The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Unfortunately, the next couple of weeks were anything but enjoyable for Larek, despite learning all about Advanced Fusions from his instructor. First, he had to convince Nedira that he needed to participate in the Skirmish – which went as well as he expected.

“WHAT?! WHY?!”

Thankfully, they were in Larek’s room when he broached the subject, so her shout didn’t cause as much of a commotion as did the incident out in the part the day before. “For the same reason I was targeted by those Nobles.”

“That makes no sense, Larek!”

He shrugged. “I know; it doesn’t. But I had it explained to me that not participating will be worse for me in the long run. I can’t go into everything, but refusing will lead to even closer scrutiny – which is something I want to avoid as much as possible, though attention is something that is impossible to avoid at this point.”

It took a little more explanation and assurances that this was the best option for him, but eventually she gave in. “You’re not doing this without me, you know,” she added at the end of their conversation.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way. I need someone who’s willing to put themselves in Penelope’s way, after all,” he said jokingly, remembering how she had moved in front of him like she was defending from an attack by the blue-haired trainee.

“Darn straight. That woman is a menace.”

Thinking about the day before, he remembered something Penelope had mentioned. “By the way, what did she mean about you being my girlfriend?”

Nedira seemed flustered at his question, looking away from him as a blush crept up her cheeks. He wasn’t ignorant enough not to know what a girlfriend was, though he wasn’t personally knowledgeable about the phenomenon. But what does that have to do with Nedira?

“Oh, uh, she was probably just making an assumption since we’re always together,” she finally replied. “It’s not really that big of a deal, right?”

He shook his head. “No, not really a big deal.”

“Though, it wouldn’t really be all that bad if I were your girlfriend… right?”

“No, not at all,” Larek responded with a chuckle. She smiled at him, which he took to be a good sign that she had finally accepted that they were going to participate in the Skirmish in a less than two weeks. “So, you’re all good with the Skirmish? I can go tell Penelope that we’ll join a team with her?”

Nedira’s smile instantly melted away. “If we have to do this, isn’t there another team we can join? I don’t really feel comfortable being in the same group as that woman.”

“I can try, but Shinpai made it seem as though most of the teams that are going to participate have been put together already. It can’t hurt to ask, I suppose.”

Sadly, despite asking both his instructor and even Dean Lorraine about joining another team rather than the one with Penelope, there were none that were available. First, all of them had already been assembled weeks before, so there were no empty spots for him to join up, even by himself. Secondly, none of them wanted to take a chance on a first-year, even if they’d all heard about another team willing to take him on; they saw it as having a handicap that would hinder their chance of success.

And success was what they were all shooting for, because the winner of the Skirmish not only obtained bragging rights, but a prize of 2,400 gold coins which was split between the members of the team. Even some of the Nobles whose families were rich wanted the extra spending money, because 400 gold coins each was a lot; Larek imagined being able to send most of that back to his family to do his part in taking care of them from afar. It was more money than they would ever earn being Loggers over their lifetimes, but even that temptation wasn’t enough for him to think about winning the entire Skirmish. It was too dangerous of a proposition to contemplate for long.

All of which meant that he wasn’t able to find a different team to join, so he had to resort to accepting Penelope’s invitation despite his misgivings. Larek, Nedira, and his roommates went looking for her after dinner a week before the Skirmish, but he didn’t have to look far; she ended up running over to him without the rest of her group this time, but that simply made it more comfortable for him to speak to her without her backup.

“We’re willing to join your team,” he said without preamble.

She didn’t smile or gloat like he was expecting; instead, she frowned at him. “I’ve heard that you’ve been looking around for a different Skirmish team to join, but you obviously couldn’t find any that would take you on. And now you come crawling back to me—”

“Let’s just get out of here, Larek,” Nedira interrupted the trainee, grabbing Larek’s arm and dragging him away. “We’ll deal with the consequences – if they come.”

As much as he wanted to go with her, he had to think about his future. If he didn’t participate and start showing what he could do with Fusions to a larger audience of people, the Nobles attending the Academy – and perhaps even the Fort – would become suspicious of what he was hiding when it was finally revealed. Shinpai made it clear that it would be impossible to keep his Fusion-based abilities a secret for long, so that would be a poor—and potentially deadly—decision.

