Damien yelped as Delph smacked him hard on the arm. The mage armor hardened an instant later. The professor clicked his tongue as Damien groaned and nursed the newest bruise on his body.
Delph claimed to have a sense of humor, but the man was deadly serious about training. Damien was pretty sure the only part of him the professor had yet to hit were his eyes, and that was only because he'd missed.
Sylph still ran circles around the arena. She'd lasted longer than he had, but the exercise was starting to take its toll on her. Her footsteps fell heavier, and her breathing, which had initially been completely silent, had become labored.
"Getting tired?" Delph asked cheerfully as he rapped Damien across the chest.
"Yes," Sylph said plainly, slowing to a jog. "Should I stop?"
Delph considered the question for a moment. Then he nodded.
"You might as well. I'd say you're all warmed up," Delph said, lowering the stick for a moment. Damien started to let out a breath of relief. It vanished as a warning buzz ran through his mind. Instinctively, Damien hardened the entire left side of his mage armor, using up all the Ether he'd stored.
The stick smacked against the hardened cloth covering Damien's left arm harmlessly. The professor smirked and gave him a slight nod.
"Well done. Don't do it again. We're training precision.
Turning yourself into a statue isn't going to be useful in a fight."
Damien gave the man a wary nod, not taking his eyes off the stick. Delph chuckled and tossed it to the side. It hit the ground and dissolved back into sand.
"Rest for a while," Delph told Damien. "It's Sylph's turn."
The professor walked up to Sylph. Wordlessly, the girl dropped into a fighting stance. Delph walked in a circle around her, examining it.
"You've trained before," he observed.
"I have," Sylph said, not explaining further.
"Good. That will make my job easier. Now, before I continue, there are a few things that actually pertain to both of you."
Sylph cocked her eyebrow.
"As you may or may not be aware, a large part of Blackmist's curriculum revolves around quests. You work in groups of two or three for them. If neither of you have an objection, I will be making you a group. Your combat styles are likely to be complementary, and you're already roommates. Is this okay?"
"It's fine with me," Sylph said. "My partner will not have a significant effect on my ability to perform."
"Wrong. Your survival depends on being able to rely on your teammate," Delph said casually, glancing at Damien.
"I'm fine with it if Sylph doesn't mind," Damien said, wisely choosing not to comment further.
"In that case, there will be no need to hide information about each other's abilities and weaknesses," Delph said. "I like to talk openly, so this will make things easier for me.
It'll probably be embarrassing for you, though."
Delph turned back to Sylph. He stroked his beard for a few moments before he started talking again.
"Your physical endurance is good. Much better than the average student here. Your movements are precise and controlled, so it is apparent you've been training for a long time. When we fought, you wasted no magic, and you struck to kill. You're almost the perfect mage for the frontlines," Delph said. "However, your magical power is pathetic. Incredibly so. If it wasn't for your ridiculous levels of control, I would not even consider teaching you. I've seen squirrels with more magical power than you."
Sylph's face remained flat, but Damien spotted her wince for an instant as the professor ripped her apart.
"That being said," Delph continued. "A well-placed needle can kill a man or a monster just as well as an explosion. Your precision is already fantastic, but you will need to go beyond even that if you want to have a chance of graduating."
"What about me?" Damien asked, noticing how Sylph's cold expression wavered at Delph's final sentence.
"Impatient. I said I was starting with Sylph," the professor said. "However, you are simple. You appear to have a significant amount of magical power, but you are impulsive and foolish. You have horrible control and are either a liar or have a disturbingly powerful companion. If you could learn half of Sylph's control and a quarter of her experience in combat, you'd be an incredibly deadly force."
Henry stirred within Damien's mind. "He's observant. I wish he'd just tell us how he does his magic."
Shush. If he notices me talking with you, he'll only get more suspicious.
"Now," Delph said, raising a hand into the air palm up, "Sylph, don't take my words as insults. I will do my best to make you graduate at the top of your class. But, in the end, it all depends on your abilities as a mage. Right now, neither you nor your roommate impress me. I'm sure you'd probably pass the first year, but you'd be disappointing mages who would never make the frontlines."
Energy crackled around Delph, enveloping the man. He rose into the air as gray flesh bulged and formed around his armor. Within moments, he'd been completely replaced by a tall, gray creature with two burning red eyes and long, gangly limbs.
"This is a wendigo," Delph's voice came, although it was hard to tell from where. "It is a monster that isn't particularly common. They are quite fast, but their bodies are frail. I will begin with about twenty percent of the monster's complete strength. Your training for today will end when you can land a single blow on me."
Sylph was already moving. She shifted, blending into the background. Delph was faster. The wendigo stepped back as a line of darkness carved through the air, then grabbed Sylph by the collar and launched her across the arena.
"Seven planes," Damien cursed as Sylph righted herself midair and faded before she slammed into the wall.
"Eight," Henry corrected.
Shut up.
The sand beside the wendigo shifted. The monster twisted backward as if it were doing some strange dance, avoiding a dark slash that appeared out of nowhere and thrusting its fist into seemingly empty air.
Sylph flickered into existence and doubled over as the monster's punch drove the air out of her lungs.
The girl rolled with the strike, hopping back to her feet.
A dagger formed of shadows materialized in her right hand.
She grabbed something invisible in the air before her and pulled it to the side, stepping forward and disappearing.
