IMPROMPTU

Sibyl's POV

"The plan is simple," Sibyl grumbled, huffing after the team's fourth consecutive hour of hiking, "just hike through the fucking woods and learn how to do magic on the way."

"Sounds real fucking great on paper until you're fucking hiking through the woods," she swatted at a large flying beetle, about the size of half of her palm, that was buzzing around her.

Yifa giggled behind her, but the rest of the team stayed silent. Sibyl had attempted to try to keep in all her complaints, but she was no real soldier. The training The Sanctuary gave was mainly in hand to hand combat. No one in The Sanctuary had ever seen the mainland. There was no real training she could do for what they were undertaking besides just doing it.

Her new found form gave her a boost to her body, but that didn't stop your feet from hurting after misstepping on roots or rocks for the millionth time.

"Let's take a break," Merle said loudly, turning to the team hiking in a line behind her, "there's a small spring near and we need to eat."

At one point, Sibyl would have thought they were stopping to eat for her alone, but before they had set off Aleister had reintroduced Felix to her. Felix was like her, a mixed breed born of Aleister's magic. Felix had been transformed years ago. He came to the Menagerie in a debilitated state having lived his life within captivity. Aleister nor Felix offered much information besides that and Sibyl wasn't discourteous enough to ask.

Merle led the team to a small pool of water, tucked into a cove on the side of the mountain. She removed the large pack she was carrying on her back and set it down with a grunt. As she began to take things out, the others got to work as well. Soon, Cahal was out retrieving fresh meat, Yifa and Svet were cutting up vegetables, and Merle was prepping the fire. Felix took this chance to pull Sibyl aside to begin their training. Every time they'd stop during their trip Felix was tasked with teaching her to use mana.

"It's kinda like learnin' to walk," Felix said as he stood directly across from Sibyl.

They stood in a small clearing about twenty feet (6m) away from the others.

"Which means, really, all I gotta do is encourage ya real hard," Felix nodded to himself as he spoke, as if reassuring himself with his statement.

Sibyl suddenly realized that Aleister may have not, in fact, had a plan, or given her a real teacher. Felix would provide her information, but it would most likely be the same as reading a book and attempting to follow the directions.

"So, I guess I'll have ya start with just feelin'," and with those words Sibyl wanted to snap.

"What… does that even mean, Felix?" Sibyl questioned, containing the little bit of spite in her voice.

She knew she couldn't become at the same level as the demon who struck her down overnight, but the thought plagued her, and every time she watched one of the others practice their skills she became even more internally incessant. She wouldn't call herself paranoid, but she knew that she had to learn to defend herself on that level sooner rather than later, or else.

"I just want ya to sit down and feel stuff," he put his hands on her shoulders and slowly made her sit on the ground, then he sat down in front of her, "When we were just good ol' vanilla humans we felt things one way, but now…" he shook his head, his blue ponytail tossing about, "Sibyl, just do me a favor and close your eyes, ignore us all, and feel."

She sighed and crossed her legs, putting her hands in the earth on either side of her. In her mana classes Aleister had gone over magical perception, but at the time it didn't seem so impressive. Now, as she explored herself, she became overwhelmed by her senses like she had when she had woken up the first time after her transformation. She felt the desire to close it all off, to push it away. It was like hundreds of songs playing at once, as if her skin was hot, cold, sticky, and dry, all at once.

"Breathe, Sibyl, focus on what's nearest. Don't think 'bout the things farthest away. Try to bring it all in range," Felix guided, his voice softer than even a whisper, but she could hear it.

It now made sense why Yifa was such an integral member. If they needed to communicate in enemy territory, someone who could do so silently was a boon beyond many others.

She started putting filters on, fingering through the layers of all of her senses to focus on the ones she deemed most important. She cursed to herself, how was any of this useful if there was so much information that anything truly important could be missed without the most extreme focus? Hearing the whistle of an arrow she twitched slightly, relaxing when remembering Cahal was hunting for food. Slightly beyond that, she heard rustling, more so than all the birds, squirrels, and other forest animals. Then, running.

"Felix, can you tune into this?" She whispered, so into her own senses it was difficult to speak.

Felix yanked her upright and as he did so, Cahal flew into vision. In one hand, a dead rabbit, in the other his bow.

"Oh, did you hear the company?" Cahal panted, and before he could speak Merle was beside them all.

Then there was a roar, and mutual curses from the team.

"Yifa and Svet are tree bound," Merle said hurriedly, "Did you piss off a damn black boar?"

Sibyl knew what a boar was and the fact that they could be incredibly aggressive, but they weren't typically large enough to make the noises she was hearing. Cahal booked it to the higher ground behind them, moving to the top of a large boulder and getting himself into position with his bow. Merle stood at the front, her sharp pole arm in her hands. Felix stood slightly behind her, his hands out.

Felix was finishing a quick chant as the creature showed itself, knocking down a medium sized tree to force its way into the clearing. White light shot from his hands and enveloped Merle, then sunk into her skin giving her tanned flesh a glow beneath. The boar was massive, standing ten feet high (3m). Two pairs of tusks shot from his mouth, one pair going upwards into deleterious points, the other pair smaller and going downwards. Along its spine sharp spikes jutted out. Saliva poured from its maw as it charged towards them, not wasting a moment.

Sibyl wasn't sure what to do and being faced with that fact over and over again was beginning to wear on her ego. She moved behind Felix, in between him and the boulder Cahal was sat on.

Cahal grinned down at her as Merle braced for impact.

"You see, Sibyl," he said in a lilting, joking manner, "I have no desire to learn to wield a blade."

The boar pummeled into Merle. Her pole arm turned at an angle, locking itself between both sets of horns and stopping it from reaching her flesh. The boar pushed her back, causing her feet to create grooves into the ground. Cahal pulled his string back and released a volley of arrows, three of them landing directly on the boar's face, but only two of them sinking in.

The thing bellowed, backing away from Merle and shaking its head back and forth before rushing towards her again. The more Sibyl watched, the more her feeling of helplessness welled up inside of her, threatening to burst forward. Hand to hand combat training when only training against humanoids was extremely unhelpful when fighting a beast like what was in front of her. As she glanced around she saw Felix's mouth twitch and he caught her eyes.

"Impromptu lesson my sheltered friend!" he called, "Whatever it is that's making that happen," he pointed to the blue glowing lines all over her body, "do it at the fuckin' boar. Jus' put ya damn hands out and let it fuckin' rip!"