Chapter 39
New Tricks
The group’s plans were coming along well, despite their recent setbacks. While Ryle and Arkay could no longer go to the city to sell medicine in order to earn money, Erin and Lexton were more than able to make up for it. During that, the wanted duo would hone their skills in the use of either magic or ki. Whenever they weren’t selling medicine in the city, Erin and Lexton would also be working on their personal projects, with the redhead concentrating on learning to use magic under Arkay’s tutelage and the kobold working on new equipment for his companions.
Right now was one of those days that the whole group was gathered at Lexton’s workshop to hone their skills. Arkay was trying out new spells, while Ryle had gone to do some training in the use of ki a bit further away from them. Erin was still trying to get the basics of bringing out her innate magical power out and Lexton had retreated to his workshop to work on another one of his projects.
The method of training that Erin was using was very simple. She was holding onto the Glow Stone that she had gotten from Arkay and did her best to pour magical energy into it to make it glow. The redhead was currently trying to make the stone glow as brightly as possible, like Arkay had done upon demonstrating it’s use to Erin and Ryle. Unfortunately, while she had gotten better, the glow was still far from what she hoped to achieve.
“Dammit!” Erin cursed as sweat was dripping down her forehead. “This isn’t going anywhere!”
“I wouldn’t go that far. You’ve been making steady progress with each day,” Arkay said with a small smile as he stopped his experiment of bringing out flames in different shapes. “The use of magic isn’t an easy road to travel, which is why a lot of people simply turn to weapons or even cybernetics. But I’m sure that as long as you keep working on it, it will be more than worth it.”
“I get the sentiment, but I don’t have all that much time on my hands to spend on this,” the redhead said with a sigh, as she stopped putting magical energy into the stone. “We never know when Lune might just leave the city, so I need to get a handle of this before it happens. Besides, we never know when we might get into danger again and I would like to be able to help out. Unlike last time…”
“If you’re talking about that time with the spider, you need to stop punishing yourself over it,” the cat boy said. “We already forgave you for it, after all.”
“It’s not just that!” Erin shouted, taking Arkay by surprise. Realizing that she had just lashed out for no reason, the redhead calmed herself before continuing. “I get that I can’t expect to become a master at using magic right away and that there are limits to what I can do. However, the people that I’m going up against aren’t going to be beaten just because I did my best in practicing. I need to be actually strong in order to win and make sure none of you guys get killed in the process.”
“You shouldn’t concern yourself with us all that much, Erin. We can take care of ourselves just fine,” the cat boy said in a comforting tone. “Not to mention, I’m sure if either Ryle or Lexton heard that, they would be more offended than anything else.”
“I can imagine that. Those two can be surprisingly similar in certain aspects,” Erin said with a small laugh. “But it still doesn’t change the fact that I’m not going at a pace that I wish I was. At this rate, I fear I have to forget about using magic when we go after Lune.”
“Well, let’s take a bit of a closer look at what you’re doing. Maybe I can give you some pointers as to what you should be doing,” Arkay said as he walked up to the redhead to observe her.
Erin nodded in response before she began to pour her magical energy into the Glow Stone in her hand. As soon as she did this, the stone started to flicker with a very weak light, until it slowly grew into a dim light. However, after that the light didn’t seem to get any stronger at all, except for very brief moments that were followed by the light going weak right away.
“I think I see the problem,” Arkay said after observing Erin’s efforts for a bit. “You’re being too forceful with how you handle your magic.”
“What do you mean by that? Aren’t I supposed to push magical energy out of my body in order to use it?” Erin asked.
“While that is somewhat true, there is a correct way to do it,” the cat boy answered. “Simply using force isn’t how you’re supposed to do it.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?” the redhead asked.
“Try to imagine the place you push the magical energy into as a small hole, okay?” Arkay began to explain. “Now imagine magical energy as an assortment of seeds, pebbles or other small objects. What do you think happens when you grab a handful of such things and try to forcefully shove them through a hole smaller than the tip of your finger?”
“...With the exception of very few, they don’t go through?” Erin answered, not exactly sure about her own answer.
“Correct. While some get through, the hole gets mostly clogged up, not allowing the rest of your magic to travel through properly,” the cat boy said. “Instead of just using force, you should use a more gentle approach, where you allow all of your magic to go through in a fine line. With time and practice, the pathway that your magic travels through will get wider and will allow much more magic to go through, like a small stream that eventually becomes a large river.”
