The Ring and The Curse

Brennan coughed out blood as he stood up, slowly limping towards Horone with his fire hand outstretched. Horone watched in horror as he approached, unsure of what was going on or what to do. The flame on Brennan's hand soon grew and covered the entirety of his arm, and growing in size as well as heat. The red veins on his arm showed through the fire as he trudged along the pavement.

Brennan was tired. Very tired. All his mana was being sucked away to create the fire on his arm, and he didn't know how to stop it. He just continued towards Horone, who had taken a defensive stance.

Horone fired multiple water spells at Brennan, but for some reason the fire wouldn't go out. He started to run away as fast as he can, but the fire element was faster than the water element, allowing the less fit Brennan to run faster. He was soon cornered against a wall with nowhere to go. He attempted to duck under Brennan's arm to escape, but was pushed back by the scorching heat.

Brennan slowly reached out his left hand to burn Horone, who was now squirming desperately trying to avoid the fire.

Water was supposed to be stronger than fire, and Horone was stronger, so how was he losing? How could there be fire capable of taking down water? Horone could do nothing but watch in horror as his underclassman's burning hand slowly approached his face.

But before he could touch Horone, Brennan felt a wave of drowsiness overwhelm him. He fell over Horone and his hand flew past Horone's water covered body, leaving a gash straight threw the water before the fire on his arm flickered out.

****

Brennan woke up in his bunk bed. He squinted his eyes and saw his roommates next to him, practicing magic and doing their own things.

"Oh hey, your awake. Mind explaining what happened?" Lawrence asked.

"Wel-" Before Brennan could finish his words he started coughing. The drowsiness wasn't completely gone either.

"You have all the symptoms for mana over usage so we definitely need an answer." Angela said as Lawrence handed water to Brennan, who was now sitting up.

"Well, uh, basically, an upperclassman who said they were the 2nd among the 3rd years, tried to pick on me. He had the water element so and since I can only use fire I had to use a lot of mana to fight him."

"So did you win?"

"It was more like a tie."

"That's really impressive, all things considered."

"Hey, don't encourage him, Lawrence!"

"Huh? You got a problem with that?"

"Uh, Yeah?"

Brennan looked around the room as the 2 were fighting. Levi was polishing his dagger, while Jackson was watching Oliver practice his magic. Everything seemed normal, so he decided to go back to sleep.

****

When Brennan woke up again, it was night. Everyone else was fast asleep, and he laid in bed thinking about everything that had happened that day. But as he recalled everything that had happened that day, something didn't add up. Multiple things, actually.

First of all, he should not have been able to release a fire spell of that caliber. Even a dual talented magician like Angela with both bloodline and affinity would only be able to generate that level of heat when they reached a high level.

Second, Brennan should have easily burned himself since he did not have the fire element. Those with an element will not be affected by direct elemental attacks, but the same could not be said for those without that specific element, and especially if they didn't have any affinity.

Lastly, there shouldn't have been a way for him to have that much mana. You only have as much mana as you have affinity and bloodline for an element, so someone without that element would not be able to perform any spells due to lack of that kind of mana. With the exception of the fire element. That meant that there was a limit to how much mana a magician can draw using their innate talents.

By the time he had given up trying to find a solution, it was day. He realized it was already Monday and woke everyone up for school. Of course some didn't appreciate that, but there was no way around it.

He continued to ponder on the 3 topics that remained unknown, but to no avail.

He had his classes up to combat again, and everything seemed to be normal. He noticed a few of the teachers acting a bit tired, but shrugged it off. Teachers teaching here were sometimes very stressed out by the amount of work.

Next was his Beast Dissection class, which he was looking forward to. He finished with his first gauntlet and started working on the other hand, which he was now about half way done with.

Next was the element class, where Brennan would attend the fire element class. The teacher was a less known individual from the Guild, but they were also very talented and knowledgeable, especially when it came to fire magic.

"To begin with we will have a mana test. While there is a set amount of mana an individual can use depending on their affinity and bloodline, that amount still varies. When I call your name, tell me what base talents you have.

Angela Walter."

"Bloodline and affinity."

Angela walked up to a red orb connected to a tube and display screen. When she placed her hand on it, there was a slight bubbling. These bubbles traveled up the tube and to the display screen, which lit up and displayed the number 132.

"That's a really high number, even for someone with both talents. Affinities are usually around 50, while bloodlines are about 65. Added to the base fire mana everyone has, that's about 120."

Most of the other students had scores around 45-60, while one student had 105. According to Angela they were from the Walter's branch family, and their bloodline was not as pure.

As usual, Brennan was last. His mana capacity should be around 5, but after the fight with Horone he couldn't be sure.

"I don't have an affinity or bloodline."

When he placed his hand on the orb, he instantly noticed a large amount of bubbles, maybe even higher than Angela's. Since he knew it would be way to high for someone without an affinity or bloodline and would definitely cause a lot of problems for him, he tried to see if he could reduce it.

He focused on the ring on his left hand, forcing the mana coming from the ring to go back. But nothing changed. Figuring he was doing something wrong, he tried again with slightly different methods, but nothing seemed to work.

He took a deep breath and thought back. Thought back to how he had been able to use all that mana in the first place, and how he was able to use it.

He tensed the muscles on his arm until slight veins came out, which were now a red color. He concentrated on not forcing the mana back into the ring, but changing the mana in his blood. It had changed into 3 different colors. Black, white, and red. He didn't know what black and white were, but he did know that red always represented fire. That was why human blood was naturally red. When he did this, the color slowly receded. The sharp red turned into a softer, lighter color.

The number displayed on the screen was 50.