Zola walked silently next to their companions for the afternoon. The dungeon was the highest level in the area, but it still was underwhelming for Zola and their group. Zola had not needed the assistance of a party for the dungeon they had visited yesterday, and Zola expected little difference today. The temple had not sent an Aether magic trainer with them today. They already exceeded the level of most of the trainers in this temple. The only person with more experience was Vok, who had other responsibilities. Thus, they adventured today with a small party including one Earth mage and one Water mage.

  The Earth mage, also a Kineta, had crystalline, golden skin with white hair displaying the barest golden shimmer in the sun. Created from this limited palate, her sparkling amber eyes glinted from within the helmet of the armor she wore. Tamori, as she had introduced herself, was level 23, the strongest Earth mage at the temple. Her plate armor bore enchantments that glittered in runes that matched the shimmer of her skin.

  Pelana, a Pireta Air mage, had tan skin and yellow hair with streaks of grey, her coloration a washed out copy of Tamori’s radiance. Only Pelana’s golden eyes shone with the fire of her race, giving her otherwise wan features life. She wore grey robes that did nothing to enhance her features, despite the same golden enchantments on her clothes as the ones on Tamori’s shining metal armor. Pelana walked with a slight limp, a sign of battles past, and the wrinkles touching the corners of her eyes and forehead spoke of the years of experience that had earned Pelana her 25 levels. She carried a worn tome instead of a more traditional weapon.

  This dungeon was on a mountain in the same chain the temple was built into. A series of caverns along a forested path manifested a variety of creatures, often winged and featuring strong elemental powers. Zola had been briefed on the types of creatures they would find in this dungeon and was unconcerned. Their Tome of Knowledge, being a gift from the gods, floated independently next to them through its embodiment of Aether magic and, unlike a regular tome, which required the wielder to channel their magic through the item to inflict damage and debuffs to enemies, Tome could independently channel mana. Their time in the lower-level dungeon the previous day had resulted in Tome rapidly growing to level 8, and its growth would continue rapidly with the higher level monsters today.

  Tamori, walking in front of the other two by about ten paces, stopped and raised her hand, pointing towards a group of large trees to her left. Three giant black birds, around six feet tall, sat in the sparsely branching limbs, barely squeezing themselves onto their perches.

  “They are Shadow Ravens,” Pelana spoke softly beside Zola. “We must keep them grounded and take them down quickly or they will use Darkness and attempt to escape.”

  Zola nodded, raising their scimitar. They, too, utilized Shadow magics, and could counter the ravens abilities with their own manipulation abilities. They moved silently forward to engage quickly with Tamori.

  Tamori initiated the battle, using her Earth magic to hurl rocks at the creatures, knocking them out of the tree as she closed on the birds. Zola swiftly followed, immediately using their Shadow Tendrils to grab at the birds, wrapping into their wings and dragging them towards the charging group. A wind swirled around each bird before rushing behind Zola to Pelana who was establishing her Essence Siphon, which would drain energy and life force from the monsters and return it to Pelana. She would then redistribute their energies in healing pulses to the party or damage back to the enemy.

  Zola arrived at the first bird, viciously slashing at its neck. The birds were surprised by the party's attack, but that did not mean they were defenseless. The giant raven managed to twist aside despite the Shadow Tendrils holding it down and Zola’s strike only produced a shallow gash and not a lethal wound as they had intended. Thin lines of shadow appeared in the air, wrapping around Zola’s sword arm, the raven’s attempt to prevent further damage while it fought the restraints of Zola’s Tendrils. Zola countered with Shadow Demon, imposing terror on the raven, causing it to thrash in panic and lose control of its own shadow magic. The ropes of shadow wrapping around Zola’s arm dissipated, and Zola lunged forward while the creature’s terror prevented it from reacting rationally. Their scimitar plunged into the creature’s chest. The creature jerked, then became still.

