Do I feel drained other than knowing that that type of energy is lower than normal?

"Huh, that was a strange feeling. It's like realizing a muscle has started becoming sore, but from a limb I never knew was even there. I take it when one gets more versed in magic they can see others energy stores and how much they are reduced? I think I'll refer to that store as mana, since I took final fantasy as my reference, and to keep things straight in my mind. But yes, it did feel rather draining, I feel like I might be able to handle that again, can't tell precisely, but definitely not a third time. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to continue practicing with it.

I think I'll spend the rest of the remaining day practicing with my sword, it occurred to me from thinking of magic structures in books I've read that even if I don't work on learning to channel Saidin from the wheel of time, I'd like to learn the focus required to do so. It's supposed to help with more than channeling, especially blade work. All the blademasters in that universe used it. It was also called the oneness, as it focused on feeding all emotion into the flame, allowing it to be consumed so you were one with the blade and the world around. Would you like to join my practice? I can practice basic patterns by myself, but wouldn't mind sparring practice. It would also give you the opportunity to practice furycrafting where I can comment on any ways you might approach it easier. Both Metalcrafting to harder your sword and windcrafting to speed your movement are valuable in sparring matches."

"Yeah. One of the things you'll pick up is the ability to see magic. Anyway, I don't mind sparring. All I have with me at the moment is zweihanders though."

"I have a saber, it's not the gladius that I'm more used to from my limited time in the legion, but it's closer in size. Saber versus zweihander could be interesting, you'll definitely have the reach on me but my shorter sword should allow quicker movements. I'm up for it if you are. We both should fairly easily be able to keep injuries minor, and any that are bad enough can be healed through watercrafting or I'll handle tomorrow with the psuedomateria. It's more efficient to heal what I earn practicing than to cut my hand each morning anyway."

Assuming he is, I'll move to the center of the deck, sheathed sword in hand and draw it, resting the scabbard on the stairs down to the lower section. I will assume a defensive stance, relaxed and ready to react to what comes at me, and form the flame and the void in my mind. I picture the burning flame and feed all distractions into it, becoming one with the blade. As a matter of reflex I hear Attis's words reminding me to strengthen my swords durability in sparring matches, less it break, and based on my own inclination towards windcrafting I call upon the speed of the winds for the spar.

I'll motion for Magnus, "Whenever you're ready"

He turns his back to you and draws another zweihander out from 'somewhere' in front of him.
He turns around and settles into a back stance with the zwiehander held behind him.
He closes his eyes a moment and mimics your fury crafting. The Metal furies sing in his sword and come together harder and more durable than ever. But he looks utterly confused with your wind crafting.

"...Ready."
He starts walking towards you maintaining his stance. As he get's in range, he performs a powerful and lightning quick sideways swing which you barely parry with your saber and speed.
He has switched his stance to hold his Zwiehander like a spear to keep you at bay.

OOC: Here is the deal. I find 'I hit it with my sword' boring. So here is my house rule.
You give me a basic description of an attack such as "I hit it with my sword", I'll roll a basic attack roll. But if you give me an interesting description such as "I rush under his guard then uppercut him in his jaw.", You get bonuses to the attack roll. The better the description the better the bonuses.

I dart in, dodging in a spin to avoid the spear like thrust and using the momentum to go for a glancing blow on his dominant arm.


Since they're not practice swords I don't want to inflict much damage, but I can easily see times when bleeding an opponent to weaken them slowly is valuable. I know the concept of a blademaster holding an opponent at bay while delivering small knicks that slowly eat away at the opponents ability to keep fighting is fairly common in fantasy, which is what I'm trying to practice here.

You where correct to predict that he was about to thrust with his sword.
He barely misses you as you come into his guard swinging.
He raise his zwiehander into a block against your sideways swing but you get through and deliver a cut to his upper right arm. It's bleeding slowly now.
He then surprises you by switching his grip on the sword  and then bringing the pommel up and strike you in the jaw with it. You instinctively moved to dodge but it wasn't enough to avoid the blow. That was rather painful but he is open at the moment as he hasn't had time to reset his position.
He is smirking.

With that exchange of blows you have determined that you have the advantage when it comes to raw speed and you edge him out slightly when it comes to defense. He's good with that zwiehander though and knows how to use it.

