ULTRAMagic Interval - Chapter 11
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Antares had Will ready to go early the following day as he wanted to address the Private’s magic. He could have all the ULTRAMagic in the world, but it would not do him any good if he did not know how to use it. And that was another thing too: Will was not great at magic. He was no slouch, but alchemy was a bit complex for him. In regards to his necromancy, he was incredibly lucky Faustus liked him, as Will was sloppy with his rituals. While Antares could have put together an ideal crash course for him, It was better that they focused on what Will could do rather than what he should do.
Reynard had set aside one of the training rooms for the group. It was fairly simple, capable of being used as a gym, testing center, obstacle course, or a shooting range. Being nice and spacey, it was ideal for what Antares had in mind. The captain, Adrien, and Zoltan were patiently waiting for Will and Faustus to show up.
“Ooh, a little nippy,” Faustus stated as the cool air hit him. “Alright everyone, Will is here and ready to go.”
Will yawned. “Hey guys… I mean, Captain Briggs, Sir!”
“At ease, Private. Have a seat…” Antares then stood up and cleared his throat. “Will, I’m going to be blunt about this: you’re a mess of a soldier, but you’re my mess. And it’s my responsibility to clean that mess up.”
“Uh, does this mean boot camp, Captain?”
“No, Private. Due to the escalating nature of this situation, we’re going to focus on strengthening what you can do. In this case, it’s your pyromancy through Faustus.”
Faustus happily tapped Will on the arm. “Ready to roll, sport?”
Will took a breath to steady his nerves. “I guess so…”
“Milan told me about your time at the academy, Will,” Zoltan pointed out. “It sounds like you were just as nervous back then.”
“Yeah, those memories are still hazy though… Zoltan, can I ask a quick question?”
“Go ahead.”
“How in the blue blazes did you lose track of Vlastimir?”
“Ah, easy, amigo,” Adrien interjected.
“No no, it’s alright,” Zoltan replied. “That’s a fair question. When the malignant entity that was sealed away beneath the academy was defeated by you and Vlastimir, it unleashed a desperation attack. The spell in question sent Vlastimir to the Unlight, just narrowly missing you thanks to Faustus…”
“Oh yeah, that…” Faustus felt his head, like he had gotten a headache. “A little context, kiddo: We went a little berserk when we merged to fight that demon. Thankfully I regained some of my senses just in the nick of time, long enough for us to get out of the way.”
“Thank you, Faustus…” It was a little awkward as it felt like Will had remembered that rather than actually remembering. “Who is this entity? It feels like I should know by now…”
Antares glanced over to the Zoltan. “Yeah, I’m a little curious as to why you’re being tight lipped about this.”
“Well Milan is a little antsy about this topic and I don’t blame him. It’s one of those demons, but I suppose here is a safe enough place to discuss it. The entity is a Japanese blood demon named Akaya. It had wandered over to the states from Hokkaido, with Milan sealing it away under the academy. As for why he is so nervous, legends state this demon draws power from people mentioning its name and that it leaves a trace of itself in anyone it fights with. How true this is is still being studied.”
Will lifted his head up, releasing a plume of red smoke from his neck. “Jeez, I got the heebeegeebees just hearing about it… So what did Vlastimir get up to?”
“He claims he spent 30 years as a wandering sellsword, but it was most likely 15 years” Zoltan answered. “The last couple of months he helped save the entire Cosmos.”
“You got some big shoes to fill, Champ,” Faustus said to Will.
Will groaned a little. “Faustus, he has black blood. How am I supposed to compete with that?”
“You won’t get anywhere if we keep shooting the breeze, Private,” said Antares, directing Will’s attention to some training dummies. “Have at them.”
Will hesitated at first, nervously pacing around. “Faustus, are we sure we can do this?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine…” Faustus went into Will, turning his arms red again. “We’ll take it nice and easy.”
Will expressed hazy concerns about them being merged, but Faustus assured him things were alright. They had not gone berserk yet and the current situation was nothing like the incident at the academy. Sizing up the dummies, they were fairly impressive, looking like they could take a hit or two. Will tossed a few fire balls, leaving them scorched. He was not burning up all of his energy, which was impressive, but Antares felt Will was holding back.
“I don’t know, Private. I think you could give it a little more juice…”
“I can?”
Adrien nodded. “Certainly. Bethany and Perkele aren’t going to hold back, so you shouldn’t either.”
Will gave it another try, causing the dummy to rock back by a lot. “Better?” The others were shaking their heads.
Faustus reappeared beside them. “I think I have an idea… Give me one second with Will.” He took him to the corner of the room. “What’s the matter, Will? You seem to be getting the hang of fueling your fire correctly, but you’re not putting your all into it.”
