Chapter 4 is here! Also, would really like to thank those who reviewed and gave me some criticism. Hopefully in future chapters, the story will get better in the certain aspect's you guys/gals pointed out. Also need to work on my fight scenes. Feel like I could have gone better with that.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Again"
Air exploded out of my mouth as my back hit the grass. Scrambling up, I took a moment to look at the talker. Standing at 2ft, wearing a white mask with a black cloak on, stood Hassan i- Sabbah of the cursed arm. In all his tiny glory. Yeah, I wasn't quite sure why that was. If your confused of to how this is happening, well it is happening in my 'Utopia'. Which at this point I'm assuming is my personal mind scape. I think. I was wasn't sure on the details.
But back to the matter at hand. Basically, after I had gone left the battle and gone back to my hotel and collapsed on my bed, I found myself here. In front of Hassan. Who I may have insulted with a short joke upon my arrival. He seemed to be taking it personally.
"Look, Assassin. You have knocked me on my ass more times then I am comfortable with. If this is about the short joke I made, I sincerely apologise." I put some more distance between us, but that didn't stop Assassin from shooting towards me and latching a hand onto my face.
"This isn't about the short joke you made Master." He told me as he lifted me up and slammed me into the ground. More air escaped my lungs.
"Then why?!" I gasped out feebly, hands trying to twist his wrist so he would let go of me.
"Because you are holding back" with that last word, he spun, hand still attached to my face and threw me across the clearing. I landed in a roll coming to a stop by the lake. "You could have done much better, fighting that machine. But you didn't. And it was because you were holding back." He came to a stop in front of me. Looking down at me. Who knew someone who was that small could look that intimating?
I didn't bother getting up. That would just result in me getting dropped on my ass or getting thrown again. Neither of which I wanted.
"I didn't hold back. I was just being cautious." I glared at him. He merely stared back at me. Before shaking his head. Faster than I could perceive, his hand moved, and I suddenly felt a pain on my cheek. For a split second I thought he had just slapped me, but there was no sting of a slap or turning of my head going to the side. Instead I felt something slowly crawl down my face. Reaching up, I wiped at it with a finger to get a look at what it was. Putting my finger in front of me, I saw it was blood. Turning my head to the side I saw a small knife embedded into the ground. I looked back at him with shock.
"Did you just throw a knife at me?!" I shouted, panic seeping into my voice. In here I didn't have Hassan's speed, strength or endurance. I was just a squishy human for him to throw around.
"You did not use the dirks in combat. You did stick to the shadows, which was good, but you didn't go in to kill your opponent. You had an opportunity to end the fight before it could even begin, and you didn't. I would applaud you for going for the head… if you had finished him there and then." The tiny assassin lectured me. I could feel myself getting smaller from each word he spoke. He was right. I had held back. I had never been in any actual fights. Hell, the first time I had ever thrown a punch at someone was the crooks robbing the antique store. If I had thrown all my strength into the punch against Mister Twister when he had been unaware, I probably could have finished him off before any real fighting started.
I looked back up to Hassan before sitting up and standing on my feet.
"You're right." And that was I could say.
He seemed pleased by my admission before turning around and walking away.
"The first step to progress is admitting one's mistakes. Now come. Seeing as you are the one who is fighting and not me, it is best I teach you so that you may stay alive."
And that was my first meeting with Hassan. He took me further away from the lake so that we could begin proper training. There was one thing I had to ask though.
"How is this going to work by the way?" I asked him. He turned in my direction, confused. I waved a hand, moving it up and down. "Your small, for some reason and I don't think trying to fight you like this is really going to benefit me." I told him.
He seemed to consider this as he looked down at his shrunken body before looking back at me.
"To be honest I do not know why I am like this. But your point does have merit to it. That is why I will be teaching you a valuable lesson today."
"And that is?"
He moved a hand into his cloak and pulled it back out, with a passenger. A knife.
"How to dodge incoming projectiles." His tone sounded just the bit giddy.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
I rolled to the side, as a dirk skimmed past where I just was. After thinking 'KNIFE!' every time I saw Hassan pull one out, he had stopped and told me that it was in fact a Dirk which was more, thrusting dagger then an actual knife. Me stopping to ask what the difference was had nearly cost me my ear. I wasn't sure how my injuries in here worked then from my physical body, but I didn't want to take any chances. I already had numerous cuts on me that were one big stinging sensation every time I moved. If these injuries did pop back into the real world, then that would suck. Also how did he here what I was thinking? If this was my mindscape and I thought things did that mean he could here them because he was in it?
