Training Exercise

It's been a long time already, and neither of them has any idea where to find Ackley. Time is not on their side.

Danica is especially worried since their success in this task involves the prospect of going on adventures and moving out of the city for once.

Yes, if you are still contemplating what I meant by that, it means Danica has never left the city, only just a few expanses away.

"How do we find him now?" she asked as little of cold gas came out of her mouth due to the snowy weather.

Ambrose suddenly had an idea, thanks to her. He bends down and places his hands over the snowy floor. If Ackley's teachings are true, then what he is trying to achieve should work.

"Environmental Awareness," Ambrose enchants, as a result, he could fuse his Mana Zone with the snow, which in turn, increased the distance at which his Mana Sense can discern.

His senses were constantly flooded with the presence of life-forms of any kind in the area until finally, there he was, a human figure relaxing among the trees.

"There you are," Ambrose mutters with a smirk.

"What did you do?" asked Danica.

"I know where he is," says Ambrose.

They both ran in a certain direction, with Ambrose taking the lead...

"Well done job, Ambrose," Ackley mumbles with a smile.

The moment Ambrose sensed his presence, Ackley also had the same sensation, so he is well aware they are both currently headed his way.

. . .

Getting to the destination, Ackley is still nowhere to be found...

"He is not here?"

"No, he is here," says Ambrose, with his attention focused on a certain area.

"Well, you've completed the first step," says Ackley who is currently on one of the tall trees, "However, your chance of ever getting these keys in my possession is close impossible," he added while stylishly swinging the keys in between his fingers.

Ambrose is the first one to make a move. Using the nearest trees as a stepping stone, he got to Ackley's location in no time.

*Swoosh!!*

Skillfully using the wooden sword, a clash between Ambrose and Ackley began as they both flip from one tree to another.

"Teamwork makes the dream work," says Ackley in between his defense.

Ambrose knows not what that means, nor does he care at the moment.

Danica isn't as skillful as they are so she was left on the ground. She tried to catch up from her location.

"Sorry, dad," she mutters and in the next moment, tree stems pulled out from the ground to grab Ackley by the foot.

"Oops,"

With little effort, Ackley leaps away and effectively avoided her attacks. She wasn't done and more tree stems came after him.

Kicking the air, Ackley still had no problem with keeping a safe distance.

"It's going to take a lot more than that," he said.

"Get over yourself," says Ambrose, who is right above him.

With both hands, Ackley successfully halts Ambrose's attack. "Is it just me, or are you weaker now?" he said.

Yes, after sealing his Negative Realm, Ambrose isn't as strong as usual, at least not physically. This has indeed put him at a disadvantage since he's so used to it.

Clapping both hands together, Danica created two tall trees at once...

Breaking each part of the tree, she shoots them at Ackley at top speed. However, the skillful Mage still had no problem with evading every attack.

Blows after blows, Ambrose, who is better at close combat, went at it with his dad. To increase the damage of his fist, icy shards enclosed Ambrose's hands, except they shattered immediately it made contact with Ackley's fists.

*POW!!*

An air-piecing blow hit Ambrose in the gut and shot him to the sky. He violently hits the ground due to it but was back to his senses seconds later.

"I'm impressed, but that's not good enough to take me down," says Ackley as he dissipates to thin air... again.

'A clone? He is seriously messing with us,' Ambrose says inwardly.

"Are you ok?" asked Danica.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. There was no power behind his blow or it could have been worse," Ambrose says while fuming as he picks up his wooden sword on the floor.

"A fist combat with dad is not a good idea," says Danica, "This is one thing he is good at," she added.

"This wooden sword makes me look stupid," says Ambrose, "I prefer something shorter."

"Like a dagger?"

"Yeah, exactly,"

"Hmm," With a bit of analysis, Danica began moving her hands in a precise and synchronized way.

The result of her action bewildered Ambrose as he watches woods produced by her gradually forming what seems to be a wooden dagger.

"Here, it isn't perfect since I'm still not very good at this," she said while handling the rough-looking wooden short knife.

