Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 218, Season of the Rising Sun, Day 27 –

High up in the sky, Terry performed a few practice thrusts with the king spear. He switched between matching the resizing of the spear to the thrust direction and resizing it in reverse.

Timed right, this is a great misdirection in combat, going right against the trained reflexes.

Even Terry had to get used to seeing the spearhead move forward when he was rearing back his arm and going backwards when he stabbed forward.

An opponent will be even more troubled, especially if they're not familiar with the spear's magic.

He jumped from a layer of divine mana. He thrust his spear forward and infused mana to elongate the pole to match his thrust. He transfixed two of the septimum pearls in his leg armor and swung his spear downwards while continuing to infuse mana. With the added momentum from the spear’s increasing weight, his slash carried the spear’s blade to nearly a half-circle.

Feeling the momentum reach its end, Terry shifted his Immovable Object spells and retracted his mana from the king spear. He burst his mana and swung the shrinking spear heavily to the side. With his new rotational axis around one pearl at his shoulder and another down near his hip, he spun together with his spear.

Terry focused on his breathing and then circled his mana into the four divine hammer inscriptions. He paid particular attention to the divine hammer inscription around his left arm to compensate for the slight mana interference from the bidirectional attraction glove he was wearing at the same location.

He rapidly summoned several thick layers of divine mana in the spear’s path. He had placed the layers at an angle with respect to the spear’s trajectory. With each collision, the king spear abruptly jumped up or down, guided by the slope defined by the divine mana.

After the slash’s momentum had ended, he shrunk the spear to its resting height which looked more like a strange sword than a spear.

“Mixed results.” Terry was wearing an unsatisfied expression. He was resisting the urge to immediately scribble in his notebook.

“The impacts were too hard, taking too much momentum away…” He absentmindedly flipped his king spear from regular grip to reverse grip and back. “...even at slight angles.”

On the one hand, the divine hammer inscription has become a useful tool for deflecting or outright blocking incoming attacks. Great! I need to get more used to it. Make it a habit.

On the other hand, I cannot use it in the same manner for adjusting the spear’s trajectory. It would probably be better to wield more fragile mana for this case.

“Ugh, typical.” Terry groaned. “I was working my ass off to make the divine mana more durable and sturdy, to the point that it has become automatic and now I suddenly discover a need for the opposite.”

At least I’m getting the hang of controlling the speed and proportions of the spear’s size changes.

“Next…” Terry retrieved a U-shaped tertium piece from his dimensional storage and transfixed it in the air. He infused mana into the king spear and placed it on top of the tertium piece.

Now to practice my lever intuition…

He elongated the spear’s pole and removed the layers of divine mana underneath his feet.

When he felt himself fall, he elongated the spear.

When he felt himself rise too far, he shrunk the spear again.

Mana, this makes it seem like a sad seesaw for lonely people…

Terry pushed the nonsensical thoughts away.

As soon as he had reached a balance, he fleetingly transfixed one of his bracers and used the anchor to pull back the spear slightly. With the adjusted position relative to the transfixed fulcrum, he was forced to adjust and play seesaw again.

Terry repeated this many times, sometimes pulling the spear closer to himself and other times thrusting it forward. Afterwards, he added the pull from his bidirectional attraction glove into the mix. He held the spear tightly between his right forearm and underneath his right shoulder while pulling on the spearhead with his magic glove to influence the improvised seesaw.

When he had enough of the glove exercise, Terry let his Immovable Object spell on the U-shaped tertium piece run out. Then, while he was falling together with the elongated spear, he used his glove to collect the tertium piece.

Next, Terry used the divine hammer inscription to summon a layer of divine mana in the spear’s downward trajectory. With the fulcrum made of divine mana and the spear’s weight on the other side, Terry found himself propelled upwards again. He rapidly shrunk the spear and then tried to use this repeated exercise to move up into the sky.

Of course, it would have been much easier and less draining to simply walk up, but as far as Terry was concerned, the point of the exercise was to get a better intuition for the king spear.

