Interlude 2. Scotland. The surroundings of Malcolm Castle. The Malcolm Clan combat training ground. Merukhi and Kues Jinguji, Hamish and Alexander Malcolm
"Get ready!"
The bowl of the "combat range" of the ancient Malcolm family most resembled an ordinary amphitheater, or rather, half of the arena... and any military man would have no problem recognizing the shooting range. A small one.
"Relea-a-se!"
Due to the shape of the polygon, the voice of the "presenter" was reflected and carried around, causing Merukhi Jinguji to wince at the operator's intonation: not so much from a harsh accent or echo, but out of habit. Their own training ground in Japan was set up in much the same way. Meanwhile, two identical figures materialized in the middle of the arena... rather, the figures are caricature likenesses of people, green and pointy-eared, and on the muzzle - ugh! The goblins of Scotland couldn't claim aesthetics from a human point of view. By the way, the Europeans used about the same spatial technique as their Japanese counterparts to "pack" training props: rows of "bottles" stood to the right of the head of the Jinguji, pointing the neck at the center of the amphitheater. Like guns like that. One "bottle" is one spirit. Convenient!
The figures of the spirits, having appeared on the "field", meanwhile, were not going to stand and pretend to be a target - they instantly got their bearings and scattered in different directions... They tried, at least. The left spirit suddenly and without visible special effects flew away in a cloud of smoke-emitting fragments, but the right one, with a high leap and a flip in the air, still escaped from the impact of the fiery arrow.
Malcolm Sr., standing next to Meruhi, snorted faintly. Theory is theory, but his son "failed" the first blow. Goblin, despite the C-class, has one indisputable "advantage": he runs very fast... He demonstrated this to the Malcolm heir by successively dodging an ice arrow and a fireball... and ran into a zipper. There were no beautiful pieces, just a patch of melted soil. Hamish Malcolm shook his head. And the second mistake. Lightning is not a spell for goblin level, it's like hitting a fly with a grenade. And a full-fledged lightning is very demanding on mana - in proportion to the distance, which is typical. Even weak magicians can hit at point-blank range, and "pump up" a channel of forty meters - and quickly! It's even expensive for him, not like for his son, who is breathing heavily.
The younger Jinguji showed no signs of fatigue. And judging by the speed with which she formed the "sword" - a channel-force impact spell, rather than a channel-energy (like lightning) type, she trained precisely for this tactic. That's right: when the "limit" is not tight, use what you can use quickly. The overwhelming aura of power, flickering a little, but so powerful that it completely overshadowed Alex's aura, made it clear better than any words that it was still very, very far before the reserve of the twelve-year-old sorceress "shows the bottom"... much further than Hemish himself and even the elder Jinguji standing next to him. The same goblin, if given the opportunity, would have fled faster than his own scream, as soon as such a wizard appeared on the horizon. It is logical that the "minimal" spell developed by the young sorceress is designed for an entity of a class higher than a pathetic three-piece anthropoid, which is similar to class C in the Jinguji classification, which does not even have brains. Well, we must continue. Hamish nodded to the operator, who was looking at him attentively, and "Get ready!" resounded over the training ground again.
This time, the cameraman brought a water creature into the training arena - the so-called "little nymph". At an equal distance, puddles with a diameter of ten meters suddenly appeared in the middle of the withered winter grass... And the left one exploded into unrestrained flames without a pause! The water boiled and evaporated in the blink of an eye - a furious streak of plasma stretching from the Japanese woman to the opponent made even Alexander Malcolm, who was standing twenty meters to the right, recoil - alas, and then he lost the initiative. But no, he didn't miss it. Having decided to make up for his past mistake, as well as recognizing the "water", the child carefully formed "dead water" around the brushes - a laboratory spell for neutralizing water. However, it has been considered a laboratory weapon for the last three hundred years - and before that it was quite combat-ready, though slow, but the nymph couldn't get out of her puddle anyway. The water in the right puddle rapidly turned black and slowly began to lighten... and Malcolm Sr. mentally counted another mistake for his son. However! No, in urban or even rural conditions, "dead water" was preferable - no visible effects, traces, or destruction... but not for the landfill, where it is necessary to destroy evil spirits for a while!
"What's going to be number three, colleague?" Meruhi smiled tightly, but it was obvious that she was proud of her daughter. And Malcolm decided, showing the operator "two" on his fingers.
"Get ready!"
"One of the minor Shi."
"And that's not too much," Mother Kues suddenly became serious. "Children..."
