-13th day of the 7th month of 1527

Wren dashes forward as she dodges one of the Hydra’s heads as it releases a massive fire ball as she twists in mid-air to avoid one of her arms from being eaten by another head. Her heart beats eagerly for a moment as she feels the thrill of the chase rise in her blood. Wren breathes deeply for a moment stilling the rising bloodlust as she lands on the ground with a hungry smile on her face. Leaning forward she concentrates her magic around her right fist and swings her fist with full strength onto the Hydra’s oncoming head.

The Hydra’s head explodes under the force of her punch and allows her a clear shot at its main body. Wren instantly charges forward at seeing the opening she had been eagerly waiting for. Time slows down as Wren races forward and in that moment, she is transported back in time, when her training first began with Master Aram.

The first few months with Master Aram consisted of training her how to properly fight, rather than always relying on her instincts. Not that her father hadn’t trained Wren well, but Wren had never had a chance to actually use those skills in battle. When in battle, Wren had developed the bad habit of relying on her physical capabilities and instincts rather than controlling the fight from the beginning to her advantage.

Once Master Aram was satisfied that Wren had absorbed the basics, he had Wren combine magic training along with combat fighting. This wasn’t so bad, since Wren was already able to think under pressure. But the only issue Master Aram had was that Wren specialized in Water and Ice magic, while he was an earth and wind magic user. Although Master Aram could teach Wren to better control her magic that did not change the fact that Wren was in desperate need of a specialized magic teacher. With that purpose in mind, Master Aram and Wren set off for the dwarven Kingdom of Hallstatt.

The first time Wren entered the the dwarven Kingdom of Hallstatt she was amazed by the marvels within the underground city. Master Aram swiftly made their way through the city to the instructor he had mind. As it would turn out the instructor in mind was Master Aram’s cousin, Aquila, half-dwarf, half-nymph. Now Aquila was quite the beauty as she had the body of a nymph but the stature of a dwarf and was by nature quite popular with the menfolk.

Arrangements were swiftly made with Aquila happily under taking the task of training Wren under her wing. Wren was left to be trained by Aquila, while her master would visit for a week once every month to review her process. And for the next two years that is exactly what Wren did. Finally, after three years Aquila declared that she had nothing more left to teach Wren. Aquila happily declared that if Wren had been born among humans, she would have had a high position as a mage in any kingdom’s court. But Aquila did warn Wren, that there was always more to learn and so there was a constant need to improve oneself.

And though Master Aram was joyfully at Wren’s return, he was slightly disappointed about Wren’s lack of craftsmen skills. On the weeks, he would visit Wren, they would visit many workshops to see if Wren had a talent for any sort of craft. As it turned out, everything that Wren touched somehow broke, melted or became ruined and as such Wren gained a rather ominous reputation among the dwarf’s city craftsmen. Nevertheless, there were two crafting skills, Wren mastered against all impossible odds only through sheer persistent effort, clean and repair. Clean would enable to instantly clean herself and her clothing of anything, while repair would fix any tears in her clothing up to five times!

Upon their return to Master Aram home, Master Aram carefully considered Wren’s future. Master Aram already knew that forcing Wren to use weapons such as swords was useless, since she already had an incredible physical weapon, her fists. But Master Aram was the cautionary type and allowed Wren to experiment with what she felt would fit to her tailored needs.

In the end, Wren’s lucky dagger was reforged by the dwarves into a stiletto with a matching twin dagger. Not only that Wren added dozens of enchanted needles that could pierce through anything with matching enchanted strings that would allow Wren to instantly recover the thrown needles. The thin, almost invisible needle weapons were neatly lined up on the side of what appeared like thick black bracelets that hung on Wrens wrists. At the time the dwarves had even felt, Wren was crazy, but they weren’t craftsman who feared a challenge and succeeded in fulfilling Wren’s request.

Naturally, Aram was quite surprised to find the purpose for Wren’s needle weapons as means to attack others with her spell blood magic. The one weakness that spell blood magic had was its range as to increase further range the enchanted blood must be carried via another mean. The needles would serve as the tools to increase Wren’s range and deadliness. Aram was quite satisfied with Wren’s innovative creativity and agreed that the needle like weapons were a most suitable weapon for her. As such, Aram sent Wren out into the Tessa Mountain range to battle on her own using solely blood magic to defend herself in order to find the weaknesses to her blood magic and weapon needles and overcome them.

Four years later, Master Aram was finally satisfied with Wren’s progress. At that time, Master Aram handed Wren a rare antique dimension ring and said, “This is my final gift to you a dimension ring with the space of a small city. It cost me quite the pretty penny, so use it wisely.” Master Aram conveniently did not mention that it belonged to his mother before her.

