I spent half of breakfast simply looking down at and flexing my arm. The other half was a mix of working on spells, chatting with Helen, and of course eating. Just as I was getting up to go train Rose, Eva and Leshal came down for food. I sat back down, wanting to chat with them about their plans for the day before departing. I also wanted to know if they’d stick around for my sparring match with Harkan. As they approached the table, Aunt Helen, fully recovered from her mana exhaustion, excused herself and made her way over to Adrien who had come down the stairs shortly after my party.
Rose, Eva and Leshal each scooted into the booth where I sat, letting me stay on one of the ends so I could leave first. After waving to Garth and placing a few coins on the table they turned to me, Rose’s eyes falling on my recovered arm as I was still unconsciously flexing it a bit.
“She really healed your arm?” Rose reached out to touch it, her hand soft and warm on the back of my hand. I blushed a touch but didn’t pull my hand away, I rather liked the feeling. She turned my hand around and traced the various creases on my palm.
“She sure did. Hurt worse than sand wyrm’s acid breath though. It remains to be seen if it was worth it.” I joked darkly, catching Eva’s eyes as they twinkled. She was watching as Rose didn’t pull away from my hand.
“You know, Rose, I didn’t think a new hand was going to be your excuse to make a move on Lios.” She teased her friend who turned scarlet and pulled away quickly.
“I wasn’t trying to... I mean I’m not making a move he’s only like... Fifteen, I’m three years older than him!” She exclaimed, a squeak in her voice as it cracked. This only deepened her blush as she turned away from me hurriedly. Thankfully, three plates of food and the same number of tankards of juice appeared before us as Garth made his way over.
“Oy! Congrats Lios, ye got your hand back! Good for you. That boy who keeps fightin you is getting his fixed too so now the fight will be fair for next time.” He clapped me on the shoulder as he dropped off the food and drink, then bounded back behind the counter of the bar, menacingly wiping glasses and cups with a semi clean rag.
“So, aside from making a move on me, what are your guys' plans for the day?” I teased Rose a bit, nudging her with my left shoulder as she glared at me.
“Well, we were going to eat then -”
“Alexilios! Haha! So you have recovered your arm! But do not think that is enough to best me during our spar!” Harkan called over from Adrien’s table, eyes glimmering with mirth and elation.
“Then we were going to do some practice ourselves before watching your match. I’ve heard rumors about Harkan. It seems he’s a - “
I held a hand up as Rose started to tell me about Harkan. “Don’t tell me. I like it to be a surprise.”
“Why? He already knows what you are capable of. Don’t you want to even the odds even more?” Eva asked with a frown.
“Not really. I won’t know what abilities my enemies will have ninety percent of the time, especially those who are stronger than me, so it only stands to reason that when I’m training I should approach it like the real world. It will test my adaptability and-”
“Hey! Lios! Don’t ignore me!” Harkan’s jovial voice pierced the din around us.
“Well, I think that’s my cue. I’m gonna go and get used to my new arm.” I smiled at my friends and got up wistfully, noticing belatedly that Rose had come close enough that our legs were touching when she held my hand before. “Harkan, two hours? I need to do my morning training before I can give you attention.”
“Aye aye captain! I’ll see you in two hours in the ring!” He laughed loudly, and as soon as he said that whispers erupted around us. Adventurers who were previously getting ready to leave for quests started talking about sticking around for a bit to watch the fight.
“Wait, did the lightning god just get challenged to a spar by the dancing swordsman?”
“The guy who nearly killed Penrose is going to fight Harkan in a couple hours...”
“Aren’t they vastly different levels?”
“I still think the dancer has a shot. I mean did you see him yesterday?”
“No but I was there for the one versus four..”
I listened half heartedly as I went down to the training room. I waved as Tilda let me through to Rhoshas dungeon. “Hey Tilda, by the way, I rarely see you in the hall proper, doesn’t anyone else have this job or is it just you?”
