Chapter Forty Eight - 048The morning came too early.
Felix woke to Pit huffing in his sleep, kicking his big feet and pushing the Nym nearly off his bedroll.
"Gah, buddy," Felix groaned, shifting out of reach of the tenku's paws. He looked up, at first only seeing a hazy darkness before activating his Manasight. The air was warm with trapped heat, the light of outside blocked by the heavy blankets on the archways...but with Manasight Felix could catch the ambient glow all around him as he picked out the others who were likewise slowly getting moving. He sat up and felt a sudden gnawing at his core, a gurgling ache that he couldn't ignore. It was accompanied by a familiar pressure on his bladder.
Fantasy world with magic and monsters, and I still gotta pee. He grumbled as he got up and half stumbled his way to the basin room. It had a big drain in the center. What else good was it for?
Four minutes later, Felix ducked back through the blanketed archway to find the fire rekindled and a savory scent in the air. He breathed deep, enjoying whatever it was even as he moved closer to the fire. The ache in his gut grew painful, like a hard cramp in his side.
Oof. Feels like my body's eating itself, heh. Felix hobbled down the tiered steps and picked up one of the tin plates sitting below. Evie was already there, cutting slices off the strangely orange hunk of meat that was the size of Felix's torso. At first he thought it was some sort of seasoning, but as Evie's dagger cut deeper into the meat, he noticed zero variation in the ochre coloration. He Analyzed it.
Name: Roasted Ofrenok Meat
Type: Protein
Lore: Meat from the Ofrenok. Spicy.
Effect: None
Haha, what? Had he ever tried Analyzing cooked food before? He had been too preoccupied to bother with the Hoarhound meat, and that was the first bit of cooked food he'd had in weeks. Everything else was foraged. Food can have effects? That's interesting.
The others had joined them while he stared blankly at the meat, Vessilia and Atar still in simple woolen-like clothes. Felix Analyzed the material, but it only came back as "organic weave" which was almost annoyingly vague. Analyze can really be hit or miss, huh? He pondered whether that was due to the level of the Skill or something else, like his own understanding. The four of them all took turns quietly cutting off hunks of meat, piling their plates.
As Felix considered the modest pile in front of him, he recalled the Hoarhound meat the day before. Hm..I didn't learn anything from the cooked Hoarhound meat, despite ingesting it. Why? Because it was cooked? Not enough blood? But the Wisp didn't have blood they were just...just like a big blob of magic. His Title and Skill both called for digesting the Mana of his targets, not specifically blood. Maybe the creatures were too dead to impart anything?
Felix watched the others eat the meat, seeing Atar gag slightly at the taste of it. Still, the kid muscled up and chewed mechanically. Vessilia also pulled a face, eating but mostly picking at it with a set of utensils she retrieved from her belt pouch. Evie, of course, ate without a word of complaint. Felix took a bite, and his eyebrows rose.
Tasty, if oily. He was braced for something, anything to happen. Usually there was a burning sensation and some vertigo with his Title; but he felt nothing. I guess there's no Mana left in it to digest. Does the fire kill it, or does Mana flee with its life? He observed the meat with his Manasight, and it was still awash in fire Mana, though he couldn't tell how much of that was a remnant of the fire that cooked it.
He tried to chew slowly, finding the meat aromatic but gamey. However, it wasn't the worst thing he had eaten. And damn, he was hungry. He went through two plates before the rest of them finished their first.
Wonder where she got this? The thought rattled around his head as he took another thick cut from the nearly depleted haunch. Did Magda go hunting before we woke? Why risk leaving the tower now?
Almost as if the thought had summoned her, the large warrior stepped forward from a side chamber, fully armed and armored.
"Mornin' boys and girls. Hope you are rested and fed, because now it's time to work," She pointed to a cleared off side of the room, where Felix and Harn had sparred the night before. "Each of you are gonna spar one on one, then then three on one. Then do it again. It's fifth glass now, so you can rest at noon. Let's go."
Felix felt more than heard the other three grumble their reply. Magda simply strode past them toward the sparring area, and the rest of them followed like moths to a flame. Felix made sure to scarf down as much food as he could before going after them.