“I’ve packed everything and more into the dimension ring including your personal belongings. But please take note that living beings can’t be put inside,” Master Aram carefully added.

Wren nods her head as Master Aram continues, “Now, it’s time to complete your final graduation test as my apprentice.” Turning towards the Tessa Mountain’s Master Aram points north and says, “If you head through the northern passage all the way to the end, you’ll reach your destination the Valpe Plains in one years’ time. But to reach the end, you’ll have to slaughter the beasts of the Tessa Mountain Range only using your fist with your final test being to hunt down the Mountain Hydra.”

Wren carefully slips the dimension ring onto her left hand as Master Aram pulls out a small box from his pocket. Master Aram hands Wren the box as Wren open it in surprise to find a pair of enchanted ruby earrings. “Put them only once you’ve defeated the Mountain Hydra,” Master Aram said as he held out his hand that had a matching ruby ring. “The ring will let me know you’ve completed your task and when the time comes it’ll let know where to find you,” Master Aram quietly finished.

Wren gently takes the box and puts it into the space ring as Master Aram briskly says, “You’re already to go and the sooner the better.” Before Master Aram can say anything, more Wren who was now much taller and stronger pulled him into a hug. Master Aram protests as he finds himself being smooshed into Wren’s now adult chest.

Embarrassed Master Aram pulled away and grumbled, “You’re much too old for this to be pulling such embarrassing antics.”

Turning away, Wren says, “I expect you to keep your promise, Master Aram.” Before firmly walking and heading into the Tessa Mountain Range.

Wren knew that the most difficult part had finally begun as Wren’s strength was in its intensive growth period. Wren’s monstrous strength was still growing, and Master Aram had sent her away to further increase her strength and allow her full potential to appear. In that following year, Wren found herself countless times outmatched, but with each victory Wren only grew stronger.

One of the Hydra’s heads darts forwards causing Wren to break out of her reverie as one of the heads of the Hydra opens its mouth wide and digs it mouth into her left shoulder. Without stopping her charge, Wren digs her feet more into the ground leaving behind deep footprints in the rocky earth as she pushes forward and the Hydra head if flung forcefully backwards. Another Hydra head clamps itself tighter onto her left arm as another head darts at Wren. Wren grudgingly smiles at the Hydra with respect and quickly leaps forward as she brutally twists her body to the right. With a sickening sound, her left shoulder and arm are left behind in a puzzled Hydra’s mouth.

Not being distracted by the pain, Wren focuses all of her strength into her remaining fist as she abruptly stops in front of the large Hydra’s chest. With the added momentum of her abrupt halt Wren’s fist brutally collides with the enormous shimmering ebony body. The Hydra freezes and stares with bewilder at Wren as she steps back and a second a strange lurching sound is heard from inside of the Hydra’s body as it’s body bursts open like a ripened fruit. Wren sniffs with satisfaction as blood and flesh briefly rain overhead as the Hydra’s Heads collapse onto each other. With a loud popping sound, Wren’s left arm grows back out as the rest of her wounds finish healing.

Wren sighs out loud at the state of her clothes and non-chantingly says, “Repair.” The clothes instantly repair themselves with grime interwoven in the threads. Not yet finished, Wren non-chant says, “Clean.” Instantly Wren’s body and clothes are clean. It only took Wren two years two master the two simple craftsman spells, but it had been well worth it.

All of sudden a familiar loud rumbling is heard as Wren’s stomach reminds her that it is time to feed it again and she mustn’t let this Hydra go to waste. Wren firmly agrees with her stomach and tears off a Hydra head to eat. The moment she begins to eat the blood instantly is sucked out of the Hydra’s corpse and is sucked into her skin.

Wren sniffs as the corpse of the Hydra stiffens and instantly tosses into the dimension space as food for another day. Not that she still didn’t have dry food supplies, but Wren much more enjoyed eating fresh meat in comparison.

Wren gulps rather loudly as she swallows the last bit of the hydra head and reaches into her dimension ring. Wren pulls out a small box and smiles as she opens the box. With careful care, Wren punctures her ears as her ears sting for a moment, before rapidly healing themselves. Glancing up at the sky with a smile, Wren says, “I’m finally off, Father,” before activating her levitation magic and darting away. After all, ever since, becoming a full mage dual or even triple wielding magic at the same time wasn’t a feat anymore.

On the other side of the Tessa Mountains deep in the ground, Master Aram glances up at the stone ceiling and smiles. “So, she’s on her way,” Aram thought with a rueful smile. Still looking up at the stone ceiling, Master Aram softly says, “May the gods be with you, my one and only apprentice.”