Ends of Magic

The Heirs fell into a routine over the voyage, practicing separately and coming together for meals and occasional conversations. Eolinne proved to an adept cook with over a dozen different styles of food at her command. She accepted Aarl as her assistant and apprentice after he demonstrated basic competence, and he remarked that if he'd had cooking skills he would be getting Developments by the score.

Sarah and Stella delved into Eolinne’s library, both discovering the wonders of fiction and the joy of curling up with a book for hours on end. Nathan joined them, though he found the storytelling to be somewhat prosaic. It was almost more of an anthropological study for him, to learn about the different cultures of Davrar based on the books they wrote. He searched for histories or reference tomes but found the library to be fairly lacking in heavier reading.

I wonder if Eolinne prefers to keep only the lighter stuff, or if the nonfiction is hiding away in that dimensional pocket I can feel. I probably shouldn’t check, since I’m pretty sure any attempt will break it permanently.

Khachi spent long hours on the deck, clearly deep in thought while his eyes and armor glowed with subtle golden light. Nathan made himself available if the wolfman wanted to talk, but he always met Nathan’s eyes and gently shook his head.

The main thing Nathan was focused on was practicing with his new skills. He’d acquired and evolved nearly every one of his skills relatively recently, and under conditions that hadn’t let him thoroughly practice integrating them all together. Some of it was basic, like testing the range of [Magic Jammer] with Stella, while others were more complicated, like attempting to combine all of his movement and dodging skills together into a cohesive whole.

The problem was that while most of his skills worked on a mostly unconscious level, they were all high enough level that they also unlocked new possibilities he still needed to think about to take advantage of. [Effortless Dodge] allowed Nathan to move in ways that were impossible to replicate unless he was dodging an attack, but he couldn’t intentionally combine that with [Momentum Mastery] to pull off the truly ridiculous stunts he knew he was capable of. He could even use his aura to jerk himself around with [Impulse], but it took a lot of attention to weave it into the necessary shapes and he still didn’t have good control over the resulting motion.

[Airwalking] hasn’t advanced since the Ascendent Academy fell. I’ve been using it in almost every fight, but it’s stayed at rank 7 this entire time. Is it because I’m not using it to its full potential? Is it because only a few of those fights have really challenged me? Is it because the Insight for [Airwalking] isn’t really mine, and was given to me by Kia?

He didn’t know, but he resigned himself to practicing for hours each day with his skills, fueled by frequent lightning bolts from Stella when she took breaks from practicing with water mana. Eolinne had thought it was funny the first few times, but after the thirtieth air-shaking blast of electricity she’d gotten tired of the practice and asked Stella to switch to fireballs.

The ranks weren’t coming easily. Even [Impulse], which was only at rank 2, stubbornly refused to increase. Nathan was getting better at actually controlling his movement, at using his half-dozen abilities together to move easily across the sky. He was especially improving with [Galefoot], which allowed him to ride the wind when it was moving in the right direction. Unfortunately that one couldn’t rank up, as it was a class skill.

He was also on the lookout for an Insight for [Effortless Dodge], which was capped out at rank 10 and ready to Develop into the next level. That skill had developed from the dancing drills that Emerald had taught him, but Nathan didn’t have any good ideas for where to take the skill next. Finally, after quite a bit of work Nathan got a blue box, though not the one he’d been waiting for.

Impulse 3 achieved!

He descended to the deck again, wiping sweat from his brow and taking a drink of water from a pitcher left on the deck. He blew out a deep breath and looked up to where Aarl was practicing in midair. The brown-skinned man had been at it for a few days now and at first the motions had looked remarkably like high-speed flailing, as each of Aarl’s swings sent him spinning slightly.

It’s probably good he hasn’t had to duel anybody in midair yet.

Now his motions looked much more decisive and controlled, and a dozen different weapons flashed out in lethal arcs towards an unseen enemy before vanishing into dimensional bags. Aarl descended to join Nathan, his helmet melting off his face. He held out his hand for the pitcher.

Nathan handed it over. “Looking good. Need any help?”

Aarl shook his head as he chugged, then stored the empty pitcher away and pulled a fresh one out of his pocket. “Likely no, though I will accept your words. But my practice is clear. I have the arsenal to fully use my skills and need to practice it. How is your effort?”

“Fine. Not going as well as I’d hoped.” Nathan scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I’m trying to rank up [Airwalking] and it’s not easy. I’ve got a lot of new skills of my own to incorporate together and it’s happening, but slowly. I don’t know if I’ll get the rank-ups I'm going for. I’ve also got a capped dodging skill to develop and no ideas.”

The corner of Aarl’s mouth curled in amusement. “To encourage a rank-up, deadly combat is the true target. If not combat, sparring. As dangerous as possible.”

