It was two days later that David managed to trigger Iron Body, while not even trying to. His frustration had built up over hundreds of failed attempts, until, wanting to clear his mind, he asked Leandro for some sparring, which the large man accepted with a grin that meant About time!
And it was during that bout, when Leandro was about to imprint his open palm into David's back, that he broke through. Just as the large man's hand was about to leave a welted hand print on his back, he flushed the area with his mana, willing it to protect him.
Instead of receiving Leandro's tree-felling slap, a shield of blue light covered his body, and he was propelled a couple of meters forward.
Both men looked at each other, David, stunned, and Leandro, knowingly smirking.
The veteran rested his fists against his hips. “Ha! That took you long enough, boy!”
“Long enough? You said new recruits needed three days!” David defended himself.
“Yes, the average new recruit needs that much time. You,” He pointed at the young man. “Are not average. I expected better from you.”
Niala pipped up from the other side of the clearing, cupping her hands around her mouth as she shouted. “That's right! David isn't average at all! He's super! He's a super-sized boyfriend!” She bent a leg and waved with both arms at David.
David shouted back at her through a growing smirk. “Niala! Wording!”
The catkin stopped her theatrics, tilting her head, before her own words clicked in her mind, reddening visibly even at a distance. She quickly cupped her mouth again. “I meant he's a great guy! With big muscles, a big body, a big heart, and a big brain! He's got a big everything!” She explained.
“Niala!” David shouted back, face-palming, while Leandro's mouth deformed as he pushed back his laughter.
Her head snapped toward Leandro, blinking, before she covered her face with her hands and turned around, tail going limp.
Both men looked at her as she stood motionless for a moment before she turned to the side and resumed her run as if nothing had happened, pointedly ignoring them.
They looked at each other and shrugged, returning to their own training.
Over the following days, David managed to unlock most of the basic imbuements that every Azure Guard received, in addition to Iron Body.
They were all, unfortunately, blandly named.
Strong Arm was even improperly named, being an imbuement that empowered muscles, and not limited to one's arms. Using it on too many muscle groups at once greatly increased the mana cost, however, so it was usually triggered in a specific limb.
Quick Step, which granted a very short boost in speed, no more than a few steps. It could be used in quick succession, but the mana cost grew exponentially if some rest was not allowed between its uses.
And finally, Energy Burst, which, while extremely useful, was much more boring in effect than its name suggested. It was a whole-body imbuement that pulled in oxygen from the air, directly oxygenating the blood with it. It provided a quick boost of energy and could be used repeatedly, though it hastened muscle fatigue.
Leandro then had David practice activating his imbuements during spars, one at a time, then in rapid succession, and eventually two or three at once.
One thing the veteran didn't account for was that, unlike all of his previous trainees, David did not run out of mana. Leandro had known that David had an immense reserve of mana. He was now understanding what it really meant.
It meant a warrior who just kept going. As an experiment, he had David trigger all four of the basic imbuements and hold them active for as long as he could while running laps around the clearing with an eight-bucket yoke on his shoulder, and rocks stuffed into his pockets.
He went a full three bells before Leandro called it off, grumbling.
“Ridiculous. There is no other word for it.” He said in a huff, glowering at David's smug smirk.
A smirk that the large man proceeded to beat out of the courier by using his own imbuements, in turn reminding David of the very same lesson, as David now knew of his imbuements, but did not understand how to properly use them.
It was something that Leandro rectified over a battering ram of a week, with David's body serving at the gate.
David Quick Stepped forward, triggering Iron Body and Strong Arm at the same time, his hands grabbing onto Leandro's empowered fist that was flying at him, managing to stop it dead, his palms stinging as if he'd caught a flung rock bare-handed.
Just how strong is he!?
He powered up Strong Arm and Quick Step once more, still holding on to his opponent's fist, and dashed two steps forward, locking Leandro's arm behind his back.
The large man swung around, realigning his arm in the proper direction and grasping for David with his other hand, but David let go and aimed his body at Leandro's now-unsteady legs, Quick Stepping into them, grabbing a hold of each leg with an arm, and fed his muscles an Energy Burst as he pushed forward and up, lifting Leandro over his shoulder, and Strong Arming his core into a suplex, slamming the big man onto the ground.
David saw the blue glow of Leandro's Iron Body, pivoting and grabbing onto one of his legs and, pushing his entire body through an Energy Burst Strong Arm combo, used Leandro as the weighted ball of a hammer throw, spinning on himself a few times before releasing the flailing veteran clear across the clearing, crashing into a tree, rending it in half with his blue-glowing Iron Body.
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David panted, looking at his handiwork with a growing smile. Niala clapped from the side, and he spared her a triumphant grin before he caught a blur of movement at the corner of his eye, barely managing to Iron Body himself as half a tree flew into him like an oversized javelin.
Niala gasped, hands covering her mouth, tail rigid, as her boyfriend got to ride the Tree Trunk express, destination: Another tree.
David came to a few heartbeats later, his back against a tree, a half of one pinning him in place. With a grunt, he Strong Armed the piece of wood off his body and climbed back to his feet, looking up to find Leandro coming back from his own forested trip. The big man had a giant, full-toothed smile on his face.
“Ha! Boy! That was great! You are starting to learn how to properly use your imbuements!” He bellowed, meeting David halfway. “But learn this lesson; combat is not over until you have stomped your enemy's face into the ground.” He added, with the same enthusiasm as one speaks of gardening tips.
David straightened his spine with a few cracks before nodding and lowering back into a combat stance.
