Roxy brought Ren to a large open space, next to the river bank. A few meters away from them was a straw scarecrow planted into the ground and dressed in the typical garb of the villagers, with a wide brimmed straw hat to boot. Ren assumed that his master had taken the scarecrow from the wheat fields but knowing Roxy's style, he wasn't sure if she had asked first.
"Alright brat, seems I have some explaining to do."
Roxy said while taking a seat on a small boulder and taking out her pipe. Ren walked closer so he could listen better.
"There are two main ways to use magic, the first is the kind you used back in the forest, true magic. This is where you use your mental strength to control your Aether however you like granting you massive freedom with your attacks."
Ren already knew this much but from his master's words he had gathered that there was more to magic then he initially thought.
"What we'll be looking at today is the main stream alternative, spells. I'm sure you know this but using true magic takes an immense amount concentration and is mentally draining, while you're focusing on one attack, your opponent would already cast several."
The term spells, wasn't new to Ren but he knew very little about them, his father had always focused on teaching him true magic above all else.
"Are spells better than using true magic?"
Ren asked curiously. since Roxy had brought it up, there should be a reason behind her teaching him about spells.
"Both have their advantages but for someone as pitifully weak as you, I would say that spells are better. For me it's a different story, true magic skips all the unnecessary steps and gives me full control of my magic and since I'm me, I can cast it faster than a spell."
Roxy boasted, casually lighting her pipe with a small golden flame that shot out of her finger. Ren had already filtered out the useless bragging and came to the conclusion that although true magic was all he knew, he did notice that it took him a long time to concentrate enough to cast it.
"What spell are you going to teach me then?"
Ren asked, eager to find out what new weapon he was going to add to his arsenal.
"Slow your roll brat, I aint done explaining shit."
Roxy yelled, taking a moment to let out a puff of smoke and continued talking.
"To cast a spell, you need two things, a chant and a hand sign. The brain is a complex thing, the pitch and tone of your voice as well as the positioning of your fingers will cause a subconscious reaction that activates your mental strength without all the concentrating."
This took some time for Ren to understand but eventually he came to understand the logic. Spells were like automated true magic, all you had to do was supply the aether and decide where it went, while the chant and the hand sign determined the power and form.
"So, spells are like a canon, you can add the gunpowder, aim it and decide when to light it but you can't change the cannonball that you shoot."
Ren said, no wonder his master said that true magic had more freedom, spells were pretty much a set process that couldn't be changed to meet a specific situation, when it came to adaptability, True magic had a clear advantage.
"If you got it, then just say you got it."
Roxy said, starting to get impatient. She didn't like explaining all this boring stuff but it couldn't be helped, who was going to teach her disciple if not for her.
"The chant is in the ancient language and split into two words. The attribute name and the trigger word which determines the shape. The hand sign determines the attribute… ugh. I'm sick of this shit, just watch me and copy."
Roxy sighed, finally deciding that enough was enough. She jumped of the rock and waited for Ren to give her his undivided attention. Once those requirements had been fulfilled, she placed her fingertips together, forming a triangle with her hands, although the base was missing.
A bright blue light started shining from her palms. Ren could feel a feverish heat from where he was standing, a whole five meters away. With Ren not wanting to look away for a second, she pointed her hands up at the sky and began to chant.
"Ignis Lorem"
Her voice was mystical and was soothing to the ears. In an instant the blue light within her hands became tangible, forming into a fierce blue ball of flames.
it shot out of her hands at breath-taking speeds, sending out a wave of overwhelming heat that drenched Ren's clothing in his own sweat.
Ren didn't care about this though, his eyes followed the blue streak of fire as it raised into the sky, reaching a solitary cloud within a split second.
"Bullseye."
Roxy said as the blue flames erupted into a massive ball of flames completely dispersing the cloud in a huge but silent explosion. Ren was lost for words, he had never seen such a powerful attack but before he could recover, he finally heard the noise from explosion that had raced towards him during his stupor.
BOOM.
