Chapter 8: A Teachable Moment
“So what exactly are we doing here?” Alice traced her eyes around the large open room below deck, glancing back to Atma for any kind of answer.
“Well, I was hoping to talk to you about this yesterday but-”
“We couldn’t find you,” Locke cut in, Alice and Balthazar both noting how suspicious Locke doing so was.
“Right.” Atma spread his arms proudly. “This is where we’re going to practice and train while we travel.”
Balthazar raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about this? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but I don’t want to burn a hole in the ship by accident. I’ve got the magic control and all that to not do it, but-”
“Oh don’t worry about that, I spoke with the captain beforehand. He was telling me that enough adventurers and guild members go through on the ship that he had to section off this area of the ship with magical wards and the like. Said too many were wrecking their rooms or the main deck. The only conditions are we don’t do anything too crazy, and that people can watch us fight, it makes for good entertainment.”
“Gladiators for a bunch of sailors,” Alice muttered. “Fair enough.”
Atma raised his hand to his chin, his mind turning back to their battle in the forest. “We all fought well together, there’s no doubting that, but it feels like we were lacking proper synergy. We have a decent baseline knowledge, I think, but if we’re going to do our best together, we should probably go a bit more in depth.”
Balthazar nodded in agreement. They’d mostly improvised, and certainly, it had worked, but he was only really sure on how Alice fought, Locke he had a general idea on, and as for Atma? He found it all a bit odd how he moved around.
“Locke,” Atma began, “You’re something of a middle ground between the four of us in terms of familiarity, so why don’t you start?”
Locke nodded. “Well, as everyone’s familiar with, I specialize in swords and shields, but I know my way around a few other weapons too. My Family’s Helion school of fighting has an offensive form for greatswords, and a more defensive style that revolves around shields in tandem with other weapons. While my brother specializes in the offensive form, I focus on defense, so you can trust me to keep you safe.”
Balthazar turned over to Atma. “I still don’t quite get your fighting style. I saw you jumping around better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Atma snapped his fingers, and nodded his head excitedly. “Exactly. Learning things like this will take us to the next level.” He held out his spear and shield. His shield was noticeably smaller than Locke’s, but was no less durable or hefty. “I started my training with the Knights’ Academia, so Locke and I have similar fundamentals. I, however, went on to train under Noble Knights Heinkel and Xander.”
Balthazar took a moment to try and place who they were. The Noble Knights of the Council were the finest that Deponess had to offer, their apex warriors and commanders, so, naturally, the Academia made knowing them mandatory due to their weight in the Kingdom military. “7th Seat Heinkel and his brother 8th Seat Xander. They’re veterans of the border war, and they’re… Dragon Knights?! Does that mean you have a dragon?”
Alice excitedly perked up. “Oh that’s gotta be so cool! Does it breathe fire?” There were only ever a handful of Dragon Knights at a time, but their presence was nothing short of legendary, powerful warriors who rode atop dragons in battle, said to hold the same power of their dragons within themselves. Alice and Balthazar both found it like running into the rare beast itself.
Atma chuckled and scratched the back of his head, a bit embarrassed. “That’s a no, sorry. No dragon of my own. Maybe one day.” He cleared his throat and recomposed himself, a bit of blush still on his face. “I don’t put as much emphasis as Locke or other knights do on defense in my fighting style. Dragon Knights train more for mobility in combat, hence why my armor is less bulky than his. We put a lot of emphasis into quick vertical movement, use our falls to gain momentum for stronger strikes. In short, we jump and we sprint.”
“How do you do that, exactly,” Locke asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Well, it’s kind of hard to explain, it’s like I-” Atma paused. “No, that’s not quite it.” He focused for a moment, then turned to face the far side of the room. He took a deep breath, and kicked off, launching himself a light gust of wind from where he kicked off from, not as far or high as he might otherwise, but enough to make an example. “Does that help?”
“Not particularly well, sir.” Locke tilted his head, clearly confused.
“I think I get it.” Alice nodded. “Can you prepare yourself to do it again? Don’t jump, I want to see if my idea here is right.”
