Chương 51: Gravity is Working Against Me

The goat charged toward him, and Jonny struggled to get out of the way in time due to the enhanced gravity. His body was more than strong enough to handle it, but he wasn't used to it, and the goat's horns stuck out to the side more than he expected. He wasn't sure if it was just the wind, or if the horn actually brushed his side, but it was a sobering moment, and it made his excitement about the gravity magic fade slightly.

Immediately after the goat brushed past, Jonny's eyes suddenly widened, and he was forced to fall backward onto his rear end as the goat pivoted its own rear end around to kick him in the face. He tried getting back to his feet, but then the goat's horns flared again, and the gravity on him increased further, making him slip down onto one knee. While he struggled, the goat rotated around to face him and lowered its head once more.

Its movements were slow, clearly affected by its own magic, but they were steady, and while Jonny was practically immobile, it was able to line up its charge. Jonny saw its legs tense as he tried to get out of the way. Then, with a mighty push, the goat charged forward. Jonny loaded his body with more mana than it could handle and dove to the side, but lost his balance because right as the goat charged forward, its horns flared again, and gravity turned from extreme, to nearly nonexistent.

His hands and feet lost purchase on the ground as he tried to push himself to the side, and all he managed to do was get a little air. The goat was practically flying at him, and he knew that if it hit him, he would be screwed. It was moving far too fast. It would be like getting hit by a car. Somehow, before it hit him, he managed to get his arms and legs in position in front of him. He braced himself with mana, crouching and positioning his hands and feet so that they would absorb the impact from the horns.

The goat slammed into him with enough force that it sent a shock of dull pain through his body, but he bent his legs and arms, and managed to catch himself. Stuck to the goat's face like a weird bug, he tried to shift his hands and wrap them around the horns, but found that the base of the horns where he was grabbing was too thick, and his hands were too small. Unlike how it was with the deer, he just couldn't get a good grip.

He had the presence of mind to start focusing on his mana, trying to absorb some mana from the goat's horns, but the moment the goat realized that Jonny had attached himself to its face, it released its hold over gravity, and Jonny almost fell off when he suddenly had to bear his full weight on such poor handholds. The surge of mana formed the connection he needed to steal mana, but he barely got any before the goat made its move.

It reared up, raising its head as high as it could before swinging violently downward, increasing gravity as it did. Jonny realized what was about to happen just a second before it did, and while he was able to let go of the horns and keep from being slammed, the enhanced gravity still slammed him into the ground, and after failing to catch himself on his legs, he found himself on his butt again.

Above him, the goat reared up again, somehow fighting against the gravity to stand nearly all the way on its hind legs, raising its front hooves and looking down at Jonny with baleful yellow eyes. Jonny rolled to the side, using so much mana he could feel his muscles protesting, barely getting out of the way before the hooves came down where he had just been, impacting the ground so hard it made craters.

Knowing this was no time to try to conserve mana, Jonny maintained his high mana expenditure, fighting through the gravity to get to his feet and start running.

"Shit, shit shit!" he said as he tried sprinting away. He got three steps away before the gravity suddenly reversed again, and his next step sent him flying into the air, arms flailing. He got almost ten feet up before the gravity flipped again, sending him crashing to the ground. He was more prepared this time, and managed to land in a squat and keep his feet. It hurt, but a second later, he was running again. He glanced back to see the goat already running after him.

It was slowed by the gravity, just as he was, but it was also stronger than he was, and it was gaining fast. He prepared to dodge, only for him to find himself feeling nearly weightless again, and floating up.

"Fuck!" he shouted, seeing the goat charging him again. Stuck midair, he had no way to get out of the way in time, and had to try to brace himself for impact again. This time, though, he was at a worse angle. The only limbs he could get between himself and the goat were his legs, and while tried to bend down and grab onto its horns with his hands, he was less successful, and the goat had learned. Just as his hands made contact with the horns, the goat jerked its head upward, and throwing him up and away.

He lost contact with the goat entirely as it fell, and he continued to rise. The goat came to a stop in the snow while Jonny was still falling, more than thirty feet away. The further he got from the goat, the less its gravity field affected him, so even when the goat increased gravity again, the impact with the ground was not that bad, but the goat had pushed him quite far downhill, and when he landed, he started rolling. He panicked as he flipped over twice, unable to get his bearings.

All he could do was put his hands on his head and reinforce his body against any rocks hidden under the snow. He rolled more than a hundred feet before finally slowing as the ground evened out, and as soon as he was able to tell which direction was up, he re-oriented himself, skidding across the ground on his feet. He braced himself for the goat's next attack, but when he stood up, he saw that the goat had not followed him. It was still standing far uphill, watching him.

Jonny waited for it to come down the hill to finish him off, but it never did, and a few seconds later, it turned around, disappearing as it walked back toward the mana well. Stolen novel; please report.

"Well, fuck you, too!" Jonny shouted after it. Fortunately, it did not respond, or turn around. Jonny was not in good shape. He was not seriously injured, but the tumble had bruised and battered him, and his whole body was sore from overusing his mana. He was also a little dizzy from rolling so far, and likely wouldn't have been able to react accordingly.