A deafening roar rattled his eardrums and a powerful shockwave rattled his insides, almost making him lose his footing. Ren's reverence for his master skyrocketed, he was in awe at her strength. Ren reminded himself to never make his master mad, he didn't want to see what she was capable of when she got angry… but it was at this very moment that someone who didn't mind making his master angry, showed up.
"Roxy what the hell was that loud noise. I told you not to use loud magic in the village you scared all the livestock."
The village elder shouted at Roxy, his face was full of anger. Roxy glanced at the elder and snorted.
"Quiet you damn elder, I'm trying to teach the brat and I don't care if two goats and a fucking chicken piss themselves in the process."
She retorted but the Elder was having none of it, his face turned bright red, like a tomato and he raised his voice.
"Those goats and chickens are the ones providing milk and eggs for your food, if this happens one more time… THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF MY VILLAGE."
He yelled, Roxy's patience was running thin and she was about to snap, just as she was about give the village elder an earful, she felt a tiny hand grab her wrist.
"Tsk, you're lucky."
Roxy said, she was glad that Ren had stopped her, she still needed to stay here while she finished her research. Roxy grabbed Ren and the scare crow and they vanished in a blinding flash of purple light, leaving behind one very confused and angry village elder.
"Wait a sec, wasn't that my damn scarecrow.
***
Master and disciple appeared within a small clearing in the forest, Roxy let go of Ren and he stumbled around clumsily while he recovered from the nauseating dizziness that had swept over him as a result of the blink spell.
By the time he recovered, Roxy had planted the scarecrow into the ground and was grinning at him.
"The spell I just showed you was the Firebolt, now its your turn. When you can destroy this target in one go, I will consider you to have learned the spell."
Roxy said while giving the scarecrow a slap on the back. Ren thought back to his masters demonstration, his memory was pretty good but it wasn't perfect, taking a deep breath, he placed his palms together like Roxy did and started to chant.
"Ignss lurem"
Nothing happened, Ren looked down at his hands in confusion. Roxy shook her head and walked over to him.
"I thought I told you to copy me, what the fuck was that."
She sighed and grabbed his hands tightly, forcefully moving them into the hand sign she showed him earlier.
"Putting aside your shit pronunciation, make a triangle with your hands. Fire needs three things, heat, fuel and oxygen, so each of the triangle's sides represents one of those."
Roxy said but now Ren was even more confused, he only had two hands after all. Roxy seemed to sense what Ren was thinking and immediately face palmed, letting go of his hands.
"I didn't think that my disciple would be an idiot, the gap between your palms is the fuel."
Ren quickly caught on, since his Aether was the fuel, he didn't need to represent it because he was already providing the fuel, he just needed heat and oxygen which were represented by his two hands.
With this new realisation Ren remade the hand sign and showed it to his master.
"Good. Make sure you don't make the gap between your palms too wide… now repeat after me."
Roxy explained and repeated the chant for him once more. After Ren muttered the chant under his breath a few times, he felt like he had gotten the hang of it.
Locking eyes with the eyeless scare crow, he made the hand sign and a dull orange glow began to form within his palms.
For some reason Ren had a feeling that he was going to hit the target with his first attempt. He didn't know why exactly he felt this but the feeling came from somewhere deep inside him, he was a hundred percent sure that his spell would hit the target, with his confidence skyrocketing, he began to chant.
"Ignis Lorem"
The dim orange light in his hands started to grow brighter and brighter. Ren could feel the temperature across his palms increasing, as the light began to take the form of a small ball of orange fire, he took aim at the target and released the spell.
BOOM.
The flames suddenly erupted in a small explosion sending Ren tumbling backwards and burning his hands.
"For fucks sake brat, what did I tell you about not making the gap between your palms to big, the bottom of the triangle is fuel so if you make it too wide, you'll… Well, now you know what'll happen."
Roxy shook her head but something in the corner of her eye caught her attention, she walked over to the scarecrow, ignoring Ren who was writhing around the floor in pain and saw a small black dot on the scarecrows clothing indicating that it had been singed.
