Author's Note: The final part will be the next chapter.
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Chapter 17: Fulfilled, pt. 2
"Where did Tom go?" Reia demanded.
"Relax," Niala said to her. "He is currently doing his training with Delix. We separated the two of you to ensure that you'll focus on your training. The faster you finish your training, the faster you can get together. Now then..."
Niala held out her hand. A spear made of energy formed in her hand. She spun the spear and held it with both hands, pointing it towards the ground.
"Ready yourself."
"Equip Set One," Reia said. Light formed around Reia as her armour and weapons took form. Once they appeared, Reia took a stance.
"Good. Now come at me with everything you got."
Reia ran forward with her spear at her side. Niala raised her spear slightly as Reia charged towards her. Once in range, Reia thrust her spear. Niala shifted her spear and redirected the attack away.
The redirection nearly caused Reia to lose her footing. She quickly steadied herself and jumped back a few steps. Reia spun her spear over her head and tried to attack from above. Niala effortlessly blocked the attack and countered with a strike to Reia's side with the staff end of the spear.
The attack sent Reia flying across the field. She groaned as she struggled to get to her feet. Reia planted her weapon on the ground and forced herself to get up. She got up to her feet. Her side throbbed from the attack.
"I am truly sorry, Reia," Niala apologized. "I keep forgetting that you never did get proper training in the spear."
Reia held her side. "I couldn't afford it. Even the most basic trainer costs more money than I could make. All my training had to be self taught."
"That explains a lot. Okay listen up. Your attacks leave too many openings. You seem to only be able to do thrusts or swings with no transitions in between. You also don't use any feints in your attacks. Allow me to teach you. Take a stance."
Reia stood upright and held her spear ready for an attack.
Niala moved quickly towards Reia while spinning the pointed end of her spear in a spiral. "Spinning the end of your spear towards your opponent is a good way to make them misjudge your attack and be unable to decide if you are going to strike low-"
Reia saw the spear was aimed at her lower half and block accordingly. Niala's spear then shifted upwards at the last second and moved upwards towards her face. It stopped before the attack landed.
"-or strike high. Feints can be used to create openings on your opponent. Understand?"
"I do. It makes a lot of sense."
"Good. Give it a try."
Reia moved forward while spinning the end of her spear. She aimed towards the top but thrust downwards. Despite using a feint, Niala still blocked the attack.
"Very good," she said. "You got a feint down."
"You still blocked it."
"Simply because I knew it was coming. If you use feints in combat, you can gain the advantage. If I recall, both you and Tom used a feint to defeat that hobgoblin in South Africa. You saw how that quickly turned things around. Okay, next you need to be able to transition between thrusting and swings. It's not hard. It's all about the position of your hands on the staff of the spear. Watch."
Niala thrust her spear and quickly brought it in by sliding her hand up the staff to then slide her hand down again to swing the spear. She repeated the actions through different attacks. The difference between each attack was the positions of her hands on the spear.
"Do you see the movements of my hands?" Niala asked Reia.
"Yes," Reia replied. "Just like you said. Different positions for different attacks."
"Exactly. By doing this you can quickly close any openings that your attacks create. Now with what you've learned, try to spar with me."
Reia dashed forward thrusting her spear forwards at Niala. Niala got ready to block a thrusting attack was taken by surprise as Reia quickly spun the spear and did a swiping attack towards her legs. Niala jumped to dodge the attack.
"Wind Blade," Reia yelled out.
The attack landed on Niala's stomach knocking her back slightly. She looked back at Reia with a surprised look on her face.
"A feint followed by another feint," Niala said. "Well done."
Niala spun her spear over head and swung at Reia. Reia held up her spear to block the attack. The strength of the attack sent Reia into the ground. She slid to a stop after twenty meters.
"Sorry about that Reia," Niala apologized. "I sometimes lose control of my strength. Thankfully you can't be terribly harmed in this realm. Try again. I'll try to hold back my strength this time."
Reia got to her feet and took to the air.
"Ready for more advanced techniques? Very well."
Niala spread out her wings and flew after Reia. Reia swung downwards as Niala approached from below. Niala blocked the attack.
"I see what you're trying to do."
"Oh, yeah?"
"You think by removing my footing on the ground, your attacks would be more effective at keeping me off balance."
Reia cringed as her plans were immediately found out.
"It's a good idea," Niala added. She pushed Reia away with her spear. "However, there are three problems with your plan. First problem is I am a stronger flyer than you."
Niala flapped her wings towards Reia. The wind generated by them were on the same scale as a tropical storm. This caused Reia to lose control of her flight. She, as quickly as she could, regained control and spread out her wings.
