Alacryan Arthur

Chapter 22

Cadell Vritra POV

"What is it you want to tell me?" Agrona asked.

I had asked for a private meeting, planning to talk about Arthur.

"I am here because of Arthur."

"Is something wrong? I heard he reached initial silver yesterday."

"No, he is fine. Better than fine actually. I just fear that his advances are a bit too fast actually. I focused the training on fighting and control of mana, excluding the decay art at first, but he just taught it to himself. And he manages to use mana in a way I can't comprehend."

"I have seen his control over mana. He certainly has a distinct connection to mana." Agrona agreed. "But I fail to see how that is harmful."

"It isn't. The problem I have is that I can't really teach him anything anymore. Do you know of Dragoth's new emblem?"

Agrona nodded. "Some kind of wind shield. Untypical for a striker, but not unheard of, albeit the first time that particular rune appeared as an emblem. Up until now it was always a mark or a crest. I look forward to seeing how strong the rune is in this form."

"Arthur managed to copy the effects in under an hour, and after another hour evolved the spell. He explained that this rune controls and splits different parts of the air, to create a barrier of non-flammable air around oneself, while drawing air in. The fire mana used in the attacks burn with the help of the parts of air that can burn, creating a cloak of fire." I said. Again Agrona nodded.

"But Arthur complimented this by sucking in water from the air and letting lightning mana flow through it, together with some kind of metal, creating another gas, I think he called it hydrogen. He then proceeded to fuel the flame with this hydrogen, which amplified the power of the flame about tenfold. He also changed the barrier of air around him. He drained all the air around him, which prevented even the heat from reaching him, the major drawback of this rune.

He admitted that the spell combination he created cost him more mana then the original spell did, but this spell let him withstand my most powerful fire spell, soulfire excluded of course, with ease."

Agrona stared into nothingness, trying to understand the thing Arthur had done.

"This flame barrier itself was powerful enough to disintegrate most physical attacks, but he changed it into an offensive attack. The destructive power of that reaction was impressive, especially considering he is only at the silver core, and he hadn't used decay. I can't imagine myself being able to block this attack, once he reaches the white core and uses soulfire with it. Quite honestly, I wouldn't even be sure if I could deal with it with just one of those changes."

"So what are you saying?" Agrona asked, seeing this conversation leading somewhere.

"Soon I will be unable to teach him anything. I only have the decay mana left, where he still has to learn a bit, but in all the other parts he is more advanced than I am."

"What do you recommend we do with him after that?" Argona asked me. "If you can't teach him anything, what is he supposed to do? He has already devoured pretty much everything in the library."

"Maybe the next step would be to integrate him in the politics of Alacrya. He is stronger than any of the retainers, so maybe we should announce him as one of them."

He shook his head. "That would only slow his growth. He shouldn't have to handle the politics, that would only waste his talent."

"Do you want to teach him yourself?" I asked Agrona. He shook his head. "Unfortunately I don't have the time for that, especially now that I also have to train Sylvie. But I have a better idea." I could see a spark in his eyes.