Tenacity

'My first trial with golemancy went perfectly; golems are strong, really strong. Plus mine is fast enough to intercept a knife after it's been thrown.' I thought

I have to find out how many of these I can have because If there is no limit I could potentially have an infinite workforce that needs neither to eat nor to drink. But, for now, I must focus on other things, I'm quite close to the second stage already, in fact, I'm at 99% and my blood has become a darker yellow.

I went to the library and checked out "Core Stages for Dummies." I sat down under my tree and read. A lot of what it said I already knew, but it mentioned post-molting stages. It talked about how exponentially conductivity and capacity grow post-molting. It explained that each cycle takes about twice as long as the previous cycle and is three times as powerful. The book also mentioned a fiery sensation and green glow you would feel in your horns when you breakthrough. Last, no one knows what color your blood will change to next, it doesn't seem to have any significance.

For the next four days, I did nothing with my Eneru except exhaust it and regenerate it, bringing me closer and closer to the breakthrough point. I got tired of being immobilized over and over, so I looked for someone to teach me how to use a quarterstaff, up until now I've been wildly swinging it at foes and hoping for the best. I didn't know where to look so I talked to Teacher.

"Ha! You want to learn martial arts!? You're a natural, not a human, just use Eneru." he laughed in my face

"Yes, I will make sure to attack anyone who gets within 30 centimeters with Eneru, but any further and I need a weapon!" I didn't have to pretend to be angry.

"Oh yeah, I must be going senile, I forgot your Eneru is useless in a fight."

"Teacher!"

"Uh... I mean your Eneru is amazing at causing trouble. No no no that didn't come out right, what I mean is-"

"Can you find me a teacher or not?"

"Yes, there is a martial artist on campus for lightning mages."

"Alright, I'm going to go see him. Where is he?"

"She should be teaching in the gym right now."

I was walking to the gym with Denny when I heard some gossip about the impending civil war in Gluaze, the nation I live in.

"Those humans would never come to a backwoods like here right."

"Trust me, they would, even Gond has an active resistance against us naturals."

'We need to grow up fast, or we could be too late.'

'Yeah, at this rate we might have to be diplomats by the time we're 16.'

'Color me shocked Spirit, I was expected some cliche like "savor your youth" or something'

'Focus Ingen, you're at the gymnasium.'

'Oh yeah.'

I ran directly into Vincent while lost in thought.

"Sorry!" I said, but when I looked up I didn't see him.

Ignoring the rouge spatial mage, I walked into the gym and looked for the teacher. She was Professor Unda.

"Hey, Professor!" I chased after her.

"What! Can't you see I'm teaching!?"

"So, I was uh... wondering if you would uh... teach me?" I was suddenly nervous

"Perfect! Get a blunt weapon and show this coward the ropes." She pointed towards Vincent

"But I'm untrained, I've only ever used a quarterstaff wildly."

"Good, he's worse, at least show him how to have tenacity. The gods know you showed that during your duel that took up almost a whole period of my gym time." Professor Unda had an accusing tone.

She handed me a quarterstaff and the two protective charms.

"GO!"

I charged Vincent and thrust the heavy metal quarterstaff at his gut, but I hit air, and Vincent was behind me, hand outstretched.

"No you don't!"

I thrust my weapon backward and met Vincent's knee, he felt the impact and yelped, but his leg was fine, his charm was reduced by a fourth. I spun around and tried to swing my quarterstaff at Vincent's head, but I got my weapon tangled in my horns. By the time I freed my weapon, Vincent had grasped my shoulder. An odd sensation filled my senses, it was like electricity was being bent around me, my hair stood on end.

A split second thought reminded me of something, Vincent is a coward.

A whirlwind appeared around me, violently picking up dust and making noise, Vincent appeared four feet back. The whirlwind didn't do anything, it was just scary.

My charm had only an eighth of its charge left and I wasn't about to waste it. I feinted a thrust with my quarterstaff, and when Vincent teleported, I swung a kick at the area behind me in a wild gamble, I found purchase, and Vincent's charm went down to a fourth of its original charge. While he was stunned, I dropped my staff and punched him square in the jaw, finishing off his charm and ending the match.

"See, told you tenacity is important, if you hadn't run away at Ingen's party trick, you would have won. You are also extremely predictable so work on that too. Ingen, your in, come back tomorrow with your personal staff and we will get you into shape."

"Yes ma'am!"