CHAPTER 28: A TRUE MAGE’S BATTLE

Ezekiel immediately made the choice to add the 6 attribute points to his Constitution, allowing the familiar feeling to pervade his body and seep into his cells. The mechanic squeezed his fist, noting the increase in power the enhancement had granted—though not as efficient as if he had added to his Strength attribute directly.

He didn’t regret his choice though. By now, he had realized that he needed a much stronger body to deal with the strain of his equipment. ’Strength and Agility can be put aside for now, my creations will take care of increasing both for me, I’ll have to focus more on Constitution, Intelligence and Perception.’

His hands didn’t stop while his thoughts raced, equipped in a gauntlet that possessed multiple tubes that stored mini Psion batteries. The gauntlet’s fingers released a thin red laser that traced his battered Battlesuit, occasionally switching components and becoming a tiny screw that replaced damaged components of the suits with spare ones.

It wouldn’t completely fix the suits, but it at least made them battle ready for the time being. He would need to bring his work station out for that.

Anna watched on with increasing curiosity as she watched the teenage boy perform his weird method of forging without even bringing out a forging table or manifesting any flames. Finally, she couldn’t stop herself from walking forward and crouching beside him wishing to ask about his unfamiliar methods of forging before realizing that she didn’t know his name.

She had heard the ones named Vahn and Yuri, but they had called him "Ez", which was obviously a nickname. And she wasn’t close enough to call him by such a name. So she could only muster up the courage to ask directly. "If I may, can I get to know my savior’s name?"

Ezekiel cringed upon hearing that word, his lips twitching as he turned to look at her while his hands kept on moving, not stopping despite leaving his sights. "I’m not really a savior. It was more of a deal really. And my name is Ezekiel."

She nodded, making sure to commit his name to memory before finally asking her question. "Your armor is quite... unique. Is that... a new forging technique you invented?"

The mechanic nodded, not bothering to hide that fact. "You could say so. You should have noticed by now that my machines don’t use mana at all. It’s a new forging legacy I plan to complete."

He held no qualms telling her such a fact about his machines. After all, anybody with decent mana talent would be able to sense the unique energy his Battlesuits consumed to operate and could instantly tell that it wasn’t the mana they were all used to.

"Eh?" Anna gasped in surprise as she heard his words. She hadn’t been able to sense such because she had been so flustered by Hanses’ chase earlier, not sparing a single moment to focus on the oddities of Ezekiel’s machineries. "Is there such a powerful force that can produce such strength?" A flash of realization then occurred within her eyes as she stared down at the three dismantled Battlesuits and asked. "Can... can the armors be mass produced."

"Of course not." Having anticipated such a question, Ezekiel immediately answered. "The suits have to be tailor made from a very young age of the individual using it and must also be made using the top tier metals that can’t be found anywhere. Not to mention how to build the energy sources. My current limit are these three suits and the spare within my Dimensional ring."

Of course, most of those were lies. His Battlesuits indeed needed top tier metals, but they could still be produced with lesser tier metals, as long as it was strong enough to handle the Psion conduits that would run through its system.

Ezekiel had his reasons for saying such. He wanted to grow in strength before he would begin disseminating and selling his inventions across the kingdom. As for why he told Anna in the first place, it was to place the intent of buying his equipment when he finally possessed the ’capability’ of mass producing it.

The mechanic soon focused his gaze back on his machinery, making sure to double check his rough fixing before moving on to the next problem. Seeing as the hard part of his repairs were over, he decided it was okay for him to check on the battle above.

***

Meanwhile, by now Watson and Hanses were ready. They had spent the last few minutes preparing the various spells they would use.

Innate skill – Spell Storage

This was an innate skill all qualified mages were required to learn, whether rogue or part of a house or academy.

It allowed a mage to store the elemental structure needed for a spell after its chant into their aura, keeping it at the ready to throw at any moment, they would only have to chant the last part of their spell to immediately activate it, instead of waiting for the long casting period before releasing their spells.

This countered one of the disadvantages Mages had on battlefields, which was their long casting time. With such an innate skill, they could store their spells and release it whenever, allowing them to deal with even close combatants.

Of course, there were cons to the Innate skill. The first was that, using Spell Storage increased the mana needed for the spell originally by about two times. The second was the requirement to have to speak the last part of the chant out loud, regardless of whether one had learnt Silent Casting innate skill or not.

After all, by storing the spell, Mages were hiding it from the world, they would have to say the chant out loud so as to re-register their spell within the world.

The third disadvantage was that the spells stored couldn’t be kept for long without losing their powers. Even top tier understanding of the innate skill would only allow Mages to store their spells for about 20 minutes.

Hanses was deliberately waiting to make a move so as to force the butler to lose his stored spell, if he had any which he had stored from before even meeting up with the mercenary.

He launched his first attack the moment he felt 12 minutes had passed. "Vulcan Shield!"

With his chant, a wave of flames suddenly burst out from around him, swirling before condensing to form a scarlet revolving shield that aimed to protect him from harm. Watson also did the same, casting a cyclone shield around his figure.

Their actions made Ezekiel nod in understanding. The both were Mages after all, their physical frailty was as clear as day to them just as it was to their opponent.

To him the battle only began when Hanses waved a finger and pointed at Watson’s figure, the ring on his index finger shining brightly while a fiery snake left the mercenary’s arm.

He had missed the battle between his parents and the Blood Rose men. So this would truly be the first time he witnessed a true mage’s battle.