Accompanying what could only be described as the most shrill voice she had ever heard, the resounding stomps of a presumably angry man filled Lyi's ears. Roch let out a groan that could match even Shae's icy demeanour and turned around, dragging Lyi along with him, to look upon the cyan-robed arrogant boy with that very same smirk that disgraced the poster hung upon the Opera House. A very faint 'hmhm!' fell upon deaf ears as he assumed some manner of horrid pose, no doubt attempting to look impressive. He was not.
Even though it was the most painful thing that had ever inflicted itself upon Lyi's eyes, she had to assume that the man wasn't a complete embarrassment to his bloodline. From what she could put together, he must have been the one who that Tzya would have ended up fighting had she never shown up. Something about him must be different from the rest of the Mages littering the streets, most of whom were actually doing something useful with their time. His arm flung outwards to point directly at the arena, his eyes closing as he cupped his chin with his free hand,
"I believe I am still owed an exhibition match. Your... what the moons, what is that thing? Whatever it is, that shall do, hmhm!"
"My, my what? You mean Lyi?"
"Eugh, you named it after those infernal things? Whatever, I don't care what it is called, just let me hurl a few spells at it so we can both look glamorous for the crowd! They must be desperate for a real fight, not some one-sided beatdown, sorry not sorry darling."
Lyi pushed herself off from Roch, stumbling for a moment to stay standing. Her Heart Core could still pump out just enough energy to put this insufferable moron in his place. Just as she curled her fingers into a fist, she felt the right half of her body go completely numb as Roch grabbed onto the end of her wing. Dropping to the floor, she couldn't stop herself from being dragged along the ground, forced to watch as the cocky cyan-boy looked down upon her from his, frankly, disgusting pose.
She barely heard Roch mutter 'Tomorrow, kid...' as she was dragged through the exit of the Opera House. As soon as they were outdoors, Lyi felt a sense of extreme relief as other particles of magic besides Force rested themselves upon her. She couldn't help herself from taking a sharp inhale, tens of those tiny particles rushing to repair any internal wounds. Even better, she regained feeling as Roch let go of her wing. Pushing herself back up into a significantly more stable stance than before, she took a small moment to look upon the Opera House.
Rather, what was left of it. Besides the few doors that remained standing, a torrent of Force particles that had found themselves loose in the air were ripping through the stone of the building. The roof had caved in, almost certainly from Hope's arrival. Some passersby looked at the ruined building, though didn't seem particularly bothered and considering where she was, she supposed that a building collapsing wasn't totally out of the question. Keeping so many Mages, almost certainly all with volatile personalities, could never have ended without damage.
What was most curious to her, however, was the glowing red barrier in the sky. She had certainly considered that the city would have some measure of defensive system against an aerial attack, but Hope had just completely bypassed it. There we no marks on the barrier in the slightest. Even someone as capable as her couldn't sneak past such an all-encompassing barrier...
"Lass, building's not going to run away. Come'n, your bleedin' wings are blocking the street."
Lyi stumbled backwards as Roch grabbed the rim of her barely surviving coat's collar. Taking her eyes away from the Opera House, she scrambled to stay upright as she began to follow after Roch. Some of the Wind particles that accompanied Roch found their way to her, allowing her to keep pace with the surprisingly fast old man.
Before long, they crossed the border into Roch's district, the pale white glow replaced by a warm yellow. The meandering Force particles that dominated the air of the central district were slowly taken over by schools of Wind particles, the air around becoming somehow slightly easier to move in. Roch's courtyard only took a few extra minutes to reach, the man stopping just infront of the Rui Undea buried in the ground.
Though she couldn't see his face, Lyi could tell that the man almost hated looking at the weapon. From the way he kicked it up, to the way his fist clenched around the shaft, there was no measure of care for it. Without even looking behind him, the man tossed the weapon over his shoulder. Lyi barely caught it, her eyes dipping to the ground as the spearhead collided with it. When she looked back up, Roch had turned around, an extremely tired look on his face,
"As much as I hate the boy... Beze is right. You owe him a match, by the Opera House's damned rules. Since, ugh... a 'family member' of yours killed the challenged, not that anyone but us Custodians know that. That weapon, you'll use that to beat him, I'll make sure it's allowed."