Smirking at the exchange myself, and spitting a little blood out, I dart in with a quick slash to the thigh, altering my direction using windcrafting to form a solid wall to brace off of and come in at an unexpected angle. Aiming for another quick light score and then to distance myself, forcing him to take the aggresive position or else let his arm and leg keep bleeding, which will eventually lead to my advantage in the spar.

Once at the out of range position I'll comment "you're faster with that big sword than I expected" smiling at the adrenaline coursing through my system and the opportunity to train.

I'm also using metalcraft to ignore pain, pulling on the metal furies natural stubbornness and hardiness

He tries to dodge your first slash but you get him good. Then you catch him by surprise with your next slash, again cutting him but you where too close to him for too long and he strikes out with fist. Delivering a hook into your midsection. That hurt nearly as much as the pommel strike. You move out of the engagement range and then he takes the time to reset he stance back to the spearlike one from before.

He comments back
"If one knows how to use them properly, they are faster than most depict them in the media.
You got me good a few times. But I can handle more. Do you want to continue?"

"Let's call that it for today" and I stretch my jaw slightly rubbing it from where I got hit "Without metalcrafting either of those blows might have staggered me, and holding crafting too long can give me headaches that make the rest of the day a little unpleasant." and mentioning that I let my stance, my mental focus on the flame and the void, and my crafting fall, and sheath my sword.

"Would you like me to try to use magic to cure your wounds? I should have enough for one more use today, and it avoids you stressing your soul."

"So one thing I noticed with your furycrafting, it's important to keep in mind that the different furies have personalities, it's easiest to get them to do what you want in the way that they want. Metal is very orderly, and a little stubborn, but you seemed to have no trouble with the metalcrafting. Wind needs to flow however, you can get it to be ordered, but it has to flow into your pattern, not be shoved or forced. It sounds minor, but it makes a big difference."

"I should probably check on windcrafting some farseeings to check if there is any land around, I want to tinker with using layered farseeings to increase my range of sight even further"

"Ok. We are done for the day."
He turn, apparently stabs the are and his zwiehander disappears.
You can almost feel the sword on his back growl in annoyance at him.
"Oh, be quiet. You know you wouldn't enjoy a mere sparring match."

He turns back to you.
"It's up to you. I should heal up ok on my own by the end of the day. Those where some hard hits you endured.

As for the fury-crafting. I see what you mean. The metal furies did what I wanted because I naturally do it in a way they like. I'm having a hard time with wind though."

"Ok, I'll take care of my injuries then, wouldn't hurt to get more familiar with healing before I try it on someone else anyway. I'd feel less bad about messing up healing on myself."

"Yeah, I have the biggest problem with water, it just seems to be further from my mindset. but it'll become easier over time, and as you see how furies do things."

"For the wand that we were discussing earlier, does it share the same power resevoir as the psuedomateria?"

I have nothing else I intend for the day other than healing my wounds one more time with the psuedomateria, and experimenting with farseeing. The following day I'm assuming will be dedicated to the wand creation and how to use it, unless I'm mistaken.

He nods at your words taking them in.

"This wand will be different from the pseudomateria and Dungeons and Dragons wands. Instead of storing a spell and casting it for you, it will make using destructive spells easier. If you make your Spells draw from your personal mana, then they will draw from your mana pool. Magic can draw from different things though. I've seen spells that draw on your stamina and fatigue you. One can also draw upon the power that's flowing through the land. Or draw on the Sun, Moon and Stars. It can be more dangerous than powering it yourself though... Where was I?...oh. I've also seen magic that is powered by ritual alone. But they take longer than powering it yourself."

--------------

You practice your farseeing for the rest of the day but you don't see anything important.

----------------

The next day you get up and find that Magnus is already up and staring at the wand. He asks you

"Do you want it aspected toward a certain element or destruction in general?"
"

"I'll make sure to try a variety of ways then and to keep it in mind, although I may wait a while before tapping into external power sources."

--------------------------

"Destruction in general please, I'd like to stay flexible so I can adapt to what the situation needs more easily.

Did you have any thoughts on what to do today? The ship mostly handles it's own movements, although we should still stay vigilant for land."

