Chapter 5 - Practice

Kira

Dawn was here, and my gleaming armor was already on as I heard a knock on my door. I answered it to see Ellestrae's wise and serene face. "Goodmorning Kira, are you ready for our training session?" I noticed that she didn't have her usual robes on, instead she had a very simple set of pants, boots, and a normal looking tunic. It seems she intends to train with the squad, I was not expecting her of all people to get a good workout.

I smiled and replied with a mumbled "Mmmmmorning."

We made our way to our practice room and I saw an amazing sight. Aethena and Aedra, were fighting with their swords at such an insane speed that their blows were landing fast enough to create a constant sound of clashing metal.

Aethena had her two blades and seemed to sweep through with a momentum that would let her swords keep moving along deadly trajectories. Captain Aedra, had his black sword out matching each strike and countering when possible. They seemed to be dead even in this fight.

I have a sword but I know next to nothing about actually dualing with them. My strikes with the sword are usually powered with the light, so each time I swing it, there isn't an opposing force that could stop my swing.

But watching the dance of these two, mixed with their fluid movments was mesmerising. I know I cannot compete with the pure skill they have.

After watching for a few minutes I realized that the rest of the squad showed up, including Shirina and Taezed, wearing clothes that could be worked out in. Taezed's hard visage didn't look my way once, but I was looking at his bow on his back and that thing looks mean!

The dualing siblings finally seemed to come to a stop and the Captain sheethed his sword and walked over to us.

"Alrighty, now that we have a new member, it's time to show her the ropes. Draed, you are on, lets get a good workout this morning."

"Aye sir, alright ladies time to start running." Draed, the Sargent bahemoth of a half ogre half orc is definitely the one in charge of drills. He stays at the back of the pack and we are running laps around the room to get warmed up. The room is roughly rectangular with a large enough circumference that running laps wasn't just moving in circles. It was larger than a basketball court, but smaller than two.

After what felt like a half hour of running, which I was doing easily with my light powered body, we came together in the middle for some stretching. Followed by a basic physical work out routine. Nothing out of the ordinary.

A few were out of breath and I could see that Shirina and Ellestrae were doing easier versions of what we are doing. I supposed that is just because they are older and feel like they did what they needed to already, fair enough.

I was pleased to see the Captain working out right with us, it felt like a comfortable team that I was just slowly being allowed to hang out with. There was easy banter going during the run, but the stretching parts was a welcomed silence.

I am so flexible with this new body it is insane. I tried doing a couple different splits just to see if I could and sure enough it was easy. Even in my armor, the strength, stamina, and agility of this body was astounding.

We are warmed up and I suppose it is now time for some sparring or something.

Captain Aedra breaks the silence. "Alright, now that we are warmed up lets get some basic sparring and such in."

Dorrin, Shirina, and Ellestrae move to a corner to practice their magic capacity levels, I only know this after watching for a little bit. They would maintain a spell and try to control it in different ways, I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at.

"So Kira, I haven't seen a sword on you so we have an extra blade or two on that wall if you need one. They are all sharp, we don't train with practice swords since we don't invite new recruits from the schools to join our squad. I want you to have the real weapons in your hands as we train and it also allows Shiri some more practice when she has to stitch us back up with her magic." The captain explains.

"But anyways pick a sword from those and lets go to get some sparring in."

Instead of pulling a sword from the wall, I equip my Striker's Sure-Hand, the third weapon that I had equipped when I came through the portal. The sword is different from the standard types of swords you would see in a fantasy world. It looked like some person who designes websites decided to take a minimalist theme and apply it to a sword from the future. It was blue, black and the very edge of the sword looked metallic.

The sword itself gives me more movement speed, and also does more damage for each time I hit someone. It also does more damage if there are a lot of enemies surrounding me. What do you expect from a heavy ammo sword.

"Oh, wow that sword is...unique." The captain says. He is wearing a pale white vest with no shirt under and I was definitely not checking him out....Definitely not.

"Kira." A cold voice says to me.

I turn and make eye contact with Aethena and she nods her head in a follow me gesture. Gulp. The ice queen wants first dibs. As she walks away to the corner I made eye contact with the Captain, my eyebrow raised. He shrugged and followed Aethena to the corner.

