A memory comes to me of standing on the trunk of a dead tree and watching as two impossibly powerful people dropped from the sky. One was my brother, a man who had reached the peak of what it was to be a magician, who had tied himself to a divine throne, who had survived one of the three hells for decades, and become a man that no one treated with anything less than total respect. The other was a prince, a man who stood with his head held in front of Corinth, looking at him as if they were equals.
“Mistress.” The sound of Galea’s voice in my ear pulls me from the reverie.
It happened again. The second that I took my attention off the woman in front of me, my mind began to wander. I need to pay attention.
The manakith woman who stands nearly eight feet tall looks down on me from her end of the arena, while Galla shouts her accolades. The only important thing the elven woman says is that my opponent, Nyn, is in fact a princess, confirming what my eye already tells me. As Galla mentions the weapons that Nyn uses, the manakith obliges by reaching with her four arms and removing four daggers from scabbards held close to her fuzzy body. The daggers are incredibly organic in design, appearing almost like the natural stingers of a monster if it weren’t for the glint of a metal edge running down their lengths. Each of the weapons glows with the telltale colors of powerful magics, and it is only as she raises them to display to the audience.
The fickle spectators cheer for Nyn as if they weren’t just trying to figure out a rhyme that went well with “her head in a pot.”
Covered in snot. That made a good deal of sense. Heads have noses, and snot comes from noses. It is also repulsive. The imagery isn’t bad.
“Mistress!” Galea screams at my side.
I blink, shaking my head and pulling my soul presence closely around me. Bound less than an arm's length away, the natural magics of my soul amplify my awareness of the space. I couldn’t sense it before with how diffuse my soul was, but there are tiny particles floating through the air around me. I don’t have the perception to make out exactly what they are, but they stick to my clothes and dance through the air I am breathing.
Boiling hot dragonfire pours from my mouth, the heat enough to vaporize whatever the tiny specs of matter are. Galla falters in her recitation of Nyn’s introduction, turning her attention my way as I proceed to burn the air around me. The screeching of flame lasts for only a few seconds, but when it is done, the air around me is free of whatever those tiny specs are. It takes only a second for my head to start clearing, and a second after that, more of the tiny specs begin to drift into the range of my soul presence once more. Rather than trying to burn them away again, I push on them with my soul, and watch as they rock back and forth on their way to the ground like so many fallen feathers. The specks pool around my feet, accumulating so much that they are almost visible. Not letting my guard down, I inhale a deep breath before closing my mouth.
Holding my breath, I look back at my opponent. The manakith shrugs, seemingly unimpressed that I managed to defeat her first attack.
“I’m going to need you for this fight,” I tell Galea in my head. “If you see me losing focus, please snap me out of it.”
“As you wish, Mistress,” the little dragon says. “I will keep you on task.”
With my head clear, I notice for the first time that Princess Nyn is bedecked in dozens of bangles that run the gamut from copper to platinum. More than half of the bangles ringing her arms lack any mana at all, but the rest glow faintly. Unlike my previous opponents, this woman seems to be a serious combatant.
The differences between the endowed and magicians are many, but the largest is in the difference of versatility. Magicians are granted a wide range of abilities from the essentia they integrate into their souls, whereas the endowed receive a much more passive benefit. Every aspect of their being has been heightened through their bloodline connection to whatever monarch or ruler they are associated with. Bar for bar, an endowed should be faster, stronger, more resilient, and even more magically gifted than any magician of an equal power level. Even their souls are strengthened, allowing them to make up for their lack of versatility through using powerful enchantments.
The power revolving around each of the daggers in Nyn’s four hands lets me know that she very much takes advantage of this. While I have no way of knowing just how strong the woman in front of me is, I estimate her strength based on how much magic she is wearing. The total aura that I see shimmering around the multitude of items she wears eclipses all of my enchanted gear, but it is not twice as much. Despite being a princess, she isn’t that much higher above me in terms of raw strength. Either that, or she is purposefully wearing a lack of enchanted gear to throw off anyone able to see mana, as I can, or maybe she is just poor. I’m sure poor princesses exist, but I have a hard time picturing it.
The fact that someone who is an endowed princess is anywhere near my level of power is hard to square with what I have been taught about the world. Maybe princess means something different in her culture.
I don’t let my guard fall. If anything, the fact that she doesn’t appear a magnitude more powerful than I am puts me on edge. This fight won’t be like my last battle against an endowed noble. Just thinking back to that puts a bad taste in my mouth.
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As Galla continues to drone on, it occurs to me that I could be using my time more wisely. Perhaps my mind is still clouded a bit, but I force myself to focus, force myself to focus on the dagger she holds in her upper right hand: the one that tastes of a strange, acidic mana.
