RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Six - LISTEN UP, MAGGOTS!

  The sun was bright and it was only teically cloudy because a few big puffball clouds were decorating the skies. The air was nid warm, but moving along at a brisk pace, so that no matter what, it was alerfectly fy.

  It was, in short, the perfect weather for being outside.

  I was standio Amaryllis and Awen, the three of us wearing clothes that we didn’t care much about, just in case they got torn up or sweaty. In fact, I was wearing pants for the first time sining to Dirt!

  Across from us, Bastion was standing at ease, a wooden pole held loosely by his side. “Alright, maggots!” he shouted, voice mean and growly. “Today I’m going to do my best to turn you sorry wastes of air into proper soldiers! If I do my jht, by the end of this afternoon, you will know whid of the sword to stito your oppos--That’s if I unscrew all the stupid from your thick plebian skulls!”

  I blihen raised a hand. “Um, Bastion... why are you being mean?”

  The sylph stared at me. “You waraining?”

  “Well, yes, but I didn’t think that would mean you would be screaming rude things at us. I waraining on how to fight, not on how to hold back fr.”

  “Uh, well, that’s how my drill sergeants spoke,” he said.

  Amaryllis crossed her arms. “We’re hardly privates in the Sylphfree army. We are explorers who want to live a little longer.”

  Bastion cleared his throat. “Right, five me. In that case, I... suppose I skip a few steps.”

  “Wait, there were multiple steps that involved screaming?” I asked.

  “Well, teically most of them. Usually you’d want to break a new soldier’s bad habits, then rebuild them up. It’s also good for team cohesion tainst a drill sergeant. At least, that’s the ventional knowledge.”

  “But you’re a friend,” I said.

  Bastion closed his eyes. “You... would be difficult to train, I think. Actually, you would be a nightmare to train. But, most of that is about funing as a single unit, which this crew is surprisingly good at, despite the ck of training. I suppose we do some drills to reinforce that, and perhaps a bit of one-on-one sparring, to sharpen what’s already there.”

  “That would be great!” I said.

  Bastion nodded. “Right, let’s start with the basics, the things that most will learn before learning how to spar.” He raised a hand, and with a snap of his fingers, formed a small, glowing ball over his palm.

  “Oh, magic!” I cheered. “I didn’t know you knew magic.”

  “I know a bit,” Bastion said. “It’s somewhat more advanced, but most well-trained soldiers will know at least a few spells. These are called the big seven, and you won’t find a single soldier that ’t cast them all. Not necessarily well, or quickly, but they should be able to cast them all.”

  “Oh, that’s probably more spells than I know, total.”

  Bastion made a so-so gesture. “I’ve seen you use two dozen ing magic spells. ing balls, trag projectiles, bolts, beams, and widely dispersed magic. Your fireballs have some versatility. Though, yes, you are correct that you’re not a magic-focused batant, or a proper batant at all, for that matter. That’s not a bad thing. Also, warriors tend to be stronger when they focus on stamina abilities. They drain slower and st signifitly longer in a prolonged battle.”

  Amaryllis nodded. “Mages, like myself, are very much about the alpha-strike. Hitting very hard in a single moment. That’s why I picked up a more versatile sed css. Awen here has a strange magical css that’s a bit more of a middle-ground.”

  “!” I said. “So, the big seven, what are they? Should we all learoo?”

  Bastion hummed. “You should sider it. The first four are logistical spells. Softeh allows soldiers to dig trenches and encampments faster. Firestart allows you to start a fire, or heat up a pot if you ’t do that. Draw Water allows a soldier to resupply their water in the field. And the st is Wounds, which is a difficult spell to master. Mostly, we’re happy when a soldier keep a wound of iions until they find a healer or field medic.”

  I nodded. “Cool!”

  “The other three are Magic Missile, Greater Fireball and Spar Ball. With Magic Missile, we never really cared about the aspect. Just a straight ball of fast-moving magic. A single soldier’s Magic Missile won’t do much, but a ptoon of trated fire before a charge soften a target up. Greater Fireball is teically an artillery spell; it’s slow to cast, mana-intensive, and unstable in the hands of someohout the right skills. Soldiers are taught to cast it mostly to use against fortified positions, and to keep using up mana.”

  “Keep using mana?” I repeated.

  “Mana is a resource. A soldier fighting without using any of their mana is one who isn’t tributing everything to the battle. Greater Fireballs also keep enemy mages busy when they’re ing from seemingly random dires.”

  “Uh, that’s kinda of scary,” I said.

  “War isn’t pleasant,” Bastion agreed. “The st of the big seven is a spell called Spar Ball. It’s actually quite easy to cast, and it’s the spell I want you all to know before we start sparring for real.” He closed his first and punched forward in my dire.

  My eyes went wide and my ears went ramrod straight as a ball of magic zipped forwards and crashed into my face, sending... a slight breeze ay cheeks and nose.

  “That’s Spar Ball, the least offensive spell. It actively does nothing, uses nearly no mana, and would be a waste of time were it not so easy to shape and use. It’s mostly used, as the name suggests, in spars as a substitute fic Missile or other offensive spells.”

  “Oh, !” I said.

