-Chapter 37- Foreign Mana

Lucas could only stand there under the weight of my bloodlust. Just a second before I had told him I would be fighting like an augmenter.

I cast the buff spell on myself along with using my mana channels to move mana around my body.

I withdrew the sword I had gotten back when I had entered the ancient mage underground city. Lucas was visibly shocked by the appearance of the sword, its translucent purple color reflecting any light that hit it.

He started chanting his first spell, infernos cage. A domain spell that summoned orbs of fire all around me. Meanwhile, he sat outside of the cage focussing his attention to keep the spell active and working.

I began running at him to close in on the distance between us, while I was running the domain spell he had cast began shooting out blasts of fire at me at fast speeds. I conjure a few wind blades and launch them out of my free hand at the oncoming blasts of fire stopping them in their tracks. I continued running at Lucas but the onslaught of fire blasts kept coming, slowing me down.

I used more wind and earth spells to block or dispel the oncoming blasts but it was proven ineffective when I had been hit by one I was unable to react to in time.

I had been pushed over and stumbled over a few steps to the left. Catching myself however I continued running at him. 'Think Arthur! How could I get to him without these fire blasts hitting me? Fire exits off fuel, ok I can use that. What fuels fire? Oxygen!' Realizing my solution I began to try something risky. I slowed down my pace to a walk so I can pull my focus onto what I was doing.

I breathed in a large amount of air as I held my breath, I then focused on trying to move the oxygen from the air around me away essentially creating a barrier of oxygenless air around me. It took a lot to command but with my mana vein's help, I was able to keep it formed long enough for a fire blast to begin approaching me.

'Here is my chance to test this ridiculous theory out...'

The blast of fire approached me and when it hit the barrier of no oxygen the fire began to disperse and extinguish right before my eyes. A wide smile forms on my face, 'I'm a fucking genius.'

Having a way to combat Lucas's fire spells I simply strolled along the field as if I was taking a peaceful walk. Every blast of fire that got near me had been extinguished before it could hit me. It did take quite a bit of mana to use it though, but considering the benefits of this skill, it's completely worth it.

When I got close enough to Lucas who was now confused and shocked, I began running full speed at him, once I crossed the barrier I withdrew my coat of wind and swung my blade at his padding.

At this distance with such little time to react Lucas was unable to defend himself, leaving me to destroy his gear. Meaning that he was now eliminated from the mock battle.

Now that my problem of Lucas was solved I looked over to my teammates to see how their battle was going.

Curtis was facing the Vice president of the student council, Clive. It seemed Curtis had left his bond Grawder to take a nap because it was just Curtis and Clive fighting and it was obvious who the winner would be. Curtis was using skilled swordsmanship along with a shield he was coating in mana to block any arrows Clive sent his way.

Meanwhile, the Tessia vs Claire fight was full force. Tessia looked to have the upper hand using plant magic to entangle and launch wide-range AOE attacks. It looked to be too much for Claire as a mid-ranged Augmenter. So I began running over there to try and provide backup.

Before I could make it through, Claire's gear was damaged and she was disqualified. Leaving me and Tessia to fight it out.

I began to run wind and earth mana into my blade as I charged toward Tessia. As I moved mana into the blade I felt a great power empower me. 'Was this an effect from the sword?' I continued to stream mana into the sword as it continued to give me a feeling of power flow throughout my body.

Tessia in response to seeing me charge after she launched a single vine whip at me. It was slow enough to dodge and I continued at her cutting away the leftover plants from her battle with Claire.

She launched a few more vine whips at me, all for some reason looking slow. 'Was she weak from her fight with Claire? No, she looks alright, then is she holding back purposely against me?'

I launch a few blades of wind at her to try and get her to try and treat this seriously. She counters them with her wind spell and sends a few more plant spells at me still slower than I had expected.

'She really won't treat this like a proper battle will she? Does this have to do with what Saya told me about her?'

I cut down the vines launched at me, when she realized I had gotten to close she conjures a bunch of vines to form an elevated hill for her to stand on to keep distance.

I was ready to do something about the hill of vines, but suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my entire body. It had felt like my veins were exploding open and my bones snapped. I was clearly physically fine but the pain felt so real.

I pushed passed the pain and began to use an earth spell to take down the hill of vines. Earth shards, I mutter as I then conjure pieces of pointed earth to fly at the vines to cut it down. When I used mana to conjure the spell, I felt a sharp pain from my mana core. 'What's going on?"

