Powers And Limits (Part 2)

[POV AQUILES VIRIDIUM – YEAR 271]

As Aquiles chanted and released his mana, a small fireball immediately began to take shape slowly right in front of his palm, at first it was as small as the tip of a pin, but as Aquiles repeated the incantation and continued to release mana, the fireball began to grow as his mana was spent. About 2 minutes later, when Aquiles realized that the fireball was no longer growing, he stopped chanting the spell and watched more carefully the orange fireball spinning in circles and completely illuminating its surroundings. The fireball was the size of a basketball and, despite being only a few inches from his hand, it did not burn him; in fact, the fire didn't even make Aquiles' hand feel the slightest heat.

As he looked at his first magic like a child who had just received a new toy, Aquiles exclaimed with enthusiasm: "This is simply amazing! Despite being so close to my hand, I don't feel the heat. This fireball was supposed to form with me conjuring just once, but I guess I had to repeat so many times because I still have no practice..." Aquiles moved his hand sideways and the fireball remained above his palm without detaching. "With enough time, I'm confident I'll be able to master this magic, not only that, but maybe I'll even be able to create new spells..." Aquiles murmured, and just the thought of creating new spells already excited him.

While pointing his hand at a tree covered in ice a few meters away, Aquiles questioned in an excited and impatient tone: "How strong is this fireball?" With just a thought, he unleashed his magic. The fireball shot off quickly, as fast as an arrow. Aquiles expected an explosion when the fireball collided with the tree, but his expectation was shattered; what actually happened was just a scorch on the bark of the trunk before the fireball disappeared due to the moisture of the tree trunk.

"Brivose Darilaros... I bet it could burn a man if it hit him in some unarmored part, but I doubt this fireball could penetrate steel armor to kill someone." Aquiles observed with a hint of disappointment as he shook his head slightly in denial. "In truth, I think this magic wouldn't even be able to kill someone without armor, at least not with a single shot!"

"Well, I guess it was to be expected, since Fireball is just a low-level spell. But still, if this is the power of a low-level spell, how strong must a high-level spell be?" Aquiles inquired with anticipation and expectation, then he continued to conjure and fire the fireballs towards the tree repeatedly to test the limit of his mana reservoir.

As soon as Aquiles felt that his mana had been completely drained, he sat on the ground, utterly exhausted, and quietly noted to himself: "My full mana reservoir allows me to perform 6 shots. If I use all my mana and fire these fireballs continuously at a person, I am confident I could kill someone or at least incapacitate them due to the burns!" Aquiles thought as he felt his entire mana reservoir being depleted and could no longer continue firing.

About half an hour of rest later, his mana reservoir returned to its maximum, and Aquiles stood up from the ground and began testing the next skill on his list. {Extreme Human} made him feel an internal explosion of strength pulsing through his veins, making his muscle fibers become stronger and more resistant. Aquiles moved, feeling strength and speed greater than he had ever felt before. He then drew his sword from its sheath and exclaimed: "This feeling... It's so good, like my body is bursting with power!"

Aquiles attacked one of the trees around him with a lateral strike from right to left with his sword. The blow was practically instantaneous, the blade meeting the trunk with an almost deafening thud, and then an uncomfortable tearing noise echoed around. The tree swayed with the impact, causing the snow from its canopy to fall to the ground, along with some thin ice stakes, some of which hit Aquiles, but broke due to how thin and fragile they were.

Aquiles swallowed hard as he saw the deep fissure that had opened in the trunk of the tree from side to side. A smile of satisfaction began to form on his lips. "400 kg of force, that's the effect that an attack containing 400 kg of force can achieve!" Aquiles exclaimed with appreciation. "I guess I must be even stronger than the Mountain, Hahaha." Aquiles began to laugh, unable to suppress the growing happiness in his body at seeing that he was stronger than the strongest man ever described in the books.

