Be Stronger

“You need to be stronger, Iwao.” Saya shouted so he could hear her through the noisy wind.

It was early in the morning when she had woken him up. She was full of energy and determined to change Iwao’s mindset.

They had gone into the mountains so they wouldn’t be heard or disturbed. Between two peaks, there was a wide grassy plateau – the perfect place to train, with nothing on it but grass.

“Well, we don’t really know what the powers of your artifacts are going to be, so you must be fully prepared to receive them. Starting today – and from now on, while Celi works on the pendant with Lo – I’ll be in charge of your training.” Saya said proudly, with an excessive confidence.

Iwao looked at her, perplexed. The wind whistled in his ears.

“And what are we going to do? I already learn new spells, unlock abilities from this form, and gain all sorts of things from eating nightmares.” Iwao said.

Saya looked him straight in the eyes, a big smile stretching across her face.

“I’m glad you asked. First, we’re going to improve your physical abilities, or rather correct some weak points – like your reflexes, or the energy you use in each jump or strength attack. You get tired too quickly when you overuse them. Your body has great capacities, but it can be better.”

Iwao looked down at himself, scanning his body, not understanding why she said that. He was pretty confident in his abilities though. “Yet, I can’t tell her that I don’t want to do this... she prepared it all just for me…” He thought.

“And what’s next then? I’m sure this is just the beginning of my hard training.” He said with a little smirk.

Saya laughed at his reaction. It was funny to see him discovering the program. She continued.

“Then I’ll show you how to save Firia so you don’t consume an incredible amount with each spell. I’ll also teach you how to master some spells. And finally, you’ll fight against a golem of my creation to test your progress.”

Iwao’s smirk widened, his bright eyes showing how confident he was.

“That will be a piece of cake!” He shouted.

“Oh, don’t be too confident, Iwao. To make things harder, no spells like the one you used against the trapdoor or the one you would have used against the dragon. They’re prohibited. If you fail, you fail – no cheating.” Saya added with a laugh.

Iwao was disappointed by the rule but nodded, as if to show Saya he would respect it.

“Before I forget: don’t think my golem will be like the ones in Greyford Valley. It’s much stronger. And until you defeat it, you’ll train for another whole week and fight it again at the end of it. That’s the catch. You have one week to prepare for your first fight against the golem.” Saya explained.

She walked a hundred meters away from Iwao and faced him.

“So what now? Aren’t you going to explain the first exercise?” Iwao asked, yelling to be heard, his voice echoing in the mountains.

Saya raised her arms to the sky. Water flowed from her hands and formed spheres all around her. When there were a dozen, Saya shouted.

“Now begins your first exercise. You must dodge these spheres, not destroy them. Their height, visibility, velocity, and even their element will change throughout the exercise. But beware – you can still get hurt, even with water spheres. Protect yourself with a barrier if you’re going to be hit, and heal yourself if you are. You’ll have to do this while the spheres keep coming at you.”

She smiled wickedly. A second later, she thrust her arms forward, sending all the water spheres rushing toward Iwao. As soon as a dozen were launched, she recreated another dozen to maintain a constant flow of attacks.

The spheres were quite slow, very big, and clearly visible. Iwao put on a confident face.

“Well, for now, this will be easy.” He muttered to himself.

The first spheres reached him. He dodged them effortlessly. Once they passed him, they touched the ground and imploded.

But it was only the beginning. The second wave was faster. Iwao had to run to dodge them, but it was still not too difficult.

When he dodged the last water sphere of that wave, he didn’t notice a big rock sphere hidden behind it. This one was much faster.

Iwao didn’t have time to retreat, since he was already moving to dodge the water sphere. The rock sphere slammed into him, sending him flying against the mountain wall. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach where it had struck him.

In the distance, Saya paused her attacks for a moment.

“You see how bad your reflexes and anticipation are now? Don’t be too confident – you never know what’s coming!” She shouted.

Iwao cast a healing spell on himself. Afterward, he stood up on shaky legs and prepared for the next round.

Saya continued her attacks, her water spheres growing faster and bigger. She kept hiding rock spheres among them to trap Iwao. After the first big one, most of them were smaller and harder to spot, which made them more dangerous to the untrained eye.

Iwao kept a barrier up constantly, not wanting to repeat the earlier mistake. It was exhausting to maintain, and his dodging grew weaker. He was hit several times, though not hard enough to send him flying again.

“Saya! You should rest, don’t you think? Casting all these spheres must be tiring.” Iwao shouted, trying to buy a few seconds to catch his breath.

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I know how to save Firia, I’ve got a large Firia reserve, so it’s no problem. Worry about yourself. And thank me for not sending fireballs – I don’t want to watch you burn if you fail to dodge.” Saya replied.

Just as she said that, something struck Iwao and knocked him to the ground. He hadn’t see what hit him, but the pain was real, even through his barrier.

“Wait, Saya! What did you hit me with?” He asked.

“Wind spheres. I thought you would have seen them. Well, they are fast and invisible to the naked eye, but still… Good luck!” Saya replied jokingly.

