Jon made in back to camp after his lesson with the battle mage, excited about practicing this new technique he had learned. Once Jon made it back he immediately saw his father and rushed up to him, excited to show him what he had learned.
"Father look, the battle mage taught this to me!" Jon exclaimed to Raska. As Raska Turned around, Jon began to put his energy into Reaper, making it shine like a torch in the darkness. As Jon continued to channel his energy, Reaper became encased in solid gold energy. This gold was not actually gold and was harder than steel, enhancing the entirety of his weapon. Jon began to pull his energy from the axe until Reaper was no longer even glowing. Raska's eyes lit up as he saw this, thinking of how much he did not know in terms of magic. "Jon is a becoming a great man, laying his foundation to grow so rapidly." Thought Raska.
"Jon, have you tested the abilities of your axe yet?" Asked his father who was very curious and excited to see what his son could do with that golden axe.
"No, not yet, that's why I wanted to come to you first." Jon said coolly and waited for his father to follow him to the target range. As they walked together, Jon felt happy and content. Jon had not spent so much time with his father for as long as he could remember because every Winter, Raska had to leave to go raiding.
Once the two got to the practice area, Jon made Reaper into it's golden form, flourishing it in his hands. Jon halfheartedly swung at the side of a log and to both of the men's surprise, Reaper bit deeply into the side of the log, forcing the wood off of its blade. As Jon tugged for Reaper to come out, he used too much force and almost let go of the axe on the backswing. The blade of Reaper was exuding so much forceful, violent energy that the gold repelled the wood from even touching the golden blade once it stuck into the wood.
Jon was literally at a loss for words. Jon swung his axe overhead and split the log perfectly in a single swing. Jon's mouth was open as he stood there looking at Reaper in amazement. He could not imagine how truly powerful his axe was now. Even the rarer steel plate armors would be butter with this. Jon knew if someone had the skill level they could imbue their armor or clothes with this kind of power.
This made Jon so much more excited to learn how to further change his energy and imbue elemental energy into weapons. Jon had never been more glad to Winter somewhere that was not home. This was the perfect opportunity to learn and grow quickly.
Jon began to practice his energy transfer technique and by the time his lesson was supposed to begin, Jon could give energy and take energy instamtly from his axe, sword and shield. His bow was difficult and he could manage it, but as stiff as the bow was, the solid energy added to its draw weight, making it useless right now to him, as Jon was not strong enough physically to pull the string back. Arrows imbued, however would pierce the heart of a tree and disappear into it completely. Good thing Jon's quiver never ran out of arrows.
Jon returned to Jarl Svygard's battle mage in the time frame he had provided. This time, when Jon showed the battle mage what he could do, he was impressed. "Jon could feel the vibrations of multiple types of metal and wooden objects. He demonstrated technique and control. I have no problems teaching him to imbue elemental energy into objects." Thought the battle mage.
"Well, Jon Berskaggr, you have demonstrated control and fine technique, I will show you the next step, it is more dangerous than the last and control is everything. Please listen carefully and try not to destroy my tent please." This was the first time Jon had heard this man make a joke, it wasn't half bad.
Jon was fully focusing his attention now on his mentor, as the battle mage began to explain. "So for standard energy imbuement, you had to break a few barriers and attune to your object. The difference is with elemental imbuing is now you need to visualize the aspects of the chosen element, while adding energy into your visualization, taking the element into your body. You must attune now to the element chosen, and use your mental control to make the object vibrate at the frequency of your energy, AFTER you visualize the elemental aspect you are looking to use. Remember, if your container is covered, you wet the ground. You could lose a hand if you do this wrong, the effect will be much more powerful if you mess up." The battle mage was deadly serious and Jon knew it, the look in his cold, icy blue eyes told it all.
Jon closed his eyes, recalling the aspects of lightning, the energy around him became charged with electricity as his aura began to take on the element of lightning. Jon's hair began to stand on end and he could feel the electrical energy between his skin and the end of his aura.
Jon let his energies mix, creating a similar feeling throughout his body as when he used the elemental spell as an attack. Jon visualized these energies swirling together and felt them attune perfectly. Jon began to feel the energy of Reaper in his hand, and used his aura to manipulate the energy field of the axe, until he felt the energies attune, losing the familiar slight tickle of the wooden handle. Jon was ready to try to imbue lightning into his axe. As Jon pushed the energy into his axe, it began to shine gold and bright purple.
Jon pushed a huge amount of energy into Reaper and as the Gold settled over Reaper, Jon felt the energies were different, but the axe looked the exact same. Disheartened, Jon felt he had done the technique incorrectly.
"Good job, Jon and on the first try too! You are a talented individual, indeed!" Jarl Svygard's battle mage exclaimed. "Quickly, come with me to the target range, swing the axe and let me see how it reacts." Upon saying this, the men left towards the combat area.
Jon's axe was garnering attention, as no one had seen this piece of weaponry before, it must be a status indicator, as real gold was far softer than steel.
As they finally made it to the combat area, Jon took aim at a wooden man and swung his weapon at it.
The lightning arced to the wood and left a nice smoldering hole in the wood, not even halfway through it. "Jon, why don't you try chopping into the wood, it should be fine and not harm you in the slightest. Lightning cannot hurt lightning and you are the bolt striking the target." The battle mage instructed Jon.
Jon walked up to the target and immediately swung Reaper at the target. As Reaper was making the arc, the faster it moved, the fiercer the lightning coming from the blade. As the axe struck the wooden target, the lightning began chirping and completely exploded the target, arcing lightning in the direction he was swinging, effectively striking the targets next to, and slightly behind the one he had just decimated.
"Beautiful, young pupil! I hope you have learned a few tricks as this will be the last lesson on this. You have learned all I can teach you, now you must master this on your own. Congratulations, but remember, do not get ahead of yourself. Mastery of this takes far longer than that of regular energy manipulation techniques. You are at the beginning stages right now. I will come to you for your next lesson. Have a nice day." The battle mage left without saying another word.
Jon continued to practice lightning aspect well after dark, while others were drinking, Jon was sweating, making himself better. There was the rest of Winter to drink, only now, while the knowledge was still fresh in his mind, could Jon make it muscle memory. Jon continued to practice this for a week, while also keeping his combat skills ready.
After a month of continuous practice, Jon looked like he could be the offspring of Tor, Old God of the Hunt, the Harvest, and the Storm. Jon's lightning arcs only targeted those he marked in his mind, as his father would stand next to him with sword and shield in mock shield wall style, even though he held an iron sword, the lightning would never hit him, as control was everything, Jon had it down.
This month the snow was not very deep, so Jon went into the woods looking to claim a wild animal for a special celebration feast tonight with his father. Finding a few rabbits, Jon harvested them quickly and started on his way back. What Jon saw next made him forget about the feast and sprint back to the city for fear of every man, woman and child behind the walls.