“Good, now see if you can dodge this!” Cal yelled as he shot off several weak lightning bolts toward Third Smasher. The squirrel spun on one foot and then leaped into the air, twisting, and diving between the bolts as they arced around him. He bounded off the wall and landed gracefully back on the ground without a single bit of electricity having touched him. The fur on his tail showed the signs of just how close some of the lines of lightning had been.
“Interesting. I believe I can now track your lightning paths. The way you throw your bolts charges the air before you fully release them. You should find a way to camouflage that. It will telegraph too much of your strengths to your enemies.” Third Smasher said. Their sparring battles had gone from near-silent affairs to informative give-and-take lessons over the last few months. Third was now even willing to have full conversations as long as they related to the battles themselves.
“Really? Do you think that’s something anyone could do? Or is a sense more unique to squirrels?” Cal asked. The idea of enemies learning to track his moves didn’t worry him overly much. They’d have to relearn them every loop, and he tended to grow his fighting abilities each time. So it seemed unlikely to pose the level of threat Third Smasher thought it was. Then again, the squirrel was not loop-aware and beyond what his leader had gleamed from their minds and shared with his smashers, which, as far as Cal could tell, wasn’t much, so while his warnings were well intended, they were mostly meaningless.
“I would assume anyone able to read your mana outputs could do it as well, but in my case, what I am doing is likely only pertinent to my people.” Third, answered with genuine honesty in his voice. Cal couldn’t be sure, but it seemed more and more that the squirrel didn’t hate him anymore. Was it possible that the level of mental programming he was under had just taken longer to wear off? Or did he just need time to reflect on the reality of what their empire had been? Cal didn’t know the answer, and he didn’t think it was the right time to press Third Smasher about his personal viewpoints on the fallen squirrel empire just yet.
“Alright, I want to try another lightning blast, but I’m going to see if I can channel some of my fiction mana as well. I still don’t have the greatest grasp on it, pun intended, so I apologize in advance for any chaos,” That was an understatement. It turned out the more types of mana you could channel, the harder it became to work with new sources. This further explained the lack of people trying to collect them all, but it was too late for Cal to change that, so he had to find a way to push through the limitation.
“Fine, but after this, we practice your weapon skills more. I am ready when you are,” the squirrel said as he positioned his body into one of the many different fighting stances Cal had seen him adopt over their time together.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Incoming!” Cal yelled as he repeated his earlier blasts, but this time, he also tried to hit Third Smasher with a small shot of friction mana at the same time. He hoped it would throw off his well-timed dodges. He watched as the small line of mana, invisible to most people, found its mark right as Third Smasher was trying to ricochet himself off a wall. Instead, thanks to Cal, his feet slipped across the rock surface, causing him to crash into it instead of bounce back off. Before Third had a chance to get his bearings about himself, one of the arcs of energy hit him in the shoulder, launching him off the wall and sliding across the ceiling.
Luckily for Third Smasher, the slipping wore off before he fell to the ground, and he was able to tumble into a ball and save himself from any serious injuries. “Very impressive. I felt like had no grip on anything I touched. I believe that is the best you have managed to control Lady Sleek’s powers so far.”
“Thanks, so weapons then?” Cal knew what Third Smasher meant by weapons training. He had the idea for Cal to create different weapons out of the rocks around him and use those as needed. Apparently, just pulling up rock shields didn’t impress Third much when you considered the other possibilities.
“Yes, try creating something like this,” Third Smasher laid his curved blade on the ground for Cal to reference.
“Got it,” Cal focused on the rock wall to his side. First, he pictured the shape and design of the blade and then pushed his mana into the wall, carefully guiding it across the sharp side of the blade, honing it as to a razor’s width. He reached to the point where he was forming the handle and pulled it loose from the wall. “How’s this?” He smiled as he asked. As far as he could tell, this had been his best attempt yet.
“It looks real enough. Swing it at me now!” Third Smasher ordered. Cal complied, and before his rock blade could hit anything, Third had already grabbed his own blade from the ground and brought up the flat side to block the incoming blow. Cal felt the vibration of the impact across his whole arm and watched as his newest attempt crumbled away from the blow.
“Well, at least it held together until impact this time, going to need to work on something to absorb the shock, too. When I hit you, I felt like my arm was going to vibrate off.” Cal stretched his arm and flexed it a few times, trying to get past the feeling.
“Yes, you will need to alter your design, likely in the hilt, but I am not a smith, so I cannot give you the exact guidance there. I suggest we break for a meal, though. The smell of the apples and nuts in this cavern are very tempting.” Cal couldn’t argue, they had found less and less fruit bearing trees as their descent continued, so they had been stuffing their packs at every chance they found. Hopefully, they were nearing the world spirit.