'Are you ok? Don't worry I'll be right there to heal you!' I hear Saya tell me through our mental connection.

'No, I'm fine!' I urge her to stay where she was. Whatever this was, I could deal with it until the mock battle was over.

I just couldn't use any mana besides augmenting my sword, 'That should be possible, right?'

I use the sword to cut the vines down but Tessia leaps away to get further away. This is why I really don't like conjurer battles...

I get ready to chase after her but suddenly the sharp pains return but much worse this time, I nearly collapse but catch myself. Tessia conjured a bigger spell this time to launch at me, it looked like some kind of giant wall of vines and tree branches.

I augment my body to try and dodge, but I had forgotten to use mana on anything but the sword to cause pain. So I began to collapse from the pain, I was then hit by the large wall of vines.

Before I pass out from the damage done to my body I hear someone speak to me in a strange voice, 'Descendant, you must not give up. You may not be able to handle the power of the sword as of now, but soon young descendant.'

Tessia Crestless P.O.V.

I had just launched my wall of vines spell at Arthur, I slowed it down though not wanting to overwork him. I expected him to be able to dodge the attack but I didn't see him move.

'What is he doing? Kai's estimations told me he should be able to dodge a simple spell like that normally, let alone slow!' I panicked and tried to cancel the spell, but it was too late. The spell had hit him, when the spell cleared I saw him lying on the ground unconscious.

'What happened, was he that weak from his battle with Lucas?'

Concerned for Arthur I began to run to him and see how I could help. But before I could even make it a few steps, I see Student Council President Saya appear next to him.

'How did she get there so fast? Wasn't she at the spectator stands?'

She had begun to pick him up as the professor and Prince Curtis arrived, I couldn't move as I felt a strong energy fall upon me, it had felt like I was drowning. 'Is Saya doing this to me?' Looking over at Curtis and Professor Glory, they were unaffected by this presence.

I watched as Saya bolted carrying Arthur in her arms like some sort of sleeping Princess. She ran from the Professor and Prince in the direction of the infirmary.

"Dammit, I couldn't accomplish my mission or protect Arthur. What the hell am I doing?" I mutter to myself as I punch the ground in frustration.

Arthur Leywin P.O.V.

I wake up in an infirmary bed with a blanket over me. 'Who put this here?' I look around the room to see if there was anyone there to help me. Seeing no one I try to move and get up.

I felt great pain from moving but chose to ignore it as I moved to place my first foot on the ground. But what I stepped on wasn't the ground. I look down and see that I was stepping on a sleeping Saya.

I quickly lift my foot in shock, 'Why is she sleeping there?!' I hope I didn't hurt her when I stepped on their chest. But considering their monstrous strength and their phoenix lineage, I assumed they would be fine.

I sit back down on the infirmary bed as I tried to look for my stuff. My dimension ring was taken off and my sword was nowhere to be found. I look around and upon not seeing either I give up. 'I'll ask someone later.'

Deciding to try and find what had caused my sharp pains I peer into my mana core. At first, I didn't see any problems with it. But peering closer, I saw mana that wasn't my own within.

There was a large clump of mana that wasn't mine stuck within my mana core. Before I could try and mess with it I hear Saya wake up so I return my focus off my mana core.

"Ugh," She moans as she gets up off the ground. She looks at me watching her get up off the ground like a madman. "Oh, your awake." She says, completely ignoring the fact she must have fallen off the chair in her sleep.

"What happened?" I ask.

She sighs as she begins to explain to me her observations while I fought. "Essentially, your weird sword of yours had a reaction to when you put mana into it. It flows a mixture of mana and ... I'm not sure if I could tell you the other thing." She stops her sentence.

"Why?"

"The asuras, specifically the Indrath clan enforce the rule that we can't talk about that energy to lessers."

"I feel like I should know, after all, whatever this sword is doing. I should know." I tell her.

"Ok, I agree with you. The sword flows both mana and aether into your body. Aether is basically what the 'ancient mages' as you call them, do their strange magic."

She briefly explains what aether is to me before continuing what happened with my sword. (Skipping explanation on aether because it confusing as hell)

"In your body is the mana and aether meant for the ancient mage or 'djinn' as they are actually called." She explains. "I have a way to help you get rid of it, it will just take a while to do, so that's why I had waited for you to wake up. We can begin now."

"Wait," I stop her, "If this mana is attacking my body because its a foreign to it, why don't I just solve that?" I explain.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asks.

"I think I have a way to use this power..."