Besides, he was tired of hiding his Fusions from the world, as he wanted to be able to create them out in the open and actually produce some that could be useful to others. Remembering what he’d done for those Martial graduates on the carriage made him feel good, as if what he did could keep them alive longer than they would’ve been otherwise; granted, it was done in exchange for their silence about him, but that didn’t change the way it made him feel.

“Hold on, Nedira,” he whispered to her as he stopped himself from being led away. “We need to participate. This is the only way, remember?”

“I remember alright, but does it have to be with her?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I even broached the subject of revealing my abilities ahead of the Skirmish, but Shinpai said that it would have the same result as if I were to refuse to participate. Noble intrigue will be suspicious that the invitation prompted a reaction from me to reveal some of my abilities to forgo any further scrutiny, but that will eventually end up backfiring. The only way is to present it in a public format like this, which would be advantageous for myself and my team; the Nobles would understand keeping this a secret for my own benefit, such as for the prize money. Something to do with the selfishness of the Nobility or something like that.

“That still doesn’t make sense to me, nor the reason why you need to avoid the attention of the Nobles here at the Academy,” she replied, shaking her head. “But… I trust you, and if this is what we need to do, then let’s just get it over with.”

Nodding at her, he turned back to Penelope, who was looking at him with a smirk on her face. “So, you finally talked your girlfriend into it? What makes you think we even want you now that I heard about you going behind our backs to find someone else?”

Nedira looked like she was going to march right over to the other woman and smack her in the face with her staff, but Larek gently caught her before she could take more than a step. “Please stop trying to antagonize my friends, Penelope,” he warned, looking her straight in the eye. Amazingly, she didn’t reply with anything antagonistic, which he halfway expected; instead, the only thing she did was stare right back at him with a frown on her face, before audibly swallowing. “As for why you would want us, you already know about my ability to heal, but I’m also uniquely qualified to provide everyone with Fusions that can make a huge difference. Nedira is also an expert Naturalist, so she’ll be able help control the fight from afar, letting you do what you need to in order to win.”

The blue-haired trainee tore her gaze away from Larek’s with visible effort. “A huge difference, huh? That’s not some play on words relating to your… height, is it?” she asked, chuckling oddly at the same time.

Larek simply shook his head as he felt Nedira stiffen under where his hands were holding her shoulders. “No, not at all. I’m just that good of a Fusionist.”

“You certainly are good at thinking highly of yourself, I’ll give you that.” The trainee paused for a few seconds before she sighed dramatically. “Fine. You’re both on the team, but please don’t disappoint me. We’re planning on practicing our teamwork after dinner over the next week leading up to the Skirmish; it’s too public to do it out here, so you’ll have to come to one of our sparring rooms in the Fort.”

“I didn’t think we were allowed over there,” Verne spoke up for the first time since the confrontation occurred.

“Normally, you’d be right, but for something like this it’s allowed for a few hours every day for a month leading up to the Skirmish. We’re really behind on our practice, having only put together a team recently, so we have a lot of catching up to do.”

Larek thought about all the work he needed to do to design Fusions that would be beneficial to the team, which he had been planning on doing after classes. Besides, he didn’t really think he needed to practice, considering that he would simply be “healing” and wouldn’t necessarily be involved in the fighting.

“Are you sure you need us there? I have a lot to do to get ready for this thing—”

“Thing? This is the Skirmish you’re talking about; it may not be life and death or as important as defending a wall in a town or city against Scission monsters, but this is about as important as anything here in the Fort. Or the Academy, for that matter.”

Penelope seemed positively obsessive over this Skirmish thing, and Larek began to wonder if every other participant would be as zealous. Before he could respond, the trainee continued.

“And yes, you need to practice with us. There are quite a few strategies that can be employed which need everyone present, and you need to know what you’ll be facing once we get to the arena.”

He wanted to keep protesting, but he knew that there likely wouldn’t be any point. Either he participated or he didn’t; there was no going back now. He still intended to lose, of course, but he had to make it at least seem like he was interested in learning what he could about these “strategies”.

“Very well,” he finally relented. “We’ll be there after dinner tomorrow.”

“Great!” Suddenly, her entire attitude changed, going from serious to jovial in a matter of seconds. “I can’t wait to see you both there!” With that, she turned around and ran back to the Martial portion of the park, joining in on a practice fight already in progress.

“She seems a bit crazy, you know that?” Verne asked, coming up next to Larek as he stared at where the blue-haired trainee had gone.

