"You seem to be in a good mood this morning, Mr. Evren." Harley said with a bright smile.
"That I am, Harley. Last night I found a new spellbook." Evren said with a smile.
Harley brightened up at the possibilities of new spells. "Don't get too excited yet, Harley. I haven't been able to cast them yet." Evren said as he headed towards the field.
"What kind of spells are they Mr. Evren?" Harley asked.
"They're lightning based spells. I couldn't try them last night because I thought they might be too loud." Evren replied.
"What is lightning, Mr. Evren?" Harley asked with a tilt of the head.
Evren stopped and looked at Harley in surprise before mumbling to himself, "Of course, it doesn't rain down here." He thought for a moment before he began walking again. "Ah… lightning happens during storms when a big line of light called electricity strikes the ground. Electricity is a form of energy that in low doses makes your muscles twitch but can cause serious damage if you're exposed to too much of it."
As he walked along, he said, "I'm afraid you'd have to experience it to fully understand. I'm going to get Walter to help me with a test. He just doesn't know it yet." Harley's eyes opened wide in surprise as she followed along after Evren.
As they approached the field, they saw the guard trio stretching their muscles. Evren called out to Walter, "Walter, come here a sec, I want to check something."
Walter said, "Sure." And walked over to Evren.
Evren held out his hand and said, "Take my hand." Walter reached out and held his hand, "'Shock.'" Walter jerked his hand out of Evren's yelling, "OW!" He shook his hand while looking at it. Evren watched and said, "Ah, I see. So, like a joy buzzer."
"What the hell, Evren?!" Walter asked in a loud voice.
Evren shrugged as if confused, "What? I told you I wanted to try something. Did you want me to kiss it and make it all better?"
Walter said with a pouty face, "Maybe."
They both laughed and Evren asked, "Aside from the pain, did you feel anything else?"
Walter nodded, "My wrist and forearm got a little numb too. It's ok now though."
Evren nodded, "Ok, might be good to use in some situations." He thought for a moment before looking at Isobel, "You might have some good uses out of that one. I'll explain later."
He looked to the others, "I want to try these spells out before I go running. You all can go ahead if you want, or you can watch. Up to you."
He picked up a rock from the ground and thought for a moment before drawing his dagger as well. He held the rock up first and chanted, "'Charge.'" He tossed the rock and waited. After five seconds it burst with a fizzle that sounded like a small spark. Evren repeated the same test with his dagger, but the result was different. Instead of a small spark it sounded like electricity arcing.
He picked up his dagger and put it away. He looked at the ground a distance away and chanted, "'Jolt.'" A ball of electricity appeared at that spot with a loud snap. Evren nodded with an impressed face, then turned to Walter as if to say, "Want to test that one?" Walter took a step backwards.
Evren smiled and picked the same spot on the ground casting, 'Electrocute.' An arcing ball of electricity appeared at the target location as if angry. It was snapping and popping and sizzling for five seconds until it stopped. Evren's face turned from a surprise to a smile. He held his hand out in front of him and cast 'Lightning bolt.' A series of arcs extended outward from his hand three meters in front of him like some mad scientist's lab equipment.
For the last test, he drew out his dagger again, and cast 'discharge' upon it. He threw it at the sacrificial tree and stared at it for a while before nodding and then saying. "Ok, I'm going for a run."
The rest watched him run off, then alternated between him and the dagger wondering what the spell was, but nobody wanted to check the dagger and eventually followed him on the run.
When Evren got back from the run, he began working on the rope mannequin. He made sure the knots were all still in good shape. He took the extra knife he brought with him and tied it to the end of one of the mannequin's hands. While he was working on the mannequin, the others started to arrive, beginning with Walter.
When Harley arrived, who was the last one, Evren taught her a new spell, 'manipulate' saying, "Now this spell is more like my ability, but it only works on small items, and it doesn't move the item very fast."
Harley didn't care though; she was having the time of her life moving stuff around with the spell. She was a little disappointed she didn't get a chance to learn one of the new spells, but only for a moment.
Before anything else, Evren released the spell he had been holding on the dagger he threw at the tree. A loud crash, like lightning had dropped on them and a flash of light caused everyone, including Evren to jump. Evren looked at the smoking tree and went over to retrieve his dagger. The dagger was hot, but bearable, so Evren put it away.