“Of course.” He positioned himself in the same spot, it only took half a moment for him to prepare, Alice placing her hand on his shoulder as he did so, pulling her hand away, with a faint green glow to it.
“That’s what I thought, you’re using wind magic, in a way.”
Atma left the position, returning to a more casual stance. “Something like that, I don’t have the same aptitude for it as Escalus, but Knights’ Academia training demands we at least learn the bare basics of how it works, since we’re expected to fight alongside other mages. I can’t say I know enough to start casting anything, but I get the idea of it at least.”
Alice nodded. “When you see Balthazar and I cast magic, we use it outside of our bodies. What you’re doing is more like applying magic to your body. It’s a technique used among adventurers and warriors, so that they can draw out every power they have, even if they can’t normally cast magic. It’s not always something that the people who use it are conscious of. We don’t learn too much about it, but even our documentation says that many of the best fighters in history have found some way or another to incorporate magic into their techniques.”
“I figured it was something like that.” Atma went over to his bag to pull out his notebook and write some of what he was hearing down. “Heinkel and Xander always told me they’d teach me their more advanced techniques after Escalus or I had our pilgrimage, but I imagine this is probably the key to that. If you’ve ever seen them fight, they rocket around, or do similar things to how Balthazar enchanted our weapons.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Balthazar added. “Magic has a lot of applications to it, aside from throwing fireballs, or healing wounds. Really, it all comes down to technique and creativity. Someone who only masters one element will usually have an edge over someone so-so at all of them.”
“I’m not exactly all that familiar with magic, that’s more Escalus’ forte. Again, I get the basic ideas. You control the elements with your basic magic, but you can also heal, or enhance. I’ve even heard stories from veterans about summoning elemental spirits, or how they’d seen some Mages reshape their magic and the world around them into weapons or armor.”
“That’s a bit more high end magic. Powerful, yes, but not something we can just throw around without a lot more practice with it.”
“Right, most of my knowledge is second hand from Escalus, or combat tactics from Academia. I’m not even sure how well our martial techniques could really compare to true magic.”
“If you want, Alice and I can give you a refresher on the basics from our perspective. I know our different branches give a few details about each other to function on the battlefield, but until Locke started teaching me more about swordsmanship a few years back, I never would have been able to really understand all the work that goes into it.” Balthazar was more than fine offering, his underclassmen often came to him for help understanding material back in the Academia.
“If you don’t mind. If there’s something new for me to learn, I’ll give it a shot.”
Balthazar nodded in confirmation. He glanced over to Alice, who gave him a thumbs up to go ahead. “At the surface level, Light Mages like Alice, Dark Mages like me. You go a bit deeper, and you get the eight elements, four Light, and four Dark. There’s an opposing element on either side. For example, Ice is a Light magic, opposed to Fire, a Dark magic.”
“I remember this, it's something of a mutual strength and weakness, right?.” Atma kept making notes.
“Right, but it doesn't mean that they don't interact outside of their oppositions. Well, the other pairs are Water and Lightning, Wind and Earth, and Light and Dark, respectively. They’ve all got their own properties at base, Lightning is great at piercing, wind cuts, and Light is incredibly fast, that sort of thing. Again, that really comes down to how well you can use what you’ve got. I’ve seen some people get Lightning to flow like Water, and other times conjure strong structures out of Fire like it were Earth.”
Atma nodded, putting together a T-chart, with little notes in the margins. “So a magician really could have anything up their sleeve, misbranding you would be like mistaking one of Deponess’ knights for Diamant’s Samurai, and assuming they’d fight the same way.”
“That’s actually a great analogy.” Alice cut in. “We get all dressed in different colors, but you never know what a mage has in their arsenal until you see them use it. Magic is our sword, spear, bow, you name it. But people have different affinities for it. Some can’t use magic at all, others can’t get past your hurdle, where they have to use magic in their body. If you want to get technical, people also just have affinities for different elements. Take Balthazar, he has a Fire affinity, so it comes really naturally to him, but he has a harder time with Light and Ice. Me? I have a thing for Ice, but Earth’s always been a weak point of mine, and Fire is really not my strong suit, but I can make it work.” She tapped her chin, thinking back a few years. “People more naturally have their affinity flow through them. In your case, that would be wind. When we were kids, we tested Locke, and found his was Light.”
