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Post by Samantha Khione on Aug 4, 2016 19:59:25 GMT -6
Samantha made her way from the stream where she and Mila had been washing their clothes. She was still soaked from he fall into the stream, but that wouldn't impede their magical training. Sam had to admit that she was excited for this ever since her and Mila had come up with the idea the other night in the pub. She would try to show Mila how to control thunder magic, and hopefully Mila could give her some tips on finally gaining mastery over the wind.
Making her way over to her bag, she pulled out her thunder tome. Thunder hadn't come as easy to her as fire, but it had certainly come much easier than wind. It was frustrating. She understood the theory of it perfectly fine, but she just somehow couldn't transition it into practice. Maybe it was similar for Mila and thunder magic. Hopefully, they could help each other out. That's what friends were for, right?
Sam walked back over to Mila with a smile. She wasn't ashamed to admit Mila was a much better mage than her. She knew fire, wind, and Gaea. Not to mention healing magic! She might even be on a sage level now, which was something Sam aspired to be one day. She stood looking at the training dummy and clothes rack Mila had made from Gaea. Those were things she wouldn't have thought to do, but that made her even more excited. The face that there was knowledge and ideas out there for her to learn were so exciting! "So, where would you like to start? Thunder or wind?"
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Post by Mila on Aug 7, 2016 7:28:07 GMT -6
"How about we start with the common fire spell." She spoke to Sam. Mila was excited to help Sam overcome her adversity to wind, just as Sam was going to help overcome her adversity to thunder. Wind was a simple spell to Mila. She practiced it almost as much as she did fire and knew the element well enough. It was lighter then fire but could be manipulated easier. Thunder on the other hand while she was proficient in casting and shooting the bolt of lightning, it left her vulnerable. It was not the problem with the lightning itself but rather the noise of the thunder. She would often freeze up after casting it mostly due to fear. This was a serious weakness she needed to overcome. And hopefully some training with a good friend would help her over come that fear.
"Something neutral that we are both good at so we can see each other's style of casting. Maybe we can work from there.." Mila nodded towards Sam. She took a step aside and let Sam have the first go.
"I've been curious to see how you launch your spells since we met." Mila knew magic was diverse. No mage or spell caster ever casts same spell in a similar manner. While the basics of the spells were all the same, every person seemed to do it differently. In Mila's case she could "feel" the spells as they moved from form to form. She could feel the power of the spirits as they manifested themselves into a ball of flame, a gust of wind, or a bolt of lightning. Each magic to her had and felt differently. Wind being the lightest, fire being average, and thunder being the heaviest out of the trinity. Some casters might not "feel" anything at all. Meanwhile another mage could easily say that fire was the heaviest and thunder was the lightest with wind being the average. This diversity between mages and casting was just as fascinating to her as are monsters.
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Post by Samantha Khione on Aug 7, 2016 11:29:52 GMT -6
Sam nodded, setting her thunder tome back onto the ground an grabbing her fire one. Mila's idea made sense. They were both proficient at fire magic, so why not start there? They could study each other and get to understand each other's casting styles, then possibly apply that knowledge to their other castings. It was a logical first step and Sam was only a tad upset that she hadn't thought it of first. But then again, she had no problem admitting that Mila was smarter than her, so in a way it made sense.
She watched at her friend stepped aside, giving her the first go at displaying her fire magic. Stepping up confidently, Samantha observed the dummy. Holding up her right hand, the blue haired girl began to concentrate. A swirling energy began to materialize from her hand, seeming coming from within the girl herself. It quickly came together to form a fireball that hovered just above her palm. Sam remembered how when she was just starting out, even doing this could drain her. Now, it was second nature. She had come a long way, and she was proud of that, but she still had a while to go.
As she stared down the dummy as she subconsciously wiggled her fingers, as if to keep the fireball in place. When she was ready, she threw the fireball with force towards the dummy. Even with the ball gone from her hand, she could still feel it's energy. She noticed that it was slightly off course, so she moved her hand slightly to the right as though she was pulling on a string that was attached to it. Her fireball responded and changed course, slamming into the dummy's chest.
Sam turned to Mila with a smile. "How was that?"
