[On three.]
[Three.]
The brothers forced hundreds of MP into their palms and made grasping motions in the direction of the lava.
[Two.]
Cynrik exhaled slowly; everything that happened next fell on how successfully they could cover the village.
[One.]
A brisk gust kicked up, circling the area around the invisible Water Mana particles. Without the use of [Mana Sight] or being highly intuned with Mana and its movement, the actions occurring several feet above the lavafall fed pool would go unnoticed by the general public. Thanks to the skills inherited from Rikard’s side of the family, Cynrik and Brance were stepping into the unknown.
Combining three key factors, [Mana Sight], [Mana Manipulation], and their Wind Affinities, the brothers, could somewhat direct the ambient Wind particles into a vortex-like movement. Although they didn’t necessarily have control of the particles and couldn’t forcefully bend them to their will, by making an exaggerated push and pull motion utilizing their entire bodies, they could, in a sense, coerce the ambient Wind Mana in the surrounding area to move in their desired manner.
This manipulation ability was basically the manual form of using a skill without the desired results. To break it down further, one must understand what occurs when a being activates its predetermined System skills. The chain of actions required to activate a skill is as follows. First, the being inputs a command designating the activation of the desired skill, then the System will recognize this command and automatically move the beings Mana from their Codex, through their Circuits, and lastly to the point of the body the being wishes to use the skill from. Once the correct amount of resources, in this case, MP or Mana Points, has been allocated, the System then synchronizes with the beings Mind and Soul to create the skills predesignated form before stepping back and giving the metaphorical “reins” back to the being for targeting or course correction.
By doing what they are presently achieving, Cynrik and Brance bypass Tobs’ assistance and manually do all the tasks usually left to her. If it wasn’t for the added benefits of their [Mana Manipulation] skill which both currently had leveled to Tier-1, it is unlikely they would be able to generate so much as a puff of air, let alone lay the groundwork for a miniature hurricane.
[Huff, hey Cyn, you surprise me with the level of maturity you’re showing right now. I expected at least one or two references, but I hear static silence.]
Without stopping his physical motions, Brance took a shot at Cynrik…which he shouldn’t have.
[Tobs, do the thing.]
Even with his budding rage threatening to spill over, Cynrik was never one to shy away from a prime opportunity for one of his references.
-Now playing “Main Opening Theme” From A:TLAB by Jeremy Zuckerman.”
Cynrik smiled when the theme song from his childhood kicked in, and he could not stop himself from changing his posture. Instead of making a simple push-and-pull movement, Cynrik began performing the postures and poses he knew from the Chinese martial art known as Bāguàzhǎng. His body flowed seamlessly, his arms appearing as if they had become boneless, and he gently caressed the air particles, willing them to move to his touch.
[Wind…]
Cynrik began his monologue as he performed the dance-like martial art flawlessly.
[no.]
Brance’s movements became almost robotic when he heard the music start, and his brother began one of his infamous monologues.
[Fire…]
[No, no.]
[Light…]
[NO, NO NO!]
Brance’s pleas turned to screams as he knew precisely what Cynrik was doing. Wanting to not only beat some sense into Cynrik but also take a bath in the lava pool for even bringing up the notion that his idiotic brother would EVER be mature, all he could do was scream in the mind link
[DARK…]
[STOP, PLEASE IM FUCKING BEGGING YOU, CYN CMON MAN!]
[…]
Suddenly the music came to an end, causing Brance’s heart to skip a beat when he heard Cynrik stop along with the music, and he exhaled while shooting a thankful glance to the sky. But that was all in vain less than a second later; without being asked, Tobs restarted the song, giving Cynrik the time required to finish.
[Long ago, the four elements existed in seamless harmony. Then…everything changed when the Jetlensr Brothers attacked. Only the combined forces of the lizard people, who spent thousands of years evolving into fierce warriors, could stop them, but when the Egress Core needed them most, they vanished. A hundred years have passed, and a young girl named Gabby and her brother Benny discovered the ancient pocket dimension long forgotten to time. Although it presented them vast amounts of XP, they had a lot to learn if they were ever going to save themselves.]
[FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NOTHING YOU ARE SAYING MAKES ANY FUCKING SENSE CYNRIK!]
[Hehe, I know, I ran out of ideas halfway through, haha.] Chuckling to himself, Cynrik shot a glance down to the hut his brother was standing on and could see him panting heavily in anger.
[Fucking hell, next time I’ve fucking decided to egg you on, remind me how stupid I am.] Brance shook his head in an attempt to refocus himself and started working to keep up with Cynrik’s manipulations of Mana.