“I don’t know, Faustus. I just feel a bit off…” Will said as he averted his gaze.
“Look at me, Will…” he was still looking downwards. “In the eyes, Sport. Tell me what’s the matter.”
“I’m worried.”
“Worried about what?”
“About messing up…”
Faustus nodded, having felt he had found the problem. “I see. Kid, you can’t get hung up on the what-if’s. Sometimes you just have to go for it. I mean, okay, Akaya did cause us to go berserk at graduation. There’s no getting around that, but this time’s different.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” He then went back into Will. “Now go show that dummy what for!”
“I still don’t know, they seem kind of expensive…”
“Will, what did I just say?”
“Faustus…”
“Will, destroy that dummy or I’m telling the others you chickened out.” Interestingly Faustus seemed silent to the others.
“Hey, don’t do that!”
“Destroy the dummy then, or it’s no dessert for the next week.”
“BUT IT’S EXPENSIVE.”
“DESTROY. THE. DUMMY, BOY.”
“OKAY FINE THEN!” Will roared in frustration as he hurled a particularly strong fireball, causing the main dummy to explode. The others lept out of the way of the shrapnel just in time. Will stared at the smoldering remains of the dummy for a moment, in frustrated awe. “FAUSTUS!” he then yelled at his red, glowing fist. He knew the fire devil was being smug about it.
“Well done, Private!” Antares congratulated as he and the others applauded.
“Keep that up and those thugs won’t stand a chance!” Adrien commented.
“Ha, it looks like you guys are having a fun time” Reynard concluded as he walked up to them, avoiding the smoking pieces of dummy scattered about.
“I’m so sorry, Dr. Reynard.” Will said as he held up his hand. “This little stinker told me to do it…”
“Don’t worry about it, Will. We’re doing well on funds this month, so we can easily replace it. Plus these things tend to happen during training. You should see some of the 00 Iron boys when they really get going with their magic. Zoltan, we got into contact with Vladislav and he’s working on getting Vlad IV on the line. Would you like to sit in on this one?”
“Most certainly. What about you, Antares?”
He nodded. “Probably should tag along. Lieutenant, keep working with Will unless we need you two.”
“Sir, yes sir!” Adrien confirmed.
“Oh, Will, Vladislav says hi,” Reynard said as they were just about to leave.
“Oh, cool. Tell him I said hi back.”
Adrien figured it was best to give Will a little close quarter combat training. First he told Will to punch him. Will was a little hesitant until Faustus got on his case again. The punch was immediately grabbed and stopped. Stunned at how fast that was, Adrien explained to Will that he had spent too much time winding up. This told him exactly what he needed to know and how to block the attack. Next Will was invited to kick Adrien, but this was also stopped. Adrien had deduced what Will’s dominant side was from the punch wind up.
Will was still confused, so Adrien finally explained that in his eyes, it was all about reading people. Everyone had their quirks and tells, so one just needed to be able to pick up on them. To show Will what an ideal approach to fighting would be, Adrien began throwing punches that he would pull right before making contact. This terrified Will, causing him to eventually run across the room.
“Stop it!” Will said through scared laughter. “How do you keep doing that?”
“It’s simple…” he gave another fake punch, causing Will to flinch. “Be subtle and unpredictable. Don’t spend time winding up for a punch, just hit your opponent…” Will only slightly flinched on the next fake punch, but fell backwards when Adrien switched hands. “See? Didn’t see that one coming at all, did you?”
“Good lord, I thought you were actually going to punch me that time…”
Faustus chuckled as he helped Will up. “Take notes, Kiddo.”
“That is something else, not going to lie,” Will remarked.
Adrien laughed. “And I’m not even that good at it. You should see Satsuki. That man could go into a room full of mobsters and gangsters and not a single one of them would be able to lay a finger on him.”
After some more sparring and pyromancy practice, the two became bored and left the training room. Adrien felt Will had done well and gave him permission to go have some fun. Will then made his way to lounge AC-1, where Sam and Jackson were talking.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” Will asked.
“Heya, Boyo,” Sam replied. “I was talking with Jack about us going to the city to get some fresh air.”
“We’re still concerned about Valentin, but we should be fine if I watch you two like a hawk,” Jackson added. “Trust me, Will, the last thing we need is everyone going stir crazy right now.”
“Oh come on, I won’t go stir crazy. This place is too nice and cozy for that.”
Jackson gave him a mildly incredulous look. “Really, weatherman? Remember that brigade mission to Maine?”
Sam was surprised. “You went to Maine? How was it?”
