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began to center himself and focus on
breath control once more. He had died before because he had taken
on too much, too soon. This time he decided to try increasing the
mana charged and stored in small increments.
    Scott centered the mana in his chest once
more, and drew on just enough to maintain the energy stored there.
He then connected with the lightning element and began the process
of surging his energies once more.
    The twilight master experimented with several
things. He tried to create the surging palm spell pattern first and
then shoved the mana into the spell. That had resulted in an
agonized scream as his arms sped forward uncontrollably. He had
been forced to lie down and rest to restore his torn muscles and
ligaments to good health.
    After he recovered, he tried a similar
tactic. Except, instead of dumping the mana into his spell pattern
all at once, he released it in small increments. The results were
better, but a bit lackluster.
    He tried a few other things. Most efforts
lead to results that were nothing special. A few, not nearly few
enough, resulted in extreme pain.
    Eventually, he hit on a worthy thought. What
if he focused on using the mana in the same way as the lightning?
Instead of a solid knot of concentrated mana, he would focus on
sending it along his arms. The worst thing that could happen was
that he might die horribly. It was worth trying.
    Scott drew on his mana and concentrated it
within his chest for a moment then began to strike the air with his
palms without connecting to the lightning. As he punched the air,
he focused his mana in a slow circulating pattern that mimicked the
arcing lightning. It was much easier to manage as he did not need
to keep his hands moving at a high rate of speed. The mana in his
body wanted to circulate, to flow. It was natural to move instead
of sit in one spot.
    His arms began to move faster and then faster
still. His palms moved in a rotating manner, fluid, powerful. When
one palm struck out in that circular motion, the other had already
begun its backward movement. His entire body easily moved with this
flow.
    A circular flow of mana appeared within his
mind and the blurring hands image from before shifted form to
match. It was no longer a frenetic attack at the air. It was a
rhythmic motion that was simple to maintain.
    Once he felt comfortable with that rhythm, he
connected with the lightning element once more. It took a moment to
properly synchronize the mana and the lightning, but once he did
there came a moment of realization. He was definitely on the right
track, but for the wrong spell!
    As the lightning and mana circulated, an
electrical discharge built up before him. Lightning flowed between
his arms, a small amount at first, but with greater force after a
time.
    It was more by some sudden instinctual
awareness than practiced skill that he worked his body into a
different movement pattern. He stopped trying to move his arms fast
and instead focused on the intensity of the building energy. Scott
slowed his motions to a casual speed and then shifted his hands at
the end of the movement so that his palms faced each other instead
of punched at the air.
    A sphere of mana and lightning began to form
between his palms. He slowed his motions even further. The sphere
grew in intensity as more of the energy was collected there. It
radiated a soft, gentle, light.
    The little ball of lightning and mana grew
slowly from the size of a volleyball to the size of a basketball.
Scott thought about the situation for a moment then made an attempt
to concentrate the energy. It resisted his attempts at every turn,
but he slowly did just that. The soft light increased to a bright
light, and then became a brilliantly luminous object so bright that
he could not look at it.
    That was when something undesirable happened.
The mana flow cut off. He had ignored the growing sense of unease
and the gnawing emptiness that had begun to appear within him in
favor of working on his spell.