52 Chapter 51

"Like this?....no." Scathach weaved Runes through the air, before dismissing them and starting over. She seemed solely focused on her experiments that nothing could disturb her.

I had explained to her my Rune usage, my path I was taking and what spells I was developing. It was a surreal experience, watching her reverse engineer my spells from some basic hints…..usually I'm the one doing that. I only told her my thoughts and what I had created already, and she started trying to replicate them.

"Ansuz into Kennaz then Raido? No that wouldn't work either, they would diminish each other…unless!" She quickly swiped her hand, allowing a spell to actualize. "What did you call it, 'Fires of Muspelhiem?" She laughed, creating a massive torrent of flame infront of her, burning everything in that direction.

I could only sigh, it had taken her less than an hour to recreate my spell.

"Your turn." Scathach turned to me abruptly, hands on hips, expectant.

Did she want to compare them? Whatever, lets just trample all over my self esteem while we're at it. I activated my circuits, gathered my magical energy and actualized my Runes.

"Foolish." She scoffed, flicking a rune into my sequence disrupting the whole thing and making the magical energy go wild and disperse. "Again."

I grit my teeth and started up the spell sequence once again, I stared at her intently, as the spell was about to actualize, she moved.

Another flicked towards me, but I dodged out of the way this time, only to blink as several more collided not just with my spell but my body as well, hurling me back into a snow pile.

"Foolish boy." She frowned. "Do you think I am just disrupting you because I find it amusing?"

"Yes." I said without hesitation.

She raised an eyebrow as several more Runes surrounded her.

"Only proving my point." I wiped the snow off my clothes, standing back up. "Sadist." I muttered under my breath.

*Bang*

"Mother fucker." I blurted out, getting smacked in the head again, face planting back into the snow.

"You remind me of Setanta, one of my other students." She bore down on me. "He often required that I beat my lessons into him. It is making me very 'nostalgic'."

"That sounds, about right for him. He probably just doubled down even then." I snorted.

She tilted her head in confusion. "You know my student?"

Oh right, she wouldn't know about that. "He was summoned as a Servant due to a ritual some mage families created, the Holy Grail." I waved my hand dismissively. "Supposedly capable of granting a wish."

"What a ridiculous notion, a 'wish'" She scowled. "…How did he die?"

Well, she can read between the lines. "As a hero, protecting someone close to me." Atleast, he did in many world-lines, safe to assume he would go out in a blaze of glory here as well. If it weren't for him, Rin would have probably died in some iterations of the war.

"That foolish boy." She said quietly, a small smile on her face. The runes around her were dismissed, and her 'pressure' returned to normal, her expression turning neutral. "Answer my previous question, or you will be going back up the mountain." Her stern attitude returned.

"You were targeting specific parts of my spell, certain links in my runic sentence. Maybe they were weak points, easily disruptable, or maybe my sentence is flawed, bloated even, and you were picking off excess?"

She blinked at me, a small bit of surprise on her face. "I suppose you are not as stupid as I first assumed."

Gee, thanks. "I can only hope to continue to live up to your praise." I deadpanned.

"Don't get wise with me, boyo." She took her spear, carving runes into the ground. "Your runic sentences are needlessly complex, look." She gestured to the symbols on the ground with an astonishing speed, yet they were immaculately done.

I walked over next to her, looking at them, mulling over the combinations. "Wouldn't you want an Ingwaz rune here?" I pointed in between a few runes.

"No, you are simply used to over thinking things." She shook her head. "Dagaz would provide the flames with 'steady growth', whereas adding Ingwaz here would make the flames burn slightly hotter, but only for a split moment and then snuff out."

"I see, it would overload the spell's 'potential' without any meaningful effective increase." I understood where she was coming from. "Yes, yes, also this Thurisaz here, that is brilliant, I can't believe I did not notice it until now. To see my flaws so quickly, you truly are a master of your craft." I couldn't help but admit.

Thurisaz has many meanings, one of which is 'Giant'. It has significance with Muspelheim as a whole, being that I was a realm that was home to a certain kind of Giant race. Weaving in stronger concepts will make the spell stronger overall, especially if 'clutter' is removed to make it actualize better.

