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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 181
🕑 Added 2025-01-01 13:03:17 +0000 UTCAN: Sorry for the late upload, this was supose to come out 2 days ago, but I had family new year stuff to do... So anyway, Happy New Year!
Deep in a forest, a ten-minute dragon flight away from the Ironcrest estate, Dad was nudging Mum awake after she passed out from the flight that was close to breaking the sound barrier. As it turns out, Mum is scared of heights.
As for why we are here with my parents, Professor Sageira followed the theme of showing rather than telling and, as soon as the introductions were over, snatched the three of us into the air to fly us to the usual training ground.
Mum and Dad tried to fight back, but with her huge claws wrapped around his arms and torso, there was not much Dad could do, even when he turned his aura up to the max. As for Mum, she tried casting spells, but seeing that nothing happened when she pointed her wand at Professor Sageira, Professor Sageira must have been suppressing her as she did me when we first met.
When we landed and Professor Sageira released us, Dad ran to Mum to make sure she was ok, “Son! What is happening? Why are you doing this?” Dad shouted at me in confusion while he tried to rouse Mum.
All I could do was rub my temples from the oncoming headache while Professor Sageira looked on in amusement. I raised my hands in a placating gesture and said, “Calm down, Dad, no harm will come to us. Once Mum is awake, all will be explained.”
He looked between me and Professor Sageira warily before nodding.
When Mum awoke, we spent some time calming her down before I started explaining what was going on.
I told them of Professor Sageira being my professor at the academy and an ancient white dragon, her turf, her agreement with the kingdom, and what it entailed. Then, I got to the part of what I was doing that kept me up all night for the past few days.
After the better part of an hour answering their clarifying questions and subtly impressing upon my parents the consequences of exposing the ancient white dragon, Dad summarized his questions, “So, let me get this right. You and Professor Sageira created a technique to temper your body so you can copy what magic beasts do to strengthen themselves, and combined its use with aura to create… what was its name again?”
Professor Sageira and I looked at each other before I replied, “We agreed on the name, ‘Primal Aura. The ‘Primal’ part alludes to the mana infusion that magic beasts do, and the ‘Aura’ part is quite self-explanatory.”
“And you say the both of you are refining the process because this technique… turns you feral?” Mum asks, her worry for me evident on her face and in her voice.
I just shook my head. “Not feral per se… I would put it as intoxicated by the feeling of power. Something we barely managed to get a handle on, but the urge to indulge in that power is still there and still very strong. I can only last a few minutes before I need to deactivate the technique, or else I will go on a rampage.”
I wanted to explain further, but Professor Sageira, who was in her human form, cleared her throat to catch our attention, “Let us continue. We have wasted enough time, and they have got the gist of the situation. You can discuss the finer points of the situation when you get home.”
I nodded to her and turned to my parents, “Mum, Dad, for now, just watch, and we will talk later.”
After my parents reluctantly settled down, I went to Professor Sageira, and we did the usual. I tested the limits of aura and mana infusion separately while Professor Sageira took notes. After that was done, I sat in the lotus position and activated Primal Aura.
My body tensed as I felt the power rush through my body, and soon, the voices came, pleading for me to unleash my strength. Now, with my parents here, the voices even tried to play on my pride to show my parents how strong I have grown. I was disgusted, mainly at myself, because I knew that this was my subconscious trying to use my parents against my conscious mind.
I immediately and actively snuffed that thought and centered my mind as much as I could. When I felt ready, I stood up and nodded at Professor Sageira. The moment I nodded, she started a timer magic item sitting on a dais of dirt. She then took out another timer and said, “Shuttle run, ten reps.”
I approached a pre-raised stone pillar and nodded, and she said, “Go.” When she said that, I sprinted as fast as I could to another stone pillar fifty meters away, touched it, and ran back to my starting pillar. I then repeated this nine times.
For anyone without enhanced vision, the only thing they will see and hear is dirt flying in the air between two stone pillars and the booming sound of my feet kicking off the dirt multiple times, and if you blink, you would most likely miss it as my Mum did and had to ask Dad what happen.
With the speed test done, we moved on to a strength test where Professor Sageira laid a stone yoke across my neck and shoulders and started stacking weights while I did squats. By the time my legs started trembling, the stones stacked upon my shoulders were thrice my height, a new record!
Next was an agility rest, during which I had to run through obstacles without damaging them. After that was done, the fun part began.
With the snap of her finger, Professor Sageira raised over twenty stone golems, each one twice as tall as I was, and could easily crush a man, even by accident. Without a word, the stone golems charged at me, and I at them.
This was the part of the exercise that my blood truly sang to me. There was no need to hold back my strength. All I needed to do was BREAK! As I punched and kicked, all the martial arts ingrained in me from my previous life flowed out of me. With Primal Aura active, the world and the golems felt like they were made of styrofoam to me, as each move I made broke the enemy and the surroundings.
When the last golem crumbled, Professor Sageira’s voice signaling the next exercise brought me back to the present. I almost lost my focus there.
The next exercise was to test my physical toughness. Professor Sageira waved her hand, and weapons fell to the ground. She then summoned man-sized golems to pick up the weapons before they approached me.
To prepare for this, I removed my shirt so it would not be damaged. As the golems closed in on me with weapons in hand, I centered myself once again. This was the part where I always went on a rampage. After much self-reflection, I could say that it was due to my own ego, which was currently hopped up on power.
Just as the golems started raining blows down on me, I raised my guard and tensed my muscles. As I heard and felt the dull thuds of steel blades hit me, I also heard the sounds of my mum screaming and dad restraining her.
A few seconds into the beating, I felt some of the steel weapons bite into my flesh, but that was not as bad as the blunt weapons hitting me. Those made my bones rattle, and my flesh ache. But that was not the main problem. The main problem was the voices coming back, stronger than ever.
‘Why do you endure when you could dominate? Their strength is nothing compared to yours!’
‘Every strike you take is an insult. Show them the cost of their arrogance!’
‘Restraint makes you weak. Power is meant to be used, not suppressed!’
On and on, the voices shout at me and ask me why I am taking a beating when I should be the one dishing it out. When I felt I was about to lose my grip on my reason, I said, “I am about to lose it!”
But Professor Sageira replied, “Push on! Go as far as you can.”
So I did so until I blinked and saw a snippet of myself going on a rampage against the golems. And the next thing I knew, I was lying on Mum’s lap.
As it turns out, with all the hubbub of bringing my parents, we forgot about the shock collar, so Professor Sageira had to put me down the old fashion way.
