Training

"Alright, kid, stay there while I set up the Mana Doll," Ivo instructed strictly as he went to work.

"The what?" Denac asked, arching an eyebrow in confusion.

"You'll see soon enough...don't worry," Ivo replied as he walked over to the corner with the strange mannequins and picked one up.

Once he was back in front of Denac with one of the mannequins - the Mana Doll - he took out a dagger from his waist and started carving some symbols into the back of the featureless doll's head.

"What's your surname?" Ivo suddenly asked before etching.

"Rhime...why?"

"So I can set this up properly."

Shotly after, Ivo was finished.

"It's done," he said, standing up while supporting the doll's weight. "Prepare for combat."

"What?" Denac frowned. "I don't stand a chance against you."

"I'm well aware," Ivo replied calmly. "But I'm not your opponent - this is."

He gestured towards the doll as his left hand started to glow before hovering it over the mannequin's body. After he did so, runes similar to the ones that Ivo had carved into the back of its head started to appear all over the doll's body. Two glowing orbs of purple appeared where its eyes should've been.

Finally, the doll stepped forward, out of Ivo's support, before copying Denac's boxing stance.

"You may attack as hard as you want... don't hold back. This thing's sturdy. You'll break before it does."

Ivo sat down in a lotus position to watch the fight unfold as Denac immediately closed the distance between him and the doll from ten feet to five. But as he did so, the doll mirrored his actions perfectly, crashing into Denac.

"What the-"

Denac questioned as he fell on his backside, the doll copying this as well.

"You must have realized how the doll works from your...exchange," Ivo said in a serious yet caring tone. "So adapt, adjust to how it works, and overcome."

"Okay." Denac responded, annoyed, as he stood up with the doll mimicking this as well and returned to his stance.

Since he was basically breathing on the doll, Denac made some distance for himself, moving backwards by about two and a half feet. The doll copied this, as expected.

"So, the doll copies every action I take exactly as I take it?"

Denac looked at Ivo as he asked this.

"Apart from speech, yes. Now, get on with it..." Ivo looked at his bank after summoning it to check the time. "... You have about another three hours of this before lunch."

"Got it."

Denac responded to Ivo's comment before looking back at the doll. He was at an almost-perfect distance for striking the doll and therefore took a half step forward before striking forward with as much strength as he could, twisting his body forward to increase his range.

"OW!"

Denac cried out as he was struck by the doll and sent sprawling onto his back, his knuckles were red from where he'd struck the doll, even with his gauntlets on, and his left eye was beginning to form a black eye from the strike.

"Well, that clearly didn't work."

Denac said, reeling from the pain in his eye. He could see that he didn't damage the doll at all, not even a splinter.

"What is this even supposed to teach me?" He asked himself, wondering if there was even a reason for him to fight something that would do the same as him.

"Well, no point wasting any time...I'm starting to get sick of its emotionless face."

Denac stood up and entered his stance for the third time, determined to destroy the doll even if it's the last thing he does.

He struck the doll the same way that he did before. This time, however, he was expecting the doll to hit back and blocked accordingly. But alas... in doing so, the doll also blocked his attack. This caused Denac some frustration as he freed his left hand from blocking the doll's punch. Denac struck again, towards the solar plexus of the doll, also receiving a strike to his own solar plexus, causing him to lose his breath.

"Deep breaths, kid. Easy does it," Ivo told Denac as if he cared about his wellbeing.

"wheeze...no shit..."

Denac responded after a minute, managing to get his breath back.

"Do you understand what the purpose of this low-level doll is for?" Ivo asked Denac.

"No clue...to make me feel inadequate, perhaps?"

"Heh. Funny, but no...the purpose is to teach people that it's okay to receive a hit in order to deliver one. For example, letting your opponent strike you, so you can strike them even harder. You learn to use their attack to get yourself into a better position to attack them from."

"Well. Although that sounds suicidal...I'll try, I guess."

After their short exchange, Denac returned to his stance and uppercut the mannequin, before hooking it with his left hand then following up with a back fist to the temple. The back fist from the doll sent Denac flying harmlessly into the padding...however, the Mannequin was sent flying into the wall, causing a chunk of its head to shatter.

"Phew *pant* I managed to actually do some damage to it." Denac said, relieved as he sat up.

