Chapter 19: A new battle.

"I'll kill yoouuu…"

Indeed, those were only some of the profanities I was uttering in front of my father, yes, I was sleeping, but that doesn't make it any less embarrassing.

"Fuck… you Edric…"

"Pfft." he laughed at my antics and came closer while I kept insulting my imaginary opponent, whom I kept fighting even in my dream, losing terribly every time, obviously.

"Come on Avys, wake up." he said while lightly tapping my cheek to awaken me from my slumber.

"Who dares…" I mumbled as I woke up, but stopped after opening my eyes.

Everything I did the previous night passed through my mind, causing me to panic, "Are we late?"

"No, I just came to pick you up."

"Oh, great." I said as I stood up, slightly wobbly because of the overexertion of the previous night, that basic spell wasn't really that good after repetitive use, I now needed a real good night sleep instead of passing out on the ground.

Breakfast went as usual and after that we went to leave the city.

I stood right in front of the gate after which I'd usually start feeling that damned call, my feet were planted to the ground and I couldn't take even one more step.

What if I felt it again? What if that thing… Edric, was still there and waiting for me to get back?

And most of all, what if I lost control of my body again?

The feeling of being unable to control my own body made me feel even more dread than facing every single beast in the Wild Lands, even the thirty meters (100 feet) tall ones.

'Maybe I can still go back, there is no problem if I wait a bit more…' but the moment that thought entered my mind, I felt a hand on my back.

I look back and see that it's my father's, an encouraging smile on his face.

'Yeah, I need to do it now.'

What time is better than this moment, I thought.

Any second I lost to this stupid and irrational fear was a second I could have used to become stronger, to make sure that it never happened again.

So I took another step and the next one after that, not stopping until I was completely outside of the city's barrier.

I took a deep breath, I felt nothing.

No call, I could no longer feel the cave and I no longer had that continuous damned buzz in my head.

I felt like an absolute moron, I worried so much for something that had no possibility of being true, I had seen with my own eyes his head turning to stone after all.

But the fact that I had still felt fear for a stupid small mountain of dust made me feel stupid like never before.

I, the great Avys Winterridge, felt fear for something I perfectly knew didn't exist anymore, but more than feeling stupid, what I felt was shame.

I thought of myself as better than anybody else, but I still felt fear, like everybody else, maybe I really was wrong.

But now wasn't the time to think about those things, I went back to father and jumped on the carriage, we were outside and outside there was no space for people spacing out, I needed to concentrate on the surroundings.

"Are you alright Avys?" he asked.

"Yes dad, I don't feel it anymore, it was just fear, but I'm fine now."

There was still the fact that Edric sent that weird red light into my head, something he called a rune, but as long as nobody could find any traces of this thing I couldn't do anything about it.

The old man had even gone to meet all his other old friends in the Wild Lands who might have known something, but his mission for information hadn't brought back any fruit, unfortunately for us.

A few hours later I used my usual detection spell, which not only reminded me that I had to create something new and better, but also picked up a beast coming in our direction.

I had a few ideas on how to create a new and improved one, but that had to wait, for the moment.

"Dad, a beast is coming from the right, I want to take it on."

"Are you sure?" He asked with a hint of worry still evident on his face.

"Yes, I have a few new things I want to try out."

I stood up with my unsheathed sword in my hand, it wasn't even remotely as good as my fathers, but it was enough for what I could do with it.

I had some stress to relieve and the beast in front of me was the perfect target.

This beast was probably the ugliest I had ever seen, I thought that it would have been the case seeing at it moved slower than other ones, but this really was the apex of ugliness.

It was a ball of multicolored tentacles, mostly dark red, black and dark green, they looked slimy, but it was able to use them as whips, they would have been a big danger, had it not been for the fact that I had already skewered it with my ice lances.

Fortunately it didn't die, I needed stress relief, not an easy kill.

As i got near it tried to extend it's disgusting tentacles in my direction, but I used a new spell I had devised.

It was a darkness spell I created accidentally while trying to create a warp, needless to say I failed in my original purpose, but I created a nice spell nonetheless.

It consisted in a single piercing ray of darkness which apparently also applied a nasty side effect, corrosion.

Darkness was the other side of light, if light was for healing, then darkness was for harming and that's what it did best.

I shot my darkness rays at every single tentacle coming in my direction, disintegrating them all soon after, I could see how every single part was slowly disappearing in dust.

Seeing it disappear slowly didn't help relieve my stress at all, it wasn't satisfying.

I was sure that this spell could have made any human scream in agony, it wasn't something I liked, I enjoyed much more the next spell I casted.

I created an earth platform below it, bringing it up into the air, I also had to keep impaling it to keep it in place and after that I created a couple of ice blades and made them as sharp as I possibly could, sending them falling on the beast.

Seeing it cut into various even parts was far more satisfying, but it was time to end it, so I looked at the only remaining part still moving, a small tentacle, and incinerated it.

'This was a good one.' I thought to myself.

I had wasted way too much mana, especially with the earth platform which was mostly useless, but it helped me feeling better.

I returned to the carriage with a smile on my face and looked at my father, his smile was a wry one instead of a happy one like mine.

"You wasted more mana than I have in total." he told me, well, I could also do it only one more time before running dry, so it was completely true that I had overdone it.

"Indeed." I replied.

"Do you feel better now?"

"A bit, wake me up when the next one arrives." I had a night of sleep to recuperate.

Fortunately or unfortunately, no beast attacked in the next eight hours and when I woke up the sun was still up in the sky.

I stretched my body a bit and felt much better than before, there is nothing better than a good sleep to recover stamina.

"Good morning." chuckled my father.

"Morning, how long does the trip to Honeyfall lasts?"

"Seven days if everything goes well, the weather should be good for the next few days at least."

"Great, I'll start working on a new detection spell then."

"Good luck."

I had a new scan spell on my list of spells to do for a few years now and given that my firepower had reached an acceptable level, I guessed that it was finally time to develop it.

"Do you need help? I might not be better than you in magic anymore, but a different point of view always helps."

"Sure," I replied absentmindedly, but then his words fully registered in my mind, "did you just say that I'm better than you?"

It was the first time he said so, I knew I was better deep down inside of me, but hearing he himself admitting so hit on an entirely different level.

"Avys," he said with a small smile, "I can't use half of the spells you used on that beast this morning, you've been better than me for a long time already.

Fortunately, I'm still better than you with weapons, so I can still teach you that."

Those words stupefied me, he couldn't even use those weak spells?

I had more destructive things and I thought he did too, but I thought he didn't use things on a similar level because he had no need to, after all he could kill them with just a few moves.

But apparently, I was wrong and I didn't understand how it made me feel.

One one hand, I was stronger than him so I felt pride for this, but one the other hand he now could no longer teach me magic like he did back in our first trips.

I still remember those times, I was just and insecure five years old, but he was always there with me, holding my hand when I needed help.

Every time I watched him fight I could learn something new about the way he used his magic.

But now, it could no longer be the same and I was sad about it.

He ruffled my hair and chuckled, "Don't worry little one, I still have more than enough strength to protect you, you tend to overdo your spells way too much, I'll have to teach you more in non magical combat."

He saw right through me, no wander he was my father.

"I want a new sword, one like yours."

"You want a magical sword too? Sure, I'll find a way to get one just for you."

I smiled happily and went back to my own work, I had a detection spell to create and I was surely going to make it the best I possibly could.

But not before tearing apart the beast that had just made it's way into my area of detection, obviously.