“But how do I know how to push the magic out in the correct way?” the redhead asked. “It’s not like I can see the magic moving inside my arm.”
“When using magic, you should be able to feel it moving through your body. When you try to forcefully push put too much, you’re getting an uncomfortable feeling in your arm, right?” Arkay asked to which Erin nodded. “Try to find your limit by using different amounts of force, until you find the amount that feels the most comfortable for you. That should allow you to figure things out.”
Following her young friend’s advice, Erin began to experiment again. She held the Glow Stone tightly in her hand as she began to move magical energy into. The redhead could feel the magical energy coursing through her body, as it began to move up her arm and towards the palm of her hand. At first, this sensation felt unpleasant, as she was using too much force. However, once she began to ease up on it, the uncomfortable feeling disappeared, leaving behind a comforting and warm sensation.
Upon finding what seemed like the correct way to push magical energy within her body, Erin began to concentrate on guiding it to the Glow Stone. It didn’t take long for a dim light to appear within the stone, which began to slowly burn brighter and brighter with each second. It took some time, but the redhead was eventually able to get the stone to shine the same way Arkay had.
“Look, Arnie! I did it! I DID IT!” Erin said excitedly with a big smile on her face. “Thanks to your help, I was able to make it shine as brightly as you were!”
“Yes, but it was mostly thanks to your own efforts that you were able to do this,” Arkay said with a smile. “I only gave you little advice. That’s all.”
“Well, that advice helped me out greatly!” the redhead said as she pulled the cat boy into a tight hug, causing him to blush. “The way I see it, it was only thanks to you that I was able to achieve so much in such a short time!”
Arkay was about to say something in response, but the sound of someone clearing their throat cut him off. The two of them turned to see who it was and saw Ryle standing there with a displeased expression on her face.
“So when I go out to work my ass off, you use the opportunity to have fun with Arnie?” the blonde asked as she gave a slight glare to Erin. “I’m getting kind of jealous over here.”
“It’s not like that!” the redhead quickly argued in her defense. “I was just thanking him for helping me out with learning how to use magic! Honest!”
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“Relax. I know that’s what this obviously was about. I was just messing with you,” Ryle said with a sigh. “Still, it would be nice if I had someone to work with and give me pointers, too. It’s not exactly fun to bust my ass off on my own, you know? Sometimes I have no idea whether I’m making progress or not.”
“Didn’t you specifically state that you wanted to work alone because you were going to “amaze us with your awesome skills” or something like that?” Erin asked. “You can’t really get mad at us for doing what you asked.”
“...Well, aren’t you a real smart-ass,” the blonde grumbled. “Anyways, seeing as you’re not moping around for once, I’m guessing your training is going fine?”
“I wasn’t moping!” the redhead argued, only to get blank stares from her two companions. “Okay, so I might have been a little down due to my lack of progress, but that’s it.”
“Sure didn’t seem like that to me,” Ryle stated while picking her nose. “I was honestly tempted to tell you to go pour your whining into poetry or something, so we wouldn’t have to hear it all the time.”
“ANYWAYS, to answer your question, I have made some great progress at last,” Erin said, hoping to change the subject quickly. “I have finally learned how to properly manage the output of magical energy, which I’m willing to believe is a huge step forward.”
“Well, I’d say it’s more of a good start,” Arkay said. “There is still a lot more work for you to do, such learning how to properly manage your magic naturally, not to mention actually using it for spells and such.”
“...There goes my sense of accomplishment,” the redhead muttered.
“Oh boy, here we go again with the moping,” Ryle said.
“I-I might have been a bit too blunt with what I said!” Arkay quickly stated, hoping to cheer up his friend. “While we are still in the basics, this is a good step forward in you learning more about magic. I’m just saying that there is still much more work ahead of you.”
“Thanks, Arnie. I appreciate it,” Erin said with a small smile, before turning her attention to Ryle. “How about you? How has your work been turning out?”
“Well, pretty awesome, I’d say!” the blonde replied with a grin. “I’ve come to learn quite a cool trick in my time working on this ki thingy! Wanna see?”
Both Erin and Arkay nodded in response, interested in seeing what their friend had learned during all her training. They watched as Ryle walked up to a large boulder and took a stance next to it. In one quick move, she destroyed the top of the large rock with a single kick, causing tiny rubble to fly through the air.
