Clink! Clang! Swoosh! Crunch! Thunk! Fwoosh!
“Shooting fireballs isn’t fair!” Violet yelled.
“You told me to fight with everything I’ve got! Also, you knocked me to the ground, so I had to do something!” Kenrich said.
“You really think I’m gonna kill you?! Fine. If you’re gonna use magical stones, then I will too…”
Violet went to her pack and grabbed a handful of magic stones. Kenrich gulped. He knew that he was about to get humbled.
“Now that the playing field has been leveled. Let’s continue,” Violet said mischievously.
Kenrich saw Violet’s hand gripping several gems and knew that he was about to be in some real trouble. Violet thrust her sword at Kenrich at an amazing speed which he was barely able to dodge. While he was off balance, Violet knocked Kenrich down to the ground with the blunt edge of her sword. Now defenseless on the ground, Kenrich did what he had done last time and shot a fireball right at Violet, who dodged easily. That dodge left just enough time for Kenrich to make it back to his feet though. He tried to gain some distance and ran into a long-range position in order to start a barrage of fireballs, but he turned around and saw that Violet had disappeared. He then started to scan his surroundings, but he saw no one on the ground except for Atlas who was watching the battle unfold from a safe distance. Unexpectedly, Kenrich felt a large weight jump onto his shoulders which caused him to reel backwards. To his surprise, he stopped halfway and found himself unable to move at all. He was frozen at a 90-degree angle with his open mouth facing up towards the clear sky. Violet put her face right in front of Kenrich’s and showed him the black gem that they had taken from the necromancer.
“I’m starting to really like this gem,” she said. “Being able to immobilize you whenever I want is quite the power to have.”
She then took a familiar gem out of her pocket…and shot a puff of glitter into Kenrich’s open mouth shortly before unfreezing him.
PFFFFFT! “What the hell, Violet?!” Kenrich yelled, trying to scrape glitter off of his tongue.
“You started it! We’re supposed to be training your swordplay, and you started shooting fireballs! Take this as a lesson. Gemstones mean everything when it comes to battle. Using the speed stone to keep you off balance, the jump stone to leap on your shoulders from above, and then the freeze stone to stop you in your tracks is quite the deadly combo.”
“Okay, okay! I won’t shoot fireballs!”
“I know you’re excited about your new magic sword, but you mustn’t focus only on the ranged capabilities. Proper swordplay comes first, then we’ll worry about getting you more acquainted with using it and magic stones concurrently.”
“Yes, master…”
“Good boy. Now get into stance alpha and I’ll come at you with a thrust! Make sure to block it, village boy.”
They continued training over the next several days by using the eight stances that Violet had been teaching Kenrich. She came at him with several different attacks, and he was tasked with either defending or parrying each one. He had been doing very well with these exercises lately and it was clear to Violet that he was ready to move on to more advanced training.
“Alright, Ken. We’re finally going to start introducing magic stones into your swordplay,” she said.
“Ken?”
“Do you have a problem with it? Your name is too long, so we save time by cutting out a syllable.”
“How conservative of you. Can I give you a nickname too?”
“No.”
“What?! Why not?! Your name has more syllables than mine!”
“You’re such a whiner…Fine, but only if I approve of it.”
“How about…’Letty’?”
“Absolutely not. I’m not someone’s grandma.”
“Okay…How about ‘Vio’?”
“You’re not very good at this.”
“I’m just throwing out some ideas! Fine. What about ‘V’?”
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“You just took out all the letters of my name! Whatever, it’s still the best suggestion so far, so go ahead I guess.”
“V it is! Now what are we doing in today’s training, Master V?”
“I’m going to start letting you use some enhancement stones while fighting me. We’ll start with a stamina stone to keep it simple, but we’ll also be using jump and speed stones as you start to get used to dealing with the new capacities given to your body.”
“What does an enhancement stone feel like?” Kenrich asked. Violet thought for a second.
“...It’s a lot like taking a deep breath of clean air. A feeling of being reset, almost. It is a good feeling, but each stone only helps with one quality, so you must be aware of your normal capabilities when using one. For instance, a speed stone may give you a huge boost to speed, but if you crash into a wall, or trip, the damage to your body will be heightened just like your speed. People die from reckless use of enhancement stones all the time, so knowing your limits is important.”