"I want to see what you can do first, with that sword, no magic or this...light thing." Aethena says, she is wearing a determined face with her black hair back in a pony tail.

"Okay, but..." Before I could tell her that I can't stop using light to make my body stronger she comes at me.

Her dual blades were scything through the air as she spun at me. I ducked the first, parried the second then barely blocked the third as her momentum picked up. Each hit was stronger than the last and her movments were becoming more deadly and precise.

Ducking another blow I blocked with my sword and threw my left hand out to melee attack. The blast of power knocks her back and cuts her momentus swords from their flurry. I continue with a heavy strike and the arc power this weapon uses gets release along the blade as I do a massive uppercut attack leaving a cut through her inner left thigh and knocked her right sword up and back. I stopped from doing another attack as blood pools from her leg. I was wrong to let the fight end there and not attacking again cause she broke her shocked look and came at me again.

Pain ignored in her left leg, I see lightning run up her body and she is even faster. It feels like each attack is aiming at my blade to see if she can knock it out of the way again. She goes low, high, left, right, and mixes the order at a seemingly random intervals. She landed a slash to my left arm, my sheilds dipping a small amount. The slash did not break my armor. Oh shit, I should put my helmet on, well she isn't wearing one either so I'll just endure.

Left, right, spinning high kick, this girl is insane how can she keep this pace up the whole time. She comes low and swipes for my knee, I jump high with my light infused jump, get above her, then do a powered smashing drop to the ground with my arc powered sword. It cuts right through her armor and leaves a gash down the left side of her ribs before the impact on the ground sent her flying onto her ass. The ground didnt even budge...some strong stone.

"Shiri." The captain says in a rising tone, but I look left and everyone was watching the fight so Shiri just stepped up channeling her healing powers to bring Aethena back into fighting condition.

I heard Dorr say something...I couldn't figure out what it was but Ellestrae nodded her head at that.

"Again, Aethena says."

"No, it's my turn." A quiet coarse voice said. I got the chills down my back as I looked at the figure in black named Taezed. He hands Draed his recurve bow and draws his Sword and off-hand knife. The sword has some nasty serrations along its length, and the long thin dagger feels like its....hungry. I don't understand how that works, but whatever...magic right?

When he is settled into a combat stance, I held my sword at the ready, then he disappeared. It was like he quickly sank into shadows, and years of gaming taught me that he is going to be directly behind me when he pops out of my shadow. I immdiately did and uppercut strike and although he blocked it with his sword, his eyes were wide as it launched him back a distance.

"You know of shadow magic?" He asks kind of surprised.

"I have seen a shadow step move similar to that before." I lied, well I have seen it, but never faced it.

Before he could say anything else I charged him. We clashed with several quick strikes, all normal power. He was on the defensive and I was throwing strong but predictable sword strikes.

"You have power but not sword skill." I go for the obvious power strike, and he rolls down the right of my arm and stabs me in the torso.

I haven't ever fought against other serious sword users. The Hive has swords, but they are lumbering idiots, and it's not like one of them is gonna come up and challenge me to a duel.

His blade dropped my shields by almost half and I was bent over from that strike, but I heard him walking away out of it, so I didn't bother rolling further away.

He was good. When I stood up again he waited for my nod then charged at me this time. We met with a flurry of blows and I finally got to see how he implemented his dagger into his fighting style. He had it backwards and would punch out with his fist, blade trailing behind. When he did those left handed dagger attacks, he also shot forward. It was an intimidating attack. I took the first punch to the mouth and he broke through my shields leaving a cut across my cheek. However my left palm struck out under his left arm engaging my light powered warlock attack and it sent him flying back covered in cinders.

He came out of the fall with a backwards roll and I was still seeing some stars from his startlingly hard left hook. He nodded at me with a slight amused glint in his eye. there was no trace of a smile on his lips though, just and amused sparkle in his eye. This dude is a badass.

"Taezed." He introduces himself with a hand on his chest.

"Kira." I nod at him.

He bows and says, "I will test you with a bow when you are done dueling, I assume the Captain will want a go next."