"You need to learn a new trick," Delph said. The wendigo reached behind it, ripping Sylph free from her camouflage.
Her hand flicked, sending the dagger flying straight into the creature's chest. It arched its body, but the blade carved a thin furrow through the monster's thin skin. Delph let out an annoyed grunt. He set Sylph back on the ground as the monster's skin rippled and faded, revealing his normal form once again.
"That was a real transformation," Henry provided. "Not an illusion. Interesting."
Sylph let out a groan, rising to her feet and brushing the sand off her clothes.
"Clever way to win," Delph said, shaking his head in mock disgust. "Getting caught on purpose to get me off my guard works for this test, but don't be stupid enough to try that in a real fight. In the end, it doesn't matter if you kill your opponent. The most important thing is that you survive."
Delph patted Sylph on the shoulder and beckoned for Damien to join them as Sylph leaned against the wall to watch. The professor examined him with a critical eye before nodding.
"There's no point giving you a physical test," Delph said.
"You've got nothing left. I want you to run five laps around the arena every day, regardless of whether I'm teaching you that day or not."
Damien grimaced but nodded, his tired muscles already cursing him for the promise.
"Now, you demonstrated you knew how to channel the Ether, but you don't know any true spells, correct?" Delph asked.
"Not yet," Damien said.
"Then we shall test if you're as talented as you claim to be," Delph said. "Unless your mental energy is exhausted as well?"
The way he said that made it very clear that if the answer was anything other than 'no,' Damien would be running laps for the rest of the day.
"I've still got some left," Damien hedged.
"Good response. As I'm sure you know, your companion's magic determines what magic you can use.
What is lesser known is that most companions have access to multiple types of magic. They might specialize in one, but all you care about is the access. Your progress is independent of your companion's talents. As long as the door is open, you can choose to focus on what you want."
That was news to Damien. Henry just scoffed.
"So," Delph said, raising an eyebrow, "I understand some companions are not willing to commune much, but have you discovered what types of magic you'll have access to?"
Damien opened his mouth. Then he closed it and cleared his throat awkwardly as Delph's mouth thinned.
Henry? I might have forgotten the types.
"I thought you wanted me to remain quiet," the companion said petulantly.
Henry!
"Oh, relax. It's Light, Dark, Void, and Space. Try not to forget a second time," Henry said. "It goes without saying that telling him about Void would be incredibly foolish."
"I know what they are," Damien said before Delph could say anything else. "Light, Dark, and Space."
Delph paused, the words dying at his lips. He tilted his head to the side, inspecting Damien as his eyebrows slowly raised.
"Space?" he asked. "That's not a common one. I happen to have some talent with space myself, although it's not my main element."
"Is that what you used to knock Sylph out the first time you two fought?" Damien asked innocently.
"No," Delph said. "That was something else. I'd teach it to you if you met a set of certain requirements, but I've yet to run into anyone else who could learn it."
Damien nodded as Henry murmured in excitement.
"Regardless," Delph said, tapping a finger on his chin, "you'll eventually want to figure out which school of magic you want to focus on. You've got some time, so just think on it. In the meantime, I'm going to teach you a basic Space spell."
"Okay," Damien said eagerly.
"The majority of magic is based off two things," the professor lectured. "The first is intent, and the second is pattern. The Ether wants to return to its natural state. This happens when it is expended as energy."
Delph raised his hand into the air, and an orb of dark blue light formed above his palm.
"If you don't give it any intent or pattern, you get the most basic application of magic. It is simply destructive energy that is let off as the Ether moves back to a line.
However, you can make it harder to return to normal by controlling how much of the Ether can escape at once."
A crackle of lightning erupted from the orb, turning a small area of the sandy ground into glass. Damien jumped despite himself.
"I forced all the Ether to leave at once instead of letting it slowly burn off," Delph explained. "I also visualized a lightning bolt. Since your desires influence the Ether, you can encourage it to do what you want. Now, be wary of experimenting. You influence the Ether, but you do not control it. If you try to do something your school of magic does not permit, the Ether will not react how you expect, often with disastrous consequences."
Damien swallowed and nodded. It wasn't hard to understand the meaning behind Delph's words:
Experimenting was a very bad idea if he didn't know what he was doing.
"You're lucky you've got me to ask questions," Henry said, reading Damien's mind. "If you didn't, the curiosity would probably eat you, and you'd probably blow your room up."
Oh, shut up. Just because you're right doesn't mean you have to say it.
Damien did his best not to break eye contact with Delph as he responded to Henry. It was impossible to tell if the strange professor had noticed anything.
"I have access to the Sky school of magic, so lightning is a natural form of energy for me to use," Delph said. "You do not. I don't know what would happen if you visualized a bolt of lightning, so I advise against it. Of course, you could emulate it with your light magic, but you'd only get the flash and nothing else."
"So, what should I visualize for Space?" Damien asked.
"For now, we'll start small. Space magic can change the size of an object, so see if you can enlarge a grain of sand," Delph suggested. "It's basic enough that you don't need to make an actual spell for it, as all you have to do is impart the energy into the sand quickly while picturing it enlarging. Of course, that's easier said than done. Keep in mind this will not work on living creatures or magical items. They both have innate magical energy that will resist a spell of this level."
Damien nodded. He cast his mental net out once more, grabbed a mote of Ether and drew it into himself, and cast his first real spell.