A brief memory from the past.
In a grand room made from polished wood, a young boy with black hair like a pool of spilt oil, was tested on his knowledge by a masked man.
He spoke in a controlled voice, educated and amazingly well even for his age, which was strongly suggested by the way he sat in a brown leather armchair that swallowed his posture whole.
"Mana exists in every form of life, it is a thing that imprints itself on everyone and everything.
It is the proof of your existence.
It is the stamp of actualisation from the universe itself.
Affinity is therefore the legislation of this world.
It is a sorting house that decides identity.
Strongly influencing what your mana's law is."
…
Core move - Lightning Cloak
Adrian grit his teeth, a rotten scowl devouring his features as he bared teeth at the Hydra across from him.
Sparks surged in a rapid and instinctive configuration around his body.
The light-blue arcs came and went in this ever-changing formation as Adrian willed a sea of midnight mist from his aperture, toward the atmosphere, after rearranging the mist's structure.
He twisted the mana, configuring its vibration telepathically into a series of jagged lines within an instant.
This spark of blue around him, was still made from his mana, he brought it out into the world and could manipulate it to his will with an instinctive set of skills.
Using this mechanic, he instructed the lightning to arrange itself sporadically over his body.
This was Adrian's core move.
A core move was a very specific use of one's magic that a mage developed through their own practice and experience.
Examples of core moves could be like the Keeper's ability to teleport or the water ball move Julius previously faced in the cafeteria.
These were all purposeful moves created through a person's development, it was the result of sheer perseverance and accumulated experience with their respective magic.
Some were stronger than others, which could be easily estimated by the rank of the magic type used.
Lightning magic was a rank six magic type, any core move would most likely be stronger than a move made using a magic type with a rank beneath it.
Not every move was designed for combat, though lightning cloak definitely was.
With the lightning cloak, Adrian could now move almost as fast as lightning.
Yet somehow the flickering coat of lightning never even tickled his skin?
An affinity affects an entire person, if it runs through their genes then naturally this will affect their DNA.
Affinity could therefore be inherited, the same way a kitten takes on the colour of its parents' fur, or the way Demi-gods inherited certain physical powers, magic affinity could also be inherited.
Adrian's affinity, was lightning, a birthright he obtained from his father.
The lightning created by his own mana could recognise the blueprint imprinted on Adrian's body, as if lightning had met with another strand of lightning.
Thus, Adrian could use this compatibility to "travel on the lightning."
Though of course, Adrian was still flesh and bone, he could not move completely at the speed of lightning, only borrowing a very generous handful of its power.
Affinity worked in mysterious ways with its user, though this example of compatibility was one of the most commonly seen.
This was exactly why, when Adrian fought Julius, he fell for Julius's "fireball" fluke.
A fire magic user, would not use such a spell at close range, because without a fire affinity, the user would risk harming themselves with their own spell.
This is also why fire magic wasn't practised so commonly, because as powerful and as low of a rank as it was, its mastery was more limited without an affinity compared to most.
Thus when Adrian heard Julius's feint, he instantly believed it, he had heard that Julius's affinity was fire through small comments he caught throughout the day.
This created a deep-rooted bias within the boy's mind, and when paired with such a specific circumstance, made Adrian unconsciously believe such a bold fluke in the moment.
Not to mention, at the time, Julius had disabled Adrian's lightning through the use of an artefact, which made Adrian slightly more defensive without the use of his trumpet card.
Unfortunately, Julius broke this artefact during their fight.
Julius using such an underhanded tactic like this, worked precisely off the point of seeing through his enemy's actions and thoughts.
Such a tactic wouldn't have worked so well without hinging on creating this assumption within a person, as if it were planned from the beginning…
However, Adrian hadn't even pondered a single thought of that.
In this moment he had much bigger concerns.
The use of his core move was largely the result of his affinity, making his use of lightning magic almost entirely instinctive, meaning there was not too much thought in that aspect either.
Instead, his eyes were charged with static, bright Tiffany blue eyes shading a deeper, darker blue.
His gaze pointed toward the creature across from him, what Adrian saw as stubbed feet in the fire, in the clear opening he could now see were actually four legs of five claws like black whips fixed in mid air.
The tips of each claw scraped through the ground now, making the ground look as soft as butter.
The creature was now preparing a frontal assault as one of the three heads huffed bloodlusted steam.
The opening was silent for a long while as the ends exchanged tense gazes.
