CHPT 83: In the Shadow of his Flames

Saturday Oct 20, 2240

"GWAH!!"

Ursula's eyes snapped open and her hands flew down to protect her midsection. She held them there for a moment until she was aware of her surroundings.

"These nightmares are really starting to ruin my mornings.." she said after realizing the giant wolf monster she saw swiping at her stomach was only a dream— nightmare.

She sluggishly sat up and turned so her legs hung off her bed. While she wiped the sleep out of her eyes, she remembered to stay silent so she didn't wake any of the maids.

"Ahhhhh, 3 AM. How disgusting." She said after looking at her clock, she was a big fan of sleeping in so she had to go to sleep at 7 PM yesterday. She found this to be the perfect time to train since she was able to avoid the displeased glares from her father and brothers. Another benefit that came along with training this early is that nobody was using the training equipment— unfortunately she still had to sneak into the training area at the estate.

She quickly got up and searched around for her armor and weapons— finding it fairly difficult to do so in her dark room.

Clang!

"Fuck!"

She cursed after she tripped over her battle axes that leaned against the wall next to her slide door. It was loud enough to wake up at least a couple people, so she hurried into her armor and slipped out through her broken slide door.

She stood silently outside and simply appreciated the beauty of a clear skied early morning while she pulled her long brown hair into a tight ponytail. She only recently started waking up so early, and despite the immediate dislike she felt at being up at such a time, the view was almost worth it.

After a few seconds, she headed around to the front of the maid-house where the back of the estate became visible in all its glory, along with the training area.

Looking at the estate and noticing the absence of light from the windows told her everyone was still asleep. Good.

The training area was plain and well made, but shied in comparison to the training area on the other side of the estates vast backyard, that one was used exclusively by her father.

She approached the steps of the polished wooden platform and eyed the weights, targets and dummies with excitement at what today's training session would bring.

"Alright, let's pump some iron!"

After around 10 minutes of stretching and warming up, she woke her muscles up with a light session of weightlifting. The simple repetitive movements were almost spiritual after you got into a rhythm and went from station to station, muscle group after muscle group coming to life— it's something that would never get old to her.

She finished her weights session with a burnout set of low weight squats— she enjoyed feeling the burn in her quads and hamstrings when she trained in combat.

After racking the weight— quietly, and putting the four 45 lb plates back in their spots, she picked up her battle axes and walked over to the opposite side of the platform where combat training equipment was.

For a moment she stood quietly and thought about the time she spent watching a few of the Knights in her fathers guild training yesterday. It brought her own lack of progress into the spotlight— they were fairly new members based on their looks. They weren't much older than her, yet they were leagues ahead of her in skill and talent.

"We need to get into the Tangents this week dammit!" She thought angrily.

Without a warning, the thought sent chills down her spine, colder than her own ice. She stood still— frozen for a moment, remembering what happened the last time she stepped inside one. The pain in her gut came back at the memory of Jack attacking her, all it took was one hit.

"Ugh!" She quickly leaned over clutching her stomach like she was being punched again.

As she kneeled on the floor in shock, she thought to herself, "I froze because I know I'm weak. I know even if I was somehow able to move back then, I'd still get hit— still possibly die. So I have to get stronger, now."

She slowly got up with a fresh dose of motivation and began training.

***

After an hour of performing combos and slashes and kicks on the practice dummies, she stopped completely. The sun was steadily rising and left the sky in various shades of blues and oranges that provided a nice bit of light for her.

"Time to cool off." She thought after wiping the sweat off her brow with the back of her forearm.

She closed her eyes and brought stillness to her mind. Slowly, the crackle of Ice forming sounded in her ears. She opened her eyes and saw frosty white blotches of ice forming on her arms and crawling up the handle of her axes.

"It's getting easier." She thought.

She added more power and increased her focus. With it came the dropping of the temperature around her and the spread of ice on her body. After a few seconds, steam billowed off her shoulders and head from the colder temperatures around her and the sweat that dripped from her arms hit the ground as small delicate snowflakes.

She started to fight while maintaining her cold aura to increase her level of comfort with her Element. It was difficult to do so, but what mattered was that she was in fact able to do both.

By the time 10 minutes passed, she was already more comfortable with it, but she was also using a lot of her mana.

[MP at 40%, 80/200]

She looked at the notification for a moment before shrugging it off and continuing to train.

Less than a minute later, a blast of heat spread out across the grass like an invisible wave of fire.

The abrupt change happened in the middle of a roundhouse kick she was performing, causing her to stumble and hit the ground in a sweaty jumbled mess.

She sat up, noting the ice that covered her body and weapons was completely gone— along with the cold winds that surrounded her.

"Great timing, dick." She said angrily as she looked across the field towards the other training area.

In the distance, she saw a weak red and orange glow surrounding someone as they sat patiently— seeming to meditate.

It was her father, he usually started his training fairly early as well which resulted in an unnecessary rise in the temperature surrounding the estate. She didn't know if he did it on purpose just to show people how strong he was, or if he had no control over it. Either way, it signified the end of her training.

She got up defeatedly and headed off the platform. She didn't know why, but today felt different. It felt like she was taking a loss by leaving on someone else's terms, it made her feel incredibly weak in every way.

She suddenly stopped on the last step of the platform— sweat dripped down her body and into her eyes from the intense heat wave.

A simple thought came to mind and made it impossible for her to leave early.

"He wouldn't quit. So what the hell am I doing?"

She quickly turned around and walked back into the training area with the beginnings of a Icy blue glow in her eyes.