Rivka did not find herself going shopping or spending another evening discovering the joys of alcohol and being politely chided or mocked by nobles. That is not to say that she turned into a hermit for the rest of the trip and she did socialise during and after breakfast and evening meals, but she was left too exhausted to do much beyond engaging in minimal interaction and sleep.
She trained, hour after long hour of intensive training both physical and magical, whilst she did not have room to exercise her dragon self Tribune-Ermeritus Lissette did have plenty of room in the cargo bay to have her running laps and start to introduce her to unarmed combat.
The latter part at least she objected to, Rivka was a competitive long distance runner and hardly a stranger to exercise. “But why? I know that I am expected to go into the military but what possible use is knowing how to throw a punch when I am a dragon? I can just incinerate somebody or rip a building in half.”
Lissette considered the girl at this then left her a few seconds to consider what she just said. “Control Rivka. First of all you can train physical fitness and coordination this way and that will benefit you when it comes to acting as a dragon. Secondly you will have already started to notice inhuman strength. Do you want to crush off a person's hand when being introduced to them? Tear doors from their hinges by accident? It will become an ever increasing problem. Also subtle application of that strength can be far lower key and more decisive than just losing control and burning everything.”
Rivka could see that, frustrating as it was to be repeatedly thrown into a gel mat. Lissette continued. “More importantly you are going to be trained and judged on this and your 'peers' will all have been training to fight from the age of ten or so, I have two weeks to try to ensure you do not completely embarrass yourself. You are going to be carrying a mana focus sword as well but I do not have five years to teach you how to use it and your uselessness will be easier to stomach if you can honestly profess complete ignorance in wielding it. Now, put your weight behind that punch!”
Hours upon hours of repetition of very basic unarmed combat followed by more hours of mental focusing exercises as Rivka was pushed into channelling her mana. She knew the principles behind this, the basic mental patterns and theories behind spellwork, but theoretical classwork could only prepare one so far in the absence of the ability to do the real thing.
All magic is of course elementally attuned but it was possible to accomplish a wide range of effects with a single element. Fire for example could be used to burn or melt things as its most straight forward expression and was probably the most effective offensive element for combat, but it could also be used to revitalise and heal, infusing a person with energy and supercharging their metabolism to recover from injuries or augment physical ability. Fire could aid mobility or even allow flight through propulsion and thermal expansion of surrounding air, but air magic was much better at this and less likely to cause collateral effects. For now Rivka was being focused on very simple expressions of her power along with trying to increase their efficiency. Burning things in a controlled manner rather than simply unleashing an all consuming apocalypse for example, or maintaining a defensive aegis that did not spill out enough heat to cook her surroundings or blind everyone in the vicinity.
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A normal mage would have to struggle with focusing and drawing in power more than control but that did not mean Rivka found her task easy. She was trying to make cups of tea using a fire hose and despite determined effort and undivided expert tuition did repeatedly find herself losing control, spilling out an oppressive radiation of raw mana or, when particularly frustrated, uncontrolled flame.
She was not going to accept this though, not from herself, by the second week she could tell that the ex Imperial Tribune was genuinely impressed with her dedication to learning even if she obviously still had an infinite amount to learn. By now she had proper conscious control of her magic and was starting to be able to channel it in human form without too much overspill of power, though she was still limited to the most simple and unsophisticated of practical applications.
three days out from arrival the Star Of Thuania was about to make her final jump to the sector capital and Rivka set out from her cabin early to ensure she arrived at eight o'clock sharp ship time for her training, wearing a lightweight fleece top over her sports bra and leggings given the rigorous workout she was expecting. She hurried through the first class section, massively underdressed but by now a common enough sight to be unremarked, then the 2nd and 3rd class passenger areas, still rather nicely appointed. Then as had started to become her habit she cut through the steerage decks to the cargo area.
Which was when a burly middle aged woman wearing a frayed jumpsuit stepped out in front of her, a trio of heavily build individual then stepping up behind as another pair flanked the obvious 'leader'. Were those shock batons? Rivka did not have very long to consider this before the woman spoke. “Come quietly and you will not be hurt. Try anything fancy kid? You are going to regret it. Understand?” The woman definitely now had a pistol in hand and was pointing it self assuredly for her face, the dull gleam of the laser weapon's focus lens clearly visible.
Rivka froze for a moment, froze only to feel overwhelming anger. She was not some 'kid', she would show them! Finally she could unleash her frustration and she found herself not hesitating at all. She focused, golden eyes burning as she unleashed a horizontal bar of flame in front of her before launching it down the the corridor, liquid fire bright enough to burn into human retina and leave a seared after image, transversing a hundred feet in half an eyeblink whilst leaving searingly bisected corpses in its wake. A flash of pain across the side of her face as the woman jerked the trigger of her pistol.
roared and exhaled even as she felt a searing pain across the side of her head. An incandescent lance of fire surged forward to first fill the corridor in front of her then melt through the bulkheads and decking, bursting beyond as the trio of thugs or would be kidnappers simply ceased to exist.
Rivka he could not see properly out of one eye and her cheek was screaming in agony. Then she spasmed as something thudded into her back and electricity surged through her body, stumbling, whirling, control was beyond her now as she screamed and exhaled. Her exhalation formed an incandescent lance of fire that surged forward to first fill the corridor then melted through the bulkheads and decking, bursting beyond as a trio of thugs or would be kidnappers simply ceased to exist.
She found herself laying limp and spasming on the floor as alarm klaxons blazed and the side of her head screamed with the most awful pain she had ever felt in her life, fighting to retain consciousness. She could hear more literal screaming as well, struggling or still figures on the other side of what used to be walls, or floors, or the ceiling, awareness faded.