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Post by Mila on Aug 10, 2016 19:09:59 GMT -6
Mila watched Sam cast her magic. At first her technique appeared to be rather generic. A standard ball of fire that was thrown towards the dummy. Mila noticed that the fireball was a little off, but then Sam did something that surprised her. She was able to control the ball of fire movement after it had been shot. It was as if the ball of fire was tethered to Sam’s hand. Mila hadn’t never seen that before. She found herself smiling softly at Sam.
“That was pretty cool. I’ve never seen anyone move a fire ball after it’s been thrown. That’s pretty useful.”
She approached Sam and gave her a pat on the shoulder.
“My turn.” She gently shoved Sam to the side with a gentle swing of her hips. Mila grabbed her tome and left it closed. She made sure Sam was at a safe distance before she started to cast. Mila looked out towards the dummy and let out a soft breath. Mila raised one hand out in front of her and quietly began to concentrate. Mila had memorized the fire incantation. She didn’t need to open her trinity tome to the pages that listed fire.
An orb of fire quickly emerged and hovered over the palm of her hand. Mila then quickly tossed the orb of fire at the dummy. Her ball of fire found it’s mark and hit the dummy in the chest. Mila tossed her ball of fire in a similar style to that of a baseball pitcher. Mila was accustomed to throwing smaller quicker balls of fire. She could change the shape of the flame while it was still in her hand with enough concentration. But, she didn’t want to demonstrate that right now.
“Mine.. is a bit more straightforward. Before I learned how to throw balls of fire, I threw rocks. Lots and Lots of rocks. My mentor told me it was a good way to perfect my aim.. without.. burning things down.”
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Post by Samantha Khione on Aug 10, 2016 20:30:02 GMT -6
Samantha coudn't help but smile wider as Mila complimented her little trick. Was trick the right word for it? It wasn't so much a trick as it was just something that she had discovered she could do. The way Mila reacted, though, gave Sam pause. Was it really something so rare that even she had never seen it before? She had never really thought much about it. Honestly, it was something she assumed that other mages could do as well.
Before she could dwell on it more, she was moved aside with a light bump from Mila's hips. It did the job to move Sam out of the way, but for some reason she found herself lightly blushing. But why? There really was no reason for it. Unless it was something to do with the motion of Mila's hip, but why would that cause her to blush? She pushed those thoughts away for another time to watch Mila cast. She seemed much more fluid with her casting, even being able to cast without having to read her tome. That was really impressive. Sam was close to knowing the smell by heart, but she wasn't quite there yet.
Sam nodded as Mila talked of throwing rocks to perfect her aim. It made sense. Perfecting your aim before learning to throw fire. That's probably something that Sam should have done, if her last throw any indication. "Do you want to keep going with fire? Or do you want to move onto one of the other two next?"
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Post by Mila on Aug 20, 2016 19:05:35 GMT -6
“Let’s do one more round with fire.” She responded towards her friend’s question. Mila didn’t move from her spot. She looked out towards the dummy. The thing had two fresh char marks upon its rocky body. She pouted softly. She knew she could do something cool with her magic. Sure she couldn’t move the fireball after casting. She took a deep breath and calmed down. She formed the ball of fire over her hand like before. She focused on the ball of flame. Slowly, the ball of fire changed shaped.
The ball of flame swirled. The movement was slow but gradually picked up in pace. The swirling morphed the ball of fire into a sort of cone shaped sort of thing. Mila raised the cone-shaped fireball over her head and then threw it. The ball of flame smacked the dummy in the chest. The ball of flame left a spiral shaped impression onto the earth dummy. This design was hard to see from the distance that they were in. She let out a breath.
“Phew.. It’s hard to keep that shape. It’s harder to throw too.” She shook her head.
“But, hey! I managed to do it. I came up with that trick while fighting Zombies. I needed to hit them differently. Like.. hit their weak points.. In a manner that wasn’t ball shape.” She smiled softly.
“I’m all fired up. I think I could take a crack at thunder now. Uhm.. that is after you do your next fireball.”
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Post by Samantha Khione on Aug 22, 2016 23:18:28 GMT -6
Sam nodded when Mila said they'd do one more round of fire magic. It made sense, help get them a little more warmed up, no pun intended, for the other two. When she was first starting out, two fireballs would have drained her. But now, it felt like nothing. Just another sign how far she's come. And then Mila showed her just how far she had to go. She had heard people could manipulate the shape of their fireballs, but she had never seen someone actually do it. She couldn't but be in awe. Even the spiral impression the fireball left on the dummy was nothing she'd ever seen before. It was incredible.
