"So tell me more about this dream you had" Eternia asked as they left the tent towards the training ground.
"....This the whole Astral Postcognition thing you were talking about?" Kiko replied, raising an eyebrow. It was a long word, but splitting it up helped. Astral being the whole, dream stuff, and Postcognition being like seeing the future but in reverse.
"Mmhmm. Seeing someone using Void Stepping means you were observing a fight that was not exactly...street level, as it were" Eltaria commented, stopping outside the Fox Fire firing range.
Being here so deciding she might as well try it out, Kiko took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Before that, my fox fire is stuck. Apparently some guy was going to talk to you about it?" Kiko prompted, looking to Eternia with a raised eyebrow.
"Mmm, that's just aeonic overflow. You've a very strong soul, and so you needed a more specific way of doing Foxfire for it to actually work. But now your First Gate is open, you circumvent that blockage by having an outlet you couldn't block up if you tried" Eternia replied. It was nice to hear that her broken tail bit was now not broken, so she turned back to the target and focused on the warmth in her gut. Grasping that warmth, she lifted it up, and it actually moved this time which was great.
"He was..." she spoke, in an airy distracted tone while focusing the heat towards her tails. It was weird, to direct this metaphysical heat to a part of her body she had only had about a week or so, but she did so pretty well. "A powerful man..." exhaling slowly, and then taking an inhale, the tip of her tail tingled, and after a few seconds, she shunted the heat out of the tip and fired it off, carving up the earthen mound behind the target. Sighing with disgruntlement over the miss, she'd lean back a little and shake her head.
"Let off some cool shit though. Like this one thing where he went-" She'd flail her arms round in what felt like mystical reverence. "-Fulgar Ulti-" suddenly, without warning, her arm was gripped hard enough to make her yelp in pain. "What the hell?!" she demanded, turning to the woman with bared teeth. Though, she was frozen in her anger by the sight. The woman had pulled down the hood that covered her eyes, and those eyes were crazy. A brilliant purple iris surrounded a deep blue pupil, looking into which felt like she was being pulled into a deep, eternal void from which there was no escape. No desire to escape. It would be so perfect, to be trapped within her.
"Don't do that" Eternia said, pulling Kiko out of her revere. "Words have power, and you don't need to know what you are saying for your Soul to know what you are saying. Don't repeat magic that you hear, because you will cast it, and if it is outside of your capability to sustain, it will take a terrible toll on your body. And besides-"
Eternia would turn towards the targets and hold out a finger, pausing for a single second before speaking.
"Fulgar Ultima" was spoken, and a reveberation in Kiko's soul shook her entire body with the aeonic shockwave. Lightning blasted out from the woman's fingers, thick bodied and vicious beyond recourse. The ground melted beneath it's harsh power, air screamed into plasma from the heat, and a good mile in front of her was just a two-foot wide, white-hot trench. Hissing with the sheer heat, the sound of trees collapsing under their own weight now there was a massive hole in them was heard over the sudden evaporation of the ambient water, and rapid cooling of the ground-turned-magma.
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"You don't want to be letting one of those off without proper guidance. It's no exaggeration that it can cut through a city in a heartbeat. And you'll rarely be able to avoid everyone in the path. This, is why we are careful, subtle, and somewhat secretive. Low grade First Tier magus are generally somewhat dismissive of Magic. Most of what they can do is accomplished by easily portable technology. But, as you grow in power you outstrip what you can carry with you and become more and more dangerous until" Eternia would finish, by gesturing to the cataclysm she had just left in her wake.
Kiko would stare at the cooling trench, and then shake her head and turn away from it. "That is-" she didn't manage to finish that sentance, as Ele glomped her and Kiko had to stagger to keep her footing.
"Cheating on me already?~" Ele cooed, looking over to Eternia with a smirk.
"Unfortunately not. I am Eternia Normis, Utmeradn? of the Disciples of the Crab" She introduced herself, with a light bow.
"Ahh, Crab peeps. There's a teacher ere, Ezra Tai. Senrata of the Disciples of the Crab. Which she tells me means something like 'Being that may teach' or something like that" Ele nodded softly. It was good to meet another one of them, espeically one that radiated such an aura of power. "So, d'ya box, darlin?" Ele asked, letting go of Kiko and stepping up to Eternia.
"On occasion, to be sure" she replied, and then followed Ele's motion to go to the sparring ring.
It gathered a few people round, interested in seeing this new woman and how she matched up. Ele was no slouch, so fighting her was a good showcase of capability. Kiko was part of the crowd watching, and part of the reaction when Ele took off her cloak and jacket, revealing toned muscles and a powerful back.
"Holy Vanaet, you were hiding some guns, aye?" Ele asked with a hearty laugh. Attracting a ref, he gave the order for three two minute sessions of sparring, and then started the match. Watching Ele rush in and throw a flurry of blows that Eternia expertly deflected with her guard, Kiko became aware that Ele had been holding back in their fights. The Kitsune was a lot better than she was showcasing in the fights with Kiko. Two minutes went by in a breeze, and Ref called time, breaking the two apart.
Returning to their corners and getting a quick rest, the second round began. While the first was quick and probing, getting each other's measure. The second was vicious, a massive step up in power and violence. To a point that fifty seconds in, Eternia caught Ele across the jaw with a mighty hook. For a second Ele staggered, looking like she might recover. And then, eyes rolling back into her head, she collapsed to the ground, and Ref called the end of the spar in Eternia's favour.
"I thought you were the scholarly type!" Kiko exclaimed, running up to Eternia and staring.
"I am. There are two ways to be better at magic. Stronger connection to the source, or stronger vessel. Either is sufficient, but to become a Second Tier Magus, you need both in spades. Which is why Second Tier Magus are not to be dismissed in situations where magic can not be used. Now come on, lessons await"