Cursed Explorer of the Arcana

[Warrior lvl 18]

I mean, he’s the same level as me but all I’ve been doing all day is punching above my weight so I doubt I’d lose to someone just about as strong as me. Not that I really care because my food is getting cold and he’s just one of many faces here. A grain of sand.

Although the number of eyes on me, this new boy’s among them, is a bit bothering, I’m a pro at ignoring things. So what if I also just arrived today just like him? I have nothing in common with this short sack of boogers.

After a grateful scoff, I return to stuffing my mouth with the lamb basically melting in my mouth and some mashed carrot with the texture of probably what eating clouds feels like. It’s fucking great. Maybe I really should make one of my remaining Class slots dedicated to cooking. I can already do magic and… I can’t think of anything else I’d need. Magic and food. And maybe money but I’ll most definitely never be a Merchant or any other money-grubbing profession.

Maybe I’ll just grab a second-

My happy little moment of eating and planning my future gets interrupted… again, as a kick connects with my side. The similarity to this morning’s incident is eerie and infuriating at the same time. Me enjoying a meal, rude fucker messing with me for no reason the kick… I fall to the ground with a bit more experience this time and jump to my feet with my face red in anger.

The two idiots at the table did try my patience and no matter how well things ended up today I’m still tired, dirty, itchy and would rather never have come here. And now this fucking nobody I met just a minute ago picks a fight… I’m done.

“You know what?” I mutter, my voice shaking with fury. “I had an extra shitty day so I won't even question why you did what you did.” I dust myself off, pull my hair out of my face and take up a fighting stance, or something similar. “Just come here so I can beat you half dead.” I narrow my eyes at him as he adjusts himself into a lower stance and rolls his shoulder.

“You really shouldn’t fight in the mess hall, it’s-” Kayla doesn’t get to finish, neither of us listens anyway.

As a reasonable Mage with a versatile arsenal pelting my opponent with ranged magic is the best choice… except I’m too enraged to think reasonably so I just run headfirst toward my offender with a furious roar and fists raised to mess that irritating face up.

The boy reaches into his pocket, pulls out a fistful of pebbles and throws them at me without a second thought. His move could be dangerous… to anyone who can’t use earth magic. All I need to do is disperse some of my mana in their path and basically catch them when the pebbles get close enough. My mana is the only one involved, I’m in control.

I launch the rocks back in controlled batches, limiting the short bastard’s movement range while trying to hit him in earnest. Even one of those pebbles could cause some serious damage but only if any of them could as much as scratch the boy.

He’s fast, ridiculously so. I saw a few melee fighters go ham out in the courtyard but only the ones about twice his level should be around his speed. Speed is irritating and difficult to deal with for Mages like me. However, I do have some experience dealing with speedy targets courtesy of today’s outing. Take their footing, or foot as a whole, and problem solved.

I hurl a few wind bolts his way to throw him off balance, hoping to divert his attention and he dodges each and every one of them with surprising grace and ease, but that’s fine. Just as he reaches striking range and raises his fist I lightly stomp the ground, tilting the floor tile a bit beneath his dominant foot. This makes him lose his balance and start falling forward face-first no matter how much he tries to pull back and regain control.

I’m not in a merciful mood right now so I knee him in the face as strong as I can lift my leg.

His head recoils from the impact and he falls onto his knees with blood pouring from his nose… except I’m not finished. I know kicking someone when they’re down is a nasty move and I pride myself enough to rarely do something like that. He made me forget about that specific piece of my pride when he kicked me while I was eating, I’ll make him eat the floortiles if that’s what I need to feel better.

And so I throw a sidekick at his head yet to my surprise he raises his arm and dampens the impact, rolling on the ground and landing on his feet. An impressive circus trick with incredibly fast reflexes and movements but nothing else, he’s barely standing.

His eyes no longer show aloof confidence, instead narrowing on me with clear irritation after that humiliating kick. Good, It was but a taste of what’s to come as Mom used to say.

