Cohen of the Rebellion

Translated by Tianic, edited by Grammarly

I put on my casual wear, sheathed my black machete and exited the chamber.

"Sir." They were Malphite and a few guards. My captain's vigilant visions shielded me.

"Hey, I'll be in the garden. Fetch more good IGTs for me."

I stretched my body before 10 IGTs who are best at melee wrestling. All of them have survived from the dead-man-piled battleground. I could at most fight 2 of them at the same time from my past experiences.

An elf mage was here as well.

Elves, hidden in the darkness, hear my call. Spread your wings and protect me, block all light, shield all sound…

Before she performed her duty, I went ahead and cast this spell from the Elf's Note which I could never be able to release before tonight.

Sensory Barrier

A thin sphere took place and enlarged, ripples formed and undulated on the surface. The sphere shrouded an area centering me at a radius of 30 arms-length.

I did it! I actually did it!

The elf beside put on a smile and lowered the wand below her chest.

"Your Excellency, congratulations. You're finally capable of casting mid-level spells." She sincerely celebrated. I knew her from the elf's colony forest when I was learning elf's magic. She was in charge of teaching me wind magic so she was too aware of how little I can do.

"Too shame it's a private garden or I'm very willing to break something."

"Sir, do you intend to do a tryout?" She approached, "There's no need to break anything. I have a trick to test your magic attainment."

"You got my attention."

"A game." She moved 2 arms-length further and reached her right hand, "An elfin game."

"There's no need to chant charms, the competition depends on our mana reserve."

"Compete for what?"

"This." Her fingertip gleamed blue light. Seconds later, many dots of water converged over our heads and formed a liquid ball the size of a fist, "If you cannot gain control of this water ball spell, it'll soak you wet."

"What should I do." I quickly mimicked her move and reached out my right hand, "Is it going to hurt?"

"It's just ordinary water, it'll never hurt anyone." The blue light maintained, "It's not a spell to release or summon, all I did was to extract water element floating in the space around us. If your mana is strong, you’ll be able to capture the control of this water ball. All you need to do is to attract the ball with the mana you have."

"I see." As the past magic lessons emerged in my memory, I started accumulating mana, soon, blue light gleamed in my fingertips as well.

"Compress the mana, the more intense, the better." She guided, now there was no light on her fingertips, "Blue finger means your mana is leaking, and leaking mana does not attract anything."

I refocused and saw my blue light went out. The floating water ball started moving towards me.

"You've learned fast." She chuckled, "Now, focus, the competition begins now."

She flipped her right hand to face the water ball with her palm and instantly, the ball altered direction and began floating towards her.

(No! Come back!)

"Whenever the water ball is close enough to my palm, I gain total control of it."

She could actually talk freely while doing magic.

"By that time, sir, you'll have to get changed."

"Not… really… my… plan!" I squeezed out four words while sending more mana to my fingers. It was so hard because I have to accumulate mana while compressing it.

"The game requires excellent magic skills and outstanding mana to win."

(Gosh, she is teasing me at the same time.)

"And the fun part of this game is, if we can't do well in attracting it, the ball will grow larger, and larger."

"I don't buy it." I calmed myself, flipped my hand, tried harder to fight for the ball.

As I infused more mana, the ball slowed and finally floated towards me.

"See? This young lord can do magic!" I was overjoyed.

"Sir, you did well." She gazed at me, "But this is not enough to defeat me."

Her fingers arched and the godforsaken ball abandoned me.

"Baby, don't run away!" I yelled on the inside. I forced nearly all of my mana, "Come back!"

"Sir, that's approximately all of your mana. But I still have plenty." She chuckled, "Your last resort is to try your best and compress it."

(Man, I'm her boss. Why can't she at least give me the win? Ugh, she knows I'm sweating! No way, the ball is almost reaching her fingertip!)

"Sir, you're losing…"

"I am not!" I said nothing but cheered myself secretly, "I admit you're an elf who can do magic, but this young lord never back off!"