"That was incredible! You'll need to teach me that one some day! I can't do anything quite that cool, but I guess I can try..." Samantha tried to think of something she could do, but nothing really came to mind besides the trick she had already showed. A shy smile appeared on her face as she gently bumped Mila out of the way with a swing of her hips, just like Mila had done before. She formed another fireball and looked down at the target. A sudden thought came to her. She had never tried it before, but now was the time, right?
Concentrating, she threw the fireball. It was well to the right, but that's what she had meant to do. She waited until it was about even with the dummy before taking control of it's path. She could tell her connection with it wasn't as strong with the distance, but she was still able to make it move. She tried to curve it so that it hit the dummy from behind. She wasn't able to get it quite right and it hit a few feet short. She sighed. "Oh well, not terrible for a first attempt, right?" Sam brushed some hair out of her face and grabbed her Thunder tome. "Why don't you try thunder first and I'll watch you?"
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Post by Mila on Sept 4, 2016 9:36:43 GMT -6
"That was a good first try. To be honest it requires a whole lot more concentration then i'm letting on. Then again I know myself.. and how I cast.. and how fire feels? You know.. like outside of hot." The sage wondered if that even made sense. Fire couldn't be anything but hot. If it didn't then it wasn't fire. She shook her head.
"I hope I made sense.. Anyway.." Her mood shifted a bit when Sam mentioned thunder. Right. Right. She sighed. Mila didn't like to cast thunder. But, she knew it was a weakness she needed to overcome. She wanted to be useful towards her group regardless of whatever job she did. She couldn't let her fear of thunder hamper her.
"Right.. thunder." She hung her head down in defeat. She took a deep breath, lifted her head, and let out the breath in a long sigh. She needed to prepare herself. The lightning magic itself wasn't difficult for her to cast. As a matter of fact she could control lightning pretty well. She memorized the spell in the same manner as she did fire and wind. Once, upon a time she could even cast it as well and as frequently as fire. She even knew how to aim it in a manner that was a bit outside of the norm. Instead of a bolt of lighting coming out from the sky, she could manipulate it to come out of her hands. This made it come out in mostly straight line in front of her. She could have it come down like a bolt from the sky too but she preferred the method she developed. The noise of the thunder tome was what set he off. She didn't like the rumble. She hated the rumble. It reminded her of the ruin collapse. Lots of things reminded her of the ruin collapse. Things that she would inevitably have to work on if she was to function like a normal person again. She flipped the pages of her trinity tome onto the section about thunder magic. The section itself had notes scribbled all over it's margins. Most of it relating to her feeling of fear and dread after casting. When she could, the sage would write down, what she remembered feeling after each cast. And then reread it and try to make a point of correcting the fear with the next cast. The most recent entry was simply "paralyzed".
Mila didn't playfully hip shove Sam out of the way for this one. Instead, she simply pulled her away several paces and then walked back. The last thing she wanted to do was hit Sam in a possible fit of hysteria. She put the tome back down on the ground and held the book down with her toes. She let out another long sigh and started to focus. She closed her eyes and started to tap into the powers of anima. Slowly, a faint bright yellow ball of magic manifested in her hands. It crackled and sparked in the open air. The sage started to manipulate it in a familiar manner, she opened her eyes, and moved her hands. She appeared to shove that orb of light away from her. When she felt like she had the right aim, she released that magic. A bolt of lightning emerged out of the orb and struck at the dummy. It hit it right in the left shoulder. The ball of yellow-white energy had dissipated from her hands and the rumble of thunder followed.
The rumble sent a shiver down her spine and caused her to tremble lightly. Her mind started flash back towards the underground. No. No. We are outside. Outside. See there's the sun.. and there's a breeze. She could feel her heart starting to race. Her chest started to hurt. She took in a series of quick deep breaths in order to regain her composure. She sat back down and waited for Sam's response.
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Post by Samantha Khione on Sept 6, 2016 18:26:52 GMT -6
Samantha allowed Mila to move her back as she prepared to cast. She understood her thoughts. Thunder could be unpredictable and she would most likely not want Sam to accidentally be shocked. Besides, she could see just as well from her new vantage point. She studied Mila carefully as she began to prepare to cast. She watched as the ball of energy began to form in her hand, impressed. Sam had been able to produce a few sparks from her fingers, but to properly cast it, she had to call it down from the heavens. That was definitely something she wanted Mila to teach her how to do.
