The Mage held her right hand out in the empty air between them. She kept her palm flat and open.
"We, Mages, do not coat our bodies," the Mage said. "We do not coat our weapons. When we open our furnace doors, we reach inside. We grab a handful of the raw fire."
She curled her fingers slightly, pretending to hold an invisible ball.
"We pull the Aura out of our chest, forcing it entirely outside our body," she said, her voice steady. "We push it into the empty air right in front of us, separating the energy from our flesh until it doesn't touch our skin anymore."
Margot stared at the empty space above the Mage's hand. "You take it out?"
"Yes," the Mage nodded. "Once the Aura is floating outside my body, I force all of it to squeeze into one single point. I concentrate it. I pack it tightly together until it takes a physical shape. A sphere. A wall. A sharp spike."
Elodie looked confused. "If it is floating in the air, how does it hurt the bad men?"
The Mage smiled a small, tight smile. "That is the hard part. A melee's Aura moves when his arm moves. He just swings his sword to hit the target. But my Aura is just sitting in the air. If I make a ball of fire, it will just float right there above my palm."
She pushed her empty hand forward slightly.
"Mages and Healers build independent magic," she said. "We create the shape of the Aura in the air. Then, we have to find a way to make it reach the target."
Margot pointed at the empty air above the Mage's hand. "How do you make the floating ball move? Do you just throw it like a rock?"
The Mage let out a soft laugh and lowered her hand.
"You cannot throw magic with your hands," the Mage said flatly. "Fire isn't a rock. If you try to grab a candle flame and throw it, you just burn your fingers."
Margot blinked. "Then how does it fly?"
The Mage leaned forward, her voice dropping to a serious whisper. "You have to build an Aura Tail."
---
Location: Murkwater Swamp
Thousands of kilometers to the East, the road completely vanished. It turned into a wide, sunken trail of thick, foul-smelling black mud. The twenty-five Adventurers of the raid team marched through the Murkwater Swamp.
The air was bitterly cold. Dense gray fog rolled between the rotting, dead trees.
Kaelen, the huge Tanker leading the formation, suddenly stopped. He raised a thick, scarred hand.
The sound of heavy, splashing mud echoed through the fog. Twenty big, reptilian beasts dragged themselves out of the murky water to block the path.
They were Hazard-class Swamp Crawlers. Thick, dark green scales covered their bodies. Yellow saliva dripped from their razor-sharp teeth.
Kaelen did not draw his broadsword or unhook his heavy iron shield. He simply glanced over his shoulder.
"Tankers, hold the line," Kaelen ordered, his voice echoing in the damp air. "Mages, clear the road."
Five Mages and two Healers stepped forward from the middle of the pack. They walked past the heavily armored Swordsmen.
Lumina and Celia stayed in the back. The black-haired Mage and the blonde elf Healer did not raise their hands. They just watched the mud.
---
Location: Medical Ward
Back in the quiet medical ward, Elodie frowned. She pulled her gray wool blanket tighter around her shoulders.
"An Aura Tail?" Elodie asked. "Like a dog's tail?"
"No," the Mage said as she shook her head. "Think about a campfire. If you reach into a campfire and grab a handful of the fire, can you throw it at someone?"
"No," Margot said. "It would burn my hand. And fire is just hot air. It does not weigh anything."
"You are right," the Mage smiled. "Fire is not a rock. You cannot pick it up. In a lot of cheap storybooks, they say a wizard just looks at a fire and makes it fly across the room with his mind. But if a wizard can move things with his mind, he is not using fire magic. He is using mind magic—telekinesis."
The Mage leaned closer to the two girls. "And think about it. If every single Mage in the world had telekinesis, they would never need to throw fire at a monster. They would just use their minds to snap the monster's neck from far away."
Elodie's mouth fell open. "Oh. That makes sense."
"You cannot just command fire to move," the Mage explained. "You have to physically push it."
---
Location: Murkwater Swamp
In the swamp, the five Mages planted their boots in the mud and stood perfectly still.
Like throwing open the heavy iron doors of a furnace, they flooded their Etheric Veins with fuel. Thick, dense Mana rushed upward through their chests. It spilled out of their bodies and pooled into the empty air right in front of them.
Within 2 to 3 seconds, the Mana materialized into Aura and then it concentrated into single, localized points.
Three Mages formed spheres of violently swirling, orange fire. Two Mages formed jagged, heavy blocks of solid ice.
The magic simply floated there and hovered right above their palms, completely stationary.
---
Location: Medical Ward
"So if you cannot throw it with your mind," Margot asked, "how does the fireball hit the bad guys?"
The Mage held up her empty hand. "We push the Mana outside so it becomes Aura. We squeeze it into a tight ball of fire but it just floats there. To make it fly, we have to weave a completely different, second spell right at the back of the fireball. Have you ever seen a festival firework? The ones they light on the King's birthday that shoot high into the sky?"
Margot nodded excitedly. "Yes! They leave a loud trail of sparks!"
"Exactly," the Mage said. "A firework doesn't just float up. It has a hole in the bottom. A continuous explosion shoots backward out of that hole, and that backward explosion is what violently pushes the firework forward into the sky. We do the exact same thing."
The Mage pointed at her empty palm. "The proper tactical name is an Etheric Vent, but Adventurers just call it an Aura Tail. It acts exactly like the hole in the firework. It constantly explodes backward, shoving the fireball forward through the air."
"Can you see the tail?" Elodie asked, her eyes wide.
"Yes," the Mage nodded. "It looks like a roaring burst of flames pushing out the back of the ball."
"But what if the bad guy is hiding behind a big wall?" Elodie asked while tracing a curve in the air with her small finger. "If you can't see him, and the fireball only shoots straight, it will just hit the wall, right?"
The Mage smiled brightly. "That is where a Mage shows their true skill. We do not just shoot blindly. If the bad guy is hiding, we use a third spell."
"A third spell?" Elodie asked, confused.
The Mage chuckled. "In those same cheap storybooks, the wizard just shoots a fireball, and it magically turns a corner all by itself to chase the bad guy."
The Mage leaned closer and tapped the side of her head. "But think about it. Fire does not have eyes. Fire does not have a steering wheel. If a Mage can make fire turn corners and chase people just by thinking about it, what kind of magic is he actually using?"
Margot gasped, catching on perfectly. "Mind magic! Telekinesis!"
"Exactly," the Mage smiled proudly. "Real fire only shoots in a straight line, exactly where the tail pushes it. It cannot turn on its own. If a Fire Mage can mentally control where a fireball flies, then that is not fire magic. That is Telekinesis. If we want a fireball to curve around a big wall, we have to lay down a track for it to follow. The third spell. We call it an Aura Thread."
"A thread?" Margot asked. "Like a sewing string?"
"Exactly," the Mage nodded. "It is a very thin, invisible string made of Aura. It works exactly like the magic a lightning Mage uses. After casting the fireball and the Aura Tail, we shoot the invisible string. It travels so fast it touches the target in a fraction of a second. A highly skilled Mage can weave that invisible string through the air, bending it around trees or over big walls until it securely touches the hidden enemy."
The Mage pointed at her empty palm again. "Once the invisible string is tied to the bad guy, we let the fireball go. The fireball acts like a bead sliding down a necklace. It follows the exact path of the string. The invisible thread physically forces the fireball to bend its trajectory in mid-air."
Elodie's eyes went wide. "So... you are casting three things at the exact same time?"
"Yes," the Mage said, her voice filled with quiet pride. "The 'ball of fire' to hurt them. The Aura Tail to push it. And the invisible Aura Thread to guide it. That is why being a Mage takes years of study."