"I... but... wasn't the Op-whatever destroyed by that old man?"
"Juni, that's the Arch-Custodian, will have it repaired in a matter of hours. It's only meant to host fights for apprentices... but young folk are bloody well volatile. It's designed to be repaired after a first Step breaks it down. If people would just get their Mage license first... we wouldn't have this damned problem. Not that you need to think about that, aye."
"Ma-"
"I just said you didn't need to think about it. What you do need to think about, lass, is that... what did Tuli call it..."
"Rui Undea. Who's thi-"
"That's it! Rui Undea, you just need to think about that. I remember how to use it, aye, so I'll be able to teach you the basics. It should come to you naturally, something about... memories from when you were one of those raging monsters or whatever came before all that. Here, I'll show you how to hold it proper like, there's a good number of stances to this thing."
More bewildered than anything else from the fact Roch knew how to use a Rui Undea, Lyi watched as the man picked up the significantly smaller Anshoran spear. Though its spearhead was completely different from her own weapon, the overall shape was similar enough that it could be used as a comparison point. Roch placed his left foot front in front of him, the right digging slightly into the ground behind. Mirroring that stance, his left hand laid halfway up the shaft, his right near the lower end, pointed outwards directly towards Lyi.
As Lyi fell into the same stance, she felt a strange sense of familiarity. It didn't feel natural to her, but it most certainly did not feel like she had never held the weapon before. Roch changed stance multiple times, with the end of the spear pointed in a different direction each time. A more vertical stance with the spear held close in, point upwards but held slightly diagonally. One where the point almost touched the ground, which felt far more natural with her Rui Undea - the curved portion of the blade was in a prime position to slash if pulled upwards.
At no point did Roch make her stand in a stance with the Rui Undea in its hammer form. Rather, he showed her the ideal times in which to swap the weapon into its significantly heavier form. The moment a slash began to fall from overhead, swapping the weapon's form would allow it to fall significantly faster and with much greater power, completely mitigating the greatest weakness of the hammer form - its slowness.
The main point that Roch stressed was not the weapon, however, but her wings. With their size, her entire back was practically covered by a shield impenetrable to physical attacks at all times. This meant that, besides from the initial stance, she barely needed to use her weapon to guard at all. Though it would take a significant amount of time and an even greater amount of hands-on experience, if she could learn to use them properly then her fighting style could be one of pure offense. Given how tough her body already was when she had only just activated her Heart core, it could even be considered a safe style of combat.
However, for all the impressive stances that Roch taught her, only one stood out:
"[Casting Stance]. Weapon in your right hand, same point on the shaft as usual. Point it outwards to your side, spread your feet so they match your shoulders and rest your left hand just out from your chest."
The moment Lyi assumed the [Casting Stance], a feeling of immense calm washed over her. Roch had a soft smile, making no movements to alter how Lyi was standing. Taking a moment to adjust to the additional weight in her right hand, Lyi instinctually pushed her left hand forward with a click, muttering "Di" under her breath. As the Force particles gathered, she saw a few of them split off and rest under her Rui Undea. At the exact moment her {Clickrend} fired harmlessly into the air, her weapon flung out of her hand and clattered to the ground, pulling her along with it.
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Laid in the dirt of the courtyard, Lyi could just barely hear Roch's laughter as a strange sense of nostalgia welled up in her. She had done this before.
Rather, the thing she had been had done this. Unlike those vague memories of just words, she could envision this in far greater detal. She couldn’t remember exactly where, exactly when, exactly how it had happened, nor could she remember those who had been there. But something deep in her Soul was calling out to her. That most unusual Core of hers finally started to serve its purpose…
???????? Calendar Year ???????????, Month 16, Day 83
The Era of ?????
????? Region, Quadrant A, Universal Coordinates: 0.8??????, 0.3??????
"Ahm'kuluk, Hylimdem! Iu'na, iu'na, gulo unjikala [Jio'lio Ikama]."
