Ebony's Fable

“You don’t have to fight physical against physical or magical against magical. Since you’re an Ice Swordsman you can fight me like one.” Top said, obviously aware of how Ebony previously fought. Ebony nodded in acknowledgement, the previous battles already showed him that they were no pushovers.

Top was supposedly their leader so he most likely had the strength to back it up. All of them seem to respect him quite a bit from what Ebony observed so far.

Icebody Enhancement flared back on, even so, Ebony was regenerating mana. His current regen at 22.24/min. MP: 477/1250, casting Layered Ice Carapace twice and many Ice Spikes still ate into his mana pool quite a bit.

He didn’t compress any of his spells since it was just a spar. His greatsword frosted over as a chilling mist seemed to come out of it and a thin layer of ice encased the blade, he charged or imbued 177 mana into it.

Ebony charged out with Treading Step pushed to the limit and a Two-handed Power Stab flew at Top’s chest while one Ice Spike arrived at his face and another swerving in towards Top’s sword arm at the same time. Top stepped to the side, away from the stab while his buckler poised to deflect it, he dodged the spike towards his head and cut down the one going for his arm.

His sword didn’t stop as Ebony's side and back were wide open and in his blade's line of movement. Yet surprising him was how Ebony twisted his body with such flexibility and agility even though he was in the middle of a supposedly full power thrust. A back thrust to his head came from under Top as Ebony kicked out with force.

Top barely jerked his head back in time to see that Ebony already landed but didn’t cut his momentum as he spun for a slash to his torso. Blocking with his sword but not feeling any impact he noticed the slash was a feint as Ebony moved his greatsword from his right to left hand. Top was met with a flurry of slashes and kicks as Ice Spikes formed near his blind spots and fired at him at almost point blank.

“Is he pressuring leader back?” Fergus asked.

“Leader hasn’t used any skills at all.” Rowent plainly stated.

“Still he’s pretty impressive, he’s over 20 levels under and with his age and fast track his skill levels are lacking to say the least. If he manages to close the distance with me I’ll have some trouble.” Fergus added.

“A weird style of battle but effective enough to cover his sub-par swordsmanship and magic. What’s bothering me is that he hasn’t even stopped to catch his breath once in that intense offensive push and at that level how much mana does he have to keep firing those spikes? The ice mana density should be a lot lower around here this summer.”

“Well he is a meditative class holder after all that means both his stamina and mana pool is crazy large. He was actually using enhancement magic throughout our spar and still has mana to spar now. He should have 100% mana efficiency with Ice magic and double the mana pool.

With much of his stats geared towards Wisdom, his strength is obviously lower so his consumption of stamina should be lower. Only his movement speed is fast when he tried to chase me earlier, at least a refined tier 1 movement type skill but his Agility itself isn’t that high. It also isn’t out of the norm for a warrior or swordsman to have skills to reduce stamina consumption. Your question should be about his nonsensical battle sense.” Fergus analysed. No one expected that Ebony would get an increase in regeneration since one shouldn’t be able to recover while casting or fighting so intensely.

“...your logic is sound. But what do you mean by battle sense?” Rowent inquisited.

“You youngins don’t have an eye for such things do you? What kind of beast do you think is hiding under that human skin? 16 and he is crammed with more battle experience than any of the 3 of you. His lack of hesitation, decision making on the fly, his constant positioning, placement and timing of skills and attacks is not something a 16 year old should have. It’s also how he’s pushing the leader back with untrained sword and magic skills.”

“Hey! Don’t call me youngin, you’re 57 and still not even an adult while I’m a full fledged man you’re still a child.”

“Shut up! I’m no child.”

“You shut up!”

“NO YOU SHUT UP!”

While the conversation turned into a childish argument, Ebony was running out of options. Every strike blocked by the buckler or sword sends a numbing shock into his arms and kicks only serve as a distraction. Ebony always moved to place himself into Top’s blindspot but he was too fast at moving himself away.

Top’s buckler was riddled with scars of ice but only a thin layer that could easily be scrapped off. He seemed to tire of the exchange as something rammed into Ebony's stomach before he could react to it. Tumbling round and round and smoothly standing back up in a guarding stance. Top’s metal covered tail was reaching out where he hit Ebony, something Ebony didn’t expect nor would it have helped with how slow he was in comparison.

