Chapter 14: The Call
The moment Valens let the pair of Fireballs sail across the cave, he was instantly struck by a sudden jolt around his hands. Something was different. Mana roared within his chest, the furious river sending a gurgling wave of magical source through his fingers to feed the spells.
Such intensity that the Fireballs grew twice in size, bloating the narrow passage with burning lights. They splashed in a grand wave of crimson fury against the first line of Steelmoles, drowning them in sparks and sending restless droplets of fire about the cave.
Pained shrieks stabbed at Valens’s heart, the muffled cries jabbing hard into his ears in the close confines of the passage. The air blurred and twisted before the resulting wall of flame. The heat was suffocating. It ate away all the oxygen in the air.
*Ding! [Fireball(Proficient): 4 > 5]
Next to Valens, Nomad was staring at the sight with hands hesitant around the handle of his sword. His mouth parted, that same piece of flesh hanging from the upper lip. “This…” he muttered absently, sounding greatly disturbed. “You’ve got a level in Fireball or what?”
Valens grinned at him. Seemed like the stats he’d recently poured into the Intelligence were doing some work here. Some curious work, indeed, but there was something else that piqued his interest.
It almost feels like the spell yearns for more. It grew — no, that’s not it. This is not mere growth. The Resonance hadn’t changed. It just became more clear? More alive? I can catch the notes with a clarity unlike before.
Valens focused on the frequencies. The Fireball’s rhythm had always been a constant flow, a melody that remained unbroken so long he supplied it with mana. But just now, when he focused on the Resonance, he caught scattered gaps to its rhythm.
Were those always there?
If so… Valens’s heart dropped. Such a waste! Such impotency to let a spell flail mindlessly in a broken, almost painful cadence! If Headmaster Eldras had been here, he would have long cracked that stick of his on the back of his incompetent disciple even though Valens was basically a rookie in the field of Warmagic.
He reached out with haste, eyes fixed on the burning wall. Though the spells lost their form, their core remained strong as Valens kept them bound to his inner mana source.
It took him a moment to prepare a Lifesurge while keeping the Fireballs alive. Once he heard the bloom of the life mana, a strong thump in his reeling mind, he cast it upon the fire wall. The invisible surges rushed forward, seeking the gaps in the otherwise constant rhythm as Valens strained with keeping three spells at once.