Chapter 219: Ask Me Nicely

  Stryg closed his eyes and held his breath. He shifted his legs into a wide stance and held his arms out in a broad angle. Orange mana seeped from his heart into his body in cascading waves. His veins grew dark, taking the iconic shade of grey that marked an agility spell.

  “Great, you’ve achieved a perfect full-body agility spell,” Cornelius Rotrusk, his dwarf teacher said. “A smooth spell-cast, no constriction of the muscles, and no delay either. Well done, very well done. I think we can call it a day with that.”

  “If I wanted an opinion about my orange spells I would have gone to Loh,” Stryg rolled his eyes, though his eyelids were closed.

  “Excellent point,” Cornelius nodded vehemently. “I’m a master of brown and green magic. I’m not qualified to teach you orange magic, which is just another reason why you really shouldn’t be doing this.”

  “None of my teachers would even let me talk about this, let alone try it,” Stryg shifted his stance and flexed his muscles taut.

  “That’s because it’s crazy,” Cornelius muttered.

  Stryg could feel the orange mana coursing through his body, the agility spell was stable. A year ago he could barely manage to hold a full-body enhancement for a few seconds. Now he could hold for several minutes with little strain.

  He smiled, I can do this.

  Without releasing the spell he called forth brown mana from within his heart. The brown shivered in contrast to the orange's smooth flow. He hadn’t even formed the spell yet, but he could already feel his body begin to overheat.

  He smiled shakily, I can do this…

  Stryg relaxed his muscles in one quick breath and focused on the image of the spell. The brown mana warped and transformed within his body, like liquid metal pouring into a mold. The vigor spell came to life in a bronze sheen that covered his blue skin. For one brief moment, Stryg felt it, he could practically see it, a balanced flow of orange and brown. Then it shattered like a thousand shards of glass.

  Stryg roared in pain, but his throat shut tight, only a broken whine slipped out. He fell over in a spasm of muscles.

  “Oh, shit, shit!” Cornelius screamed. 

  He dashed over to Stryg and stumbled to a halt. He carefully walked around Stryg, avoiding the goblin’s claws as he thrashed about. Cornelius slipped off his sleek black leather boots and cashmere socks. He wiggled his toes into the dirt and channeled green mana into the ground. The earth cracked and broke under Stryg and swallowed his whole body save for his face.

  Cornelius' eyes widened, blood dribbled down the boy’s blue lips.

  “Please don’t be dead,” Cornelius pleaded.

  As if on cue Stryg’s body stiffened to a halt, his head lolled to the side.

  “Oh gods, Lord Noir is going to kill me,” Cornelius cried. “I’ll never drink tea again, I’ll never sleep in my silk sheets again, dammit I won’t even get the chance to sleep with an orc! Ah fuck, I’m too young to die!”

  “...Ughhh….” Stryg groaned. 

  “You’re alive!?” Cornelius gasped.

  He cracked open his lilac eyes and glared at the dwarf, “Get me outta here.”

  Cornelius blinked, “Ah, right, as you wish.” He waved his hand, the green mana flowed down to his feet and into the ground. The earth shifted and lifted Stryg’s body out from within.

  He sat up with stiff muscles and grimaced, “That could have gone worse.”

  “Exactly!” Cornelius threw his hands up. “Which is why we never speak about this again, Lord Noir will definitely dock my pay if he finds out.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Stryg said wryly.

  “Kid, you’ve got blood all over your face.”

  “I accidentally bit my tongue, that’s all.” Stryg stuck his tongue out, dark red blood dripped down its tip.

  “That’s all…? You almost died! Dead, gone, your finite existence over!” 

  Stryg stood up and stretched his stiff limbs, “I gotta admit I was worried for a sec. I couldn’t control my body’s movements, it made it impossible to release either spell. But once you buried me I was able to control my trapped body just enough to release the spells. This time I’ll have you bury me beforehand, it should be easier that way.” 

  “This time? Are you kidding me?” Cornelius’ eyes practically bulged out of his face. “Kid, you almost died with all your weird little seizures. Worse, I almost died! And you think you’re going to try this again!? Fuck no.”

  He turned around and walked away.

  “I’ll get Elzri to double your wage,” Stryg called out.

  Cornelius hesitated in his steps. He shook his head, “No, no… no. I see what you’re trying to do. But there isn’t any point in money if you’re dead, because I’ll be dead.”

