Chương 48: 48-limit

From that wellspring of energy burning within, a tiny thread of power is drawn from the mass and pulled in a direction that does not exist in three dimensions, closer to Tanya as she begins running through the set of equations she'd found to have the most efficient conversion ratio to psychic energy. From there, she normally begins laying more equations onto this modified energy, now tinged purple with its change in form, but this morning she doesn't.

Instead, she allows it to pool, shaping and compressing the undirected power as much as possible in her mind. As the power grows inside of her, it begins getting large enough that wisps of wasted energy begin to emit from her body, dissipating into the surrounding air and tinging it purple.

At the marker of where her perfect control ends, Tayna holds back on her first instinct to fire the attack or let it dissipate before trying again, instead allowing the power to build further until she can feel her own inexperience in controlling this form of attack preventing it from growing any larger. Once that attack is loosed, it fires from the center of her chest at the speed of a bullet, a violent pink tracer burning into her vision as it smashes into a nearby rock.

After the dust clears, Tanya carefully makes note of the absence of a rock, then turns her attention back inward to begin drawing power for another attack. She'd like to say that she would have figured this out on her own, and that is very likely true, but that assumption is based on the fact that she would have eventually seen someone else perform the move psychic and seen its potential. Discovering it on her own?

The idea is highly unlikely, as the method of getting here runs counter to everything she'd been attempting to do. With a bit of introspection, Taya had realized her insistence on minimizing energy waste was, while a logical decision in its own right, influenced by one of the lessons in the Aerial Mage corps that seems to no longer apply.

In the air and fighting among a unit, one of the first things a mage was taught to look out for is heightened energy signatures, because an enemy combatant burning that much energy means they're either unskilled enough to be an easy kill or powerful enough that they need to be taken out before they have the chance to put their superior aptitude to use.

As a consequence, the bedrock of every lesson both in and out of the battlefield was to minimize mana waste in every spell, to hide amongst a crowd of seemingly identical mages until the enemy commits, giving the more powerful mages the opportunity to attack on an out of position enemy. That idea could work here, even in one on one engagements controlling information is a key skill. But… The 'mon looks at Amelia as she finishes tying the last of her kit onto her bag and throwing it over her shoulders.

Tanya is not an Aerial Mage, and while it's helped her a great deal, the empire's doctrine on the art of war was never perfect, and no one said it was ubiquitous. Looking down at her own bag, the 'mon allows the building attack to dissipate then picks up her own kit and walks toward her partner. Amelia smiles as she looks up from her buckles.

"You ready? We have enough water?" Tanya nods as she gathers another ball of psychic energy.

"I filled the purifier yesterday morning. As long as we make Lavaridge on schedule we'll have no troubles." The trainer hums an affirmative, and with that they get underway, walking toward the other side of the plateau where two metal trail markers sit hammered into the stone. Stretching an arm over her head and leaning to the side as she walks, the trainer looks over to Taillow where he's dozing on a nearby rock and gives a sharp whistle.

"Up and at 'em sleepyhead!" She calls, holding out her forearm and indicating for the bird to fly over.

"Let's set your training goals!" At the command, Taillow opens his eyes, pauses to stretch his wings, then flutters over, landing on the offered forearm as Amelia pulls out her notebook. Tanya's eyes linger on the book as her partner turns the pages. This morning, over breakfast, Amelia had continued their conversation from last night, organizing her list into several tangible action items for Tanya to test and assess. It took a great deal of mental self control to take the suggestions at face value.

Despite consciously choosing to keep an open mind, she's still catching herself midway through dismissing her partner's thoughts or qualifying them as being incorrect before trying to pick the suggestions apart for any information she can actually use. As Amelia had –inadverantly– said, Tanya's not an Aerial Mage anymore, and no matter how much she…

questions her partner's theory of 'just stand there, get hit, then hit back as hard as possible,' there's simply no way to know it's a bad idea until the theory is tested. It does not escape her that this new 'doctrine' is simply verbalizing what happens every time Tanya loses battlefield control, which could mean either it's the most natural way for her to fight and thus the most effective for her physiology, or it's a sign of a failure of doctrine, and thus training it is attempting to win by failing.

Or, more likely, some middle ground between the two that must be found and honed. But the consequences for failure are almost null, and if it turns out to be a bad idea she'll end up with an excellent idea of how much punishment this body can actually take. Which is something she… intellectually understands is much greater than any time before but on reflection realizes she doesn't have an intuitive feel for.