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“Oh yeah, I remember that, he was still new to mages, and was all freaked out when he saw the whole glowing hands thing.”
Locke chuckled. “Well, all these years later, and I just sort of got used to the weird stuff being around you two.”
Atma smiled and nodded. “I think I get it. I’ll have to ask again later, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” Balthazar grinned. “Not everyone gets the chance to say they taught the Prince of Deponess something. There’s a lot more of course, but that’s a bit more high end. Let’s save that for later.”
“Agreed, fundamentals are the best place to start, and I think I have a decent idea of yours. You can fill me in some other time.” Atma stepped over to a pole on the floor, roughly equal in size to his spear, nudging it with his foot, then kicking it up, and catching it in his left hand. “Well then, who’s up for a little spar?”
“I’ll sit this first one out, you boys have fun, I need to make sure you don’t beat the tar out of each other too badly.” Alice nudged her head towards Balthazar and Locke, as she stepped back a bit.
“I’ll do it,” Balthazar answered. “But remember, I can’t exactly switch to a wooden stick like you can. You won’t have to worry about me torching you or anything though.” Balthazar was more than adept in magic control, so he wouldn’t have to worry about doing any serious damage, but he knew that spar or not, he would have to take Atma seriously, just as Atma would no doubt take him seriously.
Atma nodded. “Two landed hits to win. That would be all a real enemy might need to take you down.” He stood at an opposing end of the room, while Alice and Locke stepped off to the side, and took up a stance, crouching slightly, his right side towards Balthazar, his right hand towards the head of the pole closer to where a spear tip might be, while his left was further back.
Balthazar excitedly readied himself, right foot forward, hands up, similar to how a boxer might prepare to fight. Deep breath in, deep breath out. He tried getting a read on the prince’s stance, looking for any kind of opening. Based on his stance, the prince was left handed, and his body was relaxed, but ready to spring into action. Balthazar knew distance was going to be his best friend in this fight, but he also knew Atma was far faster than he was, and would be able to close the distance. An idea shot through his mind. Atma was fast, but how agile was he mid-leap?
Locke stood in the center of the room, off to the side, holding his hand into the air. “On three. One! Two!” Balthazar tensed, as Atma did. “Three!”
Atma shot forward, as Balthazar, in a swift motion, spread his arms wide, an earthen barrier appearing with the motion. It was harder to create without proper earth at his feet, but nothing a bit of extra energy investment couldn’t fix. There was a thud as Atma made impact, staggering off the wall that had appeared between them. Atma was fast, yes, but Balthazar’s gambit had paid off, Atma’s initial distance closer was predictable, and easily interrupted. Balthazar let the wall crumble away to dust, as he did, he swiped his hand through the air, an arc of flame blasting through the scattering dust. Atma put up his shield to guard, but was still off balance, taking the still forceful blow to the chest, knocking him back.
“Point, Balthazar.”
Balthazar kept his guard up as Atma regained his footing. Since the prince was closer, he would have to go for quicker, lighter strikes. Smaller flames shot from his fingertips, Atma rolling to evade, and making a smaller leap off to Balthazar’s side rather than go straight for him. Balthazar moved his left arm as soon as he saw Atma roll, keeping his right in pursuit, but while Atma had evaded the path of Balthazar’s flames, he’d put himself in the line of fire for Balthazar’s counter. A bolt of lighting arced from his index and middle finger. But, given it was his off hand, his aim was just a bit off, sailing under Atma’s arm as he sidestepped Balthazar’s attack, and moved in closer. The Dark Mage was wide open as Atma closed the last gap between them, and, rather underwhelmingly, gently tapped Balthazar’s forehead with the pole. He backed off before Balthazar could properly respond, the mage utterly thrown off by such a motion, touching his head as if to confirm it was real. Atma moved back towards his starting position.