After he had gone through his regular spear practice, he switched to practicing the spear’s lightning abilities. He wanted to get the power output and synergy between the staff of the Monkey King and the spearhead right the next time he had to rely on it.

Terry had already noted two points that made the lightning practice more difficult. First, the spearhead’s lightning attraction magic appeared to get stronger the higher up it was used. This was a bit worrisome considering his usual training spot was high in the sky.

Second, the combined effect was less than subtle. The lucky charm that Apex had given Terry was sufficient to block the tickets from tracking the staff’s location, but dark clouds and cracking thunder was hard not to notice. Consequently, he felt the need to switch locations after every training routine.

In the middle of his training, Terry whirled his head around.

That faint mana signature…

He clenched the king spear tightly.

Vicious.

He was still considering if he should try to pursue this time when the signature had vanished again.

***

“Hold it right there!”

Terry groaned at the haughty tone. He was in the middle of using his self-cleaning knife to dismantle the long-furred panther creature he had hunted.

He had been reminiscing about the time he had seen the knife on the market in Arcana when he had gone window-shopping with his siblings. He cherished the fond memories from their early hunts as Guardian trainees.

Things had been simpler then.

Terry did not appreciate being dragged from his comforting memories back to his current reality.

“No more running away, dipshit.”

“No matter how fast you are, we are faster.”

Terry rolled his eyes. He had known that these martialists were coming. It was not that they were so blindingly fast as they made themselves out to be. He was simply refusing to let his game go to waste. He had hunted such a panther before and its flesh was delectable as long as it was quickly drained of its blood.

“Oi! We’re talking to you!”

“Forget it. Just kill him. He deserves it.”

“Yeah, let’s just—”

Terry abruptly stood up and turned around. He had finished preparing the panther corpse and had some time to kill until the blood was completely drained. He stared coldly at the familiar black-yellow martial robes before moving his gaze to some martialists whose outfits and cultivation signatures he did not know.

“Hand over the Third Staff of the Monkey King and we’ll let you off!”

“Hey, who said that you would be the one to take it?”

“Shut up, we’ll deal with him first and then we can negotiate what we do with it. This goes beyond us anyway. We’ll have to consult with the elders of our sects.”

“Horseshit, you just want to take it for yourself. That’s not what we agreed on before.”

Terry equipped the king spear and brought it to a size slightly longer than his usual short spears. He let his mana wander into the spear and reemerge as lightning that cracked around the pole.

“I know the Thunderous Palm Sect,” interjected Terry. He slowly moved the king spear to point at the unfamiliar people. “Who the Wastes are you? Are you really sure that you want to be here?”

“Arrogant!”

“You’re defiling the artifact of the Monkey King. It is our duty to rescue it from your grasp!”

“What a noble spin on trying to rob someone’s possessions.” Terry sneered. “Full of shit, aren’t you?”

“The Monkey King was our ancestor, his artifact rightfully belongs to us. We are merely taking back our rightful possessions!”

“Hold on, our Lightning Feet Sect was established by the Monkey King’s direct disciple, the artifact is rightfully ours. Your ancestor was never proven to be—”

“Later!” barked the other martialist.

“Full of shit, like I’ve said.” Terry covertly transfixed his septimum bracer so that it would carry the weight of the spear and then grew the spear another arm's length, giving the impression that the spear’s weight meant nothing to him.

“Are you sure that you want to refuse our merciful offer?” The martialist from the Thunderous Palm Sect asked with a menacing undertone.

“I have met a handful of martialists from the Thunderous Palm Sect,” said Terry. “None of them seemed merciful to me.” He fixed the martialist in his gaze. “All of them are dead now.”

“Just you against all our sects?” Another martialist threatened. “You might be able to flee inside this secret realm, but outside, you’re just a fish waiting to be gutted.”

“Heh,” uttered Terry with a lop-sided smile. “Where are your sects then? Are you sure that you can speak for all of them?” He undid his spell and pulled the spear back to move into a battle stance. “If they send one, I’ll kill one yadda yadda.” He glared at the martialists. “This spear is mine.”