Dagger of Focus(Rare):
A dagger crafted from the stinger of a ramoray hive queen and refined with the enchanting arts of Faeth. This dagger, infused with focus mana, draws the attention of enemies. With the magic imbuing its tip, all force pushed into a stab with this weapon is channelled perfectly into its tip, causing its penetrative power to be far greater than that of an ordinary weapon.
Ability: Capture Focus, Stab
That singular power contained within Nyn’s blade is not at all what I was expecting. Focus mana? I have heard about it in a course before, but such esoteric magical concepts were mostly used in very specialized enchantments. To my understanding, focus mana is something that alchemists concern themselves with more than enchanters. There are a few students around campus who sell pills they claim can boost focus and energy for hours. Such things seem to be popular around exam time, but I haven’t found the need to–
“Mistress!” Galea yells. I wince; it sounds like she is screaming right into my ear.
“Yes. Thank you,” I reluctantly reply to her.
“I live to serve,” the spirit says, grinning at me with her toothy mouth. “Though I am not actually alive.”
“Alive enough for me.”
Judging by the amount of calling out that Galla is doing, she seems to be getting to the end of her pre-battle speech. There isn’t much time left. If my opponent is going to use those weapons against me, then I need to know what they can do. From the way that she is running the tip of one across her neck as she stares at me, there is little doubt about where she plans to stick those knives of hers. Turning my attention to the one in her upper left hand, the one that bleeds with the all too familiar mana of the magic affix, I have Galea tell me what it is about.
Dagger of Focus(Rare):
A dagger crafted from the stinger of a ramoray hive queen and refined with the enchanting arts of Faeth. This dagger, infused with focus mana, draws the attention of enemies. With the magic imbuing its tip, all force pushed into a stab with this weapon is channelled perfectly into its tip, causing its penetrative power to be far greater than that of an ordinary weapon.
Ability: Capture Focus, Stab
“What?” I am so surprised by the window appearing that I accidentally lose the breath I am holding. As I inhale to recover, a wave of strange feelings overcomes me for a moment as minute particles rush into my lungs. A moment later, the sensation passes, and my mind grows clear, clearer than it had been even a few moments ago.
A window appears.
Successfully resisted the effects of Vespterra Scale Pheromones
Galea swims through the air and looks down at me from atop the open window in my vision. “Wow, Mistress. Good job.”
“What was that?” I ask her.
“I think they are the tiny specks you are seeing,” Galea says. “Scales?” She looks between her arm and the fuzzy manakith standing on the other side of the arena. “She doesn’t appear that scaled to me.”
“No. I tried identifying her other weapon. Why did you show me the previous one?” I demand.
“I didn’t,” she says, “Mistress.” She looks at me like I am the dumbest girl in the world.
“You did. I need to identify her other dagger.”
Instead of simply complying, Galea swims through the air over to Nyn. When she arrives, she points at the dagger containing an overflow of focus mana, causing a window to appear above it.
Dagger of Focus(Rare):
A dagger crafted from the stinger of a ramoray hive queen and refined with the enchanting arts of Faeth. This dagger, infused with focus mana, draws the attention of enemies. With the magic imbuing its tip, all force pushes into a stab with this weapon is channelled perfectly into its tip, causing its penetrative power to be far greater than that of an ordinary weapon.
Ability: Capture Focus, Stab
“Yes, I know that.” Calling to the spirit even over the distance isn’t an obstacle, as she isn’t actually over there but is instead inside my head. “But what about the other one?” I nod to the other dagger. Across the distance, Nyn looks between her other dagger and me, turning her head to the side in a questioning manner.
Galea swims sideways, making it halfway across the manakith’s chest before she abruptly turns around and swims back to where she was. Again, she points at the other dagger, and a window appears.
Dagger of Focus(Rare):
A dagger crafted from the stinger of a ramoray hive queen and refined with the enchanting arts of Faeth. This dagger, infused with focus mana, draws the attention of enemies. With the magic imbuing its tip, all force pushes into a stab with this weapon is channelled perfectly into its tip, causing its penetrative power to be far greater thanthat of an ordinary weapon.
Ability: Capture Focus, Stab
“Are you messing with me?” I ask her.
“I’m doing what you are asking,” she complains.
“No, you aren’t!”
“Five!” Galla calls.
I turn, noticing that the woman has started to walk backward towards where enchantments wait to shield her from the coming battle. Galea vanishes from the arena as I try to focus with all of my might. This is very dangerous.
The fact that something is trying to mess with my head brings hot emotions to me, emotions that are difficult to control. The one rule in this arena is that I am not allowed to kill anyone. I didn’t come here with the plan of actually going that far, but the fact that this woman across from me is trying to get inside my head pushes me dangerously close to wanting to.
That dagger, something about its enchantment makes it difficult to ignore, too difficult for Galea, it would seem. As Galla’s countdown hits one and the manakith across the way crouches and spreads her wings, I prepare for what should be a much greater challenge than the arena has thrown my way so far.
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