But Leandro shook his head, his smile turning sombre. “I'm afraid not, boy. We have been sparring for close to two bells now. My mana is about exhausted. This is where I cannot follow you.”
David blinked, stunned into silence by his mentor's words. He still couldn't beat him on knowledge, experience, or skill, but this still felt... improper.
The veteran knight, ever since the first time David had trained under him, had been a solid mountain, outlasting and out-powering anyone and anything in his path.
And the mountain had just told him that David was leaving him behind. He looked up at the man, a complex emotion of guilt and loss scrawling over his own face, only to find a smiling and proud older man.
He grasped one of David's shoulders, giving him a good shake. “You are on your way, David. The path ahead is still long, and I will walk it with you for quite a long time yet, but you are now, finally, treading it all on your own.”
A bloom lit within David. A presence that filled him with a fullness that was not physical. A string that had attached itself to disparate parts had been pulled, balled tight, forcing all of the individual, shattered bits into a whole.
It was a missing piece of a puzzle. He had failed many times, but even in the harshest times, he had kept moving forward and had found salvation in every instance.
When he had lost his first family, he had kept walking and had found another.
When a member of his new family was at death's door, he had kept searching and had found the love of his life.
When he feared failing his new love, he had kept fighting, and he had grown stronger, and would continue to do so, so he could protect all these things he had found along the way.
David, eyes moist, his jaw set, grasped Leandro's shoulder in return. Both men smiled at each other before a giggling missile embedded itself into David's side.
Furiously rubbing her head against his chest, Niala eventually looked up, her face beaming, the little ball of empathy having easily picked up on his feelings and wanting to remind him of the most important of lessons.
He was not alone.
When they got back home that day, Linzy informed Niala that the post office had sent a note, informing her that several crates had arrived along with the day's auto-carriage.
The catkin had squealed in delight before dragging David along to go retrieve her goods, refusing to reveal what it was. The only clue he got was the sound of clinking glass that the crates made as he loaded them into one of his cargo cloths.
Even back home, Niala had made David unpack the crates in her workroom and had then pushed him out of it, closing the door in his face. She stayed cooped up for a full bell, blasting past supper time, which she never missed.
As he began to get worried, a very coy and pleased-looking Niala had swayed her way out of her workroom and dragged David out toward one of the ruined houses nearby. He noticed she was wearing a wide belt, studded with dozens of small pouches, but she ignored his question about it.
By the time they got there, all of her pretense of maturity had fled, replaced by springy steps and a swishing tail. She had David stand by the side, as she positioned herself a dozen meters away from a still-standing wall.
She turned to him, an ebullient smile on her face. “Ok. Are you ready? Are you looking?”
“I'm looking. What am I looking at?” David asked.
“This!” She exclaimed, while retrieving from her belt a... glass dagger? And threw it in one smooth motion at the wall.
A small pop rang out, followed by the shattering of the glass dagger, as a liquid splashed upon the wall, quickly foaming up into a sponge-like material a few centimetres thick.
David arced an eyebrow, looking at his jigging girlfriend.
“It works! Did you see that? It works! I'm the best!” Niala singsonged while wiggling her haunches.
“What is it?” David asked, unable to suppress the smile that Niala's antics were imposing on his face.
“Oh! Look!” She exclaimed, pulling out another of the small glass daggers from her belt and walking over, showing him.
He picked it up, turning the small object in his hands, his eyes widening in surprise as he understood what he was looking at.
It was a potion phial, in the shape of a small throwing knife, eight centimetres long at most, with a hollow centre that held a liquid, and a screw cap at its back, where a handle would have been. The tip seemed to be hollow, with a dark grey sandy substance stuffed within.
He looked up at Niala, who was smiling like a kid who had just aced a school test. “So, what do you think?!”
“Did you come up with this yourself?”
“Yup! After Jordo showed up, when I stayed behind to help you, I didn't have any way of helping besides using my weaving. I wanted another tool I could use, but I didn't have anything, except for my alchemy!” Her ears wiggled in excitement.
“So! I contacted your amazing brother Luke, and I sent him a schematic of what I needed a skilled glassmaker to make for me, and that came in today! Look!” She grabbed the glass dagger from his hand and pointed at the tip, and the dark grey matter stuffed into it.
“This is Popow, or pop-powder, it's used for kids' fireworks, usually made into little balls that make a little pop when thrown against a hard surface. I stuffed a small amount in it, then put a small bit of metal on top, so it'll compress when it hits something and POP!” She made an explosive motion with her hands. “The phial cracks and releases its content!”
“And if it's thrown sideways?” He asked.
“Then it just breaks! It's just a glass phial after all.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Don't try to make me feel silly! It works! You saw it!”
“I did. What's that foam?” He pointed at the substance on the wall.
“Oh, that's sticky wall. But really, I can put whatever I want in these, and I can throw them a lot farther than regular phials, since they're weighted properly.”
“Hmm.” He grabbed his chin, thinking about Niala's invention.
She was right, beside weaving, which she really ought to keep as hidden as possible, her greatest strength was her alchemy. Normal phials and bottles could be thrown, but as she had pointed out, they weren't meant for it.
This really did allow her to turn her potions into projectile weapons.
Just as her smile began to falter, he gave her one of his own, eyes glinting. Joy returned en force to her visage, expectant of his words.
“I think they're great!” He said.
She jumped into his arms before he had finished speaking.
The fact that this little woman, with a heart of gold, who was reluctant to hurt even bloodthirsty beasts, was more than willing to design outright weapons just so she could fight alongside him, was not lost on David.
“I think you're great.” He whispered into her ear.
She answered with a happy moan and squeezed him a little bit more.
Most interesting power?
