I head back to the inn and et up with Daniel and Corvax there. We eat dinner and then all head to bed early. I sleep for a few hours and wake up right before dawn, feeling fully rested and ready to go. My mana is at full capacity, so I start pushing so of it out and shaping it around my skeletal hand.
I go downstairs to eat breakfast and find Daniel already there, waiting for . Corvax is still asleep, so just the two of us eat together. He invites to go to the training grounds today, and I accept, but first there’s sothing I want to do with the kid.
After we eat, Daniel tags along with to the Baradia compound, where we arrive after just a few portals. The two guards wave us past after recognizing us, and we walk up to the main door. The door opens before I get a chance to knock, revealing a smiling rrick standing behind it.
“Ray, Daniel, nice to see you. A bit early though, isn’t it? Also, why are you here?” He says in his usual cheery attitude.
“I’m here to check up on the kid.” I say. “Daniel’s just bored and following .”
“Ah. Co on in then. I’ll get us sothing to drink.” He says while waving us inside to a nearby sitting room.
Daniel and I sit down next to each other on a couch, and a few minutes later rrick returns with what looks like a tea set on a tray. He puts so of the tea leaves in the kettle and pours hot water over it, steeping it.
“The new hand looks good, Ray. Your whole new look is pretty intimidating, actually.” He says this while pointing to my new burn scars on my face and hand.
“Oh, thanks! Daniel blew up so fla dino in a dungeon, and it cooked . But it was still fun overall.” I say.
“That’s the spirit.” rrick says. “As long as you survive, you’ll probably get stronger. That’s my motto at least.”
He picks up the kettle and pours it into three teacups, one for each of us. I pick up mine and sip it while Daniel just drinks his in one gulp. rrick starts steeping the leaves again.
I expand my spatial perception through the house, finding many rooms that are individually protected and stop , but many that aren’t. I look for the sa room as yesterday and send my senses inside. The kid is there, sleeping peacefully.
“Is there sothing you need from us, rrick?” I ask, suspicious about how long it’s taking rrick to get to the point.
“Can’t a couple of friends just catch up?” He asks, mock hurt in his voice.
Daniel and I look at each other and then at rrick with a deadpan stare.
“Fine, fine. But I really did want to hear about your guys’ adventures over the last few days. I heard you killed Helstin Velethryn, and that kid is involved sohow. What happened?”
I go into detail telling rrick about the fight between Daniel and and the three goons in the alley. rrick listens intently, like he always does when he’s told stories of fighting or combat, asking technical questions about speed and form that I have no idea how to answer. He has and Daniel stand up to reenact parts of the fight, and at one point I’m sure he’s just doing it to fuck with us, but he gives good advice, so I continue anyway. At the end, he tells us good job for ending a fight so quickly and for taking out a piece of shit like Helstin.
After that Daniel goes into detail about the dungeon, which gets rrick even more excited when he learns that I was dabbling in gravity. He gets even more excited when I use [Gravity Shift] to make my teacup start to float around . I tell him about my training yesterday and how I got two new gravity skills from it, which causes him to launch into a rant about how us initiates have it so lucky, learning skills after just an afternoon of practice.
“The kid is probably still asleep.” rrick looks at for confirmation, to which I nod. “And it’s the asscrack of dawn, so we probably have a few hours before he’s up anyway. Let’s do so training.”
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“I could be convinced.” Daniel says.
rrick jumps up to his feet. “Perfect, then. There’s a small arena out back. Follow .”
I sigh and stand up, knowing there’s no way out of this with these two here. We follow rrick through the house and out the back doors to a circular sand pit about thirty feet in diater. It has a small shack next to it with pretty much every practice weapon you can think of, and then a few more.
“Grab whatever weapons you want to use. We should have pretty much everything.” He tells us as he walks over to a pedestal just outside the sandpit.
Daniel and I head over to the weapons, and each pick the training version of our usual weapons. He grabs a one-handed hamr and a shield, which he straps to his arm. I go for a bastard sword and a dagger, noticing that both are blunt and enchanted. When I feed mana into the enchantnt, the sword becos heavier and gains so kind of magical resistance when I try to swing it. It feels like the air resistance has increased tenfold, so I decide to leave it turned off.
We then head into the arena, near the middle, about ten feet apart and facing each other. Daniel doesn’t have his full armor, but I know that he rarely walks around without a good amount of tal attached to him. He’s started wearing bands around his limbs so that he can always use [tal Manipulation] to bolster his movents if he needs to.
From his position at the pedestal, rrick shouts to us. “Nothing lethal. This is training. The first to land a solid hit wins. I want to see how much you’ve progressed in this last week.” He interacts with the pedestal again, and a barrier springs up around the sandpit, closing us in together.
