Mana Control (1/2)
Max woke up a few hours later, but only because he had to use the bathroom. He stood up and walked towards the door, but paused, his hand on the doorknob, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.
Max dove to the side as the door was blasted off it hinges. Flames poured inside but quickly retracted back and died down, disappearing as quickly as they appeared. A figure stepped through the door, a woman with vermilion hair and markings around her eyes.
Max sighed and grabbed his grimoire, standing up from his crouching position, though not quite relaxing his guard. "Damn it Mereleona!! Are you trying to kill me?" He frowned a little, not entirely upset but rather surprised. He was actually more worried about that fact that the door had been destroyed. He knew one thing though, he sure as hell wasn't paying for it.
"Well," Mereleona began, a smirk on her usually stern looking face. "At least we know that you have good battle instincts. You managed to dodge the blast without any warning or perception of mana. Very Good!!!"
She then turned around and walked out of the room, not before telling him to follow. It was obviously time to start their training though it was proabably like 5 in the morning. Max hadnt forgotten the most important thing however as he stopped by his room door.
"Mereleona, I kinda promised Mimosa that I'd let her train with us." He held his grimoire under his arm as he followed the woman. This lady was only a couple inches taller then him, but something about her was intimidating, it made his instincts scream out and kept him on his guard.
Mereleona noticed this and laughed, "You're on your guard, thats good, it means your body or rather your instincts are telling you that I'm far stronger then you and someone whose not to be taken lightly. As for Mimosa, she's already awake and ready to go." Mereleona covered her mouth, hiding a snicker. "And she seemes to be sporting a new hoodie....though I have no idea where she got It from."
Max laughed awkwardly as Mereleona led them down a series of hallways until they went through a door that lead them outside into a place that was surrounded on all sides by 4 meter tall walls. Standing in the center of the square was Mimosa, wearing her usual outfit but had on a hoodie zipped completely up to her neck. Max instantly recognized it as the one he had given to her last night.
Mereleona smiled and turned around to face Max, who, after feeling his instincts kick in, began to run, leaping away from the spot he was standing in. Flames licked at his heels as he ran, fire balls being thrown every which way.
"The first lesson has begun Max, Mana control." Mereleona said brightly as she tossed out fireball after fireball without so much as an incantation. "Your first lesson is to try and touch me by feeling the mana of the fire, dodge them and getting up close. If you succeed, I'll even let you cop a feel."
Max glanced at her breasts for only a split second before moving even faster. "Be quiet Meemee, I'm not a pervert so stop trying to tempt me." He was tempted to use his magic but felt as if it was cheating. Besides he couldnt use his Speed magic as it was still being used to increase his recovery time.
"Run run run," Mereleona said, "It wont be long before....did you just give me a childish nickname?" Mereleona asked, her eyes flashing. The number of fireballs increase by a large amount and even gained a boost in speed.
Max gave a small huff and put on a burst if speed and began weaving through the fireballs with nothing but instincts and reflexes. However, just as he was about to touch Mereleona, a wall of flame erupted around her, forcing him to take a step back. The heat was intense, much more intense than the boy he had fought against in the fight the day before. This flame was hundreds of degrees hotter, almost on a totally different level.
"No, sorry but the only way you're allowed to touch me is if you do it by detecting the mana in the atmosphere." Mereleona explained as the wall of fire disappeared. She smirked and touched one of breasts, holding back a laugh. "You must really want to touch them Max....careful or you'll make Mimosa jealous." She jerked her thumb back at Mimosa who was standing there with a blushing face.
Mimosa had been standing there patiently as if she was waiting for something. It became clear what she was waiting for when Mereleona sent Max over to her so she could heal him. Max was slightly confused but decided to play along and just ask her what she was doing.
"Hey Mimosa," Max greeted her, flashing a small smile. "How come you aren't training with us?" Max sat down on the ground in front of her as he was instructed to do. "I thought you wanted to become stronger."
"Well I thought about what you said, about different types of strength and I decided that I can simply be your support. So I want to strengthen my support magic as best I can." She uttered a magic spell and plants began to grow around Max until he was in some sort of cradle made out of flowers and vines.
Max began to feel strange as green waves of light surrounded around him. It felt rather unusual but It seemed like he had felt something like this before. It felt the same as when he touched his grimoire or when he activated a spell. "Is this mana?" he asked himself in disbelief.
"Yeah," Mimosa said in confirmation, holding up her hands as she continued her spell. "I infuse my own mana with the mana in the atmospere and the mana in the ground to form plants that allow me to heal you, its a type of supplementary magic."
Max nodded as he closed his eyes, enjoying the pleasant sensation, but opened his eyes after a few minutes. "Let me out Mimosa, I think I know how to reach her now." He smiled and jumped out the moment she released the spell.
Mereleona had been watching with amusement for quite some time, wonderimg when he was going to get what she was doing. Unexpectedly, he got it faster then she had thought as she saw him leap out of Mimosa's spell and land on the ground, seemingly ready for another round.
"Oh, so your ready already squirt?" Mereleona asked, flames of fire appearing in both of her hands. "Don't think Ill hold back just because you were previously injured." She threw one of the fireballs directly towards his face, but he simply moved his head to the left and began walking towards her, a calm look on his face.
However, while Max seemed calm on the outside, he was desperately locking on tk each and every piece of mana in the atmosphere. While he initially had trouble with it, he knew he could do it as long as he put forth all his concentration on this one task. He took a breath and continued walking forth.
Mereleona simply smirked and began to throw fireball after fireball at him, but each was immediately evaded by Max's speed. However this time, there was definitely something different about the way he dodged these last few attacks. He was clearly using mana sense to detect the incoming fireballs, but there was no way he could've picked it up that quickly.
Max was mentally sweating as he neared her, the amount of fireballs growing in number and in the temperature. It was getting harder and harder to dodge them, and there were very little gaps to exploit, the timing betwen the blasts growing increasingly shorter.
Max decided to end it all in one shot, put everything on the line. He leaned forward and pushed himself to his maximum speed, dodging in and out of the fireballs using his mana sense to only dodge the ones that would almost hit him.
He was so close that he could taste it when the wall of flames came back, it seemed even hotter before. However, Max was prepared for this and leaped upwards, his grimoire opening. "Sound magic- Sound Vibration." His leg came swinging around, a vibrating wave of sound surrounding it as it crashed through the wall of flame.
The flame dispersed for a second but it was long enough for him to reach inside and touch Mereleona's shoulder. He then rapidly retracted his hand before landing back onto the ground, his grimoire closing and landing back into his hand.
Max took a deep breath and walked back towards Mimosa, who was looking on anxiously, her face filled with worry. Behind him, Max could feel the mana from the wall of flames dissipate telling him that Mereleona had canceled her spell.
"Hey Meme," Max said looking back at her with a cool smile. "Your gonna have to do better then that if you want to best me. Get your boobs ready becuase for the rest of today I'm going to rock your world."
Mereleona blushed slightly before laughing as she realised that Max had no idea how that had sounded. Mimosa's face turned a shade of red and, once Max had come within range, she buried her fist into his gut.