"Any chance we could take a break?" I asked taking my mind off the questions forming in my head or forming in… here? Yeah that was going to get confusing. He stopped, tilting his head to the side. I took the moment to catch my breath as he thought it over. For one glorious second, I thought he was going to say yes. That changed when he suddenly vanished and reappeared next to me, dirk held in a loose reverse grip, up against my neck. I froze, eyes wide. He looked at me before taking the dirk away from my neck.
"Now we can take a break." I nodded once before taking a few steps to the side, keeping some distance between us. I knew it wouldn't help but it put me at ease. Plopping onto the ground I looked out towards the lake.
"How long have you been here?"
The assassin regarded my question by also looking out towards the lake.
"I am not quite sure. I do not have a way to tell time here as the sun doesn't move." He explained.
I simply nodded my head and we sat in silence. I didn't really know what else to say. If Assassin didn't know how long, he had been here then its possible that he could have been here when I was first in this 'Utopia' with the other me. Or he could have appeared just after I woke up in the alley way.
"Most likely the second one" I mumbled before looking at the Servant. There was something I could ask him.
"Hassan, does the name Watashi mean anything to you?" I asked him. He took a moment to answer.
"Watashi… is the name I addressed myself as a long time ago." He spoke quietly as if remembering something. I looked at him opening my mouth to ask him something else when he suddenly move in front of me, still facing the lake.
"Assassin?" I asked. He didn't answer me. Standing up I looked out towards the lake. Squinting my eyes, I saw the lake glowing. It lasted only a few seconds then returned to normal only to start glowing again. This pattern repeated itself several times before coming to a stop.
"What do you think that was about?" I questioned him. His answer was to slowly back away, with a hand pushing me back. Quite suddenly the lake glowed even brighter. Bright enough that I had to close my eyes and look the other way.
For what felt like an eternity, the light disappeared, and I felt drained. Like I had run half a marathon but with some stamina left over to keep going and finish the race. Looking back over the lake I saw a figure crouching on the ground. Slowly they stood up, blinking straight in my direction. They wore a grey shirt with a blue fur hooded jacket. There bottom half was covered by blue pants that seemed to flow around him. The pants also had thick green lines forming a diamond shape before going around the back. they also had a white piece of clothing that looked like a jacket without sleeves with a white sash holding it in place with the help of a while buckle and hey also wore sandals. A look at there face, let me know that they had red eyes, and an earing dangling from each ear. Held in their hand was a staff that was stabbed into the ground. They through their hood back revealing dark blue hair. Very slowly their eyes scanned the area before looking straight at me. The man gave a grin that was all teeth.
Hey there! Servant Caster at your call. Are you my master?
I gave Assassin a look out of the corner of my eye before making eye contact with Caster and slowly, I nodded. Caster grin seemed to stretch further before it was gone, and he blinked as looked down at himself.
"Oi Master. Any particular reason why I'm tiny?" He asked sounding horribly confused. Ah yes that. From how it looked Caster was much shorter than he should have been just like Assassin. In fact, he was just a bit shorter than Assassin. Now how to explain this little problem, pun not intended.
Ah! I know
"Honestly? No idea." He gave me a half-lidded stare for that.
"Well isn't that helpful" His eyes darted over to where Assassin was, tensing slightly as his grip on his staff tightened. "Mind telling me what another Servant is doing here?" He asked never taking his eyes off the other servant
"Not quite sure to be honest. He just kind of popped up. But I'm sure if we and by we, I mean you two, stop staring at each other like you're going to come to blows, then maybe we can have a chat and figure things out?" I told them.
The response time was less then desired, but slowly they both nodded and forcibly eased up. I looked over them one more time before sitting down
"So! anyone know where to start?"
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
We didn't know where to start. Not really. All I could tell them was what I thought this place was. I couldn't tell why they were so tiny, and neither could they. Best bet would be the summoning. Was this what happened when you summon servants without a ritual? It probably wasn't. Maybe it was the place we were in? But if so then why did I stay the same? I wasn't summoned so that must have been it. It was something to do with the summoning! Either that or someone was screwing with us. But there was one thing we haven't discussed yet. Introductions.
"We should probably introduce ourselves to each other. Get some formality between us." I told them. Caster and Assassin glanced at each other before looking at me.
"Why don't you start us off Master" Caster said, gesturing me to go first. I blew some air out of my mouth and watched as some of my hair flew out of my face. I really needed a haircut.
