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CHAPTER START---
"So, ready for some real Magic?" Gildarts asks with a wide grin.
"Yeah!"
"Then let's see what you've got, kid," he hops to his feet and takes a fighting stance, still at the edge of the cliff.
"Uh, wait! I can't really fight yet!" Oberon gets up and backs away. "Plus, aren't you really strong?!"
"I'm not gonna fight back, I just need you to hit me with your best attacks, put all your power into it alright, no holding back."
"But what if—"
"Look, you couldn't hurt me even if I really wanted you to. Your Magic is just not strong enough," Gildarts takes a more relaxed stance. "I'm not just a regular Wizard, I'm S-Class. That means I'm beyond the conventional expectations of power and skill, at least in this guild that's what it means."
"Wow," Oberon looks at him with stars in his eyes.
"So no need to hold back, alright, hit me with your best shots. Start with Light Magic."
"Uh, yes sir!" Oberon takes a few steps back and puts himself into a basic fighting stance, copying Gildarts.
"Huh, alright, Master can sort out the combat basics when the real lessons start. For now, let's just see what that Magic of yours can do."
"Alright, get ready!" Oberon closes his eyes for a moment, and Gildarts can finally feel his Magic Energy swelling.
He narrows his eyes as a spiraling galaxy appears beside Oberon's right hand. Then it glows golden and leaves his hand radiating golden light.
'Regulus? So he knows the basics of Light Magic. Strange Magic Circle, but he didn't need to chant, at least, not bad...'
"Regulus. So what do you think?" Oberon asks while showing off his glowing right hand.
"Looks like you've got a handle on basic Light Magic. It's a start. No chanting needed is nice, plus I could sense you intentionally slowing down the process to put more Magic Energy into the Magic Circle, so I'm guessing you can do it a lot faster and without the Magic Circle, right?"
Oberon stared at him with a slack jaw, hand still glowing, "you could tell all that by just watching me do the spell? How?"
"Experience, and I can sense Magic Energy, unlike some people," Gildarts snickers.
Oberon sighs, "Jerk."
"Just giving you the motivation to hit me."
"Yeah, well, you're right, but if I'm putting Regulus on weapons or objects I need to do it slowly like this."
"That's normal, now hit me!"
"Get ready!" Oberon yells as he runs forward, right hand cocked back to deliver his hardest punch.
'Regulus is all about channeling Light Magic through your body, in melee attacks or to shoot from range,' Gildarts thinks as he sees Oberon rushing him. 'The kid is smart enough to know melee attacks take less Magic Energy and is using that to start.'
"Ahhh!" Oberon launches his punch, right into Gildarts's open palm.
CRACK!
Oberon's fingers crack against Gildarts's unmoving and unbothered palm.
"Ahh!" Oberon yells as he leaps back, holding his aching hand. "What are you, metal?"
"Sorry about that," Gildarts nervously rubs the back of his head. "I can only do so much to soften the impact, but hey you've got a strong right, for a kid."
Oberon takes a few deep breaths as the pain in his hand simmers down. "Thanks. I've never actually hit a person with that before. Usually I just use it to help dad cut firewood and things like that."
"Was that your strongest melee attack?"
"Uh, I've got one that I just came up with, so until I figure out how that one works, yeah."
"Is it Gravity Magic?"
"Yeah, it's weird... I think. It's like I make a Gravity Shield, but I make it tiny like a blade and keep it on the edge of the axe. It lets me cut through the tree and the rock under it in one go!"
"Hmm," Gildarts scratches his chin. "Sounds like you just narrowed the effective area to increase the pressure applied, while also keeping the gravity zone, or whatever you call it, at the edge of the weapon. That's not an easy application of Gravity Magic, at least from my limited understanding."
"Oh! So I made it act like a needle instead of a hammer, right?"
"Uh, yeah, pretty much. But as far as I know, Gravity Magic isn't efficient at that. Maybe yours is different, so who knows," Gildarts shrugs. "But Gravity Magic is normally used to devastate massive areas at once. But since your Magic itself is so weird...it would probably be better to swap the roles sometimes. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"Uh, not really."
Gildarts sighs and takes a moment to compose his thoughts. "Ok, think about it like this, you're a planet, right? That's how your Magic works. Well, more like a star since you generate light and gravity, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, you said it yourself. The closer you are to people, the stronger the Magic is, so why not lean into that? I mean, this isn't something you wouldn't have figured out within a few lessons with Master Makarov anyway, but Gravity Magic is a hammer and Light Magic is a sword, or needle.
You've got enough Magic Power and affinity to take that to the extremes," Gildarts makes a fist with his right hand. "Just make your fist feel like a planet, and slam it into the enemy's face!"
Oberon's face nearly splits with a massive grin that forms. "You're right. If I swap them, it'll be a lot more efficient! You're a genius!"
