image [https://imgur.com/Y0Neudv.jpg]

The next morning gave us a taste of slightly nicer weather. It wasn’t perfect, still overcast with a very light drizzle, but it was nicer then yesterday by a mile. The window was open, so a little bit of fresh air filled the house with a cool breeze. Birds were echoing through the forest, I could even hear a woodpecker every now and again.

I woke up in a pile of pillows and blankets we’d set up in the front room. Not as comfy as normal bed, but all the rooms upstairs were locked, so we couldn’t find a bedroom.

“Hyah!”

SLAM!

Indena shouted from outside, followed by the sound of her hitting something.

“Hyah!”

SLAM!

There it was again…what was she up to?

Assuming it was just her venting her hatred for everything, I didn’t pay it much mind. Rather, I groggily sat up and rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes, trying to mentally prepare myself for another day in this valley.

“I want waffles…”

Honestly, waffles sounded so good right now. Uncle used to make them every few days for me.

There wasn’t anything prepared in the kitchen besides a little raw meat. It looked like a tiny chunk too, so not nearly enough for anyone to cook and chow down.

“What is this? A breakfast for ants?” I pouted, half-jokingly.

“Ssss…” Samael perked up a little, then slithered down my head.

He went all the way to the meat and ate it up.

“Guess it was a breakfast for snakes, eh Sammy?” I smiled.

“Ss.” He nodded his head, then slithered up my arm and back into my hair.

He might have eaten, but I still hadn't. I didn’t know how to cook, so I had to go ask Indena if she’d make something for me.

When I checked what she was up to, it looked like she was repeatedly punching and kicking a tree right outside the house.

“Hey!” I shouted from the open window. “I’m hungry!”

“And I’m Indena!” she shouted back.

Dad jokes…

Indena began to scold me in a sassy tone. “How about you say, ‘good morning’ instead of ordering me around?”

Coming from her, politeness sounded like a joke. But she wasn’t wrong. I guess I was being a little demanding.

I approached her outside. It looks like she’d punched and kicked a nice dent into the tree bark. Her fists weren’t bleeding from all those attacks.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Training. What’s it look like?” she cracked her knuckles. “Got a problem with it?”

To wake up this early and already be up and at ‘em was pretty impressive. It usually took me breakfast and cartoons before Uncle and I got started for the day. She’s a proactive person, that’s for sure.

“Can I train with you too?” I asked.

“No,” she said, striking the tree a few more times. Her fire aura would flair up whenever she made contact. That’s how she was protecting her skin from damage. “By the way, your snake get the food I left for him?”

Oh, so that was for Sammy after all. I’m surprised she thought of him.

“Ssss…” he hissed.

“Samael says, thank you.” I loosely translated, I think.

“Oh, you speak snake now?” she chuckled. “Never thought I’d be thanked by an animal.”

She made him food, so maybe she could make something for me?

“Indena, would you mind making me something too, please?” I asked, much nicer then before.

“Sure. Just give me a second to cool off.”

~☆☆☆~

After a few minutes of her winding down from her training, we went back inside and she started preparing to cook.

“Alright…we got flour…sugar...honey…"

I’m no chef, but I really didn’t think any of that stuff alone makes a good meal. But you know what it can make with just a few more ingredients…?

“Can we have waffles?” I asked.

“You see any waffle batter around here, Shrimp?” she sassed with her hands on her hips.

Wasn’t waffle batter pretty much just sugar, flour, milk and eggs? We did have a few of those things around here. All we needed was milk and eggs.

“Hmm…” Indena rubbed her chin, thinking about what to do. “We could get eggs from monsters I guess…and maybe we could get some milk out there too…” she mumbled.

“That’s an awesome idea!” I shouted with joy.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Ayo, hold up,” she raised her hand. “You wanted to train, right? Imma’ make you work for this…got it?”

Oh, so she was going to make this about training? I was down for that!

“Let’s do it!” I stood up and struck a karate pose. “Yahh!” I chopped the air. “Heeyahh!” then I did a kick.

Indena stood by with a disgusted look on her face. She grabbed my limbs and posed them like I was a doll.

“Man, you’ve got a lot to learn. Look at your form…it’s trash!”

How rude! My form was not trash!

“Hyah!” I made a chop at her, but she just disappeared! “What the…?”

She tapped my shoulder from behind.

“You’re pretty slow too,” she smirked.

I tried chopping again, but she was gone.

“Over here.” She was behind me again!

“No fair! You’re cheating!”

“Nah. I haven’t even started using magic yet,” she chuckled. “You wanna hit me? You gotta’ earn it. Let’s go train.”

I didn’t exactly want to hit her, because I was just being playful. But now I sure wanted to try, since it was a challenge.

~☆☆☆~

Indena led me outside. We walked along the cobble path for a few minutes until spotting a group of monsters.

