I had Bernadette drop me at a clearing a few dozen miles away from the Heart, close to a nearby town. I wasn’t willing to lead anyone else to the place, and the trip passed pretty unremarkably. I was exhausted, but not injured. My soul ached a bit, which wasn’t fun, but Archie was able to cleanse me when I got back. Soul poison that wasn’t damaging was pretty much tailor made for Zagan.

After I finished that, I decided to check on my apprentice, who was in a nearby clearing practicing her martial arts.

Flashing forward in a burst of flame, her staff struck out at a tree with a brutal thrust, and black flame burst from the butt where it struck the wood, searing a chunk out of the tree. One crazy thing about being on a B-ranked planet was that the foliage here was C-ranked. The trees and plants were all more powerful than we were, albeit not sentient so not really a danger.

For instance, I could incinerate plants with most of my forms if I put my back into it. Aside from the lack of consciousness, fire had a natural advantage over plantlife. Not to mention older plants like the trees were higher ranked than say, grass. Not EVERYTHING was C-rank, obviously.

Still, Bella being able to damage the bark of the tree with Mephistopheles was a good sign, it meant she was improving, catching up to where I was at. She’d been working on her manifestation since she hit Intermediate, but hadn’t made much more progress past that. I wasn’t surprised. Being so far ahead in stats made catching up to that point easier, but Expert and Master were a whole different ballgame when it came to Skills.

‘Hearing a branch crack under my boot, she spun, staff coming up in a defensive posture I recognized as Mornax, ready to tank a hit. I just snickered. “Scary. You turning on your master already? Think you’re good enough to kick my ass and take over our discipline?”

She squeaked, dropping her guard. “NO! Sorry master, I didn’t know it was you.”

Laughing, I withdrew my staff, twirling it in circles. I was still a bit stiff, but my apprentice wasn’t on a level where that would matter. “It’s not a big deal, Bella. Good to know you’re on your guard. How about a spar? I have some new stances to teach you. Made some new forms and I’ve been working on adapting them.”

I’d been thinking long and hard about both Agares and Dantalion. I had ideas for both of them in terms of stances.

Bella was practically bouncing with excitement at the idea of new powers. “Hell yes! I want to learn more. My manifestation is awesome, I can’t wait to show you. Do you want to fight here?” She gestured to the fairly roughed up but still sizable clearing, and I grinned.

“Spar, not fight,” I corrected. “But sure, we can train here. Nice reflexes earlier by the way. Mornax as a default when you’re in danger. Smart. Here, before we get too deep into it, I’ll teach you a new stance that might help.”

Beckoning her further into the center of the clearing, I held up my staff, letting it balance on the butt in front of me. Then I just…relaxed. Not just releasing tension in my muscles, but in a sort of active way. I let down all my defenses, opening myself to the world, letting the atmosphere around me fill with possibilities.

“The trick to this one,” I said slowly, making sure not to get too overexcited. Slow and steady. Dantalion was about reaching into the world. “Is to extend your awareness. Feel the ground beneath your feet, the wind in your ears and on your skin. Taste the pollen in the air, and inhale the scent of your opponent.”

I focused hard on my staff. This wasn’t just doing nothing. It WAS a staff form. I was opening myself as a martial artist, priming my staff to act as a conduit for my will when I learned what I wanted. “The world around you is a domain of possibility. Futures swirl through the space within your reach, mixing with data, with information, and you can even feel THOSE somewhat with your fate sense. Your staff is your instrument, ready to enact your will on reality.”

My hands blurred, staff licking out to smack down on her skull (gently, of course) her own staff, planted in front of her as mine had been, blurred up from a neutral position…and missed by about five inches. The metal cap of my staff smacked her on top of the head, and she yowled in pain.

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“OUCH! Master! What the hell?” She rubbed her head gingerly, shooting me an annoyed glare.

I rolled my eyes. “We’re SPARRING, Bella. Live staves. You know to always expect an attack in combat. You moved pretty close to when I did though, did you pick something up?”

She frowned thoughtfully. “I…think so? It felt like a pulse of energy rolled over the clearing and told me about all the stuff here. It only lasted a second, but I felt your body shifting against the ground, saw your muscles tensing and pushing the air…honestly it was kind of a lot to take in. It took a second to process all that, and I only got a split second pulse.”

“It might take some practice,” I admitted. “It did for me. But still, if you can perfect this stance, it’ll massively increase your survivability. Can you tell me why?”

Mulling it over, she closed her eyes. If I’d been a complete asshole I’d have smacked her on the head again, but even training has limits. She was thinking, and I let her keep at it. “Because of my Path,” she decided. “Escape requires a route. I have my technique for actually moving, but it’s useless if I don’t know where to go. This new stance could help me map my movements in battle.”

