The Star Of Annihilation

Star of Annihilation

Chapter 3 – Roy (3)

Written by : eleven

* * *

Blinking his eyes slowly, Roy’s vision started to clear up as he awoke. Staring at the ceiling of his room, he had passed out on his floor. Roy turned his head and looked outside the window to see the time of day.

It was dark out, and the sun was just barely starting to creep up at sunrise. It seemed that he had been unconscious all night long seeing that he was still on the floor. If he hadn’t his mom would have probably tried to wake him up earlier or at least put him in the bed.

Roy’s eyes suddenly widened as he started to notice the differences in his body that had occurred last night.

His mana was flowing smoothly with a renewed vigor… but in the opposite direction of the normal flow. The pathways of his internal circuitry were still tiny and small compared to the vast network of pathways he once had as a 4-star wizard in his past life, but at the center of all this was something incredible.

Ba-dump Ba-dump

Roy felt his heart beat with excitement.

At the center of all his mana, was his core. Within that his mana core, was a very unique star that had remembered getting a glimpse of right before he passed out.

Brilliantly shining within his core, Roy could feel instinctively the radiant heat and bright red star pumping his mana.

Roy started to circulate his mana in the surroundings to test his sensitivity.

“..what.”

He was dumbfounded.

This was not the mana sensitivity he had originally in his past life when he first awakened his core. Every time he broke through to gain another star, his mana sensitivity increased, and yet his mana sensitivity was something that was ridiculous right now.

He always had incredible mana sensitivity, even in his previous life. He was considered a monster beyond understanding when it came to understanding the flow of mana within his magic cops unit during the war, but his mana sensitivity currently, was only at 1-star and had far surpassed the sensitivity he had back when he was at 4-stars.

‘What the hell did I do…?’

Roy had numerous amounts of questions popping in and out of his head at that moment. He felt a completely new sense of freedom with the mana surrounding him. He felt that even if he closed his eyes at that moment, he would still be able to feel everything within his small room with just the flow of the mana itself.

Like an extension of his own limbs, he felt the mana in his surroundings, where it rested, where it was dense, where it was sparse, where it was turbulent. It was an unknown freedom he never thought he could ever experience.

“But what does this mean?”

Roy muttered to himself.

What would happen when he reached 2-stars? What about when he reached his former strength of 4-stars? What would he feel then?

Roy felt like at that moment he could almost understand the arrogance of the Dragons. If this was what kind of strength they had felt when they were first born, what kind of beings could possibly threaten them when fully grown?

“Dangerous…”

Roy knew just how dangerous this could be if this information was leaked out. His star’s constellation and the breathing method required could overturn the Empire and surrounding Kingdoms and make them even wage war if his secret was found out.

Sigh-

Roy sighed as he knew he wouldn’t get anywhere by worrying himself needlessly.

Instead, he decided to test out the capabilities of having this star as his first star compared to his past life’s star. He would start by trying some basic mana cultivation.

* * *

Whoosh-

It had been a couple days since Roy had been sent back after he had died in his previous life.

Right now, Roy was currently on the outskirts of the village of Kerto, where his home was located. His mother, Mathilde had let him ‘play’ with the other children, but Roy had no intention of playing with them.

He was focused on using the real-applications of those kid’s playtime activities.

Roy right now, had carved himself a wooden saber and was trying to find out how to build a proper stance.

He had no previous experience of dealing with swords, sabers, spears or anything of the like other than throwing knives.

Surprisingly enough, Roy had an interesting companion with him to practice with.

“Hey, what do you think about this one?”

Roy asked as he looked to the boy sitting on one of the branches of the nearby tree. The boy was the same age as Roy and had a very unique look to him.

Roy didn’t pay attention to this child in his previous life that much, since he was a much more innocent kid back then and hadn’t experienced war or seen what harsh life could look like.

The boy sitting on the branch could be seen as a very bored looking child to most people’s eyes. However, Roy could feel two things from this boy that were odd and were the only two reasons he took the boy with him.

“Looks bad.”

The boy replied with a monotone.

His skin was rather pale and was very skinny. He was malnourished in every sense of the word. He had messy, light-brown hair and hazel eyes.

The boy’s name was Nate Fielder.

Roy had noticed two odd things about Nate.

One, Nate had eyes Roy had only seen from people who had gone through the worst of environments and were numbed to pain. Nate’s eyes in simple words, looked dead and emotionless. His facial expression never changed and was a very stoic boy who hid his emotions underneath a mask of indifference.

Other than that, the second thing Roy noticed about this boy, was that he had great eyes and movements. Nate didn’t have a father and his mother was known as a drunk. She beat him and Roy could hear the little boy cry every now and then when he snuck out at night to cultivate.

