Mythshaper

Chapter 49: Collaboration

It took a long talking to convince Eran to accept the gift. The secret had been getting Mum to speak to Eran’s mother and explain how hard I'd worked on it. My intention had been so clear that even the Spell named it Eran's Shield.

Once his Ma agreed, Eran no longer hesitated to take the shield. Unfortunately, I hadn’t anticipated the wild idea he would come up with the very next day.

“So let me get this straight,” I said, releasing a slow, deliberate breath. “You want me to use the shield to punch Kinetic Force at you?”

Eran nodded eagerly. “I haven’t made any progress in Arcane Resistance all this time,” he explained, “but when I tried that force attack using the shield, I got one point almost immediately.”

“You actually used the Kinetic Punch on yourself?” My voice rose despite myself. “Are you insane?”

“It was an accident,” he said, cheeks flushing.

“Are you alright?” I examined him carefully. There didn't seem to be anything visibly wrong, but then again, it could hurt his head, considering how wild and reckless his idea was simply to train Arcane Resistance.

“It only threw me off a few metres,” he said defensively. “And the shield flew out of my hands, which probably offset most of the impact.”

“And you still think it’s a good idea?”

Eran said nothing. I considered taking the shield from him and disabling the runes controlling the Kinetic Force until he grew more responsible with it.

Mum had only asked me once to avoid training Pain Tolerance and all those self-harming ways I was yet to receive, and I'd listened. True, my training schedule was already packed with shaping skills and artificing. There was hardly enough time or energy left to torture myself and still manage everything else.