World of Laws and Magic

Nick took a shower, got dressed and made his way to the dorm's cafeteria. Nick bought a breakfast of eggs, sausages and pancakes with maple syrup and sat on one of the tables in the corner of the room. Nick lost himself in his thoughts while he was eating.

(That last soul state was really something. Does chasing success really involve losing love and peace? Although I've never really had either, I would of liked to continue thinking that I could get them someday.)

Nick's emotions were in slight turmoil and his breathing quickened a little.

(I've been working hard my entire life and although I've had my successes, most of what I've gotten from others is contempt and jealousy. No love, no peace. What's funny is that if I was a couch potato, they would probably treat me better because I wouldn't make them feel self-conscious about themselves but that 'better' would probably amount to some sort of neutral indifference. And the people who I do associate with only want to use me and even try to scheme against me; Nick thought back to what he experience with Marsha yesterday and gritted his teeth. Is this how working toward your goals should be?)

Nick thought back to all the films and animes that he had watched in the past, the main characters had the support of either their friends, family and/or associates but that clearly was not the case for himself.

(There are liars and betrayers at every step and no one is just going to come and help me.)

"..."

The feeling of loneliness within Nick's mind intensified at this moment.

(No, that's not true.)

Nick thought back to his high school teacher Theo Williams that gave him a laptop and wished him well and then he thought of librarian Jack that would encourage and help him most of the times when they met in the library.

(Although life is full of hardships, I definitely don't have to give up on finding love and peace as well as success. I have a feeling that if I continue chasing success, I might find the latter two.)

Nick's eyes seemed to have gained a spark in them as he strengthened his determination. 

(I won't give up hope. Things will get better.)

"It's time."

Nick finished his meal and made his way to the academy's weapons store. Nick entered the store and saw the same male clerk from yesterday sitting at his desk. It was now 9:10 am so Nick walked up to the clerk's desk and spoke:

"Good morning, I'm here to collect the throwing knives and vest that I ordered yesterday."

The clerk looked away from his computer and upon seeing that it was Nick, the clerk asked for his student ID card and after making changes to his records, the clerk spoke:

"Wait here, I'm going to get your items, they were already delivered to the store this morning."

The clerk went through a door located a few feet behind his desk. Nick waited for 10 minutes before seeing the clerk again.

"Here are your items."

The clerk put two black, plastic transport briefcases on his desk and opened them. One briefcase contained many brand new throwing knives and the other contained a black hybrid tactical vest. The clerk introduced the items to Nick:

"These throwing knives are lightweight, suited for being thrown at close targets, made from strengthened steel and sharper that your average non-magical military grade knife."

"This vest was made with the assumption that your intention is to store the knives on it, so for your convenience it was made with very rudimentary spacial laws engraved in it. There are ten visible pockets on the vest but each pocket can hold ten knives. All you have to do is insert a knife into the pocket and continue trying to place knives in there until the pocket is full. Each time you take the visible knife from the pocket, another knife inside the pocket takes its place."

The clerk demonstrated the use of the vest by place in two throwing knives into one of its pockets. The first knife seemed to disappear as the second knife was being placed into the pocket. The clerk removed the second knife and the first knife became visible again. Nick thought:

(Space magic really is the coolest. It's too bad I don't seem to have much affinity with it. Hmmm....you know, because of my soul states, I know that I have an affinity for rule magic but I never really tried to find out what are the other affinities that I might have. I should check on that later.)

The clerk put the throwing knives back into their briefcase, locked both cases and handed them over to Nick. Nick thanked the clerk and left the weapons store, making his way the the battle simulation building. Nick walked into the reception area and spoke to the male clerk that was present:

"I want a room outfitted with the last simulation that I had experienced yesterday. Also, I want you to give me thirty minutes in the room before you begin the simulation so that I can prepare."

The clerk unconsciously looked at Nick's two black briefcases and then asked for his ID card. The clerk was different from the one yesterday so after accessing Nick's simulation records, he spoke:

"The simulation will begin in thirty minutes after you enter room 21. You can go ahead to your room".

The clerk handed his ID to Nick and Nick went to room 21 with his briefcases. As soon as Nick entered the room, he proceeded to fill each of the pockets with throwing knives. Each knife felt like it had the weight of a common screwdriver and was about 11 cm. After Nick put all 100 knives into the vest pockets, he put on the vest and waited for the simulation to start.

"I won't lose again."

Words in neon floated in front of Nick, giving him a count down for when the simulation would start.

Three minutes till the simulation begins...

Two minutes...

One minute...

The simulation will now begin...

(Fuck yeah.)

The space within the room warped and Nick found himself in the same grassy plain as yesterday. Nick waited for for the Apprentice Magicians to make their move. Nick looked around while he waited.

(Yesterday, they caught me by surprise but this time, that won't happen again.)

Five minutes later a blinding white light appeared. Nick squinted his eyes and prepared his body to move by taking a low runner's stance. The moment that the ray of light appeared, Nick ran to the left of its trajectory. After running for about four meters at a downward angle relative to his original position, moving closer towards the Magicians, Nick looked back at the place of impact and saw a deep, narrow pit in the ground.

(Same plan as yesterday, since I don't have any long range attacks, I have to run towards the Magicians and deal with them directly. I should not reveal my cards until the last moment.)

The four Magicians appeared in Nick's vision after the bright white light abated. They were all wearing red robes and each was standing about a meter apart from the other Magician. Nick started running in a steady manner towards their position. The Apprentice Magician kept their eyes on Nick and launched the spell once again. All the Magicians raised their right arm and began moving their lips, supposedly chanting their spell but Nick couldn't hear what they were chanting. A set of laws represented in Valteese appeared about two meters above their heads and after shining brightly with white light for five seconds, those laws morphed into a ball of white light and launched a ray of light in Nick's direction.

