[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 38: Eye of the Tiger

Komachi launched a fizzling bolt of mana at Sam, using her black-tipped tail of all things to cast the spell and make it harder to deflect.

He thrust his hand out, straining to push the unwieldy mana up his arm and into his hand to activate [Scour] mid-motion. The numbing cold of the Apocalypse mana wasn’t helping things any.

Void mana burst from his palm in a wide horizontal spray of black and silver flames. It collided with the colorless bolt of mana and utterly canceled it out.

As the Void mana drained from his arm, warmth and feeling slowly returned to his limb. He shook his hand out, more out of habit than anything else.

There has to be some way to get accustomed to this. To get better at using this type of mana, he thought.

“Dang, you showing off?” Komachi pawed an ear. “I thought using my tail might actually get ya that time.”

He shook his head. “Nice try, but no, I didn’t mean to overdo it like that.”

The cat snorted.

His use of [Scour] there was complete overkill. He didn’t need to use that much mana, but it came out in a surprising rush. Like a dam bursting.

Mentally visualizing the Art, it had felt like the mana’s nature just wanted to unleash as much force as possible without any regards to what volume was needed, and certainly nothing for efficiency.

While that’d be fine against a stronger spell, it wouldn’t be doing his MP any favors. He needed it for much more than just [Scour], and besides, it demonstrated his complete lack of control over his mana.

Overwhelming force was great and all, except when it chewed through your mana to defeat a single enemy and you still had a hundred to go.

It was definitely easier to manipulate and harness mana for something weaponry based like [Power Stance]. That felt more instinctive to Sam.

Void mana seemed to be inherently tricky. Alien.

If he only could pick up a Void mana affinity somehow, that would go a long way towards handling that type of mana better. The irony being that he had Fire affinity, but couldn’t change his mana into Fire like he could with Void.

To Komachi’s credit, she made an attempt at mixing the training up.

An attempt was the emphasis here. Rather than roll to the side once and pop off a bolt of mana, she just… kept rolling in uneven circles around him with that bell tinkling.

“Any day now, Komachi.”

He started to feel like he was in one of those terrible cosplay memes. She was literally fat-rolling, like an overburdened character from Dark Souls, constantly encircling him with each heavy roll.

It was painfully clear the Cleric didn’t have any sort of dodge skill. No doubt his Agility dwarfed hers too, or whatever would influence his ability to track another creature’s movements.

And yet, in the middle of the rolling, a bolt of sizzling mana shot out in his general direction.

“Can you beat the combo that is chonk rolling and tail wielding?” Komachi said, full of overblown—if adorable—confidence and oblivious to the fact the bolt went wide by at least a few feet with no effort on Sam’s part.

“Over here,” he said patiently.

“Blekkin’ heck!” Komachi cursed in her own way.

A few more bolts, and quite a bit more rotations around Sam, the Cleric was shooting mana at him with decent accuracy from all directions.

This served as probably the most ideal practice Sam could get under the circumstances, and perhaps better practice for her as well. Casting while moving didn’t seem easy. Not to mention, Komachi was also slinging magic upside down.

He knew on some level it’d be better if he was pushing himself under the threat of danger, but this was suitable. For now.

Sam made sure to keep himself centered while Komachi rolled and hopped around him.

He gained more than a few scorch marks on the bits of his exposed skin wherever he failed to deflect, [Scour], or dodge a spell, but he could feel himself improving with every failure.

More than the successful attempts, he learned the most from his failures.

And it felt like Komachi was improving as well. The small hits she scored on him seemed to drive her on to do better, while they reminded him of just how far he had to go yet.

Every bright new spot of pain was a reminder of the fatal sluggishness with which he moved. In a real fight, such a wound would not be something he could just shrug off.

It wasn’t necessarily that he was slow, but that his movements were delayed. He tried to react with his mind. His muscles would twitch to move a fraction of a second before he directed them.

The feeling was unsettling and difficult to compensate for.

Only after the challenge quest was completed did Sam truly start to get a handle on his training, and even then, it felt like he was just scratching the surface.

But a few hours later, with his MP completely bottomed-out from [Scour’s] high consumption and his own inexperience with Void mana, Sam had to take a break for both of their sake’s.

He wasn’t going to stop training just because a quest said he could. Training was more valuable than most people thought.

Komachi was running on fumes, but she seemed more than ready to keep going if that was what Sam wanted. He didn’t want to press her too hard, and in truth, he was worried about his own body as well.

The lack of mana made him feel lightheaded and nauseous, like a blood sugar crash. So, taking out more of their rations, Sam halted their training and sat down with Komachi for a brief rest and a snack.

Komachi curled up in his lap and chewed noisily on her food. The rations were little more than hardened bars of granola-style substance. They weren’t sweet though, in fact they lacked any distinct flavor at all, which was why it was so odd that Komachi ate them so readily.