The body she inhabited was not hers, but it responded to her name just the same. It pushed itself up from the resplendent marble beneath, a hazy figure which she could just barely make out to be an Espi stood infront of it. The vague figure was shorter by a head, with smaller wings and ears. Its laughter echoed through the blank space, interlaced between words she knew but couldn't understand. Without hesitating, the body she inhabited entered the [Casting Stance] again in response to the Espi's strange words.
She mulled over those words. Her name, that was obvious. 'Iu'na' seemed like some kind of encouragement, from the Espi's tone. 'Ahm' she had heard before, but 'Kuluk' almost felt insulting. Her motivation even dropped slightly when she thought of it. The other words... she couldn't think of what they could be, but they still felt even more familiar than the language she spoke herself. This language... to be the one used to cast spells, some grandeur must certainly be attached to it.
As she lost herself in thought, the small Espi lightly whispered more words she could not understand into the body’s ear. Despite her inability to understand, this body knew exactly what the words meant. It cast {Clickrend} with a far more refined technique than hers; and rather than letting those Force particles pull its weapon from its hand, the body twisted itself into a overhead slash before the spell finished firing. Just as the slash plateaued, the particles dragged the weapon downwards with immeasurable strength far exceeding what the body could amass on its own.
Lyi could see those dissipating particles get forcibly drawn back to the weapon; with each attack this body made, the number of particles attached and the speed of the strike went up. She could barely keep up with the second sweep, let alone the ten after that the body seemed to so easily perform.
The Espi's figure was faintly clapping, encouraging words bouncing around the space. The body assumed the stance again, but wrought up its hand in preparation to use {Clickbolt}. The word 'Hilia' was forced out its mouth as the body performed executed the spell, following with a horizontal circular slash once the spell began to emerge. When the attack finished, a swarm of Lightning particles duplicated the Rui Undea and mimicked the attack that was just performed. The particles dissipated as fast as they emerged, but just as before, were forcibly drawn back by a second attack in yet another sequence of twelve.
It felt like hours, perhaps even days, of the body alternating the two spells and performing those twelve-attack sequences.
However, when the body stopped… Lyi couldn’t help but feel as if the experience was far too short. These two sequences… the only thing she could think about that they paled infront of was the
Yet, she felt his influence on her Soul stretched deeper than that. That man, that figure of myth, in implanting the
Even without confirmation, she knew this to be true. The fact those two sequences had begun to burn themselves into her Soul may well be direct confirmation of tampering. Those sequences, which she felt had been with her her whole life.
[Rui - Di] and [Rui - Hilia].
[War - Force] and [War - Lightning].
She knew that these two techniques would not be the only ones of this ilk, given their names. She had encountered three spells that were part of the [Click Series], afterall. A [Rui Series] must exist. Presumably, one for all the elements must exist. Something deep in her Soul told her that these techniques were so fundamental to her existence, that even with little experience she would be able to extrapolate how they work, how they interact with the fundamental particles that constructed spells.
Force, Flame, Water, Ice, Earth, Wind, Darkness, Light, Lightning, Destruction, Space and Time.
Two to learn. Ten to reinvent.
Lyi took a sharp breath of Magic as she returned from that memory. Roch’s laughter still echoed in the courtyard, indicating little to no time had passed in reality. Ignoring the old man, Lyi pushed herself back up, directing a tiny stream of Force with her breath to activate the Bind spell on her Rui Undea. The muddied weapon shot into her right hand, firmly attached. [Rui - Di] was so forceful that she knew the weapon would launch itself from her hand regardless of how tight she held it without this spell.
All those other stances Roch taught her, those would gradually become useless to her if she learnt these techniques. For now, she abandoned the two stances revolving around singular, powerful attacks. The stances focusing on defense stuck firmly in her Soul, though were far less noticeable than the two [Rui] stances and inconsequential against
Her right arm whipped out to her side, the Rui Undea gleaming underneath the artificial sunlight cast by the floating city above. That same calm descended on her once more, [Rui - Di] more clear to her than ever. If she could even utilise its first strike, that would be a success for the day.
