Ash eyed the goblin as she strode towards him with a calm swagger. She wore plain leather armour and bore a goblin-sized dagger sheathed on her waist. Her greenish-yellow hair was worn in a practical pixie-cut and her face bore more than one scar that suggested no small amount of combat experience. Her eyes, too, suggested that he wasn’t dealing with any mere low-ranking guard like he’d requested. 

It made him slightly nervous, but also expectant. Was she tier two, like him, he wondered. Or possibly even tier three. He would find out soon enough. 

“Greetings, trusted human Ash! You are tall and inconvenient! I am Roxxa Siluxxardsdoter! I was commanded to be your sparring partner for the day.” stated the lithe goblin woman, a wild smile on her green lips. 

Ash flashed a smile of his own and sidled past the mildly insulting comment with the ease of one that had grown used to goblinkinds’ cultural eccentricities. 

“Nice to meet you, Roxxa. You were briefed about the task I needed help with, right?” 

“Of course! You require a partner to spar with to test your new spell.” 

“Yup, pretty much. I only have a day before I leave so I wanna get the hang of it before then. Myr says that we don’t have reason to expect any kind of trouble but I’d rather be safe than sorry, you know?” 

“Safe than sorry? A most excellent phrase. I will take it for myself!” she remarked with an unashamedly blithe look on her face. Ash snorted but nodded his assent. 

“It is impressive that you managed to learn a spell in the short time I’m told that you had. I am glad that not all humans share in your rate of growth or else we would be in a truly sorry position. Humans are a greedy people after all, and they no doubt lust after our bountiful forest.” Roxxa stopped then, seemingly only then realizing who her audience was, before she flashed him a sheepish smile and a half-hearted apology. 

Ash waved it away. He didn’t doubt that there was some truth to her remark, though he didn’t quite agree with her assessment of his talent. “The spell is just tier one. I didn’t have the time to try and learn anything stronger.” 

“It is still no small feat.” she said. Ash still wasn’t convinced. After all, learning a tier one spell had become much easier following his advancement in tier. It had felt to him as if a lot of the roadblocks and painfully complicated processes that he’d once had to navigate in the pursuit of a new spell had either been removed entirely or become so startlingly simple that it was no longer an issue at all. 

More succinctly put, it was as if he’d been tasked to race with a Masarti where once he’d driven a sixty-year-old jalopy. He could only chock up his newfound aptitude to the increase in both his mental and magical skillsets that being tier two granted him. 

“So, shall we get this thing started? Like I said, I’m not exactly rich on time right now.” 

Roxxa nodded, obviously anticipating the coming spar as much or even more than he was. 

“Do you wish me to attack?” she asked him as she turned away. 

“Er, no. Let me get some experience in attacking first. I can work on defence later.” After all, offence was his whole game.  

“As you wish.” She left him then and strode across the packed earth to the other end of the training ground that they currently occupied. It was one of several that the Everwatch township boasted of, and in size alone it was larger than the clearing that had housed the burrow. Coupled with the obstacles and stumbling blocks that littered it on top of that and it was the perfect testing ground for his newest spell. 

“Ready?” asked Roxxa from across the distance. Ash smiled in answer. Mana twisted into the formulae that served as the building block of every spell with a thought and then he was gone, a plume of dust and wind left billowing in his wake. Roxxa for her part immediately took a battle-ready stance, though he noted that her dagger remained in its sheath. She was underestimating him, no doubt. He planned to make full use of that. 

Ash spared a moment to note her static position and then returned his focus to making sure that he didn’t trip up. Expeditious Retreat, despite the name of the spell, proved a boon to charging in as much as it did to running away. The burst of speed that it granted him likely made him faster than even the fastest of Olympic runners at full tilt, but with that speed came a frustrating lack of control. 

Turning was not something the spell allowed him do with any ease at all, and Ash was forced to cut mana to the construct running the spell and marginally slow himself for a scant few seconds in order to leap over Roxxa’s bisecting swing. 

