The White King

Tutorial

Schwarz sighs, dismissing his soul from around him.

He'd unlocked a few basics that Nacah had been drilling into him, such as the astral shield. The problem was, there wasn't much to practice with soul magic.

The moment you unlocked a skill, it was as effective as it would ever get.

Worse still, though, was that you could only really change the shape, not the properties, of the technique.

Meaning he couldn't fight someone with the astral blade technique- after he actually learned it, of course- unless he was willing to risk his opponents death.

Or maybe all of that was just an excuse for him wanting to have some fun.

Who could know?

"Donn!" Schwarz calls as he approaches the lazing fox pan. "Up for a spar?"

Donn doesn't move from his spot in the shade of a great oak, but he does open one eye to start at Schwarz with. "Why should I fight you, exactly?"

"Entertainment?" Schwarz says, lacking any other real reason to provide him.

To his surprise, though, Donn launches himself to his feet.

"Alright, Spitz, you're on," he remarks, turning away from camp. "We'll fight by the waterfall."

Schwarz narrows his eyes, fully aware of why he wanted that. Manipulating water was his specialty, so it made sense for him to want that.

Schwarz, on the other hand, only really knew how to fight in close quarters combat.

Oh goodie.

"Don't worry, though," Donn says, interrupting his train of thought. "I'll be sure to... Educate you during the fight."

~~~~~

"Any rules you want to set?"

Schwarz waves off the question before taking the Krav Maga ready stance at the edge of the river.

Walking across the surface of the water easily, Donn makes his way to the base of the fall- or falls, for those that care.

It was massive, forming an almost fifty foot wide downpour that, should you be foolish enough to stand directly beneath, would easily crush you with it's pressure.

Donn was more than smart enough to stand with his back to the current.

Describing the rest of the environment would be a waste. After all, the mixture of pine and oak trees would soon be buried under a deluge of water.

"Aschente," Donn states firmly.

"What?" Schwarz asks, bewildered.

"It's a declaration of agreement or consent said before a challenge; I picked it up from some strange gamblers I met up North."

"Oh... Aschente?" he says cautiously.

Donn doesn't so much as nod before going on the offensive.

Throwing his arms forward, he directs the body of water falling behind him to flow towards Draga instead.

There's not a whole lot you can do against a torrent of water that massive.

So, Schwarz does nothing to block it. Instead, he sends as much magic to his legs as he can within the split second he was offered before catapulting himself to the sky.

He had no landing strategy when he leapt, but one makes itself available rather quickly.

Being slammed into the ground by a giant water tentacle.

As Schwarz slowly rises, coughing out what little water managed to reach his lungs, Donn enters into a brief lecture.

"Destruction Magic- Force, the most basic form being the manipulation of a material. It is most often combined with DM- Elemental."

His last point is punctuated by the water soaked into his bearskin kilt and hair suddenly dispersing, leaving him completely dry.

"Of course, that's only two of twelve," Donn says, walking away from the waterfall to stand opposite Schwarz. "And you can't become a master with just that."

"Right-" Schwarz chokes out between two coughs,"but why? What happened to quality over quantity?"

Donn smiles, both eyes closing in a way that would be pleasant if not for his head tilting to the side.

"Can your quality do this?" he asks, snapping one of his fingers.

And then he was gone.

It wasn't teleportation- Schwarz had seen Nua do it more than enough times to know what it looks like. Donn didn't spontaneously collapse in space... He just disappeared.

"I didn't think so," Donn comments, apparently taking his failure to respond as a no.

Schwarz sighs. "Invisibility. Of course."

"That's not all, Schwarz," Donn says cryptically. "I'm just getting started."

Despite knowing that Donn was using magic, Schwarz couldn't locate him. While it was true that he'd never learned to sense magic actively, it was kind of frustrating.

He could sense Nua or Nacah easily!

So where the hell was Donn?

As if reading his thoughts, a foot crashes into Schwarz's back and drives him to the floor.