“Unfortunately I am the only guard for the training gates. Gets pretty boring but sometimes the kids in the training hall are entertaining.” She shrugged slightly, her boredom evident on her features.
“Ah, I see, I’ll try to make sure you get some entertainment later. I have a spar scheduled.”
“Another? Making all sorts of friends, Hero of Linden.”
“What can I say, folks all around want a piece of me. This one’s actually a spar though.”
With that exchange I darted through the door she opened and found the one I was looking for. With bated breath I stepped through the door and into the grassy field that held my trainer. I had a number of questions for her since talking with Perry yesterday, but training was my focus. I didn’t think the secret sword trainer was all that likely to answer my questions anyway.
“Good morning Master. Before we start, do you mind if I ask something?” Despite reasoning with myself my curiosity would be an itch in the back of my head until I asked at least this one question. When she nodded I took a breath once more and spoke. “When we first met you mentioned that the real you sought answers from you only once. Yesterday I learned that in order to even have you as a trainer I needed to meet certain criteria. My question is, how many individuals have you trained since this dungeon was formed?”
To be fair, I probably could have asked a better question. But I found it shocking that there had been more than one person to stumble onto this class or these skills, they were rare for a reason and as far as I knew the skill that let her teach me was rather convoluted to gain. I mean, I myself had to practice swordsmanship, dancing, runes, and then putting them all together for years to gain these skills.
“Interesting. There has been one before you. I don’t believe they had the same skill you do, [Runedancing] was not why they met the criteria. We told the guildmaster that there was only one requisite skill, but there are, in fact, a few. Unfortunately my true self sought information because the other trainee turned out to do something horrible. I was not told what. I don’t know if they ever caught him. Anything else or do you want to start training now?”
“We can train. When I meet the real you I'll ask her more about this. I’d like to work on fighting with two weapons today. Also, you know my spell Visceral Conflagration? I have created a third spell that is similar to it, Cyclonic Augment. I wanted to ask before trying, but do you think that using both at the same time will have negative effects?”
“Almost certainly. And wow, I didn’t notice but your hand is back! Congratulations.” She smiled and rose to her feet, drawing a sword from the empty air. “Draw both of your weapons. I will teach you the sword forms for the Twin Fanged Coatl kata. Before we begin, we will try to overlap your spells. The worst that will happen is you’ll be expelled from the dungeon, though if you aren't it may be painful.”
“Yes Master Rhosha.” So far each kata had been based on a different winged creature. For there to be a style based on the Twin Fanged Coatl should not have been much of a surprise, but it was. I had read about coatles. They were rare in Jorial but still existed along the coast, perhaps seen once every hundred years. They were terrors most often, massive winged serpents that consumed humanoids like they were snacks. In particular, the Twin Fanged Coatl was a menace of legend. It was a strange creature with four wings and two heads. Some of the stories claimed that it was a melding of two different beasts that had fallen in love. Others claimed that the beast had been cursed and forced to share a body. Other’s still posited that it was simply a deformed creature. Whatever the truth may be, it was the most powerful known example of a coatl. Centuries ago this specific beast terrorized the hamlets and smaller towns along the coast and even fairly inland. It had taken a band of knights and the knights commander himself, Charles Belgrave.
I shook my head to clear any fantasies about this sword style then steeled myself. I started to dance, using both the techniques that Adrien and Rhosha had taught me. Soon I felt the familiar buzz of flaming mana coursing through my blood, ready to be unleashed as Visceral Conflagration was activated. With a deep breath I began the wind based spell as well. Cyclonic Augment worked very similarly to Visceral Conflagration, they both shared the same base runes after all. Instead of being explosive though it made my movements more smooth, causing me to seemingly glide through the air. It enhanced my hearing by making my ears more sensitive to anything carried by the wind, same with my sense of smell. I had almost omitted the sense of smell while making the skill but decided a bit of discomfort sometimes was less of a hindrance than the benefits a good nose could have.
