19 Training

"I assuming that you came over here to pick up your daggers?" Echo asked, pulling out two white daggers with green edges. "The poison in these blades won't activate unless you run aura through it, but they are still incredibly sharp so be careful." She said as she handed them to him.

"Do you have a place I can test these out?" Sydra asked planning on testing out the three new blades as well as the new powers that he had yet to test out.

"Sure, do you see that building there? That is my testing ground where I test the weight and balance of all the items I create. Even though I am a blacksmith I still need to know the basics of all weapons I create, so I bought that place and had it enchanted to rebuild itself if damaged. Go ahead and go all out in there." Echo said pointing out a large stone building on the other side of the river bank.

"Thanks," Sydra said as he walked over to the river bank and squatting down. Focusing his mind, Sydra willed the Ashgold lightning into his legs to shoot himself over the river. As the lightning reached a level high enough that Sydra felt it could get him across the river he jumped into the air. As his feet left the ground the Ashgold lightning shot out of his feet and propelled him across the river much faster than he expected.

"Ahh!" Sydra yelled as he slammed face-first into the stone building, before sliding down and falling onto the ground. "I am going to have to practice my control more, I don't want to be in the middle of a battle and slam headfirst into a sword pointed at me," Sydra said as he hopped off the ground and went into the building. Back on the other side of the riverbank, Echo was staring at the two small craters that still had Ashgold lightning buzzing within them.

"There was a bridge he could have used." Echo said, still shocked at the power a person who was supposed to be at D-rank could utilize. "My training grounds will be fine right?" She asked herself, slightly worried that Sydra had forgotten to upgrade his insignia in a long time and was actually up at A-rank.

...

Inside the stone building, Sydra was stretching as he looked at all the straw dummies in front of him. Each one had been enchanted to rebuild themselves after being destroyed, but that was only if there was anything left to rebuild.

'This will be the perfect time to practice control, and if any of the dummies can't be restored I will just buy Echo some new ones,' Sydra thought as he pulled out his two new poison daggers and activated his lightning power. 'Maybe ten percent will do?' He thought as he lowered the output of lightning aura to ten percent. Allowing the lightning to flow through his body, Sydra crouched down and starred at one of the straw dummies like it had taken the last cookie, and he really wanted it.

"Take my cookies will you?!" Sydra yelled out as he threw out one of his daggers with such incredible force that it destroyed the straw dummy and kept rushing forward. As the straw flew up into the air in slow motion, Sydra rushed forward and caught the dagger that was still flying forward. Spinning around and facing another straw dummy, Sydra whipped behind it and slashed his dagger through its neck, decapitating it. Flipping over an imaginary arrow, he was immediately in front of the third straw dummy and plunging his dagger into its heart. There were only two straw dummy's left and Sydra wasn't going to let them off at all.

"You all are my cookies, you all die!" Sydra yelled as he zipped between the two straw dummies slicing their legs off and decapitating them as they fell to the ground. Releasing the lightning aura back into his body, Sydra returned to regular speed. As he stood up, he watched as all the straw dummies fell together. He had been so fast that they almost fell in sync with one another.

'Plop' Sydra frowned at how easy it had been. He wouldn't be able to grow if it wasn't difficult, and he needed to grow a lot in a short amount of time. Taking some time to think of a good idea while the straw dummies came back together, Sydra came up with a good idea. Squatting down, Sydra began creating plasma spiders that could control the five dummies. After creating a hundred small spiders and sending them into the straw dummies he walked up to each dummy and handed it a weapon. Two of them got a sword and another two got bows, with the final one receiving a large shield. Commanding the spiders to go at a difficult setting for him while still stopping short of killing him, Sydra got ready to train again, this time with all his powers.

"Grim-Reapers Shadow," Sydra said as his body was covered in lightning-infused bones and he pulled the hood of his cloak up. Manipulating the bones in his armguards he pushed three curved blades out on each one. In his hands were one of the poison daggers, and also the black and blue dagger he had received from the old dwarf. As the straw dummies began moving towards him in formation Sydra shot forward.