  Behind Zola, Tome shot fireballs at the second raven, while Pelana buffeted it with Air Lash. Magic attacks had the advantage of range, but rarely demonstrated the killing speed of a sword to a vulnerable organ. The second raven and its companion fought back with shadowy whips of force and snapping beaks directed towards Tamori, who gracefully blocked the attacks with her shield or parried with her mace, while maintaining a translucent Light shield that dispersed the Shadow magic of the ravens as it crossed the barrier’s threshold.

  Zola moved around the dead raven in front of them to reach the backside of the monstrous birds engaged with Tamori. They cast Aether Lances at the raven under the barrage of Tome and Pelana while slicing forward with the sword to the raven’s unprotected back. Their sword opened a deep gash along the backside of the raven as a wing broke free of the Shadow Tendrils encasing it to buffet Tamori. A Rock Shield appeared between Tamori and the wing as Zola pivoted their scimitar to cut through the wing. They were not able to achieve the right angle, and rather than being severed, Zola left a line of blood dripping down the black feathers. The raven fought on as Zola readied themselves for another attack.

  The barrage of magic from Pelana and Tome dropped the third raven as Zola swung their sword to slash at the second bird’s back once again. Pelana and Tome unleashed a final swirl of elemental attacks on the second raven as Zola struck the bird’s back and it joined its companions as a lifeless corpse. Zola immediately began to clean their sword while Pelana and Tome approached the trio of bodies. Tamori, on the other hand, moved to investigate the stand of trees where the ravens had perched.

  “You seem to favor the sword, using your magic only for control,” Pelana commented as she moved to stand next to Zola.

  “The sword is more efficient at targeting the weakness of the enemy.”

  “Sometimes that is the case, but when you leave some of your tools in the box, you are not as strong as you could be.”

  “There was no need for additional tools. The enemy was weak, and few.” Zola sheathed their scimitar at their waist.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Yet you did not finish it as swiftly as you should have,” Pelana indicated the bleeding wing of the second raven, and the shallow gash in the first raven’s neck.

  “I am limited by this form. The reach and rigidity of the arms are insufficient for my combat style.”

  “You are a Aether mage. If you were in full mastery of your magic, you would not need arms at all.” Pelana turned and began walking towards the path, “Come, there is more to do.”

  Tamori moved past Zola to follow Pelana, shoving a large egg into a spatial bag on her belt. She paused a few steps in front of Zola and looked back at him. “You may have come from a planet that trained you to be a warrior, but don’t think that means you have nothing to learn. You were taught to fight in armies. Here, you must learn to be a hero.”

  Zola watched as Tamori and Pelana walked away, contemplative. This world was strange in its ways, but perhaps they did have something to learn after all.

  ———

  Philip bounded cheerfully into one of the training rooms next to the armory. Zali was waiting for him inside. She was the Earth trainer assigned to help him, but not in the dungeons. She had to go help Panu and Morrigan because they needed an Earth mage with them. Philip could have gone with them, but Anika and Lily needed his help. He liked to help people. And Epona said it was best for him to learn how to be a tank, because it was his job to defend the heroes when they were all in a party. She said it was good to learn with Anika, but said he had to practice on his own too. That was fine - he liked to practice fighting! He always wanted to be a warrior. He had to learn a little about fighting things because lots of things attacked the farm. But most of the time it was just moving dirt around. He could move a lot of dirt though!

  Today he finally got to learn more about being a warrior! Vok said he was good enough at using the pitchfork that he wouldn’t hurt anyone, but said he needed to learn a lot more to be a good fighter. Zali knew how to use a lot of weapons and could teach him!

  ”Hi Zali!” Philip waved as he walked up to the Mizeta woman. She wasn’t wearing armor today, just a light weight grey tunic and pants like Philip had on. Philip’s tunic was green though.

  “Good afternoon, Philip. Did you have a good lunch?” Zali walked to meet Philip in the center of the room, a pair of quarter staves in her hands.

  “Yes! All the food is really good here. I really liked the pastry today!” Philip bounced on his toes excitedly. “But I tried not to eat too much! I know not to eat a lot before fighting.”