Daniel gives a smile and then lunges forward, clearly using his [tal Manipulation] to boost himself toward . I wait until just before he reaches to activate the teleport I’ve been making this whole ti, disappearing and then reappearing to his left. My sword lashes out for a strike against his left flank, but as soon as it gets close, it ets so kind of repelling field that slows it down and gives Daniel enough ti to get away.
He recovers from his failed lunge and turns around, facing again. We circle each other in the ring like two predators, waiting for an opening to strike. I start creating mana projectiles in front of while giving my opponent an insidious smile. I slowly start to put more distance between us as I start to form three pairs of rifts.
When the first rift snaps into place, I use [Gravity Shift] to launch my first projectile at Daniel. It’s just a simple sphere of mana launched with enough force to hurt, maybe crack a bone or two, but nothing lethal. He manages to block it with no issue despite the fact it ca from his blind spot. He might have better mana-sensing capabilities than I thought.
He stomps on the ground toward , and I feel a bolt of mana stretch through the sand and coalesce right behind , gathering for so kind of attack. I boost my legs and dodge to the side, barely making it out of the way before a spear of compacted sand pierces through where I was just standing and then falls back apart into a pile of sand.
This is bad. He’s got the advantage in terms of the battlefield for sure. With his earth affinity, he has near unlimited ammo and ways to attack . My main advantage is my huge mana pool. Ti to make use of that.
I push a little mana into [Concentration] to boost my mind, not nearly as much as I would use in a real fight, but enough to give an edge for sure. I launch two more darts at him at the sa ti using the other two rifts, causing him to dodge backwards to avoid them and buying myself so ti. I start to create another teleport while also creating a zero-gravity zone in the air in the middle of the arena.
I feel another two bolts of mana start to coalesce under and teleport to the spot I’ve been preparing. I appear above Daniel but do not fall to the ground like you would expect. Instead, I stay there, mid-air, floating through my own power. Daniel looks confused for a few seconds, and I know it’s because his main sensing skills require contact with earth, which I am avoiding, basically making invisible to his senses.
I start to create as many small spheres out of my mana as I can while He’s montarily distracted. Eventually he looks up, and we make eye contact. He barks out a laugh before he starts gathering mana, but I stop him before he can make a move by launching several spheres at him.
He dodges the first few with a spin move and then starts running, making him a harder target to hit. I keep creating and launching spheres, oftentis doing multiple at once, but he just runs, jumps, dodges, dives, and rolls, always getting out of the way before I can land a hit. He runs circles around the arena, leaving a little bit of mana in each step he takes. I’m not sure what he’s doing with his feet, compacting the sand to make it easier to run on maybe. The mana lingers for a while, so I’m not really sure.
I start to get frustrated at both my bad ability to aim and Daniel’s uncanny ability to dodge, deciding to add rifts into the mix. My rate of fire slows down for just a mont as I push myself and start to create five pairs of rifts with the intention of ending this sooner rather than later. This was just the break Daniel was waiting for, and I soon realized what the mana in his footsteps was for.
Each of the footprints that are still around explode at the sa ti, completely filling the entire arena with mana-charged sand. I imdiately close my eyes and try to focus on where Daniel is using my spatial perception field. Due to the sand screen, my [Mana Sense] is all but useless until it clears, but I still find him.
He’s directly under now, having moved there during the confusion of the explosion, aiming a shot directly up at . A burst of gravity sends out of the zero-gravity zone and tumbling to the ground. I land on my hands and knees and scramble to get up as Daniel stomps towards . I dodge another sand spear and lunge forward, engaging Daniel before he gets a chance to launch another one.
I simultaneously use mana boosting and [Gravity Shift] to move faster, my sword coming in for an overhead swing that he blocks with his shield. His hamr cos in to hit next, but I use [Space Control] to expand the space between the hamr and myself with a huge burst of mana, causing it to miss, barely. He’s done sothing to his shield, and now my sword is stuck to it like a magnet and gets ripped out of my hand with a strong pull from him.
This causes to lose my balance and start to fall forward. I try to correct myself with a burst of gravity, but it’s too late. Daniel's fist, still free of the hamr, slams into my stomach with enough force to evacuate my lungs, but not enough to do real damage.
“Sparring over. Daniel wins!” rrick shouts as he drops the barrier.
“Almost had there for a minute.” Daniel says as he gives a hand up.
“Didn’t feel like it, but that was fun. I didn’t know you could do so of that stuff.” I respond.
He shrugs his shoulders. “We haven’t fought many things that use tal against us, but I expect that to change if you keep killing nobles and whatnot.”
“It was one guy. Well, two, I guess. But they killed each other.”
"Both of you versus next." rrick says as he steps into the arena and the do powers back on.
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