Kyra woke up next to Teddy. It was still early but she felt content that she neither had the rush to get up to the breakfast bar to jostle with the other trainees or get up to make the most of her weekend before rushing back to the academy on a seventhday evening. Teddy must have felt her wake up because he rolled over to look at her.
“Morning sunshine.”
“Morning Mr Sleepyhead”
They had finished the bottle that Gerald had given them the day before, James and Teddy having the lions share. He had fallen asleep hard and slept like a log the whole night.
“That was a bad idea, I didn’t think it would feel this bad to have a hangover as an iron ranker!”
“Come on, get up, a bit of training and meditation will sort you out before we leave.”
They both got up and dressed, leaving their annex heading towards the main building, before they entered the communal area Kyra paused, looked towards the wing which was James and Lucy’s quarters, Lucy had left late the night before, the carriage driver not looking best pleased at how drunk she was. Kyra knelt down and spread her hand on the flagstone floor, the stones lifted and rippled away from her like a narrow wave, building in size, shallow at first but gaining as it washed towards the building, it slipped under the wall and there was a muffled thump from the ceiling inside.
“What the bloody hell?!” Came a sleepy hungover voice from inside.
Kyra giggled and rushed into the communal area, Teddy shaking his head following her. As they were setting out juice, bread and fruit a disgruntled James appeared. From their previous world James was tall. At six foot four he had towered, after his essences getting him to iron rank he was now easily seven foot tall. His beard had thickened and darkened matching his hair which was now a mane which constantly had to be tied back. He was wearing a Gi, the clothing that most of them chose to wear at home for comfort and training, local tailors were used to catering to oversized clientele and so it fit him well. He had thickened all over, powerful muscles, not sculpted but bursting with power, his build would put him at a mix of Mr Olympia and the worlds strongest man, a mountainous being that hovered at the edge of primal violence. Being woken up by a small earthquake that knocked his head into the ceiling whilst having a headache completed the look. He was every inch the bear roused from hibernation.
“Kyra, there’s nicer ways of waking someone up, next time I need to wake you maybe I’ll ask the local rodent population if they fancy a nice warm bed to snuggle in.”
“Steady on bro! I sleep in that bed too!” Teddy held his hands up wanting to stay out of it.
“Well then control your wife.” James said grumpily and sat down tearing into a bread roll.
“No one controls me you big oaf, and put that down.” She slapped the bread out of his hand. “Training and meditation then breakfast.”
James glowered at her and put the bread on his plate then stood up leaving it on the bar, he walked over to the training room, the others following. He grabbed two staves and threw one roughly at Kyra.
“I think we should start with some sparring then.” He took a stance and smirked at Kyra. Every time they sparred he thrashed her with his strength, she was no lightweight, her earth essence powers made her stronger than she appeared and the martial training they received made them all some of the best fighters in the area, Kyra’s finesse was some of the most delicate in the class. But get whipped repeatedly by a stave from James still hurt, a lot.
“I’m going to leave you guys to sort this out.” Teddy made his way round the edge of the training space as Kyra set her face in grim determination and squared off against James.
Teddy made his way to the training dummy, a fixed pole in the ground with some basic magic that made the multiple arms spin towards the person using it in a random way, speeding up until it was unmanageable. Teddy started slow, casually punching the first limb away and raising his arm to block the attack coming from the other direction, another limb came around from the left towards his belt, a quick snap kick met it. The limb that came over the top of the dummy was much fast than the last, coming over directly towards Teddy’s head, it was speeding up in relation to Teddy’s reaction speed. But Teddy was speeding up as well.
Ability: [By a Thousand Cuts] (Swift)
Cost: Nil
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Cool-down: Nil
Current rank: Iron 7 (05%)
Effect: Iron. Successful hits cause an instance of [Rapid].
[Rapid]. Buff. Stacking. Increases attack speed.
To Teddy it became a metronome of activity, slipping into a comfortable rhythm he just kept thumping the wooden dummy again and again. From the outside it became a blur, normal or even iron rank eyes couldn’t keep up. Teddy could rarely get his power to stack this far, iron rank monsters either not having the health to take it for long enough or evading and breaking the stacking buff. He finally stepped back away from the dummy. Sweating and panting, having got to the limit of his iron rank stamina. He saw on his interface the green bar was completely empty. It sat next to his blue bar of mana which was completely full and his health that was a healthy green coloured manakin. He went back to the breakfast bar and grabbed a large glass, emptying a stamina potion into it and topping it off with juice he headed back to watch Kyra and James spar.
The fight looked like David vs Goliath. The slender Kyra looked tiny against James. She whirled and whipped around, her long hair chasing her movement. She baited him, knowing his strengths and, well, not his weakness per se but how not to get trounced by his overmatching strength. She had to make him break his stance and come towards her, his bulwark power made him unfairly powerful to attack and she had to rely on making him come after her and counter attacking him.
