[X] Fuck it *falls over*
---
As the pressure rises and the blue flames grow brighter, you find your will to fight fading. Reasons as to why you shouldn't fight flow into your mind one after another. The prominent two though, are quite simple. One, this is painful. Like, really painful. You feel like you're being crushed to death, and you're pretty damn sure the force isn't even aimed towards you. Two, and most importantly, he's right. You suck at lying, and if he accidentally knocks you out then you don't have to answer a damn thing.
"Don't let me sleep too long," you ask your soul resident mentally, and you can almost feel her soft nod in return. With preparations made, you fall over with one final thought on your mind. "fuck it." You feel the crushing pressure lessen as the world goes black, though it's far too late to fight back even if you wanted too.
-
You shoot awake with an intense pain in your eyes, it burns like some kind of acid right beneath your eye-lids, blocking out all sight.
Then as soon as the pain awoke you, it's gone, and you can see again. You take in the large rectangular room, just as hard on your back as you remember it. The training room, though you do find it weird to wake up here. It is definitely in better shape than the last time you were here, the material is spotless and clean. You find yourself wondering how in the hell Fragment fixed it so fast, before it occurs to you that he probably just had Rose help him. A twinge of guilt works its way up your spine, before you wipe it away with a more important thought.
"How long was I out?" You ask your new roommate mentally, and you immediately hear her respond.
"A little over thirty minutes. You haven't missed anything important."
"I see." You stand suddenly, leaning on the wall of the training room for support. Out of the corner of your eyes you see someone you don't recognize leaning on the same wall a few feet away, it almost looks like they're copying you from their posture.
The person is dressed masculine, but has very feminine features. Their wild black mane is rather long, reaching down to their lower back, and they have perfect, smooth, pale skin. They have glowing red eyes which are pointedly studying you, with sclera of pure black. Their clothes are very weird, tight black jeans on long legs, a pair of wooden sandals, which half make you want to ask what the hell their thinking, half where they got them since you still need shoes. They stand about a foot taller than you, making you have to look up at them slightly even with them in a slouched posture on the wall. Course, you're in that posture as well.
They have a large black coat, damn they love that color. What's the word that some people used back in school? Emo? You're not really sure what it means, but you think it might fit. You think you remember it as an insult though, so you probably shouldn't insult them just in case it's not appropriate.
You want to say male, but they're wearing fucking make-up, very dark eye liner and eye shadow. That's just what you're picking up off a quick scan. There's probably much more honestly.
The part that draws your attention back to reality though is that noticing you studying them, they smile at you in what you can only assume is meant to be disarming, but it shows off their razor teeth. You're not sure what those are, but they're not natural teeth, not in the least. Every single one of them is like a blade. You have no doubt they could rip through a person in less than a moment of care.
"Um..." you speak hesitantly, not really sure what to say, so you just come out with it. "Are you male or female?"
It opens its mouth to speak, as if to speak, yet you hear nothing. You understand, you do, exactly what it just said. Male, the seventh Death in the Land of Deaths, Sieg. Yet, he said nothing, no sound was made in the least. You just... know.
How are you? Hmm... "A little weirded out by the whole mental speech thing going on, but I'll get used to it. I think my name's Aeternam." You hold out your hand to shake his, and suddenly you feel a hot pain, when you look down your hand is gone. You didn't see him move at all, but it's obvious he did, and yet he's not making any aggressive movements at all. He doesn't even look hostile, just, passive. So why? you can already feel it coming back, and you note that there wasn't any soul power in whatever took away your hand based on the healing, implying he actually removed it instead of some weird magic.
"What was that for?" You ask, and suddenly you know he's sorry. Why would he be sorry for something he did on purpose though? "It's ok, it'll come ba-" and suddenly you're back first in the wall across the room, a massive ache tearing through you at the impact. Yet, once again, no soul power was used, and you're healing quickly.
This time you did see him move, but you're pretty sure he let you given you barely did this time. His leg leaving its lazy posture and impacting your chest before you could even try to react, and then back into his lazy posture before you'd even started moving away.
He gets off the wall slowly, his lazy posture remaining even while standing. His razor teeth don't look like they're meant to reassure you anymore, yet you still see curiosity in his eyes instead of malice.
You just know, as if it is drilled into your brain suddenly, that this is a test of some sort. Something about a, sword? "I lost the sword, it's gone." You announce, hoping it'll stop him.
Suddenly you're dodging without even realizing you moved or had reason to, and the wall where you were is turned into a fine white mist. Yet behind it you see more wall, not hallway... How thick is this place? He doesn't look like he's moved, but you're pretty sure he just did. Because once again, you don't feel any soul power.
And once again, you simply know, he's not talking about the sword you lost. So which one could he be talking about?
