going to have a long day ahead of you."

Kyle said to his four training dummies, when he said this a voice came from a known quarter.

"I'm going to be sick in the morning."