One, Thadwick was a caster with a preponderance of Magus awakening stone abilities, or at least he had been described as such. This seemed genuine, as Thad could not find a single special attack. But he was also having a hard time seeing the synergy that had to be built into the abilities.
Two, his abilities were mana-intensive… that part was accurate. Thad sat down on the floor of the facility. It didn’t help that he had barely slept since he’d arrived. Wait, had he eaten? Was there a magical reason he didn’t feel hungry? But that was a problem for another time.
“One more flashy spell, and I’m done for.”
There had to be some trick to the synergy of his abilities. He couldn’t just be a glass cannon. Well, he could, but then all of his abilities would build into that, and most had not even been built at all, like Thadwick had been avoiding them.
Thad pulled up his ability data sheet and scanned it again.
Thadwick Mercer (Thadius Shepherd)
Race: Outworlder
Current Rank: Iron
Progression to Bronze Rank: 0% (0/4 essences complete)
Attributes
[Power] (Potent): [Iron 1]
[Speed] (Lightning): [Iron 2]
[Spirit] (Storm): [Iron 2]
[Recovery] (Wind): [Iron 1]
Racial Abilities (Outworlder)
[Shockingly Familiar].
[Computation].
[Astral Affinity].
[Personal Assistant].
[File Management].
[Task System].
Essences (4/4)
Lightning [Speed] (4/5)
[Aurora of Aura] (special ability): [Iron 7]
35%
[Celestial Bolt] (spell): [Iron 4]
55%
[Lightning Dash] (special ability): [Iron 1]
20%
[Celestial Arsenal] (special ability): [Iron 1]
15%
Wind [Recovery] (3/5)
[Winds of Change] (spell): [Iron 5]
20%
[Mirror Mirage] (spell): [Iron 1]
10%
[Second Wind] (special ability): [Iron 2]
20%
Potent [Power] (3/5)
[Gravity Well] (spell): [Iron 4]
25%
[Manna Convergence] (spell): [Iron 3]
55%
[Destructive Restoration] (special ability): [Iron 2]
15%
Storm [Spirit] (4/5)
[Atmospheric Pressure] (special ability): [Iron 1]
25%
[Tempest of Worlds] (spell): [Iron 4]
55%
[Testament of the Typhoon] (Spell): [Iron 4]
15%
[Between the Raindrops] (special ability): [Iron 1]
10%
“Half of these abilities are not even about casting, but about successfully hitting a target. If I only hit one target once, I’m just wasting the energy.” Thad muttered to himself as he pulled up three of the abilities that seemed to synergize together, but not with Thadwick’s current fighting style. Two of them from the wind essence, and one of them from the potent.
Ability: [Winds of Change] (Wind)
- Spell - Special Ability (Buff/Debuff Stacking, Passive Perception)
- Base Cost: Low mana.
- Cooldown: None
- Current rank: Iron 5 (20%)
- Effect (iron): Upon activating spell weakness perception is activated and component set time is initiated based on target’s rank, target’s rank disparity is ignored upon time completion. Special ability component: Upon a successful hit, the target's resistance to subsequent attacks decreases. Passive magic perception.
Ability: [Second Wind] (Wind)
- Special Ability (Buff Stacking)
- Base Cost: Low mana.
- Cooldown: None
- Current rank: Iron 2 (20%)
- Effect (iron): Restores small amounts of stamina and mana for each successful hit landed on a target.
Ability: [Destructive Restoration] (Potent)
- Special Ability (Buff Stacking)
- Base Cost: Low mana.
- Cooldown: None
- Current rank: Iron 2 (15%)
- Effect (iron): Restores small amounts of mana and health for each successful hit landed on a target.
“The amount of mana that I would get from one of my spells landing doesn’t even touch the cost of casting it.” Thad lamented, looking over the powerful spells he packed… But wait.
What if they were just meant to be finishers? Thad stood up and walked towards the practice dummy; it was a target, so maybe.
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“I see it on the wind.”
Thad felt his mana dip slightly as he targeted the inanimate object. It lit up in several small spots, and he instinctively knew its weak points. He felt his other abilities activate as his palm struck the target, getting a minor hit of energy almost imperceptible. He struck the target again, and again, moving faster as he did so.
“Your form's terrible.”
Thad almost tripped over himself as Cassandra appeared right behind him. He hadn’t even felt her approach.
“Cass, why are you up?!”
“Oh, we’re still doing that. Well, Thad, I enjoy meditating prior to starting my day. A practice you desperately need to undertake. I mean, really though, I was barely suppressing my aura at all.”
“If only my teacher had instructed me better.”
“Oh, you're saying you need remedial lessons then? Well, seeing as this is the first time I’ve seen you in the training hall since I got back—”
Cassandra swiped Thad’s legs out from under him, sending him to the ground.
“Let's start our first lesson.”
Thalia sat in quiet meditation on top of the eastern tower as the sun started to crest over the horizon. She’d long since lost the need to sleep, and instead, she would find moments of rest in her favorite places. It was not always peaceful, but she still found it enjoyable.
