The sun shone down upon the land, embracing it with a kind and gentle warmth, and set not so shortly after with a tired goodbye. Then again and again. It has graced the faces of two young warriors over thirty times as their training continued. And thirty more times would it slumber before on an inevitably cold and calm night they would finally collapse with not a muscle willing to respond.
Their eyes grew weary as they groaned and yawned in correspondence. Liz smiled upon them as she slowly walked toward them and crouched down with a sigh.
"Even with small naps you can only go so long without a full rest. Still, two months is quite impressive. Maybe you really do have what it takes in you, kid. Now, go to sleep, this is only the beginning." she muttered with a soft and caring voice that caressed the boy's ears as she slowly petted both of their heads; a small smile spread across each of their faces as they fell into a deep and relaxing slumber.
Daylight broke through the forest trees as the two boys were embraced by the warm light. Pheo's eyes slowly opened as his pupils peeked at the warm and bright sun that greeted him with all of its love and care. A small and soft yawn had gently escaped from Pheo's mouth as he had begun to stretch, readjusting to the comfortable feeling of absolute serenity.
In contrast to the intense training and minimal rest he had just gone through, Pheo felt as if he had slept a thousand years in an angel's arms, and was now descending back down upon the welcoming grass that had embraced his body as it tickled him with its early morning dew.
A smile uncontrollably made itself apparent across Pheo's face as he gradually arose with one last stretch and rubbed his eyes prior to surveying his surroundings. Pheo soon noticed, Liz and Eli sparring in front of him.
Though Liz was simply defending with her staff, her elegant and deliberate movements along with her ever mysterious cape waving made her appear as a manifestation of the wind itself. She elegantly weaved her way through one attack after another. Soon she noticed his arrival and, after dodging another attack from Eli, tripped Eli and caught him as he fell, picking him up onto his feet.
Liz smiled softly as she slowly walked towards Pheo who was still raising himself from the ground. Liz offered a hand and pulled him up with a slight giggle and sighed before commenting, "Did you enjoy your sleep? You worked yourself half to death so hard I was worried you may not wake up; you were asleep for 26 whole hours."
At these words, Pheo jumped up in shock: "Eh! Twenty-six hours? Are you serious? Is that, like, even possible?" Pheo exclaimed in utter disbelief and shock.
Liz simply laughed softly in response with a small sigh, "Well you just did, so, I suppose yes. Really you shouldn't be so surprised when you were training for 2 months with only small naps." Liz said with a small eye roll. Pheo meanwhile had only been consumed by even more shock as he now held his head trying to comprehend the idea of him doing such a thing.
"HU-U-U-UH-H-H-H?! I did what now?! No, no way, I do not have that kind of attention span. Completely impossible!" In spite of his disbelief, he didn't really believe Liz was lying, but he still refused to accept the fact he had trained for 2 months straight. Though, as he thought harder about it, he came to the realization the last 2 months of his life are hazy due to tiredness.
Eli laughed a little and tossed Pheo a sword that he caught instinctively with no trouble, in contrast to his previous struggle. Eli readies his own sword with a playful and mischievous smirk of a schooler about to do something that they could only describe as 'really cool'.
He then scoffed before offering, "Well, if you aren't so sure, how about a test to see if you really did retain that muscle memory!"
Pheo sighed dismissively until he almost instantly took on the same battle stance and his own cocky smirk, matching Eli's playful and competitive energy one for one.
"Well, I guess it can't be helped, but hey, don't cry if the rookie beats the pride out of ya!" Pheo remarks with confidence.
Eli simply rolls his eyes as he hits with his own comeback, "Kid, you can't even hit me."
Liz smiled softly as she watched them, causing her to feel like a mother watching her children play fight. She clapped and added in teasingly:
"Wow~ What an interesting insult battle, but do you plan on actually clashing swords anytime?" She said with a smug tone of voice as she raised an eyebrow.
Eli and Pheo acted in unison as they both began to charge forward and shouted in synchrony:
"Don't you underestimate me now!"
They dashed at each other at impressive speeds clashing in no time. Sparks flew as steel met steel again and again! Although Eli was clearly holding back he wasn't allowing any hits. However, still he'd find himself caught off guard multiple times as Pheo worked his way around Eli's attacks. Pheo's fighting was oddly mannered, every part of his body moved independently, his feet danced one way as his sword snaked the other and his body twisted of its own accord. However, a trained eye could see, that this chaos was actually quite organized and allowed Pheo to weave himself in and out of many situations.
Their blades come to clash once again as they pushed hard against each other both unrelenting with their wills. Pheo has completely lost himself in the excitement as evident by the grin stretched across his face.
Eli scoffed, "Pretty good kid, but can you keep up with this?" As he said that, there was a flash, and he disappeared. There was next to no time for interaction, but for the single second Pheo had to comprehend what had happened. A thought rushed through his brain: "It's just like that move from that one show! … A flashstep, which means he'll likely…"
Eli appeared in an instant behind Pheo, ready to attack. Yet at that same moment, he realized Pheo's right foot had already been heading in the direction of his own left foot before he had even gotten there. He was completely taken off guard as Pheo's right foot rammed into his left.
Pheo then spun around swinging his sword at intense speed at Eli who had for once panicked as he responded by swinging his own sword at Pheo's.
Their swords clashed with an earsplitting clang and a shockwave strong enough to knock over a child. However, due to the momentum brought by Pheo's wind up opposed to Eli's lack of any control at the moment, Eli's sword only stopped the blade from directly hitting him. Pheo continued to swing his sword in a downward arc, slamming Eli into the ground and then stepping on his chest, to add insult to injury.