"It's good you understand." She snorted. "You have other spells, corresponding to the nine realms, are they just as bad as this one?"

"Probably worse." I admitted with a wince. "You saw my shield spell before."

"Yes….that." She scowled. "I will advise you to fix it out of my presence, less I get the urge to beat you up for even creating something so pathetic."

Well, she doesn't mince words, and it wasn't entirely unfair. "Noted."

"Good." She stated. "Now, fix them and cast each one a thousand times."

"Did you just say a thousand times!?" I stared at her in disbelief.

"Yes, a thousand times, each." She nodded. "If you want me to spread my legs, brat, you should be able to this much at a minimum." She laughed, walking away.

Making a lot of assumptions there….is what I would like to say, but I am a healthy young man.

She even swayed her hips as she left…..bitch.

"I'm conflicted, Ddraig." I said, mesmerized by the sight.

[Being on the other side of the fence this time?]

Huh….I guess that does put it into perspective, with Meridia it was practically the opposite situation. "The stubborn side of me doesn't want to give in, to give her the satisfaction."

[And what does the other side of you say?]

"Them legs."

[Yeah, thought so.]

***

"Alright that's enough." Scathach appeared before more, how much time passed, I didn't know. Several days at the earliest, possibly over a week since I started casting.

The days started to blend together at some point.

"I hadn't completed a thousand for each spell yet." I rubbed my hands together, keeping them warm.

"Hmm, its enough." She dismissed my concerns. "Your casting is up to an acceptable level now, we can move on to the next part." She withdrew a parchment, handing it over to me. "I have made some notes regarding your spells."

I looked it over, reading each line very carefully. "You theorized the completed form of my 9-realms?" I didn't really know what else to call this spell-school.

Nine realms, nine spells.

She had created six more spells for me, complete with their entire runic structure and even had notes on their uses and thoughts on their inception. She used my bare thoughts to conceptualize these, merely the basis of my random ideas. Not only that, they were just about what I had envisioned as well.

What a scary woman.

"I had some free time." She said nonchalantly.

This was….a very nice gesture. "Thank you, teacher." Honestly, seeing this gentle side of her made it really hard to hold any kind of resentment, even knowing she would kick my ass later if I said or did something she didn't like.

"No need for that." She had a small smile on her face. "I had one final thought regarding this method you are creating. You are missing one very important concept to link them all together."

One final concept? Link them all together….oh. "I see where you're going with this." I rubbed my chin, thinking it through. "Yggdrasil, the world tree. The conceptual basis for the entirety of the Norse Cosmetology and what physically linked all the realms in that layer of reality."

"Good, but you will need to complete this yourself, I fear I may stymie your growth if I give you an answer here." She shook her head.

Hmm, I already theorized the other spells at a prior time, but I had to even consider this aspect. I guess she wouldn't completely give me any answer like that. Some time of linking mechanism? Perhaps to combine multiple spells together?

No, that would grind under the original concept, the world tree links but it doesn't 'combine'. Maybe some sort of amplification, using the world tree as a basis to 'spread' a single spell over a large distance or maybe to just empower a single spell to an absurd level?

There were many paths I could take here, much more testing was required.

"You have helped me a lot already." I waved the parchment. "This has saved me many days of research." It matched my initial thoughts as well, this is more or less what I would have created when I had time and sat down.

"Very well." She didn't dwell on it any longer. "Now, swing your sword ten thousand times."

I just sighed, I guess we're back to this now. "Yes, teacher."

"I expect perfect form on each swing, otherwise you will be starting over. You worked your mind and your magic, now you shall work your body." She said with no room for argument, not that I disagreed with her assessment. "Finish this and we will spar again, I will even allow you to use your magic."

Another spar, huh? Honestly, the thought was exciting, it was one of the best ways to get stronger. And I would be lying if I said that I don't enjoy fighting, I just hope I don't turn into a battle maniac in the future.

***

Well, another chapter is done. I hope everyone enjoys new years tomorrow, I should be releasing a chapter, but don't hold your breath.

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