Everyone was stunned by Carlo’s spell—not some run-of-the-mill magic. The low-ranked mages especially gawked at the bearded Pyraxis with awe. With the fight over, they waited for the rest of the caravan to catch up, planning to cross the narrow ravine together and camp on the other side for the night.
While waiting, they tended to the wounded and scavenged anything valuable from the hyena corpses. There wasn’t much—just teeth and claws, nothing special about their hides. The teeth and claws, though, could be crafted into arrowheads or spear tips for disposable weapons.
As the group scavenged teeth and claws, a young, nerdy low-ranked mage, about the same age as the other soldiers, approached Carlo. "Might it be rude to ask the mechanism behind your spell, sir?" Most fighters here were young adults—older ones who hadn’t broken through as circle warriors or mages usually retired, using their earnings to start families, hoping their kids would make it big.
And few rare ones who stayed behind without advancing were often given command roles—their battlefield wisdom made them better leaders than fighters. Carlo was the oldest fighter among them, followed closely by Shera, both around thirty. The oldest regular soldier, a seasoned man in his late twenties, led his own team, which included a mage and the bow-wielding circle warrior.
"Don’t be so stiff, kid, of course I can explain the spell’s mechanism," Carlo said, turning to the other mages eyeing him curiously. "To all of ya."
The young mages grinned, crowding around as he went on, "By mechanism, you’re talkin’ about how the fireballs only hit the monsters, right?"
The young mages nodded together, clearly impressed by the spell’s standout feature: targeting only the hyenas. Raining fireballs was simple enough—just needed a ton of mana—but guiding them to hit specific targets, and so many, blew their minds. Carlo, catching their eager looks, felt a swell of pride. "You all studied mana prints of living things?"
The curious mages nodded in unison. "Makes it easier to explain, then," Carlo said. "Everything’s got its own unique mana print from birth. I used that to tell humans apart from those monsters, copied the hyenas’ mana prints, and wove ’em into my spell. That’s it." He glanced at their awestruck faces and added, "But it ain’t easy. You gotta know your spells inside out to mix ’em like that. One slip, and you might blast yourself. So, any of you itching to try it, do it somewhere safe, got it?"
They all nodded, and Carlo grinned. "Alright, get moving. The rest of the caravan’s catching up soon."
The mages scattered, buzzing with ideas about how to tweak their spells to target specific enemies using the new technique they’d learned. Robert caught wanni lost in thought and said, "What’s got you zoned out?" He grabbed her wrist, stopping her from jamming her knife into a dead hyena’s nose instead of prying out its teeth. "It’s dead, doesn’t mean you can poke its face holes," he chuckled, earning an annoyed glare from her. Her teammates, working nearby, couldn’t help but laugh too.
"Nothing," Wanni said, waving it off. "Just that Sir Carlo broke down how his fire rain spell works. It’s simpler than you’d think."
"Really?" Cassian asked, intrigued. Even though he wasn’t a mage, picking up new knowledge was always useful.
"Yeah," Wanni replied. "It’s based on stuff we learn early—mana prints of living things." She explained how those unique prints could be integrated into spells to target only specific creatures with matching mana signatures.
Despite her detailed explanation, the others looked clueless. Robert, scratching his head, blurted out, "Wait, what’re mana prints?"
Wanni sighed, seeing everyone as confused as Lumine. "Okay, everyone’s born with... how do I put this?" She paused, searching for a way to explain it to the thick-headed warriors. "From birth, every human has a kind of metaphysical code—twenty sequences, each with twenty numbers. Some match, some are totally different. Those numbers shape how we grow—tall, short, healthy, fair-skinned or dark, hair color, all of it. Everyone following so far?" She stopped, checking, and everyone nodded.
Cassian piped up, "I thought that stuff came from your parents and ancestors?" His red hair was a dead giveaway—every Ven Dyke with strong family blood had it.
"Yeah, those numbers are hidden in our blood. We inherit a lot from our parents, so our mana prints match theirs closest, but there’s still something unique to you," Wanni explained. "Every living thing has these prints. The more different the species, the more their mana prints vary. Some species have sequences in single digits, others go into triple digits—rare, though. But humans and other species share enough similarities that you can easily tell if a mana print is human or something else from blood or any body part." Her explanation was a bit muddled but sort of made sense. Most of the group, except Cassian, didn’t seem too interested and didn’t ask questions, probably worried she’d make it more confusing. She went on, "Sir Carlo just figured out the hyenas’ sequences and made his spell target only beings with those matching sequences."
Cassian, still curious despite the group’s waning interest, tilted his head. "So, how do you even figure out a creature’s mana print? Like, what’s the process?" he asked, glancing at Wanni while sheathing his sword.
The others, already back to yanking teeth and claws from the hyena corpses, barely looked up. Robert muttered something under his breath, clearly over the magic talk, as he pried a jagged tooth free. Wanni, noticing the group’s focus shifting, gave a small sigh but answered anyway. "It’s not simple. You need a sample—blood, fur, bone, anything from the creature. Then you use a mana tracing spell to map out the sequences. It takes focus and a good eye for patterns, ’cause every species has its quirks. Carlo’s just really damn good at it."
Cassian nodded, mulling it over, while the Theon nearby snorted, pulling a claw free. "Sounds like a pain in the ass. I’ll stick to stabbing things." He flicked the claw into a small pile.
"Fair," Cassian said with a grin, but his mind was still on the spell. "Could you use that trick on, say, cultists? Pick out their mana prints and blast ’em without hitting us?"
Wanni raised an eyebrow, impressed by the question. "Theoretically, yeah, but humans are trickier. Our mana prints are closer to each other than, say, a hyena’s to a human’s. You’d need a real precise read to avoid friendly fire. High ranked mages might pull it off, but most mages? They’d screw it up."
The low rumble of the nearing caravan reverberated through the canyon, a sign the rest of the group was almost there. Shera, cleaning blood off her bone hammer with a rag, barked, "Hurry it up, everyone! We’re crossing the ravine soon, so get ready to move!" The soldiers scrambled, stuffing scavenged teeth and claws into their pouches. Meanwhile, Cassian turned over Wanni’s words in his mind, wondering if this knowledge could prove useful in his future endeavors.