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I nodded, and dropped my other Warlock skill which is a Well. The Well enables me to heal all who enter it and stay there. It also gives the people inside an overshield to protect all allies in it. Everyone sees me gather power and I throw it down with a stomp of my right foot, my Well of Healing spawns, and my cheek is immediately healed.

"DID YOU JUST HEAL YOURSELF????" Shirina yells with way too much excitement.

"Oh, uhhh yeah, this is my healing well, it should work for all who enter it, but it only lasts for a minute or so." I explain, slightly surprised at the comfort I feel talking to these people.

"Really?" The captain asks as he pulls a knife and cuts across the top of his hand while walking towards the well.

Shirina about explodes when she sees this, "AEDRA, WHAT IN THE THREE HELLS ARE YOU DOING?"

He smiles and steps into the 12ft ring of light that I am in the middle of.

His wound heals instantly and he feels the overshield cover him. "I am shielded also? This is incredible. Can you cast it at a distance or just under you?"

"Just at my feet."

"Wow this will be great to drop under Draed...wait does it heal everyone including enemies?"

"No, if you are hostile towards me it will not heal you." I reply simply enough.

"Well good, what can't you do Kira? You can use a sword, you can use a bow, you can heal. This is incredible." He has a boyish grin on him and he is shaking his head.

"Thanks?" I smile back at him.

"Okay, now lets fight."

"What?"

Lining up accross from the Captain I am now witness to the receiving end of his harsh stare as he is charging at me. I step to engage him and his body is engulfed in what I could only describe as black lightning. Just out of sword reach from me he slashes at me and lightning arcs from the blade and hits me in the chest.

I didn't entirely black out, but after my vision cleared I realized I was on the group looking up at his black blade at my neck. Gulp.

Okay that hurt, I will go on the offensive now. We line up again, and as he steps to come at me I throw my grenade between us, and I sprint through it, he stopped in confusion as I sprinted through a cloud of firey sunlight, and engage with a blue Arc attack on my blade.

In Destiny there is three types of damage you can do...Orange for solar, blue for Arc, and purple for void, weapons and armor can be infused with energy that enhances the amount of 1 type for each piece. Energy and power weapons will be in one of those three categories. My Loaded Question rifle is an Arc explosion fusion rifle, and my sword is an Arc damage sword that gives me speed and increased damage.

He comes to parry it, as of yet not a single person was able to completely stop my power attacks momentum, instead they are usually launched up from it. He was able to meet the blade but once again, was not able to stop my sword, he got a small gash in his vest that left a very shallow cut just above his heart on his chest.

I try to follow with a normal sword strike and hit air. A blur black lightning flew past me on the right side and I felt a slice in my upper right shoulder. He made it through my shields and armor with one precise cut. That sword with the swirling black in the middle is very nasty.

Okay, back to the fight, my solar field from the grenade dissepates and we are left with only the lights over our heads while we stare each other down. He smiles at me and says,"You are pretty good, but..." Then he turns into lightning and before I knew what happened he was standing over the top of me as I am on my back on the ground with no weapon in hand looking up at his imposing figure with shock. Blink. "...you still aren't as fast as me." He says this over me with a cock smile, oh man I could punch you straight in the nose right now and not even feel bad.

"What was that?" I slowly ask, cheeks burning with heat as I tried to catch my breath that was knocked out of me again.

A low whistle and a chuckle comes from Dorris the elementalist guy. "Damn Cap, you don't have beat the hell out of everyone that joins the squad okay?"

He laughs, ignores Dorris's comment, and helps me up, "I am a lightning spellsword, I can channel the lightning to move faster than the eye can see. My sister does it a little, but hers is more of a body enhancement than mine. I can strike out with the lightning as well." Damn, he's a badass. I should have used my super.

"Okay that is enough dueling for now, Kira let Shiri heal that so she uses her power. Even a little helps her get stronger. Next lets see what you can do with that bow of yours." He says, his eyes dancing with a strong proud smile, he loves fighting doesn't he? I bet he is so happy he beat me. Oh man I'm gonna kick his ass one day, and then he will be mine. Wait what... I don't know where that last thought came from.

"That was amazing dear, you really are incredible." Shirina's kind words seemed to be the first spoken to me without an excessive amount of stress, either positive or negative.

