Magic 102

The leech rolled and splash on the marsh waters. It laughed hysterically as it chewed up on Riley's insides. "That's right human! This is the power of a leech! Using my intelligence to get what I want." As the leech spoke, Riley fell to the ground, he laid on his stomach. Well, he laid on what was left of his stomach. Jesuh watched from a distance, he instinctively stepped a foot forward, but stopped himself from continuing.

The leech's mouth leaked of blue blood, it messily ate as its 32 brains began turning cogs in the blue eyed head inside of the leech. "I should go after that guy who threw the dagger. He only caught me by surprise earlier, and he is easily man- mani- manny poo late? He can easily be manny-poo-lated!" The leech smiled at its brilliant idea, it dived into the shallow water like a rain drop on a pool.

Meanwhile Jesuh continued to watch Riley, he set his backpack down and reached for his revolver. He placed his hand on top of it, waiting for Riley to do or not do something. Riley, on the other hand, was drowning in a pool of his own blood that mixed with the shallow marsh waters and mud that lined the bottom. "Come on kid, I refuse to believe that my first time being an Angel ends this fucking early." Jesuh took the half-smoked cigarette out of his mouth and threw it behind him. Almost on cue, the leech leaped out of the water and appeared behind him, it was as silent as a mouse. As it leapt, it swallowed the cigarette and rose far above him, then angled himself to be able to bite his head.

While he did this, the wounds on Riley ignited with white flames. The flames burned high and beautifully, it embraced Riley like a mother would to their lost child. The flames danced around him as he slowly got lifted up by them. The flames concentrated around his hand shaped itself to look like his hand, then a skeleton of his hand formed, followed by the muscles and tissue, finally ending with the skin. The flame at his hand burnt a bright blue, everywhere else a bright white that caught the attention of the leech, who, for a second, got distracted.

The blazing fire that surrounded mesmerized Jesuh, he smiled as he smelt the breath of the leech touch the back of his neck. Like a cat his hair jumped up alongside him, he quickly turned around and grabbed the leech by its sides. He held it a distance away from his face, "What the fuck do think you're doing," asked Jesuh.

"Uh, Uh," the leech stumbled on its words, as it tried to think of a way out of the situation. However his thinking was shortly cut off by a shriek from Riley. "I WILL NOT DIE!" The fires subsided, leaving Riley without a single wound on his body. He was picking himself up as he let out a victory screech. "AARRRUUUUUUUGAAAAH! WOO! HOLY SHIT! Did you see that shit Jesuh. I did it! I used my natural regeneration."

Riley looked all over for Jesuh, "Huh, the leech is gone. Where did you guys go?"

"Right here, I caught this little bugger trying to take a bite out of me," Jesuh walked down to Riley with the leech under his arm, the leech looked as though it was deeply upset. Riley jumped in joy and excitingly ran up to Jesuh, once in front of him, he squealed. "Did you see? I don't usually get things down the first time, but this time I pretty much got it down right."

"Mhm, is that right," Jesuh said with contempt in his eyes.

"Yeah, I feel like I'm ready to get to the next step, I can heal myself and I can learn offensive spells now right?"

Jesuh, took off his cowboy hat and placed it on Riley's head. "Hold this for me."

Riley nodded, and took it off his head, he held it tight to his chest.

"Alright Riley, now that you got regeneration down, I want you to show me." Jesuh paused and waited for his answer. "Alright," Jesuh took out his dagger from his back pocket and sliced forward, cutting a bit of Riley's face. Riley hopped back a step, "W-What are you doing." He held down the small cut to stop the blue blood from coming out. "Heal it. If you got down regeneration, heal it homie."

Riley laughed, "Y-yeah. No problem homie." Riley focused really hard, he scrunched up his face, and imagined his wound healing. He held his breath as he awaited his wound to magically be healed by his innovative attempt at using magic. He waited half a minute before Jesuh broke his concentration. "Are you taking a shit? What the fuck are you do-"

"Shut up, I'm trying to focus."

"You need to focus to heal," Jesuh scuffed, "WOW. So when some Galdrman is beating you the fuck up, and you need to dodge, hit vital points or something. Are you gonna tell them to stop attacking you so you can focus on healing."

"Maybe! I just might do that, maybe I'll run away and hide behind a pillar for a couple minutes as I wait for my health to regen."

"Health to regen? Is that a gamer term? I've heard it before with some other humans that come through here."

"Yeah, because regen is short for regeneration, and health is just how many hit points you have until you die. Hit points are essentially how many times you can get hit before dying."

"Do they have the same kind of system for mana in games?"

"You know about mana?"

"Are you a leech?"

"HEY," the leech screamed, "that has got to be dishonorable to my race!"

Jesuh looked down at the leech. He smirked, then tossed his dagger over to Riley, who just barely caught up, and who managed to somehow cut himself more. "Shit, I still haven't even been able to heal the last wound," Riley thought, "What is going on, what am I doing wrong. What was different between right now and the time I was healing."

Riley held onto the knife by the handle, his blood dripping from his palm. He watched Jesuh, looked at his whole outfit, and his weapons. He looked at his revolver, and remembered back to the moment he got shot in the knee.

"Riley! Welcome to Magic 102. 101 was just the introduction, now I want you to understand a few things about mana, and magic in general." Jesuh put up a single finger, "Number one, like hit points in a game there are limited amount of mana in each and every person. Getting better at using magic, or working out your magic, will result in you essentially getting more mana. It's like building muscle mass, the more you work the muscle the less mana and focus it should take to use it." Jesuh put up a second finger, "Number two, running out of mana means that you will get mana exhaustion. Usually it doesn't matter because during the day we will always regenerate our mana over time."

"During the day, does that mean that there is a night-" Suddenly two rings of fire pulse from the top of the lighthouse. It brushes over the whole land until it kisses the far horizon. Riley watched this happen in horror, "What does that mean."

"Remember when I said that the white flame can be used as a bonfire or a clock? Well the lighthouse flame is a clock. One pulse wave means night is approached, two pulses means get your ass home right now. Three means, it's arrived. We have to go quick so," he lifted the leech up to his face, "Go tell your king that in one month's time Riley and Jesuh will come and kill him. You better hurry, or else that cigarette bomb will explode at any minute."

Jesuh let go of the leech who dipped into the shallow waters. "Riley, run to the lighthouse. We'll take cover in there for the night. Also please," he pointed at the blood dripping from Riley, "Can you hurry up and heal that."

Riley nodded, he started running as he thought about Jesuh's words from before, "I know the burning sensation of healing. I've experienced near death. Alright, stay calm Riley, just recreate that healing feeling, that feeling right before I woke up again."

Riley closed his eyes to focus on his wounds, he now imagined some other worldly being made up of white flames walking up to him and taking his hand. The being would lick both of his wounds, igniting them instantly. The blue blood gushing from them would evaporate. The flames were gentle and warm. It made him think of a nursey rhyme he once heard. "You've been in the dark for way too long," Riley lost his focus, he opened his eyes and looked around. The dark twisted trees around him seemed to reach towards him, he felt the same dark aura that he felt in his house as he looked at his healed wounds.

"Who said that," Riley asked himself.