Nathan narrowed his eyes at his friend. “Are you quoting Stanel?”

“Yup.”

“Are you volunteering?” Nathan asked.

Aarl shook his head. “I don’t think sparring would help either of us anymore. To truly threaten you I would need my enchanted weapons, and with only a little practice I would have no more enchanted weapons.”

“You could use your unenchanted practice weapons,” Nathan suggested.

“Maybe,” Aarl replied with a shrug. “They’d certainly fail to hurt you, and they will break when caught between my strength and your durability. He pointed towards the back of the ship, where Sarah was watching their wake. She’d been trying to shoot the occasional fish that showed themselves in the wake of the ship to help her aim and fire quickly. “My sister would be the best target. Her weapons can hurt you, and she needs a better practice partner.”

Nathan was skeptical. “What, just have her try to shoot me? That doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

Aarl waved a hand at him. “Follow your light. You’ll have an Insight or two for her as always. Be sure I'd ask if I thought you could help."

Nathan frowned, but glanced towards where Sarah was standing, statue-still with her rifle in the ready position. He gave it a bit of thought. Was there a way that Sarah could help him out with his practice while he helped her out with hers?

I could be a pigeon for a bit, but she’d shoot me down pretty quick. Guns are hard to dodge. She’d be better served by clay pigeons.

He chuckled at the image. If normal people on Earth could shoot down clay pigeons with a decent chance of success, then Sarah would simply never miss. All of the Heirs were well into superhuman ranges, and needed superhuman challenges to advance.

Though dodging bullets is still a bit beyond me. Even at my fastest I’m twenty times slower than a bullet, and that’s before Sarah’s skills.

“Time for me to sweat,” Aarl said, jumping back into the sky to resume his drills.

Nathan wasn’t quite ready to resume himself. He walked over to Sarah, ruminating on what kind of practice might help both of them. It might be as simple as combining his ideas - he’d fly around and throw targets for her to hit. Moving quickly in different directions while thinking about throwing the targets would help him develop his control, and the extra level of danger might assist the rank-up.

Maybe.

“Hey,” He greeted Sarah as he approached, not wanting to catch her by surprise. “Getting bored?”

She grunted in response. “There aren’t enough fish for this to be good practice. You don’t have an Insight for summoning fish in that mental archive of yours, do you?”

The question threw Nathan for a loop. He gave it a serious second of thought, opening and closing his mouth.

If you zap fish with electricity they tend to jump. But I think that mostly works for fish in shallow water, not ocean fish. And having Stella electrocute the water seems like exactly the sort of thing that would draw nasty attention.

Then he shook his head. “Nothing practical. But I have a different idea. If you have some targets I can carry I can go up and start throwing them around for you to shoot.”

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Sarah thought for a moment, then pursed her lips and started rummaging through her bags. “I don’t have much that we could use…” She trailed off, then pulled out an old and battered hatchet that lacked an edge. She looked at it oddly.

Nathan recognized it. “That’s one of your training weapons. From before your level 81 class Development. You threw that at me back at the Adventurer's Guild in Gemore.”

His friend twirled the small ax around her hand, watching it spin with nostalgia. “Yes. Before you introduced a better weapon.” Her other hand withdrew a revolver from a different pouch and weighed it against the ax. “A strange comparison.” Then she held the hatchet towards Nathan handle first. “This will be a good target.”

He hesitated before taking it. “Are you sure? We’re likely going to lose this to the ocean if your bullets don't outright destroy it.”

Sarah gave a sure nod, pulling out more battered practice weapons. “I am. These are tools of my past, and I will not need them again. They seems a fitting target.”

“If you’re sure.” Nathan said, holding out his hands to accept a sack that Sarah quickly filled with old training weapons, everything from the hatchet she’d been holding to slightly rusted daggers, javelins with cracked hafts and a few more exotic projectiles. “I’ll go out a few hundred feet and then start hucking them around. The closer to me you hit them the better. But I’m not the target.”

Sarah snorted but waved a hand in acknowledgement, pulling out her rifle and holding it ready.

Nathan took to the sky, gaining some distance. He had to keep moving to keep pace with the ship, but that was nothing new. Once he judged the distance sufficient he grabbed the hatchet out of the bag and hurled it off to the side.

It had barely left his hands before a bullet nailed the metal axehead. It splintered with the sound of rending metal and Nathan was peppered with fragments that stung against his skin. He looked back down towards Sarah, who was aiming her rifle towards Nathan. She took her hand off the trigger and waved it in a circle as if to say ‘get on with it.’

Nathan tried again, turning around to disguise his arm motions and juking left before hurling the next target straight up. Once again Sarah nailed it mere feet from his hand, and a fragment of metal got in Nathan’s eye.

