Auvrey
I walked while throwing a coin up and catching it, all using my mana. It was a basic exercise, just to get some rust off before the actual training, as even though I could change a body in minutes, my skill set was really limited. I was under no illusion that I would be needing to improve if Saphena plans even have a chance to work, so I was walking to the person who taught me most of what I knew, my supervisor when growing up. I wasn’t looking forward to it, though it was the only way I could think of to get some hands on practice fast without attracting too much attention.
As I continued walking I reached a more chaotic living arrangement, similar design with our government constructed houses by also being piled up using the backside of the portals as platforms, though very different from home since it was private contracts, so everyone is unique. You could see a house made of brick and mortar stacked on top of a wooden one stacked over a stone one, and if you could find two matching structures, the paint would be different or the shape completely distinct. Anyone could know a bit of the owner’s personality by just looking at the front, or at least it would be true when all these residences were just built, now is probably just the grandson of whoever paid to build it, living in it after the house was passed down as heritage.
I knew this place like the back of my hand, so I kept going until I got to the front of what looks like a big stone warehouse, which maybe it was built with that intention initially. Nowadays it was a gym, so I walked inside, there was a massive woman guarding the entrance to keep curious people out, though seeing me she doesn’t do a thing to stop me so I go in. I don’t know if it is because she recognized me somehow or just assumed by my size I knew what I was doing. Even with it's massive area, taking about 10 minutes of walking to go from one corner to the other, the ceiling was always what I took note of first, since it was about ten stories tall and, when I was a kid, it felt impossibly tall. It is technically true, as it was impossible to make something like that without portals as a ceiling and sprinkled throughout the wall, otherwise, there is no way a building can get so tall otherwise.
This building was getting to me, bringing childhood fantasies back. As I got to a grip of myself, I searched through the gym, seeing all types of different sports being displayed. Most of the space was for the ones that required large camps, generally team based where you ran behind a ball or jumped over a fence or whatever. Never got particularly attracted to any of those, so besides knowing some base rules and names, I’ve no idea how they work. Right beside it were the individual ones, and those I'm a bit more familiar with, shooting ranges for bow, sling, spears and good old fashioned position magic throwing, the latter of those being by far more popular. If this was a military training camp, there would only be the first one, as the power and accuracy was really hard to replicate with only your intent, especially a bow in the hands of a Position mage, managing the best of both worlds.
And then in the corner, almost like it was put there to fill space, the combat sports. Almost like it was out of spite, the crowd was packed there, people either training all types of fighting styles or watching the fights. I walked towards it, seeing if I could remember all of them after so long and I think I succeeded. Jousting, weapons dueling and group combat more akin to actual military training, all with different variations of weapons from wooden poles to dulled greatswords, and varying amounts of armor from cloth you had on your body to heavy full body armor.
Though, I passed all of that. My focus was in the farthest possible spot from the entrance, probably there to maximize the chance of the people who would hurt themselves not finding it, unarmed fighting. I expected to find the person I was looking for in the benches watching or coaching some fight, though I should have known from my extensive time with them that it wasn’t their style of teaching. I got to the mixed martial arts section and saw that a combat was underway, since there was a big crowd circling the fenced area, the excitement palpable as the watchers reacted to every move being thrown, making me have to wrestle with the sea of people to get a good enough sight of the inside of the cage.
And I could understand the crowd, how hard it was to not be absolutely enthralled by the titanic fight that looked almost like a dance. At the right side was a gigantic woman, with bulging muscles covering the entire body, in such an absurd manner that she makes the guard at the entrance look like a regular person. It was not something one could achieve without crazy amounts of self enchanting coupled with a life of exercising, requiring both a ridiculous skill in space magic and willingness to train yourself to the breaking point daily. Her punches were so fast and powerful, a single one of them could kill a normal person, making all the scarier the fact she seemed to be losing.
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On the other side was Drekfew. They looked small next to her, though that isn’t to say they are small, far from it, as they will make me look a bit weaker by comparison. Instead of going for quantity of muscle, they looked like their body was designed with efficiency in mind, toned muscles spread evenly across the surface, a body shape maximizing freedom of movement and power, a face weirdly bland and small in comparison and without a single hair to obstruct vision. Every single aspect of their appearance appears to be custom made with fighting in mind, not looking like men or women but as a weapon, because their body was as close to custom made, as their magic was on another level.