"Attempting the full attack immediately won't get me anywhere,", she thought, lowering her casting arm. Bringing herself back to when she was in that body of her memories, she let her Rui Undea slip down until she had gripped near the end of the weapon with her right hand. Still maintaining her [Casting Stance], she feigned a cast of {Clickrend}. The moment she finished her fake attack she dragged the weapon to rest on her chest and gripped the centre-hold with her left hand, raised her right arm so the weapon would rest over her shoulder and touch her back, before pulling it back down with as much power as she could muster. The whole sequence took little more than a second... but that was far too slow. Before, the Force particles took over in just over three quarters of a second. The movement itself was already strenuous and complicated, not to mention that those particles would almost certainly make it harder for her to move the weapon. She must have had an expression of annoyance on her face, given how Roch almost immediately spoke out,
"Well, that wa-"
"Wrong."
"Impressive, lass, I was goin' to say impressive. It was sloppy an' definitely needs work like, but you came up with it in such a short time."
"It's not mine."
"Ai, like I bleedin' care, may as well be yours. With how yous work, whoever owned that swing is dead. By my reckoning, means that's yours, 'ey? Try breakin' it down into small movements. Get the start right, atleast."
Lyi thought for a moment, then nodded her head. He was right, getting into position for the strike took far longer than it did to actually strike. She could worry about accuracy and actual power later, not having the Rui Undea flung out of her hands by being in the wrong position was the top priority.
The initial movement was a problem. [Casting Stance], while it definitely had benefits, left her with incredibly few ways to reliably and quickly get into an attacking stance. Cutting the first attack of [Rui - Di] down into smaller steps, there were three noticeable segments: the initial movement from [Casting Stance] to resting the weapon across her chest, lifting it over her shoulder and finally the actual downward swing.
She could certainly cut out the first step. It would sacrifice some stability, but that was a problem she could worry about when she was capable of moving faster. It wasn't even a hard adjustment, one that she couldn't understand the purpose behind not doing. She assumed [Casting Stance] once more, feigning yet another cast of {Clickrend}. Rather than dragging her Rui Undea in to grab it, she moved it straight over her shoulder, grabbing onto the centre with her left hand midway. By the time she was in position to swing downwards, she had cut down just over a third of a second. More than enough time.
A part of her was surprised she could grasp it so quickly, but another told her it was only natural. She may have never used the technique before, but those fundamental particles that made her certainly had. If anything, she already had her equivalent of muscle memory for it, it was simply a matter of repeating it enough times that she could properly remember it. Without delaying, she repeated the attack another time, and another, and another...
Until she finally felt confidence to use a {Clickrend}. She entered [Casting Stance], and ensuring she aimed away from Roch, she clicked and fired the spell off. The very moment she did, moving her Rui Undea felt like moving through mud. Those Force particles had already started trying to drag the weapon and just as she rested it on her shoulder... it shot out of her hands and pierced into the ground, pulling her just enough to make her stumble.
There was tangible improvement. But even with repeated attempts, she barely got further than she managed on her first try. Being able to properly perform it by tomorrow... would certainly be a difficult task.
"It really is repaired... how...? Why is there a... ho-"
"Don't think about it, lass. Your match, your poster. Poenticivt works fast, always has."
With a harsh click of her tongue, Lyi looked at the perfectly repaired Opera House with a renewed excitement. A thorough check by Shae had led to the conclusion that the cocky cyan-boy Beze was not a murderous psychopath out for her blood. Infact, the boy didn't even know about Tzya and had contributed to freeing Lyi from the arena in the first place. When he wasn't... being himself, the boy could almost be considered a paragon amongst the community.
Beze was even an equal match for Lyi, atleast in terms of their Aura quantity. As she pushed through the crowd, she turned to look at the boy, who was watching her with a determined face from his side of the Opera house. With her Rui Undea on her back, her new and far more imposing black fur coat which even came with protectors for her wings, Lyi was more prepared than ever to fight him. In a real, fair battle.