Instead of running head first at me as any Warrior would do, let alone angered ones, he sprints over to the tables and grabs a bunch of tableware. After the pebbles, I don’t have to be the genius I am to realize what he’s about to do.

Since I can’t really wield metal, I don’t want to tear up the floor to make a barrier and last but not least I’m too damn pissed to be considerate I just smack the knives and forks, and for some reason spoons… yeah, spoons… with some winds magic all the tools of my sacred time are disposed of and I refocus on that boy trying his best to be as irritating as possible.

Except he’s gone. Not to my left, not to my right and not poking his head out in the crowd… Did he leg it?

No. Up! I’m too late to realize and he lands on me plunging a fork into my shoulder and grappling me in a chokehold. I grunt as the fork digs through my clothes and draws a trickle of blood, not too deep, mostly irritating, but still painful. I have difficulty breathing as the small redhead fucker takes me down to the ground and we keep struggling there. Just like old times with the gang, except a bit more violent and and lot more serious.

This is not a fight I can afford to lose, not a chance. If he wishes to play dirty then so be it, I wanted to test lightning magic a bit more anyway.

Creating the imbalance, the charge is done all the same, only this time I make no bridge. I become the bridge. I let my mana carry the sparks all over my skin making me a little tingly while solving all my problems. The chokehold is released, and the boy convulses on the ground with a foaming mouth and eyes looking well, nowhere and everywhere. I’m not done though.

I grab his face, partly to test zap again for good measure, and mostly because the pent-up frustration in me needs something to be released on, something I’d hit with pleasure.

“Don’t.” Punch. “Fuck.” pu~nch “With.” small punch “Me.” BIG PUNCH “While.” my hand already hurts but it’d be lame to leave this unfinished, so punch. “I’m.” I pull back, preparing for a big one. “EATING!” And a proper hook to finish it off sending him face-first into the ground.

I’m a Mage and he’s a Warrior, this probably hurt me more than him and even so… it felt good.

I pull the fork out with a grunt, throw it next to him and spit after it. “Try shit like this again and I won’t be this lenient. DO NOT disturb me while eating. This was the last warning.”

With that said I turn around, having vented my frustration and walk back to my plate. I might’ve gone a bit overboard but if this happens again during tomorrow's dinner I might actually kill someone.

[The Class Skill [Mana Bolt] has reached lvl 9.]

Eh, lame.

“Is this kind of shit usual?” I ask Victor, my tone leaving no room for goofiness. At least he has his use besides being very annoying.

“You mean being attacked back to back? Nope, maybe if you were re~ally weak and easy prey, however like this? Nope.” He answers with some fear in his voice and side-slipping slightly farther from me.

“This is why you let me be when eating.” I sit back down and pray to be finally able to finish the damn meal in peace.

But nooo. Bennett arrives, late as usual of course, assessing the situation like he wasn't observing everything from the start.

“Just what the damn Abyss happened here again? Another kid beaten half dead, Elyssia bloody and bruised… Can’t you just behave for one day?” He asks as if this were my fault.

Nope, I’m not dealing with this. I’m eating, I don’t exist, piss off.

With that said I shovel the food into my mouth as fast as I can because there’s no guarantee for peace and quiet. Also, I really want to take a shower by now.

“Ah wahnt he ohe wo sraheb il, he ahhaked-” I try to say. (I wasn’t the one who started it, he attacked-)

“Chew and swallow before speaking, make it quick.” He stops me with a tired face, again massaging the bridge of his nose.

He walks over to the injured August, the guy is breathing heavily and not even trying to get back up. His eyes are a bit hazy but they stay fixated on me, with unreadable intent.

I do as I was told and then speak. “I didn’t start it, ask anyone. I didn’t even annoy him this time. He must be messed up in the head, so I hit him a few times, maybe that’ll fix things.” I say with a shrug and zero regret.

Bennett just crouches down next to the boy and pats him on his face, earning little reaction.