She's brought out of her musing when Amelia closes her book with a snap and lightly tosses Taillow into the air.

"You got this!" The trainer calls as the 'mon flaps his wings and begins a tight corkscrew upward.

"Get warmed up and remember to keep yourself a bit higher up for the next few minutes!" Taillow doesn't respond, merely tightening his corkscrew and beating his wings harder to climb faster. His skill in flying has improved drastically. In under a month the 'mon has gone from a clumsy novice, just fast enough to be a hazard for himself, to a bird capable of flying with a downright passable understanding of the fundamentals of flying and managing the energy war.

Tanya's eyes track the 'mon as he shrinks to a tiny speck in the sky and levels out, assessing his speed to determine how well he transferred energy from one maneuver to another.

Of course, passable in the fundamentals only means he's just gotten good enough to begin learning the absolute basics of combat maneuver, and while many aspects of how he flies and fights make her mage training useless, she can clearly see that almost everything related to positioning and tempo control is just as here as it was in the past.

Even if optimal attack vectors are different, and the majority of opponents are ground targets, keeping speed in a turn and an understanding of unpredictable flying is simply a matter of physics. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Amelia clears her throat.

"So… I was thinking we could try a… uh.. a benchmark? For you?" She says in the tone of a question. Tanya glances at her.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Oh! Uh…" Her partner stutters.

"I was thinking we would figure out what your limits are on energy output, and the edges of your gravity zone have this kinda… sheen on it, so you just start a gravity centered on yourself and keep expanding it until you can't keep up with the drain." Tanya tilts her head as she considers the idea, then nods before gathering power and slowly setting up the simplified equations for a self-centered gravity.

"Understood." She responds, focusing on pulling a larger and larger thread of energy from her core and plugging it into the equation.

"In the top pocket of my bag, I've got an uncut hundred metre spool of rope, we might be able to use that and get a more accurate estimate on the radius." Amelia hums before reaching over and unzipping the pocket.

"Good idea." She pulls out the rope and rezips the pocket.

"Ready?" Tanya doesn't respond, instead closing her eyes, focusing, and bracing herself before shoving as much energy as she possibly can into th– It's like picking up a bucket, expecting it to be full of water, only to find it empty. The 'mon's eyes open wide in shock, releasing a tiny gasp as a vaguely purple sheen on reality explodes out of her, excess energy tinging the entire world in a dimmer version of the same shade.

Energy flows through Tanya like she's pressing an entire river through a drinking straw, but the power in her core only presses harder to shove more energy through and make the channel even wider. In the end it's not her being unable to increase the flow of power that forces her to stop, it's her inability to keep control should it become any more violent, and with great effort she clamps down on the flow of power, choking it where it stands and presumably bringing the expansion to a halt.

Amelia grunts as she wobbles next to her partner, struggling to stay on her feet. A moment later she's forced to make a controlled collapse into Tanya's bulk, leaning against the 'mon and taking deliberate breaths, the coil of rope left lying on the rock.

"Could you…" She puffs.

"Could you turn down the intensity a bit?" Tanya blinks, focusing her eyes and pressing her lips together as she carefully tries to force this almost uncontrolled flow of power to obey. As she does, she notices for the first time the feeling that she's draining energy faster than it can be refilled.

That thought, distracting even the smallest iota of mental energy from keeping this power under control, almost shatters the move into undirected raw force, but she barely manages to pull it back, forgetting to breathe for several seconds as everything is tasked to this single objective. After a few moments the strength of gravity lessens by half and Amelia rises to her feet again. With that newfound freedom, she stands tall, swiveling her head in all directions looking for the edge of the affected zone.

"... do you remember where the binoculars are?" She asks faintly, but before Tanya even spare the mental processing to actually hear the words, let alone respond, there's the faint sound of rumbling from somewhere in front of them. As the rumbling grows louder, her eyes lock onto a mass of shifting colors, and quickly conclude it's a landslide from an adjacent hillside, a little less than a kilometer away. There's a pause.

"... Was that us?" Amelia asks nervously.

"Could you cut it?" She asks, breathing easier as Tanya complies and her weight is no longer amplified. The 'mon tilts her head to properly think about the question with her now unburdened mental processing, flashing through some basic calculations before she shakes her head no.