“Enough.” was all Top said before noting that Chris and Dina had ended off as well. They swapped and Ebony sat with Chris as they watched the exchange. There was much for Ebony to learn from them, the way a sword fight goes and the way a mage fights was all new to Ebony.

It was clear to see that they were all holding back a whole lot when sparring with Ebony as the intensity of their exchange of blows was much higher. Fergus against Dina’s battle was actually quite similar to his. Fergus kept his distance constant as he rained shot after shot of wind blasts. Dina’s throwing knife met an invisible wall and couldn’t reach Fergus but they didn’t fly off, just stopping in mid air in front of Fergus.

The throwing knives whipped back and started moving erratically as Dina danced. The knives were attached to extremely thin wires as branches started falling as the wires passed through them. Ebony couldn’t see the wires in the dark but the swishing of air told him that he wouldn’t want to go any closer to those.

As if there was a barrier of wind or air, the knives and wires were too light to reach or break through it. Dina had the same problem as Ebony that they couldn’t seem to get close enough to get into close combat with the archer.

The surrounding temperature raised uncomfortably as a head-sized fireball formed atop Rowent’s staffs’ orb. A ring of fire 3 or so metres away from Rowent in the centre appeared as he knocked the butt of the staff on the ground. Top charged with his shield raised in front of him. A smaller fireball shot out from the head-size fireball and on and on, a chain of fireballs shot out at Top. He backhanded some with his shield, blowing snow on the ground towards the ring of fire from wind pressure alone.

Forced to dodge some as he could let his shield keep taking a barrage of fireballs, Top still managed to close the distance. He jumped over the ring of fire, sword raised. Rowent’s fireball turned into a spear and stabbed out at the mid air lizardman as the ring of fire disappeared and flames puffed from his feet again.

The lizardman swatted the spear of fire with his tail as he landed and chased after the running mage who kept up with his projectile spells. Ebony didn’t expect to see Top toss his round buckler like a certain superhero, tripping Rowent and ending the battle there.

Rowent would have lost sooner or later in Ebony’s eyes. Mages just don’t have the endurance that warriors do. If he wasn’t able to suppress the warrior like he did with Ebony then it was a battle of attrition. Since he couldn’t keep the warrior at a distance then he would be defeated when he was out of mana.

Warriors could still move a little without stamina albeit barely but you can’t cast spells without mana. Even if the surroundings were filled with fire mana, it still required the mage to have a tiny bit of mana to manipulate them. At least that's what Ebony thought.

“So, what do you think?” Chris asked.

“You’re all strong. I have much to learn. More training to do.” Ebony answered.

“Are you trying to create your own style of sword mastery? I don’t know of any schools that use a greatsword like that. I bet your mastery is still an untiered skill. Physical skills are quite limited compared to magical spells so warriors and swordsmen alike put a lot of emphasis on the basic mastery skill.”

“...yes, I have gotten used to my current style and I believe I can make it work somehow.”

“The good thing about swordsmen is that the distinction between types of swords slowly fade out with level and skill with the blade. With Strength stat whether it's a one-handed sword, two-handed sword, short sword, greatsword it slowly matters less as long as you can wield them as proficient as with whatever type of mastery you currently have.”

“Really?”

“I’ve heard that the differentiation between types of weapons held starts to blur at higher tier masteries. Who decides whether a short sword is short or not? The wielder of course. Leader’s single handed sword may as well be a double handed one for us humans with his size.”

“I see. Then why take warrior over swordsman?”

“Warriors have a higher chance of getting direct physical fortifications during Classing and Class Evolutions. Rather than picking a swordsman when I don’t have any legacy or master with a high tier sword style. I’m not crazy enough to believe I’m good enough to develop sword style on my own. I may be dead on the job before I succeed. No offence.”

“None taken.”

Most of them needed to sleep 5-6 hours a day while Rowent and Fergus needed a little more. They spent the rest of the night with their own training as did Ebony. They split the guard duty for watching out for danger between them in twos.

The escort team doesn’t bring tents as they just had bedding and slept in the large wagons. The centre wagon was for Dina herself. The front was usually the coachmans and Andel with at least one of the escort team members while the guys shared the last. There was enough space since they took turns taking watch.