"One "two" is quite possible for them." The "Scottish Baron" smiled politely.
Once again, two figures appeared on the battlefield: light, flexible, airy silhouettes, and deliberate smoothness of movement. The younger alves. Which immediately proved the advantage of intelligence over brainless strength and speed - a shield of dust and air successfully deflected Alexander's fireball into space, and immediately, taking off, struck... according to the Kues. He tried to hit her. Because the young sorceress, it turns out, was waiting for this: the classic Japanese blow-on-the-counter with the same air and stones literally sawed through the left figure, forcing the victim to expel his last, heart-rending scream from his lungs... very similar to the female one. Malcolm Jr. also made no mistake: an ice arrow pierced the second figure and literally pinned it to the ground: the temperature difference of the ice desublimated from the humid December air was enough to freeze the still-alive Shi to the ground. More precisely, still alive. The "elf" is just over a meter tall and has the proportions of a child: a head larger than a person of that height should have, huge black eyes ... an excellent adaptive appearance that allows these two spirits to successfully survive most meetings with people... and some male magicians.
"Don't kill... please..." The spirit suddenly spoke clearly, causing the boy, who was already ready to throw the second arrow, to lose his way. Exactly one second was how much the wounded target "bought" for itself, and then it, along with the "arrow", exploded into familiar smoking fragments.
"I'm sorry, reflex." Kues, who came up to Alex, who dispelled the spell, even put her hand on his shoulder - the younger Malcolm looked so upset. "I was taught that those creatures that speak should be taken out first. A dangerous opponent, especially for us."
The boy's mood began to improve rapidly - he started talking about something with Merukhi's daughter, but Khamish's discontent only intensified. Damn it! The little witch made a guy by all accounts. Not only that, but also not at the expense of superiority in strength, which is the most insulting thing! The willingness to kill is to kill quickly and efficiently, that's what the Japanese woman demonstrated. The product is, so to speak, a face. Yes, for such a girl, a hundred years ago, a quarrel could have been unleashed from the heels of the Old Families - moreover, the age, so to speak, has already come up. A black warm dress with a long skirt quite clearly indicated the presence of secondary sexual characteristics... and young Malcolm, no, no, and even glanced at these "beautiful hills." Damn, it's not the right time for all this fuss!
The Malcolm family, an old Scottish magical and chivalrous family, has been chronicling the Island since the end of the thirteenth century, when the land was granted to his ancestor as a reward for clearing the surrounding forests. Forests, huh! Fields of heather and rocks are all that remains of the mystical splendor and diversity of Old England... this is if you don't go into reservoirs. And into the swamps. And into the underground tunnels. Yeah, and to the catacombs under London. In short, magicians will not be left without work. Especially considering that there have been no more uncovered "hollow hills" on the territory of Albion in the entire history than the hills themselves... and more and more shelters continued to be found even now. Moreover, the damned creatures even improved their skills, effectively disguised themselves, and showed all the signs of socialization... They almost supported the Irish Resistance! chi-childbirth... And the Redbeards, too...
The "supernatural" situation in good old Britain was slowly but surely heating up - the number of skirmishes and problems grew year by year, the mages from the National Patrol doubled their number - and this is not counting the volunteer Squad deployed from thirty-nine Old Families, the families of noble magicians have not yet forgotten what they swore to their monarchs. And in such a situation, it was not very convenient to get involved with a renegade Japanese clan. It seems that while everyone is fighting, some people are running their own business... moreover, Malcolm had no one but himself to put in the "squad" from the Hemish Family. For the Old Families, the Jinguji clan, which was clearly trying to get into the number of British Families, was considered a bit "not a cake" - just a hundred and fifty years of a half-eyed family, and already there... That's apart from the amount of property and the steady flow of artifacts from the east to the Island and Europe. And artifacts are not just about money. These are the lives of weak magicians and the effective "fencing off" of problem areas and zones. The government of the European Union did not want to hear about any mysticism, only the strengthening of the Vatican and the Church was missing in the local soup with dumplings - oil, gas, Islamists and other entertainment of civilized Europeans. The government's demands were accompanied by financing and preferences - tax and land, but remove this headache as well, and the Jingujis are rapidly getting richer. And the matriarch of this impressive clan has a marriageable daughter growing up... and Alex has also managed to make friends with a witch! Clearly, it is worth indicating your intentions, as the squabble will begin immediately. The alienation status will be lifted from Ji... and stick it to the Malcolms. No, to lay hands on such a treasure as the daughter of the head would be simply wonderful... but they won't understand, sir, especially since marriage with a change of surname and descent is not even considered. And this is again a violation of traditions...