"Compared to my five metre gravity, a zone strong enough to reach that far would require almost two hundred thousand times more energy if we assume identical efficiency. I'm being significantly more wasteful right now. So it's highly unlikely." Amelia hesitantly nods after another moment.

"Right. That's silly." She says, then gently pats her partner on the back.

"Thanks anyways. I don't think we'd be able to get an accurate measure from that either." The 'mon has to agree, and as they get to the edge of the plateau and begin to descend the steep switchback heading down to the valley below any conversation is discarded as they're forced to focus on the slightly treacherous descent.

Shortly after they start going down, a thoroughly winded looking Taillow flutters to the minimum safe height and flops onto the ground in front of them and pants for breath for a few moments, then lifting his head just enough to glare at the two of them.

"Why would you do that!?" He shouts, prompting a confused look from Amelia.

"W–""'Just fly a bit higher' you say! Then you hit me with like fifty times gravity! Why!?" He screams, slowly pulling himself off the ground again, only to be picked up by Amelia.

"I'm so sorry Taillow." The trainer apologizes, gently holding the bird while looking at Tanya and gesturing to the 'mon in her grip with her eyes.

"I didn't think it would get that high! Thank you Chansey." She says as Tanya gets the hint and presses a heal into the 'mon. But just as Taillow relaxes as the healing energy flows into him, he looks up into Amelia's eyes and twitches. A moment after that, Amelia looks over at Tanya with a considering expression.

"You know… with the smaller training zone, Taillow's never really trained at doing maneuver in gravity, and I know it should be possible to make the gravity effect stick for a bit after you're removed from the battlefield." Tanya slowly blinks, considering everything that idea implies, the thought of giving Taillow, or any other flying teammate, a persistent advantage in the air… The pair's eyes share a mirrored sheen, as Taillow ducks his head underneath a wing and preens his feathers for quite a long time.

But soon, the moment is broken by Amelia looking back at the bird and holding him up to eye level.

"You up for another flight?" She asks. The 'mon looks up from his wing slowly and says nothing for a few seconds.

"... I can fly." He says warily, prompting a smile from the trainer.

"Great! I'm not sure if you noticed, but there was this big landslide over that way," She says, waving an arm in the direction of the already dissipating dust.

"Would you mind flying over there to see if anyone needs our help?" The request seems to dispel whatever mood Taillow was in and he nods seriously, taking off and flying toward the event. Soon enough, the 'mon disappears over a rocky crest, and the remaining duo adjust their bags in sync before continuing downward. As they pass into the shadow of the hill, Tanya blinks as she looks up into the sky with an idea.

She's got a pretty good eye at how far away things are in the sky, so an easy way to figure out her current gravity length would be to use Taillow as a living sensor. The thought is filed away for later as Amelia hums, running a hand on the sheer cliff face they're walking beside.

"I know we're pretty sure the… landslide thing didn't have anything to do with us, but it's got me thinking. Do you remember the rules on damage to the natural landscape?" She asks, waving at the rock as they slowly walk down the steep slope of the trail.

"Because I know you testing psychic on rocks isn't against the rules, but there's some specific rule on this that I just can't…." Tanya squints slightly into the middle distance, focusing on an admittedly dim memory. Because she remembers exactly what her partner is talking about but… …Blast, what was that rule?"'Expected damages from training around the trail are both anticipated and allowed in an area of…'" Tanya quotes slowly, narrowing her eyes as she tries to remember the number.

"Forty five metres?" The trainer hums, looking contemplative for a long moment." Right! That's what it was! Thank you Chansey." She exclaims finally.

"Didn't think I'd have to worry about that stuff yet. But– wait…" She interrupts herself, followed by a confused pause.

"... Forty five? Are we sure that's right?" Tanya pauses in the middle of a nod, then transitions it to a hesitant wobble.

"That's the number I seem to remember." Her partner squints into the middle distance, fingers twitching lightly in thought.

"If they mean forty five square metre circle from any point on the trail, that's a radius from the centerline of… uhhh…"

"About three point seven eight metres." Tanya chimes in.

"I assume we're either remembering it wrong or…"

"Or they mean–"" Hey!

"Taillow screeches, shooting over a small pile of rocks, feathers almost grazing the surface as she tucks his wings, flips upside down, and flares them open again to keep hugging the terrain on the way down and keep moving as fast as possible." Someone's stuck!"