“Point, Prince Atma. That’s 1:1.”
“I can’t exactly make swinging this thing weaker like you can do your magic, and I can promise you, getting hit by a stick in training isn’t that fun.”
“R-right.” Balthazar took a moment to recompose himself. In a death match, that would have been a killing blow, but he had a better read on Atma’s movements. As his affinity suggested, fighting Atma was like fighting Wind Magic. Bigger movements were faster and more powerful, but moved in a predictable way, but those smaller motions were far more agile, and harder to evade or connect a hit with. Proper combination of both aspects to match the situation would decide how competent the wind mage was, and how dangerous they were. Ignoring the light tapping, Balthazar could still see that Atma was more competent in his control of his movements than some mages had control over Wind Magic. Baltahazar kept an eye on Atma as he saw the prince get ready to move again. Given the distance between them, he was more than likely going to try and rush Balthazar again, though not head on like before. Balthazar knew he would be putting himself at a disadvantage if he tried moving around too much to keep up, or try to press the attack. His best strategy was to try and win defensively, hold his position, and try and force Atma to act how he wanted.
Atma lunged off again, feinting for Balthazar’s right side, moving as if a burst of wind were behind him. As Balthazar moved to cast a spell, he kicked off of the ground, changing course for Balthazar’s left. He didn’t stop as he intended though, when his feet his the ground again after his course correction, the floor at his feet was slick with ice, not particularly thick, but enough for him to lose balance and slide, thudding into the wall.
Balthazar followed up again with his tried and true Fire Magic, a small, well controlled shot aimed for Atma’s chestplate as he hit the wall. His read on Atma being left handed paid off, and he’d seen through the feint, and knew Atma would try to keep him on the side of his dominant hand. It hadn’t gone exactly as he planned, but- The flame pinged off of Atma’s shield, guarded in time.
“Wasn’t expecting the ice after Alice said you weren’t all that good with it.”
“Well, you can never fully trust knowledge from your opponent after all.” Balthazar bluffed, but he had intended to cast a wall, not an ice slick. He had a terrible poker face though, something most would have been able to see through.
Atma smiled paced around, reassessing how to make his approach. “Fair enough, but I’ll turn this around yet.”
Balthazar wasn’t entirely sure if his bluffing had worked, but he returned his focus to the moment at hand. The distance between the two wasn’t all that great, if he acted fast, he might be able to catch Atma off guard before he could evade. He spread his arms wide, and swiftly clapped his hands together, and with a faint green glow to it, a shot of wind blasted off, with a speed to match Atma’s. The prince vaulted off the ground, rolling in the air, over Balthazar’s attack, the Dark Mage staring, trying to come up with something as his mind seemed to be a moment behind. He made a motion of reaching out to grab the prince, a shadowy mass moving and forming to guard, spreading out like tendrils to try and catch the descending prince. Too slow. The spell dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, Balthazar jostled back from the rush of adrenaline. He’d been so caught up in the fight, he hadn’t noticed how hard his heart was pounding, or the stupid grin on his face. “Oh that’s a rush,” he laughed, as Atma got off of him, and extended a hand to help Balthazar back up. Balthazar took his hand, stepping off to the side with him.
“You did well. Was that your first time sparring like that?”
“Only with someone who’s not a mage, you’re a very different fight from that.” Balthazar sighed and sat himself on a nearby crate.
“You alright you two?” Alice glanced them over for any bruises or injuries. “Hurt anywhere I can’t see?”
“I’m alright, thank you.”
“I don’t feel anything, Alice.” Balthazar looked himself over for signs of any damage from his fall.
“You want to check back when the adrenaline wears off? You did go down pretty hard there.”
“Yeah, later, I think I’m good for now though.” He sighed in relief as he relaxed a bit. “Are you and Locke going to spar next?”
She nodded, and spoke with a wistful smile on her face. “I’ll try and pick up the pace for you.” She and Balthazar exchanged a quick high five, as she stepped into the makeshift arena.
“How did you read me so well, Atma? This is your first time fighting a mage, right?”