My smile is genuine and I thanked her for the healing. I still had ghost fix the cut in my armor really fast, but she did the healing.

"Alright kid, nice fight, pull out that bow of yours though. " Taezed's surprisingly nice voice says over my shoulder.

I equip it and he is eyeing it thoughfully. I handed it over to him, "Draw it." I said.

He raised an eye brow at me and before he lifted it,"Does it have a name?"

"Wish-ender, I found it in a dungeon in the Dreaming City. My favorite weapon." I say with a wistful smile.

It Aethena was by the wall and hit something on a glowing pannel. The other end of the room opposite from the entry doors, has some targets that came into existence in mid air.

Taezed nods at my description, sights the bow and as he draws back the screen. I see the familiar blue charge bar fill up and he smoothly releases and hits one target dead center. "This bow.....is very good." He said it with no awe in his voice, almost just reporting it to us. "The blue light, does it mean something or is it just how far the string is pulled?"

I smiled and took the bow back. "Yeah, if I fire while the charge is at the very top of this point, it puts extra energy into the arrow that will pierce through quite a few enemies and travel perfectly straight for a long while."

I demonstrated the two different shots, the perfectly pulled bow puts an arrow through the center only to burry itself into the wall behind it.

"Well, we have an archer, who can use these solar....grenades, and can also heal. Sounds like you will fit into our group with your skill set. You can still engage with a sword and hold your own, but its like you don't need to. Are you hiding any other skills we should know about?" Taezeds reporting fashion of speaking is complimentary to me, but also demanding of respect and it lacks any sympathy. It is hard to get a full reading on him though, like I can only see a tiny part of him.

I only smiled a mysterious grin. "She undoubtedly has more, I am curious to see what they are." Ellestrae's serene monotone voice flutes throught he air.

"I shouldn't use one of them inside, and the other only works against hostile enemies to see its full effect." Referring to the Dawnblade super ability and the Loaded Question fushion rifle respectively.

I did pull the loaded question out and prepared to explain what a gun was before I had to do it on a mission.

"This is one of them, it is whats called a Fusion Rifle. Using Arc energies, it is able to shoot a series of what are called bullets, to hit a group of people, and if it is fully charged it will cause an arc explosion disintegrating enemies caught within it.

"And your other ability?" Ellestrae continues.

Another devious smile finds its way across my face. "It is called the Dawnblade, I will show you when we are next outdoors in combat."

The Captain is wearing an astonished look, and everyone seems to be thinking about it. The quiet mountain of an orc/ogre mix steps up to me. Puts a massive hand on my shoulder, and says. "I like you, you fit in well. Names Draed, I know the Captain introduced us, but I like to make sure people can hold their own before I introduce myself properly. Welcome to Squad 3." His rumbling voice that is quiet, yet carries easily, declares.

I smiled up at him, he had to be almost 9 feet tall, and if I looked straight at him.....Well no need to think about that.

We spent some time training, I fought Aethena again when she wouldn't join any team exercises until we fought. This time she seemed to charge her lightning as hard as she can, and scored 3 small cuts to extremities on me and one nasty gash along my calf, I could hardly stand on it. I got her once on the back after doing a slide behind her and spinning with my blade, I was able to draw some blood.

I was ready to call it at that so I dropped my healing well on me and she snarled and ran at me. This girl is crazy. I was not expecting it this time so she was able to bat my sword off to my right, and before I could get it up again, she HEADBUTTED me in the nose and I fell back in pain. My well healed me right after, but my eyes were watering and I felt her blade at my throat."I yield."

I wiped the blood and tears away, and got up with her hand forward, "I don't know if we are even or not, but you have heart and I respect that. Welcome to the squad." She then smiled, grabbed my hand and pulled me into a hug. I almost flinched away before returning the embrace. She smelled like a healthy person who just finished working out, mixed with some hints of lavender from the bath the night before.

I think I am becomming part of the team, it feels great to be accepted and this close to people. As a guardian, we have the sense of team, but it isn't faces talking to you, it is a few leaders running things. Here I am fighting against my Captain and am loving every second of it...until he uses that stupid "ride the lightning" ability that lets him just insta-win, it's so OP.