  “I told you it was fine,” Stryg sighed. “Did it hurt? Sure. But I’m fine, maybe thirsty, a little dehydrated and tired, but still fine.”

  Cornelius looked back at him, “You really have no idea what just happened, do you? There is a reason why no mage ever attempts casting two body spells at once.”

  “I know, I’ve been reading about it.”

  “Clearly not enough. When you cast one of three body enhancement spells it changes the mana inside your body, it operates differently from other mana, like oil and water. And when you throw in a second enhancement spell you might as well be throwing fire into the mix. A mage’s veins and arteries rupture, you bleed out from the inside. I’m not going to let you make me sit by and watch you die.”

  “If you’re so scared then why did you go along with this in the first place?” Stryg asked.

  “Because you blackmailed me!”

  “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.”

  Cornelius glared at him, “If I didn’t help you, you threatened to tell Lord Noir that I flirted with his secretary. That’s why I helped you!”

  Tried flirting, Lily threatened to slap you. “In all fairness, Lily is going to tell Elzri anyway. They’re a couple.”

  Cornelius pulled at his silky hair and screamed in frustration. Stryg waited quietly as the dwarf kicked the floor in a tantrum.

  After a few minutes Stryg spoke up, “Are you done?”

  Cornelius smiled ruefully, “Yeah, I’m done. With all of this.”

  “...Marek of the Cairn could multicast enhancement spells.”

  “What?” he frowned. “That’s impossible. If such a thing was possible House Rotrusk would have discovered it by now… unless,” the dwarf’s eyes widened. “They say the lord of the Cairn Tribe is a dire human... If that’s the case, then perhaps his dire constitution allowed his body to handle multicasting enhancement magic?”

  “This is incredible, I mean if it’s true,” Cornelius muttered. “Are you certain of this?”

  Stryg nodded. “I saw Marek do it, several times, right before he impaled me with his spear,” he pointed at his chest.

  “And you survived?” Cornelius furrowed his brow.

  “I heal faster than most,” Stryg stuck out his tongue. The bleeding had already stopped.

  Cornelius stared at the tongue with a hint of disgust, “I don’t even want to know how that works.”

  “Good, because I don’t know. What I do know is that if Marek can multicast enhancement magic, then so can I.”

  “You’re not a dire, kid.”

  “And yet my body is tougher than one.”

  “Sure it is,” he chuckled.

  “Punch me.”

  “What?”

  “Punch m-”

  Cornelius punched him in the face. The dwarf’s fingers cracked as they slammed across his jaw.

  “Ah! What the fuck!?” Cornelius reeled backward. He looked at his crooked index finger with shock.

  Stryg scratched his cheek, “You didn’t hesitate to punch me. Honestly? I’m a bit surprised..”

  “I need to see a doctor,” he muttered. “Why couldn't I have just tutored some random rich asshole’s kid…”

  “You don’t need a doctor, it’s just dislocated.”

  “Huh? What do y- Agh, goddammit!” Cornelius screamed.

  With a quick swipe, Stryg had grabbed his finger and set it back in place.

  “There, better. Now, can you help me or not?” Stryg asked.

  He nursed his finger and stared daggers at the goblin, “Why do you even need my help? You can just bury yourself in the ground, I taught you the stone spell.”

  “I need you in case anything goes wrong, I’m not too keen on dying. And like I said, none of my other teachers would go along with this,” Stryg shrugged.

  Cornelius sighed, “Triple my pay.”

  “Done.”

  “And no more barging into my house and dragging me out of bed for training.”

  “No deal.”

  “What? I’m not asking for a lot here.”

  “I’ll introduce you to Tauri Katag.”

  “Done.”

  Stryg stuck out his pinky finger, “Let’s shake on it.”

  Cornelius glanced at the pinky skeptically, “What are you doing?”

  Stryg frowned, “A deal?”

  “Yes, but why with the pinky?”

  “Where I’m from the pinky finger is very important. Shaking it shows a sign of sincerity, it’s only used for the most important of deals or promises. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t know about it. Feli didn’t want me to put the wedding ring on her pinky either...”

  Cornelius pulled at his mustache with a thoughtful expression. He shrugged, “Meh, why not?”

  He stuck out his pinky and shook Stryg’s own.

