renae erica

Alexis gave a sad smile and hugged her knees to her chest. “Though I complained about it initially, I’ve had a lot of fun here at the Knight’s Sheath. I love living and working with Sophia, I love helping the girls and keeping them safe, I love punishing the arrogant and entitled ogres that come in here and think they can do whatever they want, and I love reading those books on quiet and lazy afternoons. But still, part of me wishes… that Sophia and I had come along with you and Valia on your journey. I was angry at you for what happened, but all this time, I’ve missed you. I missed talking to you, I missed eating with you, I missed arguing with you, and fighting alongside you. Why didn’t you invite us? Why… did you leave us behind?”

She formed two more rings and used them to parry his thrust, then tried again to slash his throat. Noah conjured an illusory handgun and shot her in the arm, leaving it numb and breaking the spell. Shocked and worried by the sensation in her afflicted arm, the assailant launched a blast of explosive wind with her other hand, launching herself up and away like Bower with his fire magic. She flipped through the air, landed gracefully fifty feet away, and then hurled another ring at Noah. He shot it out of the air, shattering it like a clay pigeon, along with each subsequent ring after.

He couldn’t maintain this state for long, and eventually snapped out of it, gasping for air as if he had lost a lung. He had to be careful with this training method, as there was no telling what health dangers it posed. He resumed meditating, slowly replenishing his mana reserves. Once they had reached a decent level, an idea occurred to him. He summoned his clone, feeling it overlap his presence with a copy, but now, he was unable to separate from it. The headband was trapping his mana within his body, making him feel wrapped in a thick layer of insulation.