Because of Nate’s terrible home life, he was bullied a lot by the other kids and was placed as an outcast.

Roy had realized that Nate had good eyes and movements one day when some of the other younger boys in the village were picking on him. They were teasing Nate calling him names despite Nate not doing so much as even lifting an eyebrow.

One of the boys had swung at Nate, and Roy had seen something truly interesting.

Nate simply watched the fist through the entire motion and dodged it within a hair’s width.

The boy had gotten mad at Nate and continued to try and swing at him, but to no avail, they couldn’t land a hit on him no matter how many times they swung at him.

Eventually the other boys had surrounded Nate while the first boy was trying to hit him, and Roy was about to step in since, he truly hated two-faced children that acted nice in front of the adults and then picked on the weaker ones in a group setting.

But before he could do so, Nate continued to dodge every single one of the fists swung by the three boys that had surrounded him.

Roy didn’t know what was going on with the kid, but he thought about actually making a friend so his mother Mathilde wouldn’t think Roy was weird.

Nate didn’t even do so much as throw a fist back at the boys, which was rare for Roy to expect, as young boys were normally eager to solve problems with their fists and found Nate even more unique.

After which he talked with Nate and had offered him something rather interesting.

The boy had dead looking eyes of indifference, and Roy felt that the best way to work with people like those, was to offer them deals of equivalent exchange.

‘This is going to be interesting.’

Roy had shown Nate a basic [Water Ball] spell which did not even require a person to be a one-star mage to use.

Nate’s eyes for the first time, when he saw Roy’s magic spell, shook for a brief moment before turning to normal. Roy had smiled at the time and offered something very basic to Nate.

Hang out with him and teach Roy how he avoided the fists so easily, while also Roy would teach him the basics of mana. That was their trade.

And that brought the two to where they were at that moment, in the forest with Roy swinging a saber in an uncomfortable posture and Nate looking at him like he was stupid.

***

Whoosh

The wooden saber split through the air as sweat trickled down Roy’s forearms and neck.

“This isn’t really getting anywhere.”

Roy spoke with an irritated expression.

Nate nodded to him slightly and remained silent. Roy looked at him with an interesting look on his face as he started to think of something rather mutual.

“…I have an idea, give me a second.”

Roy spoke as he set his sabre down on the ground and started to head towards one of the trees nearby. Nate looked at him with a curious expression on his face, his indifference nowhere to be seen,

“What are you gonna do?”

Nate asked with his curiosity truly being piqued.

Roy smiled faintly as he looked at Nate briefly before turning his attention back to the tree and started to rouse his mana lightly for a basic spell.

[Flame body]

This spell was a spell that varied on how one used it, varying in mastery over their mana sensitivity and proficiency with managing their mana supply. Roy stuck two fingers out as they started to glow a bright orange and white.

Taking his fingers together, Roy held the stick with his other hand and then quickly brushed his bright fingers over the stick, completely shaving off the unnecessary and uneven parts of the branch. Just like that, Roy created another makeshift saber from the branch of wood.

Turning his head back to Nate, who’s eyes were completely filled with wonder, Roy smirked and tossed him the saber.

“Woah!”

Nate exclaimed in surprise as he fumbled with the saber in his hands at the sudden throw.

“So, I was thinking… what about some practice 1 on 1?”

Nate still didn’t know what to say, but was pondering for a moment before replying.

“I guess, but don’t expect much from me. Also, you have to teach me how you did that after!”

Roy nodded with a faint smile and took a shabby stance as he nudged his chin in Nate’s direction to get ready.

‘I guess enchanting my body would be a little bit of a cheat right now, so let’s start and see how I do without it.’

Kicking his feet off the ground, Roy lunged forward stabbing forward with his saber right at Nate’s hip sparing no formalities. The best kind of practice was the real kind.

Nate immediately snapped out of his reverie and with calm eyes, dodged the saber by a hair’s breadth and brought his front foot forward as a pivot and kicked with his back foot to make Roy lose this footing.

Roy was no expert in hand-to-hand combat, but was a veteran in terms of war and had studied the mentality of beginner fighters who tended to rely on common patterns. He had already seen how Nate always immediately went for a trip after the first strike as he hopped up with his two feet and brought his sword from one side of his waist and rotated his hips in a flash.

However, Nate had already retreated and took his saber in an angle to deflect the blow as rushed back in bringing the sword in a fluid motion towards Roy’s stomach.

Roy laughed out loud as he found himself enjoying the swordplay much more than he thought, and thought that Nate’s talent was quite absurd for a rural village boy.

He was excited for their future spars, and to see just what kind of person Nate could become.

Chapter 3 – Fin