CHAPTER 253: CHAPTER 253

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I spent the next two weeks practicing my Dragon Tongue magic with Professor Sageira. At first, it was just casting alone, and when I learnt my limits, we moved on to its combat applications.

Day after day, we would duel each other with Dragon Tongue magic alone until I ran out of mana, let me rest and get some food in my system, and repeat again until I collapsed in exhaustion, my body on the brink of mana abuse.

I would be then unceremoniously thrown into my bed and do it all over again the next day.

In the spirit of doing it all over again, I once again find myself standing in the private training hall, staring down a relaxed-looking Professor Sageira, just waiting for me to make the first move.

I had my hands by my side, my fingers twitching like I was in a showdown in an old-westen. When I was done formulating a plan of attack in my mind, instead of raising my hand to attack or cast a spell, I just turned my palm to face Professor Sageira and mumbled [Light] in Dragon Tongue.

From the palm of my hand, a sudden and blinding light flashed before me. I burst into movement, and a split second later, the place I was previously standing burst into flames.

I burst out of the side of the cloud of dust that was kicked up. [Spark] I chanted and willed the first spark that manifested to multiply, forming an electrical halo above my head. I then pointed at Professor Sageira, making three of those sparks jump at her in arcs of lightning.

In all the noise, I could only see her mouth move, and a shimmer formed in the air before her. The three arcs of lightning struck the shimmering air and dissipated harmlessly.

I saw her mouth move again, and I was forced to dive and roll out of the way. When I recovered to my feet, I saw that my previous position had three gouges in the floor from what I could only assume were air blades.

If I stayed still or was too slow, I would lose. [Sturdy], [Swift] I said, chanting two separate words, both aimed at myself. I felt the mana from [Sturdy] seep into my flesh and bones, all to keep me safe from the effects of [Swift] that soon came after.

In my Dragon Tongue duels with Professor Sageira, I was not allowed to use conventional or instinctive magic aside from facilitating its use of Dragon Tongue, and I was not allowed to use aura either. That means I had to use Dragon Tongue to augment my body if I was to keep up with Professor Sageira. That led me to use the [Sturdy] and [Swift] combo to imitate the effects of aura.

[Swift], as the word implied, was to enable me to move faster beyond a normal human’s ability. And [Sturdy] was to keep my body from tearing my muscles apart while under the effect of [Swift], that was a painful lesson I would not like to learn again.

I zipped around the training hall as explosions, cracks of electricity, and the sound of sharpened wind cut the stone floor in my wake.

Failing to land a shot on me. Dragon wings sprout from Professor Sageira’s human form and started levitating as she bombarded me. This was what I had been waiting for to try a Dragon Tongue phrase, but I needed to wait for her to fly higher.

In order to encourage her to fly higher toward the ceiling of the training hall, I ran in a wider and wider circle, eventually gaining enough speed that I could run on the wall. While running on the wall, I tried to run higher than she was floating and shoot what was left of my [Spark] at her, willing them to the best of my ability to arc and strike her from above.

When she was close to the ceiling, I ran down to the ground and spoke the words I had been working on.

[World’s Weight] I said, and I felt a chunk of mana leave my body to enact my will. It felt like it was slightly more than twice the amount of mana I use for a single word.

In the Dragon Tongue lexicon, there was no word for "gravity", so I had to form it from the words I knew and will my understanding and intent into those words, and it seemed to have worked.

Professor Sageira plummeted to the ground while furiously beating her wings, but despite her efforts, she hit the ground feet first, sending out a web of cracks on the floor from where she landed. She may have lost the ability to fly, but she did not seem to have any issues standing.

As I poured more of my will into [World’s Weight], trying to bring her to her knees, she raised her hand in a clenched fist above her head and said [Flame]. Her raised fist caught fire, and she brought her fist down to the ground.

The moment her flaming fist struck the ground, a dome of raging fire rapidly expanded from her and was closing in on me at an alarming speed. I had to let go of [World’s Weight] and chant [Earth]. I was quickly swallowed by the ground, and even from a meter underground, I felt a flash of heat sweep across the upper half of my body. If I had been hit by that fire dome, I would have been dead. Is this even a spar anymore?

A few seconds later, when I thought the flame had passed, I surfaced with the help of [Earth] and had to cool my surroundings with [Cold]. But before I could make my way to the surface, something that was not affected by [Earth] blocked my way.

I gave it a few taps... is this glass? If so, that means her flames were so strong that they melted the stone floor and glassed it. I could see light refracting through from the other side, so it must not be that thick. I pulled back my gauntleted fist and punched upward, shattering the glass ceiling, and crawled my way out, only to see Professor Sageira sitting on a chair, waiting for me.

"Well done," she said, "You actually managed to ground me. In my many years of life, not many have ever done that. What was that? [World’s Weight]?"

I nodded. "Yes, there was no word for gravity in Dragon Tongue, so I made that up to use against flying targets."

"Hmm... [World’s Weight]" she said as if she were tasting the words and tasted somewhat distasteful. "Those words meet the needs of the effect, but it feels... clumsy," she said as she smacked her lips. "The other elders and I will have to come up with a better word for gravity. In the meantime, I think your performance is passable to knock some sense into a young adult dragon. Integrate Dragon Tongue into the rest of your abilities, and you should have few problems facing him. But before you retire for the day, tell me what you know of gravity."