Forty-Two vol.2

As she was rarely without practice, it came much easier this time. Rose clung onto the experience of her first training, as fresh as the day it occurred, and latched onto the vibrating hum of mana around her, listening for that rumble of challenge that aligned with her element. Then, 20 seconds later, lightning danced between her outstretched palms.

She stared at the sparkling bolts, frizzing in the air and recognized that, this time, they did not try and fry her. The element was for those born to overcome challenges, and she had already tamed its first hurdle. As long as she made no changes to their path, motion, nor intensity, they remained stable under her control.

Yet, nothing in the world was stagnant. Not least her wish for strength and understanding.

"Try it," Lilias's voice came behind her.

Though the explicit motion wasn't needed, Rose held the element in one hand before thrusting it forward.

The flash of white lightning grew in intensity, simmered, and flew forward in a single bolt. It crackled through the air with a rumble, then sparked into branches of electricity. Though beautiful to watch, the result was nothing more than a thin, miniscule attack with only enough might to shock and stumble an opponent for perhaps less than a second, and barely any distance crossed.

"A cast time of 10 seconds," Lilias muttered behind her, "Excellent for a first try."

Rose dragged her focus back, releasing a sigh along with the tension in her form. Merely doing that had taken her full concentration.

"As excellent as it is, it's currently useless in battle," She said as she glanced at the tips of her fingers. They were fried, skin scorched with burns, and blood leaking from some. Naturally, they were already visibly healing. 'Well, there's no pressure. I'm progressing rather well.' She smiled, almost grinning at that thought.

At one point, merely calling it had taken her minutes. At one point, trying to control it had sent it crawling up her arms. Now, she only had step by steps to go.

"Mhmm, but nothing some practicing can't fix," Lilias said. "All you have to do is continue trying to challenge it. Control its intensity. Control its radius. Control its range. And control its chaotic nature."

Rose laughed at her last words. "I don't think it wants to be controlled to that degree."

Based on her past memories, and the new experiences, she knew lightning was an element which would always have chaos in its form. Even now, though she had meant only to release a single straight bolt, it had spasmed into branching paths, as if mocking her attempt.

Then she stood back up.

"Are we going to the next floor now?" Lilias asked.

Rose shook her head. "No, not yet."

She walked over, crossing the white room to an Elsa who was deep within her studying, eyes glued upon her pad's interface, murmuring away.

"Could you teach me boxing?" Rose asked.

The slum-born girl blinked her eyes as she looked up.

Elsa raised a brow., the screen of her pad disappearing "Say what now?"

"I want you to teach me the basics of boxing."

"I don't know man. . .I'm not a master at it or anything," The girl murmured. "You know I just learned by fighting in the slums, right?"

Rose nodded. "That's fine. I still want you to teach me."

Elsa felt incredulous at that resolute statement. Her? Teaching rose? To her, there were far better ways to learn. If she wasn't mistaken, in Alos, there were a shit ton of dojos all around where anyone could learn to wield weapons as well as martial arts. Biting down her insecurities a bit, she was also a level-headed individual. If Rose wanted to learn from her, so be it.

"Alright," She said as she stood up, shrugging and finding that she was grinning. "Are we starting right now?"

Rose smiled. "We are."

"Good, I'll wing it."

They stood apart from each other,

"I know you learn fast, so I won't beat around the bush," Elsa spoke as she held her fists up, leveled with her eyes, head hunkered slightly down between them, her left shoulder angled forward, one foot in front of the other. "This is the most basic stance of boxing. Lead with your non-dominant and weaker hand, as the acceleration of your stronger fist crossing a greater distance from the rear to maximize damage. Shoulders high, fists nice and tight. Amma guess you don't need me to say anything else, right?"

Rose nodded and entered into the same stance, fists raised, slightly bending her knees, feet diagonally apart a bit wider than her shoulders, her back foot almost on its toes with its heel up. Since she was ambidextrous, she copied Elsa's stance exactly with her left shoulder angled more forward than her right. As well, Rose found herself significantly impressed. Just like when Elsa began talking about mechas and mechanical creations, she was direct and intelligent. . .she couldn't say the same about the girl for when she tutored her in mathematics.