“It is, but I went off of something I started to notice back in the Forest of th Elders. You, Miles and Alice are all very expressive with your hands when you use magic.” Balthazar had his interest piqued, listening a bit more intently to Atma’s assessment. “I may not know your full arsenal, but if I follow your hands, I can at least get an idea of how you’re going to attack.”
“When you put it like that, it’s really obvious, it’s how we control our magic the easiest. Honestly, not using your hands is a big skill marker, but that’s a really high bar to match.”
“I’d say you adapted to me just fine, though I don’t suppose it was a very fair match with how I fight, and you had to handicap yourself.”
“Not something I’m used to, sure, but nothing to put to blame there, I just need to adjust to fighting in conditions like that more. Never know when it’ll come in handy. Just watch Alice fight Locke, she’ll have picked up any mistakes I made and start trying to plan around them. For the record though, the ice thing was a fluke. Completely messed that one up.”
Atma had that sullen look on his face again. “That right, huh?”
“Why do you do that?”
Atma blinked quickly, hiding the darker expression on his face with a forced smile that Balthazar realized was very well practiced. “Sorry?”
“You always seem really sad when you talk about Alice and Linia, what’s up with that?”
“That’s-” The normally steadfast prince was hesitant to answer.
“You don’t have to tell me, but we are your companions for the foreseeable future, best get whatever it is off your chest now.”
Atma sighed, and seemed to truly relax for the first time since Balthazar had met him. He ruffled his blonde hair into a more natural looking flow, sighed, and sat forward, resting his head on his interlocked hands. “You’re right.” He was silent for a moment, and let out a deep breath. “I’m a bit older than you, so I still remember the battle, Balthazar. I remember the days leading up to it, and the days after. Not perfectly, but I still remember. April 23rd, Escalus and my 8th birthday. We were in Linia to celebrate for a few days, our father was going to speak with the Linian council, and wanted to introduce us to your home while we were young. ‘Our people are brothers, and I would invite them to share in my joy.’”
Balthazar’s mind began piecing things together. “I remember hearing that all those years ago, Ranz attacked because-”
He tried hiding it, but Atma’s face was gaunt with guilt. “Because it was one of the rare chances where my brother and I left the castle.”
“You can’t possibly blame yourself for that? Atma, you were a child, a victim like the rest of us.”
“Maybe, but knowing that people shed blood for me, just some child they’d never met? That’s not something I can be proud of. As for why Alice? Well if you can believe it, I knew her sister.” He paused, and leaned back, looking up to the ceiling. “Knew is a strong word. I was just some kid who snuck away while the guards were still asleep, and ran into her and their mother. It was a rush back then getting to act like just another kid. Never even got her name. But I didn’t forget their faces.”
Balthazar was silent, unsure of how to respond, so he said nothing. The most he could offer being his attention.
“I didn’t learn their names until after the battle. When I saw their portrait at the vigil for those who died or were taken captive in the attack. I promised I wouldn’t forget, not when people like Crowe fought, but couldn’t save their loved ones. My life shouldn’t matter any more than any of theirs.”
“People didn’t die just for you, Atma,” Alice called out as she stepped back to the sideline. “People fought and died for their homes, and you’re not that.” She paused for a moment before relenting. “You’re a symbol for many people, something to protect, because you represent their homeland. But that’s not the same as fighting with your loved ones at your back.” A soft smile formed on her face. “If it’s any consolation though, my father and I have never blamed you for Diana and my mother, and he’d be honored to know you never forgot. I forgive you, even if you don’t forgive yourself.”
A bit of peace and warmth returned to Atma’s face as he slumped back. “Thank you.”
Alice sat next to Balthazar, kicking her feet in the air as she waited. “So who’s up next?”
“Wait, is it already-” He glanced up to Locke, who was completely drenched and shivering.
“Please don’t make me fight her again.”
Balthazar snickered a bit seeing his friend act like a dog fresh from the bath, but his eyes turned back to Atma. He reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “I think I get the type of king you’ll be. I’m here for you, as your companion, and your friend.”