Close Combat Mage
chapter-18

Chapter 18: Terrifying Reasoning

After lecturing for an entire afternoon until the school day was almost over, the female lecturer finally taught the Aqua Aegis Technique to everyone. Although at first the Aqua Aegis Technique seems to be a water spell, in actuality it should fall under the category of water control, as it is just another way of using the Water Sphere Technique.

In short, if you wrap yourself within a Water Sphere Technique, that will be a basic form of the Aqua Aegis. The theory was quite simple; whether or not you can successfully cast the spell depends on the extent to which you can control water.

The first person able to cast the Aqua Aegis Technique was no doubt Suo Jia. When it came to the control of water streams, if Suo Jia claimed to be number two, no one would dare claim to be number one.

The only difference was, Suo Jia did not actually follow the teacher’s procedures in developing the Aqua Aegis. According to the teacher, creating the shield was like blowing a soap bubble. Suo Jia felt that this was not the best way, as soap bubbles were very fragile.

After some modifications, Suo Jia first pulled the 9 meter long water stream and manipulated it so that it rapidly coiled around his body. This formed a shield of water around him, and from within the shield, he was able to clearly see the water stream’s every movement!

In reality, Suo Jia was using that water stream to surround himself. Once the water stream spread itself out, it would connect to form a thick Aqua Aegis. Activating it took little time, and it looked very beautiful, making it different from everyone else’s. Within his water shield was a spiraling stream of water that acted as the inner support. This gave the Aqua Aegis something like a skeleton, which made it more tough and durable.

By the time the lesson on the Aqua Aegis Technique had finished, it was already past the end of the school day. At this point, the crowd of apprentices had finally learned the three most basic water magics: attack, defend, and restore. The only thing left was the auxiliary-type Swamp Technique but….the Swamp Technique was actually a rotating flow technique as well as a vortex technique. This made it a higher level primary magic, and at the moment, none of them were able to learn it.

Silently, Suo Jia returned home. After finishing his simple dinner, he started training by himself all the way until it was almost time for him to go to bed. Finally, Suo Jia completed his personal goal—being able to activate the Moisture Technique 30 times consecutively!

“Pata…pata…pata….” After receiving such a large number of Moisture Techniques, the small light blue pet was diligently trying to flutter its wings, with the intent to start flying. Regretfully, the little pet’s wings were still too small, soft, and immature; its body was also too fat and chubby, and so it had no way of propelling itself into the air.

Suo Jia lightly stroked the little pet. Even though it had only hatched a few days ago, its body had already become much more robust. Despite the fact that it was still unable to fly, it was already able to walk steadily without tripping.

Feeling Suo Jia’s affectionate care, the little pet stopped its efforts and contentedly shut its eyes, its small head constantly rubbing against Suo Jia’s palms. Occasionally, it flicked its small pink tongue to lick Suo Jia’s palms, tickling him so that Suo Jia could not help but laugh despite his exhaustion.

After teasing the little pet for a bit, Suo Jia stopped playing around. He had to quickly rest; he had no time to spare on having fun, but…..just before he entered a state of slumber, he reflected on some things as he usually did.

During class today, even though Suo Jia had never said a single word from start to end, that didn’t mean he didn’t have any questions. Based on his intuition, and his understanding of water, Suo Jia stubbornly believed that the water style magics should not be so monotonous and weak.

The so-called water magic actually uses the unusual method of achieving control over water. In this world, water is everywhere; water has an inseparable relationship even within a person’s body in fact, as 70% of a person’s body is composed of water!

An eerie and chilling divine light flashed through Suo Jia’s mind, similar to that of a meteor. However this time, Suo Jia was keen enough to capture that thread of inspiration!

Suo Jia opened his eyes in fear, and because of his own fearful insight, his body was covered in cold sweat. If….this insight was actually achieved, it would be too frightening!

The fact is, even though both people’s and magical beast’s body compositions are different, the common point both share is that majority of both bodies are comprised of water!

Suo Jia’s insight was: if he could control water in nature then….was he able to control the water within a human’s or a magical beast’s body?

As everyone knows, the water content within a human’s or a magical beast’s body, aside from the liquid within cells and tissues, also majorly make up the blood. If these fluids can be controlled, what will the result be?

While pondering this, Suo Jia envisioned a terrible scene; under the manipulation of a water mage, spears of blood erupted out of an enemies pores.. God…once all blood was lost, whether it was a person or an all-powerful magical beast, how could it survive?

Suo Jia knew that such water magics had never existed before. Otherwise, he would have definitely heard of it before. At the very least, his teacher would have told them. What Suo Jia wanted to know now was if this magic or type of manipulation could possibly be achieved, or if nobody had ever once thought of it.

Gradually lowering his gaze, he looked at the sweaty little pet. In order to verify this theory, he had to try it out!

Seeing the chubby little pet, Suo Jia knew clearly that although its body was not made purely of water, at least 80% of it was. While thinking about this, Suo Jia shakily extended his hands, enveloping the little pet’s body and held it up.

Shutting his eyes. Suo Jia tried hard to feel the water streams inside of the little pet’s body. After an instant, Suo Jia was able to feel the water inside the little pet’s body circulating around in waves. Even though most of the water streams were impure mixtures, no matter what, impure water was still water!

Nervously swallowing his saliva, Suo Jia sharply captured one of the millions of flowing water streams, and manipulated it so that it changed direction, moving according to his own commands.

“Ji!” Following the water stream’s change, the previously soundly asleep little pet cried out in shock and suddenly opened its eyes. At the same time, its body struggled for a bit with large movements, forcing Suo Jia to lose his control over that stream of water!

Even though this attempt at the manipulation had failed, Suo Jia did not feel a thread of disappointment; in fact he was excited to death. He knew that his own thought process had been correct. As long as there was water, he was able to control it; it didn’t matter whether the water was water that existed in nature or if it was water that constituted an organism’s body.

However, Suo Jia’s ideas had not completely been achieved. Even though….he was able to control those water streams, it required an extremely close distance to be successful and…if the idea was to make all of the blood within his enemy’s body spurt out, it was not very likely to happen. The tough artery walls were not that easy to rupture!

In order to test his own hypothesis, Suo Jia once again extended his hands to envelope the little pet. This time, Suo Jia was not as merciful as the first time, and directly forced all the water within the little pet’s body to come under his control, forcing all of it upwards.

“Jiji” Seeing its own body somehow flying, the little pet cried out excitedly, diligently flapping its wings along. Under Suo Jia’s control, the little pet’s tiny body revolved around Suo Jia in a rugged manner, twisting around him at fast speeds.

“What…” Seeing the little pet rotating around him as fast as lightning, Suo Jia bitterly laughed to himself. It seemed like the blood could not break through the arteries; right now the little pet was flying due to all of the blood in his body being moved. The blood vessel’s walls were just as tough as before, to be able to break through it was still too far away!

“Nn…” Nodding his head with certainty, Suo Jia knew that wanting all the blood in his opponent to shoot out was impossible under normal circumstances but…if the opponent’s body had a wound, then it would be a different story.

What’s more, this type of attack did not classify as a magic attack or a physical attack. It was simply controlling the water within the body; how was it possible to defend against this? The answer was obvious; it was able to ignore any defenses!