Standing face to face against these grey hairless rats put a sour expression on Marcus's face.
"Of all the goddamn OCs you could've used—¡Maldita sea, River!" He ground his teeth and rolled up his sleeves. "Do I at least get a weapon?"
"And how's that gonna teach you how to use your wizard powers?" She smirked. Damn it! She was enjoying this!
"You need an invitation or are you gonna start telling me what the hell to do!?" He readied his fists, his gaze swinging between each goblin.
There were seven in total; some holding cutlery, others holding pieces of metal and wood, and every single one wearing disgusting smiles as they exchanged snarls and growls.
"What's the rush? You telling me you're scared of a couple of goblins? I thought you were Mr. Monster Hunter?"
The God forsaken creatures set their beady little gazes on him. "River, quit messing around!"
"How do you feel?" she asked. That had to be the stupidest question in the world.
"I don't think my feelings are what's important right now—"
"How do you feel in your gut?" she asked, firmer this time.
His gut?
What was wrong with his gut?
He decided to engage her question and focus within.
Now that he paid attention to something other than the spawns of Satan in front of him, he did feel something different than he'd felt before.
The coldness in his gut was… deeper. It was hard to put into words, but it felt like right at the very centre, someone had left open a freezer and cranked his internal AC to the max at the same time.
"It's cold!" He didn't know what else she expected him to say—especially with the bloodthirsty demons snarling in front of him.
"Colder than before?"
"What!? Yes!? Hurry it up a little!" He felt like these creatures would jump at him any second now.
"That means it's stabilised a little. But it won't get much colder than that until you grow stronger."
"Hey, why aren't these things looking at you!?" He was panicking—way too much.
"Because I'm obviously stronger than you. And they can sense that," she said, a bit irritated.
One of the goblins snarled with a chipped, bent, rusted knife pointed at Marcus.
"What do you mean they can sense that you're stronger? I'm taller and probably more muscular than you, plus you're a…" He locked eyes with her and saw the irritation on her face.
It was probably best not to complete that statement.
"You think goblins care that I'm a girl? What are you, twelve?" She said, shaking her head, painfully unaware that it was his life at stake and not hers.
"Just tell me how I'm supposed to do this." He didn't care about anything else, he just wanted to get this over with.
River rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can get away from you."
"Yeah, right back at ya. But leave your witty remarks for later and focus on doing your job of not getting me killed!" He said, dodging a knife swing from the goblin.
"Relax, they're obviously still scared of you too, or else they would've attacked you a lot sooner," said River.
Now that she pointed it out, his last encounter with goblins was very different. They hadn't waited for him to so much as blink before they began attacking him. They were worse than animals, so he didn't expect much strategy from them. But now, they were spending their time holding their weapons in front of him threateningly, but not actually doing anything.
Why was that?
"It's because you're a Witchcaster now, and you've got a huge amount of soul essence within you," said River. Marcus turned to her, wondering if she could read his mind or if his facial expression was just that obvious.
"Everything alive has a small amount of soul essence within it—because everything has a soul. Plants have the least, then animals, then humans, then OCs and Witchcasters," she continued. "Anything that can't be explained with science, is more or less explained by soul essence.
"Gut feelings, instincts, prophetic dreams; ordinary humans use soul essence without even knowing it. Sport athletes when they get into 'the zone,' priests that cast out demons—these people are more aware of soul essence and subconsciously use it without knowing.
"But animals and OCs use it instinctively; that's why they can tell when they're outmatched at a glance and know how to hunt and use their abilities without being taught.
"We, Witchcasters, know how to use our abilities to do things beyond human capabilities. Normal people know when they're being watched, and often the direction they're being watched from; Witchcasters can do the same but to greater effects. Normal people can know when you're thinking or feeling a certain way; Witchcasters can do the same but to greater effects.
"Bodybuilders can lift impossible weights, but Witchcasters are three times as strong, and faster than any athlete—on a bad day.
"That's all because we have a vast amount of soul essence incomparable to that of fifty humans combined. And those goblins can sense that," said River.
Hearing that explanation killed some of the tension in Marcus.
Now that he was a Witchcaster, he was far stronger than he was yesterday morning—according to River—even if he didn't feel like it.
The question now was, how the hell was he supposed to use anything she'd just said to kill these things?
"So how do I use it?" Marcus shifted his gaze to her for the first time since he saw the goblins. "It's not like my gut feeling or instincts are something I do consciously. What am I capable of? I need to know my strengths," said Marcus.
"Look who's suddenly gotten confident," she scoffed. "Close your eyes and concentrate on that feeling in your gut."
Marcus narrowed his eyes. Was she messing with him? "You want me to close my eyes when a pack of armed goblins are—"
"Just do it. I could burn these sewer dwellers in a heartbeat if I wanted to," she said. He wasn't sure he believed her implied promise to protect him.
She'd been nothing but mean to him since they'd met, and now he was supposed to believe she'd protect him?…
But what choice did he have?
He closed his eyes, concentrating on the coldness in his gut, and on the possibility of his gut being sliced open by a goblin willing to take its chance to escape.
"Focus!" Rivers' voice was almost as stern as Miss Violet's. "If you half-heartedly try to use soul essence, you'll end up hurting yourself!"
"How do you—"
"You were making a weird face, now focus!"
He squeezed his eyelids tighter, concentrating fully on the coldness in his gut.
"What do you feel?" her voice came, a lot softer than he'd expected. A little too soft.
"It's…" The coldness wasn't just deep anymore, it felt like it was shifting ever so slightly; like it would rise and fall, almost like the coldness was a blinking light, becoming more intense, and then less intense, in different directions. "It feels like cold fire?" There wasn't much of a better way to explain it.
"Cold fire?" she giggled, "Never heard that one before," she said, sounding… happy?
River sounded like she was fond of what was going on, which made him wonder what was going on. Was it the fact that she was teaching him? Maybe she'd taught her comrades how to use soul essence this way too.
He didn't know whether to feel bad for them or for her.
"Alright, let's continue," she said, her voice returning to its usual semi-harsh, blunt tone.
Marcus peeked at her, just to make sure it was really River he was talking to. Her eyes were fixed on the goblins in front of him—she wasn't lying when she said she'd protect him.
"Witchcasters can reduce their presence, knock out civilians, resist the influence of OCs and Witchcasters as well as sense them.
"Both groups can also rapidly increase their healing rate, and increase their physical abilities to incredible levels." He shut his eyes again. "Tampering with your soul essence in different ways gets you different result. But the easiest thing for Witchcasters to do is increase their physical abilities," she said.
He felt the coldness more intently, swerving in different directions.
"Try channelling some of that energy into your entire arm, that'll increase your strength enough to—"
"Got it!" He began imagining the coldness moving from his gut, up to his chest, and then to his shoulder. It followed his thoughts, moving like water going against gravity, but at the same time, it felt so… familiar. It was like he was simultaneously doing the most unnatural and natural thing he'd ever done.
"Stop!" Her voice carried the same panic it had before the soul stone had exploded. His thoughts scattered; the energy fell back to his gut. "Listen very closely, kid, or else you just might lose your arm."