Summer 18, 124
Caelum sat in his room, hunched over and awkward as he started to produce gristle. It was never a pleasant thing to do, in his opinion, but he felt that he might need the saolite in the future.
Meanwhile... outside of Paradise
"Sjal," referred to the towering man with a scar across his left eye and smoky gray hair that reached his shoulders. He was a teacher that Caelum had hired to help train her. Sjal met her teacher's gaze, looking up from the small fire crackling in the crevice of stones and branches. He stood up with a low grunt off the seat kicked some dirt into the flames to put them out, saying, "I know you are ready."
She hopped off the log and jogged over to her teacher, who was leaving the are and making his way toward the open plain at the top of the nearby hill that overlooked the surrounding burnt wilderness. "I'm ready for what? Where are you going?" she asked. It was hot and there were lots of crickets chirping, and every now and then a breeze of heat would blow through like a dragon's breath.
Her teacher did not say anything during the walk - all that was visible on his face was uncertainty mixed with a hint of fear. Deep down, Sjal was nervous.
He turned to face his student and put a consoling hand on her shoulder as they approached the center of the clearing. Her teacher was met by Sjal's warm eyes. "Sjal, what is your greatest fear in life? What makes you most afraid?" was a strange question, and she wasn't sure she was ready or comfortable to respond, but she wasn't really given much of an option.
The response was surprisingly sincere. "I'm afraid of not being able to protect those I care about." She had it without giving it any thought. With a nod, the mentor turned his back to her.
"You must train harder if you want to live. We must engage in life threatening training, for the greater good." There was an awkward silence that followed, and Sjal appeared utterly terrified. She had not planned on even harder training.
She reassured herself under her breath, "I need to be stronger to protect others" and turned to face her teacher. "I am ready."
With a nod, the man turned around once more. Without saying a word, he charged. He pulled back a fist and thrust it at her moments later. Sjal could barely defend herself by holding her arms out in front of her - she was ill-prepared. The majority of the strikes went to her forearms, and while they were sore, that was the least of her concerns. She had a weaker feeling, like her energy was being depleted with each hit that connected. Even though she had never witnessed the attack before, she knew it was dangerous and that she needed to separate herself from her teacher right away. She made a futile leap backwards as quickly as she could, hopping like a grasshopper.
The man moved far too quickly. Another strong blow nearly struck her face, but the Dragonbound ducked just in time to keep herself from being knocked back. Still she felt like her saol was drained just a little bit, even though she escaped the hit. It was starting to show that she would run out of saol if she didn't do something about the man's syphoning attacks. With quick thinking, Sjal dug into her bag and took out a couple of kunai.
She took up a balanced stance and held them in front of her. Her teacher slowed. He was astute enough to realize that he would almost certainly get cut when blades entered the picture and that his bare hands would not be sufficient to deal with them entirely.
Sjal recognized her chance and took it, swinging the unique knife at her teacher's legs as she reached back and grasped her katana's hilt with her right hand. Though she knew it would let her attack while maintaining some distance, she hadn't used it in a while. With a sly grin, her opponent's hands moved to shoot flames out of them. Sjal did a back handspring and leaped back, barely avoiding getting singed by the huge ball of flames. She launched herself backwards into the air with her final handspring, spitting a torrent of fire out of her mouth. The man took the fire with both of his left arms, pulling back with all his strength even though it was aimed at her teacher's chest. He redirected the flames to the side after a few moments of concentration.
Sjal was hit by a punch that sent her skidding back across the ground. Though her body didn't stay on the ground, it was obvious that she was completely disoriented. She shot up, moving quickly enough to get out of the way of a rain of projectiles raining on her, despite the pain. Sjal grabbed one with a hand as she maintained a firm hold on her katana with the other. With the added speed and momentum of her frantic run, she released the projectiles as she got closer to her teacher. The knife clattered off a rock as it missed.
With scarcely any time to respond, the enormous construction erupted in her direction, showering her with flames that soon assumed the shape of little knives. Sjal gasped as she saw them shoot like bullets towards her, widening her eyes. All she could do was try to deflect them. Of course, she had resistance to fire. It wouldn't hurt her, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. The attack was too wide to avoid in this short amount of time. By chance, the kunai she threw ended up lying in front of her, so she bowed down to retrieve one.
In an instant, she was frantically waving her hands to divert the approaching projectiles with her blades. She was absolute shit when it came to using small weaponry. She was only any good at using a sword. So when the projectiles came aiming for her legs, she had trouble deflecting them. Her katana, a flash of steel, moved quickly in front of her to shield her midsection and upper body. She had no idea how her teacher did it, but when it stopped, the Dragonbound's face, arms, and legs were all covered in small singe marks.
She was panting and breathing heavily, making it difficult for her to concentrate on anything at all, which caused her to miss the blur of movement in back of her. She fell face-first to the ground as a palm slammed into her spine, causing her back muscles to spasm and constrict for a short while. Her survival instincts must have been on overdrive, because she rolled forward and sideways as soon as she hit the ground, deceiving her teacher with the afterimage maneuver and buying herself some time to recover. Even though she knew she wouldn't have the serendipity of escaping, a break would still have been nice. She was thrown back a few feet as a whirlwind of debris and wind formed in front of her, followed by a ick that connected to her jaw.