It was still ten or so minutes before everyone (except Felix) was armed and armored. The closest thing Felix had to armor were his well-made leather boots, and those were starting to show their wear. He slung his pack down next to him, keeping the hooked blade close.
The first to fight was Evie and Vessilia. Felix, who had caught a bit of their sparring the other day, hadn't had a real chance to study them. Evie was just as fast and as acrobatic as he remembered, while Vessilia was preternaturally talented at being where a strike with just barely graze her. They traded blows for two minutes, neither one gaining the upper hand as Evie flipped and dodged around Vessilia's spear, and Vessilia sidestepped and blocked Evie's spiked chain.
"By the ancients, she is remarkable," Atar breathed, a little louder than he realized, Felix thought.
"They both are," Felix agreed, almost entranced by their smooth movements. Atar gave him a look that was a cross between embarrassment and outrage.
"You dare to compare a Duke's scion to a feral urchin? Are you mad as well as stupid?" Atar said.
Felix sighed, but felt his temper start to spike. "Are you always like this, or am I just lucky? Look, I get it. You like her. Whatever man. You're all pretty impressive at this sort of thing, right?"
Atar turned his nose up and folded his arms. "Of course I am. My training began when I was a babe in arms. I assume your training started last night."
Felix almost laughed at that one. Pretty close there, Atar. "Hey, I know my knowledge has some holes in it, but gimme a break with all this superiority bull. Live and let live, yeah?"
Atar simply ignored him.
Gonna count that as a win.
The fight when on for another ten minutes, each of them running ragged by the end of it. Even pushing at the edge of her Stamina, the way Vess moved was... it was like a dancer through water; graceful, slow-seeming, but she was repeatedly just out of reach of each attack. Most of the time using the bare minimum of energy to reset and strike. Evie, on the other hand, was a frenetic dynamo, a ballistic ricochet that never settled in one place, always moving always changing angles of attack. Her chain whipped and swept through the area, extending and retracting like it had a will of its own. Felix recalled that her Born Trait was about altering the weight of herself and the chain, and the girl seemed to have spent a lot of time mastering it.
In the end, Vessilia was able to win by exhaustion, pushing Evie to the end of her Stamina and causing her to collapse. Both of them were covered in cuts and scratches, the sole reminders of their fight.
They are really, really good. He wasn't sure he'd be able to face off against either of them, not without substantially more injuries.
Magda helped the two of them off to the side, where they drank water and rested.
"You and me next," Felix said, hoping to get something that wasn't vitriol from the teen mage. All he got was a glare. Of course, he sighed. The two of them took their places in the impromptu sparring area, one at either end with approximately thirty feet separating them.
"When I call it, you can begin," Magda said, standing off to the side with one hand raised. "Ready? Begin!"
An apple-sized orb of fire abruptly splashed against Felix's chest, and the heat and flame licked against his body painfully. Atar laughed.
"Ah, shit," Felix slapped at his chest before looking up. "Jumped the gun a little--"
Five more orbs were already flying toward him.
Felix leaped forward, tucking into a roll and pushing up onto his feet, already running. He dodged the first two and rolled beneath the third, but the fourth and fifth he took on the chest and forearm. He didn't flinch though, instead barreling forward toward the mage, fists raised.
Atar seemed to only see him as he drew within ten feet, the young man wheeling backward in startled fear. Felix didn't let him escape, instead pushing his advantage and closing the distance. One step, two, and Felix was inside Atar's guard, already winding up for a straight right.
"Spirit Immolation!"
The mage lit up in flames, as if his body transmuted to fire itself. Felix reeled backward, his momentum interrupted, as he was assaulted by fire and heat.
Fire Resistance is level 15!
Heat Resistance is level 15!
Atar stood taller, confidently sneering at the larger man. "Where's your muscle now, fool?"
Gritting his teeth, Felix reminded himself that this was just a friendly spar, and he definitely shouldn't kill the kid. Probably. Instead, he chose to do the only thing that came to mind: he stepped closer, letting the fire lick against his body and start burning his hair.
Fire Resistance is level 16!
Heat Resistance is level 16!
"What're you--!" Atar tried to pull back, to evade, but he was too slow.