“Pretty nice, not going to lie.” Will then turned his attention back to Jackson. “Fair enough.”
Faustus chuckled. “You should’ve seen him back at the academy. Couldn’t be bothered to do his homework, but would happily go messing around with Taro and Vlastimir.”
“I rest my case,” Jackson concluded. “Also jeez, Will; you’re just like Zoltan, you realize that, right? Both of you can’t stay still and have to get up and go do something…”
“I’m not like Zoltan…”
“Yes, you are! You just don’t want to admit it.”
Sam put her hand on Will’s shoulder. “I’m curious to know what these two have in common.”
Jackson chuckled. “They’re both nutcases who put their all into something, albeit to different degrees. Get them worked up and they’ll refuse to be told what to do too. That can also lead to them doing the thing anyway if they get frustrated enough… although Zoltan always has explosive results whereas Will just groans about it.”
Faustus laughed. “Yup, that’s Will in a nutshell. And given what he did to the training dummy…” He held up a burnt fragment of it.
“Goodness, boyo!” Sam was stunned.
“Nice,” Jackson complimented.
Will sighed. “Okay, fair enough. Truthfully I do admire Zoltan. It’s just that all those idiots online going ‘oh my gawd, he’s from Romania! He’s clearly a bad person!’ have my head all over the place.”
Jackson groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Will, ignore those morons. You need to stay off the internet for a while. Those geniuses wouldn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Zoltan is a great man and has done more for the world than those mouth breathers could ever dream of doing.”
There was a moment’s pause, so Faustus spoke up. “Back when I was working with Randalph, he told me The Iron City only has very simple computers, which always confused me… but now I’m starting to get it after seeing how Earth is acting these days.”
Jackson clapped. “They already sound leagues above Earth.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, they definitely made the right choice to keep their technology simple…”
“Well thank goodness Reynard has an ungodly amount of movies and shows to watch,” said Will. “Plus I’ve been told M.A.I.G. computers are not for browsing the internet.”
“There you go, Sport,” Faustus replied. “Clear your head a bit, relax, and focus on the fun stuff in life.”
“Well if this little incident doesn’t lead to anything, at least you guys will get a little internet detox,” Jackson noted. “Virtue signaling dingbats don’t even know what’s going on behind the scenes. I don’t even know how you guys even put up with all that nonsense.”
Next: Chapter 12
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
Antares had Will ready to go early the following day as he wanted to address the Private’s magic. He could have all the ULTRAMagic in the world, but it would not do him any good if he did not know how to use it. And that was another thing too: Will was not great at magic. He was no slouch, but alchemy was a bit complex for him. In regards to his necromancy, he was incredibly lucky Faustus liked him, as Will was sloppy with his rituals. While Antares could have put together an ideal crash course for him, It was better that they focused on what Will could do rather than what he should do.
Reynard had set aside one of the training rooms for the group. It was fairly simple, capable of being used as a gym, testing center, obstacle course, or a shooting range. Being nice and spacey, it was ideal for what Antares had in mind. The captain, Adrien, and Zoltan were patiently waiting for Will and Faustus to show up.
“Ooh, a little nippy,” Faustus stated as the cool air hit him. “Alright everyone, Will is here and ready to go.”
Will yawned. “Hey guys… I mean, Captain Briggs, Sir!”
“At ease, Private. Have a seat…” Antares then stood up and cleared his throat. “Will, I’m going to be blunt about this: you’re a mess of a soldier, but you’re my mess. And it’s my responsibility to clean that mess up.”
“Uh, does this mean boot camp, Captain?”
“No, Private. Due to the escalating nature of this situation, we’re going to focus on strengthening what you can do. In this case, it’s your pyromancy through Faustus.”
Faustus happily tapped Will on the arm. “Ready to roll, sport?”
Will took a breath to steady his nerves. “I guess so…”
“Milan told me about your time at the academy, Will,” Zoltan pointed out. “It sounds like you were just as nervous back then.”
“Yeah, those memories are still hazy though… Zoltan, can I ask a quick question?”
“Go ahead.”
“How in the blue blazes did you lose track of Vlastimir?”
“Ah, easy, amigo,” Adrien interjected.
“No no, it’s alright,” Zoltan replied. “That’s a fair question. When the malignant entity that was sealed away beneath the academy was defeated by you and Vlastimir, it unleashed a desperation attack. The spell in question sent Vlastimir to the Unlight, just narrowly missing you thanks to Faustus…”
“Oh yeah, that…” Faustus felt his head, like he had gotten a headache. “A little context, kiddo: We went a little berserk when we merged to fight that demon. Thankfully I regained some of my senses just in the nick of time, long enough for us to get out of the way.”