It took about twenty five seconds for me to dance the unfamiliar dance. Once it was complete, the last rune snapping into place and the circle buzzing with anticipation, I took a deep breath and cast the spell, pouring mana through the Cyclonic Sabre as I used it as a focus. I gasped as my body trembled, energy flowing into it. The flame mana inside of me erupted, my insides seemingly burning but they were unharmed, I could tell intuitively. I took a step forward, or I meant to. That one step propelled me, a wash of heat browning the grass below me as I launched toward Rhosha whose eyes widened with surprise. She raised her sword instinctively but I hadn’t attempted an attack yet.
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“I see. Let us begin then Bladedancer.” She grinned, her surprise gone. She readied herself and came at me, forcing me to dodge back. Once again my body reacted faster, more powerfully than I intended. I could feel my muscles straining with each movement but not breaking, which had been my worry, it seemed as though the muscle enhancement portion held true even with the wind and fire mana feeding each other.
The two spells together expanded on the major benefits of both. My movements were three times as explosive as if I used only one of the mana types. My hearing was a bit better as well, but it was a negligible difference compared to using only the wind based spell. The fact I could feel the changes in air pressure around me on my skin, if only slightly, helped me to react as Rhosha didn’t hold back. Her sword and mine clashed. Then I backed away, runes beginning to form at my feet.
She followed me, I jumped back toward her, meeting her head on. My Cyclonic Sabre lashing out in my left hand, the hand a bit clumsy after months of not using it and enhancing its movements threefold. Her blade and mine met, but I had a second one. My right hand tore through the air in a downward slash that she sidestepped if only barely. I saw some of her hairs get carried by the wind, singed from the heat of my weapon.
She jumped back this time, bearing an amused smile followed by a laugh. She watched me carefully, then beckoned for me to come at her with one of her hands. Now, from the air again, she drew another nondescript sword. It was a plain looking katana, a sword I didn’t realize existed in Ravos. Most of the weapons I had seen were closer to western weapons, longswords claymores and the like. I had seen some weapons that bore resemblance to the swords from the middle east but those mostly came from Terraan.
With a grin I leapt forward and we exchanged blows again. I paid careful mind to how she was moving, how she dodged and countered and parried. While she wasn’t directly teaching me during this spar every second of her tutelage could teach me something, should I be willing to pay attention. That was one of the things I had realized during our training sessions, and especially after talking with Perry the day before. While she couldn’t teach me any runedances, or help me improve it, she could guide me a bit. By having me focus on spells of a specific element, or by disrupting my spells before I could cast them she was honing my abilities in real time without a word.
Speaking of, to my shock the twenty five rune spell I had started clicked into place, my feet automatically finding the right paths to completing it. A fireball began to form at the end of Ignium’s Fang, and I watched as Rhosha attempted to close the gap, unaware that I had used this spell at close range less than twelve hours ago. She parried my sword, sending the tip toward the ground and the fireball with it. In the same instant I activated the shroud, allowing me immunity to any flames I myself created, and launched the fireball into the ground at our feet.
At the same time Rhosha recovered from redirecting my sword and her own lashed upward and toward my neck, forcing my back. I had to lean backwards at an uncomfortable angle in order to avoid the incoming katana, her own longsword keeping my sabre at bay. I twisted the lean into a summersault of sorts, vaulting backwards with the momentum as the fireball erupted, flames washing over the both of us.
She swore as she leapt backward, just in time to avoid being entirely devoured by the flames, reacting at the same speed as the explosion's expansion. Within mere eye blinks she was just outside of the explosion's range, her legs singed and charred but the rest of her was fine. Both of us panted and watched the other warily as the dust and smoke settled, revealing a crater from which I stood in the center and she stood on the edge. She smiled at me exuberantly and stowed both blades in her sheaths, motioning for me to do the same as the energy inside of me continued to course through my body.
It had been less than a minute, so I had at least a few more minutes of power left in me, but I sheathed my blades anyway. Adrenaline flew through me, my body buzzing and eager to move.