"Haha, no way kid," Gildarts waves off the compliment. "The only genius here is Master Makarov. Besides, this is just something you would have figured out if you had an actual sparring partner before. I'm sure by your first proper fight you would have realized this, but the strength of a guild is having other people around you. And those people can teach you things so you don't have to live through every painful lesson on your own."
"Well, thank you for helping me skip ahead. Any more advice?"
"Not until I see more, but regarding what I said, it's best to learn your own unique applications of your Magic, as well as the more conventional versions, ever if you rarely use them, understanding them can save your life."
"Oh yeah, I plan to learn everything I can about them!"
"That's the spirit! Now try crushing me with some Gravity Magic. Show me what a living planet can do!"
"You're on!" Oberon backs up to his previous spot and raises both hands, palms facing down.
Gildarts sees another strange Magic Circle swirl to life below the boy.
This one spreads out farther and farther, until the galaxy image with 2m -6ft- wide, then it releases a bright white glow and disappears.
"Collapse!"
Gildarts raises a brow and suddenly feels his clothes being pulled down tight against his skin.
Looking down, he sees the grass around his feet completely flattened, being crushed into the soft dirt.
He could see the dirt shifting around as it quickly became more compressed.
"Huh, been a while since I've felt Gravity Magic," he casually mutters, not at all bothered by the force applied to his body.
Looking at Oberon, he sees the boy's eyes narrowed and focused, a drop of sweat already running down his forehead, more Magic Energy being used by the second as he puts more and more power into his Gravity Magic.
As if nothing was happening, Gildarts reaches down and takes a pebble that was being pulled into the dirt, and lifts it up.
He inspects it slightly, then holds it out, and drops it.
CRACK!
The pebble rockets down, instantly hitting the compacted dirt and shattering, the few fragments of it not even bouncing and scattering, simply being held in place and pulled into the dirt as well.
"Alright kid, not bad. Definitely enough to kill a normal person a few times over," Gildarts feels the gravity go back to normal below him.
"Thanks," Oberon wipes his brow, his forehead already drenched in sweat. He'd used most of his Magic Power in that attack and Gildarts didn't even feel it, showing a glimpse of how powerful Wizards can really be.
Gildarts sees Oberon breathing heavily and simply resumes the meditation pose from earlier, "Now that you're almost out of Magic Power, let's meditate again."
"Again?" Oberon asks, but was already moving back into his spot sitting beside Gildarts.
"This time, it's not about sensing energy. It's about clearing your mind and making yourself a conduit for the Ethernano in the atmosphere. You see, we Wizards aren't limited by the natural absorption rate of Ethernano, at least not those with Magic Energy control like you.
In my case, I can't do this for crap, but Master is a pro at it. You see, when you clear your mind, you allow Ethernano to enter without restriction. It lets you replenish your Magic Container ever faster than normal.
And for people with large containers like Master Makarov, that's very important since otherwise, it could take a long time to naturally replenish. He's also able to keep his Magic Energy signature under control, unlike many mages.
You see, on average, every mage leaks about the same amount of Magic Energy relative to their overall capacity, but if your control is good enough to lower that, you can appear weaker while being more efficient. Master Makarov can do that, but his capacity is so huge that he can't really hide it either way.
But somehow you can stop leaking Magic Energy entirely, which is super freaky. That means you'll also refill faster since you aren't leaking out while filling up the container. Get it?"
"Hmm," Oberon thinks for a moment. "Yeah, it's like everyone else is filling a bottle that has a leak at the bottom, but mine has no leak, and Master Makarov's has a smaller leak, but his bottle is so big that people think it's a regular-sized leak, right?"
"Uh, wow, that's actually a pretty good example."
"Mhm."
"But you forgot one part. You see, clearing your mind and removing the natural resistances your body has for absorbing Ethernano is what I'm about to help you learn. This way, you don't really make the hole that the Ethernano is supposed to enter through bigger, but it's more like you remove things that would block it up and make it splash everywhere."
"Or like getting a bigger funnel so I waste less, right?"
"Exactly! Glad you're getting it," Gildarts says. "Honestly, this is something I tried for years to do, but I've always been strong. Part of that is reaching my higher heights is easier for me, but on the downside, by the time I got to Fairy Tail, I had so many bad habits.
I had completely skipped the basics, and it kind of ruined my Magic education. Add that to my inability, even at this age, to properly control my magic... and things like this are simply beyond me.
"Yeah, but you were born super strong right, so nobody would notice!"
"Nobody noticed until Master Makarov found me, pointed out every flaw in my use of Magic, then let me join Fairy Tail so he could teach me to control it."
"And now you're even stronger."
"Yup, and I didn't even have Magic he'd trained before, so imagine how good someone with a high affinity for Light Magic would be..."
END CHAPTER---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]