Individual Training 2

I waited outside the house as soon as the sun rose, and today they were surprisingly early, including Luca this time.

I'm not sure if it was the eagerness to learn more spells and sorcery or the stunt I pulled yesterday morning that made them get up bright and early. Although it was probably the latter.

"You feeling alright?" I asked Luca, to which he gave me an enthusiastic nod.

"Dude, where do you sleep?" Asked Colt.

"On that hill," I answered, pointing at my spot.

"Why, you know we got loads of empty rooms." He stated.

"Yes, he's right you shouldn't be sleeping in the cold." Added Stacy, while the others nodded with her.

I paused slightly as a certain memory emerged in front of me. I was having deja vu.

"It's fine, I like it out here," I replied to them.

"Now enough talking, Stacy go back to your training, the rest of you follow me," I said before they could bombard me with any more questions.

As we got to a familiar muddy pit, Colt's face darkened.

"Dude again? Why do I have to do this dirty training? I wanna fight like Alex." He complained.

"This is the training for you, you'll see the benefits it has," I told him

As he made his way into the pit I walked away with Alex and Luca.

We came to the same battleground that Alex and I were in yesterday.

"Alright Alex. Today I won't be your opponent. It'll be Luca." To this, Alex looked a little bummed he wouldn't be getting a rematch but he was still happy he would get a fight nonetheless.

"So there aren't any injuries, you will both be using these wooden versions of your weapons," I said as I handed them the weapons.

"Where did you get those, your hands were just empty." Asked Luca as Alex seemed to wonder as well.

"Don't worry. You guys ready?" I asked, to which Alex took his weapon and started stretching.

Luca looked a bit intimidated, he hadn't been here before so he didn't know what to expect from Alex. But he was ready anyway.

"Alright before we start, Luca go into your status and learn your personal aspect. Alex will be using his so it's only fair you do too." I told him.

He had a blank expression, he was most likely looking at his Status Screen, and then his face turned surprised the next second.

"Wow, I know exactly how to use it." He stated.

"Alright, perfect. Now start the fight." I declared.

Luca put a wide grin on his face as he raised his head to look into the sky. He lifted his hand in the air and all of a sudden dark clouds started to form out of nowhere. Until the sun was completely covered in that area.

BOOM CRACKLE

All of a sudden lightning slammed down into the ground and struck Luca.

I'd have run to his aid, if I didn't know what his ability was.

"Ahahahaha!!! This is awesome!!" He exclaimed, crackling with lightning all around his body.

"Hey, you're in a fight, less admiring more thwacking," I told him

"Oh, right."

As he said this he pointed his hand in a gun gesture while it was buzzing with lightning, at the shocked Alex.

He shot out a blinding bolt of lightning that was so powerful that I could feel the heat from where I was standing.

Is he trying to kill him or something? He's lucky Alex is a durable opponent.

The lightning struck Alex, but nothing happened. For most, there would be an uncontrollable spasm as they fell onto the ground, completely fried.

But for Alex, he just stood there smiling, the lightning slowly being absorbed by him.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Alex's personal aspect is the ability to absorb any kind of energy and use it," I shouted out.

"Huh…" He said with a dumbfounded expression.

"Oh, I get it. So what you're saying is I'm screwed."

"Yup," I shouted back.

"Wow, a whole 15 points of energy. That was more than your fireball, Mirage." Alex pointed out.

I guess I could use that as a scale for how strong that lightning bolt was.

"Alex, use less energy in this fight. Otherwise, it won't be useful for anyone." I explained.

"Hmm, that's true. I don't want this fight to be boring. I'll use 1 energy per 4 minutes." He told me.

An hour fighting like that? Luca's not going to have an easy time. Alex's ability was multiplied by his basic stats. Therefore the higher his stats, the higher the boost when using his aspect.

Alex lunged toward Luca, who was not ready for such speed. His speed had decreased from yesterday, by exactly half. Fascinating.

Luca swung his wooden sword from the side of his body, aiming for Alex's head.

But Alex pulled off a familiar motion. He ended up blocking the attack before it reached its climax.

Wow, I'm impressed, he managed to pick up such a skill only after seeing it once.

As he blocked the attack with one end of the wooden staff, he slammed the other end into Luca's face, making him swing his head with the staff. He then followed up with a kick from the opposite leg, sending Luca tumbling back a few feet.

Yup, this was going to be brutal.

After watching this one-sided fight for a while, I decided to see how the rest of the group was going.

"Alright, guys I'm going to go check on the others. Carry on."

I noticed Luca's 'don't leave me' face as I departed, I'd come back to him anyway. If he was alive.

