Regia did not go easy on Shawn. Not on the training course, not on sparring, not on the firing range.

  He firmly believed that she was trying to kill him--and worse, with a cheerful smile, while she was doing it.

  The next couple of days were painful as he pushed himself to the brink of Etteria burnout, trying to test how close he could cut it, without inhibiting his health. She had him doing test flights, first and foremost.

  It was something he'd practiced but over retively smooth terrain. And not banking between obstacles suspended by rge ropes from the titan trees, now hinting at a beautiful golden autumn bloom on the tips of the extreme heights. But now, he focused on flying past suspended logs, and heard Regia shouting out maneuvers ahead of him. Neck and neck with him was Garrett, plus a few others in a race, and he was terrified of smming into the obstacles at high speed.

  “This is too fast!” he shrilled between wingbeats.

  “This is the evasion speed you need, or you become a fried Aveeran!” Regia taunted back, now delicately poised on one of the obstacles and hanging with one cw wrapped around the rope. She leaned in just as he passed by to brush his wingtip, and he nearly over-corrected from the distraction.

  “I think you’re trying to kill me!”

  “I guess I’m terrible at it, then!” she replied merrily. She leaned forward, and tucked her wings to get a brief dive speed before fluttering up beside him. Her bright teal and blue feathers glimmered in the te afternoon sun. She kept pace with him easily. And worse, she maneuvered around him like he was a dirigible without a rudder. “I’m good at this, though!”

  He would comment that she was showing off, but his ragged breath kept it to a few short words of raspy protest. She dipped low, tucking in her wings and using her tail to course-correct. What was more amazing were the extra fps of feathers that extended on her arms, to act as rudders for yaw corrections. He didn’t seem to have those.

  He focused on the rhythm of beating his wings to gain altitude, to glide for as long as he could. His breath came in sucking gasps, and his blood pulsed through his body at a rate no human heart could. He found it fascinating, and distracted him from thinking about the sheer height they were flying at

  “Obstacles ahead, alternate left and right through them!” Garrett barked out, visible as shimmer of green and rusty red feathers ahead of him, who darted through the sets of hanging logs effortlessly. Shawn tucked his wings to avoid clipping either side of the narrow opening, and let them sail as soon as he was clear–only to nearly plummet downward. He fred his tail feathers for that little extra bit of lift, and course corrected

  Shawn if I wasn’t cking a body, I think I would be clenching in all the pces that are clenched when doing something utterly terrifying!

  Shawn would have offered some words to assure her, but this was as terrifying as it was thrilling. This was the ultimate method of training, and nothing put him into a learning mode more than the potential for a cataclysmic error.

  “Recruits, bank left!” Garrett barked. Shawn rolled left and angled his wings to just clear the obstacle of another hanging log suspended by rope, and lost little airspeed in the process.

  “Bank right!”

  Another threading between the two suspended logs. Shawn saw a tangle of hanging vines up ahead, draping off the gold and green leaves of the massive titan trees. Each of the green, flowery vines was as thick as his arm; snagging on these could be dangerous.

  He tucked his wings and dove under, gathering speed as he quickly unfurled, and adjusted his flight path to follow Garrett, who dared a look around behind him. “Keeping up well!”

  “Sure! Danger’s just this new normal,” Shawn grinned, even with his breath coming in gasps. He heard Cire shouting in protest from down below. Since she didn’t have wings for this particur obstacle course. The ground-bound recruits kept pace on the ground, working on running and destroying targets with their rifles on a well-defined course, and mantled over low walls, past cover, and over trenches. Cire kept up effortlessly.

  More vines dangled up ahead, this time draping between two massive limbs of the tree. Each limb was as thick as a car. Shawn rolled to the right and barely missed them, and felt his pulse skyrocket from the harrowing flight.

  He should have been terrified. He should have seized up and crashed. But his brain was wired for the thrill and the incredible reaction time required to maneuver at this speed, and to make full use of the greatest thing he never knew he’d needed: wings.

  He never knew he needed this in his life, until a few days ago. The thrill of it, the ability to go anywhere, and be free. Though, as had been hammered home, the Aveeran were not endurance fliers. That took a lot of practice and strategizing long glides with minimal energy investment.

  The next part of the course was the tricky bit–they’d have to maneuver through a rge opening of the draped vines, and it wasn’t a straight path. He swerved to avoid a few errant vines and whooped out loud at the excitement of this flight.