We all walk to the Squad 3 dining room together and after we sit down at the nice table, still stinky from workout, Aliana joined us.

"Good morning everyone." Receiving half mumbled responses from everyone. She walked up and hugged the Captain, placing a kiss on his cheek. Whaaaaat?!?! I am not jealous, I am not jealous. My cheeks are on fire! I am probably more blue than that song from the 90's at this point.

The Captain saw my expression when she kissed him and looked away trying to hide it.

I had to forcibly close my mouth as Aliana looked up at me smiling. She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are we still on for shopping today Kira?"

"Oooh, I want to go, I need a new shawl for my anniversary gown." Shirina coos excitedly.

I coughed and cleared my throat. I purposefully make eye contact with her blindfold in hopes that they see I am unfazed by the revelation that they are seeing each other. I wonder if the Captain has seen her eyes."Uh, yes, I will go, but I still need to get my stipend from the guild before hand."

"No problem, I can show you where that is when we head out." Aliana said with a smile. She sat in the open seat next to the Captain, and we were saved from awkward silence by a lot of food being served out in large dishes.

I had no idea what to eat so I just watched what other people ate. I had Draed put a dollop of that green looking.....stuff. He muttered something about putting meat on my bones. There was a whole bowl of interesting fruits and I had to ask. "Are any of these...canta fruits?"

Ellestrae grabs a blue, green, and yellow looking apple and passes it to me. "This is a perfectly ripe canta fruit. See how the blue comes out from the stem? That is how you know it will be good. You can just bit into it, but don't eat the seed."

Oh my, this strawberry-mango fruit is divine!!!!! I need more of it. Ellestrae smiles and picks up a bowl of this purple looking substance, on top it appeared to be shards of purple glass that were in tiny triangles. She scooped out some of it on my plate and under the purple is a creamy yellow color of a yogurt consistency stuff, but after she scooped it the color shifted to purple on the exposed parts where the cream was, and more crystals grew. The same happened on my plate.

Okay I love magic food, I feel like I am in the movie hook eating imaginary food with peter pan. I took a spoonful, well it was as spork which was very disappointing, and I put it in my mouth with a crunch. I couldn't taaste anything at first. No, I mean I couldn't feel anything other than the spoon in my mouth , until I bit down and felt the crunch, which is when it turned into the zesty blueberry tart tasting ice cream. I don't know what I am eating but it is amazing. It goes from being something you cannot feel in your mouth, to dropping in temperature and becoming super flavorful. My glowing eyes nearly pop out of my head at this magical food item. A few people giggle while watching me eat.

"This is entertaining stuff." Dorrin says in a matter of fact tone.

"Hehe, yeah I could watch her discorver magic food all day, haha." Draeds booming voice states with some chuckles.

"That is a breakfast delicacy from the Elvenlands, it is one of my favorites. It is called Kelaw." Ellestrae says matter of factly.

"Hey try this, it's my favorite fruit, called the Njancar fruit. We grow it 'ere in The Gift." Dorrin tosses me a rounded-cube looking, school bus yellow colored fruit the size of a plum. "You can just bite into it." He bites the other one he had, it makes a cracking sound like stepping on crunchy ice. The image and sound don't add up so my mind is having trouble with it. He is smiling like an idiot and I decide to try it as well.

I was expecting to bite into a jawbreaker hard substance, but it cracked super easy and it wasn't sharp somehow. I looked where I had just bitten and the fruit looked like a geode on the inside except that the crystals were a deep blue, but the jagged edges somehow had a liquid gold oozing from it. I have no idea what it was going on, but it tasted like a cooked carmelized bananas, that someout sparkled in my mouth like pop rocks, and it was sweet, but not over powering. The warmth was the strangest thing, it was hot, like temperature was warm even though they were sitting in a room temperature bowl. When I exhaled through my nose, what looked like blue and gold pixie dust glittered out with my the exhaled current of air.

This made Dorr burst out laughing and he release a giant cloud of the blue and gold dust all over Draed, who just started laughing as well.

Breakfast went on like this, and I tried a bunch of random things, and also put some Canta fruits in my inventory so I can eat them later!

After breakfast Aliana, Shirina, and myself went shopping.