“Hello? You in there?” He quickly gives up seeing the boy being mostly unresponsive. “You fried him pretty badly, were you trying to kill him?” He looks at me questioningly.

“No…? Not really. And I’m also feeling pretty well, thanks for asking.” I point at my still-bleeding shoulder.

Bennett calls over a lady, who I guess should be a healer, to patch us up. Her magic flows through my body with soothing warmth, closing my wound instantly, and I purr as it pampers me after everything is healed. She moves on to August and as soon as the magic washes over his body the boy passes out, the soothing feeling probably forcing his tensed body and mind to relax a bit too much.

“We’ll deal with this tomorrow.” Bennett tells me and takes August away.

He doesn’t need to tell me twice. I get up and without any farewell beeline to the baths, to be one of the first girls there and have plenty of room to enjoy some well-deserved peace.

What a day…

“Just what in the Abyss did you two do out there?” Bennett sits back down at the instructors’ table after dropping the new boy in one of the empty beds. Definitely not in the same room as Elyssia.

“You mean the little devil? I made the usual bet,” Martha sighs, sipping on some wine, the fourth glass. “and she won, by a landslide.”

Bennett gapes for a few seconds before massaging his temple. “I wasn’t even talking about that… By the Gods, she won?”

“You’re not old enough to be deaf yet.” Martha huffs and downs the rest of her glass’ content. “Was it her again?”

“Yeah, the new boy probably tried to show he’s not one to be pushed around and he picked her out of every kid.” Bennett grabs the whole wine bottle his colleague has been making ever lighter throughout dinner time and chugs the booze like it’s water.

Martha on the other hand is laughing her ass off. “That must’ve been hilarious.” She wheezes. “Let me guess, she used lightning magic.”

“She used lightning magic.” Bennett nods, followed by a tired sigh.

Martha completely loses it at this point. The alcohol probably has a hand in her jolly mood, considering she drank a copious amount of elven wine that could knock out even a whale.

Why are all three of the ones blessed by the Comet so difficult? Why can’t any of them be normal, even by our standards… Maybe I should’ve just put her on a merchant vessel heading across the ocean down south and be done with it.

Most of the kids raised within the stone walls of Fort Karon are orphans through and through and even the other Blessed children beside the girl had no parents to say big farewell or cry for the loss of their child. Every one of them was picked up from the streets or the wilderness and yet…

She might be the wildest one…

“Cheer up love, I’m sure my daughter is doing just fine right now.” Luna hugs her man tighter as they sit on the boat following the river to the south.

Even almost two weeks after the day they lost almost everything the mood has barely improved. Not because of their abandoned past, home, or even their meager social circle… their family is incomplete, without its light.

“What if he does not keep his word?” Lucious asks the question that’s been gnawing at him for days now. “I don’t know if I’m more afraid of losing Eli completely or finding a completely different person the next time we meet. And she’s our daughter.”

“My dear husband and father of said daughter, do you have no faith in her? She will find a way or keep fighting back until things go her way.” Luna pouts slowly getting fed up with all the what-ifs. “You can blame yourself as much as you want because I do. For all I care we can spend the next years like some depressed hermits waiting for the day to see my daughter again or…” She doesn’t finish the sentence, leaving it open for her husband to decide.

It’s her way of forcing people to think, to come up with the answer themselves, to make them feel like it’s their decision. It often works… on Elyssia.

“You can stop doing that,” The man chuckles. “I can’t let my daughter close the gap while we’re away. Nor let anyone touch her again after we’re reunited. How about we head down south, very south to the Heavenwoods, I have a brother there?” The man’s eyes regain some of their luster.

His mind no longer dwells on the past but instead plans for the future, thinking of what he can build instead of what he might lose. Only one of the two is in his hands and there’s no better time to start than today.

“Let’s not bring shame to our daughter then.” Luna chuckles planting a kiss on the still gloomy but now hopeful man’s lips.