  ”Good. You do not want to be fat and languid in your movements when you enter combat. You must always be in top shape, both in mind and body.” Zali handed Philip one of the staves. “Leka discussed your battles yesterday with me. You have natural instincts that serve you well, but you lack cohesion and creativity in your form and battle strategy. You must start to think about how to fight a variety of monsters in a variety of situations. First, however, we must expand your knowledge of basic form and technique.”

  Philip grabbed the staff, “I’m ready!” He twirled it around, holding it out in front of him in a loose concept of a fighting position.

  “First we will learn different stances and ways of holding the staff. Anything you learn with the staff you will be able to do with your trident or other polearm melee weapons with only minimal adaptation necessary.” Zali moved to stand next to Philip so that they both faced the mirror that lined the wall of the training room. She positioned her legs about shoulder width apart and held the staff with both hands diagonally in front of her. Her arms bent at the elbows and her left hand was closer to the ground. The bottom of the staff pointed to her left foot.

  “This is the first starting position,” Zali said, and when Philip did not assume the same stance, she spoke directly, “do it now.”

  Philip hurriedly adjusted his stance to mirror Zali’s pose. “Alright, what next?”

  ”We will cover a variety of attack types from this position, then we will practice them in a combination. Once you are comfortable with following me, you will hit the pell with each strike.” Zali gestured towards the pell, a 7 foot tall vaguely humanoid shape made of wood with circular marks on various locations up and down the sides of the figure.

  Philip nodded, so Zali continued. “First, quickly push out with your right arm while pulling back with your left, aiming for a spot in front of and slightly below where the top right of the staff currently sits.” She demonstrated the motion slowly, then completed it again quickly. “Using both hands will give you more control and power.”

  Philip repeated the motion, his staff slicing forward to attack an imaginary creature in front of him.

  “Good, now we use the same motion but add movement with the shoulders and wrists to target different heights.”

  Zali continued to work Philip through a variety of two-handed strikes on the right and left sides, from high strikes intended to hit a much taller target than the Degeta man, to low strikes aimed at smaller monsters. She included a few more showy and powerful overhead strikes as well as some sweeping strikes intended to knock someone off their feet.

  “Excellent. You have the basic forms, so now you must drill them on the pell.” Zali walked over to the pell and demonstrated a fast series of four strikes to four different spots of the Pell, alternating sides for each strike. Then she repeated it more slowly. “You must ensure that you are always prepared to pivot your strike into the next, regardless of how the enemy responds. The goal is to move as quickly as possible between strikes without sacrificing form.”

  ”Yeah, I think I can do that!” Philip found this practice much more exciting. Just attacking the air was a little boring. He wanted to really whack something! He took Zali’s place by the pell and quickly repeated her strike pattern. He did target a lower set of target circles than Zali targeted. His strikes hit the target, but he rushed through the set of moves in his excitement and went straight into doing it again.

  Zali’s staff moved to intercept his staff as it was about to strike the first target again. “You hit the targets accurately, but you lost all your form. Your strikes have no power if you haphazardly swing the weapon around. You did not use your body to add weight to the strikes and your arms flailed like noodles.” Zali continued to scold Philip. “If you cannot maintain your form on the pell, we will go back to practice by the mirror so you can focus on your body.”

  Philip frantically shook his head, “No, I can do it! I’m just really excited to hit things! That is what warriors do!”

  ”Warriors have discipline! And they defend their party; resolute and reliable. There are many times you will do limited attacking as an Earth mage, as you need to focus your mind and power on defending yourself and your party. Battle is not exciting. Battle is life and death. You will be facing many trials as you go on to defeat monsters that the rest of us are unable to stand against. This training you do now must be taken seriously, and you must focus and do as I say, or you may get yourself, or someone else, killed.”

  Philip nodded, his expression somber now. He would definitely protect Epona and Anika and Lily. He could still be a warrior if he got really good at his fighting. Then he could protect them and fight back. He raised his staff to repeat the pattern, more carefully this time and received a nod of approval from Zali.

  “Good, now, we will practice many more forms today and every day you are not in the dungeon. Then we will learn how to add your magic into your fighting.”