Ow. That’s unpleasant. But good reinforcement for me to do better. How do I make it harder for her? I need to trick her about where it’s going. Pretend to go one direction but actually go another.

Nathan turned around and disguised his hand movements to make it harder for Sarah to track. He dodged one direction and another before hurling a dagger to the side. This one made it a little further before Sarah’s bullet intercepted the flying metal.

I should think of this in terms of dodging. I’m choosing what openings to show and trying to disguise them as much as possible.

He grabbed two more of the weapons, swinging a hatchet wide without letting go and pitching a narrow dagger in the other direction. Sarah went for his fake and a bullet hissed through the air to the side before a follow-up knocked the dagger out of the air a few seconds and thirty feet later.

That’s it. My movements are a form of communication, and I’m trying to lie with them. I should take inspiration from my disguise skills. How do I sell a movement without committing?

Nathan practiced doing just that, dodging around in midair and occasionally hurling a target for Sarah to shoot. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes he wasn’t. But it was good practice for both of them. Nathan was getting better, but so was Sarah. She fell for less of his tricks, so he got better at executing them.

Visibility Control 5 achieved!

Huh, that makes sense.

The bag was getting empty, but Nathan didn’t really notice. His focus was on the game, fully engaged in the rhythm of aerial maneuvering. He moved erratically, readying himself to go in one direction and then using his aura and skills to redirect his momentum or shove off at a weird angle. He felt himself on the precipice of a Development, but it wouldn’t quite come through. It grew whenever he pulled off a tricky feint and made Sarah miss her shot.

Don’t push it, just memorize the feeling and what you're doing. You can get the Development in the next actual fight.

He also wasn’t having trouble keeping up with the ship, pushing off hardest when he juked in the direction the ship was going. It was exhilarating. Eventually, he reached down into the sack and came up empty, having run through every single one of Sarah’s arsenal of practice weapons. He looked down at the ship below, breathing hard and feeling exhilarated.

Airwalking 8 achieved!

“Yes!” Nathan shouted, scrubbing his hand through hair matted with sweat before he headed back to the ship. They’d acquired an audience, with all of the others having gathered to watch the practice session happening off the back of the ship.

Eolinne clapped daintily from her chair and muttered something quiet as Nathan landed on the deck. His ears only just caught what sounded like a quote. “True power is born of virtuosity and relentless practice.”

Sarah wore a similarly huge grin as she stored away her rifle. Her voice was excited. “By the dawn’s light, that’s a target hit. A few rank-ups and I developed [Steady Hands] to [Quick Aim]!”

The rest of the Heirs congratulated her, though Aarl grimaced and shot a quick look to Eolinne. Their captain seemed not to notice, smiling fondly at their joy and making no moves to involve herself.

“Any Developments for you, Nathan?” Stella asked.

He grinned back. “I think I figured out an Insight, and got some important rank-ups. Including my Talent!”

The Heirs brought him into the celebration, and Aarl pulled out some of the hoarded drinks, pouring a round to toast their success. “A cheer for the Heirs! The youngest elites from Gemore, who can still rank-up from practice. Let’s never forget that hard work returns treasure!”

The Heirs drank, and then started discussing other ways they could combine to help improve their skills.

“There is unexplored potential in our builds.” Khachi said solemnly. “We have leveled quickly in the dungeon of Giantsrest, and now there are easy developments to be found in exploring all of our new abilities.”

Stella nodded along gleefully. “Why don’t I try burning through one of your shields next! If you tried to angle it it would make me focus the fire to keep it from deflecting.”

Eolinne interrupted Khachi before he could respond. “The time for practice is done. There are dire hymns on the horizon.” She gestured behind her, towards the other side of the ship. Off in the far distance was a collection of gray clouds that took up a concerning fraction of the sky. They grew quickly, indicating that the storm was approaching them fast.

“The Maelstrom hunts us.”

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 8

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 6

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 8

Class: End of Magic level 759

Bottomless Stamina : 76900/76900

Indomitable

The Undeniable Strike of the Antimage

Stamina Burn

Momentum Mastery

Stoneflesh

Arcane Nullification

Galefoot

Close Quarters Mastery

Boundless Aura

Denial of Mysticism

The Ending of Magic

Aura Projection

Selective Dispel

The Living World

Class: Spellslayer level 536

Regenerative Focus: 5460/5460

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Tranquility 2

Inspiration 8

Impulse 3

Mystical Discernment 2

Alertness 10

Arcane Insight 3

Effortless Dodge 10

Mental Vault 5

Tutoring 9

Parkour 9

Visibility Control 5

High-tier Disguise 5

High-tier Battle Cry 2

Aura Control 4