Black Onyx - Forgotten Magic

The Serrell mansion was in chaos.

News traveled quickly in a small city like Geldern. The fact that Gerald came back in such a weird manner, and the shock that his Gobling hunting expedition brought, quickly spread among the warriors.

Lord Green Fang was fuming from anger, almost at the point of exploding. Before him were the two spies from the Serell family that were responsible for delivering the poison. They were both kneeling and trembling in fear.

"He ate the poison, did he!?" Lord Green Fang roared.

"Y-yes my Lord."

"Y-yes…"

"Then why is he walking around, completely fine, ten hours later!?"

Lord Green Fang became red in the face from anger, "One drop! One! To kill ten people! And you used half a bottle! Half! A! Bottle! Do you think my poisons are a joke!? Or are you taking me for a fool, hah!?"

"Mercy Lord Green Fang! Mercy!"

Both spies were now barely able to keep themselves from expelling bodily fluids from fear.

"Mercy? Now you want mercy?!" Lord Green Fang kicked the begging spy before him and roared, "That's all the mercy you get!"

The spy that got kicked suddenly started screaming and rolling on the floor in agony. His face became red and his eyes started bleeding. His skin expanded like a balloon and it appeared like he was cooking from inside.

Egott Serrell was also in the room and he quietly observed all this interrogation, but even he couldn't watch anymore and he spoke in a timid voice, "Lord Green Fang... I think maybe…"

He was speaking so quietly that nobody could hear him, especially with all the screaming going on.

"Maybe what!?" Lord Green Gang roared back. Egott Serrell shrunk down even more and didn't dare speak.

Lord Fang coldly snorted and said, "He is not going to die, although he will wish to. I even went easy on him. Usually, people don't have the privilege of living after they anger me."

All present shook in fear at those words.

"You!" Lord Fang pointed at the other spy kneeling.

"Y-yes…?"

"Now you are going to finish what he started," Lord Fang said, pointing at the screaming person. "Don't disappoint me."

"Y-yes…"

The spy barely spoke with his rattling teeth. He grabbed the bottle of Purple Frog Saliva poison and backed out of the room while bowing. He bent down so much that his hair almost touched the ground.

***

Gerald was laying on his bed, looking at the ceiling. He did not sleep too well this night. Often he was woken up by the nightmares of him being just a second too slow and getting mercilessly chopped up into pieces. The picture of that young girl was also making him feel uncomfortable.

"It's not enough. I'm still too weak," he squeezed his fist in frustration. Even with the Unmoving Boulder Combat Art, he could barely withstand a few of Hobgoblin's attacks. When he got sliced across his chest, the Unmoving Boulder provided barely any resistance.

He took off the bloody shirt and looked at his chest. It was almost healed already, but the long scar still remained. "Sigh, a month in this world and my body is already full of scars. What a joke." He touched his forehead where the first arrow hit and felt the slight indentation in his skull.

"Bone doesn't heal as quick huh?" he then cast a heal on his head to accelerate the process of repair.

During his awake hours, he went over the recent fight many times. He tried to simulate it in his head, to see if it could have gone any differently. Mostly, the answer was no. That's because there was a crucial part missing.

When he was on the battlefield, in the open, his enemy had a huge advantage over him since he could shoot him from afar, and Gerald had no choice but to run and get cover.

"I took two arrows just to get to the forest to hide. If I could just have my own cover wherever I wanted, that could have saved me so much trouble. Something like maybe a wall… An earth wall… Hah! A stone wall!" Gerald smacked his forehead and laughed hard.

"How can I be so dumb? I completely focused on the offense and ignored the defense. Now I know that the Unmoving Boulder is nothing before strong foes. I need something else to help me survive."

He sat on his bed and started to meditate to clear his mind. All the fears and worries had to be removed so he could focus all his attention on spell creation.

"Who came up with the idea that you can't create a spell on a whim? That just shows that they don't understand magic well enough and that their creativity is lacking!" Gerald smiled. He found the idea really funny.

He was in the middle of creating a new spell right now. Although it was a really simple one, something he should have had since the beginning, it just never crossed his mind that he might need it.

He never had to deal with a long-range attack before, and the first time that it happened, he almost lost his life right away.

After about ten minutes, he was done. He breathed out in satisfaction and opened his eyes and said, "A Stone Wall spell, completed. Now I just need to test it out to see if it all works as it should."