Chapter 102: Practice

Chapter 102: Practice

As it turned out, their lodgings had a large, grassy backyard. It was sealed off by high stone walls from prying eyes on the street, though people in the nearby mansions probably could have looked into it if they were sufficiently motivated.

“Whoa,” Todd said, looking around the yard in surprise. “So much space. And they’re doing absolutely nothing with it.”

“That’s hardly true,” Noah said, walking up beside him. “They’ve given us a perfect training area.”

“I’m not sure that was what they had in mind for the area,” Isabel said. “It seems like a pretty good place to practice, though. I wish they had shields. That would make it a lot easier to train without worrying about someone getting hurt.”

I’d be willing to bet that Father has more than enough shields to hand out if he wanted to, but asking him for them isn’t going to end well, no matter how I go about it. The less care I actually show toward Todd and Isabel while he’s watching, the better.

“That’s fine,” Noah said. “You won’t be sparring each other. Like Isabel said, that would be dangerous.”

“Who are we sparring, then? Lee?”

Lee started to grin.

Noah cleared his throat. “No. That would probably end in you flying through one of the walls. You’ll be sparring me.”

Lee’s grin fell away. “Spoilsport.”

“I’m pretty sure you can still get hurt,” Isabel said, giving him a doubtful frown. “Are you sure?”

“You’d have to hit me to hurt me,” Noah replied. “Especially for you – can’t you blunt your weapons?”

“I guess so, yeah. What about Todd?”

“Let me worry about that,” Noah said. “Just treat me like a monster and try not to actually kill me. Lee, do you think you could act as referee? You’re a lot faster than the rest of us, so maybe try to pull me out of the way if it looks like I’m about to get cooked.”

Or, more importantly, if I manage to get myself killed. I’ve got a pretty good excuse about why I’ve got multiple bodies. Even if I die in front of them, I can just say it was a clone. That said, I do need to put my gourd somewhere. If I come back to life, I don’t want to do it in front of them.

“Sure,” Lee said. “No promises, though. I’m fast, but I’m not faster than everything.”

“That’s fine with me,” Noah said. “I’m not particularly concerned about getting injured.”

“So... do we just attack you or something?” Todd asked.

“Hold on,” Noah said. “I want to change into my training clothes. I’ll be right back.”

He strode back into the house and up to his room, tossing his belongings into his closet and changing into his cheap training clothes. Closing the closet door behind him, Noah headed back to rejoin the others.

“Right then,” Noah said as he stepped back out onto the grass. “Who wants to go first?”

“I will,” Isabel said. “At least that way I’ll get a chance to do something before Todd sets something on fire and ruins the whole exercise.”

“Hey!” Todd exclaimed. “I’ve only done that once.”

“When was that?” Noah asked.

“Before you,” Todd replied, clearing his throat. “It was when we were younger. We wanted to practice our magic. It didn’t work out too well.”

The daylight shut out as the stone sheets slammed together above him, sealing him inside. Noah pursed his lips. It would have been easy enough to break free with Sunder, but that would have been an absolutely terrible idea.

Instead, he slammed both of his palms against one of the walls. A violent tremor shook the stone as he forced it to resonate. The stone crumbled to dust and Noah leapt free. Isabel jumped at him, trying to catch Noah in the legs with her sword.

He leapt, then redirected his motion with a burst of wind. Noah’s foot slammed down on the blade, knocking it from Isabel’s hands. She let it dematerialize to avoid going down together with it, but Noah’s other leg swept around and hooked her. He spun, throwing Isabel to the ground.

She hit the grass with a grunt.

“You’re dead,” Noah declared. “I could have done the same thing to you that I did to the stone wall you made. Damn good showing, though. Really well done.”

Isabel, who had been halfway through standing aback up, flopped back to the ground. She let out a defeated sigh. Noah trudged over to her, flicking the mud from his pants.

“Don’t look so put out. That was an incredible performance.”

“I could have done better,” Isabel said, her words taut. “I didn’t even land a single blow on you.”

“You forced me to use my Rank 2 Rune.” Noah knelt beside her. “I’d say that’s pretty impressive. Don’t lament what you couldn’t do. Spend your attention on what you did well and spend your energy figuring out how you can do better.”

“If you were faster, you could have caught him a few times,” Lee put in. “Maybe a speed-based Body Imbuement would be beneficial for you?”

“I don’t have anything that helps with speed yet,” Isabel said, sitting up. “Just defense.”

“Vermil’s Runes are especially bad for anyone trying to use armor,” Lee said. “So don’t judge your failure too harshly off of that. Who knows what would have happened if we had actual Shields to work with so you didn’t have to worry about killing each other on accident.”

“You had some great strategies, too,” Todd said, giving Isabel a big grin. “Would have got me for sure.”

Isabel shook her head, but the corner of her lip quirked up slightly. Her mood wasn’t quite as bad as it had been right after the loss. “Thanks.”

“I’m not sure if this was intentional, but were you holding back any of your speed?” Noah asked. “It felt like you could go faster. I thought you were trying to save that for a burst after I got complacent, but it never happened.”

“A bit of it, but not that much. I didn’t get a chance.”

“It was a really good idea,” Noah said. “But don’t hold your cards to chest too long. Having a secret advantage is very powerful, but if you never use it, the fight will be over before you get a chance to.”

He extended a hand. Isabel took it, and Noah pulled her back to her feet. She headed back over to the sidelines, joining Todd and Lee.

“Any thoughts from you?” Noah asked Lee.

“Be faster.”

“Thanks,” Isabel said dryly. “Anything else?”

“Try to win the next one. It’ll feel better.”

Isabel couldn’t stop the snort of laughter from slipping out. She just shook her head and flicked Todd in the side.

“You next. I’m not sure if I’m hoping that you do better or worse than I did.”

“Thanks, I think,” Todd said, rolling his shoulders as he walked up to join Noah in the center of the yard. “Ready, Teacherman?”

“Whenever you are.”