Pained Survival (86)

Annya caught up to the others. The red-haired noble boy flew closer to her. "Why did you help that boy Annya? I didn't think you were fond of him."

Annya frowned and blushed. "I'm not fond of anyone! He's weak, and I despise weakness. Akasan is overconfident in his abilities already. But he doesn't know a single magic spell. It's always been said that to be complete is to be just as proficient in energy as in magic. If he can't use magic then he has a glaring weakness. He won't last long. And Gin..."

The red haired boy, named Gin, looked at her. "What?"

Annya frowned with disappointment. "You're not that good at using energy." She sped ahead of him.

--

Judah and Akasan ran ahead of the other guys in no time, going at their own pace.

After some hours of running, jumping, and defeating magic beasts, Akasan finally stopped to take a breather.

Judah stopped. "What's wrong?"

Akasan was breathing hard. "I'm gassed."

Judah raised his eyebrows. "That's because you're running off your stamina. I'm using magic."

Akasan looked at him out of one eye. "How aren't you tired?"

"Mana is an infinite source of power. It comes from outside your body, not inside. If you learn how to control it, you'll be able to do almost anything." Judah pointed ahead of them. "Come on, we're almost into the next environment."

Akasan looked ahead into where the olive green concrete room ends.

It was a forest. A big one.

The two of them entered it.

They walked around for a while before Akasan got hungry. "Ahh... I need to eat."

Judah looked at him puzzled. "Already? I ate last night."

Akasan scowled at him. "That's why you haven't filled out yet. You need to eat more."

Judah raised his eyebrows. "Really? Well we can always go find some fruit."

Akasan was losing hope for himself. "There's no meat?"

Judah smiled. "Not at all. In Titania, all of our creatures are magical, so they all become part of the magicules in the air when they die. To get meat here, you'd have to get it imported from other countries."

Akasan screamed out in pain. "I'm gonna die!!!"

About an hour later, Judah and Akasan were sitting under a tree eating some random fruits they'd found on the trees.

"Hey Akasan." Judah said.

Akasan looked up. "What's up?"

"You're not from Titania are you?"

Akasan shook his head. "I'm from Arbok."

"Oh. So why are you here then?"

Akasan took another bite of his fruit. "I was kidnapped by the princess and sent here without any prior training in magic so that I could get stronger and kill Jack the Ripper."

Judah's face went blank. "Ehhh..."

"What about you? Is there a reason why you want to get stronger?"

Judah took a bite. "Yeah. Titania's last king died of old age. He was my grandpa. Since then Titania's been king-less for the past few years. I wanna be the next person to take the throne. I have to be."

Akasan jumped up. He clapped his hands together and closed his eyes.

Judah sat on the ground watching him while eating. "Feel anything?"

Akasan frowned. "I feel... something tickling my skin. I never noticed it before until I got my energy taken away. It's like millions of little bugs are crawling through my skin and entering my bloodstream."

Judah nodded. "Yeah, that's about right. That's how it feels when you first learn how to use mana."

Akasan's face lit up. "Oh! I feel a really big piece of mana on my arm!"

Judah frowned. "No. That's an actual bug."

Akasan jumped. "What the-!!"

--

After about another hour, Akasan was finally getting the hang of it.

The entire time Akasan was training, he made sure Judah was eating.

Akasan clapped his hands together again. He focused his mind on fire. "I feel my hands getting sort of hot..."

Judah looked up. "Now take your hands apart and try it."

Akasan raised his right hand. "Torch!" A fire lit in his hand.

Akasan's eyes sparkled with wonder. "I didn't use my own energy! It's like magic!!"

Judah smiled pitifully. "That's because it *is* magic..."

Akasan held his hand out. The magic intensified and burst out.

Judah jumped up. "Hey! How'd you do that?!"

Akasan looked at him. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"You used a tier two spell and turned it into a tier three or four!"

Akasan put his hands down. "Oh, I just added some more juice."

"Juice?! You can't add more *juice* to a magic spell!"

"Oh, well I'm a fire user by nature, so maybe I was just used to it?"

Judah put his hand on his chin. "Hm. Maybe."

Akasan started stretching his arms. "You wanna start your own training?"

"Uh, sure, but what am I doing?"

Akasan looked around him. "Well, since we're outdoors, let's start off with running and some push-ups."

Judah groaned. "I hate push-ups."

--

Soon, Annya and the others made it to the forest.

They all stopped for a rest.

Gin looked around. "Is this where the next phase begins?"

Annya took some steps in. "I don't think so... there's no sign of a checkpoint of any sort..."

Someone came up and bent down. He put his hand on the ground. "Someone's already been through here."

Annya looked at him. "Akasan and Judah. No surprise." She suddenly put on a sour attitude and turned around looking at everyone. "I don't know what gave you all the inkling that we were a team, because I work alone! Especially when it comes to weaklings. Now scram!"

A yellow haired boy pushed his way through to get to Annya. "Hey. What gave you the inkling to boss us around?!"

Annya looked him in the eye. "Because I'm better than all of you. Got a problem with that? I never told you to stick around did I, Hide?"

Hide growled.

The rest of the people there were also giving Annya the evil eye.

Gin whispered in her ear. "Maybe it's not a good idea to make enemies so soon..."

Annya's eyebrow twitched. She turned around. "Hmph. You all just make sure that you're not in my way." She started walking off.

Hide clapped his hands. A yellow magic circle appeared on his right hand. "Magic Art: Thunder Beam!!"

A high-powered voltage of lightning came out of the circle, aimed at Annya. She swiftly pulled out a wand and turned around. "Magic Repel."

