Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 21

Alex opened with [Aether Burst], flashing forward in a blur of motion, his limbs lined with faint black-red light. [Energy Spear] followed his charge andcut the air over his shoulder on approach, a razor of condensed chaotic aetheraimed toward Sionna. But the elf flicked her wrist, redirecting the spell into the wall with a lazy gesture before dodging his [Aether Burst] just as swiftly by leaning backward, the wave of energy passing be her face by milometers.

He reacted with [Aether Grasp], the ground cracking open and sending tendrils biting toward her ankles. Like a practiced ballet dancer, she stepped lightly between them, one foot at a time barely brushing the floor before she was in front of Alex ready to strike.

A faint shimmer of azure-white pulsed across his skin as he triggered [Vita-Surge Cloak] andhis body burned with speed and strength. He swung a combination of strikes and twisting kicks and yet he wasn’t able to land even a single blow.She slipped through his offense and reached out with her own hand, tapping his wrist, shoulder, ribs, and neck.

Each tap carried crushing force, enough to make him stumble or lose balance, let alone cover his skin in quickly forming bruises.

In less than a minute, Alex hit the floor with his body aching all over.

He pushed himself up from his back and onto his elbows, scowling. “How— how the hell are you still faster than me? My stats are—” he stopped, shaking his head. “I’ve pushed myself further than any other member of my team. My Strength, Agility, Vitality... they’re all way above average, even for an Adept. How am I still not good enough?”

Sionna studied him in silence for a moment, then crouched beside him. “You are good enough,” she said. “In fact, I think you truly are an Elite. even by our world’s standards.”

Her eyes narrowed, yellow-green glinting in the hall’s light. “But within the entire of Aetherios System? You are… merely not there yet. Above Average, I would say.”

Alex blinked. “Above average? You’re kidding, right?”

It was better than Lady Xhiu’s assessment of just average, but not much better.

She shook her head. “There are Adepts in this world with Constitution Grades higher than yours. With top-tier Martial Styles, Divine-lineage gathering methods, and ancestral spells that take lifetimes to learn. Some have all six Meridian Imprints completed before they turned twenty. Others…” she paused. “Others have begun learning [Techniques].”

That caught his attention. Alex suddenly sat up straighter. “Techniques?”

Sionna nodded as she began pacing slowly. This was a habit of hers that Alex was beginning to notice. She liked to pace when she entered lecture mode.“The System lists it as a category for you, doesn’t it? On your Status Sheet. Right now it is empty, I assume.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’ve seen it, but I haven’t been able to fill it in. What are Techniques? Why can only the System’s best use them?”

Her gaze went distant, thoughtful, a flicker of something almost nostalgic in her expression before she returned to looking at him with scowl.

“[Technique]s,” she said softly, “are the bridge between spell and martial style. Between simple spellcasting and bodily connection.”

She looked back to him. “A spell is an instruction to the System through a medium.An order you give to the Aether through chanting, an aether focus or other. If done correctly, the System accepts the request and creates the effect desired in exchange for the cost of aether energy. A [Technique], however, is you imposing your will directly onto reality and bypassing the System’s assistance.”

She raised her hand, and without a word, the air between her fingers shimmered and undulated. Within a moment a line of compressed aether formed into a thin blade of emerald light around her hand. Alex could see that the effect was indeed not a spell, or a martial skill, but its effect was very much like both.

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It was beautiful.

The aether didn’t hum or crackle, nor distort the space where her hand occupied. As she lowered her hand, the blade moved with her, cutting through the air and the ambient aether at the same time. He had no doubt that should she swing her hand at him, that even if he poured every ounce of his aether and then some into his [Projection Shield], he would have created a defense no more effective than a piece of rice paper.

It was like she had formed a Magus Tier [Dual Descending Demon Fist] and held in only in her small hand.

Alex felt his throat dry up.

“This,” she said, “is my personal [Technique]. It’s called [Verdant Edge]. A spell would require aether input and formulaic structure to achieve this kind of formation. But a [Technique] is more instinct and mastery. It’s the difference between writing a word and understanding the meaning of it.”

The blade vanished with a flick.

“That,” she finished, “is why only the truly gifted learn them. The System doesn’t grant [Techniques]. It only recognizes them when a mage creates it. You earn it by transcending the limit of what your aether and body can normally perform. Some cultures even call them “Transcendant Spells” because of this. Typically, a person only ever creates one [Technique], and it will scale with them throughout their path of power.

Alex leaned back on his hands, his eyes wide. “So… it’s like creating your own personal piece of magic?”

Sionna smiled faintly. “I guess that is one way of putting it. And that, little Adept, is what separates an Elite from a Legend.”

She turned away, gesturing toward the training dummies along the wall. “Now. If you want even the faintest chance at touching that level, then we start again. From the basics.”

Alex groaned. “Of course we do.”

“Get up, boy,” Sionna said, cracking her knuckles. “Let’s see get back to aether control, then we will do meditation.”

