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A/N: Torvawk please check your email

A/N2: Tales of the First now has it’s own site as Patreon wasn’t really suitable and its posting schedule would drown out everything else on here. Why not check it out?

“Hopefully this won’t take too long.” Kira faced Ophelia across the training room, tossing a silver fireball from hand to hand as she spoke. “Especially since the Key already knows how to do it. We’ll try it with you concentrating just on shielding first. If you manage to deflect ten attacks in a row we’ll move onto something trickier. Tell me when you’re ready.”

Ophelia closed her eyes and appealed to the Key to help her. It immediately put an image in her mind and she took a ready stance. “Okay.” She focused on forming a transparent shield around herself. When Kira’s first fireball snuffed out just two feet from Ophelia’s nose, she felt it.

“That’s one!” Kira said.

Ophelia found that even with her eyes closed, she could track her friend’s movement as a silver thread against her visualised shield.

Kira sprinted around and threw a second fireball. It also disappeared. “Two.” She leapt up and tossed a couple of wooden throwing batons at Ophelia from above. They were deflected with a ping and landed on opposite sides of the room. “Three and four.” The silver dot in Ophelia’s mind grew larger as Kira charged straight at her then was abruptly smaller as as she was thrown backwards by the shield. “Oof! Five.” From the thump, she had landed hard. “A bit over-enthusiastic, maybe.” She still had the presence of mind to toss a couple more fireballs as she rolled to her feet. Once again, they were snuffed out. “Six and seven.” Something else impacted the shield and Ophelia sensed it was a candlestick. It hit the wall and shattered. “Huh! Eight.” Kira sighed before throwing a punch at the shield. “Ow! Nine!”

“What’s up?” Ophelia asked. “Running out of things to throw?”

“Uh-huh. That’s quite some shield, Ophelia. I think we can safely say you’ve got the hang of holding it while concentrating now.” Even as she spoke she tossed one last fireball.

“Tricky, Kira. Nice try.” Ophelia opened her eyes in time to watch it gutter out. “I had a feeling you might try that.”
“I noticed,” Kira said. “But that was a great success. I was expecting to have to do it at least twice before you made it to ten.”

“It was easier than I thought as well,” Ophelia agreed. “So what’s next?”

“Next we take a short break because now it gets tricky.” Kira poured them both some orange juice.

“Tricky how?” Ophelia sipped her juice.

“Well you need to be able to hold the shield while doing other stuff – like fighting.”

“Ah, I can see that. How do we practice that?”

“Hmm… can you juggle?”

Ophelia choked and had to get her breath before replying. “Er no. Why? Did you want me to juggle while you threw things at me?”

“I was considering it but you’ve killed that idea, so we’ll need something else.” She produced a large ball from thin air and threw it to Ophelia. “Bounce it.”

“That’s a neat trick.” Ophelia began to bounce it on the floor with one hand. “Like this?”

“Yeah, and walk around the room while you do it,” Kira said. “We’re going for ten again. Tell me when you’re ready.”
Give me a hand here! Ophelia thought at the Key as she tried to concentrate on both the shield and the ball. Kira did and the shield held for five attacks before Ophelia got distracted by the ball trying to escape her and they had to start again.

It took three attempts before she managed to take ten attacks without losing control of either the shield or the ball. Then Kira insisted she repeat it to ensure it wasn’t a fluke.

“Are we done?” Ophelia leaned against the wall. “I need a rest.”

“Not quite. You need to learn to be so fast your shield is mostly moot.”

“Hmm, yes. If I become too dependent on it I’ll end up not dodging something too strong for it and then splat.”

“Exactly!” Kira gave her another juice. “This time when I throw stuff you’ll try and dodge and shield, okay?”

“Yeah, but I really do need five first.” She rubbed at the bridge of her nose and at her forehead.

“Take ten. You look exhausted.” Kira’s father was standing in the doorway. “You’re doing really well.”

“Do we have time for that?” Ophelia looked at her watch and was surprised to see it was only one am.

“We can, and even if we couldn’t, you need it. You can’t fight tired.”

 

A/N: Torvawk please check your email

A/N2: Tales of the First now has it’s own site as Patreon wasn’t really suitable and its posting schedule would drown out everything else on here. Why not check it out?

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