The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 207

Chapter 207

Chapter 207: Coordination

Although my bond had the appearance of a little girl that was even younger than my sister—if you disregard the two horns sprouting out from her head—she was still an asura.

After having the guards evacuate the small audience that had no intention of continuing their training regardless, I began pouring my mana into the large mana crystal responsible for powering up the defensive mechanisms within the training grounds. A low hum resounded in response and the cavern walls and rounded ceiling glowed dimly. Emily wasn’t here to power up the plate-like sensors she had installed for my previous training so the only functionality available was that of the barrier.

My sister was the only other person still inside the training room, but I had her stay near the entrance behind Boo in the rare case that one of our spells accidentally hit her.

“Do I really have to stay this far when you two are just practicing? I can hardly see you guys even with mana-enhanced sight!” Ellie shouted out a complaint as she peeked her head out from behind her bond.

Ignoring my sister, I continued to stretch out my body, making sure to be extra diligent while stretching my legs.

“Are you not going to stretch? Better yet, do you even need to stretch?” I questioned my bond, who was standing perfectly still while watching me.

“Considering I can barely use this body for basic daily functions, I’m a bit hesitant to try anything more,” Sylvie replied, frowning.

“Better to practice now than in the middle of battle, right?” I countered, balancing on one leg as I stretched my aching thigh.

Sylvie let out a sigh. “Very well.”

My bond attempted to mirror my pose, only to stumble. After a few more minutes of her violently swinging her arms to try and keep her balance as we went through a series of stretches, we began our training.

“So, how do you want to go about this?” I asked. Having only seen her use her superior body to fight alongside me or use vivum to heal me, I had no idea as to how she planned on fighting in her humanoid form.

“Stay there for a bit,” she replied, raising her arm and pointing an open palm in my direction.

Without warning, a missile of light shot toward me.

My eyes widened in surprise but I quickly reacted by coating my hand in mana and swatting the missile away.

“A mana arrow?” I looked at the shallow cut on the side of my palm. Despite the spell being similar to Ellie’s mana arrows in a way, her attack was much denser—almost solid.

“Ellie’s use of elementless mana provided me with a few ideas on how to best take advantage of my traits,” she answered, sending another arrow of mana my way after a moment of preparation.

This time the ‘arrow’, or more accurately a harpoon, judging by the size of the shining projectile, shot in a slight arc towards me rather than in a straight line like the previous one.

Wanting to verify my curiosity, I made no attempt to block or dodge the incoming spell. Instead, coating my hand in a thick layer of mana, I grabbed Sylvie’s mana harpoon.

The speed of her spell jerked my arm back but I held on firmly. I had expected it to disperse immediately, but it remained in my hand even while I was gripping down on it with sufficient force to shatter a rock.

After becoming a white core mage and practicing organic magic, I could tell that although Sylvie may have gotten the idea of her attack from watching Ellie, but the composition of the two spells couldn’t be any more different.

The raw power of her attack isn’t that high but in order to pack so much mana so densely into this form so quickly...

My mind wandered off as I contemplated all of the possible applications of my bond’s magic. By the time I looked back at my hand, the mana arrow had disappeared.

“Mana manipulation for dragons is limited to pure mana only, right?” I confirmed.

“If you don’t take into account my race’s ability to manipulate aether, yes,” Sylvie said. “Although there’s something else...”

“What is it?” I asked, curious.

“I’m not quite sure myself. After being in this form, I’ve been able to get a better grasp of my core, yet there’s a part of it that I can’t seem to access,” she answered.

“Maybe you’ll be able to access it once you get stronger,” I said. “For now, let’s see how versatile your control over pure mana is.”

I launched a dozen fire arrows with a swing of an arm. The streaks of fire spread out before converging back into a single target directed at my bond.

Before my attack landed, a shimmering barrier of light enveloped Sylvie, covering her in fire and dust from the ground around her.

“Try to create individual panels to block each projectile,” I barked out, sending out another wave of fire arrows.

Sylvie’s brows knit in concentration as she managed to conjure a large sphere of pure mana from her palm that separated into multiple panes to block my spells.

By then, though, I had already closed the distance between us and had the broken blade of Dawn’s Ballad pressed against her arm.

However, rather than flesh, my blade had met a patch of black scales that appeared from beneath her skin.

Despite my attack’s failure, Sylvie seemed to have been genuinely surprised by my follow up.

I sheathed my broken sword back into its scabbard and gave my evaluation. “Your control over pure mana is excellent and considering how dense your spells are, it seems your mana reserves are quite big. Your innate body provides good physical defense even if you are a bit slow.”

Although Sylvie held in her smile, I could tell through our bond how proud she was feeling.

“Still, I don’t think your attacks are strong enough to threaten retainers and scythes,” I continued. “What else have you noticed about this form compared to your draconic form?”