  “You’ve got a deal, kid. But when you introduce me to Miss Tauri I want you to do it with a flair,” Cornelius grinned.

  “Flare…? Okay, I can do that,” Stryg nodded to himself. An odd request for sure, but he supposed everyone had different customs than his own. He had heard of how cold Frost Rim could get high up in the snowy peaks of the Rupture Mountains. Perhaps they shared fire with each other as a form of greeting?

  “Alright, time to train,” Stryg nodded.

  “Alright, so do you want me to bury you now or…?”

  “~Stryyyyg~” a melodic voice with clear undertones of anger called out.

  “Fuck my life,” Stryg muttered.

  “Who is that?” Cornelius asked.

  “My wife.”

  The gates of the private courtyard swung open. Feli sashayed in with a smile, though the warmth did not reach her eyes.

  “That’s your wife?” Cornelius glanced between the two of them. “I have so many questions, the most important being, how?”

  Stryg smiled weakly at Feli, “Hi, what a surprise!”

  “What happened, darling?” Feli asked coyishly.

  “I’m sorry I forgot about our lunch plans,” he mumbled.

  “You didn’t forget,” Feli’s voice turned frigid. “You decided to ignore them so you could have more time for training.”

  Stryg blinked repeatedly, “Uuuhhh, no I didn’t…”

  “Yeah, we’ll get back to your sorry excuse for a lie later,” she said wryly. “As I came over here I bumped into Kithina, we chatted for a bit, and do you know what I found out?”

  “That Kitty’s a lot more fun drunk than sober?”

  “No. Well, yes, but not the point. She told me that the winter ball is in a week, a single week! And you didn’t tell me! Let alone ask me out!”

  “Um, I didn’t think it was important,” Stryg said quietly.

  “Hehe, no. You don’t get to skip out of this one.”

  “I need more time to train,” he muttered.

  “Not for this you don’t, you little blue shit!” Feli snapped.

  “Wow,” Cornelius gaped. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone talk to him like that.”

  “That’s because no one else can,” Stryg hissed.

  “Except Loh,” she shook her head, “Not the point, again. Dammit, Stryg, you’ve left us with so little time to prepare. Where am I supposed to find a seamstress worth her salt that can make me a dress with only one week left? And do you know how hard it is for someone to measure you when you’re always trying to bite them?”

  “I don’t like it when people try to stab me,” Stryg crossed his arms.

  “They’re called pins and no one is trying to stab you,” she groaned.

  “Fine, look, I’m sorry. We’ll go out and buy whatever we need, it’ll be fine.”

  “Gods, you really expect me to do everything every time,” she sighed. “Ask me.”

  “Huh?”

  “Ask me.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “I think the missus wants you to ask her to the ball as your date,” Cornelius suggested.

  Stryg nodded. He looked at Feli, “Will you go with me to the ball?”

  “Hell no.”

  “What? That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

  “Then ask me nicely,” Feli tapped her foot.

  Stryg stepped up right next to her, face-to-face, he was barely an inch or two shorter than her now. “My love, the reason I wake up every morning and push myself harder than the day before. Will you do me the great honor of going with me to the academy’s winter ball?”

  “No, you suck at dancing.”

  “Ah, come on!”

  “You need some serious dance practice before I’ll step onto the dance floor with you,” she smirked.

  “I can dance just fine,” Stryg narrowed his eyes.

  “Show us then,” she said.

  “Fine,” he said.

  “Oh, sweet Bellum, protect my eyes, it burns!” Cornelius cringed.

  “What? I just started,” Stryg frowned.

  “Exactly,” Feli nodded. “It’s going to take a lot of work.”

  Cornelius played with his mustache, “Fortunately, you have one of the greatest dancers in all of the Ebon Realm standing right in front of you.”

  “You are an incredible dancer,” Stryg smiled at Feli, his eyes wandered down to her shapely bottom.

  “Not that kind of dancing, Stryg,” Feli said. “So, Mr….?”

  “Cornelius of House Rotrusk at your service, madam,” he bowed with a flourish. “No doubt you’ve heard of me.”

  “Nope,” she said flatly. “But you’re an aristocrat, right? Can you teach my husband how to dance like an aristocrat?”

  “From what I just saw?” Cornelius looked Stryg up and down with horror, “It would take a genius to teach this walking disaster.” He smirked, “Lucky you.”