Chapter 338: Not Quite a Montage_Millennial Mage

Chapter 338: Not Quite a Montage

 T took deep breaths, eyes closed, desperately focusing on four things at the same time.

 Well, that wasnt quite fair.

 She had four of her bloodstars locked away with four clones of her instructor in this lesson, Mistress Kaeti.

 The woman was pping in slowly changing patterns, each clone following a different cadence as T listened.

 T was then moving her hands, each on beat, each with one of the four.

 Beyond that, she was moving her elk-leathers in alignment with a third, causing a bit of white steel to manifest and fade away as her means of tracking. Finally, she was transforming Flow between a knife and a sword on rhythm with thest.

 To be fair, she was also using her willpower and focus to enact the aspect mirroring for each perspective, so it was more like an eight-way split, at least.

 t was being helpfully silent as T struggled with this basic exercise that Mistress Kaeti had provided.

 Honestly, T had improved remarkably under the womans tutge. When T started, she had struggled to keep two separate rhythms. Now she was struggling to do twice as many.

 Twice the struggle, twice the reward. Strain aside, she was doing it, though.

 Good, Mistress T. We still havent found your natural limits so that we can begin to push. So, I expect well see quite a bit of quick progress and improvement over theing weeks.

 T opened her eyes, knowing this to be the next step of the practice. She did her best to keep the four distinct, randomly changing rhythms going. Thank you, Mistress.

 She strayed off with her left hand and quickly corrected.

 This is somewhat exhausting.

 Thats expected. You havent really used this much. Its like weve found a muscle that youve neglected. You arent mentally weak; youre just unpracticed.

 They continued like this for another few minutes before T felt her focus irresistibly slipping, and they called an end to that form of practice for the moment.

 As they sat a few feet apart, Mistress Kaeti brought up the subject that they both knew shed been avoiding, So, reality nodes.

 T sat up just a bit straighter. Youve been able to dig into them?

 I have. I apologize for my silence on the subject, but it was rather a shock to learn that my magic was doing something so monumental without my really realizing it. I always knew that any damage to an iteration hurt all of them all of me, but I didnt realize that it was literally me, iterated across existence.

 So, what did you learn, if you dont mind my asking? I also picked up some information on reality nodes, and Im happy to share if youd like.

 The other Refined smiled softly. Id like that, thank you. You keep record of your memories, correct?

 I do.

 Would you be willing to share some of what youve experienced of reality nodes? Id also like to see my abilities through your eyes, if youre up for that.

 That sounds more than fair for all the training well be doing.

 Mistress Kaeti grinned. That sounds incredibly agreeable to me. Done.

 They talked for a couple of hours, before agreeing to meet up again sooner than theyd previously nned to do some testing and experiments.

 Mistress Kaeti promised to bring an expert to the session, so that theyd keep things at least rtively safe.

 T smiled at the other woman, I look forward to it.

 * * *

 T growled as she moved her bloodstar through the intricate, vast obstacle course, liberally spotted with iron spikesher iron spikes.

 Her aura stretched farther than shed ever gotten it, thanks to Master Akras instruction.

 Shed started by extending it as far as possible before cing a ring of iron spikes. From those spikes she was able to extend further, though not even close to as far as the initial distance from herself.

 From there shed repeated the process until she could fill the entire Refined training area theyd booked for their sessions.

 In Master Akras words, thats when the real work had begun.

 She was to enact her aspect-mirrored perspective, and her positional control of the bloodstar, through the closest iron spike at all times.

 Approaching her aura in such a segmented manner had been impossible for her at first. Then, shed been unable to distinguish which spike she was reaching through, to somewhat frustrating results.

 Only after weeks of practice could she begin to do as hed asked, and toward which hed been instructing and guiding her, and even then, it was incredibly slow.

 This was the first time shed had to navigate the bloodstar through anything other than the open training area.

 It was an obstacle course only in the loosest sense, though her mind made it out to be a tremendous difficulty.

 In truth, it was a single ring to move through and an upright stick to circle and thennd atop.

 Even so, it was monumentally harder than simply floating her bloodstar across the roughly even, open space.

 Regardless, she seeded, finally opening her eyes with a glee shining from within them.

 Wonderful progress, Mistress T. I think youre ready for the next step.

 She hesitated at that. I thought that the obstacle course was the next step.

 Oh, it is in one sense, and well move to moreplicated variations of that, but I mean the next step for your aura control, in general, not this specific branch of the skill set.

 Alright she said hesitantly, What is it?

 I want you to pull your aura back toward each spike until you no longer have contiguous control over the space as a whole. Make each spike an ind of your aura in a sea of unimed space.

 She felt her eye twitch. I dont suppose thats the end of the esction?

 He barked augh. Oh, no. Once you can do that consistently, Ill contest one of your aura-bubbles, and youll have to resist without changing any of the others. He grinned. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Lets see what you can do with the task at hand.

 T nodded, firming her resolve and hardening her will.

 She could do this.