"Second problem is in the sky, you have more areas to strike." Niala appeared behind Reia and struck down on her wings. "Like your opened wings."
Reia went into a tail spin and impacted the ground with a great force. Had this been reality, the attack probably would have killed her. Despite the attack being nonfatal, she could still feel a lot of the pain.
Niala gracefully landed on the ground a few feet away from the crater where Reia fell.
"And finally... The third problem is that if I'm not grounded, neither are you."
Reia struggled to her feet. She felt extremely irritated by her teacher's friendly but know-it-all attitude. Reia planted her spear into the ground and pushed herself to her feet.
"I see you still have some fight in you," Niala observed.
"I'm not giving up," she muttered. "Not yet."
Reia charged forth with her spear at her side. Niala struck forward with her spear only to have it knocked out of the way by Reia spinning her spear to the side. Niala recovered and struck again. Reia dodged the attack and followed up by striking downwards.
Niala blocked the attack from above. Reia spun her spear backwards and quickly stabbed towards Niala's chest. The teacher dodged the attack by side-stepping to the side.
"Flurry!" Reia yelled out.
Reia threw forth several attacks at a rapid rate. Niala smiled as she quickly blocked each attack in Reia's combo. She then followed up by whacking Reia in the stomach.
"A word of advice," Niala said. "Don't yell out your attacks. Just think them."
All the pain and fatigue finally caught up to Reia as she collapsed onto the ground. She felt disheartened and embarrassed as she was unable to keep fighting. Reia wanted to impress her teacher but was unable to land any significant attacks.
Niala chuckled and sat down next to Reia. She patted her on the shoulder. "You did amazing."
Reia lifted her head off of the ground. "What?"
"Delix and I did say that the point of your training was to fight us, not win. You have shown me you quickly learn from others and your mistakes. You are also able to quickly adapt to your situations. Your skills with the spear aren't half bad for someone who is self taught."
"You mean...?"
"You pass, my dear. I've already seen your moves before and knew you were going to pass. I was taking this opportunity to teach you some moves to improve your skill set."
"So this was about learning to use the spear?"
Niala nodded.
"What about my secondary class? The Lancer?"
"Being a Lancer is about doing better thrusts with your weapon. If you know how to use a spear, you know the fundamentals of being a Lancer. Can you stand up?"
Reia struggled to push herself off of the ground. She slowly got to her feet while groaning in pain. Eventually she stood upright in front of her teacher Niala. Niala placed a hand on her head. She smiled and a small white light came off of her hand.
NoticeYou have completed your class quest, unlocking the potential of your class: the Lancer.
NoticeBy unlocking your class' full potential, you unlocked the skill "Spiral Thrust" and earned an additional twenty points towards Strength and Agility.
NoticeYour Agility has reached over 100. This has unlocked the passive skill "Enhanced Dodge".
Spiral ThrustTypeActivateStamina Required60RankALevelBeginner 1 (0%)This attack is able to weaken, and maybe destroy, a target's armour. This will open them up for added damage from all attacks.
Enhanced DodgeTypePassiveRankBLevelBeginner 1 (0%)Dodge Success+0.5%By improving your Agility, you have enhanced your ability to dodge. The success of your dodges improve as you level up this skill.
"Spiral Thrust is an extremely useful ability for any Lancer," Niala explained. "By damaging an opponent's armour, your companions and you can follow up with more powerful attacks. It can outright change the outcome of a battle."
"Thank you for the lesson and skills, Master," Reia said while bowing in a respectful manner.
"Don't mention it. I'm glad I have someone to pass on my knowledge to."
"If you don't mind me asking, who are you exactly? I have heard the name Niala before but... could you be...?"
Niala was quiet before clasping her hands together. She smiled solemnly. "My full name is Niala Ryezious."
Reia's eyes widen in shock. "Y-You're... You're one of the six heroes! The ones who fought Hastur and caused him to go into hiding. You put an end to the war eighteen years ago."
"Temporarily put an end to the war," Niala corrected. "As current events have shown, Hastur was far from defeated."
"Still, you saved a lot of lives through your adventures and your fight with Hastur. Him going into hiding allowed the other continents to rebuild. We lived in relative peace in those years."
"I'm glad we were able to accomplish as much."
"I read all about your adventures growing up," Reia mentioned. "I looked up to you all. You especially. I took up the spear because of the tales about you."
"It makes me happy to hear that. It really does."
"What happened to you all? All anyone knows is that you fought off Hastur but then you vanished after the fight."
"We died in the fight," Niala answered. She was brief and to the point.
"Oh... I'm so sorry."