  “Well, look who’s no longer a hatchling! Maybe there’s hope for you yet!” Regia called out off to his side. He dared a break in focus on his forward path, to see her beaming smile. “Now, you gotta go around again, so I can be sure it wasn’t a fluke!”

  “Yep, still trying to kill me, I see!”

  They stopped briefly after the second round to pick up a rifle, with new tasks in mind. Regia and Garrett both motioned to a training course with aerial obstacles, not that far from the ground-based one.

  Garrett pointed to the course, his voice taking on that of a drill instructor. “Now, for you all you nd-dwellers, this course will be more of the same for you. You’re expected to run, shoot, and not be a sitting Aveeran.” Cire couldn’t help it and ughed at that. Garrett continued after raising an eyebrow. “So, for you guys, we’ll be pairing off, a spotter and a shooter. Your gestalts are cleared for use on this one. As for those of us with wings, flying and gunning will be the main task.”

  “Well, this sounds right dangerous,” Shawn commented. “How are you expecting to hit shit without a stable firing ptform from mid-air? We’re not built like airpnes with a mounted machine gun.”

  Regia nudged Cire as he mentioned this. “Can he do that?”

  “I don’t think you want to continue this line of inquiry, my favorite feathery daredevil,” Cire replied. “Perhaps a working demonstration, Garrett?”

  Shawn expected he wouldn’t be able to hit a thing. Garrett proved him wrong with metallic cngs as the rounds hit the angled targets. He observed Garrett bracing the weapon against his shoulder and locking his wings–Shawn noted that he only fired when he was gliding or in a fixed flight pattern.

  But, Garrett also had a distinct advantage: extreme speed muscuture response when he used his gestalt. There was no one else quite as well-suited to this kind of firing in flight. But he wasn't boastful. He nded and reloaded the weapon calmly, and pointed to the gathered group.

  “Now, the demonstration’s over. Any Aveeran can get an elevated point of attack, but firing while flying? Most people misjudge where the shots need to go at extreme distances, with no horizontal point of reference,” Garrett grinned.

  “It’s true. I’ve seen it. We had mechanized birds, so to speak, that could fire weapons from the air from a fixed or flying position, or drop munitions. Ground fire was ineffective due to the small size of the target and not having a point of reference to aim against,” Shawn concluded. He gripped the rifle, and took note of everything he'd observed. This should at least get him somewhat closer to effective fire.

  Practice, however, was slow-going. None of his gestalts could steady his aim, so his shots didn't hit dead center. They did, however, hit the target more often than not.

  That said, his fme and chilling gestalts did not have the same issue, and he could saturate fire at the target with a volley of fire darts or bsts of ice, and flit away in record time. After several additional flights, he nodded to Regia satisfactorily, once they were on the ground. The training was wrapped up for the day.

  “The rifles are a better bet at a fixed point of attack. Too many variables to hit a stationary target, let alone one in motion, or traveling retive to your angle of attack. Maybe with some practice, it could be easier…” he trailed off when Regia leaned toward him.

  “Shawn.” Regia put a firm hand on his shoulder, and he let out a sound of surprise. “You know how far you’ve come in a week, right? Us, and the rest of the recruits?”

  He noted her solemn gaze, which shifted to the gated town nearby. “Yeah. We’ve come a way, haven’t we?”

  “Not nearly enough, now. Telga’s been reying to me she’s trying to rally Valtiria to put a stand up against Revarik. She’s…not having an easy time, convincing either the nation or the other Radiants nearby. What they need to see, is a banner to fight behind.”

  “You’re not optimistic, are you?” Shawn suggested.

  She shook her head gently. “No. I’m not. Telga has a way with words and rallying people, but this problem didn’t start overnight, and she didn’t do enough to throw her family retion to Revarik to the side to do what was necessary.” She pointed to town, and the barracks. “Look at us. This is a town shy of a thousand. I couldn’t beat a whole army with this if I tried. Not against other gestalts. Not against Revarik. The man is a literal walking god. You saw what he did to his little acolyte, he possessed him or used him as an anchor to spread his power,” Regia uttered in a low tone. “A conventional war, we will lose.”

  Shawn nodded calmly, observing the others as if he hadn't heard they were doomed. The others were busy boasting about who had the best aim, and Garrett gave out summaries of each person’s response. Even Cire’s deadly aim received noted, along with the additional tweaks to the alchemical rounds that hit harder than ever. Regia gnced their way, then back at him, her voice quiet, but firm.

