"What an amazing sight, to think you could be even with the boss."exclaimed corbin, looking like a proud father who watched his son take his first steps. The regular soldiers within the audience practically had stars in their eyes after witnessing the battle of a lifetime.
"Looks like my theory was correct, coin please corbin." declared Felix, also looking proud but with himself at his superior perception skills to put it in his words. Felix made a grasping motion with hands, pretty much stamping on corbin joy as he now wore a rather somber expression. Lucius learned later on that the two had betted two gold coins so corbin was now down four gold coins (around £60,000), quite the fortune in the Moonlight Kingdom.
Lenore stood next to the two commanding officers, her hair stretched down to her ankles which wasn't something Lucius had noticed before. Despite its length it was well maintained, looking silky and smooth to the touch. Her face was wearing a wide smile, with her canines popping out. He knew she loved to watch and take part in battles as they were one in the same after all.
"You two are amazing mages, I didn't expect to see two new elements in the same battle." said Lenore, practically buzzing at the sight.
"Two?" asked Lucius, confused by her proclamation. By his knowledge she had never seen his moonstone magic as there was never a threat that warranted it. So that was one but the other element was mysterious as she was always with him when they watched Ellis fight in the past and she always displayed her mastery with wind. Lenore tilted her head at my question, looking even more confused than me.
"Lucius you didn't notice? Well I suppose that's reasonable, she is talking about sound. Remember or have you already forgotten." explained Ellis, patting Lucius back as she spoke. Now that she mentioned it he did remember she shattered the moonstone when she screamed, this induced a small shiver to run down his spine at her overwhelming power without casting a spell and just screaming.
"No one has pushed that far for a while, if I hadn't used my sound magic. I doubted I would be standing here, I would most likely be reduced to a puddle on the floor. There was absolutely no way that my wind would have stopped that." stated Ellis, playing off how close she was to dying.
Lucius now knew that Ellis is proficient in manipulating sound and air waves. He doubted the result of their match would be the same if she went all out from the start.
"I now see why corbin is scared of you. You truly live up to that nickname I gave you." stated Lucius, giving honest praise.
"Oh, I could say the same thing to you. You are merciless, quite cold actually." retorted Ellis in a witty manner. Giving Lucius a soft jab to his shoulder. They both seemed to be fully recovered on the outside but were far from it as they both exerted more than half of their total mana. Leaving them both with tired looking expressions on their faces.
"You should both get some rest, you both look dire." stated Felix.
Lucius and Ellis took his suggestion and went over to their designated rooms in the main keep with Lenore in toe while Ellis did have an aide, he was always swamped with work as Ellis didn't believe in paperwork apparently. Anything she didn't deem fun was passed over to her poor aide, so everything. Ellis and her aide were the exact opposite of Lucius and Lenore.
Lucius and Lenore had rooms adjacent to each other, the rooms were not ones befitting a prince but they were also nothing to scoff at. Living quality is low in the Darklands, even the safest of roads can be overrun with dark entities without proper guards. So luxuries are few and far between but it was of no concern to the prince. Perhaps he would have made a fuss at the start of his trip to the Darklands but he now knew better than that. He threw himself onto the bed discarding his clothes and falling into a deep slumber.
Discharging mana in quick succession puts a heavy amount of stress on the organs, especially the heart and lungs. While this isn't deadly it can still exhaust and cause extreme pain to the individual. Many future mages are dissuaded after their first experience with this phenomena unfortunately. Mana is stored in an organ called the soul core, it is located in different places for each person but centers around the chest. Once all mana is exerted it will start to pull from an individual's life force which is why proper training is needed.