“See those guys?” she pointed. “Remember those Lizzarat?”

“Those were the rat lizards from before.”

“Yep. They lay eggs. If that’s a nest, we can steal some."

I was thinking of using something more like chicken eggs…but I guess this would have to do.

“Let's get you started with the basics. Show me your ready stance."

I took on a pose, and she kept adjusting my body position until I was in the proper form she wanted.

“Make sure to breathe out whenever you make a sudden motion. Watch me…”

She whistled over some of the Lizzarat. One balled itself up and started rolling her way.

It popped up in front of her, then she slammed her fist into its face, turning it into a haze of mana instantly.

Another came after, dodging her punch, but receiving a kick instead! It met the same fate.

The focus and control over every part of her body was impressive. Each attack felt more like art that utilized very specific muscles to get results. Maybe that's why it's called 'martial arts.'

More monsters reinforced them, but her technique was just too good for them to get past. They were thinking twice now about running at her.

-New ability unlocked!-

-Copycat Fightcraft now available-

Woah, what’s this message for?

In the HELP menu I checked out this ability. Apparently it was a passive skill. That meant it was always active. This one made it so that I could watch someone perform a fighting related skill and be able to mimic it myself.

So cool! It must have been the same as the Copycat Magecraft ability I got before.

While watching Indena, she did this really cool round house double flip kick thing. So I gave it a try myself!

“Yahh!” but when I kicked the air, I put way too much force into it and flipped myself over. “Yeep!”

PLOP!

Right into the mud…

“Huh?” Indena was watching and must have been ashamed to be teaching me.

“Wahhhh!” I cried. “My dress is ruined!”

I thought the copycat ability was supposed to let me copy any ability I watched! It didn't work at all!

Wait, there was something about it I didn’t read in the description. Apparently it copied anything at only a messily 3% accuracy, meaning It wasn’t as great as I thought it was.

Dang it! I ruined my dress for nothing! This sucks!

Indena helped me stand back up, then fruitlessly attempted to dust off my dress.

“Holy crap kid…” she kneeled down and looked me in the eyes. “Did you just try to do what I did?”

I thought she’d be laughing at me, but she looked a little surprised.

“Yeah. You’re going to make fun of me, right?”

“No. That wasn’t a bad start. Can you try it again?”

*Sniffle sniff*

“I don’t want to. My dress is ruined.”

“Who fights in a dress anyways? Change outta’ that!”

I didn’t have any spare clothes, so I just took off the dress.

Indena was confusedly staring at me, looking up and down at my armour skin.

“What’s with that undersuit?” she asked, pointing at my body.

So, I figured this would happen one day. My armour skin probably looks like an undersuit to people, but it wasn’t. I tried to explain that to her as best I could.

“So, it’s like armour, but skin? Like an exoskeleton.”

“Yeah, exactly,” I pointed with affirmation.

“Huh, guess we both have some pretty unique skin.”

She took off her jacket, then showed me the skin around her sports bra. Her skin was covered in flame-like tattoos from top to bottom, all of them looking really oriental. I thought she only had them on her arm, but I guess it covered her whole body.

They didn’t look finished, some of the lines weren’t coloured in, but they looked really cool. On her back she had this big one of a delicate looking woman with a red and white sun behind her head.

“Most of these are what make my magic work,” she said. “The stronger I get, the more I can add.”

Pretty soon her whole body might be filled up with tattoos. She seemed really happy about it.

“That’s awesome. When did you get them?”

“Pfft…had most of them since I was really little.”

Wait, she was a little kid and got tattoos? I thought you had to be a certain age before you could get them.

While we were talking, a small group of Lizzarat squealed at us menacingly. They were heading our way.

“Oi, Shrimp, you watched what I did before. Let’s see if you can take one of these down.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

Both of us jumped into action, me a bit hesitant, but optimistic.

Throwing my first punch, I hit the monster square in the face!

POW!

He bounced backwards, but then came back again. So I punched once more!

It felt like I was just hitting a rubber ball that kept bouncing back to me.

“Stop pulling your punches!” Indena ordered, knocking out another monster. “Don’t be afraid to turn those white knuckles red.”

In my case, they’d turn blue, since my blood was blue.

Following her instruction, I gave the monster the hardest punch I could, sending it flying right into a tree!

*SQUEAK!* the little monster went.

He wasn’t hurt much by my attack, so Indena went ahead and shot a fireball at it, finishing it off for good.

I expected her to be upset that I couldn’t kill it, but she had a smile on her face and patted my shoulder.

“Nice work."

“But, I didn’t kill it,” I argued.

“What, you think you’re just going to get everything the first time? Keep training. Keep growing. Learn why you failed so you can win when it matters.”

Despite how mean she could get, I felt pretty encouraged to learn more from her. I was going to be a karate master if I kept training like this, and get waffles too.