“Right, let's test this combination. Let's see how long it takes for you to run thirty kell.”
I burst into motion as soon as she gave the command, running quickly. A kell was a unit of measurement equivalent to one fifth of a mile, or about a thousand feet. She wanted me to run six miles before the spells wore out. I could see myself doing that considering each step pushed me forward twenty feet or more, leaving singed grass in my wake. It felt like there was less air resistance too, likely a side effect of Cyclonic Augment, which allowed me to move faster than ever. Not to mention the effect of my various stats and the condition of my physical body.
As I ran, wind blowing in my face and dragging back my short hair, I let out a whoop of elation. This was what Sky felt whenever she started a hunt, the wind in her fur and a sense of expounding freedom. I didn’t pay attention to how far I ran as I went, knowing Rhosha would stop me when I met the requisite distance. Instead I just ran in a slight circle, looping around and back to the crater in seconds.
I did this loop five times before Rhosha called out. “Stop! Very good. That was less than two minutes for thirty kells. Very good. Now, let's see how strong you are.” She pointed to a boulder that had definitely not been there before. “Lift it, try to throw it. After that try to punch it. Oh! Wrap mana around your fist before you do, it’ll prevent your hand from breaking if you do it right. Hurry! We want to do these tests before your spells run their course!”
Of course I immediately did just that. It took a few seconds to figure out how to wrap the mana around my knuckles but I was already fairly adept, especially at my level, at manipulating mana so it wasn’t a hassle. I chose to use earth mana for this, which felt like I had put on a weighted gauntlet as it weighed down my hand. Then I lifted the boulder, my muscles straining even with the enhancements and stats. With a hefty grunt I focused on the explosive power of Conflagration and pushed up and out, throwing the fifteen foot wide and tall stone as far as I could. With a thud and shake of the ground it landed not ten feet from me, maybe eight feet at the furthest. Disappointment shown on my features as I then stepped up and threw a powerful jab at the rock. Enhanced with three types of mana, two passive and one holding my concentration, my fist collided with the rock with a resounding crash. The stone cracked and shuddered, a large indent forming where I had connected with it, but the stone did not break.
“Okay, now, draw your flaming sword and activate the aura. Try to stab the boulder. Try again to wrap your earth mana around but don't smother the flame mana.” Rhosha called out from behind me. I could see in [Portent]’s sphere that her legs were steadily healing.
“Yes Master Rhosha!” I acknowledged before drawing the fang. Flames surrounded me instantly, heat roiling around me as the white flames leapt forth as though finally uncaged after moons of captivity. The tongues lapped out against the air and soil and grass around me while I focused on wrapping my blade with earth mana.
It took three tries and around two minutes, leaving me with barely any time at all, before I was able to add the earth mana with intentions of durability and strength without smothering the flames. With a deep breath I thrust the blade forward into the same spot I had punched a few minutes before. With a hardy crack the blade punctured the stone, and a massive crack split it into two. My eyes widened at the sound of cracks stretching from the impact point, spreading through the stone. After a few moments, alongside the dissipation of my spells, the stone began to crumble in large hewn pieces.
As the mana that had been enhancing me left, my body felt weak. Sore. Every muscle ached more than I expected. I could still move but I felt sluggish. The skin all over my body was warm to the touch and sunburn pink. I went to take a step only to find my leg shaking. Still, I was able to walk away from the boulder, which was now sinking back into the ground, and toward Rhosha.
“Okay, thirty minutes of meditation. Try to visualize our fight. Also, how does your body feel?”
“It’s sore, Master. I think I can still move at around seventy percent efficiency, so it's probably a good idea to save that combo as a trump card.”
“It makes a good one at that. You managed to push me back. Even though I’m not able to use my own spells and have my stats capped off at level two hundred at their peak, that is very impressive for someone who is below level one hundred in one of their classes. The real me will want to know those two spells I imagine, though I haven’t the same elemental affinities as you. Perhaps she has made something similar since I was a part of her.”