Above him stands Donn in all of his glory, a brilliant smirk on his face as he says "Right here."

Ugh...

"Transmutation Magic- Transformation, the most useful one for my kind of trade," he explains. "I haven't learned alchemy or nature magic, of course, but they wouldn't really help me."

Donn takes a step back, allowing Schwarz to stand up again.

"That's three for Transmutation; what about Destruction?" Schwarz asks almost scholarly.

"Ah, there are three for each classification. There used to be five Reality Warping Magics, but that got sorted out."

"And?" Schwarz prompts.

"You're not going to be messing with fission or fusion, alright? I'm not willing to, and I'm sure as hell not letting to blow me up in my sleep."

Schwarz looks offended, but doesn't contest the point.

"And of course, that leaves six more categories, those belonging to Psionic and Reality Warping Magics," Donn explains while stepping back over the river.

The water beneath Donn shoots upwards, carrying him into the air before suddenly hardening into ice at around twenty feet.

"Physical magic is actually the easiest to start learning, and it obviously belongs to reality warping. Simply put, you change how things interact with one another."

Forwarding his point, the pillar beneath him shatter except for a tiny disc immediately beneath his feet.

It doesn't even fall like the rest of its kind.

"Given enough training, you could theoretically accomplish any task with just this. Though, I won't be working with it myself," he admits, allowing the disc to fall into the river at a controlled pace. "It's far less effective at long range, hence why I rely on elemental magic instead."

Donn takes a hop forward, ending just in front of Schwarz.

"The remaining five- telepathy, telekinesis, psychokinesis, dimensional manipulation, and gravity magic- are outside of my expertise," he says, turning in the direction of camp.

"Nua seems to have specialized in dimensional manipulation, which allows you to control time, space, and could potentially even reach parallel worlds."

Donn sighs, turning back to meet Schwarz's eyes.

"And then there's two unrecognized magics: soul and blood magic."

Schwarz narrows his eyes at that, clearly annoyed. "Why don't they qualify? Soul magic seems pretty powerful- far more than nature."

Donn scratches his head, trying to come up with a way to explain it.

"The problem isn't so much power, but the source. Soul magic obviously relies on the soul, but blood magic is relatively unknown. Fortunately, it's also pretty useless. If you wanted to control someone's movements, you're better off with psionics."

Schwarz just blinks, understanding about half of that.

But then it gets even worse.

"Of course, they did allow psionics to count..." he rambles on, turning away from Schwarz as if to dismiss him entirely. "And that relies on willpower..."

Schwarz looks on as Donn leaves the audible spectrum, which was actually really hard considering both of them had enhanced hearing.

And two sets of ears, actually.

"So... Do you practice either of those?" Schwarz asks, hopefully bringing Donn back into relevant conversation.

Donn pauses, taking a moment to process what he said. "Blood magic is pretty pointless, so no, and I don't practice soul magic for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that nobody has awoken my soul yet."

Schwarz smiles, the familiar warm glow manifesting around him.

"I think I can fix that," he says, patting Donn's shoulder.

And nothing happens.

"Uh..." Schwarz drags on, racking his brain for any method on how to do what Nacah did.

Nothing really comes to mind, though. The soul wasn't really something you could move, only brighten, dim, or solidify.

While Schwarz continues to awkwardly delay their contact, Donn actually starts glowing a vibrant orange, like that of a fire.

"There we go," Schwarz declares, backing up and laughing as if he totally caused that to happen.

Donn raises a hand before him, flexing the muscles in his hand to test them.

"This is new," he says, wisps of flame licking at his fingertips. "But I'm not exactly impressed."

The glow gradually dims around him, fading into a lingering glimmer before finally extinguishing.

Donn flexes again, obviously checking for any lasting effects.

"Alright then," he began, turning back to Schwarz. "Prepared for an actual fight?"

Schwarz swallows, mentally preparing himself for the battle at hand.

"Bring it on."

Donn merely nods.