"Fuuuuuuuuck," he breathed, stumbling backward and sitting down in the snow. That was almost bad. He was glad that he had been correct about the goat not chasing him to kill him, but he had severely underestimated it. No wonder it was able to hold the mana well all on its own. How the hell was anything supposed to beat that? It basically controlled gravity, and it was impossible to react to the changes.

Jonny was pretty sure that the only reason he survived was because he was light enough that it could throw him down the hill, and possibly because he hadn't done anything to make the goat consider him a serious threat. He was not disheartened, though. Not in the slightest. Because despite how poorly the battle had gone, it was only round one. He was not out of the fight, and he had learned a lot about his opponent. Much more than it would have expected.

He closed his eyes, smiling as he sensed the sliver of the goat's mana within him. It was barely anything, and it was rapidly disappearing, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that it was not ordinary. It was gravity-aspected, and between that and the insight he had gained from being at its mercy, he felt that he finally had what he needed to be able to use internal gravity.

Keeping his eyes closed, he focused intensely on his mana and the sensations from the battle, remembering how it felt to weigh six times more than usual, and also how it felt to be nearly weightless. He pictured the way he flew through the air, and the way his trajectory changed whenever the goat changed the strength of gravity. It didn't take long before he felt a pressure on his chest, as if the world was trying to push him down. He opened his eyes and sat up, grinning widely, ready to go back in for round two.

Then, he winced in pain, and clutched his hip. Maybe round two can wait until tomorrow, he thought, as the various bumps and bruises all over his body made themselves known. Igrette is probably worried. He turned around and started trudging down the mountain, leaving the goat and its mana well behind. The whole way back, he quietly experimented with internal gravity mana, periodically making himself heavier and lighter. It was slow at first, and imprecise, but the more he did it, the better he got.

Igrette had told him that he would make rapid progress when he finally figured it out, and he was glad she was right. According to her, gravity manipulation usually was a complex field of magic, and it was very powerful when fully mastered. Internal gravity, on the other hand, was one of the simplest types of magic there was. You could make yourself heavier, and you could make yourself lighter. That was about it.

For some fighters, they mastered it further, applying it externally to their weapons as well, but Jonny had no need for that. He had no need to learn any precision in where his gravity mana went, because having it uniform throughout his body was ideal for his purposes. Igrette said that there were some niche uses to localized internal gravity, but that he didn't need to worry about any of them just yet. And best of all, he could already see how it would help him beat the goat.

The goat hadn't been particularly fast, or strong. It was strong enough to resist its own gravity, but not much more. It had only defeated Jonny so easily because he had no way to counter it. But if he could control his own gravity, making himself heavier when the goat made him lighter and vice versa… That was a whole different story. Round 2 is gonna be very different. Frederick bowed his head in prayer over the dead bear as its cubs ran away, crying out in fear.

Taking a life was never a pleasant affair, and this time, he had not been strong enough to show mercy. Now, the innocent cubs were at the mercy of God. He turned away from the body, heading back toward what he had been investigating before being attacked. A group of frozen deer corpses, and a dead wolverine. Most were mutilated, having served as snacks for the mother bear and her cubs, but even by the dim light of the moon through the clouds above, the cuts on the deers' necks were clear as day.

He had finally gotten their trail again. With all the snowfall, and the general lack of mana use by the runaways, it had been difficult. Frederick had arrived too late to catch them when the trail was fresh, and now his only clues were the occasional campsites and corpses they left in their wake. It had been a week since he found anything, and he was beginning to worry he lost them entirely when he stumbled upon this mana well. It was not hard to figure out where they were going.

Traveling north through the mountain range would take them directly to Oleira, a protestant nation outside the influence of the church. It would not be impossible to catch them there, but traveling to Oleira as an inquisitor was not simple, and the local authorities would not cooperate easily. It would be best if he found them here and now. Ordinarily, Igrette was not someone he would have been able to defeat. He would not have lasted a second against her.

But the initial investigation of the site of Ivan's murder showed that she was heavily injured. The battle was fierce, and his sword had cut her deep. Unless she had secretly ascended to seventh layer, she would be exhausted and near death by this point. Frederick clenched his fist as he thought about the prospect of finally locating the traitor. He had looked up to her once. Every military member of the church knew of the One-Eyed Reaper.

While perhaps not the most powerful, compared to some of the other champions of the world, she was famously devout, devoting her entire life to protecting weak villages, and hunting the remnants of the Demon Army. And now, here she was, slaying inquisitors and fleeing to Oleira to protect one of the very things she spent her life fighting against. The Abbess said it had been a Holy Duel.

The other inquisitors said it was an ambush, and that the Abbess wasn't in her right mind, and couldn't accept that her friend and former comrade had done wrong. Frederick knew they were right. Ivan would never have ended up on the wrong side of a Holy Duel. The thought filled him with both sadness and rage. Why did Ivan have to die? Ivan was one of the best. He was devout, diligent, powerful, and kind. No one ever had a bad thing to say about him.

He had taken time out of his busy schedule to train with the younger recruits, even when he had no obligation to. It was him who had inspired Frederick to become an inquisitor himself. And now he was dead. And now he will have justice…