A forcefield surrounded Annya. The lightning spell was absorbed.

"You have a wand?" Gin said surprised.

Hide balled his fists in anger.

Annya walked up to him and pointed her wand in his face until it was between his eyes. "Sheep don't challenge the wolf. Stay in your place. Remember that." With that Annya walked away into the woods.

--

It was nightfall.

Akasan was laying back on a tree branch, sleeping.

Judah was sitting up against the same tree on the ground. "I can't sleep."

He stood up and walked off.

--

Akasan woke up to a bird pecking his head. "Shoo, shoo!" he yelled, waving his hand. He stretched and jumped off the tree.

Akasan's stomach growled. He sighed. "Fruit isn't enough to hold this long... we should hurry up and get moving."

He looked around. "Judah? Judah!"

Akasan started walking out into the forest to look for him. He heard the sound of a magic beast's roar in the distance. He started sprinting in its location.

When he got there, the beast had just died, but it was Annya he found, not Judah. She looked back at him. "Oh. It's you." she said disinterestedly.

Akasan walked towards her. "Where are the others you were with?"

Annya started walking off. "Who knows? I'm not a babysitter."

Akasan followed her.

Annya looked at him out the corner of her eye. "Where's Judah? I thought you two were a team now."

Akasan put his hands behind his head. "We are, but he left while I was asleep and I don't know where he went."

Annya focused her gaze in front of her. "So why are you following me?"

Akasan shrugged. "Just because, I guess."

There was silence for a moment.

"...So, did you learn the torch spell I showed you?" Annya asked.

Akasan looked at her. "Hm? Yeah I managed to figure it out. But magic is too hard."

Annya scoffed. "What do you mean, 'too hard'?"

"Magic spells require a magic circle to execute, but it's all dependent on how much mana you pour into it. I can't focus like that. It's too hard to control the circle to the point where the spell stays in a certain range."

Annya looked back at him. "That's the point of training, dummy."

Akasan put his hands down. "I've been working on a workaround."

Annya stopped and turned around, placing her hands on her hips. "A workaround? There is no workaround in magic."

Akasan motioned his hand in a circle. "It's the magic circle. It just thought it should work based on the tier of magic being used. A tier two spell should have a magic circle with two spinning tiers. That way the spells can be coded into the tiers so that certain combinations always result in the same spell."

Annya crossed her arms. "Ehh... and where did you get this idea from?"

"My friend uses something called Kodak Magic. It has its own magic circle with spinning tiers inside of it. The tiers have different symbols that act as a code for creating spells."

"Well? Show me this magic circle of yours."

Akasan clapped his hands together. He held out his right hand. A magic circle appeared.

There was a center circle piece, and a ringed circle going around it, that spun around until it stopped.

"Magic Art: Torch." A fire lit out of the circle.

Annya was just slightly impressed. "So this is a two-tier magic circle? Creative. But this is exactly like mine. What makes it different?"

Akasan put his hand down. "When I first did the torch that you showed me, I added more mana than I needed, and the flame grew out of control."

Annya frowned. "That shouldn't be possible. Magic spells can't be enhanced on the fly."

Akasan shrugged. "That's what Judah said, but it happened. The magic circle doesn't lock in the spell. It's like a gateway for mana to go through."

Annya turned around and started walking again. She waved her hand around. "Too much thinking for me. Good luck with that."

Akasan ran to catch up to her.

She looked back at him. "What are you doing? Stop following me! Don't you understand parting words when you hear them?!"

Akasan smiled. "We're just going in the same direction for now."

Annya whipped her head back around. "Hmph. Seriously..."

--

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the forest, Judah was sprawled out in a patch of tall grass, sleeping.

The rustle of grass woke him out of his sleep. He heard something hit the ground. "Who's there?!"

Judah stood up.

There was a girl sprawled out on the ground face first. She got up to her knees, rubbing her forehead. "Ahh, I tripped."

She saw Judah staring at her. "Oh, um, sorry for waking you! I was just, uh, I was, um..." She bowed down. "My name is Kawa! I was hoping you'd let me join your party!"

Judah was still just staring. He shook his head to snap out of it. "Um... why?"

Kawa had blue eyes and long wild black hair. She continued to hold her kowtow position. "You are the king's grandson! I want to join you! I used to be an apprentice maid at the time when you lived in the palace! You probably don't remember me, but I was sent here because my aptitude was eighth tier, so..."

Judah frowned at the girl. He was staring at her face.

Kawa looked up. She blushed from embarassment. "Um, why are you staring at me like that?"

Judah's face suddenly lit up. "Eh? Ah!! *YOU'RE* Kawa?! The little clumsy kid who used to trip all the time?! That was ages ago!"

Kawa blushed harder. "You remember me?"

Judah put his hand on his chin. "I remember the blue eyes and hair but... I always thought you were a boy."

Kawa hung her head. "Really..."

Judah remembered Kawa from the palace. She used to wear a butler's outfit, and would always trip over her own feet and cause trouble for the maids. Back then she was only five at the time, and she had a bowl hair cut. She was flat all the way up until she was fifteen, two years after the king died.

Now Kawa was seventeen and looked much more womanly, especially with her hair being much longer now and her body filled out. She could understand why Judah would have thought she was a boy, but it still stung to hear.

"A-Anyway! Let me join you!" Kawa said.

Judah laughed. "Sure. There's supposed to be three of us, but I fell asleep and forgot where I came from. I'm sure I'll run into him again. Come on, there's no time to waste. I have to push forward regardless. We'll all meet up at the next stage."

Kawa's face lit up with joy. "Okay!" She happily followed behind him.