Chapter 53: Training II

  Alex awoke to the smell of wild pine, and the physical memory of pain coursing through his bones. His body ached from the last two days. Bruises formed across his ribs, he had a swollen left ankle, and the ever-present dull throb of magical fatigue set in the center of his skull. But all of that dulled the moment he opened his eyes and saw Sylvaris standing by the water.

  The elf was barefoot, coat draped across a stone, his silver hair unbound and catching the morning breeze like strands of starlight. He stood in silence, one hand behind his back, the other holding a polished crystal the size of a human heart. Alex looked at the crystal and could see a fire that danced inside it.

  “Come,” Sylvaris said without turning. His words resonated across the clearing like a whisper shouted into time itself. “You’re late.”

  Alex sighed. “It’s barely sunrise.”

  “That’s when I said to be ready. You’ve wasted the first light.”

  He rose unsteadily and limped out of the hut toward Slyvaris, swallowing his pride. “Right. Sorry.”

  Sylvaris turned and tossed him the crystal. It was warm in Alex’s hand, but not hot.

  "You were able to extinguish the flame yesterday.” The elf waved his hand towards the glyph circle still etched into the ground in the clearing. “This time, it will not wait patiently for you. It will fight back.”

  “Fight back?” He looked at the crystal in his hand. It was an object, how could it fight him?

  The elf folded his hands and smirked.

  ***

  Alex fell to the grass with the stinging burn of aether on his forearms from the crystal’s last attack. He hadn’t managed to cast his [Shield] in time, and had to block the blow with his arms instead. The force of the crystal’s energy blasts was no joke, and he had to push through the pain and damage that his body was accumulating.

  The damn crystal containing the blue fire could indeed fight back as Sylvaris said.

  First of all, it moved. Not faster than Alex could move, but it still posed a problem as he tried to incorporate rapid direction and acceleration shifts into his efforts to maintain the Asura Style stances. It was not an easy feat.

  The crystal also shot blasts of aether at him. The size, strength and speed of which always seemed to be random, so he could never anticipate a pattern from the object and then exploit it. This made the training all the more grueling for him.

  He barely grazed the crystal once, but failed to extinguish the flame inside from his imparted intent. Otherwise he felt like he was simply always on the defensive. He had yet to even attempt using a [Descending Demon Fist] even once.

  “Your style is unrefined,” Sylvaris said as he picked himself back up and stepped in the glyph circle at the grove’s center. “Your footwork is clumsy. And your strikes rely on your desperation instead of your experience.”

  Alex gritted his teeth. “I’ve fought badger-bears, kobolds, moss monsters, traps-”

  “And you live because you were lucky. Not because you were good.” The elf's eyes flashed. “Luck will not carry you through the next battle. So we will build you from the foundation up.” He stepped aside and gestured to the hated glowing fire crystal dancing at the edge of the glyphs.

  “Again,” Sylvaris said, arms folded.

  By midday, Alex’s legs trembled from strain. His arms burned from catching himself over and over, and still Sylvaris offered no encouragement, only the occasional correction: “Your left knee is weak”, “Stop clenching your jaw”, “The breath of aether will not obey you if you treat it like a weapon. It is not a hammer, not tool.”

  Hours passed, birds sang overhead, his sweat-soaked boots squelched every time he tried to reset his stance. But eventually, by the sixth or seventh hour, something changed. The crystal didn’t seem to be flickering so wildly. His heart stilled and his breath came slower. He stopped trying to dominate the crystal and the aether, and started listening to it. Alex saw the next movement, the next stance flowing from him, guiding the aether towards his will. He closed on the crystal in a shuffle of feet and his hand swiped forward, palm open.

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  The crystal released a blast, but he was ready, a [Shield] already forming on his hand. Deflected far to the right, the energy blast exploded in the dirt a safe distance away. With the opening made, Alex stepped forward and slammed his fist into the crystal fire.

  The aura of aether around his hand from the [Burning Strike] leeched into the object and quickly disrupted the fire inside. The moment the flame was extinguished was the moment the crystal fell to the ground inert and lifeless.

  “Good. Sit and meditate. I will cook lunch.”

  Alex gladly sat in the grass, beginning his cultivation to regain his spent aether in his body.

  ***

  That afternoon, they sparred. Contrary to the quick and ferocious movements Alex performed in the stances of the [Demon Asura Style], Sylvaris moved like flowing wind, each step fluid and precise. Alex tried to keep up by using what he had managed to learn in his past lessons. He attacked with wild but purposeful strikes, his feet like taut springs, body twisting with hurried momentum behind every blow.

  At first, he failed, making minor mistakes, again and again. But gradually, his movement began to change. The way he ducked a strike, the way he launched forward without warning. The emotional frustration and rage that once unbalanced him now powered his strikes, but didn’t blind him.

  Let no wound be wasted. Alex said in his mind, another mantra from the [Demon Asura Style]. Every moment of pain from the day turned into motion, and each blow Sylvaris delivered on his body was molded into motivation.

  He punched and kicked, ducked and dodged in rapid succession, skirting the elf’s attacks by a hair’s breath. A [Shield] flickered, shunting a thrown rock off course. A sudden falter step forced a jab to come up short of his shoulder then a [Flare] preemptively disrupted a barrage of rocks Sylvaris was moving into position behind him right after.

  Alex whipped his arm forward at just the right moment, and he felt it would connect, the first strike that he would have landed on the elf during their entire sparring session. Before his fist could land though, Sylvaris forced out a breath which slammed against Alex like a hurricane. He gritted his teeth, managing to stay on his feet, but he had to pull back his attack to maintain his balance.

  “Damn it, come on.” Alex said, moving into another martial stance.

  Sylvaris finally raised a hand, signaling a stop.

  “You are not good,” he said bluntly. “But you are better than you were. And you understand the first lesson.” It was a bitter-sweet compliment, but probably the best that Alex would be getting from him. He’d take what he can get.

  “Thank you,” he smiled and sat down to cultivate. “I thought I would finally get you there at the end.”

  “I am not a good opponent with which to measure your power Friend-Alex.”

  “So I’m a friend again huh?”

  Sylvaris ignored his verbal jab. “You would not be able to touch me unless I let you. That is just the difference in power from one being and another.” The elf said this as if making a statement on the existence of gravity itself. “But there are other ways to test yourself.”

  “Not another crystal, please.”

  “No, not at all.” The elf smiled, a gleam sparking in his star-studded eyes. Alex felt his blood suddenly run cold just looking at him.

  “What do you—”

  The forest at the edge of the clearing rumbled. One of the tree’s suddenly fell over with a loud crack, and a thud! Standing behind where the tree once stood was a seven foot tall mass of vines, moss and bark in the form of a humanoid mantis. Backwards facing joints adorned its legs, and its arms ended in long three foot scythes.

  “Motherfucker...” Alex jumped to his feet, finding that Sylvaris had already vanished from the clearing.

  He was left alone with this thing.