Chapter 15

  After what felt like hours later, Adam was done with his explanation about his world and how that had shaped his personality. Subsequently, after listening to his story, I now had a little better understanding of who Adam was as a person. Why he wanted to help me, how come he was the way he was, and some of the more eccentric aspects of his personality that shaped his interactions with me. It all came together to paint a portrait that was a little strange, but otherwise not a bad thing to recognize with.

  Then Adam began to explain how time flowed differently in our Soul Space and that while physical training could be happening when I was awake, here, he and I could be practicing ideas against each other to see what ideas work and which ones don’t.

  Since there was still time until my physical body would wake up, Adam wanted to test out an idea he had about fighting with my sword based on a form of entertainment he had viewed in his world. I was intrigued so I readily agreed.

  “Alright,” Adam said while rubbing his hands together. “My idea is for you to try and cut magic spells using your sword, thereby nullifying their destructive potential.” Hearing Adam’s idea caught me off guard and caused me to question these forms of ‘entertainment’ that Adam seemed to draw inspiration from.

  I mean, magic was a power that followed the casters commands and when it met its intended target it unleashed its effect with devastating force. To try and intercept spells with one’s sword was asking for trouble. The most anyone could do to intercept spells was to place a defender with a shield in the spells path to mitigate the damage it caused.

  Seeing the rejection, that I had towards his idea, on my face, Adam then backtracked and stated, “Ok… let’s try doing this in stages.” To that end, Adam then raised his right hand and a Fireball manifested above his palm.

  “I have an idea about one of your skills; specifically, Spectral Sight. We both saw that using that skill allowed you and I to see the soul of the monsters we were fighting.”

  Thinking back on it, I brought up the memory of how the monsters looked before and after I had used a soul-based skill on them. While I thought about this, Adam continued, “But I believe that is not the only ability that Spectral Sight entails. As we both observed when you intended for your Soul Slash to become a projection of force, it followed your desire.”

  “My thought is that Spectral Sight can change following that same logic. The fact that the skill name has the word ‘spectral’ in its title implies that it can see the ethereal and what is mana and spells it powers nothing short of an ‘ethereal force’ brought into being by the skill of its wielder.”

  This explanation made me think deeply about what Adam had just alluded to. If what he was saying was true, then my Spectral Sight should be able to see the mana within spells and how they were formed.

  I knew that Adam could see the wheels turning in my mind as he suggested, “Try using your Spectral Sight skill on the Fireball in my hand and where, exactly, the mana converges.”

  Following Adam’s instructions, I activated my Spectral Sight skill and as with Soul Slash, the skill seemed to bend to my desire of seeing the mana of the spell.

  What appeared before my vision was a glowing ball of orange-red mana lines that wound around itself like a ball of twine. The lines of mana seemed to twist and turn undulating with each pulse of mana that seemed to be keeping the spell active.

  Looking deeper into mass of mana I tried to focus my vision on a central point where all the mana converged. What I thought to call the ‘heart’ of the spell. It took a bit to follow the lines of mana through the spell, but eventually I found the ‘heart’ where all the mana flowed to and out from.

  Speaking confidently, I said, “I found the ‘heart’ of the spell.” Though I was keeping my focus on the spell I could hear a smile in the tone of Adam’s voice as he replied, “Excellent. Now, follow me but keep your skill active.”

  Rising from the table I followed Adam as he strode over to a different part of the clearing. Once there, Adam instructed me on how to manifest objects into our Soul Space through my thoughts. He then asked me to materialize my sword from earlier that day.

  It took a fair amount of concentration to materialize my sword while keeping my skill active, but, eventually, my blade appeared hooked to the left side of my waist. Adam then asked me to draw by sword and adopt a battle-ready stance. I followed along with Adam’s plan as he then began to walk a pace away before turning and facing me from his position.

  As I positioned myself, I made sure to keep my Spectral Sight enhanced vision focused on the Fireball Adam had been keeping active this whole time. “Now, I am going to throw this spell at you. I will bring down the speed of the spell to make it easier for you to attack it, but I want you to aim your blade at, as you called it, the ‘heart’ of the spell.”