"Hoh, I guess you managed to hit the target after all… although it was just a tiny ember thrown out from the explosion"
Roxy said while chuckling. Ren, who was already on the verge of tears, almost vomited blood when he heard that. Was that really what that feeling meant.
***
After a couple of hours had passed, Ren had attempted the firebolt spell a grand total of seventy times and had long since run out of Aether. His first ten attempts after his initial try resulted in similar explosions but these where due to him losing control of the spell, instead of incorrect signage.
After being healed by Roxy multiple times, Ren had to take a break, during this break he had reflected on what he did wrong and came to the conclusion that he couldn't control Aether in large quantities. this realisation led to him deciding to reduce the amount of Aether he used per spell which would significantly reduce the power of his Firebolt but he had to start somewhere.
His theory proved to be correct, after using a new hand signal that left the gap between his palms at a hair's breadth, he managed to produce a meagre orange flame that flew a pitiful two centimetres forward before falling to the ground, vanishing in a poof of smoke but… there was no life threatening explosion, it was progress.
He slowly kept increasing his Aether output with each new attempt, the most recent of which, reached an impressive fifty centimetres before falling to the ground in a small burst of flames, he was quite proud of this but his Master's occasional chuckles let him know how badly he was doing.
"Alright Brat it's now evening, time for swordsmanship. take out your blade."
Roxy said, getting bored of watching his repeated failures. Despite what her actions may have suggested, she was actually quite impressed. Even though all of Ren's attempts ultimately ended up in failure, that was to be expected when a Breaker was first trying out a new attribute. Most people would not even succeed making a single flame within the first hour, let alone their first attempt.
Off course she would never tell him this, keeping her disciple's ego in check was important. Confidence was good and all but in excess, it was fatal.
"Listen closely brat, this is important. That blade hanging on your waist is not just a sword, it's your partner. From now on, you will eat, sleep and shit with it on your waist. When you can't trust anyone, trust your blade. I've named my own sword Blaze, as your partner, you must also give it a worthy name."
Roxy said, making sure to stress each word. Ren, who did as he was told, listened closely. He couldn't think of a name for his sword off the top of his head, so he decided to address that issue when he got the inspiration.
"A bad swordsman is limited by his technique, while a passable one uses technique as the basis of his attacks. A good swordsman throws technique out of the window and comes up with his own. The greatest, well they don't even need a sword at that point, a blade of grass is enough"
Roxy stopped talking to take out her sword, pointing at parts of its blade. Blaze was a simple sword, much like Ren's own, it had no hilt and the handle was loosely wrapped in white bandages. The difference was in the colour, while Ren's blade was black, Blaze was a fiery red, matching with Roxy's hair.
"You can split the blade of your sword into three equal sections each with its own purpose. Use the top for attacking, the middle for control and the bottom for defence."
"I will teach you one stance for each and show you how to use them, once you have mastered those, I want you to use that as the basis to come up with your own swordplay."
Ren understood that coming up with his own sword play was essential. By copying others, he would only limit what he was cable off, each person had their own strengths and weaknesses and only by using your own style that took those into account, could you use your full potential.
Roxy sheathed her sword and kept it by her waist gripping the handle with one hand. She squatted down low and leant her upper body forwards, staring down a medium sized tree.
"First stance, Lightning."
She unsheathed Blaze and struck out in one fluid motion, after a brief pause, she sheathed her sword. Throughout this process not a single sound could be heard.
"The focal point of this stance is speed, when mastered you will be able strike opponents down without them even knowing what hit them. This form is similar to lightning in the way that you only hear thunder after the lightning has struck"
After saying this Roxy gestured towards the tree in front of her. Ren looked at the tree wondering what his master had meant, when all of a sudden, he saw a silver slash appear diagonally across the tree trunk. The top of the tree began to fall over, cleanly cut in half.
CRASH.
The top of the tree hit the ground, sending dirt and leaves flying off in every direction. Not stopping to let Ren register what had just occurred, Roxy continued her demonstration.
