One final training session

The place Jordan led them to was a decent trip out of the kingdom. Not quite far enough that one couldn’t make a back and forth trip every day on a decently fast fiterola, but far enough that the floating islands of the kingdom were more or less specks in the distance. The place itself was nice and quaint. It was on the ground, and was more or less an oversized cabin with a kitchen, living room area, 2 bathrooms, and 6 bedrooms for some reason.

“Do you really need all this space for yourself?” Iro asked when they arrived.

“No, but it’s not uncommon that I’ve got company, so I usually do need most of the space.” Jordan replied.

Once the group arrived and got settled in, everyone chose a room and Mina and Natalia both went to sleep as soon as they could. Iro stayed up seemingly to have a conversation with Jordan, but not long after they went to sleep as well. Then when the morning came, Jordan opened up his storage for Iro and Natalia to grab weapons to equip themselves, with Iro naturally grabbing one sword while Natalia actually grabbed two.

“My husband uses two swords, and I’ve picked up a few tricks while watching him train.” Natalia explained when the others questioned her choice.

Then, with that out of the way, Iro and Natalia did some warm ups while Jordan took Mina into the center of the training field.

“Alright, so. We’re going to be fighting a phoenix, right?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah.” Mina nodded.

“Alright. So, being a bird made of fire, its main weakness is cold and ice.” Jordan continued. “I’m capable of some ice magic, but my magic is limited in how much area it can cover. However, the area around the phoenix will be extremely hot, meaning we need a way to cool the area down, and that’s where you come in.”

“You want me to figure out how to make snow to keep us cool?” Mina guessed, and Jordan nodded in affirmative. “Alright, I guess I can do that. But, what about water? Fire is weak to water, right? Can’t I just make a big rain storm and put it out?”

“No, at least not at your level.” Jordan said with a shake of his head. “With how hot a phoenix can get, basically anything short of submerging it in water will only result in the water evaporating from the heat before it can put out the fire. I guess theoretically you’d be able to do it that way if you were really strong, but for right now we’re going to fight hot with cold.”

“Alright, I guess that makes sense.” Mina accepted. “Alright, I guess I’ll try making snow now then.”

Jordan nodded and took a step back, giving Mina the room she needed to focus.

‘Alright, so, snow is basically just rain but frozen right?’ Mina thought to herself.

She then went about making rain first, forming the clouds and condensing them just as easily as always. She let the rain fall as she tried to make it colder, forcing it to transform into ice, but she the rain just kept falling as rain.

“Come on, come on. Why isn’t this working?” Mina questioned aloud.

“Having trouble making it colder?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah, I just can’t seem to get it.” Mina said.

“I see. Well, how do you make the rain?” Jordan then asked.

“I make it step by step.” Mina answered. “Back in my world, scientists have figured out how rain actually works, and I learned it in school, so I just think through the process and will the water to go through it.”

“I see, so it works best for you if you consider the process huh?” Jordan remarked, considering this for a moment. “Well, maybe try this. Cold things always move slower than warm things, and things like metal and a lot of other materials shrink slightly when it’s cold. Maybe try making the water move slower and grow smaller while you’re forming it into rain?”

“Hmmm, I guess.” Mina replied.

So, she then did just that. As she was collecting the water from the air and condensing it, she imagined it shrinking slightly smaller and moving slower, even envisioning the water forming the ice crystals of snowflakes. To her amazement and joy, it ended up working surprisingly quickly, and she was able to make a small snow cloud above her.

“Yes! I did it!” Mina cheered.

“That you did.” Jordan said with a smile of his own. “Now, lets see just how big and cold you can get it.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The rest of the morning went much the same. Iro and Natalia did some light sparring, nothing too intensive that would get them tired for later, but just enough to limber themselves up and get more of a grasp on each other’s styles. Meanwhile Mina pushed her snow making abilities to their limit, and by the time lunch came around the majority of the training field was covered in a nice thick layer of snow.

After lunch, the girls wanted to go out and fight the phoenix, but Jordan insisted they wait for evening, reasoning that the phoenix would likely be even stronger under the light of the sun than during the night. So, the afternoon was spent mostly relaxing and chatting, listening to Jordan play some more music on his guitar, some light strategy discussion, and a little bit more training. Then, finally, supper came, and not long after the sky turned dark as night came. A cloud filled night sky that blocked out the moon and the stars, fittingly ominous for the upcoming fight.

“Alright. You know where to go Mina?” Jordan asked as they prepared the fiterolta.

“Yeah, Uraina put the info in my head. We need to go that way.” Mina said, pointing in a direction.

“Alright, then lead the way.”

The pair hopped onto the fiterolta, Iro and Natalia on one and Mina and Jordan on the other. The group flew through the dark sky, guided only by Mina’s words and the lamps they hooked onto their steeds. At first, they could only hope they were going the right way, that Mina knew where she was taking them. But after about half an hour of flying, they knew exactly where they needed to go.

“Mina, I’m assuming that down there is where we’re going?” Natalia asked, gesturing to a particular area beneath them.

“Yeah, that’s it.” Mina confirmed.

The spot in question was an area in the middle of a large field, the field itself bigger than Athan’s island, while the area in the middle was about twice the size of the main hall from the island. But, the more notable thing about it, the thing that drew everyone’s attention to it, was the fact that the place was on fire.

“Alright, lets bring the fiterolta down just outside the field.” Natalia called out. “Don’t want them getting to close and getting hurt.”

Jordan made a noise of confirmation, and followed Natalia as she set her bird down in a less dense part of the forest outside the field. Once landed, the group all got off their birds, mentally and physically prepared themselves, and made the rest of their way through the woods to the shrine. To the final battle.