  “If my idea has any merit, then when your blade hits that central point, the spell should unravel without any backfire.” I didn’t like the idea of Adam throwing a fireball at me for an untested idea, but if I could cut a spell that was fired at me and render it mute, then I could dominate the battlefield.

  One of the weaknesses of close-range fighters was being unable to stop long-range interference. It was annoying for a swordsman to have to constantly mind their surroundings looking for a mage, archer, or monster that fired from a distance. Moreover, as long as that distance was maintained, then the close-range fighter was at a severe disadvantage.

  If this technique worked out, then I would not have to worry as much about avoiding mana-based attacks from enemy mages or monsters. What pulled me from my contemplation was Adam yelling loudly, “On Guard.”

  With those words Adam let loose control of his spell, and I observed it fly towards me. As the spell closed the distance between the two of us, I kept my eyes on the heart of the spell as it got closer and closer to me.

  Once the Fireball was within range of my blade, I brought my sword down aiming for the ‘heart’ of the spell with the intention of my sword severing it and rendering the spell ineffective.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  What ‘actually’ happened, however, was when my sword met the spell, the Fireball exploded outward and engulfed me in a fiery blast. The explosion sent me hurtling backwards for a couple of yards before I rolled across the ground in a smoking heap.

  I could vaguely hear the sound of footsteps approaching me at a hurried pace, but it was barely audible over the ringing in my ears from the explosion. The next sensation I felt was two arms pulling me off the ground and trying to rouse me back to consciousness.

  Groaning I opened my eyes and coughed as the smoke from the spell entered my lungs. I then heard a voice calling to me over the ringing in my ears, “Hey… I know this is a stupid question because it is ‘pretty’ obvious that you are not but… are you okay?”

  At this point enough of my mind had been brought back from the brink that I could answer, “NO! I am definitely not okay you jackass. How would you feel after you got blasted by ball of fire.”

  The reply that followed was quick and sarcastic, “Not good… if I am being honest.” This caused me to pull myself out of Adam’s arms and face him with a scathing look.

  “You know, if I wasn’t worried about what the consequences would be, I would be chasing your soul butt down and trying to kill you with my sword for that disaster of an idea of you had!” As my boisterous exclamation came to an end, Adam’s face became overcome with mortification over his idea and that it had not worked out the way he had intended.

  Pulling myself the rest of the way from the ground, my whole body protesting at the action, I then began to dust myself off before heading back to the long table. I sat down and began filling my tankard till it was full of mead, then in one smooth motion I downed the whole thing.

  As I was doing this, Adam had made his way back over to the long table and sat down opposite me not saying anything. I just sat there fuming as I downed mug after mug of the delicious mead before I decided to speak. “I can’t believe I went along with that idea of yours, I should have known that it wouldn’t work.”

  Adam just said, “I am truly sorry that my idea ended disastrously. I honestly believed that when you were able to perceive the ‘heart’ of my spell, that you would then be able to cut it and nullify the spell completely.”

  “Well… clearly… that didn’t happen.” I said with an annoyed tone as I polished off another tankard of mead. Adam ducked his head into his shoulders like a turtle in response before then saying, “Look, can you at least explain what happened when you aimed for the heart of my spell.”

  “I will not ask you to go through this again, but I would like to know what went wrong so I don’t repeat the same mistake in the future.”

  Sighing I placed my tankard on the table and began to explain that when I aimed my sword for the heart of the spell, I did it with a clear intention of cutting the spell. However, after my sword met the heart, my sword exuded a force onto the fireball that made the spell detonate.

  As I was explaining, Adam took on his deep-thinking persona as he began to analyze everything, I had explained about what went wrong with the attempt.

  Furthermore, as I explained to Adam what went wrong, my own mind was also looking back on the experience, and I was able to identify certain details that were not apparent in the moment.

  When my sword met the spell, there was not an instantaneous detonation, but a slight delay from when my blade met the spell and things went wrong. Thinking back on it, I realized that my intent to cut the spell was there and my blade was trying to enact my desire, but something was missing.

  I couldn’t figure out what that missing element was so, reluctantly, I decided to tell Adam the conclusion I had reached after reviewing my memories.