“Thank you, Faustus…” It was a little awkward as it felt like Will had remembered that rather than actually remembering. “Who is this entity? It feels like I should know by now…”
Antares glanced over to the Zoltan. “Yeah, I’m a little curious as to why you’re being tight lipped about this.”
“Well Milan is a little antsy about this topic and I don’t blame him. It’s one of those demons, but I suppose here is a safe enough place to discuss it. The entity is a Japanese blood demon named Akaya. It had wandered over to the states from Hokkaido, with Milan sealing it away under the academy. As for why he is so nervous, legends state this demon draws power from people mentioning its name and that it leaves a trace of itself in anyone it fights with. How true this is is still being studied.”
Will lifted his head up, releasing a plume of red smoke from his neck. “Jeez, I got the heebeegeebees just hearing about it… So what did Vlastimir get up to?”
“He claims he spent 30 years as a wandering sellsword, but it was most likely 15 years” Zoltan answered. “The last couple of months he helped save the entire Cosmos.”
“You got some big shoes to fill, Champ,” Faustus said to Will.
Will groaned a little. “Faustus, he has black blood. How am I supposed to compete with that?”
“You won’t get anywhere if we keep shooting the breeze, Private,” said Antares, directing Will’s attention to some training dummies. “Have at them.”
Will hesitated at first, nervously pacing around. “Faustus, are we sure we can do this?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine…” Faustus went into Will, turning his arms red again. “We’ll take it nice and easy.”
Will expressed hazy concerns about them being merged, but Faustus assured him things were alright. They had not gone berserk yet and the current situation was nothing like the incident at the academy. Sizing up the dummies, they were fairly impressive, looking like they could take a hit or two. Will tossed a few fire balls, leaving them scorched. He was not burning up all of his energy, which was impressive, but Antares felt Will was holding back.
“I don’t know, Private. I think you could give it a little more juice…”
“I can?”
Adrien nodded. “Certainly. Bethany and Perkele aren’t going to hold back, so you shouldn’t either.”
Will gave it another try, causing the dummy to rock back by a lot. “Better?” The others were shaking their heads.
Faustus reappeared beside them. “I think I have an idea… Give me one second with Will.” He took him to the corner of the room. “What’s the matter, Will? You seem to be getting the hang of fueling your fire correctly, but you’re not putting your all into it.”
“I don’t know, Faustus. I just feel a bit off…” Will said as he averted his gaze.
“Look at me, Will…” he was still looking downwards. “In the eyes, Sport. Tell me what’s the matter.”
“I’m worried.”
“Worried about what?”
“About messing up…”
Faustus nodded, having felt he had found the problem. “I see. Kid, you can’t get hung up on the what-if’s. Sometimes you just have to go for it. I mean, okay, Akaya did cause us to go berserk at graduation. There’s no getting around that, but this time’s different.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” He then went back into Will. “Now go show that dummy what for!”
“I still don’t know, they seem kind of expensive…”
“Will, what did I just say?”
“Faustus…”
“Will, destroy that dummy or I’m telling the others you chickened out.” Interestingly Faustus seemed silent to the others.
“Hey, don’t do that!”
“Destroy the dummy then, or it’s no dessert for the next week.”
“BUT IT’S EXPENSIVE.”
“DESTROY. THE. DUMMY, BOY.”
“OKAY FINE THEN!” Will roared in frustration as he hurled a particularly strong fireball, causing the main dummy to explode. The others lept out of the way of the shrapnel just in time. Will stared at the smoldering remains of the dummy for a moment, in frustrated awe. “FAUSTUS!” he then yelled at his red, glowing fist. He knew the fire devil was being smug about it.
“Well done, Private!” Antares congratulated as he and the others applauded.
“Keep that up and those thugs won’t stand a chance!” Adrien commented.
“Ha, it looks like you guys are having a fun time” Reynard concluded as he walked up to them, avoiding the smoking pieces of dummy scattered about.
“I’m so sorry, Dr. Reynard.” Will said as he held up his hand. “This little stinker told me to do it…”
“Don’t worry about it, Will. We’re doing well on funds this month, so we can easily replace it. Plus these things tend to happen during training. You should see some of the 00 Iron boys when they really get going with their magic. Zoltan, we got into contact with Vladislav and he’s working on getting Vlad IV on the line. Would you like to sit in on this one?”
“Most certainly. What about you, Antares?”
He nodded. “Probably should tag along. Lieutenant, keep working with Will unless we need you two.”
“Sir, yes sir!” Adrien confirmed.
“Oh, Will, Vladislav says hi,” Reynard said as they were just about to leave.
