Reincarnated as an Apocalyptic Catalyst
Chapter 58: Reinforce This!

Chapter 58: Reinforce This!

I walked into class hoping for an easy day. That hope died immediately.

The desks were pushed back. The usual quiet murmur of students settling in was replaced with the low hum of magic being tested. Small bursts of energy flickered in the air as students practiced reinforcement spells on themselves, their hands, their weapons. Looked like a combat lesson, this would be fantastic, I can’t even use my daggers. Could I at least use my fists?

I rubbed my temple, playing up the lingering concussion act. It had bought me time before. Maybe it would work again. The professor stood at the front, waiting for everyone to fall in line. His gaze passed over me briefly but didn’t linger. Good sign.

"Today, we’ll be applying reinforcement spells in combat scenarios," he said, tone firm. "We’ve studied the theory. Now, you’ll use it to defend yourselves against incoming magic."

Pairs were already forming. Some students looked eager, ready to prove themselves. Others looked nervous. I was neither, I was more trying to calculate what needed to be done for me to succeed.

A hand clamped onto my sleeve. "You’re with me," Mara said. Not a question.

I turned my head, keeping my expression neutral. "Fine by me."

She crossed her arms. "You’re not going to complain?"

I shrugged. "Would it change anything?"

She narrowed her eyes, like she wasn’t sure if I was being casual or cocky.

The professor continued, explaining the exercise. "One partner will cast a controlled offensive spell. The other will reinforce their body or an object to absorb the impact. You will rotate between roles."

I could already see the problem, I barely had a grip on reinforcement magic. I’d made a wooden staff slightly stronger yesterday. Now I was supposed to use it to not get blasted across the room? Maybe my body reinforcement would do? I was actually getting kind of good at that.

Mara didn’t look concerned. I knew why, she was a beast, she would fry me to a crisp if I tried anything. I had seen Mara in combat, I had seen her take down Paladins a dozen levels higher than her. This was going to be rough. I needed to keep up.

"Since Caidan is still recovering," the professor said, turning toward me, "I expect him to take things slowly. If necessary, observe first."

I nodded, rubbing my temple again for effect. "Understood."

Mara raised an eyebrow. "Convenient."

I gave her a lazy smirk. "Tragic, really, I’ve been through a lot, be gentle."

The professor clapped his hands. "Begin."

Mara stepped back, raised a hand, and summoned a small sphere of force. Controlled, but ready to hit me with enough power to knock me off my feet if I wasn’t careful. I inhaled slowly, preparing my body.

Time to see if last night’s training actually paid off.

I watched the spell form in Mara’s hand, crackling with power. It wasn’t big, nowhere near what I had seen before, but I knew better than to judge a spell’s strength by its size. She was holding back, and what would she do if I challenged her, if I made it through her first attack and antagonized her to deal more damage, hit me harder? She expected me to struggle and honestly, I was already struggling, so she wasn’t wrong.

I prepared my body, focusing, pumping myself with my mana reinforcement. Strengthening my body to absorb the impact. The concept made sense, but I’d barely gotten it right on objects and was only able to strengthen myself physically, not protect myself against attacks.

Mara gave me a look. Waiting. I exhaled, setting my stance, shifting my weight slightly. I raised my arms like I actually knew what I was doing.

"Ready?" she asked.

Not even close, but I nodded anyway.

She didn’t hesitate, not when the topic was magic. Then the force spell shot forward, warping the world around us as it careened toward me.

I braced and pulled at my mana, trying to reinforce my chest, my arms, my body, literally anything.

The impact hit like a hammer and I staggered back, feet scraping against the floor, but I didn’t fall. Pain lanced through my ribs, dull but not unbearable.

Mara’s eyes flickered with something. Surprise? Annoyance? "You actually took that," she muttered.

I rolled my shoulders. It still hurt, but less than it should have. I must have reinforced something—maybe not perfectly, but enough.

"I learn fast, besides, it wasn’t that big of a hit," I said, masking how much effort it had taken and taunting her into doing more. Was I a masochist? Did I enjoy this? No, I just wanted her to show off her real power. My body didn’t matter, it just mattered that she did well and showed the professors what she was capable of.

She studied me, arms crossed, and then, without warning, she cast another one. I barely had time to react and this one hit harder. I clenched my jaw, shifting the mana—reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. I put it everywhere, flooding myself with mana to deflect what she had launched.

The force spread through my body instead of crashing into one spot. I slid back an inch but stayed standing.

Mara narrowed her eyes. "How the hell..."

I smirked, wiping imaginary dust off my sleeve. "Guess I’m just a natural."

I could see the wheels turning in her head. She had seen me struggle yesterday. Now I was suddenly handling reinforcement magic well enough to stay on my feet?

"You weren’t faking yesterday, were you?" she asked, voice lower now.

I kept my smirk in place, even as my stomach twisted. If I answered wrong, she’d see through me. If I answered too well, she’d suspect me more. I shrugged. "Magic’s weird. Some things just... clicked, and I guess it clicked for me. Reinforcement is a lot easier than the other spells."

She watched me for a long moment, then huffed. "Fine. Your turn, then. Let’s see if you can actually cast something."

Shit... I was so focused on not getting hit, I almost forgot I’d have to attack next. Meanwhile, Mara stood there, arms crossed, waiting. Expecting.

She had already seen me take the hit, so now she wanted to see if I could deliver one, which gave me two options: Try and fail or make it convincing.