I can tell their control was as good as I remembered, since I’m feeling the casting being used to empower the punches from a couple steps of distance and, most crazy of all, not even turning it off when punching at their opponent’s face. Even her with all the crazy control she must have to build a body to that size wasn’t doing it, using magic to speed up the punch and stopping before hitting skin, as the amount of speed you would lose by not casting the last few moments was almost negligible. Drekfew didn’t seem to care.
She was throwing punches that could break bone like nothing, and I knew that because, while they were just parrying or blocking, the latter of those actually broke something as I could tell they had to magically put the fragments back in place while fighting. She was throwing more punches, putting them on the defensive, though tiredness must be getting to both of them, as there is just so much energy a body could stock up to move that amount of mass and only so much mana a person can hold. It was like seeing an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object. I start to see the tide, with Drekfew increasing the amount of counters and looking less physically tired than the opponent. She must have sensed it as she throws a Hail Mary counter, connecting in a powerful body shot making them take a step back, so she takes a moment to get a better grip of herself.
Drekfew opened their hands, which shocked me, as it meant a surrender. While the counter attack was devastating and could kill, I wasn’t expecting their mana to run out with that. The mana running out being my only theory on why they would give up, as they had already repaired most of the damage done by now, though you could never tell how much mana someone has left, so it could be that it was so low that another similar punch would mean death. The crowd then goes crazy, jumping over the fence and running to the woman to congratulate her, throwing her over the shoulder and carrying her away, circling the entire gym as was the custom. Most people leave marching with the winner, finally allowing them to see me getting closer.
“You really are alive,” they say matter-of-factly, ignoring the other people around and walking in my direction, “what are you doing here?” And for a moment I was taken aback, so enraptured was I in the fight I forgot what I had planned to say on the way. “I’m here to train” I answer what comes to mind, Drekfew seeming not bothered to have heard the obvious answer. “Why do you want to train here?” they ask, without curiosity in their voice, almost like filling out a forum of a potential customer. “Because I want to get stronger and couldn’t do it alone.” I answer, sensing they just didn’t care about our past and just wanted to understand the returning client.
“Why did you leave last time?” they asked, putting an end to my speculation, so I struggled to think of a response and after a long enough time I just went for it. “The way we view the world is different, I don’t want to become strong for the sake of being strong,” I start to answer, a bit surprised the truth was what I went for, “while I didn’t believe in that. I think strength has to have a purpose, even if it is just so you can look better in the mirror or feel good about your own body.” I can see in their face a confusion, the fruit of trying to understand a fundamentally different system of belief, which fades away as they realize it isn’t something you can understand with a bit more thinking.
“So why did you return?” they ask, making me panic for a moment as I try to find a reason why I suddenly would need to train that didn’t involve overthrowing a shadow cabal of Space mages spies. Though I soon remember who I was talking to, the guy who doesn't care about anyone if they didn’t contribute to increasing their strength. “Because I reached my limit alone and, even if I don’t agree with you, I need your help, please” I responded, realizing that they just wanted to know what to think of me. They didn’t care what I did with the strength after I left those doors, didn’t care I didn't agree with their way of thinking, didn’t care about me; they just cared that if they trained me I could maybe develop something they didn’t come across.
“Okay, you are in.” they say nonchalant and then turn to the small group of people that didn’t leave to commemorate the last fight, and shouts: “Hey, Phi, come here! You are no longer the newbie, I’m changing the schedule so you can give the welcome to Auvrey here as soon as possible.” The welcome being the fight between the two newest members, they clearly want to get a good look at my skills to see how much effort I was worth putting into. A man I believe is this ‘Phi’ started coming toward us, the group behind him that was pretty subdued after the loss suddenly burst into excitement. Phi looks about my size and age range, which would typically mean it would be a fair fight, though unfortunately I had years of rust to take out and a magical skill set geared towards operating on an unconscious body. He reaches us and offers his hand, I think about saying my name to make him share his, though I just shake the hand in silence as I’m pretty sure that even if he told me about it, I won’t remember it tomorrow.