Chapter 106 The Supervised Training

She spent the next two days hermitting in her room reading, with Meira bringing her solid food twice a day, forcing a nap at least once a day. Aya reopened their telepathic connection later the first day but spent most of her time training in the wasteland that was once a backyard. They talked a bit telepathically, but rarely saw each other in person over the two days, despite sleeping in the same bed. Evernya tried to get Aya to choose her own room, but she absolutely refused to even consider it, so Evernya gave up on the subject.

Finally, on the third day since her incident, Meira gave the green light to train again, supervised by said elf. After having her smoothie breakfast, she joined Meira and Aya in the wasteland behind Meira’s house, wearing her training suit. Aya went off to do her own Pyro things while Meira had Evernya demonstrate what she was trying to do.

Evernya activated physical aberration, running through a few moves before attempting to slide. As with every other time, her foot caught on the grass when she applied mana, sending her tumbling to the grass. With a mixture of disappointment and embarrassment, she lifted herself to her feet. She inspected the rapidly healing scrapes on her exposed hands and feet as she walked back to Meira with a slight limp.

After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Meira speaks, “Interesting ability. Definitely an upgrade from your super speed. Did you try telekinesis to help stalling your momentum?”

Evernya’s eyes widened. She turned away from Meira, lowering her friction with her mana before leaping to the left. Just before reapplying her mana. Evernya pushed herself with her telekinesis, only to shoot the other way before she could react.

With a growl, Evernya shot to her feet and tried again, this time only applying the minimal amount of telekinetic force. Unfortunately, all she accomplished was adding another grass stain to her training suit.

Refusing to give up, she tried again. She paid careful attention to the amount of force needed to stall her momentum without sending her flying over the next several attempts, coming closer each time. Finally, on the eighth attempt, she succeeded, though with a single awkward side stumble.

Exhausted, Evernya materialized a warm smoothie to replenish her reserves while sitting down on the ground cross-legged.

After finishing her smoothie, she stood up and tried again, this time succeeding perfectly, but she frowned at the usefulness of the move. “To be honest, the form feels incomplete, as if that is not the most effective way to accomplish it.”

“Yeah, no matter how fast you slide yourself, it wouldn’t be too hard to counter unless you catch the person off guard.” Meira agreed, while sharing her kitten’s frown.

Evernya fell silent for a moment before announcing, “Don’t be mad I’m going to try something that you told me not to.”

Without giving her elf a chance to argue, Evernya dropped into stance. She struck out with her clawed hands, but instead of sliding, she teleported. With insane calculation speed, Evernya managed to teleport exactly where she wanted to be, catching even Meira by surprise. As payment, a sharp pain speared through her head, causing her to whimper. Mercifully, the pain only lasted for a second.

Meira glared at her kitten while shouting, “What did I tell you about teleporting!”

“Yes, I know teleporting is dangerous and mana consuming, but it is effective. If I can increase my affinity with teleporting to the point I can use it effectively, I think it would be much better to use instead of sliding my body to catch someone off guard.” Evernya argued.

“You burned almost ten percent of your mana on that one teleport. It would take a lot to mitigate that cost.” Meira countered.

“Yes, it would, but I think it would be worth it. Think about how nasty it would be if I used teleportation. I would rather not chop myself in half by sliding into someone’s sword, and this removes the possibility.” Evernya argued.

“Except what if there is a spatial lock? The slide would be immune to that.” Meira countered, but all she received was a cocky grin.

“You know how to bypass a spatial lock, don’t you?” Meira questioned.

“Yup, all I need is a tiny hole in a spatial lock to teleport,” Evernya explained.

Meira falls silent for several seconds before relenting, “Fine, I will allow you to incorporate teleporting, but I forbid you from teleporting yourself until I am satisfied that your affinity is high enough. Don’t think I missed that whimper, you are far from ready to teleport yourself.”

“Fine, I will teleport around my weighted balls as practice in between practicing with physical aberration and telekinesis.” Evernya decided.

“That sounds like a plan. Can you teleport past your range limit?”

Evernya withdrew one of the weighted balls and attempted to teleport it just outside her range, but backlash hit her causing her to drop to her knees, cradling her head. The ball itself never re-materialized, being stuck in limbo with the connection cut.

After a few minutes, the pain dulled enough that she could stand up, but she still felt a throbbing preventing her from using any magic for the moment.

“I think it’s safe to say I never want to attempt to teleport myself beyond my range limitation,” Evernya commented.

With her hands on her hips, Meira lectured, “I agree, but you should not have done something so impulsive. This is why I don’t want you training unsupervised. There is a reason Psions have the highest training related deaths. Just because you have survived so far, that doesn’t mean your next incident won’t be your last.”

With her ears flattened Evernya justified, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done that, but I was nowhere near dying, just another headache which I bet is the cost of being a Psion.”

Unmoved by her kitten’s argument, Meira added, “This time no, but what about a couple of days ago? By some miracle, you have had no permanent damage, but there is no way your body can handle much more of this.”

“I know I’ll try harder to be more careful. Just remember, I didn’t grow up with magic. This is still all new to me. I’ve never intentionally hurt myself. It just seems to keep on happening.” Evernya stated with tears threatening.

