As excited as he was to try magic Chris felt he couldn't try to learn it when he barely knew his own strength. So he began running some tests. He took Armonite over to a tree by the pond and set him down there. Then he went over to one of the trees across from where he set Armonite and tried punching it as hard as he could. He was shocked when his fist went straight through it to the other side with a loud cracking noise.
"Holy Sh...!"
He was unable to finish his sentence because the tree started falling toward him. Unprepared for the tree to fall towards him he braced himself as if to catch it. To his amazement he actually did, he struggled to hold the tree for several moments before he set it down to his right. Panting heavily he followed the path of the tree and saw the upper part had landed right where he had placed Armonite.
"Oh heck, Armonite!"
He jogged quickly over to where he had set the bug down. Wading through branches and leaves till he made it to the spot he'd left Armonite. He bent over grabbed the trunk of the tree and lifted it up enough to see under it. Armonite came crawling out and crawled a little ways up Chris's leg before stopping. With a sigh of relief Chris bends down and picks up the big and brings him to his eye level.
"Don't scare me like that ever again jeez, I had a heart attack."
Staring into Armonite's beady black eyes they seemed to say.
'Then don't drop trees on me.'
Chris just shrugged and walked to the other side of the tree before setting him down again.
"How was I supposed to know you were under it. Ok, I'm gonna try again but this time I don't wanna break it clean in two."
He steadied himself in front of another tree located much farther away from Armonite. He punched it and his hand didn't go all the way through, just almost all the way.
"Ah hell."
The tree with a groan and cracking started falling once again towards him. He braced himself and caught it, but this time gathering his strength he shoved it away from him stumbling a little forward. The tree fell away from him and got caught by the other trees standing at an angle.
"Jeez, this is stupid. How the hell did I end up like this."
He looked down at his fist, lightly covered in scratches. He looked up and went on to the next tree. He continued practicing his punches until he no longer put massive holes in the trees. Settling instead for massive dents. Having learned how hard he could punch to a satisfactory enough level he left the many damaged trees back to the first tree he knocked over. Just to see he went to the middle of it and got his arms under it as best he could. Then he heaved on it hard and lifted the whole tree off the ground. He was starting to find his limit as he struggled to hold on to it. Suddenly his grip slipped and he dropped the tree straight on his right foot. His face flushed red from the pain and he started hoping around on one foot muttering profanities.
"Ok so I'm not invincible great, this was just a great way to discover this."
He had stopped hopping around and settled for an awkward limp until the pain subsided and his pacing brought him in front of Armonite. The beetle looked up at him with a look that said.
'What'd you expect to happen if it fell on your foot?'
Chris looked at him vehemently.
"Shut it."
Shaking his head for talking to a beetle he went to a clear area by the pond. Looking down at his legs and shaking each in turn he said to himself.
"If my arms are stronger how are these puppies... did I really just call my legs puppies? Am I seriously holding a conversation with myself? Why yes it appears so."
Sighing he looked up and crouched down low. As hard as he could he jumped off the ground and went higher than he'd ever been without mechanical assistance. He easily cleared the treetops and it was at this moment he remembered his fear of falling.
"Oh fu..."
However he was unable to finish as his heart and stomach both went straight into his throat and he began obeying gravity. He flailed as he fell which rotated him to be falling parallel with the ground and that's when he slammed into it. He had all the air knocked out of him and the rib he had cracked during the fight with the leader rock bear cracked again. Gasping for air and dry heaving from fear he tried to sit up once again and failed, instead he settled with crawling over to Armonite. He propped himself up with his back against the tree and continued gasping for air. Armonite crawled onto his lap and looked up to him in a way that said.
'That looked awful, you alright?'
"I think that's enough physical experimentation for the day."
'I bet for more than a day.'
"Well I can't hide from it forever... My chest really hurts."
Looking up he could see it was about midday, still plenty of time to try and see if he had magic and travel some more to try and find civilization. Armonite turned himself around and settled down comfortably on Chris's lap as he readjusted himself against the tree and leaned forward a little. He thought of how he'd summoned the fire if he had at all. He stretched his arm forward and tried something simple.
"Fire"
Nothing happened.
"Fire!"
...
"FLAMES!"
He roared into the forest. Still only emptiness was filling his out stretched hand. Feeling rather stupid he lowered his hand and gave up on that method of magic. As apart of being a shut in Chris had often imagined what it would be like to use real magic. This time he held out his hand and tried to imagine a tiny flame just sitting calmly on his hand. Nothing happend then either. Disappointed he closed his eyes and tried again, slowing his breathing and clearly picturing a red and purple flame in his hand. He felt a tug from his heart and heard a light crackling. He opened his eyes and was astonished to see a flame actually on his hand exactly as he imagined. Over filled with joy his heart soared and suddenly the flame reacted to, and his joy suddenly plummeted.