“It’s a staff you heretical swine!” One of the martialists lost it and charged at him.

Terry rapidly circulated his mana while simultaneously compressing the mana from his detection field. The sudden appearance of his disruption field was tearing apart the martialists’ attempt at a mana resonance technique.

Terry infused his mana into the king spear. He fleetingly transfixed the elongated spear to allow the martialist to collide with the immovable pole.

Another martialist was trying to interfere in the fight with a sudden charge.

Terry adjusted the spear’s position. He held it close to his chest with both arms spread out widely and transfixed one of the septimum pearl’s in his chest armor. He infused his mana rapidly into the pole.

The second martialist crashed into the flank of the king spear. His momentum pushed the lever on the fulcrum that was the immovable septimum pearl in Terry’s armor. The charge's force was redirected and the other side of the pole slammed hard against the first martialist’s head.

Terry tested himself against the martialists. He was trying to get used to the spear, but he did not take any further risks. He did not hold back.

Before long, the number of martialists had shrunk significantly. The remaining survivors were both panting from being low on mana and struggling with the disorienting mana-sense overload from being surrounded by Terry’s rotating army of intense spell slicers.

It did not take long for Terry to take care of them. He even recognized a few of their mana signatures from the initial ambush after he had won the meta trial.

“You’ll die…” The last survivor spat together with a mouthful of blood. “You cannot stand against all of our sects!”

Terry reclaimed some of his mana in the king spear to shorten it. “Don’t make me laugh. From what I’ve seen in this place, most of you can barely work together for three seconds before starting to betray each other for resources.”

Terry scoffed. “All of your sects? I’m willing to bet that each and every one of your sects is rotting from infighting and probably one good push away from collapsing or splitting apart.”

“You’ll die… a painful death.” The martialist cursed him. “Let me go and—”

“I have a better idea,” interrupted Terry with the back of his mind on the input from his mana perception. “More of your sect are coming. Let’s test our hypotheses to see who is right.”

“Bastard…”

Just like he had predicted, three more martialists appeared on the battlefield. From what Terry could sense, they were stronger than the first batch of their sect. He guessed that the first group was tricked by the Thunderous Palm Sect to make a move earlier. If they had been able to claim the staff, then this would have given an advantage to the Thunderous Palm Sect in the dispute over the staff after he had been dealt with.

“We’ve been too late…” They first glared at him. However, their gaze changed when they saw the defeated people spread around on the ground.

“I have a Lightning Heart Peach for whoever kills that one,” announced Terry and pointed at the person that had cursed him earlier.

The expressions among the new arrivals froze into a deadpan mask.

“Senior, be merciful.” One of the new arrivals spoke up half-heartedly. “Show some dignity as an elder.”

What ‘elder’? I’m pretty sure you’re all older than me.

“He was the one that chose to gang up on me with others and try to rob me,” retorted Terry coldly. “I’ll consider being merciful when I’m out of this mana-forsaken shit hole of a secret realm. For now, I’m trapped in here with you just like you are trapped in here with me. There are consequences to playing around as shitbirds.”

Ugh, Apex might have rubbed off on me.

The longer Terry maintained the act, the more awkward he felt. He refused to just let this go, but he conceded one more point in order to have his estimation of these martial sects proven wrong. “If no one takes me up on my offer, he gets to live.”

A flicker of hope welled up in the beaten opponent.

“How do we even know if you really have a Lightning Heart Peach?” A man from the martialists spoke up in a calculating tone.

“M-martial brother?” The beaten opponent whimpered but found himself ignored.

Terry retrieved a Lightning Heart Peach and showed it.

“And what’s to stop us from simply killing you and taking the Lightning Heart Peach?” A female martialist leered at him.

Terry noted the eager expressions among the other two.

“R-right, hand it over and you may scram.” The beaten opponent switched to an imposing tone and joined the threat against him.

“What’s to stop you?” Terry casually took a bite out of the Lightning Heart Peach. “That would be me.”

