Chapter 5 Mock battle

The following night brought nightmares again and Elly woke early. ‘At least I know these aren’t real...’ she thought as she got ready for the day. Irina gave her some money for helping the adventurers find the shifter. ‘I didn’t really help...she probably just felt bad for me.’ she thought but still appreciated the money. A whole ten silver. This would be enough to feed her for a while. ‘Good food too...’ she thought, as a smile spread on her face.

She didn’t want to sort through her satchel right now so she put it into an empty closet on the ground floor and simply took another one of the many laying around. Her mother wasn’t there and she was completely fine with that. Today she’d meet with Jonathan. ‘First though….food.’

Eleonora left her house and breathed in the stinking air of Dunewatch. “Ah how I’ve missed you my beloved.” she said and expectantly looked to her right but found nobody responding with a sarcastic comment. She grunted a bit annoyed and started walking. The opposite direction than the day before, towards the city center.

People in all colors and shapes were walking around, nearly all human though. So far North one barely found any other races than humans. Eleonora reached the market after half an hour of walking. She really wanted to run over the roofs but the prince had outlawed such behavior a couple months ago and the fines were no joke. Having a guard running after you without any magic of your own wasn’t fun. ‘Not fun at all...’ thought Elly as she started to look through goods on the marked. Well food mostly and there were rather exotic goods being sold on that day.

‘Dragonfruit...what a preposterous name to give to a fruit...’ she thought as she bought one of them. “They’re from very far down south missy! Very exotic!” the man said. ‘Sure, let’s see how it tastes thought.’ she only nodded as she removed her knife from the satchel she wore and continued on her inspection of the food stands. Hundreds were going around in the market. It started at a big central plaza and continued into several side streets that would lead to more plazas. Dunewatch was the central trading hub in the north east of the growing empire and many wanted a piece of the yet to be distributed metaphorical cake.

Of course the city had been there for dozens of years already but establishing more territory farther north or east had been difficult. It would happen though, everyone was sure. So getting trade going in Dunewatch was a reliable investment into future earnings, at least that was what many of the merchants thought.

Eleonora continued towards the south as she ate her dragon fruit ‘It’s good I think...’ she watched some people from the south prepare a meal she didn’t recognize. “The free countries of Dormos present!!” the cook said as he finished the dish with some sort of oil that he ceremoniously poured over the huge pan he was using. The smell filled the onlookers with wonder as many immediately started to get their money out. Elly was way ahead of them as she stood before the cook with a couple bronze coins, her green eyes sparkling as she looked at the meal before her.

‘This is amazing...’ the smiling girl sitting on a bench overlooking a market square thought over and over as she continued shoveling the dish into her. Apparently it was something called rice. It was very spicy and even though Elly normally didn’t like spicy food this one was different. She watched a small brawl below as a customer seemed to not have been in agreement with a merchant and the price of his wares.

It ended when a guard jumped into their middle from a nearby rooftop and simply looked at them sternly. They then talked the issue out as he kept a watchful eye. ‘Boooring’ thought Elly as she finished the bowl and then jumped down to the square. She faintly felt something touching her belt ‘That’s more what I’m talking about….let’s see how good you are.’ she thought as she pretended to not notice. As soon as the sensation left she turned around and barely registered the small boy moving through the crowd with high speed.

‘The race is on...and the winner gets my money’ she started running and dodging expertly through the crowd. It seemed like a bad bet but the cards were actually quite against the young thief and Eleonora was confident in her victory. She chased the boy through the market district and into a middle class apartment one as they dodged and jumped around people, crates and animals. The laughing girl quickly caught up and soon had her staff on the cornered boy’s shoulder. She simply patted him on his hand and he threw her the small bag. “You need to get faster and use friends for distraction. Don’t get caught again...you know what normally happens.” she left the boy to his thoughts as she checked the contents of the bag, lest he was better than he looked and took something out before he got caught. He wasn’t though to her disappointment.

‘I really shouldn’t run with a full stomach….’ she thought as she looked around ‘time to see Jonathan...’ she turned into a side street and started walking. The cathedral told her it was already ten. She walked towards the second wall and looked at the people and shops around her. The city was alive as always. Music could already be heard from some street corners and children were running around playing guard.

The guard at the gate to the second ring stopped her before she showed him the sigil she got from Jonathan all those years ago. The guard nodded and immediately let her through as others were stopped behind her. The noble district wasn’t too different from anything outside the second wall. Bigger houses mostly and better dressed people but nothing else that Elly cared about too much. There were rumors around of course but where was that not the case? And where rich people were, there was extravagance and possibly some shady blood magic cult that sacrifices little children. ‘I hope I find them someday, I need a teacher...’ she thought as she went higher up towards the mountain top while looking at the last wall.

She was getting glances as she continued on, but soon reached the district she was looking for. A massive building as impressive as the cathedral itself grew before her as she got closer to the Whitefall Academy. Named after a great mage from the second demon war four hundred years ago it was the most impressive building in Dunewatch next to the palace and the cathedral. Although the palace was built more for practicality and defensibility rather than aesthetics, something Elly thought was a rather wise decision.

She entered the property and was immediately stopped by some mages. “A commoner huh? Or is that dress a new fashion statement?” said one guy as he tried to get a laugh from his companions. They did indeed laugh until a voice behind them could be heard. “That’s Eleonora Vera, although yes she is a filthy commoner...” she winked towards Elly “she’s the punchbag for our lovely Jonathan...and you know who he asks to spar if he has nobody to smash his fists in?” The group immediately stopped laughing and the guy who made the comment gulped “Thank you for your sacrifice” he nodded towards Elly as he and his friends walked away whispering about what they heard about the crazy rock mage senior of theirs.

