Taking Flight

"The deed is done! Now I just have to patiently wait a few days…" After talking with Arthur, Gerald returned home and sat down to rest.

"I never had a good time to check out this thing…" He lifted his metal hand and placed it on the wooden desk.

Caressing it with his right palm he quietly murmured, "It still feels so unreal. If I close my eyes, I can still clearly feel my left hand, but when I open my eyes…there is only cold metal. I guess this is what they call a phantom limb?"

He turned the hand around and disconnected it from his body. The prosthetic was quite heavy and wearing it all day was exhausting!

Gerald turned his mind to the metal hand, and the fingers on it started moving, making it seem like the hand had a mind of its own.

"Heh, creepy!" Gerald laughed while watching his limb move.

"I wonder if I can…" He took out his Fire Sword and threw it on the table. With a light touch of his mind, the sword rose in the air and just floated there.

"Hmm, If I can use this in combat, I could keep enemies far away from myself while still being able to attack. And this consumes way less Mana than magic spells." He lightly moved his fingers and the sword changed directions.

"Faster!" The sword started moving at a greater speed as Gerald wanted, but then he noticed a small delay between the movements.

It felt like the sword was held by a rubber hand and it had some freedom of movement. The delay was not really that noticeable at slow speeds, but higher up, the inertia in the sword made it much more difficult to control.

"I feel like it's not going to be so easy…" Pushing the sword even faster, he concentrated on controlling it.

But when he suddenly tried to change course…

Clank!

The weapon slipped his mind's grasp and fell to the floor.

Gerald frowned. "Weak… My mind is still too weak! But I still need to test it, just in case…"

The sword rose up once again and having it float above his head, he left the room.

In the garden, the girls were resting in the warm sunlight when Gerald's shout disturbed them.

"Xilia, block my strike!"

"What?" Confused, Xilia opened her eyes, only to see a sword flying at her. In a split second, she jumped on her feet and pulled her own sword to counter.

Clang!

The Fire Sword was easily deflected from its course and stabbed itself in the ground not far away. "Hmm, as expected… Using a flying sword in a fight will not do! It can be only used as a way to scare the opponent, nothing more!"

Gerald furrowed his brows slightly before shaking his head in disappointment.

"Hey! What was that?!" Xilia shouted after she recovered her foothold.

Gerald turned around and waved his hand, "Nothing. Just go back to whatever you were doing, don't mind me!"

The Fire Sword in the ground slowly rose up and swiftly followed after him.

Looking at Sera for an explanation, Xilia was left disappointed. The girl just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Don't think too deeply about it… He does weird stuff often, you will get used to it."

***

Back in the lab, Gerald put the sword away and sat on his sofa with a grim expression.

"I lost the grip again… It wasn't even the problem of a collision this time, something actually cut off my connection with the sword!" Gerald was wrecking his brains as to what it might be but was unable to come up with anything that made sense.

He clearly felt his control being ripped from the sword the moment both weapons clashed. It was like someone slapped the sword out of his hand, completely different from before, where it just slipped out of his grasp.

"Sigh… And what can be done about it? Nothing! I got nothing to go on, so I might as well focus my energy elsewhere."

He took a few big pieces of soft leather from storage that he had Sebas buy for him.

Holding it down with his right hand and controlling a sharp knife with his mind, he swiftly cut out three triangular pieces.

Then, bending a metal wire, he made many small circles and stuck them through the leather edge.

Clamping down hard on them, he attached them to his leather armor.

"That should do it, I think…" He spread out his arms and legs, observing himself in the mirror.

What he was making was a sort of flight suit.

The space between his legs now had a leather membrane and so did the space between his hands and his body. It was surely crudely made, but it should do the job just fine.

Since his left sleeve was gone, he fastened the leather wing directly to his metal hand via leather straps.

Filling his pouches with potions and donning a dark cloak, Gerald left the premises with swift steps.

"Don't wait for me, I'll not be coming for dinner tonight!" he said to Sebas Tian, before quickly disappearing into the crowd outside.

After leaving the city gates behind, he chugged a Stamina Potion and Greater Mana Potion and activated Wind Body, dashing along the road at great speed.

Soon, he went off the gravel path and disappeared into the forest under the cover of dense foliage.

After running through the forest for good thirty minutes, Gerald finally stopped at a clearing. Letting the sun hit his face, he sat down and closed his eyes.

With every breath taken, more and more Mana was captured and it started to slowly refill his body.

"Hmm?" He frowned slightly after meditating for a while. "Am I imagining things or can I recover even faster than before?"

Unsure if it was just his imagination, he stood up and calmed his mind.

"Whatever… I'll think about it later. I should focus on the task at hand."

Gerald slightly bent his knees and with a thought, his body became almost weightless.

Boom!

A small explosion was formed under his boots and he was propelled upward like a rocket.

"Faster, I need to go faster!" Steeling his mind he burned through an amazing amount of Mana every second, but his speed also became quite impressive.

In just over thirty seconds he was already a few kilometers high. That's when he spread out his arms and legs and changed his direction to start traveling horizontally.

With only about 30 MP left, he quickly cut off his spells and so his weight immediately returned.

"Wooo-hoo! Oh, hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about! This is real freedom!" Spreading his wings like a bird, he glided through the sky, with the wind blowing in his face.

When he flew for the first time, he did so horizontally and the distance he could cover in that short time was only a few kilometers.

The distance he could fly in either direction was the same as the air resistance was the only factor that mattered in slowing him down.

As such he got the idea to climb as high as possible and then glide the rest of the way. Of course, he had to keep some Mana in reserve, otherwise, he could possibly fall to his death at the end.

Of course, the optimal path would be going up at a slight angle towards the destination, but those were just minor details.

Based on his rough calculations, he could glide for about fifteen kilometers before reaching the ground. Of course, he could get a boost with wind magic and travel faster, thus covering more distance.

After staying in the air for a few minutes, the ground was getting pretty close so he reoriented himself to slow down and slowly approached the treetops.

He cast Screw Gravity and Stone Body seconds before landing.

Bam!

Gerald crashed into the canopy of an old Oak and leaves entered his mouth. "Pfft, ptooey! I'll have to work on my landing…" he said while spitting out the plant matter.

He slowly climbed down, taking a rest on a thick branch. "Let me see now… What's the time?"

Gerald took out his pocket watch and checked the time, before storing it away and going into meditation.

Time slowly passed and when he was fully recovered, he took the watch again and checked the time.

"Indeed, just as I suspected… My Mana regeneration increased again!"

The last time he checked, he was recovering at 5 MP/h, but now that number has already gone up to 6!

"But this makes no sense! I know I can increase Mana recovery by meditating, but that effect is almost negligible… There also wasn't anything that could boost my ability so hig-"

His words were cut short, however, as his eyes opened wide and his mouth enlarged in a smile.