He landed behind her and turned to loose the Fire Bolt readied on his palm only to receive a boot to the face halfway into his swivel that sent him reeling away. He landed with a grunt, rolled and righted himself in moments. Roxxa stood unmoved in her spot sporting an aggravatingly cocky smile. 

Tier two at least, he noted with absolute certainty as he swore and spat blood from a burst lip. The goblin was fast. Too fast. 

“I can see why they sent you to spar with me.” he remarked. 

She grinned. “Only one with an agility nexus can aid another with an agility nexus. That was Expeditious Retreat, correct?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Mmh. It is a good spell and will serve you well until you learn something more appropriate. You’ve also stumbled onto the correct idea in only using it in short bursts. The moments in between can be used to try and reorient yourself, but keep in mind that moving in such a way is not only difficult and demands much focus, but it can make you predictable. Especially to another agility user like me. An arrow once loosed from the bow can only go one way.” 

“Duly noted.” he said as he charged her again, and again she dodged and kicked him from behind. A third time elicited the same result, much to her amusement. Ash rose for the fourth time. 

“This tactic will not serve you well.” she remarked casually. 

Oh, he didn’t doubt it, but it had its uses nonetheless. 

Ash quickly took stock of the positions of all the obstacles and half-dilapidated structures around her before he loosed a Fire Bolt. 

The blazing arrow of flame soared at her faster than the blink of an eye, his advancement in tier granting it added speed and power. Still, the goblin weaved past it with absolute ease, her smile unwavering as she did so. Ash wasn’t surprised to see it miss. If she was an agility user, and undoubtedly more experienced than he was, than hitting her would be a game of trickery and planning than pure physicality. 

Fortunately, he could be plenty tricksy when the situation demanded it of him. He loosed another Fire Bolt at the woman, and she again side-stepped it with issue. A third Fire Bolt followed, and then a fourth and a fifth and a sixth. Roxxa continued to weave away, her movements efficient, flowing and graceful like a dance rather than a simple dodge. Such was her speed that his spells hadn’t even seared the edges of her armour as they raced past, let alone her skin. 

He wouldn’t hit a damn thing if he kept going as he was, and they both knew it well. “This is rather dull, trusted human Ash. Is this all-” She paused to dodge another Fire Bolt- “-you can come up with?” 

Ash wove a frustrated scowl over his lips and broke out into a sprint in a loose circle around her. Fire Bolts continued to burst from his palms as he ran, though the frantic movement did him no favours as far as his aim was concerned. Still, it was necessary, even if his mana reserves were starting to take a hit. 

“This grows boring! A child could do what you are doing now, trusted human Ash Pale!” barked the woman, a spark of irritation evident in her increasingly strained smile. “Come! Show me why it is that the great and honoured elder Sylaxxa has taken such an interest in you! Show me something worth my coming here!” 

Ash smirked as he skid to a stop behind a free-standing assortment of half-broken walls. He plucked a shattered piece of stone from a pile of rubble and then peeked out from behind his hiding spot. Unbeknownst to her, his constant barrage of Fire Bolts had shifted Roxxa’s position several feet away from where she’d been when she started, and she now stood beneath the shadow of an aged and well-worn wooden archway, its two supporting pillars to her either side. 

More importantly, she was starting to grow visibly irate. Good. 

He loosed what must’ve been the tenth Fire Bolt and followed after by lighting the stone in his hand with his Burning Hands and then chucking it her way. The woman huffed and dodged past both. “Really? You’ve chosen to assault me with rocks now?” 

He gave her no reply. He gathered as many pieces of broken timber and rock as he could, set them aflame, and started to lob them her way, interspersing the hail of rubble with the occasional Fire Bolt or two. It was after several minutes of this, when it seemed that Roxxa was about nearing her wit’s end with his antics, that Ash finally decided to act. He chucked a piece of dry, cracked timber at her head. 