She was, at the best of times, incredibly persnickety about her food. One day, she wanted it wetted, the other dry, and some days, she needed gravy with it.

Meanwhile, Sam ate mostly ramen cups, tuna cans, and the occasional vegetable when he could get them on sale.

Eating mostly tasteless food had become something of an acquired taste in Sam’s life. You couldn’t really afford something that tasted good with the amount of money he had on hand.

Sitting and chewing on the dry [Simple Ration], Sam went over his challenge quest, now completed.

Completed Challenge Quest: Breaking in the Breaker

Awakening your bloodline is only the beginning of your journey. Every road to greatness starts with but a single step. This is yours.

Perform the following:

Practice with your greatsword for 4 hours. (Complete)

Visualize a critical weak point 4 times. (Complete)

Create a critical weak point 4 times on an inanimate object. (Complete)

Create a critical weak point 4 times on a living creature. (Complete)

Reward: [Biting Sheath]

The moment Sam viewed the reward, there was a faint ringing sound accompanying a large metallic item popping into existence. Sam reached forward and caught it before it fell to the ground.

The [Biting Sheath] was far too small to fit his [Charred Claymore]. It was small even for a typical longsword, much less the huge greatsword he had.

Curious, and just a touch disappointed, Sam examined the item to see if there was something he was missing.

As it turned out, there was quite a lot.

[Biting Sheath]

(Accessory) (F-Class)

(★☆Uncommon I)

Enhancements

Sharpening II | Expansion II

Imbuements

Metal Mana II | Fire Mana

Originally made popular by the Crimson Wings of Salvari, [Biting Sheaths] incorporate several advanced magicks to enhance and improve the utility of oversized weaponry that would otherwise not fit. Expansion magic allows the sheath to be significantly smaller than the weapon it holds, while a Sharpening enhancement keeps the edge of the blade keen between uses. Upon release from the sheath, a small amount of Fire and Metal mana is generated due to the conflicting enhancements.

Naturally, Sam had to test it out immediately. He managed to undo his simple baldric that held the blade in place before and strapped on the significantly smaller replacement.

Even before he slid his greatsword home into the sheath, he could see the advantages of such a smaller sheath. There would be nothing to trip up his legs or stick out past his lower back, even.

And perhaps the best part was that anybody who saw the sheath would likely think he wielded a significantly shorter and smaller weapon, giving him a slight advantage.

At first, the claymore would not budge into the item, then Sam remembered he had to bind it to himself. Joining his mana to the slight swirl of Metal and Fire within the sheath, Sam felt the connection complete.

His second try went off without a hitch.

The claymore slid smoothly and easily into its sheath, despite the ridiculous size disparity. He wished he had a mirror to see how the blade looked as it was sheathed.

Gripping the handle tightly, Sam ripped the claymore out of its sheath, accompanied by a spray of white-hot sparks that fanned out from the enlarging blade.

With his Metal and Fire affinities, Sam could feel an unusually strong connection to the sparks and with a few more tries he was able to control them to a small degree.

After about the tenth attempt, he was able to use them like tiny little needles of Fire and Metal mana, piercing the surrounding ground in a pattern of his choosing.

Komachi clapped her little paws together, which, owing to their plush and furry demeanor, hardly emitted a sound. But Sam appreciated the gesture all the same.

It was tempting to stay in place, but it was time to see what else this Dark Vault had to offer and then hopefully explore the shattered world beyond.

There weren’t enough rations to last, anyway. Eventually, they would run out. They were down to a little under half since Sam started taking one ration and breaking it in two.

No wonder I’m still hungry.

Not that he was going to tell Komachi that. Telling a cat—who could not only understand what he was saying but was also armed with claws and magic—that there wasn’t much food left was basically playing with fire, and not the benevolent [Archflame Coal] kind.

It was easy to forget that he had a lifetime of training and fighting ahead of him to hone his skills and attain new powers. But that future would be very short if he ended up starving while in the Dark Vault.

“First order of business,” Sam said to Komachi, scooping her up with one arm like a football and tucking her tail beneath her, “find a way out of here. Preferably through a route that leads into a treasury of some sort.”

“Yis, more loot. Komachi could use some bling.”

With his newly equipped sheath, and his cat, Sam set off for the only path that would lead him deeper into the Dark Vault.

As soon as he stepped foot onto the floating stones that formed a hallway through the semi-lit gloom, Sam could see the automaton creatures waking up from his presence.

Placing a hand on the hilt of his claymore, Sam lifted Komachi up and dumped her into his armor, where she flowed into the waiting space like water into a jug.

Resisting the urge to unsheathe his [Charred Claymore] right then and there—it was remarkably entertaining to do—Sam stalked down the hall toward the waking statues and stone figures that sought to bar his way into the depths of this place.

For the very first time in Sam’s life, he actually looked forward to the Experience grind ahead of him.