Chapter 16: Drain

"Hey! Are you alright?!" Josh shouted to Krizel.

Krizel looked around the room. Her vision seemed blurred. Everything around her is in shades of red.

She straightened herself and then faced the tube.

"HAA!" She suddenly screamed.

"Y-you! Why are you too bright?!" She staggered then she fell.

Her spells slowly receded. Her armor broke into red particles. The fire in the room slowly died down.

Rico's voice resounded in each room again.

"When you lose your focus in pouring mana to your mark, your spells will be forcefully canceled. It's always better to slowly reduce the amount of mana you pour to your mark than forcefully cancel it. Although this doesn't do anything practical, it practices your mana control. And since you're still in the academy, we want you to practice this act of getting mana from your magic presence reserve and pouring it into your marks."

"Now, for those who haven't canceled their spells yet, do as I said so."

After Rico saw that everyone has canceled their spells, he continued speaking.

"Those in control, press the blue button to replace the dummy robots. Then, switch with your partner in the tube."

Josh checked the room, and after seeing that there really is not much damage in the room except for light scorch marks, he got out of the tube.

"Krizel, are you alright?" He approached Krizel worryingly.

"… Yes." Josh helped Krizel get up, and she proceeded to the tube.

'Maybe because I'm just new to spells' Krizel thought.

...

Rico then said,

"Now do as your partner did earlier."

Krizel checked the mana reading in the room, and after seeing that it receded to zero, she gave Josh a thumbs up and a nod.

Seeing Krizel's gesture, Josh started his spell blessing.

'poop, poop, poop. Just like pooping.' He imagined the feeling of pooping.

*Pwwfft* A gas leaked out of Josh's bottom.

Krizel held her stomach and has her mouth twitching from holding herself back from laughing, while Josh has his cheeks bright red and his eyes gazed to the floor from embarrassment.

He then lightly swayed his legs.

'At least there's no poop…' He sighed in relief.

"Uhm… I will start again." Josh said to Krizel with still slightly rosy cheeks.

Krizel then nod to him with a poker face, but she still held her stomach.

After relaxing himself again, Josh first imagined the mana wave Rico demonstrated them earlier. He tried to imbue in his mind the pressure it gives, the way his body felt shrinking when it went past him, and the sensation it gave to his skin.

With closed eyes, he focused again.

After some moment, Krizel, with wide eyes, saw that the mana scale is increasing explosively. The whole scale is full.

"What?!" She muttered inaudibly.

Josh, with all of his focus, poured the remaining mana to his mark from his magic presence reserve.

With still eyes closed, Josh said unconsciously,

"Erase"

Suddenly, the room got dark, the room got covered with blinking red light, then an alarm goes off.

"Warning! Warning! Electrical power is below the working level. Breaking and connecting to emergency circuit."

The room's light flickered for some time before it properly worked again.

Krizel looked at the middle of the room and saw that on the stands,

"the r-robo-t-s… are g-gone."

Josh has his body fully covered in sweat. With tired eyes he faced forward, he then looked at Krizel directly.

Without him doing anything, words come out of his mouth,

"Drain"

Krizel felt her whole body shiver when Josh looked at her. All of her little body hair stood up. She then tried to create some distance with him, but she can't do so, since the tube is too narrow.

She then felt something getting sucked out of her. Her whole body tensed up.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"