His aim proved good and it sailed in a perfect arc towards the chuffed goblin. A second later, he shot off a Fire Bolt. His aim wasn’t as great as it could’ve been if he’d had gone with a perception nexus, but it was plenty good nonetheless, and in this instance, it served him well. 

Roxxa, as expected dodged both projectiles without worry, her eyes ever affixed onto Ash. She was expecting his next hail of rubble, and thusly didn’t expect the explosion of wood dust and timbre as his Fire Bolt struck the wooden beams of the archway behind her. She lurched forwards, unbalanced for a second before her gaze snapped in alarm to the plume of dust and crumbling debris tumbling towards her. 

Ash grinned and burst into motion then. His mana flooded his nexus and Expeditious Retreat lent his legs the speed to cross the distance that separated them in the span of a few seconds. Roxxa cursed and leapt forwards and out of the way of the falling debris in the only direction she could, and right into Ash’s charge. 

He was mere feet away from her then. His palm struck out. Time seemed to slow down. His fist was inches from her face when Roxxa reacted with a speed that was far beyond what she’d displayed so far. Mana surged forth and she almost seemed to shimmer from view before disappearing entirely. 

His fist slapped air, leaving Ash struck with surprise. 

Had she just teleported? He hadn't even had the time to comprehend the thought before he felt a presence behind him. A foot pressed against his back, and he knew well what would happen next. As much as the teleportation had come as a surprise, her follow-up attack had not. 

He released the Thunderous Wave he’d kept pent up all this while. The explosion of lightning surged around him and though he was in no position to check whether or not she’d been struck, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she indeed had. 

The knockback struck him like a freight train a second later and sent him shooting back like one of the many rocks he’d chucked at the woman. He slammed back-first into her much smaller girth and Ash caught a heave of air as the impact knocked the wind from her lungs. For a moment, the two were joined like some strange sandwich, her arms and legs dangling from his either side as they sailed through the air as one. The moment lasted no more than a few seconds before he felt her weight evaporate from his back and he landed alone in a heap on the dirt. 

Ash rolled a few times before he slid to a stop. Dust and dirt clung to him like old friends and his landing had left more than one bruise freshly formed on his body, but he thought it was worth it to see Roxxa reappear a short ways away, just as dirtied as he was, and in a far fouler mood. 

And it was only about to get fouler. 

She opened her mouth to say something as she slowly drew her dagger from her sheath, clearly convinced to take their spar far more seriously henceforth, when he charged her again. The woman’s mouth snapped shut and she leapt away at a blistering pace, clearly weary of the damage his Thunderous Wave could deal at a close range, no matter the fact that he’d lessened the damage of his lightning and funnelled that reserved power into its knock-back instead. 

Roxxa’s armour bore little more than a few darkened patches. It was a paltry sight compared to the great sizzling gouges he’d carved onto the bharghest, but he didn’t doubt that even weakened, lightning coursing through you was never a good feeling. 

Unfortunately for her, Ash had no intention of using it. 

He smirked and clenched his fists. There was a momentary pause as expectation sharpened his senses, and then the smouldering pieces of stone and debris that he’d littered everywhere, all imbued with sparks from his Burning Hands, became roaring conflagrations fed by his mana. The flames licked at her feet and legs and the woman yelped, taken aback by the sudden and unexpected attack. 

Ash grasped onto that opportunity to charge ahead like a bolt of lightning, his Expeditious Retreat churning at full tilt. A Fire Bolt came to life on one hand and the other went towards his waist. The distance between the two was crossed in the blink of an eye, and Ash loosed his spell at near-close range, though with its power greatly diminished. 

The weakened flame erupted forth and its flames surged hungrily towards Roxxa’s chest. There were scarcely a few millimetres between her and the tongues of fire, and Ash didn’t think she could teleport away quickly enough. She couldn’t. 

But she didn’t need to. Lightning exploded around her and in that split-second before impact, she disappeared. Ash’s eyes widened as he took in the after-image of a dozen Roxxa’s around him, and his other hand moved towards his back. 