The two of them locked onto the massive cluster of Water particles that had yet to condense into an actual skill and continued to control the Wind Mana, which subsequently started to rotate the cluster of Water, giving it a slight spin.
[Fuck it, since we already did one reference, why not throw in another. TOBS PLAY THE NEXT SONGGGGG!]
-Now playing “Goku’s Spirit Bomb” by Bruce Faulconer.-
Unlike last time, Brance wasn’t too bothered by the song playing loudly in his mind. He knew subconsciously that his older brother was done with monologuing and was just using the theme as background music. That…and he had to admit the vague parallel could be made between their present situation and the scene from planet Namek. Although there wouldn’t be mass destruction from Benny’s skill, it would still create one hell of a show.
As Cynrik and Brance were working to control the Wind surrounding his forming skill, Benny was ready to drop. Unlike the Jetlensr’s who had a passive skill for controlling and manipulating Mana, Benny was exerting so much effort that he felt his head was gunna burst, that is, if his Mana Codex didn’t implode from overuse. Furthermore, after pouring 400 MP into the skill, Benny was getting discouraged because it had yet to even form in the physical sense. He didn’t have a fancy eye skill like Cynrik and Brance, so all he had to rely on was a vague HUD display from his System, which only gave a rough image of the location his skill was currently at.
Benny knew time was ticking when he felt the Wind start to move around his body. By his estimate, he was already at about 90% capacity for his [Water Sphere], and if he added any more Mana, he was afraid of the consequences to himself. So making a split-second decision, summoning up the last bit of Mana in his Codex, Benny slammed his palms together, causing all of the particles collected to smash into each other and form the physical manifestation of his skill. Then, with eyes as big as saucers, Benny stared with mouth agape at the massive 10-meter ball of Water he had spent so long making before coming back too and holding both arms above his head as if he was holding the large sphere up with his own strength.
That’s when it happened.
SHULK
Both Cynrik and Brance tensed up while Gabby’s eyes started to water instantly, and she screamed loudly, breaking Brance’s concentration causing his [Vanish] to shatter, exposing them both.
Cough…
Benny felt a sharp pain worse than anything he had ever experienced in his life coming from his back and stomach, making him cough out loud. His body convulsed slightly as he looked down and saw a spear made of volcanic rock sticking out of his gut, painted in his own blood.
Benny’s eyes flashed with resolve as he saw a notification indicating he had lost 55% of his HP thanks to this spear; gritting his teeth and mustering up a final bit of strength, he slammed both his arms down. The ball of Water, receiving the command, quickly flew into the lava pool, evaporating instantly into a large wave of steam which was subsequently picked up by the powerful surging winds surrounding it.
Losing control of his body, Benny felt his legs turn to jelly and started falling forward…towards the lava.
But Cynrik was right there in an instant, catching the boy with one hand while whipping his free hand around in a circular pattern, controlling the steam cloud.
“I got you, Benny, don’t worry, you are gunna be okay, just hang in there for a sec.”
Hearing Cynrik’s voice, Benny weakly looked up at the older boy and barely formed a smile, with blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. His eyes aimlessly looked around at the mass of steam swirling around Cynrik before falling on the boy’s left hand.
Hanging on by a thread and his vision tunneling, the last thing Benny saw before he lost consciousness was the strange blue, glowing markings on Cynrik’s hand. Even with his limited perspective, Benny could tell there was something odd about the markings, and even more questions surfaced in his mind as he saw them shift color from blue to bright purple.
“W..wha…t.” Unfortunately, Benny went limp and lost consciousness before he could voice his questions.
Feeling the boy go limp in his arm, Cynrik nearly lost control of himself. Rage, loathing, fear, sorrow. All of these emotions surged through Cynrik. Then, experiencing these and seeing his friend pass out and close to death, something inside Cynrik snapped into place like a puzzle piece. He felt his Codex heat up, and a searing pain crept up from his fingertips, covering the top of his hands, and his vision blurred for a second before becoming more precise than ever.
Not needing to think about what he was experiencing, Cynrik gently placed Benny down, pulled the spear from his stomach with one movement, and then whipped out a Small Healing potion and dumped it on the boy’s body. Next, he took out another potion, took a knee, and forced it down Bennys throat, using Mana to drag it down into his stomach. He repeated this two more times until he saw the injury on Bennys stomach close up and the color return to his face.
“Ek vili drepa þú allr!” (I will kill you all!”) Cynrik spat out the words in familiar Norse while grabbing the bloodied spear off the ground and facing the village below. The entire time he was doing all of these things, his left hand never stopped controlling the surrounding Wind particles, and with Brance’s support, they had successfully dragged the steam cloud out over the village then forced it into place as the plan dictated.
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong Fam. PS Check out the Discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg