Dark Magus Returns - #306 - 306 Counter Magic?

Walking among the people during the day, no one took notice of Raze. There were naturally mages of all kinds out and about, so it was a good test to see if anyone could tell he was different compared to the others.

After the first test was complete, it was time for them to head to the Blink Rail, a special tube that floated through the city on set routes to reach several destinations in the city the quickest.

The last stop of the rail was the Central Mage Academy. Although it was claimed to be a part of the city, in truth, due to the sheer size of the academy itself and the things that went on in it, it was placed more on the outskirts of the city.

No one wanted a stray magic battle or spell to leak out and harm the public, so everyone was fine with this.

When entering the blink station, Kelly had tapped her ring, and the magic barrier descended. She did this twice, allowing for Raze to get through as well, and they eventually made it onto the station that seemed to be quite busy.

It was quite tricky for them, as Raze wished to get in a separate section of the train away from others because he still wasn’t so confident that if someone touched him, they wouldn’t know what exactly he was.

When finding a more relaxed place, Raze remained standing, while Kelly sat down.

“That ring, it’s made by Idore. I know it is the payment system for the Alterian, but you should keep it off when you have other matters.”

Kelly nodded and was thankful for the tip, even though she knew that already. She felt like it was nice, since the spirit was just looking out for her, but the more and more she learned about this spirit, the more she thought he wasn’t one as well.

Looking up as the train went past, she noticed that ‘Jake,’ the name that she had been given by the Dark Spirit, was looking out at all of the buildings in the entire city. He was almost mesmerized by everything he was seeing.

She wanted to know just what he was thinking. While not looking away, the Dark Spirit seemed to have asked her a question.

“The current principal of the Central Mage Academy, who is it at the moment?” Raze asked.

“The principal, the principal of the Central Academy is principal of all of the Mage Academies in Alterian, so he isn’t often in the academy itself, but it is Ibarin,” Kelly answered.

Almost immediately, she noticed Jake’s eyes sinking deep. They were focused, not staring at anything in particular but just thinking back to a deep memory. She knew that look, because it was a look that she would often have on her face as well, one when she thought of the time when she lost her entire family.

“We will need to be careful of Ibarin; he is one of the Grand Magus. Although I can fool many mages in here, with him, it might be a different deal altogether. If I am in a situation where I am forced to use magic, he might notice the strange reaction my body makes,” Raze explained.

Kelly didn’t quite understand because she didn’t know what Raze was talking about, but it was the way his spirit body would work. Mana would be taken from the real body to keep its form, and when using spells, it almost took the energy from the spirit body and then the real body.

After using spells, the body would have a drastic drop in mana for a short while, and Ibarin might very well notice this.

‘On top of that, if the two of us were to battle, even with my real body, I don’t have the strength to beat him. An old snake of a friend, I just hope I can hold myself back if I see him again,’ Raze thought to himself.

As the two continued on the train, Kelly wanted to fill the silence, and she had just the thing, as she was thinking about a particular question that was asked the other day.

“You seem quite knowledgeable in magic; there is a study that we have recently been learning. I was wondering if you would be able to help me.”

Raze didn’t reply back but looked down and gave a nod. As an ex-professor at the Mage Academy, he was sure he could give her a reply that would satisfy her.

“We were talking about counter magic, the teacher used Ember, a fire spell as an example, and was asking what the best example was. A student had answered with water spout, it was the textbook answer yet the teacher still stated that it was wrong or at least not the best answer, and I wanted to ask what answer would you give for this situation.”

Hearing this, Raze smiled as it brought back some memories for him.

“You seem to have a good teacher if he stated that wasn’t the best answer. Well, technically it’s not incorrect, but I can help you with his line of thinking.”

“There are almost two ways to phrase this question: What is the best spell to use to stop the fire spell Ember? If this was the question, then water spout would be the correct answer.”

“But you were learning about counter magic, and the whole point of counter magic is countering a mage in a fight. Out of all of the spells, water magic is the slowest type of magic to conjure. Water spout doesn’t allow the mage enough time to follow up with an attack of his own.

“A better option might be to use a wind spell such as gust and then follow up with a swipe. Since one is already using wind magic, the swipe spell will be able to activate even quicker. Sure, you might be hurt by a few flames here and there, but you would be able to deal a fatal blow.”

“Whereas with water spout, even if you tried to use swipe, the gathering of wind magic would take slightly longer, and there are no other water spells that act as fast as they do with the wind.”

Kelly’s eyes lit up. The explanation that was given, she understood it perfectly, and the Dark Spirit had even used real examples for her to visualize in her head. She was starting to understand the real opportunity of counter magic.

“You seem to be very knowledgeable. Thank you for the answer,” Kelly replied.

She wanted to ask more questions; if the Dark Spirit was this knowledgeable about magic in general, then what about the Dark Magic he knew? Surely he would know a number of spells that could improve her strength in this department as well, but she was just too shy to ask.

It was then that Kelly remembered something else as well; at one point, the Dark Magus had led an attack on the Academy, resulting in a high number of deaths. It was the event that truly showed how dangerous the Dark Magus was.

‘The Dark Spirit, I wonder if he was there at that time, and how much he knows about it.’

[The next stop is Central Mage Academy.]

There was no time to ask.