Satisfied with her work, the blonde turned to look at her audience, who were giving her a round of applause, happily clapping their hands together. In return, she gave a bow to them, as if she were a performer at a circus.
“That was incredible, Ryle!” Erin said excitedly. “You’re practically a human weapon now!”
“Yeah! That was awesome!” Arkay said in agreement. “It’s good to have someone like you on our side! I doubt there’s anyone who can take you on any longer!”
“Thank you! Thank you! You’ve been a wonderful audience!” Ryle said with a laugh. “Honestly, you should have seen my practice grounds. I’m pretty sure that there isn’t a single solid rock there anymore.”
“So this is why you kept asking for my medicine for wounds and bruises,” a new voice stated. Everyone turned to where it came from and saw Lexton coming out of his work shop. “Well, I wasn’t really expecting anything else. Seeing as how all you know is to hit things really hard, I was sure you were going to come up with something like this sooner or later.”
Erin was about to scold the kobold over his choice of words, but a chuckle from Ryle stopped. She had been certain that the blonde would have gotten furious over the insult thrown her way.
“I knew you were going to say something like that, so I came prepared with something even better!” Ryle boasted, which earned curious looks from the others. She turned back towards the boulder she had just broken the top part of and smirked. “Feast your eyes on this move!”
The others watched as the blonde got really close to the boulder, to the point her body was almost making contact with it. After she was in place, she took a deep breath before starting her preparations. Ryle help up her right hand in a fist close to her chest and held her left hand over it. She kept taking deep breaths almost like it was some sort of a ritual in preparation of something.
Just as Erin was about to ask what the blonde was doing, she saw something that caused her and the other’s eyes to go wide. A golden yellow aura began to gather around her fist. At first, it was barely visible and could have been passed off as light playing tricks with your eyes. But as time went on, the glow got stronger gradually, until it looked like golden flames were surrounding her fist.
After she was done preparing, Ryle unleashed her attack. It was a point blank punch that hit the boulder with incredible destructive force, making it look like the large rock suddenly exploded on impact. Once the dust had cleared out, the boulder was no longer there. Only very tiny pebbles could be seen scattered around as the only clue that the rock had ever been there.
“So… How about that trick?” Ryle asked while panting heavily with her whole body drenched in sweat. “Was that good enough?”
“...Holy shit. Ryle, that was AWESOME!” Erin cheered for her friend. “You gotta show me how to do some of those moves at some point!”
Arkay also joined the redhead in cheering their blonde companion, amazed by her skills. However, Lexton wasn’t cheering at all. In fact, he was frowing as he analyzed what he had just seen Ryle perform down to the smallest of details.
“Are you kidding me!? Why are you two cheering for her!?” the kobold shouted angrily, causing the others to go completely silent. “Can’t you see just how useless that move of hers truly is!?”
“Useless?” Erin asked in a disbelieving tone before getting angry. “How can you say something like that!? Didn’t you see what she just did to that boulder!?”
“I’ll admit that her little trick has very impressive destructive power. I’m certain that most opponents wouldn’t be able to survive something like that at all,” Lexton replied. “However! It also has a ton of weaknesses that completely overshadow any use it might have!”
“Oh? Really now?” Ryle asked with a snort, not taking the criticism well. “And just what might these weaknesses be?”
“For starters, I noticed how you had to get very close to your target before using that technique. I doubt any opponent is going to let you get close enough for you to hug them, so that already makes that move very unreliable,” the kobold began to explain. “Second, you needed quite a bit of time to gather your ki before you could use it. During that time you could easily get killed numerous times.”
Ryle could only frown as Lexton pointed out the faults in her technique. As much as she hated to admit it, he was completely right. She had tried to perform her move at more of a distance, but even a small amount of distance reduced the power behind it. She had been able to cut down the time it took to gather the energy needed, but it was only by a very small margin. If she had more time, she could possibly reduce it a lot more, but that might not be an opportunity available for them.
“And lastly, I can tell that’s a one shot move that’s used only as a trump card,” Lexton continued. “Seeing how winded you are, you needed to put pretty much all of your energy into that attack. Not only that, but your hand isn’t in a good condition either.”