In the middle, to the side of the opening, a plume of smoke wafted into the air and above the trees surrounding the space.
"Ah! You must be the poor junior who rattled that lump of molten." The dead Saytrs' warmth, and his old withered cackle, rekindled in Adrian's mind.
BANG
Without warning, Adrian shot off like a rocket, blurring across the open space in a second.
The Hydra, reacting off instinct, burst forward before Adrian could completely close off any of its moving space.
However, after Adrian had already taken more than three-quarters of the space on the strip for the Hydra to move, the beast couldn't run enough in its short space to generate any serious momentum.
CRASH
The two struck into each other, Adrian's fierce burst of speed versus the Hydra's sheer strength.
Adrian failed in moving the black lump, bouncing back a step from his own force.
Meanwhile, the Hydra didn't budge an inch, already on its front feet as three red-eyed heads lunged with open jaws toward Adrian.
Though how could they equal Adrian Zephyr's speed?
Adrian recovered, darting between heads one impossibly-fast sidestep after another.
One head swept past him like a black pillar thrown through the air by a giant.
Another swung over his head like an obsidian scythe, sweeping clean through the air over the boy as Adrian ducked.
In a low crouch, static clinging to his frame, he sat in a low squat out of harms away for just a moment.
Until the last head swept under, jaws wide like a bear trap thrown across the floor.
Adrian pushed off the ground, leaping up in a blitz of speed as he flew into the air above the Hydra's back.
Adrian looked down and watched the last head shoot horizontally across the floor, biting empty air, though it seemingly had a blue spark caught between its teeth.
Adrian continued another metre through the air, past all three heads until he was above the monster.
The monster's back had the shape of a turtle shell, with a collection of thick black scales on top of it, as an obsidian mountain stood on its back.
Adrian wasted no time, already cocked a fist over his shoulder.
The next moment, using his falling momentum, and the speed of his lightning around his arm, he shot his fist forward.
BOOM!
Adrian's fist thudded against the scales, staggering the creature as it felt a dull impact wobble it.
If it were Julius who took that blow, there wouldn't even be anything left of him to recognise him.
However, the mighty blow still wasn't enough to even dent the scales, immediately giving time for the three heads to face Adrian and lunge at him.
One by one, as he landed on its back, Adrian avoided each head again.
Two heads shot straight toward Adrian, though their lack of coordination made them bump heads at the last moment, helping to avert their path from Adrian and toward Air.
The third head, being the last to attack previously, had a delay before if attacked, but this turned out to be advantageous for it.
Adrian had already moved to avoid the first two heads, though their clumsy miss actually hindered Adrian's evasion, making him land awkwardly.
The third head bolted toward Adrian, lunging for his legs as he landed.
Though Adrian was still faster, even with a delay, he could leap over the third head, sliding along its neck like the hood of a car.
Adrian slid off, landing back in the centre of the monster's back, his own back turned from the third head that he didn't notice the creature snagging another spark between its teeth.
Adrian acted fast, swinging shoulder to shoulder with the speed of a motor blade, throwing a heavy barrage of punches.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Under Adrian's heavy assault, the monster's back began to show mild, insignificant cracks in the scales.
Adrian's expression tightened with frustration, the impulsive burning along his arms, making him swing even more wildly.
"Hydie won't hurt 'cha." The caretaker's words resounded in his mind as he cocked his shoulder back.
"RRRR!" He growled in a strained breath through gritted teeth, swinging his arm back down until his fist met with an earth-shattering explosion.
BOOM! BOOM!
Though no matter how much Adrian wailed on the beast, he couldn't produce enough of a devastating result to wound it.
Then the three heads once again made their move.
Adrian pounced back to avoid another straight lunge, this time barely avoiding the narrow jaws of death.
The heads were now suddenly flying so fast compared to earlier, Adrian felt that he had to focus all his attention on evading now, compared to the last two rounds.
In fact, he was so focused, that he hadn't noticed each time he narrowly evaded, the Hydras caught more and more sparks between their jaws.
Until the third head finally struck again, Adrian was already halfway through evading the second head.
His body was pulled sharply back, the attacks were now too fast for Adrian to the point he had to throw his body weight desperately back.
He didn't have the footing to push himself in another direction, not while his body was already falling back.
The third beast opened its jaws, lunging ahead toward Adrian.
Like a black serpent the size of a pillar, static clinging to its razor teeth like victory was already surging within its reach.
End of chapter 30