From there, she was thrown several meters and caught by what she could only surmise was her teacher, who then hit her once again. After being propelled high into the air, Sjal was left in a daze as gravity started to pull on her more and more as she continued to fly upward. She saw a shadowy figure appear over her, squinting and watering her eyes. She could only assume it was her teacher, though it might have been anything. In any case, Sjal was about to be struck by his heel, but the Dragonbound blocked it by raising her arms.
She was aware of what needed to be done to survive the fall with the least amount of damage, and she was more alert than before. She folded her arms around her knees, bringing them up to her chest. Leaning back, she fell headfirst and then threw her legs out to perform a backflip. While doing so she used natare to slow her momentum. As soon as she touched down, her teacher was ready to attack her again.
She stood up at the end of her roll and ran off again, even after that nasty fall. Something was shifting within her, something that would not allow her to perish under any circumstances. It felt a little strange to her, but the last fall had awakened something else in her, and her determination had increased tenfold. She instantly knew what was going to happen when she heard some footsteps behind her. She anticipated that she would be met with danger. Not good.
Sjal ducked low as the blows came and spun on the balls of her feet to face her attacker. She tried to cut right through him with her knife, but he ducked even lower and executed a low, sweeping kick to knock her off her feet. Sjal was ready this time around. With her arm outstretched, she did a little hop to push herself off the ground and move away.
Rolling, Sjal forced herself to her feet. Her legs were shaking so badly she could not stand, and blood was running down the sides of her mouth. But standing between her and her teacher was a charred stump of a tree. She lunged at him, vaulting over the obstacle. Despite her intense and rapid punching, she was unable to hit him. She was growing increasingly irate and determined as a result. She even attempted a couple quick kicks, but they were also avoided. She had to keep reminding herself that she was fighting her teacher and that she was not fully recovered. But that just made her want to hit harder and faster.
Even though it appeared to be a one-sided struggle, she had to prevail. It was necessary for her to. Her knees stopped shaking and she experienced a second wind that seemed to numb her exhaustion. Her opponent tried to land a flying jump kick as she tried to maneuver into a more favorable position, but Sjal avoided it by grabbing the attacking leg by the ankle and throwing him instead.
Sjal ran forward and grabbed the robes of her opponent with one hand. With the other, she kept punching without stopping, causing the strain on her arm to intensify. Nothing would stop her, so she didn't stop. She tugged at the robes once more to prevent her teacher from backing up. Immediately afterward, she stooped to deliver a swift, low sweeping kick that was meant to knock him off his feet.
Sjal frowned as her gaze locked with her teacher's as he fell. She was mad at the man for some reason. She didn't question it because it was merely training and she had no cause to be upset with him for providing it. She was risking her life, and she had to make sure she did everything in her power to keep her loved ones safe. She cried out, "It's over!" before grabbing her katana and lunging toward the man at full speed. Using blinking, she sprinted from side to side, keeping her teacher from figuring out where the attack was going to come from.
The Dragonbound ran around her teacher, kicking up quite a bit of ash in the process. The man just aimed his mocking gaze at Sjal's approaching figure.
Sjal's teacher kept defending, but this time he used his knives to defend against her sword slashes. The only thing the Dragonbound could think of to calm herself down was to strike even more quickly and forcefully. This was ineffective because all of her strikes were blocked anyways
Her teacher said, "You are getting sloppy, girl." She was knocked back several yards as he whirled around and planted his heel in her chest. She kept rolling back like a rag doll, unbroken in her fall, until she stopped ten yards away. Her teacher turned to face her and put his knife back in his holster. "I'm sorry, girl," he said. "I guess I pushed you into this training too early."
"Please... please don't put away your weapon," Sjal said in a low, tremulous voice. She was clearly trying to move because her fingers were twitching.
"Interesting," said the elder mage, observing his student struggle to continue on. Quite the contrary, she was not out for the count. She raised her arms slowly from beneath her. She kept herself up a little, though they were unsteady. Her right leg then shifted. She was not quite to her feet, but she was kneeling. Her teacher would have attacked then and there if he had known what was coming. He was still surprised, though, that Sjal was able to move after being defeated so one sidedly. He had never seen anything like it before. Despite her fall, the Dragonbound knew that her hand was still firmly gripping her katana.
Sjal staggered forward, launching a barrage of katana strikes, the first one narrowly missing her teacher's head. He swiftly drew two kunai this time to assist in defense after having to duck to avoid being beheaded. The clash of steel this time created more sparks than the last. Never before had Sjal swung so quickly in her life. Her katana connected with the two kunai, creating a silver spark in front of her. She gave it one last spin and surprised her teacher.
He yelped when both of his knives were knocked out of his grasp. Sjal cried out, "I did it!" as her blade stopped just an inch from the man's neck. This fight was over.
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