"When you move, avoid having your feet in straight lines, so you don't get knocked over, and don't ever cross em, got it?" Elsa shuffled up towards her. Then she moved back, right, and lastly left. "Move forward, your forward foot goes first. Move back, your back foot goes first. Move right, tour right foot goes first. Move left, and your left foot goes first."

Rose followed her movements, shuffling about the space in tandem with the girl. One moment, she felt awkward. The next, it was coming more naturally to her as she corrected herself, over and over.

Then Elsa stopped, grinning.

"It's time to punch."

With those words, her left arm straightened into a fluid punch, and she brought it back to her chin. Then she attacked once more, this time with her right fist, her feet and hip rotating as she drove the attack forward, before returning it as well.

"That's a jab right there, used mostly for hitting the upper body and setting other things up. The right one used more rotation, more force."

She did the same thing once more in quick succession.

"That's a basic 1-2 combo of a jab right there. If you're good enough, you can continue stringing them and then surprise em with something else. Something stronger."

She shifted forward, frog leg moving first. She twisted her body, her left fist arching through her side, elbow up, as she delivered a strike swishing past the air. Then she did the same with her right.

"That's a left hook. Short and quick. More powerful than a jab, usually delivered to the head, but slower as it has slightly more of a wind-up."

Rose watched as Elsa shifted back, throwing an angled attack that traced from under her, and struck forward with a slight twist.

"That's a gut uppercut. If their defending their face with their fists, you might use that."

Then she threw a similar, but different one. Striking up in a drive.

"That's a chin uppercut. I think you get it. First style is for hitting the body. The other is for hitting the chin. With both, you rotate power with your hips and your shoulders tucked in, as if gliding off your upper body."

Then she threw a punch that came up and over as well as through her side. Then did the same with her other fist.

"That's an overhead punch. For attacking the head, of course. If a sword is slashing down at you, you could probably knock the person off balance with the attack."

Jab jab, hook, jab, jab, jab, jab, hook. Uppercut. Overhead punch. Elsa stringed the movements along in one fluid motion, fighting against an unseen opponent. She stopped, releasing and taking a breath as she smiled.

"And that's a random combo on the spot using em all."

Then she glazed at Rose, whose eyes had been taking in her movement the entire time.

"Do the exact same combo I just did."

Rose nodded at the challenge.

She shifted up.

Jab jab, hook, jab, jab, jab, hook. Uppercut. Overhead punch. She too stringed the movements along. Though her motion was not fluid, it wasn't clunky either. Without being told, she repeated the combo once more, correcting her minute mistakes from the previous, and found herself a bit more in line with Elsa.

"Woah. . .I kinda feel sad. . ."

As Elsa muttered that, Lilias chuckled, understanding where she was coming from. Rose had a way of making everything seem easy. Even true magic, which Lilias struggled with a lot when she was younger, was quickly being learned by the homunculus.

Elsa cracked her knuckles, shifting closer to Rose with greater speed than before.

"Alright, now lemme punch you."

She threw a jab.

Rose dodged the attack with a hunkering movement of her head and upper body.

"What the? You actually dodged it? Correctly too? How the heck'd you do that?" Elsa frowned.

"I figured that, if I was in basic stance, it'd be how I would move," Rose replied, shrugging her shoulders, "Based on what you had already taught me and my own intuition."

Was she serious? A deeper frown emerged upon Elsa's face. This girl was way too frightening. She looked over at a placid Lilias, recognizing what the girl meant when she said Rose was made for war.

'At this rate, wouldn't she be as good as me in no time?' Elsa thought. Finding her heart tightening at that reality, she bit her lips. The girl really was growing stronger with each passing day.

"Elsa?" Rose asked.

The girl replied with a string of jabs.

"Let me hit you, you've gotta learn to take a hit too!" Elsa said, following after the girl who seemed to be weaving her way through all her attacks.

"No way! You just want to punch me!" Rose replied, furiously dodging her punches. Her eyes taking in the girl's form and the experience in full.

"Well no duh, it's part of boxing!"

Besides them, Lilias watched, a thin smile on her face as Elsa chased the homunculus across the white room with her fists. For a moment, she thought about the first time her brother trained her, her expression returning to placidness.

It took a few more minutes before they entered the next floor.