The first thing he noticed was that he could see more than before. With every attack he watched as space bent ever so slightly under his power before returning to normal.
This made him wonder what would happen if he struck his own barrier with a full-strength attack.
Placing a barrier on a barrel he struck it.
Just as his claws were going to hit the barrier, they froze one inch away from it. The space in between the barrier and his claws twisted and then...
Slip. Bang!
Chronos' face slammed into the barrier as his claws slipped sideways along the barrier.
"Oww, that hurt. So, this is what a shear looks like, since the [Sever] is an inferior spatial layer compared to [Isolate] it just slips off. Trying to attack a complete spatial skill with an incomplete one will almost always result in a shear. I'll need to learn a complete skill if I want to see what a lock or other spatial conflicts look like." Chronos muttered as he rubbed his nose.
As he let the energy on his claws begin to dissipate, he suddenly had an interesting idea. What if he caused two [Sever]s to clash?
To avoid cutting his hands in half he carefully pointed his index fingers at each other. As he brought them together the space between them began to twist, just like with the barrier. Then the twisting turned outward wrapping around his fingers and hands locking both of them in place.
"Hm, ungh, uurrgh. I.. can't.. separate... them! Gah, finally." Pulling with his full strength he managed to break the lock.
It felt like chains had been wrapped around his hands when the two [Sever]s had clashed, kind of like those finger lock toys that you couldn't forcibly open. Chronos had hated those things ever since his mother had tricked him to put one on every finger in the past.
A spatial lock was no joke, if that happened mid-combat it could be the end for him. He needed to find a way to break the lock.
After pondering what he knew about space he came up with two ideas. If he canceled the skill just when the lock began, he could break it before he was frozen in place but if he did it wrong then he'd be cut in two by the enemy's attack.
Or he could strike the side of the lock with a third spatial skill to cancel both of them out. That sounded safer but it meant that combat with spatial users wouldn't end fast especially if they were at or close to the same rank.
Chronos decided to prepare for both possibilities and practiced both methods.
What he learned was quite enlightening. If a lock was starting to form, then he could weaken his skill and turn the lock into a shear letting him slip right past the attack.
As for introducing a third spatial attack, it would break the lock, but it also threw all of the attacks backwards with great force. This might help him create space, but he had no way to control his body while being thrown around like a rag doll.
Once he had finished testing these, he thought back to what the beginner's book had taught him.
According to the book there were still three other possible results of spatial skills colliding with each other, but he couldn't recreate those on his own.
He continued practicing his skills for the rest of the night then took a quick nap before reporting to the kitchen for his oath-plate service.
"Morning head chef. What do you need me to do?"
"You're the first one in, you can start with cutting the bacon for breakfast. Make it thick as a blade." He said while pointing Chronos to a whole boar hanging off to the side.
"Got it."
While he cut the boar into somewhat random sizes and set them on the grill for cooking, more oath-plate workers showed up.
"Morning."
"How are you?"
"What's going on today?"
Murmurs spread through the dining hall as people began arriving for work and those that woke up early slowly trickled in.
The constant thrum of voices helped Chronos focus and slowly improve his balance as he tried to make perfect cuts with each cut becoming better and better.
"Looks like you're not so drunk today." The head chef said as he moved past him.
"I wasn't drunk yesterday either, just practicing a new skill. Also, chef, I don't think this boar will be enough, are there any others?" Chronos asked as the boar was nearly half gone already.
"Through that door." He pointed at a door in the back of the kitchen. "We turned the backroom into an icehouse. Don't go running off before lunch. I expect the rest of the army to arrive by then."
"Great, a lunch rush on our first day." Groaned one of the others.
"Hey oath-plates, my bacon isn't ready yet! Ah, forget it, just give it to me raw." Yelled a werewolf that just entered the hall.
"I'm not giving you raw meat. Sit down and wait, I'll bring a whole platter to the table soon enough." Chronos yelled back.
A round of shouts started as more werewolves showed up for breakfast. Every one of them had big smirks on their faces as they enjoyed making fun of the clan's young master. Chronos, not to be outdone, shouted back at them trading jeers and jokes, making the dining hall livelier.
They only slowed down when the head chef left the kitchen.
At this point Chronos wasn't sure if he was looking forward to the next month or not. He didn't get to leave the fortress and had to argue with everyone coming in but working in the kitchens meant he heard all of the juicy gossip in the fortress and got to argue with everyone coming in.
Arguments were funny like that, depending on who you were arguing with it could be very enjoyable or an absolute mess.
Then Lyla and Sariah came in while he was still outside of the kitchen.
"Chronos, have you seen Gregory? He's been missing since yesterday." Sariah asked.
"He's right behind you, looking a bit worse for wear." Chronos looked at his torn clothes and dirty boots. "What happened?"
"Commander Stan asked me to investigate with the scouts. I've been in the swamp since we captured the fortress. So far, we've found a half dozen rituals and a few traveling groups of black robed men, no cages or slaves yet. We're keeping an eye on them hoping to find a central point." He sighed in exhaustion.
"Here give us some of everything and then I'll put him to bed." Sariah scowled when she saw the bags under his eyes.
"Before you go, where have the rituals been at?" Chronos asked.
"Other than the two that Gorvak told us about there were three more covering all of the octant points east of here and an additional four further to the southeast, but they aren't in a circular shape. The mages are looking over ritual shapes trying to find out if they're setting up a larger ritual using the smaller rituals as part of the focal points.
Until they finish researching it or the other scouts detect movement from a larger force, I won't be going back out." Gregory said.
"Good, then try to get some rest before Sariah glares a hole through me." Chronos chuckled as Sariah took Gregory to a table.
"I'm glad to see the two of them doing well. And how are you holding up Chronos? I saw you training late into the night." Lyla smiled as she stepped off to the side of the serving counter.
"Not bad, it's a full moon week so I feel like I have endless energy."
"Is it true that werewolves sometimes lose control of themselves during the night of the full moon?" She looked entirely too excited for such a dangerous question.
"It is but it's mostly untrained individuals and occasionally those who experience a sudden increase in power that lose control. We usually lock them up until they recover their senses."
"So, it could happen to you this week?"
Chronos looked at her sparkling eyes for a few seconds before answering, "No, because of how powerful my mother is there was a higher chance of me losing control, so I was put through additional training to control myself from a young age. If you just want to fight, then wait till the lunch rush is over, I'll fight you after that."
"Yay, I'll be waiting." Taking her plate, she skipped over to Sariah's table.
Even though Chronos said that he couldn't help worrying. As the day of the full moon approached Chronos could feel that something was changing within his body, he just wasn't sure what was happening yet.
He'd have to talk to Aunt Freydis about it and maybe go home if it continued. If it had something to do with the space attribute, then it could end very badly for him.