  "Shawn, I don't know how much your gestalt can turn the tide, or the knowledge you two bring. This may not end--"

  "I'm not running." He cut off her suggestion that this would end in tragedy. "We don't have to beat armies. We just need to beat Revarik, and those who carry out his zealous orders. With power structures where it's all concentrated in one pce? That's his weak point."

  "And how do we do that? The st time we tried to negotiate--or kill him--it didn't end well." Her words were barely a whisper. She still hadn't expined how the st effort went.

  "The only option I see is a decapitation strike. Cut the head off the monster,” Shawn reasoned. It was, however, risky. He knew nothing about how Revarik operated, their military discipline, or what they did with the captured and subservient poputions of the tectonic masses he conquered at present. No one knew the details, only scattered reports from escapees who used a teleport strand to evade his forces. "We just need to distract his focus. And then send in a team to put an end to this. This pnet is fragmented as hell, there has to be more than one way down to the core world."

  She rubbed her beak, before nodding softly. “It’s not a bad idea, to be fair. The big battles serve as a distraction. If we can build the tools you’re talking about, along with Cire’s work, we can out-tech him, and build an elite team of the most powerful gestalt users and best magitech we can muster." he heard the enthusiasm in her voice. "We send a small infiltration team into the inner yers to kill the monster in his own home. But, there are a lot of problems that need solving on that front, first.”

  “I can think of a few. Can we even kill him?” Shawn asked.

  “He’s a Radiant. They’re tougher to kill than most, but yes, even Radiants can die,” Regia affirmed. “But step one is getting the mine open so we can get your stuff built. Telga is working on getting manpower, while the pressure is on the orbital yer of Detourrai. I don’t like it, but we have no choice but to use them as a buffer while we prepare.”

  “I don’t like it either. And I know my gestalts have a lot of utility. Maybe that’s what made the primal Etteria special,” he murmured. “Extraordinary gestalts.” And a plus one who is immensely helpful, he added silently.

  Eh. You’re easy company. For a sample of one, you’re alright.

  Regia nodded at his comment. “Truth be told, I’m more amazed Chakra isn’t putting you on a table and dissecting you to figure out what the Etteria did to you. But, you’re also competent. That's why I want you along for this when we clear out the mine. We’re headed out tomorrow.”

  “Guess I better quiz Garrett on the creepy crawlies of these parts. I know a few a little too intimately well.” Getting showered in viscera was not something he wanted to repeat, and he shuddered at the memory.

  “Yep. We’re briefing tomorrow. Varrick is coming with, along with Cire. Garrett proposed we bring the militia, but I told him we still need members present on the watch,” she affirmed. “If we’re lucky, we’re open for business pretty quickly. If not…better bring a melee weapon for when we run out of cartridges.”

  “I’ll take a warhammer if you’ve got one. I had a job where I swung a sledgehammer to do demolition work. It’s about as effective on drywall, light cover, and other homely construction work, as it is on monsters that need a good bashing,” he commented dryly. "Plus, you've seen my sparring. I can hold my own in a close-up fight."

  “Sounds good. Better get some rest tonight,” she advised him before waving Cire over. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and walked over, while Regia continued. “Cire, did you finish those mixes I listed?”

  “You mean the ones that are like glowsticks on steroids? Yeah, I finished those st night. Why?”

  “Because we’re going to the mine tomorrow. Got any problems killing vermin?” Regia asked, hands on her hips and looking confident.

  Cire narrowed her eyes and wore a hardened smile. “Pretty sure a couple of weeks ago, it would have been a resolute 'hell no' from me. But you know something? It sounds like some fun. I also have a few things I cooked up for the occasion. I wanna see what I can learn from the weird magical materials around here. Varrick doesn’t have much, but that alchemist book he has detailed some stuff I want to collect.”

  “Sounds like a party, then,” Shawn grunted. “We’re going to be at a disadvantage in a mine, though. Aveerans don’t fly so well in a cavern.”

  “Eh. You know what?” Regia proposed one cw in the air. “We’re gonna change it up. I have two guys that might be good for this misadventure."

  She gnced at Trask and Raine, and let out a loud bird call. “Yo, furballs! We’re shaking it up! We’re doing the real deal tomorrow, I need you two bright and early!”

  “Oh, I thought I felt needed,” Trask said smugly as he shadow-stepped from where he was, and meandered from the encroaching shadows to where the rest of them stood. “Raine, I feel we’re gonna be packing some heavy ordinance tomorrow.”

  AnnouncementThis is sort of the end of the 'Tutorial' arc. Things are about to be cranked up in stakes and tension, so buckle in, folks!

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