The taste was still horrid, but Terry had found a beneficial effect on his lightning resistance when he had tried the peaches before. Therefore, he had learned to push through the disgusting flavor. However, the effect appeared to have diminishing returns with multiple peaches, which is why he wasn't really clinging to the fruits.

“You…” The woman’s eyes widened. She had not expected Terry to waste a precious treasure just to prove a point in front of her.

“I have another.” Terry retrieved a fresh Lightning Heart Peach. He took a second bite out of the first one.

“He probably has more. I say we slaughter him and check.”

Terry nodded and pointed with the unbitten peach. “I do indeed have more and I increase my offer. Another peach for the person who kills that one.” He pointed at the one that had expressed his desire to ‘slaughter’ him.

“Maybe…”

In a quick kerfuffle, many things happened at once. The calculating mana martialist had appeared to hesitate when the woman that had leered at Terry was already cutting through the two other sect members.

The calculating martialist was quietly cursing about not acting fast enough when he suddenly discovered his own neck being severed as well.

Terry felt ambivalent about the sight. He had lost most of his compassion for the type of mana martialist that would roam around robbing people. Even so, seeing them stab each other in the backs so casually still made him nauseated. Not physically, but mentally.

I hate this place.

Terry pointed the unbitten peach at the corpse of the calculating martialist. “I did not offer anything for that one.”

“No witnesses,” said the woman flatly.

“I’m a witness though.” Terry pointed out, waiting for the woman’s reaction.

“No one would believe your word over mine,” retorted the woman with a smirk. She held out her hand.

Terry briefly considered killing the martialist. She surely deserves it with how she betrayed her sect members. Then again, I was the one who instigated this. That kind of disqualifies me from judging her at this time, doesn’t it?

Giving up two of these peaches seems a waste. They taste disgusting but from everyone’s reactions, they seem to be quite valuable. To them at least. With no shops around, they’re just mana-rich snacks to me. Disgusting snacks at that. Anyway, I was the one who made the offer.

Perhaps there are benefits to knowing such a person? A person that can be bought. Better than always dealing with completely unknown lunatics, isn’t it?

Eventually, Terry threw over two Lightning Heart Peaches. He tried to ignore the slight feeling of disgust with himself. “Take their belongings too. I don’t want them.”

He kept his eyes on the woman until she departed and then went back to his panther meat.

Going through bullshit trials like this secret realm, trapped with other lunatics, being raised in sects of backstabbing vultures… No wonder they’re all acting like blood-bursting pest beetles.

Terry had to wrestle down the feeling of pity, because he knew it would come back to bite him in this folded space. He had limited options, no real allies, and plenty of enemies. That was, after all, what these people looking for a chance to kill or rob him were. Enemies.

He walked around to search the corpses of the original group of assailants for items he could use.

Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to yourself, I know…

They made their choice. I believe in choices… Did they really have a choice though? Can they be blamed for acting like they are, given the path they had to walk to get here?

Do you care for the reason a beast bites? No, I don’t if I’m honest. At least not that much. Not enough to sway me here.

Terry quietly grumbled while all the different perspectives he had heard or read over the years washed through his mind.

Surrender is a privilege granted to those that understand their position. A cheap surrender is an invitation for betrayal and rebellion… Not like I want to follow the Warlord. I get the whole rational madness and reputation angle but it seems to achieve squat all against battle-crazed lunatics that value life incredibly cheaply.

The time for mercy is when you have the overwhelming advantage and are in complete control of the situation. I certainly don’t feel in complete control while being trapped in this place.

If you can’t blame people for their vices, then you can’t praise them for their virtues either. We’re not constructs. We’re folks. We’re supposed to be sapient, not merely sentient. Supposed to be responsible for our actions. Good and bad, all or nothing, constructs or folks. Still—

“Enough.” Terry barked at himself. “Focus. Food, then shelter.” He heaved the drained panther corpse on his shoulders and stepped into the sky where he could transfix some slabs to make camp. He would prefer to avoid dealing with more martialists for the time being.

***