Under the Glow of the Two Moons

30th of Kraal, year 991

When Blink arrived in the monster's lair that bright moonlit night, he was greeted by a series of shrieks from the massive beast. Unlike before, however, the monster beast didn't let out its breath of fire with its shrieks. It was clear to Blink the monster was trying to tell him something. Most likely, it was negotiating for a truce.

By now Blink had reconciled himself, with the possibility that the creature before him was a being of intelligence. But it didn't mean that he would entertain any other option besides killing the monster.

If Blink had not seen the human skull among the scattered bones of the monster's victims, there might have been a chance that he would make some sort of a compromise. As things stood, the only way to resolve this feud was for Blink to kill the monster. Or die trying.

Blink opened fire with a ten-shot [[Barrage]] to the monster's eyes.

This time, Blink released his [[Flame Shots]] by firing alternately with his two hands. With this new tweak, he was able to accomplish a ten-shot [[Barrage]] in less than four seconds. More importantly, this new method cost the same amount of mana as doing it with one hand. Of course, if he did so with one hand, it would have taken him almost six seconds to achieve a ten-shot [[Barrage]].

Blink came up with this innovation after exhorting the trainees during sparring to punch in combinations with both hands. Most of the kids tended to rely exclusively on their dominant hand, which they would retract in order to punch with again.

Sensing that it wasn't enough to merely tell the trainees that a four-punch alternating hand combination would take around as much time to execute as a two-punch one-handed combo, Blink made a demonstration of the point in front of them.

It was during this demonstration that he received a sudden inspiration.

After dismissing the first batch of trainees at noon time, he experimented briefly with the new method on his [[Flame Shot]] and confirmed that it worked better than he anticipated. He then proceeded to attack the monster, giving it thirty minutes of pure hell. Towards the end of the battle, he made sure to implement the modified ten-shot [[Barrage]].

Despite his young age, Blink was a very meticulous fighter. He rarely brought into a fight a technique that he had not studied and practiced thoroughly.

From his earlier experiment Blink concluded that exceeding ten shots for a [[Barrage]] would drain his mental energy past the optimal threshold. And in a fight with a beast that could easily kill him with one move, staying within that optimal range could very easily be the difference between keeping his life and losing it.

Infuriated by Blink's unprovoked attack that night, the beast roared as it shot out its fiery breath. However, his attack fell short by five meters.

Thanks to all that fighting and his recent mental energy training, Blink's mental energy and spell proficiency had increased considerably enough to allow him to expand the maximum optimal range of his [[Flame Shot]] by three meters. Along with this, Blink could also successfully cast [[Magic Arrow]] to an optimal distance of twenty meters.

Alternating between [[Magic Arrow]] and [[Flame Shot]], Blink was able to stifle the monster beast without any need to run around. He also deployed [[Earth Spike]] to restrict the enemy's movement.

Once, Blink was able to pierce a foreleg of the beast with a well-angled [[Earth Spike]]. He cast it just as the beast was trying to charge. That was the turning point for the night. From that moment on, without its usual mobility, the monster just took damage without hope of giving some of it back.

The monster shrieked and roared, but all its efforts were rendered ineffectual by Blink's precise suppression and restriction.

Sensing the futility of fighting on, the monster flapped its battered wings in a vain attempt to fly.

Blink took advantage and cast another angled [[Earth Spike]] which pierced a hind foot of the vile creature. He then sent several [[Flame Shots]] at the monster's wings.

The monster made a long screeching sound. Its despair resounding clearly against the tranquillity of the forest at night.

Suddenly, the monster laid down and hid its head under its forelegs.

Blink was shocked, but only momentarily. He understood the actions of the monstrous creature perfectly. At the academy, he had seen several boys and girls just sit down and cry during a sparring bout, refusing to fight no matter how much the senior disciples exhorted or snarled at them.

But instead of feeling compassion for the monster beast, Blink was rather annoyed.

"You think I'm going to let you off just like that!" Blink shouted. He fired a [[Barrage]] to the monster's exposed hind legs.

The monster wailed miserably, but otherwise didn't move at all.

This only angered Blink and he shot the hind leg several more times and even went on to pierce it with an [[Earth Spike]] for good measure.

Amidst the screaming and trashing of the monster, Blink shouted at it manically: "Get up and fight! You think I won't kill you just because you're too cowardly to fight? You are dead wrong! Die, you child killer!"

Even as he was raving, Blink blasted off [[Barrage]] after [[Barrage]]. He even went within range of the beast's fiery breath, daring it to raise its head.

He tried to raise an [[Earth Spike]] underneath the head of the monster to finish it off. However, it didn't work. Apparently, he had to actually visualize the spot where the spell would materialize, but that exact spot was being occupied by the beast's massive head.

Blink stepped to the side while moving even closer. He cast [[Flame Burst]], which was similar to the monster beast's breath of fire except that Blink's spell came out of his palm. At Blink's current level, [[Flame Burst]] had a maximum optimal range of five meters.

The monster screamed in agonizing pain but still refused to fight back.

Blink provoked the creature with [[Earth Spikes]] stabbing all over its body even as he cursed and taunted the enemy.

Still, the monster beast wouldn't budge from its turtle-shell stance.

Checking his rage from the sudden burst of all the accumulated pent-up emotions of nearly dying a few times in five days of fighting, Blink took several deep breaths to calm himself down.

After stabilizing his emotion, Blink tried one last time.

He raised his hand and directed his palm at what remained of the creature's wings. Bright yellow flames gushed out of his palm. [[Burst Flame]] burned up one of the creature's wings.

The monster beast screeched in extreme agony, but just let Blink have his way.

Facing an enemy that simply refused to fight, Blink couldn't find it in his heart to keep going.

After a short but powerful scream, Blink walked away.

At a distance of fifty meters, Blink looked back at its adversary. It was exactly how he had left it. From where he stood, Blink could hear its miserable wailing.

With two full moons above them, the monster's state was illuminated unflatteringly.

It was almost time for the Rahang Nimgan1.

***

1Rahang Nimgan means "Blocking the Younger Sister". It is a scene from the legend of Agnos and Milal. See chapter 11

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This being a short chapter, let's clear up the matter on spell tiers.

Tier 0 - 4 runes

Tier 1 - 8 runes

Tier 2 - 16 runes

Tier 3 - 32 runes

Tier 4 - 64 runes

I'm pretty sure you can figure out the rest.

*Some Tier 0 spells have 6 runes and are, thus, called 'half-step' Tier 1 spells.

Every wizard starts out as an acolyte. After about five years of constant training, he will then advance as an apprentice wizard before officially becoming a wizard. The next stage to a wizard's advancement is the realm of the grand wizard. For now this should suffice. It would be useless to get too far ahead of ourselves.

Another matter that needs to be cleared, I suppose, is the change in the novel's title.

The first readers stumbled upon this novel when it was still titled "Return of the Battle Mage". That old title was actually just what writers would call a working title. Working titles may sometimes become the official title of the work eventually. However, for this novel, it would have been wrong to stick with it.

Don't worry. After the next two chapters you'll figure out exactly what my intentions are for changing the title.

When I started publishing chapters to this novel, it was actually by accident. I was planning on finishing the first ten chapters before I started publishing. Instead, due to the unfortunate combo of sleepiness and a bad internet connection cast upon me, I inadvertently published the draft I made of the first two chapters. Thus, with a full-time job as a teacher and the anxiety of trying to publish at least five new chapters each week, I never really managed to find the time to come up with a title that is both intriguing yet fitting at the same time.