Stannir watched with a smile as he saw Drummen dragged off. "I've never seen a person like him that's scared of a little training." He looked at the old monster with a smile. "I think he's been traumatized by certain training from his mother in law... I think, that's what he said." The old monster nodded and looked at him. "I guess we should also go... Shall we?" Stannir looked up at the fire eater unit who were following him. "What about them?"
"They can stay here, and keep an eye out... Start repairs on the place... Make it a little less gloomy." He nodded, and watched the fire eater unit start to get to their tasks. "Fire eater... I'm old and I've become impatient in my old age... I don't like waiting for boys." Stannir turned and followed the old monster through the doors until they were once again in the room of fire and lava.
He turned to Salina. "Salina I think this training he's going to fight me... I can feel it in my bones."
"If it is, than this is going to be very good training... Learn well." He nodded looking over the rivers of lave around them. He watched as the old monster jumped and landed in the lava walking on its surface. "Come fire eater... Lets play on the lava... Show me the real fire eater, and how you protect your team." Stannir nodded and jumped landing on the surface of the lava... He looked down at his feet. "Warm... quite nice."
"We're not here to admire the view soldier..." Stannir stood up at attention in front of the old monster. "No sir..."
"What are we here for soldier?" Stannir looked at him with a smile. "To train..."
"Good... I want to see your control, as you use your new arm..." Stannir nodded. "Come at me soldier... Show me your strength... Lets see if you can make this old black dragon feel young again." Stannir ran at him forming his long fiery sword and slashed at him, while sending a punch of fire in his direction.
"Good start... Need more killing intent..." He watched as the old monster used his cane to stop the punch and block his strike. He dashed back and struck again, as hard as he could and as fast as possible. "Ahh... That's it... I'm starting to feel your intent... Put it in your strikes... Every strike is death... Bring it..."
He felt his heart rate increase as he was fighting the old monster. "He wants me to use it... I can feel it... Salina, should I?"
"Do it... Show the old monster you're worth it..." He nodded, and jumped back sending fire energy into his arm causing it to burst into flames. He smiled as the flames covered half his body. His heart racing as he jumped into battle with two firey long swords attacking and slashing at the old monster.
"Stop!"
Stannir stopped, and took a step back in confusion. "What did I do wrong?"
"You just use those swords to hack and slash... How can you call yourself a swordsman if that's all you do?" He watched the old monster spit into the lava. He let the swords fade and stood waiting. "What do you wish?"
"I wish for you to learn some sword form work, with both swords and in near your blood lust state... If you know the forms in that time, when you unleash your blood lust form, you'll be an unstoppable machine... But the key is control."
Stannir nodded. "Please show me the forms..." He saw the old monster nod and walk up to him. "Dual wielding shows you're very aggressive in a fight... No time for defense... If you use both swords of fire you need to attack, and keep pressing the attack... It also means you need to dodge, since you don't always wear your armor..."
"BOOMM!"
Stannir felt himself fly over the lava and crash into the path. He shook his head and saw the old monster approach. "See what I mean? If you want to be aggressive in a fight you need to push, push and push the attacks, and never stop the attacks until the opponent is dead... Your attacks on the other hand are very predictable... You went right, left, right, left and so on... If someone knew that about you, then they could kill you easily."
Stannir nodded as he stood. "Again..." He looked at the old man in confusion. "You just told me you'd show me the form, but you're saying again... How can I learn?"
"Soldier... Did you just go against my order?" He shook his head and formed the two swords again, causing half his body to be covered in flames, and jumped at the old monster with both swords striking. "Better... Again!"
He watched, cursing as the black cane hit one of his swords causing it to fall to the ground. He took a step back and looked at his hand. "Your grip is too weak when you are fighting with two swords... Its a big weakness of yours... A strong hit will cause you to drop your blade... Again..."
Stannir nodded and stood in thought. "Salina what if I changed the shape of the blades, and the grip so I wouldn't be able to drop it?"
"Can you do it now, while you're attacking him?" He smiled. "I won't know until I try." He closed his eyes, and formed the image of his swords, causing the tip to bend in a hook slightly, and the grip to wrap around his hands. He opened his hands and looked at his new long swords. He slashed them in the air. "I approve... Now come again."
Stannir ran and jumped at him, letting the flames to cover half his body to also attack the old monster. He ducked letting the cane go over his body, while he attacked with both his fiery hook swords. He watched as the old monster extended his cane making it longer, as he was pushed back. "That's better soldier... Keep pushing the attack... No defense, just pure attack... Pour your emotions in your blades, your anger, hungry for more energy, your frustrations, anything you're feeling pour them into the blades... Let me feel those emotions in your strikes... Again!"
He smiled as he looked at his new blades. "All I feel now is the eagerness to fight, and to keep fighting... Is that what he meant Salina?"