“Here to get punched again?” the girl walked up to her “He’s already training...as always. Usual place.” then she walked away towards the main building “Have fuuuun...” Elly looked at her back and squinted her eyes ‘Twat...’ she thought as she weighed life long imprisoning, torture and ultimately execution to seeing that girls face smashed in with a staff...her staff. ‘It might be worth it...’ she thought but again she stopped herself. “Too many books still to read, too much food still to eat...” she whispered her mantra that usually stopped her from throwing away her life. ‘What is pride against the warmth of a blanket and a good book after all?’ she asked herself as she continued towards the training grounds of the academy.

Nobody else looked at her in a weird way. The freshmen rarely frequented the rather traditional training grounds, often thinking themselves above them. The professors did a good job at talking and punching that out of them. ‘Most of them.’ she thought as she nodded back at some students that recognized her. Growing up with privileges will do that to you, even if your parents did a good job raising you. Getting your ass handed to you by a guard or an upperclassman will sober up most. And if that doesn’t help, a night in the wilderness won’t just sober them up but throw them from their comfortable beds into an icy river.

The space was used for all kinds of training. Some were fighting with swords, some doing hand to hand. Many were working on their spells. It wasn’t a big space and although there were many students it was enough. Magic abilities couldn’t be trained for a long time each day before mental and depending on the spells physical exhaustion set in. Some were more persistent but the pain was enough to discourage most from continuing. Jonathan was of the opinion that you only even start to improve once the pain sets in so those rules probably didn’t apply to him. He was widely regarded as crazy though.

She reached his space that he was always training in “Mornin Jon...” she said as she removed her satchel and stored it on a nearby bench. Some people, especially freshmen were looking on in interest as that seemingly frail girl entered the space of Jonathan. “Fucking finally. Training has been so boring yesterday. Time you showed yourself you mad cunt...” he said but a grin was plastered on his face as he changed his attention from the battered rock in front of him to her.

Some of the students were murmuring and concern could be seen on some of their faces. Others just grinned. Most of the women around left, sighing and talking about domestic abuse. Eleonora stored her own staff next to the bench and grabbed one that Jonathan brought every time. She didn’t want to break it after all. ‘And if he pays for it...’ she thought as she mirrored the grin he showed her “Yes, awfully boring fighting some lowly direwolves...” she didn’t mention the shifter as her 175cm and 75kg form faced the 210cm and 120kg man. Neither of them looked as heavy as they weighed. The rigorous training that they both undergo each day did that to them. Although Jonathan’s form was rather intimidating to most and Elly knew that once his power was active he weighed closer to twice that weight and was even faster than normally.

They tried fighting with his power active before and she nearly died when he punched her. An agreement was struck for him to not use it or only with the intention of not going at full power. They were always going full though so mostly he didn’t use it. “Oh how I envy you to be able to leave this god forsaken city...” he said as he got into a stance. “For the powerful to be chained down...” she said as she readied her staff and got into a stance herself. He didn’t use any weapons in general even though he did work on using a massive great sword from time to time. “Why use a weapon when I can be the weapon?” he always asked. “Unarmed and staff?” he asked and strengthened his skin with his power. A crunching could be heard as he got bigger and his skin showed some few cracks. Apparently the cracks would disappear once he completely controlled it. He was much further than many older rock mages though, mostly because of his persistence and early awakening. He apparently fought four rabid dogs when he was twelve years old. They didn’t survive.

She nodded to his question ‘I need to let off some steam before you punch the fuck out of me...’ she thought. He didn’t mind, just glad that he had a willing and capable training partner. Something that got harder and harder to find as time went on and he got stronger. They knew each other for a long time now and more words weren’t necessary as they rushed each other. She kept him at a distance and got several fast jabs in with her staff. His right knee, hand and elbow were the first victims but he barely seemed to notice as the wood splintered on his armored skin. He was fast and moved in time after time but could never reach her.

“You’re too fast like this...” he said after fifteen minutes of the same thing. His skin showing more cracks than before ‘At least I think so...’ thought Eleonora as she dropped the staff. His lack of patience and passion for fighting would soon bring him to use his power to get faster and stronger. ‘I’m not quite ready for death’s embrace...’ she circled him without her staff “Hand to hand then.” she said. He didn’t stop armoring his skin, he had to use his power to improve it. They charged at each other again and Elly dodged as well as she could, getting punches and kicks in as much as she could. She didn’t recognize one of his faints and caught a punch to the stomach. She nearly flew backwards for two meters before landing on her feet.

Holding up a finger to the approaching mass of muscle and stone she stepped to the side and threw up. ‘It tasted better going down….’ she wiped her mouth as she faced him again. “Sorry about that.” he only grunted and charged again. After nearly an hour of this most of the onlookers had left and only the two grinning warriors remained. One bleeding and bruised all over, both of them breathing and sweating hard. “You’re better...” he remarked, not as a compliment but more a punishment for his apparent lack of improvement compared to her.

Elly thought of her encounter with the shifter and only sadly looked at the ground. A quick pain pulsed through her chest as she felt the ribs she had broken the day before. ‘They are healed Elly...the healer fixed them...’ she ensured herself. “Throw me” she suddenly said. Jonathan only shrugged “Needed a break anyway.” he walked up to her and picked her up as if she was barely a pound in weight, his power improving his strength. “Throw me on my back.” she said. She had learned early on from Mike how to fall and not get injured…the fall into the trap door showed her though that apparently it wasn’t deeply enough ingrained.