OOC: I'm running out of things I'd like to get accomplished, we've set up a relatively sustainable system, and got the pseudomateria and wand, perhaps a week to week, or month to month stretch coming up would make sense, as we continue to practice the fury crafting, psuedomateria, and occasional sparring, until something goes wrong or changes?

"Well I'm going to work on the wand for you. But you are right, we should look out for land."

He moves to the front of the ship and starts the ritual with the wand. After about an hour the wand starts having a pale white line glowing down its length. The line starts moving slowly over the wand and tracing symbols on the wand. After another hour, a rift tears open in front of him. It looks like it leads to an endless red plane. Then a big bronze giant with wild white hair and breard and glowing white eyes comes out and belts Magnus with a punch, sending him flying to the back of the ship where he crashes into the rail and is knocked unconscious.

"HOW DARE YOU SEAL ME WITHIN YOU PROGENITOR! WE BOTH CRAVE THE THRILL OF BATTLE! GET UP AND FIGHT ME!"

The wand is sitting there. It looks complete.

Edit: Forgot to mention. He is about 8 feet tall and built like a bronze god. he is wearing loose white pants and has a katana strapped to to small of his back.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:11, Mon 11 Jan 2016.

I decide to stick with what I know in a fight, but that it's important to recover the wand, I make a roll to grab the wand and tuck into my pocket, depending on the nature of the fight I may need it here. I then raise to a readied stance with my hand on my sword, ready to draw.

"If you want a fight, you have one. Do you set forth any conditions?"

I'm calling upon both Zeke and Hermes, ready to manifest them to attack in conjuction with me if he makes the first moved. I'm also using my metalcrafting to enhance the sharpness of my blade, and windcrafting to increase my speed.

You somehow feel his attention on turn to you and then he turns to face you.

"Ah Magnus's newest student. Your young But I sense a strange power from you. He must hope you will grow into someone who can give him a good Fight. Why Else would he teach you.
I'm glad you are a verser like him. That means you'll live though this fight.

I'll give you the first strike. Come at ME with ALL of your POWER!"


He holds out his arms and invites you to attack.

You feel an aura of scorching hot wind form around you as Zeke and Hermes prepare to manifest.

Your sword becomes razor sharp and you feel the wind ready to aid you
This message was last edited by the player at 04:05, Fri 15 Jan 2016.

I nod, a certain amount of respect in my mind to the honor this man or creature has.

I shout for Zeke and Hermes, manifesting them and sending Zeke into an attack from the right, hermes to fly over and attack from behind while I charge in from the left, sword ready to strike when in range, and timing to strike all at once.

When moments away from impact I command the wood furies in the ship, those that I've had so much time to practice with, to reach up and grab the feet of this man, holding him for the incoming attack while I use the air furies around me to spin through an otherwise unnatural spiral to come at the mans head with the arc of my sword. Meanwhile hermes is going for a hamstringing attack, using his claws to tend the the opponents legs, while Zeke moves in to grapple and then turn up the heat, bursting into flames.

They both manifest. The winds whipping around Hermes cause Zeke to burn blue hot when he is near Hermes. You close in for the strike with Hermes and Zeke by your side And call on the wood furies of the ship. He just smirks when the vines wrap around his legs. Zeke Grapples his right side and causes it to glow red hot where he touches. Hermes moves behind him and strikes at his hamstrings. You hear screeches from his metallic skin. You spiral in with the help of the wind furies and cut into his neck. It goes in about an quarter inch with a metallic screech. It felt like you where cutting bronze. A trickle of blood comes from the wound.

"Good Boy. But You Need MORE!"

HE Elbows Zeke and sends him flying into the railing of the ship. Which catches on fire.
He then spins around and backhands you sending you rolling across the deck of the ship. And a front kick sends Hermes flying into the water.

He turns to you.

"I'm impressed boy. You managed to hurt me despite being so young. And it is interesting how you have those elemental spirits under your command.
You deserve to know my name. I am Augus, Indulgent Soul of Magnus, The Great Sage, Unequalled in Heaven.
Tell me. What is your name Boy?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:51, Sun 17 Jan 2016.

