trans_9 | Back to Basics (Open)

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Back to Basics (Open)

Step. Arms go in, push out slowly. Feel the magic thrum through your arms, from the tips of your fingers down to the pads of your toes.

Negi glided through the motions of a more graceful art than the usual counter-based system of the various Kung Fu styles he had learned and refined over the months. Kung Fu had many motions and he was focusing on the task at hand.

Slowly, gracefully, his hand moved up as did his leg, guiding his "opponent" in motion: a cobra who flicked it's tongue out at him. The way of the Cobra was one of the rare few styles that required intense focus. True the snake wouldn't lash out at him, but it was still the art of moving the snake in the way he wanted to make certain that he was doing this correctly.

It almost looked like a cheesy standoff in a movie, seeing Negi with one arm outstretched and the other above his head like a cobra, his leg drew up to his waist and balancing on one leg. The practice was intense, quiet, serene in the Chinese mountainside he had drawn up.

Okay, maybe it WAS stereotypical.

The cobra had all of it's focus on him, as he moved his hands, guiding it into motion. Latin began to reverberate with power as he whispered, "Rastel Raskil Magister."

In a beat, he swapped to Ancient Greek as he added, "Kenotetos astrapsato de temeto."

The snake stood perfectly still as Negi drew up his finger, crackling with lightning as he pointed it downwards in a motion of intense concentration.

KRACK-THOOM!

The Axe of Lightning struck home and the snake exploded into coins. 1000 appeared over it's head as Negi relaxed slowly.

It wasn't the showy attack or the long hour he had spent staring and moving through the motions, but the practice. He needed to get back to basics.

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It was a mix of all three as Negi had felt that with a sharp reminder that Takamichi hit HARD. As such, Negi grit his teeth, pushed off and appeared behind Takamichi in a move reminiscent of his original battle in the tournament with his arms crossed to protect the chin.

Takamichi had retaliated in that interim, landing blows but Negi weathered it as he took another step forward in a leaping mid-air shundo as he incanted "Saggita Magica, Series Lucis!"

Three magic arrows shot out, screaming towards Takamichi who sidestepped and launched his own retaliation, punches raining down on Negi. He could feel the air scream by him as he twisted and blazed foward, magic spiraling into his hand and he connected with one of Takamichi's punches in mid-air.

The Cherry Blossom Fist erupted in a spiral of magic as Negi grinned. "Not this time!" And he swapped his stance, getting in low and Takamichi had a moment to blink in surprise as a crackle of magic erupted from Negi, throwing the warrior high into the air as Negi followed close behind, firing magic arrows in sets of three and seventeen at once.

Interesting indeed! Aibghalien's already glad he was permitted to watch. Utilizing what appeared to be a relatively basic spell, delaying it, then combining it with an attack seemed to be remarkably effective.

Hmm; extraordinarily high-speed movement accessible in the air would make it extremely difficult for a preferred long-range caster to maintain distance, but the technique itself seemed to require a concentration of magical energy... Aibghalien began to believe that dispels were not common in the magical repertoire this sorcerer drew on.

Oh yes, he's learning.

Takamichi took the blows with relative ease as he flipped away to land lightly on a pole as Negi landed opposite him. "You've improved Negi-kun," admired Takamichi as he removed his hands from his pockets, magic flaring to life in one hand and chi in the other. "Which means we can stop playing around."

"Wouldn't want it in any other way," replied Negi as he incanted "Vin Maxima!" Magic erupted around him, concentrating and pulling into his body, reinforcing his frame for what he expected next as Takamichi cupped his hands, magic and chi fusing and spiking at every magic users sensor ranges.

"Kankaho!"

The first punch rocketed past where Negi had been once, a thick column of fused energy which rocketed like a missile, screaming overhead and impacting on a distant mountain range. Said mountain range exploded as Negi flickered out of shundo above Takamichi who retaliated with destroyer-level blasts, screaming from his still form.

He's faster than I remember him being! thought Negi in a panic as he was forced to mid-air shundo out of the way repeatedly. I must have jacked up the intensity!

"Negi-kun you have got to stop letting your guard down," said Takamichi from behind him.

"SHIII-!"

A thick column of pure energy the size of a truck slammed headlong into Negi and he was smashed into the ground in a move reminiscent of his first bout with the man.