Ability: [Standing Kodak] (Bear)
Cost: Nil
Cool-down: Nil
Current rank: Iron 4 (95%)
Effect: Iron. 2 footed planted attacks 200% damage. Absorb 50% of incoming damage. Must be stationary to be in effect.
His additional ridiculous 400% damage buff for unarmed attacks was negated by his use of the training stave but the double damage on defensive attacks was not something that Kyra wanted to deal with. For such a large man he was not as slow as he looked, light on his feet he had iron rank agility and the skills developed over generations of training adventurers drilled into him. The fight was unnervingly even, as long as Kyra kept James moving their strength was roughly matched, an oddity from their size difference. In the end it came down to stamina and who tired quicker and James was just bigger. Kyra, tired, snap kicked James in the shin, then danced forward, chasing James’ step back, he blocked her stave high then shifted his weight onto his back foot ready to spring forward. Kyra read the movement and started to spin into a high kick aiming for his head. James had feinted, the soles of his feet were flat against the floor, he grunted with the effort as he swung his stave from off-balance at Kyra’s mid rift, hitting her square and sending her flying. Her back crashed against the wall of the training room, a definitive end to the session.
Lucky spilled from her hair, putting his paws on her legs and licking her face in concern.
“I’m ok boy, it’s fine, just winded.”
James walked over and helped her up. He scowled as he noticed her familiars healing was not effecting him.
“Well thats just petty Kyra.” He helped her to her feet and showed the number of thin bruises from her stave and her kicks. She gave him a rueful smile and stroked Lucky, James then felt the dog’s aura wash over him, slowly healing his aches, the red welts visibly reducing.
They headed over to the breakfast bar to join Teddy. Grabbing plates and glasses of juice they tucked in. They had been training for little over an hour. The sun was just coming over the top of the city. They sat and ate breakfast in silence, winding down from their training. After breakfast they all went their own ways, Kyra went to the rear of the complex, a pillar of stone rising from the ground, as it rose she settled cross legged onto it gazing over the wall and the Delta. James walked to the middle of the garden and settled amongst the trees. Teddy jumped to the roof, sat at the peak gazing out over the city, one leg dangling over the eaves. They all meditated for a while until the sun had fully cleared the city skyline.
After their meditation, in the main room of the communal area was a large table, made of dark wood it was surrounded by high back chairs. Kyra and James lounged while Teddy set up a white screen. It was made of a thin sheet of white marble, very faint lines running through it. It was impregnated with magic, Teddy stood with a wand in his hand, using it as a pen on the stone like a whiteboard.
“So everyone’s favourite acolyte of the Hero found me at your graduation, he’s given me the location of something we’re apparently after. He said that it’s something Lucy is after.”
“How does he know what Lucy is after?” James asked.
“Because Hero gave it to him to pass on, which means that it’s definitely something we want to get for her. Now, I don’t know what it is exactly, all I’ve been given is a location.”
He brought up his Minimap in large in front of him, the others, having the same interface could see it even though they didn’t have their own and couldn’t manipulate it.
“You can see that it’s out in the wilds, beyond the delta. The ground becomes quite rocky and open out there with some hills.”
“What kind of monsters can we expect to find out there?” Kyra asked.
“I think thats the point actually, I couldn’t figure out why he just gave us a location. Turns out there is a particular kind of monster out there that is famous for finding and guarding awakening stones.”
He pulled up the monster index and placed it against the stone board, the page copying and enlarging onto it.
“Sicklecrows, they hunt in packs, incredibly territorial. The pack is normally led by a Raptor, which is bronze rank.” He paused, this would be the first time they had chosen to go against a bronze rank monster.
James picked up the narrative.
“They hide in the canyons waiting for passing caravans and pounce on them. Highly camouflaged, they are a mix of velociraptor and chameleon.”
“Cute chicken velociraptors or Jurassic Park velociraptors?” Kyra asked.
“Yes.” Teddy answered, smiling at Kyra.
“Eurgh, you know there’s only a finite amount of love Teddy, you just keeping chipping away when you do that.”
“He’s not wrong.” James interrupted before Kyra threw something at his brother. “The Sicklecrows are just over knee height and the Raptor should be able to look me in the eye.”
They sat for another hour, planning the route and what they would need to get them there and some strategies for how to deal with the pack.
“Everyone ready to go in half an hour?” Teddy asked.
“Let’s do it.” James went to push his chair backwards from the table and toppled over backwards, conjured stone wedges had risen from behind the legs of his chair causing it to pivot around them. By the time he got up he could just about see the last whip of golden hair and a giggle disappearing around the door.