As my mana came near a depletion, a sense of energy resembled mana popped out. Though it was only a little, it's accumulating. How familiar, this energy. A second later, I came to remember it was the energy I devoured in space when I was without a physical body!

(If I add it to my mana, will it cause an explosion? Hell, I don't care. These two forms of energy have been coexisting for so long and nothing happened. Alright, show me something!)

Carefully, I injected a tiny bit of space-energy into my fingers.

(Ughhhhhh, it stings!)

"Crack!" A very weak noise came from my palm, then the water ball started floating towards me with twice the speed.

A hint of bewilderment flashed in the elf's eyes. Then a glint of blue light came and went quickly, the ball stopped inches from my fingers and began backing up. She frowned.

(You can't!)

I added more space-energy to turn the table. I put in very little because every time I touched the space-energy, it stung my fingers.

The light-blue ball stopped moving and began self-spinning in the middle air.

"Crack!" Weak noise happened again.

"Sir…" In a situation like this, the elf was not easy herself, "Let's call it a tie."

I nodded repeatedly because I felt like a thousand needles were piercing my hand.

"Let’s release our mana." She guided, "We must do it together. On the count of 3."

Hence we pointed our right hands towards the sky. She barely counted to 3, we emptied our mana in our hands.

I looked up and saw 2 beams of blue light shot to the vast night sky. One of them, pure blue, dissipated very soon, and mine did not lose form until it disappeared in my eyesight.

And the water-ball splashed by our feet.

"That's so odd." I observed my palm, there was no bruise, not even a red dot, despite all the pain earlier.

"Apologies, sir." She looked exhausted, "I did not expect that outcome."

"Don't worry." I offered a smile, "It's just a game. But this barrier has to be re-released."

"I will handle it." said the elf, "Sir, I assume you still want to do tryout with other men."

"I do. By the way, how was I?"

"Sir, your…" she pondered, "your mana is peculiar in both quantity and quality, but you're a qualified mage magician without question."

"Thank you for your instructions." I was thrilled. For years, my mana had kept me on the level of mage apprentice. My jealousy never went away whenever I saw someone cast mid to high-level spells.

Only after the elf released the sensory barrier and left did I noticed Malphite and the rest of the IGTs gazed at me with utter worship.

"What's with you guys?"

"Magnificent, sir!" A wingman officer said, "Though you called a tie with that elf, we all saw she's completely exhausted and sir you are still full of energy!"

"Is that so?" I rubbed my jaw, "Okay, now, fight me. One by one, let's warm-up!"

"Excellent!" An officer stepped up, "I'll be the first, sir."

He was an orc who was way higher than me, arms longer, body stronger.

However, his movement was too slow for me

Even before he readied his position, my tentative attack bumped into his lower belly. The orc grunted and fell. I got worried and caught his body. Not only did I make there fast enough, but also successfully lifted his weight.

"Are you alright?"

He supported his body, took a deep breath then made a thumbs-up to me.

"More together." I hinted the rest.

Malphite brought a few more to attack together.

I coordinated my speed and strength and went for them. After a few rounds, all of them were brought down by me, even Malphite. I was able to break in his defense with one punch and forced him to backstep several inches. To me, their movements have become extremely slow. Of course, that was impossible. It was I, I've become faster.

"That's it, sir. Your speed and force have progressed greatly!" said Malphite, "If you were armed, we won't last a strike."

"Well, let's see…"

"Sir, we can't." the orc said, "Her ladies have forbidden us to do armed training combat with you. His Majesty agrees."

"Damn it." Though still wanted more, I knew Malphite was a stubborn orc. He'll never disobey mine and Fischer's orders.

I had to abandon. However, I was very satisfied with tonight’s achievements.

Back to my chamber, Molly and Kaylee were still expecting my return. Seeing that I was sweating, they hurried to get up and attended my bathe.

I was reminded that I scared them earlier, that required some make-up for.

Therefore I didn't gain much sleep that night.