Chapter 24 experiments and punishment.

  After whacking Jean a few more times he sat down beside me in the cold,

  Our palms together as I attempted to cast a simple fire spell with him.

  “Flame sear and burn, firebolt.”

  We chanted, the spell fizzling as it failed.

  “Jean. You have no focus at all do you?”

  “I tried!”

  He protests.

  “Alright, practice on your flame manipulation then, I want to see a fire orb, a cube and then a basket.”

  Jean grumbled but starts working on his flames with me guiding him. The snow melts around us in a ring with our practice.

  As he constantly chants I try my new skill, dual mind.

  I wish Jean wasn't such a bone head.

  I should train while he's also going at it to save time.

  What the hell? So this is what it's like?

  What the hell? So this is what it's like?

  In one hand I focused on making a small flame, in another I focused on making a small orb of light. Jean took a break from his practice at seeing me cast two different spells at once.

  “Oh come on! I know I suck but now you're just showing off!”

  I tried to scold him but my words were garbled between my two minds.

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  “Jean youbeshogetyourbatice.”

  “Wut.”

  Jean blinked several times.

  I turned off the skill, shaking my head as my mind returned to one.

  “I said, get back to practicing, Jean.”

  My mouth obeys my one stream of thought this time. That was certainly something. Casting spells was great with the skill. Anything else seemed like it would be a hindrance. If I used it correctly I'd be able to cast spells while In a melee.

  I activated the skill again, this time playing with my magic as I tried working them together. As soon as the elements touched it felt like pushing two magnets with the same polarity together, enough brute force would make them touch but they would quickly push each other away as soon as I let up the pressure. After my experiments were done I had an idea.

  “Jean, I've found out that a different element will repel against another with the same force. Instead of practical training you're gonna try to disrupt my magic with yours.”

  “Like I'd be able to disrupt your magic…”

  We place our palms a few inches apart and I let a fragile amount of the water element condense into a ball in front of me. Jean uses fire and I can feel the pushback from both our different mana and element types. I kept this up for about 30 minutes, with Jean sweating heavily once we stopped. Once we finished I told Jean to try making a small flame. As I watched it flicker between his fingers I could barely tell that it had grown brighter, but it was progress.

  “Our training seems to have had some merit this time. Now, let's make sure you've been diligent with your swordsmanship.”

  I pull out one of my blades as I take a few steps from Jean, going into tail guard I wait for him to move.

  “Hell yeah, finally, something I can get behind!”

  Jean gets up and mirrors me, his stance being more aggressive than mine as he moves into my range. We start slowly, probing at each other's defense as we work on our posture. Sharp *tings* echo from when our swords meet.

  We pick up the pace as Jean gets into a steady flow, he has the range advantage but I'm far more skilled then him, I keep pace with Jean so he can actually practice and occasionally throw solid slashes his way. After a minute Jean tries to overpower me and knocks my blade aside. I spin into the motion and sheathe my blade, trying out my new quick draw. He fluidly moves into another attack as my blade creates sparks from the speed I draw it from my sheath, I quickly hit his sword, knocking it several feet away as I hold my blade to his throat.

  “That was a good match Jean.”

  I say as I resheath my blade.

  “You've made some good progress. If it was me before the dungeon overpowering my strike there would have been the best choice.”

  Jean bends down and picks up his blade as I lecture him.

  “If we were going all out I would've lost in terms of pure technique. That draw was superb, new skill?”

  I nod as we reflect on our spar, Jean was oddly sensible when it came to the blade.

  As we went back into the tavern, we talked about what he should work on, and went to our rooms briefly after for rest.