Now there were three types of spheres. Iwao was hit by the wind spheres almost every time, and sometimes by the others as well. Exhaustion weighed on him, his dodges grew sloppier, and his barrier didn’t absorb every blow. His body ached all over. He didn’t have time to heal himself.

Saya finally stopped her attacks, walked up to him, and saw him collapse on the ground.

“Well, it’s barely noon and you’re already this tired. Let’s stop with this exercise for today and continue after eating. You showed improvement in dodging the rock spheres hidden behind the water ones, but it’s not perfect. You’re still too slow, or you notice them too late.”

“I see I’m not the only one training hard. Casting all these spells also trains you to cast more and improve your Firia reserve, right?” Iwao asked, panting.

“You’re right. But I’m not tired, because my attacks aren’t as powerful as when we fought the dragon. That’s why I was drained so quickly back then. Now, let’s eat and heal you!” She replied.

During the afternoon, they started the two other exercises of the day. This time, Saya was much closer to Iwao.

“Now, Iwao, you will learn that there’s no need to put as much Firia as you think into each spell. Visualize it like a bottle: you can fill it to the top, but if you fill it too much, it overflows – and what overflows can’t be drunk. It’s the same with spells: you can charge them with a maximum amount of Firia, but if you go over that limit it won’t make the spell stronger – you’ll just waste your daily Firia reserve. So you need to know your limits in order to keep enough Firia for other spells and last longer in battle. Once you manage that, you’ll be able to push this limit further and make your spells more powerful with ease.” Saya explained.

Iwao was struck by all this information, but learning many things at once was no big deal for him – after all, in his previous life he had been an excellent student, his mind shaped for learning.

“How much of your Firia reserve do you think you’ve used?” Saya asked.

“Approximately half, I think. Barriers and healing spells always consume a lot.” Iwao replied.

“Well, that should be enough for the two exercises – you still have some left. Doing all this will also improve your Firia reserve, so you’ll notice the differences in a few days.”

“But how do you know so much about Firia and all this?”

“Because I’m a princess! I wasn’t born with mastery over spells or Firia – I had to learn from teachers to be able to understand that and use all of this. I’ll put my knowledge at your disposal so you can grow stronger.”

“Thank you, Saya. You’re really helpful, I can count on you.”

Saya was surprised by those sudden words. She smiled widely in gratitude.

“Shall we start, then?” Saya asked.

“For sure, teacher.” Iwao said jokingly.

They both laughed.

“Then, put your hands in front of you and make a little flame appear. Concentrate on it, feel its warmth, and visualize the image of the bottle. Little by little, instill Firia into it until you reach the point of overflowing. The flame will grow bigger, it’s warmth will increase, but Firia won’t spill over and disperse into the air.” Saya explained.

She demonstrated. Her flame grew little by little, but the energy of the spell was not excessive – it was a calm, controlled flame. Iwao was fascinated.

He tried as well. He cast a small flame, instilled Firia, visualized the bottle... but he couldn’t stop it from overflowing. He was always near the limit, but it kept spilling over. His flame always ended up becoming unstable, not calm like Saya’s.

“Well, looks like I have a lot of training to do before I succeed at this.” He said, laughing a little.

“I think it’s pretty decent for a first try. Now let’s move on to the last exercise. You just have to cast spells – fireballs, lightning, ice, whatever you like – against this mountain. But make sure you have a clear image in your mind of what they should look like and what you want them to be. That way, you’ll be able to shape them more easily and master them faster, without wasting time casting.”

Iwao followed her instructions and cast as many fireballs as he could with the Firia he had left.

“Mastering one spell is enough. Spreading myself across many would just thin me out.” He thought.

Saya observed him from behind, her expression sharp and judgmental.

Iwao’s fireballs didn’t really look like fireballs – they were misshapen, oval, uneven.

Disappointed, he looked at Saya, hoping for more guidance.

“I did exactly as you said, Saya, but look at the result!” Iwao complained.

“Don’t worry, it’s still the first day. Progress will come. We have time since Celi said it would take a while to analyze the pendant.” Saya reassured him.

She crossed her arms, also tired from the long, intense day.

“Let’s head back to the camp! We’ll continue tomorrow!” She exclaimed.

That’s how the week passed quickly. Every day Iwao repeated the same three exercises over and over, while Saya guided him with tips and demonstrations.

By the end of the first week, Iwao had reached a pretty decent level and had made a lot of progress, though it was still far from perfect.

On the grassy plateau, Saya had set up a fighting zone – it was time for the first round against the golem.

“Now it’s time for what you’ve been waiting for all week, Iwao. Here’s the golem you’ll fight. I won’t intervene unless your life is in danger or you’re knocked out.” Saya shouted from the edge of the plateau.

She recited strange incantations, and the ground shook.

A creature clawed its way out of the earth. It stood tall, its raw power radiating across the plateau.

Iwao was stunned – he knew this fight would be tough. But only one thought ran through his mind.

“Wow! This golem is massive!”