  After I told Adam my enlightened recollection of the disastrous event, Adam closed his eyes and seemed to ponder the problem for quite a bit of time before he opened his eyes and stated, “Force cancels out force.”

  Not knowing what Adam meant by that I let him continue to speak his thoughts. “Your sword was trying to cut the spell, but it lacked the necessary ‘energy’ to counteract the ‘energy’ contained within the spell.”

  “If your sword was imbued with an equal or, better yet, a more powerful force, then it should be possible for you to cut a spell and cancel it out. Hell… if the force applied to your blade was attuned just right it might just be possible to repel the spell back where it came from or towards another target.”

  Adam was not looking at me while he was rambling on, rather he was looking down at the table as his thoughts streamed out of his mouth a rapid pace. I just let him go on while I listened to his ideas on the problem he created.

  Eventually I spoke up and asked, “You okay Adam… I hope I didn’t lose you there while you stumbled through your own thoughts.” This seemed to draw Adam away from his ramblings as he looked up and gave me his full attention.

  “Sorry, but I believe that your insight into what went wrong has allowed me to see where I erred with my idea. I think with this new revelation the technique will work, but I will not force you to go through with it again. Especially after the disaster it was the first time around.”

  At Adam’s statement I just sighed and began to debate the idea in my head. I weighed the pros and cons of going through with this madness and eventually said, “ONE. MORE. TRY. If it doesn’t work and I end up blasted by fire again, then we won’t attempt this avenue of progress further. UNDERSTAND!”

  My last word was said with a firm finality brokering no alternative. Adam just extended his hand forward and said, “Deal.”

  Taking Adam’s offered hand, I began to shake it before saying, “Now, what is this ‘so-called’ revelation you were able to gleam from my horrid experience.”

  Adam began to explain that the problem with the first attempt was that my sword was not imbued with any force or energy to enact on the spell. If my blade had been coated in mana, then I should have been able to cut the spell on the first try.

  However, there was a problem with Adam’s idea.

  Because Adam and I were in the Soul Space together, Adam would not be able to manipulate mana through me like if we were in the physical world. And I really didn’t feel like testing this idea out there where we couldn’t ensure a safe encounter to test this insane idea of his.

  In response to this problem, Adam came up with an interesting solution. His suggestion was for me to imbue my sword with my Soul Slash skill before attempting to cut a spell for a second time.

  The way Adam explained it was based on the science from his world saying that energy was energy just given a different form. Ergo, the mana-energy of the spell, should be able to be negated by the soul-energy of my skill.

  It sounded like it could work, but that is what I thought last time before I was annihilated. I rose up from the table and simply said, “Let’s just get this over with. The sooner we know that this doesn’t work, the sooner we can move on to other ideas that might actually work out for the two of us.”

  Taking our spots from before, Adam conjured a Fireball in his hand, while I took my stance with my sword activating my skills Spectral Sight and Soul Slash.

  My vision once again focused on the ball of fire and easily found the heart of the spell and I felt the pulling sensation as my Soul Slash skill drew upon my soul to power it. I shouted to Adam that I was ready, and, on that cue, Adam let his Fireball spell fly towards me.

  The Fireball moved in the same way as before coming straight at me and just as it entered within range of my sword, I brought my Soul Slash imbued blade down upon the heart of spell in one clean swipe.

  When my swords edge met the heart of the spell, it did not stop. Where before my sword was halted just before connecting with the center of the spell; now, it continued its path as it sliced through in one swift motion.

  After my strike cut through the Fireball, in my Spectral Sight enhanced vision I could see the tangled lines of mana unravel and disintegrate as the force from my strike had completely nullified the effects of the spell.

  Deactivating my Spectral Sight skill, I then relaxed my body out of the sword stance I had taken, all while a big smile took shape upon my face.

  A similar smile could be seen on Adam’s face as he saw the results of our ‘literal’ trial by fire. I was extremely pleased that this time the idea had worked. Not just because it meant I was not covered in painful fire, but because it also meant that I had just done something that no one else had ever done before.

  Looking at Adam I said happily, “Got any more ideas on how to make me an OP MC.”