Darius glanced back at Krista practicing her knife throwing. Standing about 20 feet from a medium sized tree, she rhythmically tossed her knives at its trunk. Krista had created a small target using some of the paint she borrowed from Darius, but he couldn't say that she was all that accurate. Every knife hit the trunk, but, on average only two or three of her five knives hit the target.
"Give me a second," Darius said, making his way towards Krista.
He continued to watch her throw her knives, honestly there wasn't much to complain about. She had the technique, the power, the finesse, but she still continued to miss.
"Krista!" Darius had jumped in her way as she pulled her arm back ready to throw her next knife, closely dodging out the way as the knife came careening towards him by a startled Krista.
"Move out the way before you get a knife lodged in your face!" she screamed.
"Not likely with your aim." He scoffed, dodging another wild knife toss. "You've got the form down, I'll give you that, but your mindset is all wrong."
"Is that right?" Krista mocked.
Darius walked to the tree and collected the five throwing knives, carrying them, Darius noticed they were a lot smaller than he expected. The hilt was very small, more so fit for a child, but the blade was well weighted for being made of iron.
"It is, you're way too focused on hitting your target."
"If I don't focus on the target… How am I supposed to hit it?"
"Hitting a target is easy," Darius said as he nonchalantly threw one of the knives into the tree, hitting the trunk but massively missing the target. "Especially a target as big as the tree, but what you want to do is hit a point." This time he focused on the target, adding form and finesse to his technique, hitting the target near the middle.
"Well, you're just focusing on the target, what was I doing differently?"
"No, I know where the target is, I'm not focusing on that at all. I'm focused on change. The change in the weather, the change in my movement, the changes in the weight of my knives."
Darius brought out five of his own knives. A good bit larger and cruder than Krista's, the way they would carry through the air should be completely different, yet when Darius threw it, it landed right next to hers. Then another, and another, one after the other he through the knives with impressive accuracy.
"Okay, that's pretty good. Where'd you learn to throw knives like that? … Hello?"
Krista's words didn't reach Darius, he was having too much fun. It had been some time since he could just relax and throw knives. Amelia saw an opportunity and jumped at the chance to drill her lessons in.
"Just like that Darius, keep your mind empty. However, every time you throw the knife feel your muscles tense as energy flows through them. When you feel the energy enter, hold onto that feeling, hold it and let it spread throughout your body."
An extremely faint red aura creeped around the top half of Darius's body. His knife throwing slowed, becoming a highly methodical procedure of picking up knife, tensing his body, and releasing. From the side, Amelia and Krista could also see a red lining appear around his brown eyes. This continued until he had only one of his knives left.
"Now! Darius release that energy!" Amelia shouted.
Darius yelled loudly and throwing the knife with an extreme velocity. As the blade traveled, the knife looked like a whirlwind, and when it reached the tree, the knife's blade sinking all the way into the trunk. Darius fell to his knees panting.
"Wow, that was a rush." Darius laughed while lying on the floor, laboriously breathing. "Did I take out that tree?"
"No, not quite," Krista said, "but I don't think you'll be getting that knife back anytime soon."
"Well, as your teacher I'm very proud of your first time using Augmentation wattiez, without a staff I might add." Amelia added. "Though I think Krista may be right, the knife went pretty in pretty far."
When Darius was finally able to sit upwards, he looked towards the tree. Like they said, Darius wasn't getting his knife back, but he didn't do as much damage as he thought he did, especially with how tired he was from the experience.
"I feel like that's just your way of saying I did good, not great," Darius responded as he tried to stand. A futile effort as he went careening towards the ground. Luckily, he was saved by Krista who put her head under his arm. "Thanks."
Krista laid him onto a resting Nightshade and sleeping Fierce. Due to his status as untethered, the other nymphs tended to avoid Nightshade. His aggressive nature towards them didn't help, a sentiment he held for anyone who wasn't Darius and lately Fierce.
After about a week, Fierce was able to easily move on her own, and she took any chance to get out of the pouch Krista rigged for her on Terra's side, to walk wherever she wanted. Her favorite location being next to Nightshade. Although he used to carry that same aggression towards the young griffin, Fierce's persistent natured waned on Nightshade, who gave up on trying to avoid her.
"Don't you three just look adorable," Krista teased.
"Nothing you say could bother me right now. I can feel the wattiez inside me. I can even feel it moving all around me."
Amelia sat down beside Darius, to Nightshade's discomfort and tightly grabbed his shoulders. "Never forget that feeling! That feeling is the basis to all forms of wattiez, and you, being someone who can use all the forms, must master that feeling."
It was getting pretty late, and Darius was feeling well out of it. "Why don't we pick up from here three days from now. Until then, I'll spend my time practicing on holding the wattiez in my body and expelling it."
Amelia stood up and nodded, "That should be fine, but don't forget to keep practicing. The next lesson will be on the Hex, I'm sure Kristina told you all she could about it, I'll just give you more specific details and examples."
"Until then," Darius said before losing himself into the sweet embrace of sleep.