I smile with a certain amount of exhilaration at being pushed, and at my mild success. I turn my spiraling roll from the backhand into a controlled roll and then back to standing.  At the sight of the fire I extend my sword towards it and will the fire furies to stop burning the deck but to come dance along my blade instead, both adding something to following attacks if this continues and also solving the burning ship problem.

"It is an honor to meet one so powerful Augus, and I thank you for the compliment. I am Mike, born of Earth and scholar of Alera. I've seen but few worlds so far. You allowed me the first offense, are we to continue to your turn?"

I'm preparing my wind craft in case of an attack. I want to put up multiple images of myself to try and confuse Augus on which to hit, allowing me to dodge and counter with my flaming sword, going for the upper thigh this time. I'm curious if the flames will help the cutting.

"My turn Mike!"

He rushes you and you immediately form illusions out of wind.

He turns immediately to the real you.

"Clever Mike! But Illusions wont fool ME!"

He goes for a blindingly fast jab but you dodge it barely. He follows with a gut punch and gets a glancing blow on you. It sill really hurts. You strike his leg and cut another half inch cut into him. The fire did help a little bit. His leg is bleeding slightly now.

"I can see the Essence of your being. Right now it's barely brighter than a mortal's but you will grow and be a Glorious Fight!"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:19, Thu 21 Jan 2016.

I focus on my metalcraft to keep the pain away, and revert back to a readied stance, analyzing his body language for any offensive action, or behavior that he's expecting me to back down from the fight. I'm willing to rest and talk, if that's what it looks like his body language suggests, but otherwise I'm planning to continue taking turns on the offense and defense, learning what I can in the process and having someone to use full unrestrained force to practice on.

Chuckling slightly I say "You're quite a bit faster than you look, y'know. What was that world you came from? I only got a brief glimpse?"

Once he looks to be ready for the next round, He's shown me honor so far, I'm not about to break it by trying to catch him unexpected between rounds, I'll come at him whipping my blade and guiding it by flows of air to lash at his neck while I draw the destruction wand and channel all the heat from the surroundings into it, into a thin line of liquid fire, aiming at his center of mass. I'll use firecrafting to move as much heat as possible to be close enough to me for the magic to lap up as a power source.

His body language indicates that he is happy to keep fighting you. Although there is a pause long enough for you to get your question in.

He grins wildly.
"That is our future Battlefield. It is the part of Magnus's soul that he summons to do battle in. An Indestructible plane of iron that he can unleash Our full might within."

Once he is ready to restart you make your move. You feint with your sword and score a light cut across his neck that doesn't draw blood. But you pull out the destruction wand and will the heat in the area into a stream of fire. You chill yourself and everything in the area but unleash a thin stream of liquid fire. You hit him with it an a large section of his chest turns red hot before the stream disappears.

You feel tired and cold from moving the heat around with wand and will alone.

It looks like he is about to counter attack.

"Makes for quite an Arena, I look forward to the future."

-----

Concerned that I'm unlikely to be able to dodge the speed of his blows after tiring myself with the magic so much, I try to woodcraft a hole in the ship on his approach, either messing his footing enough that he stumbles enough for me to be able to dodge the slower pace, or sending him below deck for a moment, giving me time to catch my breath, recover my sword and stash my wand.

You open a hole in front of him and he falls in. You stash the wand and ready your sword and somewhat recover from your magic. He's down there for about fifteen seconds before he jumps out and lands in front of you.

"Clever Mike! You actually fight with your brain. Keep it up and you will do well."

At this point Magnus literally appears from nowhere and punches Augus in the face.

"Ah. You are finally up Progenitor. But that was rude interrupting my fight with Mike!"

Augus swings at Magnus and Mangus parries the punch. But Something very Weird is happening. Space seems to be bending so that the punch is redirected at Augus.

Then Enraged Mechanical spiders come out of nowhere and fixing all that is wrong with reality.They tear Magnus and Augus apart in ways that hurt your brain to even attempt to comprehend.

Then they turn to you and rip you apart.

OOC: New Thread. The title should be "Glantri's Titanic Attack. Try not to get eaten."

What did everyone think of this world?
How did I do Glantri?

Awesome :) Thanks for a great world Magnus, and I posted a more detailed response in the post ludum thread.