War of Dawn

Chapter 6: Dinnertime Conflict

Date: 1003 After Dawn, July 6th

Another three weeks of excruciating training had passed, with Hilda having even less time to take a breather now that spellweaving has been thrown into the mix. The Scion's spellbook is a leather-bound, eight hundred and forty-page monstrosity that she is convinced could be used as a weapon by itself. Glyphs upon glyphs of all four tiers lay within – as well as the proper visualization to cast them – and she is expected to master as many as she can. It's not easy in the slightest but she has been going through it whenever there's time.

Over by the training grounds, Ryouma is spending this evening putting Hilda through a mix of attack and defense drills meant to assess her progress. He summons several FireBolts to attack and she manages to either dodge or parry them on approach without trouble. He conjures moving lava dummies around her and she cuts them in half one after another, always maintaining proper form, manipulating her weapon and never letting her guard down for when he tries surprising her with another Bolt.

"Very good, you seem to have picked up your stride," Ryouma says, dispelling the dummies with a clap of his hands. "How are you feeling?"

Hilda puts on her most confident face and does her best not to appear too breathless. "P-Pretty good - I could do this for hours, Shishou!"

"I'm glad to hear that but I believe you may sheathe your blade for now. Let's see how you're doing with spells... Can you show me a quick Shield?"

Hilda takes a couple of deep breaths to recover before starting to visualize the glyph. The lightning element gathers on her hand, she rolls it to form a circle and with five motions of her fingers draws the pentagon to finish it.

"Ten seconds... Not bad, not bad at all!" Ryouma exclaims with a satisfied grin before summoning two distant lava dummies. "Next, strike the one on the left with a bolt and the one on the right with a discharge from your blade."

"Aye, aye!" she says, excited with his praise. Ten more seconds and the LightningBolt spell flies off from Hilda's palm, striking the dummy with a loud crackle and blowing its "head" away. When it comes time to hit the other one, however, the streak of electricity from her sword isn't as impactful. "Hrm... it's a bit too far."

"No, you just need to put a bit more 'oomph' into it. Do you remember when I taught you about kiai?" Ryouma asks.

"Helps you learn how to breathe properly when attacking, yeah?"

"Yes but it also serves to give you a boost in confidence and focus when attacking," he says, raising his fist with excitement. "Lay your fighting spirit into your attacks with a fierce yell and you'd be surprised at the difference it can make."

Hilda isn't convinced, raising an eyebrow at his somewhat childish glee. "Really...?"

"Oh, ye of little faith... Let me borrow your weapon for a second."

Hilda decides to indulge him. Taking position right where she stood, Ryouma conjures a pair of fresh dummies afar as gives her a confident wag of his eyebrows. He raises the weapon above his head and breathes in.

"Ches...TOH!" he yells, swinging downwards.

From his blade, a bright red and orange a current of flame flies off, ripping across the floor and obliterating the dummy into ash. Hilda's jaw drops. "See? And it makes even more sense since you're a lightning user. Go and add a mighty thunderclap to your strikes!"

She answers only with a nodding shrug, unable to really say anything against that after seeing it in action. Getting her sword back, Hilda takes position and does as Ryouma did: raise the sword above her head and breathe in...