Chapter 102: Practice

As it turned out, their lodgings had a large, grassy backyard. It was sealed off by high stone walls from prying eyes on the street, though people in the nearby mansions probably could have looked into it if they were sufficiently motivated.

“Whoa,” Todd said, looking around the yard in surprise. “So much space. And they’re doing absolutely nothing with it.”

“That’s hardly true,” Noah said, walking up beside him. “They’ve given us a perfect training area.”

“I’m not sure that was what they had in mind for the area,” Isabel said. “It seems like a pretty good place to practice, though. I wish they had shields. That would make it a lot easier to train without worrying about someone getting hurt.”

I’d be willing to bet that Father has more than enough shields to hand out if he wanted to, but asking him for them isn’t going to end well, no matter how I go about it. The less care I actually show toward Todd and Isabel while he’s watching, the better.

“That’s fine,” Noah said. “You won’t be sparring each other. Like Isabel said, that would be dangerous.”

“Who are we sparring, then? Lee?”

Lee started to grin.

Noah cleared his throat. “No. That would probably end in you flying through one of the walls. You’ll be sparring me.”

Lee’s grin fell away. “Spoilsport.”

“I’m pretty sure you can still get hurt,” Isabel said, giving him a doubtful frown. “Are you sure?”

“You’d have to hit me to hurt me,” Noah replied. “Especially for you – can’t you blunt your weapons?”

“I guess so, yeah. What about Todd?”

“Let me worry about that,” Noah said. “Just treat me like a monster and try not to actually kill me. Lee, do you think you could act as referee? You’re a lot faster than the rest of us, so maybe try to pull me out of the way if it looks like I’m about to get cooked.”

Or, more importantly, if I manage to get myself killed. I’ve got a pretty good excuse about why I’ve got multiple bodies. Even if I die in front of them, I can just say it was a clone. That said, I do need to put my gourd somewhere. If I come back to life, I don’t want to do it in front of them.

“Sure,” Lee said. “No promises, though. I’m fast, but I’m not faster than everything.”

“That’s fine with me,” Noah said. “I’m not particularly concerned about getting injured.”

“So… do we just attack you or something?” Todd asked.

“Hold on,” Noah said. “I want to change into my training clothes. I’ll be right back.”

He strode back into the house and up to his room, tossing his belongings into his closet and changing into his cheap training clothes. Closing the closet door behind him, Noah headed back to rejoin the others.

“Right then,” Noah said as he stepped back out onto the grass. “Who wants to go first?”

“I will,” Isabel said. “At least that way I’ll get a chance to do something before Todd sets something on fire and ruins the whole exercise.”

“Hey!” Todd exclaimed. “I’ve only done that once.”

“When was that?” Noah asked.

“Before you,” Todd replied, clearing his throat. “It was when we were younger. We wanted to practice our magic. It didn’t work out too well.”

“Todd burned a barn down.”

“It was a shitty barn.”

“Not before you set it on fire, it wasn’t.”

“I’m sure Todd can avoid setting anything too important on fire,” Noah said, sending a pointed glance at Todd. “But luckily, this isn’t my house. As long as we leave it mostly in one piece, I honestly don’t care all that much. No point in the Linwicks having that money if we don’t make them use it for something, right?”

Isabel grinned, pressing her hand to her chest and drawing a thin sword out from her heart. The edge was clearly blunted, but it still didn’t look particularly enjoyable to get hit with. Noah called on his Runes and walked into the center of the yard, turning to face Isabel as she followed after him.

“Obviously we can’t quite go all out without Shields, but don’t hold back too much. Start slow and then slowly ramp things up if you feel like they aren’t working,” Noah said, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet. “Ready when you are.”

Isabel nodded. Then she darted forward, slashing at Noah’s chest. He hopped back, tracking how much reach she had and taking note of it. Isabel darted forward again and Noah used a burst of Wind magic to push himself out of her range.

Narrowing her eyes, Isabel sprinted after Noah. He hopped out of the way of her attacks, keeping a good amount of space between them as he gauged her fighting style. He let her slowly get closer and closer with every blow, shrinking the gap between them steadily and gauging how much time he was wasting with his overreactions.

It’s not all that different from fighting monsters, honestly. Everyone has a style, and the most important part of fighting is knowing what you can do and what your opponent can do. If Isabel is smart, she’s holding back at least a little, saving up to try and catch me off guard. I need to account for that in the space I give her attacks since I don’t know her moves nearly as well as I do those of a Slasher or some other monkey.

Isabel’s movements started to accelerate, and Noah caught a hint of frustration on her features. She skidded to a stop. The ground beneath Noah liquified as he stepped back. Instantly, he launched himself back with a burst of wind, then skipped quickly to the side as the dirt wavered beneath him. Cursing under her breath, Isabel dashed after Noah again.

“Clever,” Noah called. “But you stop moving when you’re using your Runes. That’s a pretty big disadvantage. You should try to work on that.”

His eyes fell on the sword in Isabel’s hand and a small frown crossed his lips.

Wait. She’s using both Stone Runes and whatever her glowing magic weapons are. How is that even possible? I thought you can’t use Runes in conjunction. Is the weapon an Imbuement?

A stone slab erupted behind Isabel, launching her forward like a human missile. Noah spun to the side, ducking under her sword as it whistled past his shoulder. She hit the ground in a roll, then spun and dashed at him again.

