A little over two months has passed since my full training began. After the wooden poles a variety of other 'routines' as she would call them were introduced. Most of them consisted of physical training while simultaneously using my sphere skill. The only outlier was whenever I would perform different drills involving my dagger or the evenings I was allowed to train freely. During that time I decided to take up practicing one of my other skills, fireball. Though there wasn't really much versatility given it was a straight shot attack I have managed to get better at controlling the range and size. I've started using it against the golems with sphere but I still haven't been able to last the full 3 minutes let alone destroy any. But today that changes.
Feeling rested and full of motivation I emerged from my tent dressed in my proper gear. As usual my mother was near a fire preparing breakfast. I could already see large portions of leftover meat prepared from the dinner we had last night. It was a large wild bird that was able to block sphere using the steel-like feathers on its wings. On top of a solid defense it also had high speed allowing it to charge with its wings angled forward essentially creating a high speed ram. Had I not practiced fireball I might have been completely screwed..
While I reflected, breakfast was enjoyed and finished. Soft white light rained down in small rays from what areas of the gray clouds it could escape. Winter had now set into full effect and the forest was often covered in a small layer of snow. Despite that the mana zone remained in its lush green state providing what became a nice escape on hunting days.
We soon set out towards the training grounds, our gear now covered by fur coats. When the snowfall began my mother began to inform me of how some elves go their entire lives without seeing snow. Apparently only the outer parts of the continent near the mana zones experience winters strong enough for snow. As you move inwards in the continent winter becomes less and less apparent. Once you get within a radius of the center of the continent where the capitol is, and the hero used her skill, winter ceases entirely. Instead that entire area is in a perpetual spring/summer state, similar to the mana zone.
As the cold breeze was piercing my face like small needles I couldn't help but almost fantasize about that. Even my normal winters of simply staying inside and avoiding the snow sounded pretty great right now.
Eventually we arrived at the clearing of trees where the training grounds quickly came into view. We approached and began making our way to an open area in the back where the stone golems stood scattered about lifelessly and covered in a thin sheet of snow. It was Monday which meant a week had once again passed and I would be forced to use everything I had to survive 3 minutes with these things.
While I have started to improve on my physique and combat I haven't found out much new when it comes to the test.. Just that there's a soccer field size barrier put up to keep me from just running, and these golems are completely fire resistant.
Along with the golems being fire resistant there was another downside to using fireball in that it causes my sphere to lose its form and vanish meaning I need to recast it. With that in mind I stopped a small distance from the clustered golems.
"Ready!" my mother spoke loudly and firmly from nearby. When she did I raised my hand as a jagged and unrefined obsidian wand formed.
Over the last two months not only has my physical combat improved but my mental as well. When I looked at the golems I felt the usual dread when memories of broken bones and blinding pain entered my mind. The difference now was that is all there was, no fear, no waver. Just dread and a blaring determination to defy and overcome.
"Begin!" as her words echoed and the golems began to come alive. In the meantime I had launched myself forward running directly at them with my wand held steady ahead "Sphere"
A refined orb formed at the wand's tip. The golems had also begun their charge with more than half of the initial 100ft distance between us already closed. Without stopping I launched the sphere striking the frontmost golem. When it did I immediately began to swipe the air with my wand creating a cutting sound in the wind as I sent the sphere from one golem to the next like a pinball machine taking count of them as I did so.
1,2,3,4 I counted as the sphere hit the golems near the front of the charge. On impact they experienced their temporary deactivation allowing me to run right past them. As I did, two more charged from the sides and another from in front. Using the golems behind me I was going to be trapped from all 4 directions. My mind began to pace as the realization dawned on me but I refuse to let myself slip now.
I immediately focused my attention to my right. "Sphere" a new orb formed and shot forward from my wand. By doing so my original sphere is lost making this more mana inefficient but the trade off is not having to recover and move sphere across a large distance to attack. As such my attack recovery is not as heavily halted by distanced opponents.
A small smirk formed on my face as I directed the sphere to impact the three golems. This was actually my first time trying this tactic outside of my free training and I couldn't help but feel proud to see it work so well.
In that time the 4 golems behind me had reset and come back to life. They had not resumed their charge and were still relatively clustered. In order to take advantage of this I quickly spun away from 3 lifeless golems and focused my attention to those ahead of me. Holding my wand at an acute angle to the ground "Fireball!" and a small flame formed at the wand's end. The flame swirled in a circular pattern growing in size as I lifted my arm through the air until the wand was aimed at the group and the now soccer ball sized ball of fire went flying forward striking the ground in their center. When the ball of fire struck the snow covered grass it exploded causing a cloud of steam from the evaporating snow as smaller clusters of fire scattered and the golems once again.
As I watched the golems disappear in the steamy smoke screen I turned to once again combat the three behind me. When I did I was quickly met by a charging golem 10-15ft from me. I had been so focused on countering their trap I failed to notice I only ever fought seven out of eight golems. I had started the count to make sure this didn't happen again and yet still allowed myself to forget.
With the distance quickly closing I raised my wand in a slightly panicked manner yet without losing focus "FIREBALL" the flame quickly swirled and shot forward at the golem now 8 or so feet in front of me. As it went flying forward from the corner of my eye was a blur that struck the golem simultaneous to the fireball. When it did, a cloud of steam once again appeared but this time it was not only greater in size and ferocity but scalding water sprayed outward. Various sized droplets struck my face causing me to let out a yell as my wand vanished and I went to swipe at my burning face. My skin began to bubble and blister causing an intense pain that seemed to be pierced by the cold like knives across my face.
<{Skill: (E) [Sphere] 1/3 - Mana:50} has advanced to {Skill: (E) [Sphere] 2/3 - Mana:45} < <