Mila then shoved her hand forward and the lightning shot from her hand and smashed into the dummy. Sam had to admit that she was confused. Mila had said she needed help with casting thunder, and in return she would help Sam master wind. And yet, here was Mila casting thunder better than even Sam could. So what could she possibly need help with?
That's when Samantha saw Mila react in a strange way. She started to shake. Her chest began to rise and fall faster than it had seconds before. As Mila slowly sat down, Sam rushed to her side. She had never seen anyone react to casting like this and it worried her. Crouching down next to Mila, she gently put an arm around her should. Sam looked over her face, with a concerned look on her own, as if to try and figure out what was wrong just by looking. "Mila, what's wrong? Are you ok?"
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Post by Mila on Sept 10, 2016 20:16:40 GMT -6
Mila sat there. Her body needed time to recover after casting the thunder spell. She would later write in her tome the words "Shivering". She shook her head again. She opened her eyes again and just stared at the dirt. Her mind focused to the sounds around her. The sound of the breeze, the sound of the water, and Sam's voice. Slowly, the world returned to her. Her mind was no longer stuck in the infinite loop of it's memory of the cave in. Her breath eventually slowed.
"No. Sam. I am not ok. This.. always happens when I cast thunder." She shook her head.
"No.. that's a lie. It.. didn't.. always happen. It was.. only after the incident that it happened." She sighed.
"I..just.. don't like the noise." She spoke with a bit of a somber tone. She then took in a deep breath and let it out.
"I.. have been counseled.. that little exposures to my.. fears.. can help overcome them eventually. I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to worry you. I don't think I have it in my to cast it again.. can.. can you cast yours." Please just get it over with. The voice in her head pleaded with Sam. Sam couldn't hear it. The voice of her fear. Mila had to brace herself to hear Sam's thunder. The only thing Mila could do was hope that Sam cast it from the skies rather then her palms. The further the spell was the better it was for her to cope.
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Post by Samantha Khione on Sept 11, 2016 20:13:25 GMT -6
Samantha was concerned for her friend. She had never seen Mila like this before. The girl was always so confident and to see her like this broke her heart. She sat down next to Mila and wrapped her arms around her. For a few seconds she said nothing. She just sat there in silence, hugging the girl who was probably her best friend in silence. She felt her shaking slightly under her touch. Sam gently rubber her shoulder, trying to do anything she could to help calm her friend down faster.
When she heard Mila's request for her to cast her own thunder, Sam shook her head. As she talked, she spoke in her soft, calming voice. "I can if you want me to, Mila, but the rumble that comes after it is louder than yours. That was always one of my problems. The lightning itself is weak, but the thunder is powerful. I don't want to make things worse." She didn't know if she would be able to stomach striking the fear into Mila that she had just seen.
For the time being, Samantha didn't move. If Mila insisted, she would get up and cast. Until then, however, she wanted to continue to comfort her friend. The blue haired mage kept her arms wrapped around Mila, and had her head gently resting against hers. She knew she wasn't the best at comforting people, so she hoped she was doing it right. Hopefully, she was helping in some way. Sam knew it probably wasn't much, but if it did even a tiny bit to help Mila, it was worth it.
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Post by Mila on Sept 18, 2016 6:35:33 GMT -6
"No.. no Sam it's alright. I.. just have to power through this. I agreed to help you with magic. I.. just.. gotta find my courage.." She sighed softly. She found herself leaning into Sam's body. The hug and rubbing was greatly appreciated. The sage recovered enough to eventually stand on her own.
"Thank you Sam." She gave the blue haired mage a soft smile. She was grateful for the support.
"In the thick of battle the fear.. the reaction you saw.. isn't.. as grand. Mostly due to the fact that well.. it's a battle. There are other things to worry about besides the rumble of thunder. Like.. getting hit with a weapon." She shook her head. Last time she was forced to cast thunder in battle was back in Lycia's battle with the bone walkers. She, Donny, Drei, and Elias were tasked with driving out a group of bone walkers whom were terrorizing the people. In that battle she cast lightning in order to keep Drei safe. She was so focused on making sure the bone walker didn't bite or maim her friend that she was able to successfully cast the spell with out too many negative repercussions. Given the choice between breaking down and crying like a child or standing stiff with fear, she preferred to be stiff.
