Joe nodded, “Oh… then… good... Yeah, the half-staff makes sense, everyone can use it. Hmm... Do you have one?”

Gwenvair quickly shook her head, “A half staff, no. I do not have one.”

“Hmm… well… would you be willing to use a half staff? I’ll … it’ll be difficult to train you with the half-staff. Or, if you don’t want to learn, or anything, that’s fine. But most of my training is mostly in physical combat and if you want to learn some skills with it, I’ll be able to help in some things. More with other weapons than half-staff… I’ll only be able to help with some things.”

Gwenvair’s mind whirled once again as she realized he was offering to train her in a Skill. A Skill of a kind she had never heard of before. One unrelated to any class, but she could not conceive of what it would look like or how it would function. But the rarity of Skills… She could not pass up on the chance of a Skill, especially one so rare and unique. A new combat weapon… would be amazing… maybe half-staff would be wise… or… She quickly nodded, “Then I will make sure to procu… get one immediately.”

The eccentric laughed and shook his head, “I’m not well trained on the half staff. If you could, I would recommend the staff, to be honest. It’s a very good weapon for defense and can help you if you are ever forced into close combat. But, as this stupid system seems to lock the staff behind some specific classes, we make do with what we have. So… let’s go ahead and do this. Zilnek. Garnedell. Kilniara. You guys take the front line and kill the goblin I pull. Gwenvair, you help in whatever way you can or do… whatever it is you do. I’ll stand by you three and make sure you’re safe if the goblin becomes too much for you to handle but I’m going to keep my eye on Gwenvair and watch and see how and what she will do to fit in with us. Let’s fight a couple goblins until we can understand what she does then we can go back to pairs. That fair?

The other three quickly nodded, obviously used to the eccentric’s quick decisions and actions and Gwenvair quickly added in her agreement of understanding a bit belatedly. As they prepared to go out, the eccentric turned once again, stopping short.

“Oh… make sure you yell out fast if you need me or help! I’ll be mostly focused on seeing how Gwenvair works, OK? Gwenvair, fight as you wish... how you normally fight and let me just see.”

The other three quickly nodded in agreement along with Gwenvair although she felt a tinge of embarrassment creep up as she realized that she was not only impinging on the eccentric, but significantly impacting his training regimen for his apprentices.

* * *

Joe led the others out to the field before he positioned the other three up with Gwenvair behind them; the traditional melee in front and magician in back. Joe had no idea if it was a good idea, but could only make a guess based on popular media back home: books, games, and movies. That... and she has no weapon, so... i'm assuming...

After they were prepared, he flung a stick at the closest goblin to attract it. The stick smacked the goblin before dropping to the floor at the goblin’s feet. As it was now the closest weapon, the goblin picked it up before charging in a rage at him. Joe stepped back so that Garnedell was on his right, allowing Garnedell the space and ease to get the first and meaningful strike on the closing goblin.

The handoff went quickly and easily and Joe slipped around behind the three keeping the goblin’s attention. He kept his eyes on the three before he slipped past and put his back to the room so that he could look back at Gwenvair while still keeping the other three in his line of sight.

By the time he’d turned, Gwenvair was already beginning, her body moving in a strange, eye catching way. It wasn’t quite a dance even though it was mesmerizing and subtly sensual but there was an alienness to it that left Joe feeling very… unpleasant. There was a feeling of rejection and Joe stifled the shudder of discomfort even as she moved. Joe quickly noticed the gathering of mana points around her begin to shift, jittering even as they also began to swirl in eddies in areas around her due to a massive tornado of points that began to swirl around her.

Are those all her points… no… that’s… Joe interrupted his thoughts by shoving some mana out and noticing the mana points in the air shifting slightly with it. Curiosity caught him firmly and he added a swath of mana around his hand, turning it into a mana paddle. He swung his hand around and saw the free mana points in the air swirl around his mana. Huh… so mana can… Joe instantly interrupted his thoughts when he noticed the mana points around him again, the swirling speeding up slowly in an obvious current. He turned his focus back upon Gwenvair.

The mana points appeared to take on the form of a whirlpool that moved slowly, almost sluggishly through a thick oil like liquid, the eddies swirling off of the main whirlpool in whorls and spun off mini whirlpools of their own. The main whirlpool stayed centered on Gwenvair, growing slowly in speed which seemed to match her movements in some esoteric way that Joe wasn’t able to grasp but was obvious. Her movements took on a form of dance even as she began a subtle chant under her breath. With her chant, the movement of the current seemed to increase while a small glowing point of mana began to form in a location central to her body mass just a hand span or two in front of her torso that appeared to be directly between her and the goblin.

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It was then that Joe realized that the mana point whirlpool seemed to be centered on the glowing mass of mana. As he watched, the mana attracted points from the mana whirlpool and then the points took on an impenetrable and mysterious shape that Joe struggled to understand until he realized that what he was looking at appeared to be some form of figure. He had no way to understand what he was looking at, but it appeared to be a rather simple polygonal shape. It wasn’t a cube, that he was certain of, but it did appear to be a more simplistic shape. Portions of it appeared to be some kind of intricate cone, point downwards, but other than that, he wasn’t able to grasp it. He almost wanted to go closer to carefully inspect it, but stayed near the other three fighting.