So Hamish "paused" without indicating his position in front of the guest, and she, in turn, without offering anything, took advantage of the opportunity to arrange "screenings" for the young baronet and draw conclusions from what happened at the training ground. There was no doubt that such "courtesy visits" would take place not only with them - after all, Kues was not studying in a vacuum, and she had enough British friends from the Academy. So it will be possible to decide in three or four years... The main thing was not to be late if the heir did decide, because it was clear that Kues and his son were close friends. Both were slightly "turned" on the research of the nature of magic - an analogue of theoretical physics for the mystical field. This subject was puzzling, abstract and philosophical... and it had about the same significance as the fundamental research that marked the beginning of the "atomic" era of mankind. Kues and Alex were both already engaged in science - their childish naive interest in the mysteries of nature was transformed into good scientific researchers, since the work was dusty and very honorable.
Malcolm realized that his son was "caught" when he caught the latter looking at photos of the younger Jinguji: during the filming, they made a whole bunch of them, and during the year the students actively "clicked" each other and posted on all kinds of Facebook. I even had to specifically raise the firewall in the school network and turn on the forwarding on the nearest cellular repeaters, otherwise especially advanced kids, having created the first "lamp" in their lives, tried to immediately post a photo online and brag. Children... They're the only problem. But there is nowhere without children. If only Bella were with him... They wouldn't stop at one child! And Merukhi has an amazing figure. For forty-year-olds. And you can't tell that she's over twenty-five. I just want to offer to spend the night in the castle... But you can't. Damn traditions and damn long ears are always ready...
"What a stylish place you have here!" Kues looked around with interest, trying to cheer up her friend who had slipped back into melancholy with funny comments. Dad had already conducted a light debriefing with him, and the results turned out to be much less comforting for the young heir to the barony. And a girlfriend, too... Kues... She showed such a clear class that it's a shame to look into her eyes!
"Hey, can you hear me?" the girl waved her palm in front of the guy's face and brought her face closer. "I'm saying, stop worrying about nonsense."
Alex's cheeks turned pink - the girl handled her personal space quite freely, and if she was in a hurry, she could grab her hand if a friend "slowed down". Nothing like that, just a temperament. But it feels good!
"I'm not w-worried." he tried to deny it, but it didn't do much good - Jinguji didn't believe him. Which she demonstrated by making a skeptical face.
"Boys! You're always causing problems. Well, they didn't train you like they did me, so why worry?.. Oh, well. What you won't do for friendship. Let's organize our "Squad" after the holidays!"
"How's that? The squad is already quite there."
"You freaks! Not from adults- but from children! We have a lot of goonies who would just like to fight, and if you offer them the idea of learning how to defend themselves, it's the right way!"
"Actually, they don't teach combat magic at the Academy..." Alex drawled, trying to remember if there was a ban on "combat" training.
"They don't teach... They stopped after World War II." Kues demonstrated commendable elaboration of the issue. "And dueling is prohibited, as well as fighting. But no one forbids you to create a circle and train yourself. And there are even halls with protection and a shooting range. At the same time, let's see what all the "Papuans" have learned in their Pampas!"
"That's how they'll show it... and they don't know a damn thing."
"They know something. And knowledge doesn't lie around on the road. And in six months you will please your father! At least I'll fix your reaction problem" the Princess has given her word!
Kues puffed out her cheeks comically and looked "proudly" at the younger Malcolm. Well, he could only agree. Moreover, this way they can be together for a little more time. There was a sweet ache in the pit of the guy's stomach...
..And Kues, staring out the window, was no longer smiling. The mother came to Albion instead of taking her daughter to Japan. And she also clearly hinted that the girl should think about European holidays. What's going on back home? She didn't even ask about Amakawa, as she had noticed last time that her parent was quite annoyed by this topic. Yu-kun, how is he? Goes to a regular school, does her own childish things and doesn't know about any magic? Is this really life?
Well, if nothing can be done, you'll have to put your worries out of your head and learn. Be strong. To kill the spirits. Don't turn your back on the enemy. Mom will be proud of her daughter!
"Malcolm! You boasted that you had Druid texts in your library!"
Admiring the girl standing by the window in the slanting, rare winter sunlight falling from the window, he could not immediately return to reality.
"And he didn't brag about anything! They are there. And you can even watch it before lunch! Let's go!"