Insecurities and Motivation

Aeon climbed on the gigantic snake's body. He was insignificantly small that the snake wasn't even able to feel him move through his hard scales. No one knew what he was trying to do except him.

If the snake moves on the ground again, Aeon would surely fall, and his efforts would be useless. In response to this, Suri did not disappear from the beast's vision. He kept on dodging the darts coming from the snake's neck that shot in a flurry as he tried to keep its attention on him.

….

Like a lizard, Aeon scaled the body of the snake. He stuck extremely close due to the wind pressure from the increased altitude. Despite this, his movements were swift and he reached the snake's neck in no time.

Fuck, this is harder than it looks.

In order to move up, Aeon had to use his bare hands to hang onto the protruding scales of the snake. They were gigantic in size as well, and they were really tough. Once, Aeon tested it with his swords, but they didn't even leave a scratch. He felt his insignificance once again for not being an awakened mage. In the end, he could only blame the academy for removing classes that discussed theory and concepts. After the first day, every class became talk for five minutes, then do for the rest of the class' duration.

How was he able to awaken to his element now? Looking back, the contract that he signed with Montis was really bogus. If the school didn't help him awaken, why should he be kicked out, albeit temporarily?

For the past two months, day by day, Aeon trained his muscles extremely hard. He also learned to use them effectively and efficiently. But there really are limits to what an unawakened mage can achieve. It was that limit that Aeon couldn't break through anymore.

The next thing he trained was his Tenro and techniques. The problem with this was that his prior training did little help. His Tenro focused more on analysis then turning this analysis into reality, achieving enhanced focus, precision, and accuracy. It gave him lots of mental burdens when used extensively rather than a physical burden.

After that…

There was no after.

An unawakened mage like him could not perform any miracles with a mortal's body. Although people born with magic possess tougher and stronger bodies due to their magical constitution, how could he match up against beasts like the gigantic bear and snake?

The only answer is to do what any other person would do.

Hit the weak spots!

Stab the eyes!

In theory, it couldn't be any clearer than that. However, if matched up against colossal beasts, one might not even attempt doing it. Because one wrong move could cost you your life. Now, Aeon was doing something theoretically effective, but extremely stupid.

Aeon reached the head of the snake. It was looking left and right trying to hit Suri. Even after a full minute, the darts in his body had yet to deplete. Any attacks sent by Korona also dealt no damage to the beast's thick skin.

Aeon approached the eye of the beast then pulled out his swords from his back. He flipped the swords to hold them upside-down. Then… he stabbed at the eye with both of his swords.

Pfffft!

Blood spattered from the snake's left eye.

Immediately, Suri felt danger. He backed away and rushed towards Korona. Everything became chaotic in an instant. The beast started banging its head on the ground and continued to thrash wildly. The beast was now spraying his darts in all directions without a specific target.

Meanwhile, Aeon was hanging on with his dear life. Surprisingly, there was no panic in his eyes. With his Verdure firmly latched onto the snake's eye, he removed Zephyr and continued stabbing.

Blood sprayed all over Aeon's body, but he did not relent. He completely ignored the thrashing of the beast. Even when it bashed its head on the ground a couple of times, Aeon did not let go.

At this point, Aeon realized that what he had done was futile. The beast wouldn't die from losing an eye, so what was he really trying to do? Why did he enrage such a colossal beast? Why did he put himself in danger?

The answer would stem back to a few days ago before he started doing his self-training. He thought that if he experienced several life and death battles, he might awaken his element at one point. He thought that it was a natural response for the human mind to come up with ways to survive, and awakening might be part of that.

As Aeon stabbed, it was the only thing in his mind. As Aeon stabbed, he prayed about his awakening, making him turn the tides of the battle.

Aeon was always smiling. He was always jolly and outgoing. But every person has his own insecurities, even him. For him, however, he used his insecurities to improve himself. He used it as a motivation to train. Although the process was quite reckless, his devotion was there.

He was also doing such a reckless thing at the moment, but he made sure he was not endangering anyone else. Throughout the battle, he monitored Suri's performance. If the latter didn't do good or experienced trouble, he wouldn't make such a move. The moment he assessed that everything on the ground was looking okay, he attacked.

He stabbed and stabbed with all his strength, determination painted all over his face.

Come on!

Please, I need to break through!

Booooom! Boooooom!

For almost a minute, the snake mindlessly thrashed. In the end, it decided to run away. It laid flat on its belly and slithered away.

Aeon jumped down from the creature and rolled further away. He laid on the ground as he breathed heavily. Both his arms were aching, especially his left wrist that took the brunt from the beast's thrashing as he held onto Verdure. They failed to kill the beast, but they were able to scare it away. Thankfully, it ran away from the camp, not towards.

Despite this, Aeon did not look satisfied.

Is this not the right way to awaken?

He had done this a couple of times in his self-training, so he wasn't traumatized.

He faced beasts way out of his league and tried his best to make a breakthrough. He never got to slay the large beasts he faced, but he could always escape. Although he suffered several bruises in the process of escaping, at least he was alive.

Aeon slowly got up and walked towards the small clearing where Suri and Korona were. After a while, he saw the two running towards him looking completely worried. Aeon could imagine why, of course.

Aeon smiled crookedly as the Suri and Korona approached him. They were panting heavily, but they were completely relieved.

"I'm sorry. I acted quite recklessly," Aeon said slowly with his head slightly bowed.

It was the first time Suri saw him like this. He looked completely downcast. Even when he fucked up during the Grand Magic Examination, he didn't even faze. So why was he like this today?

"It's okay. I didn't even expect for us to fend off such a colossal beast."

"That's right!" Korona said as she moved closer to Aeon, "how did you even encounter that thing anyway?"

Now that someone brought it up, it really was strange. They were all sure that the outskirts should not house such beasts. Those colossal ones should only be found near the center, so did it move all the way to the outskirts? The outskirts did not have the resources for them to survive. The magical beasts there were mostly small ones and couldn't satiate the colossal snake's appetite for sure. He just moved a hundred meters southeast from the clearing and accidentally bumped into the snake.

"I don't really know," Aeon replied.

Suri was confused as well. "Let's go back and inform the camp. There might be more of those things."

Korona nodded then said, "I agree."

The two started walking back. After a moment, though, they realized that Aeon was not following. The two looked back at Aeon. The person was staring off into space.

"Aeon! Let's go!" Suri yelled waking Aeon up from his stupor.

Aeon blinked several times then responded, "Right! Right! Let's go."

The group silently went back to the camp.

….

As soon as they returned to the camp, they went over to Dan to report. Unfortunately, the latter had a "do not disturb" sign on his tent, so they could only go directly to Klaus. Korona explained with much detail, but she didn't include the part where Aeon stabbed its eye. Aeon appreciated this a lot. He didn't want more attention coming from the Academy staff. Klaus acknowledged their statement and went back to the tent to file a report. It didn't look like he was concerned about it, though.

It was still early in the afternoon but they were already tired. The mental pressure from the battle earlier exhausted them, especially Aeon.

Aeon wanted to get some sleep as soon as possible. After entering his tent, he took out his notebook and wrote the details about the gigantic white snake. Above the newly added entry, there were already hundreds of others. Those he fought with the group and those he fought by himself. He sighed with emotion and laid down. He asked himself how long should he wait before that time would come. The time for his awakening.

Aeon drifted to sleep.

….