"You're going to get yourself knocked out, and I'll have some really awkward questions to answer," Aibghalien observed from his vantage point. Was Negi showing off a little, or did he consider this routine?

Negi struggled to his feet as Takamichi hung overhead. "Believe me this is normal," he groaned with a cough. "This is actually pretty light from what Master subjects me to on a regular basis."

"Negi-kun pay attention!" barked Takamichi and Negi narrowly dodged a massive kankaoh beam.

More dodging ensured as Negi began another spell, his voice resonating on the wind as wind and lightning crackled around him. "Rastel Raskil Magister! Locos umbrae regnans, Scathach, in manum meam det jaculum daemonum cum spinis triginta!"

Crackling spears of lightning appeared in his hands, three in all and he hurled them at Takamichi with a cry of "JACULAITO FULGORIS!"

Oh yes, this is certainly proving worth the watch. Three lightning bolts? That could definitely have a significant return on expenditure given the decreased likelihood the target would resist the full effects of each, or possibly allow for multiple targeting...

But the more he watched the more he became convinced that this system of battle-magic had very little metathaumaturgy if any.

The first got shot out of the air, the second and third narrowly dodged as Negi closed the gap and traded blows with Takamichi who fired cannon-like shots from the punches that he loosed. Each one thick as a truck, Negi moved in closer and closer.

Ducking under one, he brought his first up and smacked it into Takamichi's stomach as a triple-delayed spell erupted from his fist, ribbons of binding wind magic chaining Takamichi to the ground. "There you go," encouraged Takamichi with a chuckle as Negi stepped back and the powerful magic dissipated. "Getting there."

"Thanks Takamichi," said Negi as he turned to the elf. "Matches usually don't end like that, but it's getting easier to predict movements recently," explained Negi. "Any questions on it?"

"I'm presuming you operate on an innate gift, biological or mystical, which allows you to generate whichever spell you know you have the power to perform at the time you select it?"

Like everyone else on the ship but himself (and possibly Kang, he was still not sure there).

"Partly," replied Negi. "Everyone, or at least everyone in my world, is born with a certain amount of magic. No amount of training will ever increase it even if you learn how to access it through spells, so to perform higher level spells such as ancient high magics or high level elemental attack spells, we draw in the ambient energy around us using Keywords."

"Rastel Raskil Magister is mine," added Negi. "They can mean anything or be any combination of words. It's like... valves. You turn the power flow on and off, while it still circulates in your body. Strings of Latin invoke the primal forces into heat, light and other natural abilities and depending on the spell itself, can range in flexibility and use."

The elf raised an eyebrow at this description, quickly processing and filing it away for future reference. It sounded like a curious blend of sorcery and wizardry, which frankly alarmed him to consider in practice on his own world. But, his world wasn't theirs.

"Your abilities seem to focus strongly on versatile and potent attack magic, but it seems there's comparatively little defense or metathaumaturgy involved?" He had no doubt that wasn't a representative sample though.

"Actually I've got fifteen barriers put up at all times," admitted Negi. "And I can cast another layer of barriers atop that when in combat for a max of thirty. Some spells however, and abilities both physical and magical can pierce them if I don't put up strong enough barriers. Fought a shadow user who ripped through 17 layers once and I barely stopped him before he cut my arm off."

"As for rituals, spells and other stuff like that, that's focused around the basics. Alchemy, chemistry, development of staves, magic circles and other items like magic guns and anti-golem attack weaponry. Things like that." said Negi, slipping into his teacher mode as he remembered all of the things that he had done in his time. "The very basic spells are all but memorized by many people, and it's where I excel. Not magical attack spells but in utilizing the basic abilities even down to fortune telling and turning spells."

"Ah, I should have been more specific, I apologize," Aibhalien said. "By 'defenses' I was speaking of more specific, more general, or more broad defenses, rather that physical barriers. I suppose such things would prove burdensome to an extremely mobile form of combat unless anchored to you, though, so I was curious if a lack of specific denials was due to the style of fighting, or of magic."

Aibghalien's got that same tone, Negi. "And you certainly have a point, I've found the most effective spells I know to number among the most common as well."

"Mmm, well magic shields use vary from person to person. It's in our spellbook to say the least in general terms, but how many magic barriers you put up really counts on the person. A lot of mages tend to use magical reinforcement to make their own bodies capable of taking a hit." Negi shrugged at that. "There's two types of mages back home, Traditional Mages and Magic Swordsmen but after a point, they become indistinguishable from each other due to the sheer raw power you can utilize."