“Oh, cool. Tell him I said hi back.”
Adrien figured it was best to give Will a little close quarter combat training. First he told Will to punch him. Will was a little hesitant until Faustus got on his case again. The punch was immediately grabbed and stopped. Stunned at how fast that was, Adrien explained to Will that he had spent too much time winding up. This told him exactly what he needed to know and how to block the attack. Next Will was invited to kick Adrien, but this was also stopped. Adrien had deduced what Will’s dominant side was from the punch wind up.
Will was still confused, so Adrien finally explained that in his eyes, it was all about reading people. Everyone had their quirks and tells, so one just needed to be able to pick up on them. To show Will what an ideal approach to fighting would be, Adrien began throwing punches that he would pull right before making contact. This terrified Will, causing him to eventually run across the room.
“Stop it!” Will said through scared laughter. “How do you keep doing that?”
“It’s simple…” he gave another fake punch, causing Will to flinch. “Be subtle and unpredictable. Don’t spend time winding up for a punch, just hit your opponent…” Will only slightly flinched on the next fake punch, but fell backwards when Adrien switched hands. “See? Didn’t see that one coming at all, did you?”
“Good lord, I thought you were actually going to punch me that time…”
Faustus chuckled as he helped Will up. “Take notes, Kiddo.”
“That is something else, not going to lie,” Will remarked.
Adrien laughed. “And I’m not even that good at it. You should see Satsuki. That man could go into a room full of mobsters and gangsters and not a single one of them would be able to lay a finger on him.”
After some more sparring and pyromancy practice, the two became bored and left the training room. Adrien felt Will had done well and gave him permission to go have some fun. Will then made his way to lounge AC-1, where Sam and Jackson were talking.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” Will asked.
“Heya, Boyo,” Sam replied. “I was talking with Jack about us going to the city to get some fresh air.”
“We’re still concerned about Valentin, but we should be fine if I watch you two like a hawk,” Jackson added. “Trust me, Will, the last thing we need is everyone going stir crazy right now.”
“Oh come on, I won’t go stir crazy. This place is too nice and cozy for that.”
Jackson gave him a mildly incredulous look. “Really, weatherman? Remember that brigade mission to Maine?”
Sam was surprised. “You went to Maine? How was it?”
“Pretty nice, not going to lie.” Will then turned his attention back to Jackson. “Fair enough.”
Faustus chuckled. “You should’ve seen him back at the academy. Couldn’t be bothered to do his homework, but would happily go messing around with Taro and Vlastimir.”
“I rest my case,” Jackson concluded. “Also jeez, Will; you’re just like Zoltan, you realize that, right? Both of you can’t stay still and have to get up and go do something…”
“I’m not like Zoltan…”
“Yes, you are! You just don’t want to admit it.”
Sam put her hand on Will’s shoulder. “I’m curious to know what these two have in common.”
Jackson chuckled. “They’re both nutcases who put their all into something, albeit to different degrees. Get them worked up and they’ll refuse to be told what to do too. That can also lead to them doing the thing anyway if they get frustrated enough… although Zoltan always has explosive results whereas Will just groans about it.”
Faustus laughed. “Yup, that’s Will in a nutshell. And given what he did to the training dummy…” He held up a burnt fragment of it.
“Goodness, boyo!” Sam was stunned.
“Nice,” Jackson complimented.
Will sighed. “Okay, fair enough. Truthfully I do admire Zoltan. It’s just that all those idiots online going ‘oh my gawd, he’s from Romania! He’s clearly a bad person!’ have my head all over the place.”
Jackson groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Will, ignore those morons. You need to stay off the internet for a while. Those geniuses wouldn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Zoltan is a great man and has done more for the world than those mouth breathers could ever dream of doing.”
There was a moment’s pause, so Faustus spoke up. “Back when I was working with Randalph, he told me The Iron City only has very simple computers, which always confused me… but now I’m starting to get it after seeing how Earth is acting these days.”
Jackson clapped. “They already sound leagues above Earth.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, they definitely made the right choice to keep their technology simple…”
“Well thank goodness Reynard has an ungodly amount of movies and shows to watch,” said Will. “Plus I’ve been told M.A.I.G. computers are not for browsing the internet.”
“There you go, Sport,” Faustus replied. “Clear your head a bit, relax, and focus on the fun stuff in life.”
“Well if this little incident doesn’t lead to anything, at least you guys will get a little internet detox,” Jackson noted. “Virtue signaling dingbats don’t even know what’s going on behind the scenes. I don’t even know how you guys even put up with all that nonsense.”
Next: Chapter 12
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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