"Oh, shit."

The ray of light had a trajectory aimed right where Nick was about to step. Nick had to clumsily use his own momentum to jump at an angle that allowed him to dodge the ray of light. He fell on the ground and purposely rolled in a direction that would get him closer to the Magicians. As he rolled, grass and dirt were raise off of the ground and Nick felt the same discomfort that he did yesterday but with less intensity because of his new vest which cushioned some of the impact.

(Their spell has accuracy and intensity but can only shoot that ray of light in a straight line and there needs to be some interval between shots.)

Nick got to his feet again from his rolling position and continued running towards the Magicians. The moment Nick got up from the ground, the ray of light was launched at the position directly in front of him with greater speed that before. Nick once again just barely dodged the light by jumping to the side but this time he remained standing instead of falling on the ground and continued running towards the Magicians. Nick was now about two meters from the nearest Magician.

(I didn't notice yesterday but the intervals between shots of their magic decreases as time goes on. I should end this quickly.)

As Nick got within one meter of the nearest Magician the ray of light was shot towards him again. Nick didn't want to lose his momentum since he was so close to one of the Magicians so he took a knife from one of his vest's pockets and made a hurried jump to the side, barely dodging the ray of light, dirt that was sent flying from the pit that was created hit him. Nick gritted his teeth and made another jump towards the Magician the moment his feet touched the ground. In midair Nick raised his knife above his head with his right arm and made a slow slashing motion. Nick's jump would only get him within a few feet of the Magician, the Magician clearly knew that as he looked at the small knife in Nick's hand and wore an amused and smug expression, looking at Nick as if he was obviously an idiot, probably thinking: "How are you going to cut me with your knife from so far away."

While Nick's feet still had not reached the ground, he contracted his arm's muscles and slashed down.

(Big.)

Laws glowing in a dull red light and written in Nickel appeared in Nick's mindscape and its magic sea became turbulent. The laws floating in the air transformed into a mist and flowed with great speed towards the mindscape's sky, disappearing.

Within an instant the knife in Nick's hand became two inches wider, a meter longer ad its edge became broader but still maintained its sharpness The blade that before would never reach the Magician was now lowering as its tip suddenly stretched a few inches past the Magician's head. The Magician still had a smug look on his face when the now long-sword sized throwing knife cleaved through his head going through his body, cutting through flesh and bone, and finally hitting the ground between the Magicians legs. The Magician died with his eyes wide open; his body splitting into two halves, his organs and blood spilling away from his body.

Nick smiled and thought.

(Force is equal to mass times acceleration. My spell doesn't affect my body's immediate acceleration so when I put all of my arm's strength into swinging the then relatively light throwing knife downwards, as soon as I made it grow bigger, the added mass made the force I struck with disastrous for that Magician. Hmph, that's what he gets for being arrogant)

Nick looked at the gruesome sight of the Magician's bisected corpse with its organs and blood splattered on the ground with indifference. Nick quickly collected himself and dropped his enlarged throwing knife and ran towards the next Magician. This Magician took out his dagger from his sleeve with an angry expression and ran to meet Nick directly.

"Hmph, looking for death."

Nick took another throwing knife from his vest's pocket and pointed it towards the approaching Magician.

(Big.)

In an instant the throwing knife's tip and blade extended into the Magician's neck, exiting through his neck's nape.

(My spell allows me to control what dimensions of the object that I actually increase, which could be either its length, width or depth or a combination of all of them. That feature is really useful.) 

The Magician's body stood still for a moment and after all life within its eyes was depleted, the body went limp and fell to the ground. Nick let go of his throwing knife, letting it fall with the Magician. Nick proceeded to run towards the other two Magicians who were now running towards him in tandem. Both Magician's raised both their hands and a ball of light appeared in front of them, the same ball of light that Nick had been annoyed by since the beginning of the simulation.

(So two Magicians can activate the spell as long as they raise both their hands. Fuck, they got me. The ray of light is fast and I'm already so close to them. I don't have a way to defend myself...unless...)

Nick thought quickly and stuck one of his knives into the ground.

(Big)

The Magician's ball of light launched its ray of white light towards Nick but instead of hitting Nick, it hit against a steel structure, leaving a large dent on its surface. Nick stood behind the structure, panting.

(That was a close call. I stuck one of my knives into the ground and used Big to extend it in all four directions creating a structure tall enough, rooted enough and wide enough to block their attack. Now its my turn to go on the offensive.)

By the time the Magicians' spell had hit the now enlarged knife, they stood almost directly in front the steel structure.

(Big.)

Nick threw one of his knives past his steel structure, to the right of the Magicians, having it enlarge as it fell to the ground. As the Magicians' attention was directed to the knife on the ground, Nick appeared from behind the steel structure that he was using as defense, approaching their left side. Nick and the Magicians were less than a meter apart so before the Magicians could launch another spell or run away, Nick tackled both of them to the ground and activated his spell while holding both of their chests.

(Big.)

(Big.)

The magic sea in Nick's mindscape decreased in volume at a visible rate as Nick poured his magic into the Magicians. Their torso instantly began to enlarge leading to their torso's surrounding skin starting to burst with popping sounds being heard. Nick used so much of his magic energy that both person's torsos enlarged to ten times their original size, tearing the rest of their body apart; it was a gruesome and bloody sight. Nick looked at the Magicians as he stood uncomfortably between them, their chests' flesh, bones and muscles protruding towards the sky and watched as all the life left their eyes.

Nick held his own chest with his right hand as he panted and whispered weakly:

"I win."