Words of Confidence: Part 2

“Let’s go.” Victor began walking past the fence to get away from their horses. He then stopped and looked over at Enderan.

He noticed that the boy was uneasy and his stance weak.

Victor opened his mouth to poke fun at him, then noticed the genuine worry on his face and his panicked breaths.

Victor opened his tome, took out his pen, and it danced across the page.

Prediction: Enderan will answer my next question with “As I’ll ever be!”.

-Prediction difficulty: low

Manipulation: He will concentrate on the battle, not lose focus, and call for my support when needed.

-Character manipulation mana cost: low

The slimes began to move more sporadically as they got close.

“You ready?!”

“As I’ll ever be!” He said in an unsure tone.

-Prediction Successful. Manipulation Cast.

Victor felt the mana burn within him, and watched Enderan.

Enderan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and got into a battle stance.

Victor smiled to himself as the crystals in his conductor glove lit up and held it over his tome. The page containing the character manipulations was replaced with an incantation, and an illustration of a diagram appeared.

Holding out his palm towards the pages with his index and middle finger out, he poured mana through his palm.

He felt the book feeding back streams of mana into his hand and into his mind forming into the basis of the spell. Then he raised his palm towards Enderan and light enveloped him.

Enhance Strength!

As they had planned, Victor would enhance him with a basic strengthening spell.

Then his pages changed to a different diagram and repeated the process. The spell structure taking form in his mind was bright and burning.

Victor closed his book, and pointed at a slime.

Fire bolt!

-

Moments before

“You ready?!”

“As I’ll ever be!” I replied.

Then, I had a memory of Revian pressing his forehead to my hand.

I need to have more confidence in myself. Make Revian proud!

I took a deep breath and strengthened my resolve.

I then felt a surge of energy bathe my body as I glowed briefly. I gave Victor an appreciative nod for his strength enhancement spell.

A hand sized ball of fire shot from Victor’s hand and blew apart the closest poison slime. Its corrosive debris boiled and sizzled as it hit the ground.

The sunny slimes began to move in farther bursts at a faster pace.

A Sunny slime was the first one to approach me. It shook before leaping towards me. With Yoki, I slashed at the creature, hewing through its body and core. It hit the ground in a formless mass as I turned toward the next target.

Another sunny slime zig zagged right near me, and shot out. I pivoted my waist and threw out another slash and caught it before it could get me.

With my spell enhancd body, I felt each movement required less of my energy, while outputting greater force.

The first of the forest slimes finally caught up to the sunny slimes and they stopped in place, before vibrating violently. Then, they launched up towards me.

I leapt back and cleaved another sunny slime that tried to get me. Time had no meaning in my head, as memories, thought, and instinct seized control of my movements. There was no time to think, yet the lessons and practice with Tholm and Victor came to my mind.

I felt my bond with Yoki, and it recognized that it was fighting its own kind. Yet it wasn’t dismayed and felt a sense of interest and resolution.

Victor had said that spirit bonds exchanged traits between partners. Yoki would develop a sense of humanity, while I was becoming more aware of sensations and my interest in them.

I took comfort at that I wasn’t alone. I had Victor and Yoki with me.

I would not fall here! This is only the beginning of our journey!

-

Victor watched with pride as he saw Enderan not falter before the slimes and showed his prowess with the blade despite only having one arm. He turned back towards the corrosive slimes and blew them apart.

Fighting alongside Enderan, caused his heart to swell with emotion, and couldn’t help but smile widely.

-

The fight lasted only a few minutes, but my mind stretched each second into an intimate experince of battle. The stories weren’t kidding about adrenaline.

Yoki changed back into his slime form and began absorbing the fallen forms of his brethren.

I heard a cork pop off, and turned to see Victor drinking a maroon liquid from a round bottle. He placed the empty bottle in his bag and wiped his mouth.

“What does a mana potion taste like?”

“Like piss.” Just as I opened my mouth to speak, he cut me off. “And no, I don’t know what piss tastes like. And no, you can’t have any.”

“I wouldn’t have asked for some in the first place!”

“You sure? I thought I saw you salivate when I mentioned it.”

“I- Then I chuckled. “Whatever, Victor. Anyways, shouldn’t we deal with the nests?”

I looked to the stables, sheds, and the farm house.

“Not yet, the way they coordinated means that there is a leader amongst the rabble. And I have a feeling it is in the barn. If the report started with amber slimes, then it must reside there. Let’s get moving.”

I was about to ask for a break, but the thought died on my lips. The enemy wouldn’t pause for my exhaustion. I swallowed my fatigue.

After gathering myself, I willed Yoki back to me.

It was absorbing a mass of fallen forest slime, before it stopped and hurriedly slid towards me.

Unlike the other slimes that had to hop and roll, Yoki had absolute control over its body. I could sense that it was crawling, practically gliding across the ground.

It stretched up my leg, across my chest, around my arm, and coalesced into a sword once reaching my hand.