However, this morning, something was amiss, something she couldn’t quite put—
“The children are fighting!”
Thalia teleported to the entrance of the training hall, ready to break up the fight, only to realize that no animosity sat in the air. Walking in, suppressing her aura to almost imperceptible, she glanced over the viewing arena and saw something she’d hoped to witness so many times before.
“Why are you trying to grapple me, Agility Thad! Your strength is speed.”
Cassandra danced around Thad as he tried to catch her in vain. After a few missed jabs, Cassandra moved in close and feinted a punch, only to hit Thad as he dodged away.
“That’s the fourth time you’ve fallen for that.”
“Third, I’m not counting the second one.”
“The only reason I changed that time is because I would’ve broken your nose.”
“Still missed.”
“So, you're saying, please break my nose, Cass?”
“Fourth.”
Both siblings looked at each other seriously for a few seconds before they started laughing.
Thalia would’ve cried if she could.
Neil listened to the steady footfalls as they ran. He didn’t care for running as an exercise, but he knew that if they were ever in a fight and he missed a spell due to him being out of breath, he would never forgive himself.
“It won’t matter once you hit Bronze Rank. Why even bother?”
Is what Thadwick had said the last time they had tried to invite him.
It did not hurt their feelings, though, since they ran outside the Mercer Estate; it was one of the few designated times they could be away from the grounds and still maintain the guise of training.
“Hey, Neil?”
“What?”
“So, can we talk about Thadwick?”
“Why do we need to talk about him right now?”
“Well, do you think he meant what he said?”
“Taking contracts? No, I think he got his pride hurt by Asano—”
“And then you.”
“Ok!”
“It’s true! You looked like you were gonna take his head off, you’re never like that. I mean you’ll sass people, but where did that come from?”
“When I saw him in the alley… He looked at me as if I didn’t mean anything to him. Like we were strangers. I’ve saved him so many times, and for him to not even think anything of me, it just got under my skin.”
“Now that you mention it… I noticed that too. What if… and this is going to sound crazy. What if it is the head—”
“I swear if you say head damage one more time this week, I’ll give you head trauma,” Neil said, but Dustin just started laughing at him as they ran.
However, while Neil had denied the idea of Thadwick's condition, because the nature of souls was to heal back to the base level, he did feel that something was off.
He would go to the church later, though he doubted the other priests and priestesses would help him with research, and he’d never been visited by the Healer before. But maybe, in a book somewhere, he could find an answer for the shift he’d seen in Thadwick.
By the time he’d finalized the plan in his mind, they had made it in front of the Mercer Training Hall.
“You know, if Thadwick is serious, are you going to apologize to him?” Dustin asked, opening the door and walking through.
“Why would I apologize to him? Wait, do you think he reported us!?”
“No, I think he reported you. I didn’t do anything.”
“Report what to whom?” Dustin and Neil froze as they realized they had walked directly up to Thalia Mercer.
“Neil did it!”
Neil’s look of betrayal was almost painful for Dustin… Almost.
“You got Thadwick and Cassandra training together again?” Thalia asked with a smile on her face.
“What?” Neil said, still shell-shocked that he was in this mess, as Thalia clasped his hand in hers.
“You have my gratitude.”
“I mean, I probably also helped,” Dustin said, receiving a look from both Neil and Thalia.
“What was that, ‘Neil did it’, Kettering?” Thalia asked with a slight smirk that sent a shiver down Dustin’s spine.
Having to see it with their own eyes, Neil and Dustin followed Thalia up to the viewing area of the arena and saw Thadwick and Cassandra actually training.
With their spar finished, Cassandra was leading Thad through several kata of the Surging Storm, and unlike all the times Neil had watched Thadwick work on them, he wasn’t arguing with her every word.
Instead, he was silent, his eyes intent on her form as he fluidly mirrored her, almost like a dancer.
Cassandra had noticed the spectators watching early in, though she hadn’t been sure exactly when their mother had first arrived. Still not wanting to lose the momentum that she was seeing with Thad, she kept that knowledge to herself. Besides, he needed to learn how to sense auras properly.
It would be next on the long list of items she needed to work on with him.
That was, of course, if he kept letting her work with him.
As they finished one of the more complex kata, she saw Thad glance up.
His face lit up at seeing their mother before he noticed his teammates, a slight grimace appearing as he made eye contact with Neil, only to look back at Cassandra immediately.
“What’s next?”
“Are we not going to talk about that look?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Then why are your ears red?”
“Cass, I don’t want to talk about Neil.”
“So, something did happen.” … And with Neil, Cassandra noted to herself.
“I think I may be done for the—”
“Nope, not till you master the last one, let’s take it from the top.” Cassandra immediately stopped pushing, refusing to lose the progress they’d made.
She would interrogate Davone later.
It's definitely not a plot twist chapter like the last one, but we need to lay down the ground work for setting up the contracts ect. The boy needs to learn how to fight, and he doesn't have the grace that Jason did with working into his abilities slowly.
Favored Soul Sorcerer/ combo. I just think the combo is going to have some real fun synergy together.
However based on the HWFWM class system he is going to be a Guardian.