“Exactly,” I said approvingly. “Knowledge is power. But… y’know, power is also power, so sometimes the best knowledge is being sure you know how and when to get the hell out of dodge.”

After that, I showed her the stance I’d worked up for Agares, which involved lots of ground strikes, trips, and throwing dirt up in people’s faces (they couldn’t all be winners). She had more trouble with that one, but promised to work on it, and then we got back to basics.

I tried to limit myself to pure martial combat for the moment, both because of exhaustion and to test my foundations. Teaching Bella had shored up my staff art a lot, and brought back a bunch of the stuff Willow had taught me all the way back in the Moonsong Glade. I wondered briefly how my temporary staff mentor was doing, then forced my brain to switch topics because the instinctive shudder after what she’d done to me was rough.

Mornax for defense, straight thrust from Mephistopheles, Belial deflects, slip into the blindspot to attack with Bael, a series of feints for Beelzebub. I mixed up my assault, shifting between stances like water flowing downhill, rotating through my forms to trip her up, seeing exactly how much she’d learned.

Every form had a pretty decent counter among the others. Dantalion countered Beelzebub, Mornax countered Mephistopheles. Belial actually took me a little bit to figure out, but it became clear quickly that coming in from the blind spots made deflection impossible, making Bael the perfect counter for that. I knew eventually the whole perfect counter thing wouldn’t work, mostly because there were going to be at least nine forms and nine was an odd number.

Still, it was kind of fun, like a game of rock paper scissors, finding the perfect response to every move, with her doing the same. Her actual physical skillset was improving, even if her grasp on the forms was still shallow, so it was a better fight than one might expect.

Eventually, I used Agares to trip her up, leaving her open for a hard strike from Mephistopheles and she took a spill, falling over herself. She rolled out of it, and seeing she had no choice, she whirled her staff and manifested a massive copy above her head, striking down with a Beelzebub flurry from above.

It was fascinating to see the ‘feints’ become real as the stance tapped into my duplication form, creating a split second rain of staff strikes. With her using her manifestation, I decided to hold back a bit less, and stepped into a Waltz, blurring between the blows as I used Danger Sense to guide me out of harm's way.

Closing in, I used a flurry of straight thrusts to put her off balance, tripping her up with ground strikes and deflecting her responses with Belial. My last blow stopped JUST short of her throat, the butt of my staff poised above her windpipe.

Laughing, I stowed my staff, holding out a hand. “Not bad,” I complimented. “Your movements are getting more natural. Lots of drilling to commit that to muscle memory. I was worried you might be skimping on your training when I was busy.”

She shook her head firmly. “Never. I know how strong this staff art is. I know I’m lucky you decided to teach me.” She hesitated. “Master…who are you? This kind of martial art can’t be a normal thing, even in more powerful factions. I should have heard of something like this. Plus you’re dominating these trials, and the people who showed up are pretty scary. Where did you come from?”

I stared at her for a moment, then sighed. “I can’t say right now. Your instincts are good, but it’s not a convenient time to talk about it. Suffice to say I’ll be leaving soon. Whether I succeed or fail the trial I have things to do elsewhere. If you want to continue your training, I’ll have some friends of mine pick you up and you’ll wait until I get back. If not…that’ll be goodbye.”

She looked down. “I didn’t even think about doing the trials, you know. I knew I couldn’t manage it. I’m just…Bella. I got to D-rank entirely because of my dad. I’ve never been special. Or important. But you picked me to teach. Picked me to help. You’re…amazing. And you thought I was worth something. Not just a bored rich girl playing bandit. Special. Worth taking a chance on. I want to go with you when you leave. I don’t have any reason to stay. I think…I think going with you is my chance to do something great.”

“It might be,” I nodded. “I admit, I tend to play for high stakes. But you need to know that a world like that isn’t safe. It isn’t always fun. I showed you that before, remember? Are you sure you want to put a target on your back?”

I hoped she would come with me. I liked my apprentice. She was hard working and amusing, if frustrating. And she had a good heart. She could do great things, but she had to be willing to suffer to make them happen. If these trials had taught me anything it was that agony was the fuel for progress.

“I know, and I don’t care,” she said boldly. “I can do this. I can make you proud. You took a chance on me, and I’m going to prove you right. I’ll come with. Even if I have to wait for you to finish your business.”

Laughing, I stepped back, withdrawing my staff again. “You might regret that, but fair enough. No more holding back then. I’m going to start taking your training seriously. Need to make sure you’re in a good place for self study while I’m gone. Reset and let’s take it from the top. We still have a lot of practice ahead of us.”