"Was that the spell you cast before we went running?" Walter asked. Evren only nodded. He went to his backpack and pulled out his bow. He strung it and nocked one of his hunting arrows on the string. He pulled the arrow back cast 'discharge' on the bow and began feeding magic into the bow. It began glowing as Evren began straining against the string. Evren released the string as he sent a burst of magic into the bow, and the arrow disappeared.
Evren lowered the bow and was staring down the field. Everyone else looked and he snapped his fingers. At the same time a bright flash of light came from the 300 m target and a half a second later, a loud boom. Evren was pleased. He was smiling and nodding and staring at Fletcher. He raised his eyebrows and said, "You're learning that one." He gestured to Fletcher to let him have the mithril bow.
Fletcher said, "I've never seen you use magic on that bow before, what's it do?"
As Evren was pulling the string back on the mithril bow he said, "It makes the draw heavier in proportion to the magic injected into it." He put magic into the bow and a magical arrow appeared. Evren chanted 'discharge' and frowned, releasing the arrow and hitting the 300 m target.
"Didn't work on the magic arrows." He said as he handed the bow back to Fletcher.
"Did you just hit the 300-meter target?" Fletcher asked as he took the bow back.
Evren shrugged as if it was nothing, "Yeah." And he turned around and walked over to Isobel. "Starting tomorrow, you're only running half the distance in the morning. When you get back here, do sprints to the 50-meter target and back until everyone else gets back." Evren nodded with a smile and patted her on the shoulder.
"Walter, what are your plans right now?" Evren asked.
"Well, I was thinking of doing a patrol." Walter replied.
"You might want to head into town, I didn't tell anyone there'd be loud noises coming from here this morning." Evren said with a shrug.
Walter turned towards town and then nodded. "Yeah. It probably would be a good idea to talk to them." He then began walking off towards town.
Evren then turned back to Isobel and began explaining how the 'shock' spell worked while Fletcher was practicing hitting targets and Harley was moving rocks around still.
When he was done explaining, and she tried casting 'shock' it succeeded and sent a jolt through Evren's shoulder where she was touching him. He then said, "Now, come over here to Mr. Ropey. I put a dagger in his hand so we can practice using shock on him. I don't think it'll conduct very well through rope, but that'll still be good practice."
He stood in front of the mannequin and with his right hand he reached up under the wrist of the mannequin, "Now, you want to hook the wrist with your wrist, and push it towards the enemy's center. Once you get to center, begin grabbing the wrist as you push downward and to the right, pulling the enemy towards you. I'm not pulling because Mr. Ropey won't move."
He grabbed the wrist of the mannequin and said, "Once you have grabbed the wrist, cast 'shock' and then hit the back of the elbow with your left hand." Evren cast 'shock' and hit the elbow gently to not break the arm of the mannequin. "If you have a stronger target, you can use your forearm or elbow to do the strike."
He stepped back and let her stand in front of the mannequin. "Get a little closer. Now first step; turn right, arm up and to the left. Next, hook your wrist to the target. More sideways and bend like this." Evren manipulated her hand to the correct position. "Now, push inwards and then down while turning to the left. Now grab the wrist and use 'shock.'" A small pop was heard similar to the one Evren had done during his demonstration. "Pull back on the wrist and break the elbow." Isobel struck the mannequin's arm with her elbow, breaking the wooden core.
Evren stares down at the broken elbow, "I didn't want you to actually break the elbow. I probably should have said that out loud." He shrugged, "Ah well. Let's do it again."
Isobel repeated the move at the same speed as she had previously done, making sure that she was doing the technique correctly instead of fast. Once she had gotten the hang of the technique she asked, "How fast do I have to do this?"
Evren shrugged, "As fast as you want. Or rather, it depends on the target. If the enemy has a fast reaction, you can do it fast, if it's slow, this speed is fine."
Evren then said, "Works great in a bar with someone getting a little too touchy-feely, too."
Isobel asked, "What's a bar?"
Evren sighed and closed his eyes thinking, "A tavern? A place where people go and drink and socialize … I mean talk."
Evren pointed at the mannequin and said, "Alright, practice this until it's comfortable to you."