"Now let's move on to the second stance which has do with control"
Roxy took out her sword and held it in front of her the blade was pointed diagonally upwards away from her.
"Second stance, ocean. Using this stance, you can easily switch between defence and attack controlling the flow of the battle like a strong ocean current."
She made a gesture that indicated that Ren should attack her. Ren finally snapped out of his initial shock and raised his sword overhead while rushing towards her, attacking his master with a simple vertical slash.
Roxy moved her sword slightly, meeting Ren's attack with the middle of her blade. Instead of the sword being blocked like Ren had expected, his sword encountered barely any resistance, it was guided to one side, completely missing Roxy.
Ren was thrown of balance and stumbled forward, greeted by Roxy's sword at his throat. He quickly backed away and fortunately for Ren, the blade didn't follow him.
"When an opponent attacks, don't block but embrace the incoming strike, like a gentle current. When the time is right, counter like a raging tidal wave."
Roxy immediately moved on, bending her knees into a lunge, her blade pointing directly behind her.
"Third form, Mountain. By placing all my weight onto my back leg, I become immovable like a mountain, dissipating most of the incoming force into the ground through my leg. By shifting my weight on to my front leg, I can then launch forward pushing back my opponent like a landslide, gaining initiative"
Saying this she launched herself forward, kicking up large amounts of dirt in the process. Ren only saw Roxy's figure flicker into nothingness and felt a powerful gust of wind rush past him, causing his clothes to flutter violently. A light tap on his shoulder made Ren spin around in shock and lay eyes on his master, who had reappeared behind him.
"These are the three forms I will need you to master start by practicing each form as a set, then repeat."
Ren who had barely managed to recover from his shock, didn't waste any time. He acknowledged his masters request and started practicing the three forms.
At first his movements where sloppy, but slowly became more refined with the passage of time, Ren seemingly entered a trance where his mind was empty and all that mattered to him was the movement of his sword.
Seeing Ren in a trance like state made Roxy smirk and she realised there was nothing more she could do.
Roxy blinked to the area of the river where Ren had fought previously and started to search for a demonic beast.
It didn't take long for her to spot an adult demonic beast that was seemingly the parent of the rhino type creature that Ren had killed, it was nearly the same height as the trees that surrounded it, with each of its legs being as thick as their trunks. Roxy, who had located her prey, proceeded to take out a simple but sharp wooden javelin, which was made by the Village craftsman in the same fashion as the fences surrounding the villages.
"Target acquired."
Roxy said while licking her lips.
***
Back at the clearing, the whole night had passed by before Ren finally collapsed onto his knees due to exhaustion. His hands were trembling non-stop, fully covered in huge red blisters. Ren felt like could hear his muscles scream out in agony. However as painful as it was, he did not let go of his sword for a second.
Ren looked around but his master was nowhere to be found, thinking that she would eventually come back to get him, Ren decided to lie down and rest, taking a moment to appreciate the beautiful scenery.
It appeared to be early morning and the sun was slowly rising over the trees, its gentle light gave the leaves an almost divine glow. Ren welcomed the sun's rays, allowing him to be filled with warmth, the feeling was simply mesmerising.
In just these few days it felt like so much had happened, he may have lost everything that mattered to him but at the same time he gained a purpose. An undying motivation that was fuelled by hatred and a goal born out of a twisted desire for revenge.
But right now, all his problems seemed so small right now, the suns light tried to wash away all the anger in his heart. It tried… but Ren wouldn't let the sun have its way.
His eyes turned cold and his expression darkened, he couldn't forget what his ambitions were. His family would get what was coming to them, no matter what. Only then could he bask in the sun's radiance with peace of mind but for now, night would fall and darkness would reign supreme.
"From now on I will call you Nightfall. I look forward to working with you because I'm gonna work you to the bone."
Ren glanced down to the sword in his hand, its blackish hue seemed to reflect the darkness in his heart. Ren didn't know if he could consider Nightfall as his partner, maybe slave wasn't too far off the mark.