She’s pretty fast, but still not nearly as fast as a monster. Good reaction timing, though. I guess she hasn’t quite gotten the Body Imbuements working.

Noah shifted his weight, avoiding a slash and letting it pass right past his shoulder. Isabel’s eyes flashed with disappointment at the near miss, but it was anything but. Noah shifted his weight forward, and thrust a palm into her stomach, measuring his blow so it would only knock the wind from her rather than doing serious harm.

Instead, his hand hit something hard. He grunted as a tremor raced down his arm. It felt like he’d struck stone – and, as her shirt shifted, he realized that was exactly what had happened. Isabel had formed a thin layer of rock armor over her body beneath her clothes. She flicked her sword up and Noah set off a blast of wind between them.

It sent both of them flying back. Isabel quickly righted herself and darted at Noah again, lifting her sword to thrust it. Noah dodged to the side – and straight into the path of a pillar of stone shooting for his chest.

Noah contorted his body, wrapping himself around the stone. He flung himself out of the way as Isabel’s sword whistled through the air where his back had been, then shoved her back with another blast of wind.

Isabel hit the ground running, and Noah hopped to the side to keep his distance. The ground beneath him gave way instantly, and he fell knee-deep into a viscous puddle. His eyes widened and he launched himself into the air. Isabel lunged, but she just barely missed him. Noah landed on dry ground and hopped away.

“Clever,” Noah said with an approving grin. “Did you leave this here when we were fighting earlier so you could try to herd me back into it? I didn’t even notice it.”

Isabel didn’t respond. She jumped, boosting herself off a stone platform, and then yanked one of her hands back as she flew toward Noah. The ground erupted, throwing him into the air like a springboard.

Noah used the momentum to his advantage and drew on his Wind Rune, throwing himself even farther into the air. His empowered arc took him well past Isabel. He shot himself back to the ground with one more blast of wind.

“The whole inability to cast magic while you’re moving was also a fake out,” Noah said with a nod. “Good. Very creative. That’ll serve you well. Show me more.”

Isabel clenched her hand. The ground beneath Noah trembled, and four sheets of stone erupted around him.

Ah. She sent them underground so I wouldn’t see them coming. Clever.

The daylight shut out as the stone sheets slammed together above him, sealing him inside. Noah pursed his lips. It would have been easy enough to break free with Sunder, but that would have been an absolutely terrible idea.

Instead, he slammed both of his palms against one of the walls. A violent tremor shook the stone as he forced it to resonate. The stone crumbled to dust and Noah leapt free. Isabel jumped at him, trying to catch Noah in the legs with her sword.

He leapt, then redirected his motion with a burst of wind. Noah’s foot slammed down on the blade, knocking it from Isabel’s hands. She let it dematerialize to avoid going down together with it, but Noah’s other leg swept around and hooked her. He spun, throwing Isabel to the ground.

She hit the grass with a grunt.

“You’re dead,” Noah declared. “I could have done the same thing to you that I did to the stone wall you made. Damn good showing, though. Really well done.”

Isabel, who had been halfway through standing aback up, flopped back to the ground. She let out a defeated sigh. Noah trudged over to her, flicking the mud from his pants.

“Don’t look so put out. That was an incredible performance.”

“I could have done better,” Isabel said, her words taut. “I didn’t even land a single blow on you.”

“You forced me to use my Rank 2 Rune.” Noah knelt beside her. “I’d say that’s pretty impressive. Don’t lament what you couldn’t do. Spend your attention on what you did well and spend your energy figuring out how you can do better.”

“If you were faster, you could have caught him a few times,” Lee put in. “Maybe a speed-based Body Imbuement would be beneficial for you?”

“I don’t have anything that helps with speed yet,” Isabel said, sitting up. “Just defense.”

“Vermil’s Runes are especially bad for anyone trying to use armor,” Lee said. “So don’t judge your failure too harshly off of that. Who knows what would have happened if we had actual Shields to work with so you didn’t have to worry about killing each other on accident.”

“You had some great strategies, too,” Todd said, giving Isabel a big grin. “Would have got me for sure.”

Isabel shook her head, but the corner of her lip quirked up slightly. Her mood wasn’t quite as bad as it had been right after the loss. “Thanks.”

“I’m not sure if this was intentional, but were you holding back any of your speed?” Noah asked. “It felt like you could go faster. I thought you were trying to save that for a burst after I got complacent, but it never happened.”

“A bit of it, but not that much. I didn’t get a chance.”

“It was a really good idea,” Noah said. “But don’t hold your cards to chest too long. Having a secret advantage is very powerful, but if you never use it, the fight will be over before you get a chance to.”

He extended a hand. Isabel took it, and Noah pulled her back to her feet. She headed back over to the sidelines, joining Todd and Lee.

“Any thoughts from you?” Noah asked Lee.

“Be faster.”

“Thanks,” Isabel said dryly. “Anything else?”

“Try to win the next one. It’ll feel better.”

Isabel couldn’t stop the snort of laughter from slipping out. She just shook her head and flicked Todd in the side.

“You next. I’m not sure if I’m hoping that you do better or worse than I did.”

“Thanks, I think,” Todd said, rolling his shoulders as he walked up to join Noah in the center of the yard. “Ready, Teacherman?”

“Whenever you are.”