As I made my way to Colt, I noticed him frustrated. He was less muddy than yesterday, but granted he was doing it for less time.

"You doing alright?" I asked him.

"This is bullshit!!" He shouted.

"You have everyone doing this amazing training, and I'm in a pile of mud embarrassing myself." He started to walk out of the pool.

"Screw this, I'm outta here." He said as he started to walk away.

"Hey."

Colt just stood in place as he shivered slightly.

I walked up to him and continued.

"Throw a kick."

"What?" He asked, confused.

"I said, throw a kick," I repeated.

This time he didn't say anything as he got into his stance.

He lifted his leg and swung a whip-like kick through the air and spun back around into his stance. The kick still wasn't perfect, barely average in fact. But it was clear that there was a big improvement.

"Woah." He said quietly.

"I don't tell you to do things to embarrass you or to make you feel bad about yourself. I do it to prepare you for future struggles."

"If I'm extra tough on you, it's because I think you have the potential to be stronger than anyone here."

He stared at me with widened eyes, I think they even glistened a little.

"Follow me," I said

After a few seconds, he secretly wiped the tears off his face and proceeded to follow.

We came to a peaceful Stacy sitting with her legs crossed and hands on her lap.

"Alright Stacy, ready to make this training harder," I asked her, snapping her out of her trance.

She seemed a bit frightened after hearing this. But after a couple of seconds, she seemed to grow some balls and reply "Yes!".

"Great. Colt, get into a plank position."

"A what?" He looked confused.

Has this guy never worked out in his life? I demonstrated the position I was talking about and instructed him to do the same.

He got into the position and seemed pretty relaxed. He seemed to have a decently strong body.

"Is this it? Finally, I get to relax." He said as he sighed.

"No no no no. We aren't done." As I said this I told Stacy to sit on his back.

"WHAT!?" They both screamed, maybe a bit embarrassed even.

"This will add weight to your training Colt. This exercise will help you train your core, so that you may improve your balance. And Stacy, if you're able to stay concentrated and circulate your ichor during the bumpy roller coaster that is this man's back, your ichor control will improve significantly."

They couldn't argue with this and just did as they were told. After a couple of seconds, Colt started feeling the burn.

"Ohhhh my gawd!!! How long do I have to stay like this?!" He asked.

"Till I come back. Bye." I waved as I left.

I made my way back to a bruised Luca lying on the ground.

"Alex, did you kill him?" I asked, humorously.

"I'm fine, I just need a second." He said, slightly frustrated.

"Why aren't you using your aspect?" I asked

"Well you saw what he did to it, it's practically useless." He complained

"Luca, your aspect is weather control, that's not limited to just lightning. Think outside the box." I suggested as I resumed the fight.

He looked as if he was in deep thought, then a giant grin appeared on his face. He stretched out his hand into the sky again.

"Lightning again. You're just going to be giving me more power." Said a confused Alex.

Luca didn't reply and instead kept going. Suddenly a powerful gust started to form.

"Hahaha, let's see if you can absorb this!" Luca exclaimed.

All of a sudden a small tornado appeared, with Alex in the centre of it.

"Oh, crap!!" Alex shouted as he was lifted off the floor and spun around in the tornado.

Luca kept this going for a couple of seconds, before abruptly stopping the tornado. Alex came flying out toward Luca. He must have done this on purpose, since the next second, Luca lifted his sword and slammed it straight into the zooming Alex's abdomen.

The wooden sword broke on impact and Alex was slammed into the ground. Luca just looked at this amazed at his power, while the winded Alex was left on the floor, struggling to catch his breath.

"Wow, I'm impressed, Luca. Well done."

"Thank you thank you, although I am feeling a bit…" Before he could finish his sentence he began to wobble.

I grabbed him with my arm before he fell to the floor. He must have used the rest of his ichor in that one attack.

"You alright Alex?" I asked him

"Yeah, that was amazing." He said as he got up off the floor.

"It was. Now let's go back." I said as we walked away, with Luca on my shoulder.

We made our way to the other two, only to be met with Colt, over a pool of his sweat and Stacy struggling to keep her focus, as evidenced by her scrunched face.

"Alright Colt, that's enough," I said they were so focused on what he was doing that he didn't even notice our approach.

As he heard this he let his body go completely, falling into the puddle of sweat he had created under him. Stacy had also gotten off of him.

"What's wrong with Luca!!" She shouted upon seeing him.

"He's just a bit exhausted. You think you can heal him?" I asked.

"Yes, I'll try. Let me get the first aid kit." She said turning around.

"No. No first aid kit. You'll be healing him with sorcery."