“I see. I didn’t expect your cap to be so high. Theoretically, if I were to spar with someone above level one eighty today who is a melee warrior with the lightning element, do you think I’d be able to keep up with him using those spells? If he was using skills?” I crossed my legs, letting out a pained groan as my muscles stretched in doing so, before straightening my back and starting my breathing exercises. I felt, and sensed, mana flowing into me from our environment as I began to clear my thoughts of anything but the battle we just had.
“Almost certainly. I think it is at least worth a try. At least, if you want to fight with your full power for eight minutes or so.”
Eight minutes? Did it last longer with the two spells combined? It seemed so. We fell into a comfortable silence as she began to meditate as well. I walked through each of the actions I took during the battle as well as all the movements I took from Rhosha. I started to imagine all of the techniques I’d seen her use thus far, imagining myself countering or even parrying them.
During the half hour of meditation I realized I was nearly to the point she talked about frequently. I wasn't able to fully sink into the visualization of my past fights, but I was getting close. Errant thoughts still reared their heads, but I could nearly accurately reimagine my fights. Near the end I tried to imagine the fights with Ethan Penrose, but found that even in my imagination they were unerringly easy fights. The boy fell into his own emotions too much, was easy to exploit and he lacked skillful techniques. I had no doubt his blows, should they land, would pack a punch, but that meant nothing if he couldn’t land anything.
After we finished meditating we returned to sword training, with Rhosha teaching me the Twin Fang Coatl kata, a sword dance made for a dual wielder. I had hardly seen her use two swords before but this technique used them beautifully. Notably, she taught me using both a curved and a straight sword. The style was powerful, unpredictable. I wasn’t quite able to dial it in fully, I was still more precise with a single sword, but I could sense the potential within me.
Every ten minutes, when [Compendium] would come off cooldown, I would try to activate it and cast two spells at once. I was starting with the five rune spells. We had done this every day for the past several weeks. Most of the time the spells fizzled and broke, the rune circles somehow combining the runes instead of creating two separate spells. Or other times it would properly create two spell circles but input runes from either circle into the other. And yet other times it would be a catastrophe before the runes actually formed. I was trying to do this with two different types of mana at once, wind and fire naturally. In my mind I’d imagine the wind mana going through the channels of my left foot and fire going through the right, but sometimes before the runes formed the mana would meet and clash causing my channels to burn up in a flash before I could react.
Near the end of the training session it finally succeeded. With sweat dripping down my face and back I sat still, meditating, wanting to clear my head before activating my skill. I mentally prodded it. The hardest part was that we were trying to have me do it with two types of mana, but we had mostly stopped the mana from meeting before I was ready so my channels hadn’t been scorched for some time. Still, mana flooded through the bottoms of both of my feet as I imagined two runic circles forming around me, overlapping. The runes for a flame wave and a wind wave formed slowly, well slow for [Compendium] as typically the skill would form them instantly. Instead I had to be meticulous.
Still, the mana escaped me and formed two ritual circles just above the ground, fire on top and wind on the bottom. When I felt the fire spells runes click into place I nearly lost control over the wind mana, a shudder sent through the spell that I barely stopped from causing a spell break, akin to when Rhosha disrupted me in combat, by refocusing on it. Then I felt those five runes click into place as well. With deep breaths I opened my eyes and grinned, sending the final iota of power through to activate the spells simultaneously.
Fire washed around me, evaporating the sweat that coated my body. I was ever grateful for the self cleaning enchantment on my clothes that prevented the salt from staining them white or grey.
I whooped as the fire washed out from me, ranging thirty feet in each direction without the bonus from my swords. I glanced over at Rhosha to see she was smirking as well, arms crossed. I let out another yell of elation before she called out.
“Okay, good. Let's get back to meditating. I only have you for twenty more minutes, Lios.”