The cone was being shaped by what appeared to be Gwenvair’s points, or at least the glowing points in front of her. Those have to be her points, right? That would make sense. Somehow she’s affecting the free floating mana points with her points… The points continued their formation, delineating the shape and firming its design until it finally formed as it should and then held form, simply spinning and maintaining its presence. With its form complete, it’s spinning slowed and rotated lazily in an opposite rotation to the mana whirlwind, allowing Joe to more easily grasp its shape. Despite his desire to understand the shape, the real world’s reaction to the mana points’ created form drew Joe’s thoughts away as he watched what the magic manifested as.

Physical wind swirled in response, joining the mana swirling around her, forming a tornado like movement that lazily rotated around Gwenvair much too slowly for what a natural tornado or even a dust devil would create. Despite that, it continued to move in a coherent rotation around Gwenvair. After another few moments, Joe noticed that the mana point construct pulsed a brilliant flash that made Joe flinch, but oddly, didn’t blind him in anyway. It was simply a brilliant bright intense moment of flashing that appeared and disappeared as quickly. Something… odd… tickled at the back of Joe’s mind when he saw the flash, but once again, the physical manifestation of the magic drew his attention away and he saw a ‘bolt’ of wind, he couldn’t think of any other way to describe it but as a bolt… A bolt of wind ejected off the whirlwind like an arrow before taking on a curved hilt-less saber-like shaped blade which curved through the air like a boomerang, passing by the three melee combatants to slide just past the side of the goblin. It did not directly impact but seemed instead to ‘slice’ into the side of the goblin as it sped past then quickly dissipate into a blast of incoherent mana. The attack proved to be much more lackluster than the amazing demonstration of magic as it didn’t seemed to impact the goblin in anyway, simply causing a long welt to appear on the torso where the wind blade struck. There seemed to be no momentum or any other physical force imparted. A slash, matching the width of the wind blade, simply appeared on the torso as if a whip of some kind slapped hard down onto the goblin’s side.

Even as Joe looked at the goblin’s wound carefully, another flash pierced his eyes from Gwenvair’s magic form, which again reminded him of something, an oddity that didn’t match his understandings and went against everything he naturally understood, but didn’t really focus on as instead he tore his gaze to the new wind blade. Again, it curved, this time around the other side and stung the other side of the goblin’s torso.

This slash, as the other, did not seem to physically impact the goblin at all, although it groaned and staggered from the hit and Garnedell’s next hit struck it hard in the head and it collapsed. Garnedell stepped forward once more and hammered the goblin one more time before stepping back and standing. Kilinara and Zilnek both stood as well and Joe nodded, glad to see the three acting very cautious with the goblin. As soon as the goblin collapsed, all three turned and looked at Gwenvair, a hint of awe and excitement in their eyes. Joe smiled and turned back to Gwenvair but saw that she was still chanting and mumbling. Joe watched politely for a bit but noticed that the mana points still swirled around her and the mana symbol formation was still lazily spinning. She didn’t seem to be stopping and Joe spoke to her.

“The goblin is dead, Gwenvair.”

She said nothing, but frowned as it seemed like she needed to concentrate a bit more and Joe realized that she was continuing the spell.

“Ah.. you will continue the spell. I apologize. We’ll keep pulling the goblins and you can stop when you wish.”

She said nothing, still maintaining her cast but seemed to nod just slightly and Joe took that as her agreement before turning back to the other three.

“Right. She’ll keep casting, but… uh… Gwenvair, could you strike me with one of your wind… things? Do it on my arm, if you could?”

Gwenvair seemed shocked, struggling to remain in her dance, chant, mana thing she was doing but finally controlled herself enough to maintain the mana working. In one of her twists, she allowed her eyes to rest on his for a moment, seeming almost questioning and Joe quickly nodded.

“Yeah… I’m serious.”

Gwenvair continued her movement and chant without interruption, but a soft sighing chuff seemed to be added and Joe grinned, holding out an arm. Man… seems… dangerously stupid to be a mage… spinning in a circle like that… don’t like putting my back to the enemy like that… but… I wonde…

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the flash and bolt came out again, the bolt then morphed into a blade and angle to slice right over the top of his arm. It felt like it hit like a bullet, pain radiating up his arm in waves even as he hissed, pulling back his arm. He flipped open his status as well, curious, and noticed the hit to his HP seemed to be minor compared to the pain that seemed to radiate through him. He frowned. That’s it? Just a… painful distraction? That seems… Joe paused, staring at the blade as it continued and quickly realized it was a construct of pure mana. He frowned, considering what that might mean and turned away back to the other three. Gonna have to… new data… but … so confusing… how is magic so… weak… but the system is so... powerful! Or am I too… tainted by bale fire and… mana arrow? Well… let's not exhaust Gwenvair too much…