Ebony needed less sleep and was planning to take the time to train up his weaker skills.

❅❅❅

“INCOMING!!” The shout woke Ebony up just as he fell asleep not long ago after his watch. Quickly getting out of his bedding he grabbed his greatsword and exited the wagon. He never took off his coat just in case.

A rock hard fist smashed into his head from above just as he exited the wagon. Not hard enough to deal any damage but hard enough to hurt.

“False alarm, false alarm. Go back to sleep, people.” a soft voice rang out. Chris who just woke up went back to sleep, still groggy.

Rubbing his head, Ebony looked up to see Enya waving them back to sleep. Rowent and Fergus were the ones keeping watch and they were just as confused since they clearly felt a frightening presence nearby but it disappeared all of a sudden.

“My apologies, my mana ores filled up a tiny bit of my mana leaked.” Enya informed the two of them.

“Ah? Oh, it's okay Miss Tu. Sorry for the disturbance caused.” Rowent and Fergus both bowed embarrassingly for the exaggerated reaction. Enya just nodded back before turning to Ebony and lifting him up with ease and jumping into the trees.

“What’s wrong Miss Enya? Why did you bring me here?” Ebony asked, confused.

“Because your idiocy was what caused their alarm.”

“? What did I do?”

“You fell asleep and stopped casting magic, your mana filled up and started leaking. To them, a mage and an elf, a monster leaning towards magic and mana far above their own ability was nearby. They are more sensitive to mana but not enough to pinpoint where it came from since I covered it up with my mana quickly.”

“...I will take note. Thank you.”

‘This is really troublesome. I can’t cast Icebody Enhancement while I’m asleep and it's not like I can turn my Core Skill off.’ For Ebony it was much harder to not meditate than to meditate unless he was under some kind of emotional turmoil or if he was under enough physical pain to knock him out of it, that or he was literally knocked unconscious.

“Can you knock me out?” Ebony asked in all seriousness.

“What?” The question baffled Enya.

“Well my mana won’t recover as fast if I’m unconscious right?” Ebony said, recalling what Clovis told him about a mage being knocked out in battle who woke up with the same amount of mana. It was a cover for his meditation skill running all the time.

“...” Enya walked away, ignoring Ebony.

Daybreak came quickly and they ate dry rations like jerky and souper bread for breakfast. Ebony ate normal amounts since he didn’t spend much stamina.

The journey continued with Rowent teaching some tricks to Ebony. With so much time on their hands they also played some card games. Their cards are numbered 0 to 9, 6 copies each in a deck. They had some weird games, one was similar to black jack another poker but Ebony wasn’t very good at them.

He wanted to introduce some board games but he wasn’t good at chess. As for reversi he could make a board out of ice but can’t colour them black and white. He tried to carve a 0 and a 1 to differentiate but it was hard to see the board so he gave that up for now.

He made jenga blocks but the ice blocks stuck together. Despite the stability, the wagon was moving as well so that was a flop.

“Why is it so dark, isn’t it about the 12th to 13th hour now?” Rowent suddenly asked as he peeked out of the covered flap.

“Those clouds look dark as heck. Ebony, does that happen often?” Chris asked.

“No. It hasn’t gotten this cloudy or dark for the entire time I have been here.” Ebony replied.

“PROTECT THE RAMS AND THE WAGONS! IT’S GONNA HAIL!” Andel yelled out. It wasn’t his first trip here.

“Ell! Isn’t it summer? Why the heck is it hailing?!” Dina cried out as every escort party member jumped out of the covered wagons and got on top except for the ones already sitting beside the coachmans.

They quickly pulled to a stop and the coachmans hid in the covered wagons.

“Dina come to the front Wagon and support me. Chris move forward and support Fergus. Ebony and Rowent stay there and take the rear. Holler if you don’t have enough mana and if Ebony can’t handle it. Focus on deflection and keeping damage to the rams as low as possible.

Andel moved to the rear together with Ebony and Rowent perhaps because Ebony was the weakest link. Even as a merchant Andel had a sword and he should at least have the physical stats to protect himself if not skills.

As for Enya, she disappeared earlier in the morning going who knows where.

“It's coming!” someone called out.