Liz freezes in place as her body proceeds to cease all functions to prioritize the nagging question of:
"What the hell just happened, and how?"
The truth that Pheo didn't completely understand himself was that he simply followed a muscle memory, he saw familiar moves in fantasy and action shows he had watched and had them memorized as a trope. That was an action he could easily recognize and imagine in his mind. So for the fun of it, he managed counters, what he'd do in the impossible scenario, and he rehearsed it over and over again. He had thought it faded to obscurity in his mind, but to his surprise, his muscle memory was as reliable as ever.
Eli coughed a little and groaned before letting out another flash as he immediately appeared next to Liz.
Liz, who is still completely bewildered, which is highly evident from her expression, finally asked, "How on earth did you do that? Reacting to an attack you've never seen and immediately following it up without hesitation, that should be impossible for a rookie!" She's almost frustrated at the absolute mystery of the feat she had just witnessed.
Pheo simply rubbed the back of his head with an apologetic grin and an awkward chuckle as he explained, "I don't know really… I just kind of recognized a similar move and then muscle memory kicked in." He shrugged as Liz sighed heavily as Eli simply went with it, "Well you got one hell of a muscle memory, sure you aren't some distant travelling warrior with a bad case of amnesia?" He tilted his head but before Pheo could answer he went on, "Well you're fairly skilled, at least skilled enough. Shall we move on to the next step?"
Pheo just sat in confusion, "There's another step?" His cluelessness had slowly begun to re-emerge.
Liz rolled her eyes and sighed, walking forward. "You need some form of magic at least. Though I don't have the patience to train you for months, and it'd be more difficult to teach magic anyway. I take it you don't know how to begin to cast magic, right? Teaching magic isn't like Eli's teaching of a sword technique, it'd be teaching you how to use your arms. Luckily, there is a way to brute force it and start it off easy, all I need you to do is close your eyes and brace yourself."
Pheo flinched a little, nervous at the idea of bracing himself for magic to be forced into his body, but eventually complied and closed his eyes. He kept his breathing steady as he waited in a dark anticipation. Soon he felt something at his feet, he thought it was likely a magic circle. It was as if he could feel it glowing, like the light radiating from it touched his very soul, the light of the magic circle soon grew so bright it made everything else seem dark from the inside.
For a moment he felt as if he lost all of his breath and was nearly about to panic until Eli put a hand on his chest and reassured him. "Breathe steadily, do not worry, you are safe." he said comfortingly in an almost fatherly and guiding tone. Pheo's face blushed a light red as he obeyed and began to practice slow and steady breaths.
It felt as if his very soul had begun floating, and he lost all sense of physical touch. He felt like he was truly ascending mortality as his soul was gently caressed by the magics light, he soon reached a stasis.
Liz sighed with a slightly exhausted tone, "Now for the real part, to start off I will grant you two basic and easy spells that shouldn't take a toll during the transfer."
Suddenly the gentle aura around him increased in power as it felt like it was piercing his very essence and forcing its way, though the feeling was still euphoric it was also incredibly intense and overbearing.
Liz smiled, "Great, now to the end…"
All of a sudden it felt as if Pheo's body had begun plummeting from the atmosphere at speeds beyond light, hitting the ground instantly with a devastating impact. However, as his eyes opened, and he began to catch breath Pheo noticed he and the surroundings were perfectly fine. His body, however, felt absolutely exhausted. He slowly stretched and groaned.
Liz smiled as she went on to explain, "The first time is pretty intense for anyone, regardless of who. Magic is a rather powerful and mystical thing, linked with the very essence of the universe and mortal life. I granted you two rather simple spells, even you should be able to use: Grab, which forms a magical blue rope tied around your hand and tied around whatever target you wish to tie it around. It instantly manifests like that as well, so it's not possible to dodge, and limited to your own mana. So if you plan on binding anyone your strength or above for more than a second, good luck. Alternatively you can also force it to propel you towards an object. The general application of this i-"
Before Liz could even finish Pheo had already used grab to hurl himself at trees and used his momentum to carry himself even faster than should be possible. Pheo might not been the smartest, but momentum was in fact his favorite term.
The duo watched as Pheo slung himself around, occasionally slamming into a tree or rock, but resiliently continuing. Eli tilted his head, "how's he getting so fast?"
Eli questioning was due to the fact advanced physics such as momentum were not yet taught to everyone at that time.
Liz simply sighed "Momentum, I don't have time to teach it to you, but basically he's using complicated physics to conserve and increase his speed as he moves. Maybe I'll teach you later."
Eli let out a defeated sigh, "I feel so dumb…" He looked up at Pheo who did not seem to plan on stopping and is rather had the time of his life.
"He knows so much for a kid who, well, doesn't know anything."
Liz simply nodded, "I'll figure out this kid one way or another, but in the meantime, I really don't mind him."
Eli sighs, "yeah, me neither."
They both sat down as they watched the genius idiot in front of them swinging around at incredible speeds, utilizing his terrain to its fullest, only to crash into a tree, and try again.
One has to wonder, is he a lost cause? Or this world's newest star?
Back and forth
To and fro
Is there truly no limit
to how far he'll go?
Blisters and cuts,
All are snuffed
By the wind of his determination
Endlessly revelling in newfound liberation
Where will he go
What will he do
Shall he shine for the people
Or will his freedom snuff his flame too?