"Heed my call and come forth! Root entanglement!" Sydra called out to the roots that ran beneath the stone building to ensnare the shield carrying straw dummy. While the roots were wrapping around its legs, the shield-carrying dummy lifted the shield and slammed it into the ground. Since the spiders had been upgraded with the Golden Rainbow Dew they were able to produce a speed that was equivalent to the same speed Sydra could go at while only using ten percent. As the shield slammed into the ground it created a small force wave that pushed Sydra back. While he was sliding backward, the two bow carriers launched three arrows each in a row. If Sydra tried to dodge one of the arrows there would be two more that would hit him. Deciding to take the arrows head-on, Sydra ran straight towards them. Reaching the first arrow, Sydra bent backward and slid underneath it. The next two arrows were aimed for his chest and impossible to dodge, so instead Sydra threw one of his daggers at the closer arrow and used his now empty hand to catch the other arrow. Flipping it around, Sydra shot it back towards one of the archers with lightning propelling it forward.

'Shlick' The arrow passed through the archer's head and embedded itself into the wall behind it. Without a head, the archer fell to the floor out for the count, but there were still four dummies left. At this moment the two sword-carrying dummies rushed forward towards Sydra and slammed their swords into the ground where his head had just been.

'Well this is certainly challenging for me,' Sydra thought as he rolled to the side, barely dodging a decapitation. Standing up quickly, Sydra jumped through the small space between the swords being swung at him and rushed the archer. Evading a few more arrows shot at him, Sydra increased the lightning's aura output in his legs to fifteen percent and disappeared from the straw dummy's sight. Appearing behind the dummy, Sydra slid his blade through the back of its neck killing it instantly. Unfortunately, this had also placed Sydra in the corner of the room and he was now flanked by the two sword-carrying dummies with the shield carrying one blocking his front.

"What to do?" Sydra asked himself as he dodged the blades being thrust at him. Seeing himself being pushed farther into the corner, Sydra decided to try something new. Slamming the curved blades into the walls behind him and using them as leverage, Sydra lifted his legs into the air and vaulted himself over the trio of dummies. Landing behind the shield carrier Sydra grabbed its head and yanked it back before cutting its neck. Seeing their comrade fallen the two sword-wielding dummies went crazy and began hacking at Sydra. Falling back a safe distance, Sydra picked up the dagger he had deflected an arrow with earlier and faced the two dummies.

"You shouldn't have eaten my cookies," Sydra said as he rushed into the storm of blades, and sliced both of the dummy's necks. Watching them fall, Sydra stood up and began collecting the weapons, only getting to the two bows before the door opened.

"Hey, Sydra. Robert showed up and asked if you were around. The flame tower is only an hour away from the twelve mark and he wanted to let you know. I told him you were training, and that I would come to tell you..." Echo said as she walked into the training room, only to stop short at the sight of weapons and straw strewn around the room. As she stood there the straw began gathering back up into one large mass, and since Sydra had yet to deactivate his spiders they were still in attack mode.

'Clank' The straw monster had picked up the two swords in its two hands and the shield was covering up its chest. Sticking out of its back like needles were all the arrows Sydra had yet to pick up.

"Hold on a second," Sydra said as he turned towards the large straw monster and raised his hand.

'Boom!' Using twenty percent of his power, Sydra demolished the straw monster in one hit and completely melted his shield. Picking up the two swords that had dropped from the creature and sending them to his Arbor Sanctum, Sydra sighed at the sight of his shield. Deactivating any spiders that had survived that blast, Sydra turned back to Echo.

"What happened in here?!" She asked as she looked at her destroyed straw dummies remains littered around the room.

"I was training... Also, do you mind making me a new shield? I will bring you more materials later, for it if you don't mind" Sydra asked walking out the door of the training room.