Chapter 53

"This is the issue." I gestured with my hand, a sword flew out of the ground towards me, I caught it with ease, but its movement was too static, unmoving. I did the equivalent of wrapping an invisible lasso around it and yanked it toward me.

Scathach tapped her finger against her chin, squatting down and poking at another sword I had stabbed into the ground. "Do it again."

I shrugged, tossing the sword into the ground a distance away and pulled it to me again with telekinesis.

"Wrap it in your magical energy and keep it floating infront of you." She said, standing up and walking next to me.

I did as she said, allowing Mirage to float infront of me, as my magical energy wrapped around it like a blanket. "Clearly, movement is not the problem, at least one dimensionally. I've used it in the past, thrown one of my swords and guided it with Telekinesis and such, but never for any maneuvers beyond straight lines.

She stared at it for a moment, muttering something under her breath then gave it a flick, the sword flew out of my 'control' and landed on the ground.

"Conceptually, it may be different due to the weapons used, a spear is meant to be thrown, so it may be more open to manipulation this way." I started thinking out loud. "It shouldn't be impossible, I've heard stories of similar things in the east, swordsman who could control their swords with their wills in a far off era."

Yeah, Taoism and the like were very popular in the distant era. There were many stories of those people using swords in some magical ways.

I started pacing, taking another look at my hovering sword and walked back and forth. I made sure not to lose focus and keep the weapon suspended, now what abou—

*Smack*

"SON OF A BITCH" I clutched the side of my head, falling to the ground. "What the hell?!?"

Scathach stood over me, looking down, frowning. "Your pacing was distracting me." Her lips curled up. "I guess we can discard some kind of mental limitation."'

I let out a breath, calming down. I suppose she was testing to see if I would subconsciously do something with the sword to block her 'attack'?

Or maybe she just liked to beat me up, both are plausible explanations.

She ignored me, going back to the hover sword, squatting down and looking at it intently. I could tell she was clearly focused, possibly thinking of solutions.

I smiled lightly, with all the force I could muster, I slammed the hovering sword into the ground, kicking up all the snow around it.

Scathach slowly stood up, wiping the snow from her face. "If you wanted to bleed some more, you merely had to ask." Her voice was even, which only added even more presence to her words.

"We'll see whose bleeding after this." I grabbed my sword raising it up. It would definitely be me….but I refuse to back down. I wipped some dried blood off my forehead from the previous bout, when sudden realization hit me.

I think Scathach noticed something too because she looked less 'bloodthirsty' and stared more inquisitive towards the red spotted liquid on my hand. "Blood." She said.

"Blood." I nodded. Her breath of knowledge was truly impressive, she could arrive at the same conclusion so quickly as I did. "Blood is the answer, I did something with my first sword awhile back, I soaked it in my blood to make it a better catalyst."

"But that won't be enough, if it was merely an issue of blood, such a 'technique' would be more readily available." She shook her head. "You must create a stronger 'bond' with the weapons you wish to utilize. I could perform such actions because I personally forged these spears after slaying the beast from whence they originated."

"Not an option for me." I frowned slightly. No way was I going to try and reforge Mirage, and I doubt Dawnbreaker could even be reforged, let alone Ascalon, a Noble Phantasm. I took a look inside my ring, mentally looking over everything and certain ideas began to form. "I have a thought." I stated, withdrawing a couple books.

Scathach stepped over, taking them in hand, and started to flip the pages over quickly enough. I saw her do 'something' with a rune, seemingly so she could read the language of the texts. "This is the spell you used earlier." She stated, continuing reading. "I see…."

Lighting Cloak was the spell book she was holding. To imbue my weapon with lightning, a very basic spell on the surface, but it held a surprising amount of depth. "Basically, a temporary enchantment, the only issue is using my blood instead of lightning and making it more permanent."

"My refining methods, you wish to learn them?" She looked at me, waiting for an answer.

"I…want to know everything you're willing to teach." I replied honestly.

She smiled, it was a very genuine and beautiful smile, devoid of any spiteful feelings she had moments prior. "I will show you how I forged my spears then."

***

"Interesting design." Scathach looked over my enchanting table. She had given me a rundown on how her forging process went, her additions over the years and other things she's tinkered with in the past. I don't know how much time had passed, but we had somehow migrated back to the castle in one of her storerooms she kept many materials and other objects.

Taking the concepts used in Lightning Cloak, replacing the lightning with my blood, and using the enchanting table to make the effect 'stick'.

Mirage sat on the table, it was be the easiest to do first, to 'refine' the weapon, add my 'touch' onto it so it was more susceptible to my control. This was by no means my area of expertise, in fact my experience could be summarized as 'dabbling' throughout both my lives.