I took a slow breath. I had practiced this. Not a lot, but enough. I could force a spell out—I had done it last night with the old man, and I could do it again now.

No hesitation. Just like striking with the blade. Hesitation meant failure, and I couldn’t fail. Mara was strong enough, she could handle this. She could take a hit, and this wasn’t a big hit.

I raised a hand, called on my mana, and focused. Condensed the energy. It pulsed beneath my skin, gathering in my palm. I spoke the incantation, letting the words shape the spell instead of forcing it through instinct. The instructions of the old man resounded in my mind.

A small orb of force crackled into existence, barely stable, but over time it found purpose, it stabilized into something significant. I built power into it, but as the spell began to falter, I released it, not wanting to risk it exploding on me.

Mara barely flinched. She had seen better, but I still had some impact on her.

I narrowed my eyes, adjusting my grip on the energy. The problem wasn’t forming the spell, it was controlling it.

Steady. Condense. Let it build.

I threw the spell. Not as fast as hers, not as strong, but it moved.

Mara stepped to the side, dodging it easily before she clicked her tongue. "Too slow."

I expected that. I wasn’t aiming to hit her—I was aiming to prove I could cast at all. The thought of hurting her hurt me.

She turned back to me, brow raised. "At least you didn’t burn off your own eyebrows."

"Small victories," I muttered, my ego a little bruised.

The professor watched from the front of the class, observing but not interfering. I could tell he wasn’t impressed, but I could always blame the head injury, though not for much longer. That was fine. I wasn’t here to impress anyone, though it would have been nice to impress her. To show her I was something significant.

Mara shifted her stance, rolling her shoulders. "Again," she responded, taunting me, giving me an additional chance that I wouldn’t normally have access to.

I frowned. "We’re rotating, remember? Your turn."

She gave me a look. "I already know I can reinforce my body. You’re the one who has something to prove."

Damn, that beautiful, wonderful, brilliant woman. I supposed that I could put my all into it–I wasn’t terribly talented, so what could I actually do to someone of her level?

I nodded, calling my mana again. This time, I focused more. Less force, more control. After letting it build up farther than I had ever before, I threw another spell.

Mara didn’t dodge this one.

Instead, she raised her arm and reinforced it mid-impact. I was honestly impressed with what I had produced, but she seemed to absorb it, to dissipate the energy I produced. I still wasn’t giving it my all.

She exhaled, flexing her fingers. "Better."

I barely held back a sigh of relief. It wasn’t good enough, but it was progress.

The professor clapped his hands. "That’s enough for today. You’re dismissed."

"One more chance sir," I requested. I knew I could do more, and had to prove myself.

The professor gave me a dissatisfied look before submitting, "Very well, one more, but if this goes on too long, you will have to answer to your fellow students as to why you were all late for lunch." He scoffed, but there was some interest in his tone, he wanted to see me do more than expected.

Mara shrugged, she couldn’t care less what I did, she was overly confident in her abilities and had overestimated me to a degree that was honestly insulting. I understood it though, it all made sense, I just needed to prove myself to her. I wasn’t used to being helpless, I was supposed to protect her, but without my daggers, without my physical abilities, things would turn out differently.

Mara gave me one last glance before taking her place, ready to defend against me.

I spent a few minutes building up mana within me. My mana levels plummeted as I reinforced my body. I was supposed to be attacking, but something told me I needed to work on myself first. Every last ounce of this body mana flowed into me and I didn’t have enough to cast a spell, but thankfully I still had that skill.

Activate Parasitic Reserves. I told my system.

[Parasitic Reserves Activated. You now have full HP and full MP. No additional HP was needed to restore you to full, and it will be discarded.]

With my new flood of mana, I pushed everything into this last attack. I focused like I had never focused before, I poured everything into the most calculated, most stabilized, most efficient spell I had yet to produce. The power was overwhelming, and yet I still felt control over it. As my mana dipped down to the single digits, I directed it toward Mara.

When the blast was released, it shook the room, it sent desks and chairs sprawling. Several students were knocked back to the ground as the ability made its way toward the only person I cared about. For a moment, I felt guilty for attacking her like this. She was strong though, she could handle anything.

The look on Mara’s face was priceless, both hilarious and horrifying. She didn’t expect this level of energy from me and was trying to adjust her stance, trying to adapt her spell to meet mine, but it wasn’t enough. When the force hit her, she managed to absorb a fraction of it, but soon she was sliding backward. My dearest connection was struggling as my ability forced her toward the wall, and soon her back was against it, her hands splayed outward trying to navigate this new territory.

I could see her hands burning from raw kinetic energy, I could see the pain spread across her visage. I panicked and dismantled my spell, causing no more than for her to hit her head against the wall, thankfully no blood was present, but it knocked something into, or out of her. Within a fraction of a second, her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. Her hair was a mess of tangles, her eyes still wide with terror, her hands worse for the wear.

Everyone stood slack-jawed at my attack, and it felt like an eternity before the professor rushed to her and began administering first aid, in the form of advanced healing spells. It was overkill, but he wasn’t going to risk it. With a quick turn of his head, he announced, "Class dismissed," and everyone began navigating their way out of the classroom. I lingered for a moment before leaving with the rest of them. My heart swelled with pride, but also pain, I never intended to do this. I would have to talk to the old man about this. I wouldn’t live with myself if I hurt someone I cared for, ever again.