"I don't-" You're suddenly on your knees, the wind blown out of you despite your mind supplying the fact that you didn't have air. He's closer now, you didn't see him move, but he's only a few feet away. You know suddenly, that you need to stand, and you hesitate for just a second before you're back first in the wall again. This time your jaw feels like liquid fire, and your vision goes white for a moment.
"He means the elemental conjured blade, I have no idea how he knows you can do it."
"The what?" You shout back internally, and the man in front of you just continues to stare, not doing anything. Almost as if he's waiting for-regeneration! You check your arm to make sure, and sure enough your hand is there again. For some reason he's waiting for you to heal before attacking again. But, why?
"The one you saw me summon with the vampire, your darkness affinity should easily be high enough to summon a weak one yourself."
"How in the hell?" You can feel that he's getting bored, very suddenly the overwhelming urge to fight back fills you, and you're pretty sure it's from the same source as the random understanding. Mr. 7 over there has some direct connection to your mind. That thought scares you, but then it can't be all knowing, or he'd know you're confused and to back off. Right?
This time you see him move, because he's moving very slowly for some reason, and you know you can't just take that hit. You roll forward out from the wall and under his overly slow attack, and strike at his face with your fist. You avoid using skills, just a raw punch, as he appears to be following the same rules and you don't want to break some unspoken code and get killed for it.
Your fist actually impacts, and he stumbles back.
"Try and focus your power in such a way that it is almost entirely darkness, then make it very narrow and straight." Bad directions aside, you capitalize on his stumble, going for a kick, only to end up on your ass a few feet away. His posture perfectly nonchalant, like he didn't take a hit at all, and to be honest for him it probably wasn't notable. It hurts, but you're a mage not a brawler, so you let it go.
4 Too low
You try and summon your energy to do just as she says, but nothing is happening. A moment later he's within your space, and he pokes you on the nose. You skid across the floor, which is fucking painful on your back by the way, and you have to wonder what the fuck the point of this is. Does he want you to cast the damn spell, or is he bored, which is it?
Suddenly you understand that you were using far too little energy, trying to control it in too small a quantity leading to far too little during actual use.
You stand up grumbling to yourself. "Are you here to kick my ass or teach me? Pick one!" You shout at him, and his sharp smile doesn't alter in the least as he continues to stare at yo motionlessly, the same damn studying look in his eyes, his posture not changing to anything less embarrassingly lazy the entire time so far.
You watch him as you try again, careful not to take your eyes off him and trying to push more into it.
89 Too high
You feel like you almost manage it, but then you're sent flying and a loud explosion wracks where you just where. Oddly enough you weren't hit with any explosion, though you do feel a blunt impact pain on your chest.
Again, you suddenly understand, you put too much into it, trying to do it properly and overloading it before you're capable of handling the structure.
You get up, still carefully watching him, he doesn't appear to have moved, though not sure why you're even watching given if he doesn't want you to see him you won't.
61 a little too low
This time you feel like you've got it right, but right as the structure starts it warps in front of you into something you don't want.
71 Close enough
You try and enforce your will on the malformed energy, forcing it to your image, and you barely manage to force it into a structure similar to what you wanted.. It's small, it's frail, it doesn't even look sharp. Hell, it doesn't even look cool like the one you saw it demonstrated with, but... It's something, and you feel slightly proud of it.
Ability reveal: Conjure Elemental Blade(Dark)
His smile grows wider, it's as if he wants to look menacing or something, and he lifts his left hand into the air. A moment later a small ax is pulled out of thin air, crude and simple in design, but you get the feeling it's anything but. You can see a chain attaching to the bottom of it from his hand
As if to prove you right he swipes it to his right and it extends into a massive ax, the size as intimidating as the fact that he's holding it with one hand easily. It has to weigh at-least a few hundreds pounds...
Thoughts pop into your head, and you know that it's time to get serious. Apparently you have about twelve hours before you'll need to rest to regain energy for your next mission, and this man, whoever he is, Sieg, has no intentions of letting you fail again due to being unprepared. Wait, he's going to spend twelve hours training you? Where the hell does he find the-and just like that you barely dodge a hack that would have casually torn your arm off, the massive ax leaving a gash in the floor where you were as he retracts it back to him by the chain without moving an inch or showing any struggle..
----
This is a training vote. You now have the option of choosing what you want to focus on, if anything. Note you can specify degrees to an extent.
[]Default vote: You will gain some experience split up (not evenly) between (hand-to-hand, Short Blade, Conjure Elemental Blade(Dark), Channeling, Acrobatics, Primary Darkness, Secondary Darkness)
[]Non default vote: Must include (Some sort of blade skill, Conjure Elemental Blade(Dark), Primary Darkness, Secondary Darkness.)