One or two shards of ice not unlike Ebony’s Ice Spike started dropping from the sky. Then the rain of ice came crashing down. Top swatted, blocked and cut them away. Dina was wildly swinging her throwing knives, knocking and slicing as many shards as possible with the wires that had surprising accuracy. Chris stood on the seat and focused on protecting the ram as no hail seemed to fall on their wagon.

The hail curved and avoided the wagon, Fergus casting something to encase it but the hail got heavier and heavier. Pieces of ice got sharper and sharper, heavier and heavier. He started shooting the larger pieces before they got through his barrier of wind.

A floating wall of fire covered the last ram and part of the wagon. Ebony had long prepared his shield, creating 3 single layered ones covering a large portion of the wagon. He stood under the empty spot with Andel and cut and knocked away as many as they could. Turning Icebody Enhancement off to get as much mana regenerated as possible, he didn’t think the hail would harm him much nor did he need a strength buff.

The peppering of hail only got worse over time and large areas of effect spells like Fergus’s and Rowent’s were eating into their mana pool fast. This was no normal hail, Ebony could feel it when the shards got close to him. The hail contained ice mana more condensed than his current compression limit.

The rams were in distress as they couldn’t hide anywhere and inevitably got hit with their size. Thankfully their strong bodies and thick fur protected them pretty well. They just curled up and closed their eyes to keep themselves smaller and protect their weak spots. Making it easier to protect them.

The rain of hail was too numerous to deflect every single one and Ebony got hit by many of them. His coat protected him well but the weight of hail dropping kept increasing and Ebony probably got bruises from the repeated blunt damage. Severely underestimated the weather in a magical world.

Every wagons’ cloth cover was riddled with holes by now, fortunately the wagon itself seemed to be built tough and didn’t get much structural damage.

“I’m running low!” Rowent was the first to call out.

“GAH!” Andel screamed as one of the pieces landed on his head. Evidently not skilled with the sword, Ebony quickly dragged him into the wagon before he panicked too hard.

“My Ice shields are breaking and I’m out of mana for another cast too. ” Ebony shields have cracks showing up. Even with 22.24MP/min recovered it hardly matters when not much time has passed and each shield cost 375 MP to cast. They did consume less mana to maintain.

“Dina help Fergus before he runs low too. Chris get to the last wagon now! Rowent stand down and attend to Andel when you can. Ebony, stand down if you can’t handle any more.” Top ordered.

All the snow surrounding the wagon and rams and more shifted when they were on the move.

“Can’t even leave you kids alone for a few minutes. Just a tiny shower put you in that state.” Enya voiced her displeasure.

Like a tent, all of them were covered under 2 roofs of thick snow and no hail passed through them. Some heaved a sigh of relief as they quickly tended to Andel but fortunately it was just a cut and bruise on his cheek.

The rams were mostly fine, just frightened, only the cover of the wagons got holes here and there. The wagons themselves and the cargo were all undamaged, though they were frosted over a little that should be solved easily with Rowent around.

Chris and Dina sustained quite a few cuts on their furred jackets and coats but nothing serious, their armour held but Chris was complaining about his sword edge getting damaged. Unsure if it was smart or dumb but Ebony had kept the sheath on and it didn’t get damaged.

Fergus, Rowent and Top were completely unharmed. Though Rowent was having a headache from reaching close to empty mana pool, a problem that Ebony doesn’t seem to have.

They watched as the snowless ground in front and behind them got assaulted by the hail. Andel and the others thanked Enya for her assistance. Though they probably wouldn’t die from the hail, their merchandise and mode of transport would be in danger if that continued.

The sky slowly cleared up in about an hour and the coachmans already calmed the rams down. They continued their journey at a brisker pace. Luckily, the holes in the ground were small and the wide wheels of the carriages didn’t trip or get stuck in them.

Complaints about the cold wind blowing came about nonstop. Chris was hurdling up against a small fireball Rowent lit up which Ebony stayed away from.

Ebony was sitting out front with Larry, listening to him chat about how life has been doing and increasing the size of his Mental Map. Plainston is a quiet little town where many weren’t that ambitious, he had been a coachman for decades but life only turned out a little better when the Z&Z company hired him since their pay was higher than most other jobs he could find. Asking how Ebony wasn’t scared of fighting, putting their lives at risk daily is what combat classers do if they are active on the field after all.