And he nodded, happy someone else got the basics is good thing. "Yeah, I studied really hard to get out of school at 10."

"Hmm. Again, I sense I've been unclear. If you'll forgive me for using the sensorium as a simulation for the actual spell? I don't ordinarily prepare antispell defenses on the ship, since they have a practical limit which most people could exceed easily, and wouldn't protect me from most of my experiments in any case. I could deploy it from my crystals, but I try to avoid expending them unnecessarily."

He spoke a few words that were certainly not Latin, nor Greek, nor any other comprehensible gesture, then snapped his fingers in a scattering of powdered iron. Nothing visible to normal sight occurred.

"Now, if you would be so kind, please direct that missile spell at me -- Sagitta Magica, was the name?"

Seeing that there was definitely a thumalogical difference, Negi nodded as he punched forward. Kotarou asked for the same demonstration once before and really, it would only hit as hard as a souped up magical punch. "Saggita Magica, Series Unus!"

The magical light arrow lanced out at him, thrown from Negi punching outwards.

The spell hit the globe of invulnerability and simply dissipated. Aibghalien didn't even blink. "That is more along the lines of what I meant. It provides no protection against high-level spells or physical attacks but is completely impenetrable to weaker spells. The disadvantage is that it is nonmobile."

"Hmm I see," said Negi, rapping at the globe with a finger and drawing back. "Barrier mastery would be on this same level. Back home, you toss up frequency modulating barriers and hope for the best, because firepower on any level packs quite a punch."

"So do you have to stand still within it?" inquired Negi. "No weak spots but you get to point and laugh at the lower level fireballs and what not?"

"I can move anywhere within its confines," Aibghalien said, demonstrating. "I can also step in and out at will. Now, an opponent could also come into it, limiting the number of lower-level spells I could direct at him in return, but then they're just as limited as I am, and it provides ample opportunity for a counterattack. That was just an example to make my point clear, really."

"That's incredible," said Negi, honestly fascinated with the idea. "Most of our barriers involve redirecting force, or warding off energy attacks. It's why we typically put up layers and it takes micros of seconds to put up several of them and layer them with space in between to cause a dampening effect through each of the barriers penetrated."

"I am very impressed," said Negi with a grin. "If anything, it's like a shield-variant of Asuna-san's Magic Canceling ability."

"Not that I'm denigrating your own barriers, mind. They're a lot more impressive than my mage armor." He tapped the comparatively feeble force protection around him wryly.

"Magic cancelling?"

Negi nodded and then went on to explain at his question. "Magic Cancel, a rare and powerful ability to instantly nullify and negate all magic, be it directed towards the user, or channeled through an item. While it's not 100% reliable, it shields Asuna-san from 99% of all spells, no matter what the intensity, type or lethality."

Negi shrugged. "I've seen her take some hits that she just walked through, like a conflagration spell which would have ignited an entire forest, or breaking out of Master's Eternal Rest spell which entombs the opponent in ice that will last a hundred years."

For this, this was old hat for Negi. To the mage before him, it would probably sound like a walking apocalypse for magic users everywhere.

Negi would think that... but he's about to get a surprise. "Oh, so it's basically an antimagic field contained within her body? That's not a technique I've heard of -- doesn't it make it difficult to provide enhancement spells to her?"

It's only a sixth-level spell. Aibghalien mastered the basic ages ago.

Negi blinked and said, "Oh you know of those? Yeah, it is an antimagic field. Back home though, it's tough to deal with, but I've managed to channel magic into her as my pactio partner."

He grinned at that. "It's not easy, but the results are rewarding. And she's got some incredible power, able to do the thing Takamichi can, the Kankaho. Which is the art of fusing chi, life energy, and magic together into the Ultima Art."

"Sounds like you guys run in the big leagues," Aibghalien said, grinning. "But if anti-magic fields are rare to you... what about dispels and disjunctions?"

"Dispelling magic is often used in Anti-Magic zones so to speak," said Negi. "Only high level security zones are used with that, since it's not quite as common, but is a big part in shattering illusions. I think Yue would have been better with that since she can learn and access the new ones."

"I haven't really run into someone who has used it on a grand scale yet," added Negi. "Canceling magic is pretty rare altogether in my world."

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