Pleased by this, Ambrose said; "Please make another one,"

"This is a lot of work, but fine..." she says while struggling to create another one... Minutes later, there is another wooden dagger for Ambrose.

"I did not know you could do this,"

"You're not the only one who's been tirelessly training," says Danica in reply.

With no use of the wooden sword given to him by Ackley, Ambrose straps it on his back, "The next time we get him, he's going to regret ever looking down on me," he said.

"We should start by finding him first,"

. . .

"My clones should be enough to keep them busy," Ackley mutters.

He is currently on higher ground as he occasionally receives information from his clones, some of which Ambrose and fought against.

So it turns out, all this while, the real Ackley had been taking a nap from the very beginning.

.

.

.

Ambrose focuses all his senses, especially his hearing... "I knew it! He's been toying with us the whole time," he said.

Many distances away, Ambrose could hear the faint sound of movements, couple this with his Mana Sense. He could tell these individuals are all Ackley. The only problem is identifying which one of them is the original.

"It's bad news, isn't it?"

"Bad news might be an understatement," says Ambrose in reply. "There are more clones scattered around," he added.

"Are they heading our way?"

"No, pretty sure they are just waiting for us to come over, but that would be a waste of time as we don't have all day,"

"How many of them did you sense?" asked Danica.

"About fifteen of them and there is a high possibility they might be more than that even further away, which is the same reason we can't go after every one of them,"

"Ackley gave us nothing less than a day to defeat him, and he is trying to stall for time by doing this," says Ambrose.

Chasing Ackley mindlessly is a bad idea. This is the conclusion they've come to. Yet, where would the real Ackley be located?

"If dad is here, then he might be on his own," says Danica after a moment of thought.

"That makes sense," Ambrose said, "any of the clone who are more isolated should be the real deal," he added.

With that in mind, Ambrose leaps to what he views as one of the tallest trees and scans his surroundings many meters away using his heightened vision.

The young kid finally found something in the distance, or should I say, someone?... This is Ackley, without a doubt.

'She was right all along,' he said inwardly and jumps back to the ground.

"So?"

"He is taking a nap just further away," says Ambrose.

"Taking a nap?!"

"Yeah," Ambrose facepalm, "Getting to him is going to take hours, added with the obstacle we will meet on the way, we probably won't get there on time,"

"There is no guarantee we would successfully get the key out of him even if we made it on time," Danica added. She is getting anxious at this point.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll get the key from him,"

"No, you won't, don't get too cocky,"

Ambrose is confident in his ability to improve. His battle with Ackley has helped him in few ways, this is probably getting to his head.

"Dad is holding back, I am very sure of that," says Danica.

"You are right and I am aware, we'll use that to our advantage," Ambrose said.

"I'm guessing you have a plan,"

"Indeed, I do,"

.

.

.

"Still no sign of them," says Ackley as he views the lower area from his point of view.

*PEW!!*

A sense of danger struck Ackley suddenly, and he acted swiftly by tilting his head. A piercing object moved past him almost instantly and violently stabs the massive rock wall just behind him.

"This is..."

A chill ran through Ackley's veins as get a closer look at the object that almost hit him. This spear-like object is made of wood.

"Ambrose?" says Ackley in disbelief. He could tell due to the lingering spiritual energy slightly surrounding the wooden spear, "To throw this from such a distance," he mutters.

Just then, another spear tore its way towards Ackley once again, but thankfully, Ackley avoided a fatal hit once again.

"There's more?" he said, a little taken aback. "They already know my location?"

Ackley did not expect them to find him so quickly as he was planning to keep them busy for a while, hence, that's the reason he deployed clones.

. . .

"Do you have more?" Ambrose asked.

"This is hard to make," complained Danica as she hands a wooden spear to Ambrose.

"I'm sorry about that. Your ability, however, is needed for this to work,"

"I understand," she said.

Receiving the wooden spear from Danica, Ambrose locks on his target many meters away. Concentrating an extensive amount of spiritual energy, both KI and especially Mana to his right arm, he throws the object with a lot of power and it immediately disappeared out of their sight with a remarkable speed.