"Right. Okay. My name is Noah Reed. I'm twenty. I don't have siblings, I don't have any Magecraft or Magecraft training whatsoever or training experience at all, except for now dodging projectiles I guess." I mumbled out the last part, but Caster seemed to raise an amused eyebrow. He opened his mouth and spoke
"Ok then. I'm Servant Caster, but you can call me Cú Chulainn. I'm a master of Rune Magecraft and have a lot of training experience. I also don't have to worry about projectiles at all." He finished off with a smug look towards Assassin. I turned my head towards Assassin and shot him an encouraging smile. He took a moment, but he spoke
"Servant Assassin. Hassan i- Sabbah. Any training experience I have will be imparted onto you Master. And you most defiantly should be worried about more projectiles in the future." It was said softly but with enough intensity to make me gulp.
Caster getting up took my attention. He was staring at me with a strange intensity.
"You said you don't have any Magecraft or Magecraft training Master?" I nodded my head, wondering where he was going with this.
"Well if you have don't use Magecraft or have any training, which I find hardly believable with how much Magical Circuits you have running through you, then how did you summon us?" He asked. And it was a good question. I didn't know how I had summoned him. But something he said caught my attention
"What do you mean the amount of Magical Circuits running through me?"
He gave me look of disbelief before answering
"I mean you have a lot of Magical Circuits running through you. I don't know how many buts it's a lot." He told me. "You do know what Magic circuits are, don't you?" I shot him a small glare
"Yes, I know what Magic circuits are. I… just didn't know I had them till now." I said. I looked down. How did you use your Magic Circuits? You just had to imagine a mental trigger, right? What would my mental trigger be? Did it have to be something personal to one's self or could it be anything.
Taking a breath, I pictured something in my head, dragging a mental image into my mind. I imagined being submerged in water, going down deeper into its depths with no way out and before my very eyes, my hands started to glow with blue lines, starting from my finger tips and rushing down my fingers, hand and then up my arm, before disappearing past my shoulder where my shirt cut out my sight of it. A pleased hum drew my attention back to Caster. I looked back at my hands to see the lines disappear. I looked back up at Caster.
"You said you're a Runes master, right? Mind teaching me some things?"
Casters grin turned a tad feral.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Runes were annoying. Sure, when you actually got them working and got the desired effect, they were pretty cool. But when you needed to be very precise on how you draw them, whether it be on paper, the air or the ground it got difficult. He had me practicing the rune of Ehwaz. Putting this rune on something and applying some magical energy cause what ever it was drawn on to harden. Something to put on clothes for extra defence or a shield for a better result. Also, I couldn't really harm myself if I messed it up like some of the other runes. Cú had said something about being carful to not mix up some runes with each other, but he would explain that to me later. I put my pencil down and looked at the numerous drawings I had down of the rune. It looked alright but I couldn't really be sure without Cú's input.
Looking down at my pencil a idea sprung to mind. I activated my circuits before carefully using my nail to inscribe the rune on it. I would have used my finger, but the pencil was skinny and my finger, not so much. About a dozen tries yielded the results I was looking for. I couldn't really hurt myself like this. Not unless someone chucked the pencil at me. Sparing a glance at the rune as it glowed softly, I pressed the tip of the pencil down on my bedside table. When that did nothing, I pressed with more force and the tip went through. Well that has results.
Taking my pencil out of the newly formed whole in my table, I put my paper over it. If I could do that with a pencil and some force, imagine what I could do if I inscribed a rune on a dirk?
I paused in my trail in thought and started a new one. Could I do that? Cú had better B mana compared to Hassan's C mana. Would I even be able to Runes if I used Hassan's abilities? Something to look into when I had the chance. But for now, more practice drawing. Maybe Cú will let me learn a fire rune? Note to self. Visit the library and look up Runes. I can't remember if the Fate series had used every single rune there was. Actually, now that I think about it, did DC have any magic users that used runes? Fate and the other Lords of Order had Order Magic and probably other magics, Klarion used Chaos Magic, Zatanna had her wand and speaking backwards magic and so on but I don't know if any of them had Rune magic. Wonder if I could pick something up from what I've read with runes? That'd be pretty cool.
I forced my eyes to focus on the paper in front of me. No time for distractions. First: draw rune. Second: get fire rune. Because having the ability to shoot off fireballs are awesome. And also getting to the library to look up more runes. Crap getting distracted again. The tip of my pencil hit the paper again. TO DRAWING!
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
And done. Wow this one took longer than I thought it would have. Got some good feedback from the last chapter. Will take it into advice and hopefully you guys can see the improvement. Cause if not, then I'm doing something wrong. Also does anyone know what Caster Cu's bottom half clothing is called? Cause I couldn't find it anywhere.