They went through the rest of their training just as Alex was instructed, but his mind continued on what she had said about [Techniques]. Something about her words, and what he had seen as she performed the [Verdant Edge] had him thinking about something in particular.

He remembered how he felt with he been in the Dark Den dungeon, right at the edge of death when against the Warden. There was a flash of understanding he had gotten while watching the Boss’ attack, which led him to using the [Descending Demon Fist] for the first time.

The Warden’s attack wasn’t a [Technique], very far from it. But the feeling he got from it and his Martial Style’s skill was very similar to what he felt when looking at her [Verdant Edge].

Well, maybe they’re close enough?

His mind also flickered over to what Amnios had told him about Draconic Energy, and using dragon-fire. The Hydra had insisted that dragon-fire was unique to every user, and that some Kin never learned to use it at all. That it required adding a piece of the dragon’s spirit to their energy to create it.

That sounded very much like a [Technique] to Alex.

So then, were [Techniques] a Mage’s way of mimicking the ancient dragon’s use of dragon-fire? Creating their own unique attack?

And if the Asura were the first mages to rise up after the Dragon-Kin Wars…

He would have loved to pull out the Hydra’s Soul-Orb and asked him, but there were some issues with that. He didn’t really want to let Lady Sionnadel know he had such an item. But also, Amnios had been quiet since they had left the dungeon. He was still in there, Alex could feel it, but it seemed like the Hydra was sleeping.

They tried various things to wake the Hydra, and the item, but with no results. Alex and Obby figure that the process of the orb’s creation, and the removal of the Hydra from the system dungeon, had drained the beast considerably. They simply had to wait until he woke up.

Still, he had a pretty decent idea of what he had in mind.

Alex stood up, and entered the final stance of his martial path, guiding the smokey Demon Asura aether around his body. His focus narrowed and a thick demonic arm formed itself from his back, taking on details of hard muscle and long powerful clawed fingers.

The [Demon Descending Fist] followed Alex’s own arm as he punched forward at the air, and the demonic energy rushed forward, cracking against the empty space and sending a gale of wind out in all directions before fading away, leaving a surge of weakness to wash over him.

Most of that was eaten up by and or resisted by his Meridian Imprints, vastly lessening the cost of the skill. A small rush of aether even pushed into his body from the [Backlash Devourer] imprint.

“What they hells was that?” Sionnadel shouted from behind him.

He turned to find the short elven woman looking at him with an expression of shock. She wasn’t at all scared, but she was certainly surprised.

“Uh.. heh,” he muttered, scratching at the back of his head. “It’s one of my skills from the Demon Asura Style.”

“That’s from your martial style? Child, that was very nearly a [Technique] in its own right, how on the Lady’s soil did you learn it?”

“Well, I was kind of almost about to die in this dungeon against an undead boss, and had a jolt of understanding. I had been trying to use it for awhile before that, but wasn’t able to.” Alex looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers. “There’s a second part too.”

Sionnadel almost spat blood at that. “A second part?”

“It makes two arms instead of one, but its more powerful, obviously.”

She frowned at that, apparently far less impressed. “Two arms won’t take it all the way to a true technique. Nor would three, or four. But still, it’s impressive…” she tapped a finger against her lips as she studied him. “You might be in a very unique position. The Asura’s were pioneers of the aether, true mages beyond any others before or after. Their Martial Style might contain parts of that understanding, a connection to aether that far was more prevalent back then.”

“What does that mean, for me, exactly?” he asked.

“We might be able to shortcut a way toward a true [Technique] for you. By combining together a skill from your martial path, and one of your spells. If you can apply your aether control and spellwork to the instinctive use of the Asura’s martial skills, you might be able to formulate a [Technique] all your own.”

“Whoa, really? I just need to combine two of them together?” Alex was excited now. If he could actually create and use a [Technique], he would be on more of a level playing field against the other Empire elites and Legends.

His excitement dimmed when Obby reminded him of an important detail. “You’ve already used your [Descending Demon Fist] and your [Vita-Surge Cloak] at the same time, remember? Against the Chimera Queen.”

That was true, he had used both. And as far as Alex knew, he hadn’t created some grand new attack like what Sionnadel was saying. He said this aloud, letting her know it probably wouldn’t work.

“Stupid boy,” she muttered, “Layering spells or skills is something everyone learns eventually, and while it does provide additional power, that is not what I am saying.”

“Alright, fair. Then what do you mean Lady Sionna?”

“Combining the two, into one effect. Not casting both at the same time, but mixing them together to form something greater than the parts alone.”

“That sounds… difficult.”

“It is, which is why [Techniques] are so powerful. But don’t worry, we aren’t going to do that right now. You still have time to figure things out. And you will need to choose a proper combination. You have a handful of martial skills and spells, any two of which might be able to combine into a [Technique]. Think them through, and when you are ready, we can return to this topic.”

Alex nodded and smiled. “Understood, thank you Master Sionnadel.”

“Good. Now, our lesson is still not over. Go meditate, and work on your aether manipulation exercises. Then we will return to me beating you into the ground once again.” She grinned.

Damn.