“I think I know what you mean. I used to play around with jump stones when I was young, and I remember how bad it hurt when I took a bad landing and smashed my face into the mud. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened had the surface been more…solid.”
“You would’ve left a nice red smear on the ground. Jump stones only add resistance to your legs, so you must always prevent yourself from landing on any other body part. You could have easily died before even finding the Ring of Life. Maybe it would have made my life a little easier, but it’s not like you’ve been totally useless.”
“You just wait until my training is complete. I won’t hold you back anymore.”
“That’s the plan. Now, let’s get started.”
Kenrich started with the stamina stone, just as Violet had instructed and he could understand why she described the feeling the way she did. It felt like a slight increase of power that seemed to make everything clearer around him. With the stamina stone, his task was to try and keep up an attack for as long as he possibly could. He got into his stance and came at Violet who defended his blows. He was able to continue his attacks for almost twice as long as usual before he got tired. He had now realized what he was missing out on his whole life. He had only used jump stones back home in Millin, and the fireball stone that was confiscated in Fril, so he never knew just how much they could increase human capabilities. It was an intoxicating feeling. Once Violet was satisfied with Kenrich’s understanding of the stamina stone, he moved on to the jump stone, which, as mentioned, he actually had some experience with. Violet started to show him new slashes and dodges that jump stones made possible. It took a bit to get used to, but he had a mechanical knowledge of how to do them at the very least. After a few hours of trial and error, they moved on to the speed stone, which had the biggest learning curve and danger of the three.
“A speed stone is going to be a big adjustment, but when used effectively, it can be the most powerful gem in your arsenal, so listen closely!” Violet said. Kenrich nodded. “You’ll be going about twice as fast as normal, so start out with a light jog to get used to the change in momentum because it’ll be a lot different than what you’re used to.”
Kenrich gripped the speed stone in his hand and tried a light jog towards the setting sun. His brain could not process this massive speed boost however and he fell almost immediately.
“That’s why we start with a light jog,” Violet said. “You have to train your brain to be able to handle that amount of speed when you’re used to a lot less when you put in that same amount of effort. After a few tries, you’ll start getting the hang of it.”
Kenrich practiced his jogging for around thirty minutes which led to a lot of scraped knees and bruises which made the acquisition of a healing stone all the more convenient.
“Now that you’re able to stay on your feet, try sprinting past me,” Violet said. “I’ll use the freeze stone on you if it looks like you’re gonna crack your head open.”
“What’s the point of horses when people can just use these,” Kenrich said, catching his breath.
“Are you trying to say Atlas’s obsolete? You got a death wish?”
“N-no! I just mean, why don’t we see people use these for transportation more often?”
“Two reasons. Scarcity and danger. With the number of times you’ve sprained your ankle, I figured you’d know that reason at least.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. What are they used for then?”
“They’re usually seen as a stone commonly used by outlaws and bandits. People who don’t care about the risks and only care about the potential crimes they can commit with them. They’re expensive on the black market though, so usually only wealthy crime syndicates have access to them.”
“So, you’re saying that using one makes people see you as a criminal?”
“Pretty much. Hard to break the stigma.”
“Guess we shouldn’t use it recreationally then. We don’t need any eyes on us.”
“Exactly right. Now quit stalling and get to running! We don’t have all day!”
Kenrich got in his running pose and prepared to run as hard as he could just like Violet requested. He had to trust that she would immobilize him if he looked like he was about to fall. He took a deep breath and counted off in his head.
3…2…1…Go!
He ran with all of his might. He did not feel his legs one bit. In fact, he felt like he was not in control at all. After a few seconds, he realized that his head and torso were falling behind and he was in danger of falling backwards. Luckily, he was able to correct it well enough and continued going. He realized that he already passed Violet, who appeared as just a blur in his vision, and since she did not immobilize him, he assumed that he passed the test. He ran for a few seconds more then stopped in his tracks with a triumphant stumble. After looking back at Violet, he saw her give him a big thumbs up.
“Nice work!” she yelled. “We’ll do some more drills tomorrow, but the amount of progress we’ve made today is more than enough to feel accomplished. Let’s take a brea-”
Violet’s speech was cut off. Kenrich was pretty far away from her, but he could just barely make out what he knew was the cause of it. Beside one of the shrubs next to their campsite, he saw a masked man with a rapier.