Moments later, when the happiness passed and he regained control, he ran his hand over the fissure he had created with his attack, examining how deeply his previous strike had cut into the tree trunk. "This skill is quite powerful, I must be careful when using it, or a tragedy could happen, I might even accidentally crush someone." Aquiles concluded to himself in his mind. "Luckily nothing happened while Maester Donovan or the Starks were around, or I couldn't explain this."

"I'm going on a several-day trip, so I'll have time to train. I should take advantage of the fact that there's no one around here and train a bit more in using this skill, only then will my control over my strength increase." Aquiles concluded as he felt the excitement and adrenaline starting to flow through his body. He then tightened his grip on the sword's hilt and advanced, attacking the trees in front of him with all the strength, agility, and speed that the skill granted him.

With the ferocity of a berserker, Aquiles launched himself against the trees of the forest with a smile of excitement on his face, the blade cutting and destroying, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. And so it continued, for several minutes, until he decided to stop when he felt the mana in his reservoir reaching 50%, and it was at that moment that he glanced sideways at the blade of the sword and noticed the clear and undeniable signs of wear. Aquiles judged it to be due to the brutal impacts against the frozen wood of the trees. "If I kept attacking, this sword would break!" Aquiles thought with disappointment and sheathed the sword.

After sheathing the sword back into its scabbard at his waist, Aquiles was about to return to the camp. However, before he could move away completely, his keen senses caught a soft, distant noise, a sound almost imperceptible among the whispering of the leaves and the whistling of the wind. Aquiles froze in place for a moment, his ears seeking the source of that sound as he drew his sword again.

Step by step, Aquiles began to move slowly and carefully to avoid making noise, with the sword once again in hand, he approached the origin of the noise. Crossing through the vegetation to one of the thinner trees that he managed to knock down, he saw something trapped under the tangle of broken branches. His eyes fixed on a frightened creature, a brown hare that had been trapped under the weight of one of the branches of the thin tree he had knocked down.

A satisfied laugh escaped Aquiles' lips. "What luck, I've truly found game." Aquiles smiled and then thrust the sword into the head of the brown hare with force. The blade pierced the hare's head until it touched the ground, blood spurted from its head and flowed down the blade, painting the snow beneath red as its body gave its final spasms until finally becoming still. Aquiles, realizing that the hare had died, removed the branch from on top of it.

As he looked at the now lifeless body of the hare, a question arose in his mind: "Can I heal the dead?" Aquiles wondered as he pressed the body of the brown hare against the ground with his left hand and removed the sword from its head with his right hand. Touching the head of the brown hare with his left hand, he activated his ability {Gift of Healing}.

The ability quickly activated on the wound in the head of the brown hare, healing it completely, and he was pleasantly surprised to see that he could even heal a dead body with the ability. "I can heal the body, but even my ability can't bring the dead back to life. Well, that doesn't matter, after all, an ability that can bring the dead back to life would be practically divine." Aquiles admitted as he realized that the hare remained completely dead, but an idea occurred to him.

Aquiles then raised the sword pointing it towards the sky and then lowered it towards the hare, separating its head from the body. He then held both the head and the body and used the {Gift of Healing} ability again. The head in his left hand began to generate a new body, and the body held by his right hand began to generate a new head. However, it took several minutes this time.

"And to think that it really would work..." Aquiles thought with astonishment, but also a bit of happiness. "Certainly, this ability is quite powerful, if only it didn't consume so much mana in just one use." Aquiles sighed, feeling his body much weaker now that he had spent almost all of his mana.

"I think I have a good understanding of how my abilities work now!" Aquiles thought as he sheathed the sword again. He then bent down and picked up the two brown hares dead by their ears with his left hand and began to head back to the camp. Seeing the daylight fading away sparked his sense of urgency to return.

After minutes of walking, the afternoon sun finally set, giving way to endless darkness that flooded the forest and forced Aquiles to conjure a fireball to illuminate the path and allow him to see the marks he had left on the trees before. As Aquiles walked through the forest, for a moment, he could swear that something was watching him, but when he turned to try to see what it was, it was already too late, whatever it was was no longer there.