 As it turned out, no, no she could not.

 At least not that day.

 It was another weekand three more advanced versions of the obstacle courster before she finally opened the first gap within her own aura.

 Two dayster, she had rivers of unimed air coiling around most of her iron spikes, though she still had tendrils of aura connecting each of the isted pockets.

 She was feeling a bit dejected with the difficulty, but she had decided that this was something worth working at, no matter how long it took.

 She wasnt in this for quick gains or the checking of boxes for advancement.

 She would master this because she could, regardless of how long it took.

 She would master it because she chose to.

 * * *

 T barely kept herself from growling as her hair was frozen to the point of shattering in a tinkle of falling ice again.

 -Just dont regrow it this time.-

 It shouldnt be an issue to begin with.

 -Yeah, well. You arent reading the flow of heat as well as you think.-

 You mean we arent.

 -Im you, so I choose to see you as the problem.-

 That brought a smile to Ts face, and even brought up a chuckle through her dry throat. Thank you, t. I needed that.

 -I aim to please.-

 It was amazing how much moisture the cold could suck out of the air.

 Mistress Deigh, the ice focused Refined that T had met on her first day back in Alefast, strode around her in a slow circle, Mistress T, extreme cold is a useful hazard in your arsenal, but not a deadly one. You need to befortable with its effects so that you know how they will affect your opponents.

 T nodded.

 She knew that the Refined was right, so she grit her teeth and moved back into the maze of frozen and freezing air.

 There were so many flows of energy around her, and rather than resisting any of them, she let her senses ride them through her surroundings.

 Mistress Deigh hadnt just made bursts of coldor sucked heat from various sections of the room. Instead, she had created intecing, supercooled patterns under ground that pulled in heat, creating currents and vortices.

 More than that, there were magics woven into the cold itself, somehow.

 Heat capacity? T frowned as she felt her body fighting back against the unnatural cold.

 You severely lowered the temperature, then you massively inted heat capacity?

 Very good. Theres more to it than that, but that is essentially the basics.

 What happens to the energy when your working fades? Will there be an explosion of heat?

 Mistress Deigh smiled mischievously. The energy was spent raising the temperature. Altering specific heat doesnt change temperature, so a return to normal heat capacity doesnt cause any temperature change at all.

 Huh

 But how my magic works isnt why were here. Whats happening to your body, your flesh, your thoughts?

 The attempted crystallization within my flesh is irritating, and it is taking a surprising amount of power to counter, but I suspect thats because of your magics. T narrowed her eyes implicatively.

 True, but not on topic. Mistress Deigh smiled in return.

 T grinned. Fair, fair. Every breath is ufortable; it hurts to move about; my joints feel like they should be aching, but Im obviously not letting the cold prate that deeply.

 And how many do you think have resistance to cold on your level?

 Most? I mean, I dont actually have a resistance to cold, I just have a robustness to my physical body.

 Ahh, but that is a resistance to cold. You have enhanced every aspect of your body, that includes your ability to generate heat at need, when you are cold.

 I huh T bit the side of her lip. You know, Id never really thought about it in those terms.

 Understandable. Most magical healing, even at our level, is very specific. Most physical defenses, simrly so. We block and repair trauma. For environmental issues? We avoid them for the most part.

 But when properly used, they can tip the bnce.

 Precisely.

 Alright, what next?

 Next? Mistress Deigh grinned broadly. Next you get familiar with the cold effects of your magic.

 * * *

 T exhaled with a sharp, precise breath, moving her lips and tongue as Master Doitean had been teaching her, her desired result in mind.

 She never thought that shed see so many diagrams of the human mouth, nor that shed ever be taught, using a massive Archive disy that allowed for looping images, showing exactly which muscles pulled in exactly what manner to form the various desired results.

 T had amazing control of her own body, but she had to know what to move.

 This level of instruction solved that problem nicely.

 Unfortunately, that still left a few issues.

 First, she wasnt whoever the images were modeled after, so while following the instructions exactly got her close, it wasnt precisely right for her.

 Second, she needed to be able to make the various shapes with her mouth and tongue instinctively.

 In both cases, that meant practice.

 Master Doiteans solution, after she got close to having the movements right?

 Sparring using only breath weapons and maneuverability.

 She had been concerned about hurting him until hed demonstrated one of his defensive abilities, which very precisely heated the air around his body, creating powerful currents that moved directly away from himself, weakening or negating most ranged attacks.

 It obviously wasnt perfect, and T had caught him with ncing blows in the past, but he was surprisingly robust, even beyond the expected levels for a Refined.

 Her short burst of breath wasden with power, but carefully below the threshold that would allow it to ignite the air.

 Her second breathas she dove and rolled away from a stream of blue-hot firewas stronger and more sustained, causing Master Doitean to leap to the side, exactly as shed hoped.

 He let out a distorted curse as a small amount of the power within her first breath made it through his defensehim moving directly into an attack was a weakness of that defenseand left a dissolving patch through his cheek.

