That sounded like a good plan — and it reminded me of another training step. “Marissa and I will be getting some team practice today, too.”
Sera tilted her head inquisitively.
“We asked Keras to teach us a few things. He’s already been doing a little bit of combat practice with Marissa, but I asked him to teach me some things as well. We’re having our first lesson together today. Do you want to watch?”
Sera shook her head, scribbling another note.
Not today. Practicing trying to cast Summoning spells through my hand. I tried releasing my contracts verbally now that I can whisper again, but it didn’t work. Just speaking aloud doesn’t help if I can’t draw any mana to trigger the effect. And even with what Sheridan did, I can’t feel my attunement yet. I think the contracts are still draining it too fast for the attunement to generate any mana.
I think I can figure out how to convert the mana in my hand into the right types to break a contract, but it’s hard, because I’m used to converting my mana by using the types I already have as a template…and I don’t have the right types anymore, so I just have to try to feel my way through it.
That all made sense, but it seemed…inefficient. “Do you want me to try to transfer a little bit of transference mana into your hand? It’s purified now, so it should be safe.”
She shook her head.
Thank you, but you’ll forgive me if I’m a little shy about having any more foreign mana injected in my body after what happened last time.
“Yeah, fair. That makes sense. Hrm. I suppose enhancement elixirs would be the same problem, in that case. Maybe I could….”
She raised a hand to stop me from speaking, then shook her head once, and wrote another note.
It’s fine, Corin. You’ve gotten me far enough. I can take it from here, at least for this particular step. If I can’t get this to work, we’ll see about going hunting for flowers in the snow, and you can help with that. But for now? Let me work on this myself for a bit.
That was fair. “Okay, I’ll leave you to it, then. Just be careful, okay?”
If you’re going to go train with Keras, you might be the one who needs to be careful.
I grinned. She was probably right.
“Today,” Keras began, “We’re going to start with the two of you showing me what you’re already capable of.”
“Okay,” I replied, “But do we really need to be up here? You know Derek has a training room, right?”
Keras laughed. “Sure, but fighting feels more exciting on a rooftop, doesn’t it?”
Exciting wasn’t the word I would have used, but he wasn’t going to be dissuaded. “Come on, take positions,” Keras instructed. “I want to see how you two hold up against each other.”
He sat down on one of the edges of the roof.
“But you’ve already seen us both fight, m’lord.” Marissa sounded dejected, probably because she’d been hoping to learn some sort of secret techniques immediately.
Admittedly, I’d been sort of hoping for that, too.
Keras waved a hand dismissively. “Sure, but not in a dueling context, and isn’t that what you two are practicing for this week?”
I shrugged at that. “Yeah, but we’re probably not fighting each other again. It’s more likely Teft will make us do something unusual, like fight together against a stronger opponent. Maybe the two of us could fight you for a bit?”
Marissa shot me a concerned look.
Keras just nodded seriously. “Okay, we can do that first.”
I…hadn’t expected him to agree to change his plans like that, so I wasn’t exactly sure how to reply. “Huh. Uh, thank you.”
Keras cracked his knuckles, then unfastened his sword belt and shoved it to the side. The sword in the sheath was just a training weapon — he’d left the enchanted weapon he usually carried downstairs. “You two ready?”
I walked over to Marissa’s side. Ideally, we could guard each other if we were adjacent. I put a hand on the hilt of Selys-Lyann, and then turning to face Keras. “I’m ready. Marissa?”
She took a breath and focused, drawing a dueling cane off her belt. I didn’t see her use weapons frequently, but it was probably a good thing for her to practice with. “Ready.”
Keras made a come-hither gesture with his hand. “Begin.”
I frowned. Keras was still sitting down. “You’re not going to stand up?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Not unless you make me. I like it down here.”
That seemed like a pretty extreme handicap…but then again, I’d seen what he could do. I wasn’t going to underestimate him. I drew Selys-Lyann and turned my head toward Marissa slightly. “Advance together. Attack together.”
“Right. Go.”
We took a step forward in sync.
Keras opened his palm upward toward the air, forming a globe of flame. Then he flicked a finger into it and launched the sphere at us.
I moved first, swinging Selys-Lyann into it. Ice met fire, and the sphere vanished as the opposing elements mixed.
Marissa fired a blast from her cane, but Keras just smacked it out of the air with his other hand.
Another step closer.
My forward foot hit the floor, then began to sink into the stone floor.
“Lesson one.” Keras tapped a hand on the ground, and the stone solidified around my right foot. “When fighting a sorcerer, a threat can come from any direction.”
Marissa punched downward, smashing the stone that had trapped her own foot, then repeated the process for me. While she did so, I slashed toward Keras and pushed on my sword’s mana, creating a shockwave of ice.
Keras waved a hand, and a wall of flame rose up in the path of my ice. Both the attack and the wall vanished on impact.
“That’s an interesting weapon. You said you’d heard a legend about it belonging to one of your goddess’ lovers?” He sounded casual, conversational. This wasn’t straining him in the slightest.
“Yeah, but it’s always hard to tell when Lars is just making things up.” I still intended to do some digging about the sword later, but it just wasn’t a priority right now. That weird dream seemed to match up with what Lars had told me, but that might have just been my imagination filling in details in a fictional tale.
I wiggled my foot now that the stone around it had been crushed, extracting it carefully. Marissa and I stepped forward again.
“It sounds plausible to me. I can take a look at it later and see if I can figure out anything about it, if you’d like.”
“Sure,” I replied, trying to regain my focus. I’d fought a few people who liked to chat constantly — it was almost always a deliberate distraction.
He can use fire and earth magic, as well as whatever that cutting aura is. He’s also much faster and stronger than we are. I need to compensate for that and catch him off guard.
I looked at Marissa and said two words. “Flank him.”
I stepped to the side, rather than forward, and Marissa mirrored my movement. His eyes flicked back and forth between us, but he showed no sign of concern.
I cut the air, pushing another shockwave at him. Keras raised another wall, as I’d hoped.
For a moment, he couldn’t see me. In that moment, I activated the jumping ring.
But I didn’t jump — I just angled my feet. I’d practiced this.