"I'm sorry I couldn't give you a happy ending to our tale. Hastur proved to be too powerful for us to handle. We poured everything into our attacks. We greatly injured Hastur, but in the end, he destroyed us all."
Reia felt a great unease after hearing how her heroes ended up after the fight with Hastur.
"I see a different fate for you," Niala quickly added after seeing the look on Reia's face. "You're already stronger than I was at your age. However, even with Tom at your side, you're going to need allies in the fight ahead."
"Where are we to find these allies?"
"As the worlds merge, you'll find others who will have the same conviction in fighting Hastur. It won't be hard. I'm confident Tom and you will be able to find these people. Speaking of which, Delix and he should be done by now. Would you like to go to him now?"
"I would, please."
"Come on then," she said placing a hand on her shoulder. Niala teleported the two away from their training ground.
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Character Stats:
Spoiler :
StatusNameThomas "Tom" EverettLevel22Experience13320/13850ClassMagic BladeRaceHumanAlignmentGoodCurrencyCanadian$10,686,171.27Xoth0 platinum 4 gold 66 silver 30 copperTitleClever One, Determined, Giant Slayer, Vaccinated, One Of The First, Sole Survivor, Generous Healer, InterpreterBuffsAgent of Kara2x experienceBestiary of Xoth+10% damage towards the creatures of XothBrief History of Xoth+10% persuasion chance and friendliness towards the inhabitants of XothDebuffs--Health1150Health Regeneration/min33.99Mana1090Mana Regeneration/min37.2Stamina1090Stamina Regeneration/min8.2Fame3900Infamy0Strength115Intelligence109Wisdom120Perception58Endurance109Vitality103Agility82Luck90Unallocated Points0
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
ResistancesPhysical44%Disease/Toxin89%Fire44%Plant44%Ice44%Earth44%Lightning44%Water44%Wind44%Spirit44%Light44%Darkness44%
SkillsIdentifyMaster Level 2PersuasionIntermediate Level 1Language ComprehensionMaster Level 10Book LearningMaster Level 10TeacherBeginner Level 4NonchalantMaster Level 10Lightning StrikeIntermediate Level 6Lightning EnchantIntermediate Level 6Lightning ShieldIntermediate Level 3HealIntermediate Level 4PurifyIntermediate Level 5Sword SkillIntermediate Level 6DisguiseIntermediate Level 8PrayerMaster Level 10Hero's CallMaster Level 10Fast TravelMaster Level 10Loot CollectorIntermediate Level 3Magical RepairMaster Level 2TacticianIntermediate Level 3CookIntermediate Level 4Mixed Martial ArtistBeginner Level 8Club SkillBeginner Level 2Trap MasterBeginner Level 7UnbreakableBeginner Level 5FireballIntermediate Level 1Fire EnchantBeginner Level 9Bow SkillBeginner Level 9Power StrikeBeginner Level 10Enhanced BodyIntermediate Level 3Enhanced MindIntermediate Level 1Chain LightningBeginner Level 3Group HealBeginner Level 4Enhanced SpellsBeginner Level 9Enhanced ResistanceIntermediate Level 4SM TransferMaster Level 10Computer SkillBeginner Level 10MassageBeginner Level 1--
StatusNameReia ZyerLevel20Experience8835/8865ClassLancerRaceNagaAlignmentGoodCurrencyCanadian$0.00Xoth0 platinum 4 gold 45 silver 14 copperTitleUnknown, Giant Slayer, Determined, Life SaverBuffs--Debuffs--Health1600Health Regeneration/min9.7Mana450Mana Regeneration/min4.5Stamina1010Stamina Regeneration/min10.6Fame3900Infamy0Strength160Intelligence45Wisdom45Perception53Endurance101Vitality97Agility106Luck89Unallocated Points0
ResistancesPhysical24%Disease/Toxin100%Fire24%Plant24%Ice24%Earth24%Lightning24%Water24%Wind24%Spirit24%Light24%Darkness59%
SkillsIdentifyIntermediate Level 8Weapon RepairIntermediate Level 6Armour RepairIntermediate Level 3Weapon CraftingBeginner Level 9Armour CraftingBeginner Level 10Accessory CraftingIntermediate Level 1Spear SkillIntermediate Level 8Clothing ReformMaster Level 3Ice SpikeBeginner Level 6Wind ShieldIntermediate Level 3Wind BladeIntermediate Level 6HealIntermediate Level 4Club SkillBeginner Level 1Sword SkillBeginner Level 9PersuasionIntermediate Level 1Power StrikeBeginner Level 10Enhanced ResistanceBeginner Level 8Group HealBeginner Level 1FlurryBeginner Level 1Spiral ThrustBeginner Level 1Enhanced DodgeBeginner Level 1