 Yes. Theres no way for him to use a breath weapon now that he

 Her victory was short lived, as his curse had been distorted due to proper mouth formation for a truly terrifying breath attack.

 No. No! Thats ridiculous. How?

 A beam of white fire, no thicker than her little finger,nced out at her, not expanding in the slightest as it cut across the distance between them in a blink.

 It speared straight through her un-metaled shoulder and out the other side, leaving a cauterized hole.

 No defensive magics for me. She grimaced against the pain.

 She understood the reasoning. The point was to teach her to anticipate and use breath weapons. If she just stood and took the hits, that would teach her very little.

 They would incorporate her defenses soon, he promised. After all, it was also important for her to know when and if she could take a hit from various breath weapons.

 Match. The word sounded a bit odd, given his missing cheek. Master Doitean smiled, the expression looking rather menacing with so many teeth exposed.

 How did you get out a breath attack without a cheek?"

 He chuckled, speaking with clipped words to ovee the distortion from his missing cheek, Well done, but Ive experienced simr things before. I used my defensive magics.

 Ts head rocked back slightly as she made an Oh of understanding. Her shoulder was healing slowly, the cauterization slowing down the process, but not overly so. You used the currents of air around your body to press inward, containing and directing the breath attack?

 That, and my aura.

 She grimaced. She wasnt allowed to use her aura yet, either. She understood why. It was a crutch, a useful crutch, but it would inhibit her growth in this area. Even so, she focused on the other part. How do you have such fine control over the currents of air?

 He grinned again. Heat, Mistress T. When used with understanding and skill, it is more precise than a scalpel.

 She shook her head, ncing to his exposed teeth once again. We should get that looked at before we continue.

 He shrugged. Ill swing by the healers while you practice dispersion patterns.

 Dispersion patterns were exactly as they sounded, the different shapes that a breath weapon could take after exiting her mouth.

 It was something she was starting to grasp, but practice was rarely amiss.

 T nodded. As you wish.

 * * *

 T spit up blood as she did her best to quickly return to her feet.

 Master Cru was there, mming a gauntleted fist into her chest yet again.

 This time she reacted properly, spinning on her nted foot and flowing around the hit, allowing it to slide off of her as she smacked the man with a backfist,den with as much iron-mass as she could quickly shift and allow toe to bear.

 Theyd moved past training blows long ago, though she was confined to weaponlessbat for the moment.

 Impossiblythough not unexpectedlyher knuckles met the broadside of a wide-ded sword, which she drove forward, mming into Master Crus torso, andunching him to skip across the arena.

 The interposing weapon had distributed the near-lethal blow into one that simply moved the man a considerable distance.

 T growled. That was not what she had wanted.

 With still-startlingly perfect movements, the Refined flipped back to his feet, sliding to a stop, seemingly no worse for wear.

 She knew what he was going to say before he said it.

 He knew that she knew, but he said it anyways, Hit down, Mistress T. Throwing an opponent away is wonderful for gaining space, and Im sure it served you well when you were a butcher for the arcanes, but here we are protecting the weak and innocent. We need to keep threats contained.

 She didnt let herself get distracted by the repetitious, intentionally irritating words. She crouched, amplified her surface-area-enhancing scripts andunched forward as he shot toward her as well.

 She knew that hed expect an overhead attack, meant to follow the instructions in a powerful way.

 Hed do the same and somehow the sh would end with her embedded in the ground yet again.

 Even reviewing the shes, she had a hard time picking out what she was doing wrong.

 He simply moved perfectly, exactly where he needed to be to counter whatever she did and deliver his own attack.

 It had happened a dozen times already, if not more. She could see them all, in not quite a montage. To her mind, they were all ovepping, easily seen together in all her failing glory.

 It was time for something different.

 She aimed lower, and even as she did, she saw the frown of irritation on the mans face.

 She was going against his instructions.

 She spun as she dropped, letting her back hit the not-sand as she slid under him, aicallyrge warhammer bearing down on her.

 Even so, she was able to tuck her legs up to her chest and kick straight upward.

 Master Crus eyes widened as her feet connected, the surface-area expanding scripts giving them good purchase to throw him straight up, into the ceiling.

 She used the motion to kick up,nding on her feet right beside where theyd shed.

 Above, there was a cacophonous BOOM as Master Cru mmed into the ceiling.

 A momentter, he came crashing down, heading for exactly where shedunched him from.

 She swung her fist to intercept him, but he somehow hit the back of her hand with a u-shaped de hard enough to drive her attack downward before a morningstar caught her in the now exposed back of the head.

 She facented into the ground.

 He wasnt even winded as he stood over her. While I apud your desire to not listen to your opponent, I am trying to teach you, here.

 T rolled backward,ing back to her feet as she cleared debris from her face.

 Still, he nced upward, You did keep me horizontally locked, so well done there.

 Thank you.

 Now, lets try to aim our attacks downward shall we?

 She grinned. We can certainly try.

MillionNovel

Chapter 338: Not Quite a Montage