It was only after the kobold mentioned it that Erin and Arkay noticed that Ryle’s hand was bleeding and looked to be bruised all over. It seemed like there was a price to pay for her new special move.
“This? This isn’t such a big deal,” the blonde said as she hid her damaged hand behind her back, trying to put on an act that she was completely fine. “Trust me on this. I’ve dealt with far worse.”
“That’s an obvious lie!” Erin yelled as she walked up to Ryle. “We need to treat that hand right away or it might get worse!”
“Hey, don’t get all touchy with me!” Ryle said as she tried to keep her hand away from the redhead. “When I say I’m fine, I’m fine! How hard is that to understand!?”
Erin was about to continue demanding to get to treat her friend’s injuries, but Arkay managed to beat her to it.
“T-That’s no good, Ryle!” the cat boy said in a somewhat stern tone as he walked up to the blonde as well. “The only way your injuries will heal properly is if we give them proper treatment! Now could you please show your hand to us, so we can help you!?”
“Well, if you insist, I guess it can’t be helped,” Ryle said with a big smile as she immediately melted to the idea of being treated by Arkay and offered her injured hand to the cat boy. “Please be gentle with me.”
“This looks pretty nasty… But I think we should be able to treat it,” Arkay said as he examined the blonde’s injuries. He then turned towards Lexton and said: “Can you give us some of the medicine you’ve made? And some bandages as well?”
“What? Doesn’t the blonde dumbass have enough, seeing as how she’s been stealing them from me?” the kobold said with a frown, earning shocked looks from the others. “Oh, don’t give those eyes, any of you! For some time now, I’ve noticed my stash getting smaller than it should with the sales I’ve been able to do. Besides, how else do you think she’s been able to keep up with her training, considering the injuries she must have been getting?”
“...Yeah, it’s true,” Ryle admitted. “I didn’t want any of you guys to get all worried over me, so I tried to keep it a secret.”
“Do you still have any left?” Erin asked. “It would really help out with fixing that hand of yours.”
“Nah. I’m afraid I’ve run out,” the blonde said. “And it looks like I need to get through this without it.”
“Ryle, I’m sure Lexton can-”
“No, Erin. That’s not how this works,” Ryle said, cutting off the redhead, before turning to look at Lexton. “The fact is that I’ve stolen from him. Hell, I didn’t even try asking for a permission, as I didn’t think he would give me any. We might not like each other, but we’re still allies for now. And now I’ve gone behind his back and screwed him over big time. That’s not something we can just forget and pretend never happened.”
The blonde then walked up to the kobold and surprised everyone by actually giving a deep bow to him.
“I’m sorry,” Ryle said in a completely sincere tone. “I got way too caught up in my own hype and didn’t think things through at all. I know this doesn’t make up for it at all, but I promise to pay you back as soon as I can.”
The blonde was about to lift her head up, when she saw a scaly red hand holding a bottle of medicine appear before her view. She looked up at Lexton and saw that the kobold was completely serious about giving her the bottle.
“You’re a hopeless moron, you know that?” Lexton said with a sigh. “Didn’t it ever occur to you that I might need you in our plan to take down Lune? Since we are in this together, I would have offered you medicine to keep you healthy, so that we may win. From now on, as long as we work together, I don’t want you to pull this type of stuff behind my back ever again. Okay?”
Ryle could only nod, as she was too dumbfounded by what had just occurred. Once she had taken the bottle from the kobold, he turned around and headed back to his workshop. But just as he was about to walk in, he stopped to say one more thing.
“Just to make this clear, I still think you’re a complete idiot. You’re far more brawn than brain and your stupidity is beyond belief,” Lexton said. “However, I do see that unlike many others, you’re at least a far better person than most others. I know I can trust you, not just by what you did today, but by your actions back in the city as well. It’s good to be working with you.”
“...And I think you’re a complete smart-ass and a damn con artist,” Ryle said, before she smirked and added: “But I can see that you can be a good guy as well. I suppose when it comes to con artists, you’re not so bad after all.”
With that, Lexton went into his workshop to work on his latest project, while Ryle went to get her injuries treated by Arkay.
Meanwhile, Erin couldn’t help but smile, as she saw her friends getting along better. It reminded her of the better times. Back when she, Devin and others used to hang out together.
image [https://i.ibb.co/C53rYtZ/Ch-39-Pic-1.jpg]