Don't Fear Of Darkness

Today looked like the previous day. Edmund again told me to shoot the mannequins, but since I knew how to do it, it did not go so laboriously. Most of the spells hit the puppets, so the master increased the distance. After several attempts I managed to hit again. The next two bullets also hit, and Edmund nodded in satisfaction.

"I see that the distance is no longer a problem, so we will start raising the bar."

From now on I had to shoot for moving targets. The master cast a Tornado spell on the mannequins and manipulated their movement.

"The first most difficult thing in attacking moving targets is to predict their movements. The greater the distance, the greater the chance that the opponent will dodge. This rule applies to both spells and ordinary weapons, although in my opinion it is easier to train the latter, because it does not require your power, and the missile always flies with the same speed in a straight line. So try to hit.

It was a horror movie. The mannequins did not move too fast, but when I was close to hit they were suddenly dodging. One even made a barrel in the air, which is not possible for a man, but Edmund said:

"For a ordinary man maybe and not, but for a trained magician it is a cliché. After that, if the spell is too slow, even an ordinary person will easily avoid it, so while fighting at a distance, focus on speed. One weak, but accurate spell is much better than a powerful, but misguided spell. And after all, you do not have to use only one ball at a time, you know? The amount is also important. "

I looked at him surprised.

(Why did not I think about this before?)

A fireball appeared in my hand, but instead of throwing it, I tried to create another one next to it. I succeeded, but it required more concentration. I focused harder and created the third sphere, but I felt it was my limit. I sent all three at once to one doll. She avoided the first by throwing herself to the left, second avoid, by falling to the ground. The third also passed.

"It was quite close, but still a lot of science before-" Edmund stopped, because he saw that the last bullet suddenly turned, hitting the mannequin side of the head.

He stared at me, then laughed.

"Well, you managed to fool me, and this is progress"

Edmund has mentioned to me earlier that if affinity with a given element is high enough, you can manipulate the element much better. The problem was that it required a lot of concentration from me, so it would be hard to use it in combat.

"And now the next challenge. Come with me."

We returned to the first place from which I fired.

The master approached the mannequins. A golden light emerged from his hand, which began to form a force field around them.

"Now try to break through them."

I created three more balls of fire and hit the mannequin, but nothing came of it. In spite of the next few attempts, the energy shield only waved a bit, but it did not have much impact on it.

I felt fatigue all over my body again and barely stood on my feet. I was furious because I used up all my strength and the shield was intact.

"Hard, what?"

I did not have the strength to answer, so I only gave a slight nod.

Edmund raised both his hands. On each of them appeared an identical ice spike.

"Do you see any differences in them?"

Just when I had to deny I saw that the ice in his left hand was shining more brightly than in the right. In addition, the music was a bit louder.

"The one in your left is stronger."

"Excellently!"

He fired a spike from his right hand, but the effect did not differ from my attempts. But the attack on my left hand completely destroyed me. The ice pierced through the shield and drove straight into the puppet. The whole turned into an ice sculpture. I opened my eyes wide at the sight.

"What you've seen here is the so-called Compression. Collecting large amounts of magic in a small form, which gives a powerful punch, but doing it takes a lot of energy, some of which is lost in the compression process itself, so it's better to use it rarely. "

He took out his gun.

"These runes allow me to use compression right away without wasting time and magic. This trick is difficult to control in peace, let alone in the heat of battle. That's why from tomorrow you'll be practicing to achieve compression, but do not overdo it, because if it explode into your face, you really will not need a mask to scare people.