"He said any emotion you have..." Stannir looked at her. "Even love?"
"Yes, even love..." Stannir nodded, and looked at his blades. He pushed all his love of fighting into them. He watched as they grew brighter, and he could feel their desire to fight even more. He looked at the old monster and killing intent exploded from his body. He smiled as he jumped towards the old monster flourishing his blades with a smile of enjoyment and happiness. "That's it soldier... Keep pushing... Don't let me get a break... Keep going..." He swung, ducked and dodged making sure every attack he made with his new swords were killing hits. Stannir opened his mouth showing a toothy grin, and kept pressing the attack.
"HAhahahahahha... This is fun... Give me more!"
He jumped again at the old monster and kept attacking, trying to land a hit on him. "You learn fast... Lets see if you can deal with this?" Stannir looked at the old monster as something long and black hit him in the back and sent him flying to crash in the path again. He stood up in confusion, and looked at the large black dragon now standing in front of him. "Not bad, you got me to awaken to this form... There's been no one who could get my intent that high, that it would cause me to change... Thank you fire eater..."
He stood in front of the black dragon and felt his heart race. "Fire eater... It seems you still want to fight, even when you see me this way... HAhahaha you keep looking at me, like I'm a piece of meat for the taking... Very well. Come at me... I'll play along with this training." Stannir looked at his dazzling hook swords, as they became brighter, and the flames on half of his body became brighter. He could feel the scar tingling, with the desire to open. He looked down at it and than up at the black dragon. "Here I come..." He let his blood start to boil as he jumped and attacked the dragon. He jumped, and dodged the claw attacks and the strikes with the tails, as he met him face on in the head of battle.
He saw the dragon's wings about to move he took a short jump back as a fierce wind tried to push him further back. "Not today..." he looked at his feet, as he sunk into the lava, so he wouldn't be blown away. "Good... Nice to see you start to use the environment as you fight." Stannir jumped out of the lava, and ran towards the dragon jumping it's tail attack. He landed a blow into the side of the dragon and saw its blood start to fall. He increased his attacking speed at the spot, as the black dragon started to become defensive.
"STOP!"
Stannir jumped back and let his blades fade from view, calming his heat rate as the fires on the side of his body disappeared. He stood in front of the old monster as he turned back into his human form. "You were able to hit me... It seems you were already there, just needed a bit of a push... Good soldier I think... You pushed me hard, and I became wounded because of it... You also were able to regain control after I said stop while in your blood lust state."
Stannir smiled. "Thank you... I stopped because I didn't want to kill you..."
"Hahahahahahaha... a mere tiny fire eater, thought he could kill me... I was holding back... Next time we train I won't be holding back at all." Stannir nodded and looked at Salina with a smile. "How did I go?"
"You fought beautiful... It was like watching a fire demon attacking, with each blow showing your love of fighting." He smiled and felt his face heat up. "Stannir... Get your spark to teach you the language... Its almost time to head back to that place you mentioned..." He saluted the old monster, watching as he jumped off the lava and onto the path. "Come on... We still have more to train and work on... This was just the first place." He nodded and jumped onto the path, looking sad as there was no heat coming from the path he was on. "It feels kind of empty now, since you've experienced walking on lava... Come We have a place to go."
Stannir looked at the back of the old monster and followed him to a spot. "This may get a little windy... Your wings are too slow for this, so allow me to be the ride." He watched as the old monster jumped into the air, and he felt his body racing after him. He looked around him as he felt he was flying in the sky. "Salina, how is he doing that?"
"His wings are so hot, that it looks invisible to us, also his body is reacting to some chemical in the air that's causing this effect... You need to get stronger, before you can affect the chemicals in the air around you with your heat." He nodded, as he found himself landing on top of a mountain far from the firelands. "We're here."
He looked around in silence. "Its like I can see the entirety of Athlos from here."
"That's good... It isn't the highest mountain on Athlos... That one is on stormy mountain... Some place we can't go unless invited... The people there are very protective of that place." Stannir nodded. "The priestess, has said she'll take us there."
"That's good for you... A chance to see their dances of blood... You'll be able to learn a lot from them, and what it means to be a warrior... And have something to protect." He stared at the old monster as he looked at the scenery around them. "What are we doing here on this peak sir?"
"I just wanted to show you something... This is what you're protecting from the Supreme... This is what needs to be saved... It depends on your choice as to what happens... Don't fail, like what happened in the past... I'm getting to old for this, even if my heart wants to fight, and keep fighting, my body can't keep up."
Stannir stood in silence looking at the scenery around him "I'll not fail... We'll not fail... We can't fail."
"That's good... Now we have another place to go..."
"Where's that?"
"You'll see... No more questions... Come."