"I have to eventually get over this weakness on my own.. if I am going to be a great sage.. a teacher.. a fighter of monsters.. I can't just keep relying on Fire, Wind, Earth. I know there will be certain situations where thunder and lightning will be needed." She cracked her knuckles and stretched.
"We have to continue." She patted Sam on the shoulder.
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Post by Samantha Khione on Sept 19, 2016 9:37:01 GMT -6
With one last squeeze, Samantha let go of Mila and got back to her feet. She understood where her friend was coming form. Everyone had weaknesses on the battlefield and if there was one you could minimize, you had to try. And she was right. Freezing like in the middle of a fight wouldn't be good for her. Sure, if there were others around they could protect her. If she was by herself, however... Sam shuttered to think what might happen. So she would do what she could to help so that didn't happen.
The blue haired mage took a few steps forward and a deep breath. She was much better at casting thunder than she had been, and definitely much better than she was at wind. Grabbing her tome, Sam began to chant. She could probably do the spell from memory, but she felt this way was safer. As she drew to the end of the spell, she closed her eyes and began to focus. The sky around them began to darken, the air crackling with energy. After a few seconds, Samantha opened her eyes and raised her hand. She focused up at the clouds for a few seconds before closing her hand into a fist and yanking her arm downwards. It would almost look like she was reaching up, grabbing a bolt of lightning, and dragging it to the ground. As her arm went downwards, a bolt of lightning shot down from the clouds and struck the dummy on the top of it's head.
The Ilian stood there for a few seconds before she could move. She turned to look at Mila as the thunder came. It was loud and deep, rumbling across the area. Sam hoped that it wouldn't affect her friend too bad, but stayed closed in case it did and she needed comfort.
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Post by Mila on Sept 26, 2016 20:01:52 GMT -6
Mila felt reassured when Sam hugged her, but now she had to brace herself for what was to come. Sam was going to cast her thunder spell. Mila assumed she was going to cast in the traditional method. As in Sam was going to pull the thunder from the sky in order to strike at the dummy. Mila needed to find a way to prepare herself for the rumble of thunder. She also needed to keep her eyes on Sam so she could learn how she casted her spells. Thunder is one of Sam’s neutral’s spells. She was probably very comfortable casting the spell. She had to think fast. The skies started to turn grey. The air was starting to change.
Think. Fast. Mila. Come on. She looked around quickly. Out of instinct she raised her hands up. She used her index finger to close the holes in her ears that allowed sound to pass through. This muffled the sound of the thunder. This helped. Mila was surprised at how effective it was. She knew she couldn’t do this all the time. She wasn’t in any battle. She was here, safe, with a friend. But, for now this was an acceptable means of treating her fear. Mila waited a few moments before she moved her hands away from her ears.
“Phew. Alright. So.. you hit the dummy. Good. Thunder magic is notorious for being hard to aim. You seem to cast it pretty well.” She shook her head softly.
"I think i'm ok. Uhm.. right.. did you feel like you had any trouble with it?"
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Post by Samantha Khione on Oct 5, 2016 12:19:27 GMT -6
Sam watched as Mila blocked her ears to muffle out the thunder's rumble. It would probably work some, but they both knew that it wouldn't work on the battlefield. They'd have to come up with some way for her to either overcome her fear or find a way to muffle the sound enough so that it didn't effect her. Earplugs, maybe? But then it would be hard to communicate. Oh well, they'd come up with something. She made her way back over to Mila, taking a look over her to make sure that she was still ok.
When she was satisfied that she was indeed ok, Sam shook her head in response to her question. "No trouble, really. I'm not always that accurate with it, but I'm usually close. The only thing is I feel like the lightning isn't as powerful as other mages. But I don't really know how I would go about making it stronger." She gave a shrug. "It's not that big a deal, though. It's not where as bad as my wind casting..." Samantha gave a sigh. The best she could summon was a weak breeze, and that was not something that could effectively used in battle.
She gave Mila another quick hug to really make sure she was ok before continuing. Sam gave a weak smile. "Did you want me to show you how bad I am at wind? That would be the one that I really need help with. I just..." She sighed. "I just can't do it..."
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