“I’m well aware,” Larek replied. “As long as she doesn’t try to kill us during this practice like the last time I saw her fight, I think we’ll be fine.”

Nedira didn’t share his same positivity, but she didn’t do much other than mumble under her breath in a different language – which he could only assume wasn’t very pleasant as it was directed toward the other woman. After that, they went back to their room at Larek’s insistence, because if his time was going to be taken up by Skirmish practice, he needed to get started on his Fusion designs immediately. Especially since it was frustrating to begin with.

His learning about Advanced Fusions all week with the help of his instructor had hit a wall for the very first time since he had attended either Academy. The concepts and principles regarding the basics of Advanced Fusions had been taught to him by Shinpai, but every time he attempted to organize them in his mind like he had done with Basic and Intermediate Fusions, they drifted apart and became a disorganized mess. He thought he understood what he was being taught, but when it came time to attempt to apply what he learned in a Simple Advanced Fusion, the easiest of this level of Fusion, it was as if his mind went fuzzy and couldn’t hold on to everything.

While it might not seem like there was a big leap between a Supreme Intermediate Fusion and a Simple Advanced Fusion, the difference was significant enough that he immediately had trouble. It wasn’t even that he didn’t understand the new sections available for an Advanced Fusion, or the correct way to put them together; no, it had more to do with the fact that there was a method of compartmentalizing his focus during the creation process that he didn’t have the trick of, and when that didn’t work for him, everything else fell apart.  It was like there was some sort of block on his ability that he couldn’t figure out a workaround, which was thoroughly frustrating.

What good is my ability if I can’t learn how to create what should be such an easy Fusion?

“I think I know what your problem might be,” his instructor said to him just the day before when he failed once again to create an Advanced Fusion.

Dropping the steel plate he had been using in annoyance, causing it to clang loudly against the floor, Larek asked, “Yeah? And what is that?”

“Now, now, don’t be taking that attitude with me,” Shinpai admonished. “We’ll get to the bottom of this as soon as we can.”

Larek immediately felt ashamed of his behavior, because it wasn’t the Grandmaster Fusionist’s fault; it was his own, for some reason. “You’re right; I apologize. What were you saying?” he asked.

“I was saying that I might know what your issue is. What are your Fusion and Pattern Formation Skills at right now?”

Larek didn’t even have to look. They were both stuck at 30 with no signs of budging, which is what he told his instructor.

“Ah, that’s what I thought. Level 30 in any Mage Skill is what we call ‘The Precipice’. It’s a point in every Mage’s development that they either fly past their limits and go above and beyond what they believe they are capable of, or they fall into a hole and are unable to advance the Skill any further. Many Mages in the SIC are stuck at Level 30 in one or more Skills and are still able to easily fulfil their duties, but will never be the better than what they are.”

“How do I push past Level 30 in Fusion and Pattern Formation, then?”

Shinpai just shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

“What? How could you not know?”

“It’s different for everyone, but it usually has to do with some piece of understanding about the Skill that has eluded them until they finally grasp it, though what that could be in your case, I have no idea. You already seem to understand everything you should about Fusions and their creation that I couldn’t even point you in the direction I believe you need to look.”

Larek thought about it for a few moments, trying to imagine what he was missing. When nothing came to mind, he shook his head to clear it and asked, “So, this is what’s preventing me from creating an Advanced Fusion?”

“In part, yes. Historically, those who are able to create Advanced Fusions typically have to possess Level 40 in either Fusions or Pattern Formation, which I thought you already had based on your proficiency. I don’t know if that limit really applies to you, which is why I didn’t think to ask you what your Skills were at currently, but I could be wrong.”

Larek sighed, his frustration turning into exhaustion. “Basically, what you’re saying is that I need to find a way to break through to the next Level in these Skills, otherwise I’ll never be able to create Advanced or better Fusions? And you have no idea where I should even apply my focus in doing so?”

His instructor slowly nodded. “Sadly, yes. But I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before you do it, because your enormous potential is unlikely to be stymied by something like this for long.”

While there was more about Advanced Fusions that he could learn, as he was nowhere near the limits of what could be taught to him, Larek was unable to do anything with it. Therefore, until he figured it out, he was stuck creating Basic and Intermediate Fusions for the time being, which included the upcoming Skirmish. Despite the limitations, he’d thought of some potentially adequate designs for the upcoming arena battle.

Now he just needed the time to get them done.

Book 2 Chapter 55: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84513265