Meira backed off. “Sorry if I’m being a little harsh. I’m just worried about you. You have adjusted so well that sometimes I forget only a couple of months ago I found you in the dreadful mana isolation room, dying.”

Evernya sucked in a deep breath to calm her emotions before stating, “It’s okay. You have the right to worry about me. With how much that has happened, I would worry about me too.”

The two fell silent as flaming explosions sounded near the lake. Evernya turned toward the wasteland to continue training.

Upon catching her kitten’s intentions, Meira exclaimed, “You are not training! You just nearly gave yourself mana vein overload!”

Evernya brushed off her elf’s worries. “relax I won’t do anything strenuous. I’m just going to run through some basic strikes and forms.”

“You better not. I will be watching.” Meira threatened.

“Don’t worry, I will be a good girl,” Evernya announced, giving her best innocent face but failing miserably.

“Yeah, sure you will, just please be careful,” Meira commented in a sarcastic tone.

Evernya shifted her claws into existence before going through a series of punches and kicks with a few elbows and knees thrown in. At first, the strikes look normal, but they soon change as she used her telekinesis to divert each strike in a seemingly unpredictable direction.

She shadowboxed at a steady pace, going through the same series of strikes repeatedly for the next two hours, becoming smoother each time.

“Break time!” Meira announced.

Evernya kept running through her forms as if she heard nothing, but Aya came trotting over from her blackened training area. Seeing Evernya wasn’t listening, Meira blew her on her ass with a powerful gust of wind. Evernya immediately shot to her feet, eyes glowing with claws and fangs sprouted, surveying for threats.

“Down kitty, no one is going to attack you.” Meira teased.

Evernya closed her eyes and took in a deep breath to calm down. She shifted away her claws and fangs before joining the other ladies at the patio table.

“Why did you blow me over?” Evernya questioned between sips of a smoothie Meira placed in front of her.

With an innocent expression, Meira replied, “I did nothing. You fell over on your own, probably from training too long.”

“It hasn’t been that long,” Evernya commented before glancing down at her suit computer, causing her mouth to form an O.

“Sorry, I lost track of time,” Evernya admitted.

“That’s why I’m here to supervise,” Meira commented.

“I feel fine. I could have kept going.” Evernya argued.

“You need regular breaks. You can’t just keep training until you collapse.” Meira insisted.

Evernya downed her smoothie before stating, “Fine, I took a break. Can I get back to training? I was so close to a breakthrough.”

“Not for long enough. How about you read this to pass the time?” Meira denied, dropping a large eight centimeter thick book titled driving laws and regulations in front of Evernya.

“Why do I need to read such an enormous book just to get my driving license?” Evernya questioned while poking at the thick book.

Meira ignored her kitten’s question as she smirked, “Better get reading then if you want to train anytime soon.”

Evernya growled in annoyance as she cracked open the enormous book. Aya wandered off to her blackened training ground while Meira read a book of her own.

Another two hours passed like this with Evernya speed reading through the book. She completed the entire book in just over two hours.

“Done. Can I go train now?” Evernya announced upon closing the book.

“Perfect timing, I was about to stop you for lunch.” Meira proclaimed.

“Really? I feel fine. You don’t have to block me from training.” Evernya argued, trying to keep a civil tone.

Meira made a stack of bear steaks appear in front of the shifter to silence her. The smell of food also attracted a hungry Kitsune, so Meira materialized another smaller steak. As usual, Evernya diced her meal, then sucked it down within minutes. She then clumsily stood up from her chair and tried to walk out into the yard to train. Unfortunately, she only made it to the edge of the patio, collapsing face first toward a surviving patch of grass. Meira made a pocket of air under the falling shifter to cushion her fall before Aya could rush to help.

Three hours later, Evernya awakened on the couch in the living room. She bolted up and scanned the room for a pesky elf. Seeing no elves nearby, she snuck into the kitchen and out the sliding door to get some training time in. However, she found an elf and Kitsune waiting for her at the patio table, thwarting her plans.

“So am I allowed to train now?” Evernya inquired with a puppy-dog eyes.

Meira glanced up at her kitten for several seconds, making Evernya more nervous by the second before stating, “Fine, but I will force you to take a break in two hours.”

Scared of her elf changing her mind, Evernya dashed off to the charred crater filled backyard followed by Aya a minute later. Meira shook her head at her kitten’s antics before materializing a book to read while leaving her tablet displaying Evernya’s data on the table.

The rest of the day was uneventful, with Evernya and Aya making steady progress on their training. Evernya, satisfied with her progress in with physical aberration, switched to teleporting around weighted balls to increase her teleportation affinity.

Aya flung fireballs in seemingly random directions, destroying more and more of the yard in the process. She then incorporated her staff style, gracefully dancing with her staff while making the fire flow around her, charring everything in its path. What she did next caused even Meira to worry. Aya discarded her training staff in favor of her mana bound artifact then continued to dance with her staff. As she was twirling around her staff, she released sparks at targets only she could see, causing enormous explosions all over her side of the yard. By the time she finished for the day, her side looked like a blackened hell hole filed with craters every couple meters.

After allowing her kitten to train to sunset, Meira floated a captive shifter into the kitchen for dinner time when she refused to stop training. After knocking out the captive shifter with bear meat, she released the incapacitated girl to the waiting tails of her mate.