Lights filled the room, my enchanting table lit up each runes and my sword was drinking in the multitude of colors. My blood seeped down into the grooves of the table, spilling off the blade as it drank up almost all the excess.

But it didn't take hold, the magical energy had gathered and fluttered out, the enchanting failed.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" She asked, peering over my shoulder.

This wasn't something I was specialized in, even my general knowledge was lacking, frankly she was the expert here. "I have a few ideas…."

"Good, try again." She stated, not giving any advice, but ushering me to continue.

I nodded, focusing again on my enchanting. I ran a finger along the flat of my sword, thinking about how to proceed. Is it merely a matter of too much blood, or maybe not enough?

I willingly cut myself, allowing blood to drip out into a wooden bowl, filling it up about half-way.

This time, I would try less blood, less magical energy and do it slowly.

My enchanting started, but I could feel the effects not taking hold almost immediately, different from before where it all kinda puffed out, this just wouldn't even start.

"Failure." I said, dismissing it all.

What if I changed on my application? Instead of trying to 'cast' the spell over the sword and thus making it a permanent enchantment, why don't I try enchanting it with my blood then casting the spell?

…Failure.

Perhaps another wrong sequence of applications? Let's try casting the original spell, then try changing it during the enchantment process.

Failure.

Hmm, lets adjust a few things and try that sequence again, I felt as if the process did something different and want to watch it again.

Failure.

Stupid, it merely prolonged the disruption between the magical energy and the materials. But now I know the threshold to work with.

Failure.

What about using some ancillary materials? Soul stones, perhaps?

Failure.

Maybe it's an issue of not enough magical energy after finding the correct ratio of blood? What could go wrong with flooding in more.

Failure.

What if I….

Failure.

How about…?

Failure.

Maybe…

Failure.

How long had I been at this? Time seemed to lose meaning in this realm and it was difficult to keep track. Especially with how focused I was, I lost track of how many times I tried this 'enchantment' to refine this sword so it would obey my commands.

I felt hair touching my face as Scathach leaned over my shoulder, close enough that I could hear her breathing, as she started to direct me. "Here." she said quietly. "You are losing much of the process from magical leakage. A normal enchantment from this table would not suffer this issue, but you are combining the application of a spell, modifying it with your blood, and forcibly attaching it to your weapon." She gently drew a rune over my sword, seeing it pulse ever so slightly I could see it having an effect on my weapon. "We often times look over the simplest solutions."

She withdrew, standing off to the side, giving me an encouraging smile.

I held back a sigh, realizing what I had been doing wrong at this point.

I didn't want to get distracted, so I focused back on my table, regardless of how many times I failed, for some reason I was feeling rather confident now.

How much blood had I spilt for this little project at this point?

Once more, I poured my blood over my sword, allowing it to drink it up for the enchantment. This time, though, my magical energy swirled around the sword instead of merely bring 'applied' like it was filling every nook and cranny. I could see the immediate difference in what was happening. It seemed obvious in hindsight, but I just simply did not think of it during this time.

There was no thunderous sound to applause my success, but as it all finalize my sword just pulsed slightly, taking in the enchantment.

I stood up, almost not daring to touch my sword.

Moment of truth?

I reached out with my telekinesis, it was merely a 'bridging' of intent, once I connected to my sword, the spell wasn't necessary. The 'enchantment' did most of the work I merely needed to 'activate' it.

My sword lifted off the ground, and I gestured with my hand for it to fly up and down, and I spun my hand in a circle, only to watch with amazement as the sword followed my commands.

"Well done." Scathach sneaked up on me.

I couldn't help but turn around and wrap my hands around her in a hug. "I did it!" It was only when I heard a soft giggle in my ear that I realized what I was doing, quickly separating from her.

Smooth, Will, smooth.

Forgot myself for a moment, don't even know how long I had been at this and then it was finished…and I will ignore how nice she smelled.

When was the last time I accomplished something after working on it so diligently?

It was an exhilarating feeling.

Scathach looked at me, an amused smile on her face. "Good, now since our last sparring was interrupted, we make up these past few days with another one."

Few days? God damn, no wonder my back felt stiff.

"Well….I really do want to test this out." And I'm never really against sparring with someone stronger than me, case and point, Artoria and Sasaki Kojiro.

"Let's hope you can keep that confidence." She smirked. "Because you will not be allowed to touch your weapons throughout."

Regrets?

Many.

"That's fine, you'll need the handicap." When in doubt, double down.

A vicious grin emerged on her face, one that promised quite a bit of pain. "My little student, all grown, up. I guess I will not need to hold back anymore." She turned around, flipping her hair back and walking out the door.

[You fucked up.]

I may have fucked up.

***

Yeah, looks like this training arc is wrapping up at chapter 60.

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