  A few mier, I was finding things far less as I struggled to make a Spar Ball of my own. I sat on the deck, legs folded under me in a way I wouldn’t dare do in a skirt, and Amaryllis sat across from me, creating dozens of little magic balls that zipped around her with ptuous ease.

  “Your problem is wiping the aspect from yic,” Amaryllis expined while casually flig Spar Balls into the sky. “You’re too attuo ing aspect. It’s limiting you a lot.”

  “That’s not cool,” I said. “I do fireballs just fine.”

  “Fire isn’t far from ing. Not too far, at least. You could probably maer and Holy aspects too, I’d guess. But the more you stray, the harder it’ll be for you. Most people’s natural attu is really light.”

  “Light?”

  “No, light as in... little,” Amaryllis said. “The main theory is that the age’s natural mana aspect is nearly entirely random. Or maybe it isn’t and it’s merely difficult to pinpoint its ins. Mine was Wind, I believe, or something close to that, seeing as how there are hundreds of aspects; they tend to get lumped together.”

  “Lumped together, how?” I asked. I was managing to make Spar Balls—the spell wasn’t too plex—I was just having a hard time with it. Amaryllis’ lesson was a nice distra though; I could listen to it with two ears while the others focused on the magic I was casting.

  “Well, someone might have Water aspect magic. But that’s not terribly precise, is it? What state is the aspe? Water be boiled, and Steam is an aspect. As is Ice, which is just frozen water. But Ice aspect often enpasses other liquids. Iy, it’s more likely that someone has an aspect that matches with a very specific state of something. It’s plex. Then the degree of attu between people be wildly different. It’s the topic of a lot of very inclusive research. And I realize that I’ve gone on a ta.”

  “It’s still cool to know,” I said.

  “It was definitely one of the more iing subjects I studied. The point is that most people who beages will bee oh a type of magic they aren’t naturally attuo. Their natural alig will eventually shift to that of the mana they use daily.”

  “Oh,” I said. “But you feel very... sparky?”

  One of her eyebrows rose. “I’m going to choose to take that as a pliment,” she said. “But yes, I’ve bee better at it. I do have plenty of experience casting spells though, and a proper formal education in spellcraft.”

  I hen smiled as I got one of the Spar Balls to circle around my hand, the little thing not very impressive looking, but it wasn’t meant to be.

  Magic was still really . Probably my favourite thing about Dirt, after all the friends I’d made.

  “Looks like you have the hang of it,” Bastion said. He g the sun, then nodded. “Alright, let’s do a bit of sparring. Wooden ons only. The goal will be for you three to learn how to take a fall and coordinate your attacks a little better.”

  “So we’re going to e up with bo attacks?” I asked. “Oh! And attaames?”

  “No, yoing to try to fight me, all three of you. Only Spar-type spells,” Bastion said.

  “Us three against you?” Amaryllis asked. “How weak do you think we are?”

  “I don’t think you’re weak at all,” Bastion said. “Against the average civilian, you would do very well, all three of you. But I have seen you fighting before, and I know what you’re capable of.”

  “A you still think you take all three of us?” Amaryllis asked.

  Bastion’s grin was small... but very smug.

  A few mier, I realized it was also well-deserved smugness.

  Bastion was fast. Very fast. No matter how we tried to hit him, tackle him, bonk him with wooden sticks and swords, or fling magic at him, the sylph was always dodging by the ti margin before rapping us on the shoulders with his wooden sword. Sometimes, when he was feeling particurly rude, he’d trip one of us up.

  I stumbled forward as Bastioly pushed my shin back, redireg my weight to the side.

  Pnting a foot down, I started to spin around, a Spar Ball f as quickly as I could get it done in my off hand, where Bastion wouldn’t be able to see it.

  Then Bastion hip-checked me and my spell flew off and hit Awen in the face just as she tried to tackle Bastion.

  He grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt, then turned her so that her stumbling tackle moved right into the path of the flurry of spells Amaryllis was sending his way.

  Then he smacked Awen’s behind with the ft of his sword and she squeaked before crashing into Amaryllis.

  “Not bad,” he said. “Alright, up again.”

  “Uh, we have a break?” I asked.

  “A break— it’s hardly been more than ten minutes... though... yes, I suppose a small break for water is due,” he said.

  I cheered, arms raising above my head and wobbling around like wet spaghetti noodles.

  “Alright, line up for squats,” he said.

  “Squats?” Amaryllis asked.

  “Are you unfamiliar with those?” Bastion asked.

  “As a way of taking a break, yes!” the harpy said.

  Bastion sighed. “We’ll go slowly; your heart-rate will decrease. And learning to fight while your muscles are burning is important.”

  I didn’t bhting it, I just got in lio Awen and started to bend down, then stand up in time with her while Amaryllis grumbled and joined us. “This is undignified,” she muttered.

  “So is dying because you didn’t do enough cardio,” Bastion said. He actually joined us, though he had one leg pointing straight ahead, parallel with his arms, and was squatting down oher. “I think now would be a wonderful time to talk about your small squad tactics. The positions you take, and your roles in any fights you might find yourselves in!”

  “Alright!” I cheered.

  “If you have energy to cheer, then maybe we start sparring again?”

  “No, I’m not cheering!” I squeaked.

  Maybe this was a bit of a mistake.

  ***

  RavensDagger

  Are You Eained?

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