Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) by V.A. Lewis (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

A few murmurs ran through the crowd, but quickly died down. Gerritt continued.

"In a few weeks, we’ll finally be leaving this damned cave as decided by myself and the Dark Acolyte, Victor. We’ll be heading east, towards the Chalstics Confederacy, and occupying a fort there. So there will be no more small raids, and no more stealing. You lot will finally be putting your training to use!"

This time, there were more than a few murmurs that ran through the crowd; voices came from every direction, and they sounded almost… excited?

"Silence," Gerritt shouted over them.

The chatter immediately halted, and the Orc cleared his throat. "Hrmph, I will be briefing you more on this later. For today, our regular drills will continue. However, there is something else I need to address before that happens." The Dark Commander raised a finger and pointed it at a figure in the crowd. "You," he said flatly.

The Goblin from earlier— the one whose spell failed— froze; he pointed at himself nervously, and Gerritt nodded. "Do not worry, you are not in trouble. I saw your attempt at casting the Blast Enchantment. It was a good effort; truly an admirable attempt."

The Goblin sighed in relief, as the Orc praised him. "Your eagerness to learn is commendable. Trying a spell beyond your grasp and failing is the first step to learning it. But I believe a demonstration is in order." He turned his gaze into the crowd. "Karna."

"Yes Commander." The familiar Goblin stood at attention.

"Show them how it’s done."

"Yes, Commander," Karna said. He spun around, and briskly walked over to the archery range.

He drew his bow and arrow, aiming it at a target all the way at the end. A yellow magic circle— just like the one I saw from earlier— appeared, as he slowly nocked his arrow. The spell finished forming in the air, and Karna loosed the arrow*.*

The magic circle began to bend as the arrowhead came into contact with it. What came next happened fast: the yellow lines stretched as the arrow went through the magic circle, almost wrapping itself around the projectile. The now glowing arrow flew quicker than it should have, almost like it was a crossbow bolt, zipping straight at its target, and—

It exploded.

I covered my eyes as a bright light flashed before me; a loud bang resounded in my eardrums, and echoed throughout the cave. I slowly lowered my hands as the light went away. And I gazed in awe. More than half the target was gone, blown away from the explosion by the enchanted arrow.

It was not some thin board of wood, like most archery targets were. It was an actual block of wood; like a tree log repurposed to be some sort of wooden dummy.

And it was destroyed.

There was a short applause that followed the thin plume of smoke that rose in the air, as the Goblin lowered his bow

"Amazing as always, Karna," Gerritt complimented him.

I was about to clap too, when Karna caught a glimpse of me. He sneered at me for the briefest of a second, then strode back to the crowd. I frowned.

What’s his problem?

I wanted to press the issue, but Gerritt spoke up too quickly. "Alright, our war games for today will be splitting you into—"

He probably hates me, I decided. I felt a vein in my forehead twitch as the realization struck me. So that’s why he always gives me the cold shoulder. But the question is: why?

I disliked being hated for no reason; I also disliked being treated and reprimanded like a kid for a nonissue. I couldn’t relax and watch the training if this feeling of annoyance was eating me up from the inside.

So I strolled up to the shooting range and narrowed my eyes. Gerritt wanted the other Goblins to watch Karna as he performed his demonstration of the spell, yet all I saw was a spell circle taking shape and enveloping the arrow. Were you supposed to pay attention to the symbols and shapes within the circle?

I highly doubted that; apart from looking kind-of-similar— but not really— to the writings of the Venerable Language, the symbols in a magic circle held no written meaning. There was also no mention of memorizing the shapes within them in the piece of paper Victor had given me.

The only thing that paper had mentioned was the modification of the Magic Bolt spells. But what did that even mean? I had no idea.

I sighed, then brought my hand out. Might as well practice old spells if I can’t learn new ones, I thought, choosing to maybe vent my frustrations for a little bit by destroying some practice dummies. I felt at the world around me, and the immersive sensation of the vast ocean of mana came over me. However, unlike the last few times I cast Magic Bolt, there were… ripples?

I could sense mana being pulled from the air and the earth, being turned into something else. People were casting magic— the Goblins were casting magic, and I could feel it. I looked over at where the Goblins were training, and saw some spells being thrown around— they were nothing truly dangerous. Nothing that would do more harm than incapacitate one another.

...how do I know that?

It was almost intuitive; it came to me completely naturally. Then I realized it was just like all the other times I had cast spells by instinct.

"Modify it," I said, resolving myself. "That’s all I have to do."

I pointed a finger at the nearest target, and sent a Magic Bolt at it. Then two. And then five.

The blue bolts of energy cut into the wooden dummy, knocking small chunks of it off with each strike. I didn’t miss a single shot; I had enough practice shooting actual moving