His speed guttered out then and he came to a sudden, lurching stop on the earth before a presence came to life behind him. He felt the touch of cold steel pressed against his side, and a voice whisper lowly towards him. 

“Wiley little fellow, you are. Not only did you force me to use more than one spell but you pissed me off enough that I broke the terms of the spar and came out on the attack.” Ash smiled at that, and pressed the point of his blade closer to her ribs. “And I didn’t even win to top it all off.” she added, annoyance clear in her tone as she eyed the dagger that he himself wielded behind his back. “It seems that I’ve become predictable.” 

“Well, you always attack from behind so I prepared for that, just in case.” 

The goblin huffed. “I wasn't told that you used weapons, human Ash Pale.” 

The dagger fell away from his side and he too withdrew his own blade before he turned to meet Roxxa’s gaze. He stared at the unremarkable dagger he wielded before he returned it to its sheath hidden within a fold in his shirt. 

“Well, I figured that having a back-up weapon would be useful. My mana reserves aren’t limitless after all.” It’d been something he’d been thinking about not too long after he’d seen how nearly every one of the Everwatch’s warriors, even those with abundant magic, used a weapon of some kind. It made sense to him to be prepared for a situation in which his magic may be made useless, and it made him wonder why Myr had never deigned to use a weapon of her own. 

Personal preference, he supposed. The woman did seem to like doing things with her hands. 

“Don’t have much training with it, though. It’s basically just a pointy thing that I try and poke with.” 

“How human of you to reduce such an art form to point and poke.” The woman sighed and shook her head. “Come to me after you return from your trade-run. I will be glad to teach you some basic techniques. Weapons-mastery is always a useful skill, even for the most accomplished mage.” 

He couldn’t agree more. 

◆◆◆◆◆ 

Water dripped from his damp hair as he finished wiping himself down and settled into a fresh set of clean clothes before he leapt bodily onto his bed. A tired sigh left his lips and he contemplated getting some shut-eye for a moment before another thought bumped away that idea before it had even formed. He rolled over into a more comfortable position and summoned his character sheet. 

___________ 

Ash Flynn 

Tier: 2 | Level: 5 

MGT: 23 | CON: 16 | REGEN: 5 | PERC: 12 | AGI: 17 | MYST: 16 | CHA: 11 

Active Nexii:- 

Might Nexus: 3/4 

(Primary Set Bonus Active) 

Fire Bolt • Burning Hands • Thunderous Wave 

Agility Nexus: 1/4 

Expeditious Retreat 

____________ 

His attributes had ballooned out nicely after his tier-up, and though his agility had shown the most growth, courtesy of his newest nexus, he appreciated the boost to the rest as well. 

Especially constitution and regeneration. As much as he planned on going all in on offence, a little hardiness was never a bad thing. 

The only thing that he found disappointing in his sheet was the miserable one spell that he had to show for his agility nexus. Perhaps it was arrogant of him but he had wanted to have at least two spells under his belt before they left, but time had proven too difficult an enemy to overcome in that regard. Still, he had a half-day left still, and he’d already started work on his second spell. 

It wasn’t anything flashy, but it would no doubt prove as useful as Expeditious Retreat, if not more so. 

Ash almost shot up to a meditative position and nearly began forming formulae and molding mana right then and there, so driven was he, but he held himself back.  

He looked to the door to his room and pictured the room that stood opposite it, and the person within. They hadn’t yet fully talked things out after their last... tense... stand-off, as it were, and he feared that it would become a festering boil in their relationship if he just allowed it to linger. Myr wouldn’t apologize, he didn’t think. Not with how stubborn she could be. 

Perhaps he should be the bigger one of them and do so instead. God knows that it was his fault when it came down to it. He’d dithered long enough, using training and a thousand other things as excuses over the past few days. He didn’t want to have to deal with any kind of tension between them on the road as well. 

No, it was time they settled things. And with that, Ash rose and his feet felt like lead weights as he strode towards the door.