"Sure...and while you were successful, is this really correct? Are you using the claws from the gauntlets, or just using your fists?"

"Oh, shit...I completely forgot about the claws, sorry."

"Don't apologise, improve on your mistakes."

Denac got up and entered into his stance once more, this time with open palms.

He closed half the distance between him and the doll as the doll covered the other half. Now he started swiping with his hands, scratching the wood of the doll.

First, he did a diagonal slash upwards using his right hand. Then a horizontal slash with his left before finishing with an open palmed strike to the doll's solar plexus. He received all of the attacks from the doll in order to strike it harder. His final palm strike forced the doll backwards. With the claws, he now had a range advantage that the doll did not have, making easy work of his lifeless opponent.

He continued to meet the doll for short little exchanges over the course of the next two and a half hours before lunch.

(2.5 hrs later)

"Wow... you're a natural at this. I must know, why did you choose the gauntlets over every other weapon in this room?" Ivo asked a now bruised and bloodied Denac as he disabled the doll, causing the runes to disappear.

"I don't know...I just felt drawn to them." Denac responded truthfully.

"Well, in any case, not only have you never seen an affinity combo before, but you are also a naturally gifted skirmisher and a quick learner. It'd take me days to teach most newly awakened people what you learned in just three hours...interesting." Ivo praised Denac. "Now then, I think it's time to have some lunch."

Ivo began walking towards the door on the eastern wall of the training room, the opposite side to the trapdoor that they'd entered from.

"Oi Jez, clean up the mana dolls and tell everyone who enters to put them back how they found them. I'm going to be using them a lot more now, so they need to be ready for me daily. If anyone disobeys, send them my way." He ordered the guard outside this entrance to the training room.

He led Denac down some passages made of Ice that were lit up by torches within sconces along the walls. Bizarrely, the flames of the sconces were blue and didn't seem to cause the ice to even start melting.

Eventually, they reached a set of large, ornate doors that Ivo pushed open and led Denac through.

On the other side of the doors, Denac could see a large, sparsely populated room filled with long wooden tables with benches that were just as long running alongside them. These tables and benches were laid out in a circular pattern, in several tiers. The tables got more elaborate the closer they were to the centre of the room. The central table was a large round table with 13 baroque chairs, all adorned with three different colours - to show the elemental affinities.

There were two other doorways leading out of the room than the one that they entered through. These each corresponded to two of the four cardinal directions, east and west - they'd entered through the southern door. On the northern wall, there was not a lare doorway. Instead, there was a small door about two-and-a-half metres in height. This led into the kitchen instead of another part of the palace.

In front of the door to the kitchen, there was a bar where people went to order their food. Yes, free food was supplied, but only based on their position within the Ice Queen Frig's army. The food for a footsoldier would just be some meat with some nutritious vegetables, not even attempted to be nice, whereas the food for a high ranking member would be a buffet of exquisitely cooked meat, vegetables with servings of high end wine instead of the ale provided to footsoldiers.

Denac would still be able to eat no matter what, it's just that whether or not he landed a hit on Ivo would affect what menu he could choose from.

Once they had their meal of polar lion steaks with rhine flower in front of them, Ivo sat in his chair at the round table and pulled a chair from the first tier of the room next to him for Denac to sit on. Ivo's throne was decorated with a mixture of black, azure and cerulean. Thus, Denac could assume that his affinities were with nyxomancy, fulgramancy and cryomancy.

(10 minutes later)

Denac got up, and picking up his plate began to take it back to the counter.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm... taking my plate back. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Don't worry about that, they'll take it back when we leave."

"Oh, okay."

Denac returned to his seat.

"Now then kid, I suppose I should take you through your routine from now on. So, the first thing each morning will be basic physical training from 7am to 9am to build muscle and endurance. Following this will be combat training with me, and I will use a different weapon each day to get you used to fighting against them. You will have to eat from the footsoldier's menu unless you can land a strike on me that day, just like today. If you do manage to land a strike on me, then it will be basic combat training with a mana doll - that mannequin you fought today was a low level one. You will continue with that until 12pm, at which time we will return here for lunch."

"What about dinner? I managed to land a hit on you today, so..."

"Your dinner will be the same as this, as will your breakfast tomorrow. Dinner and lunch are based on the same day's combat training while breakfast will be based on the previous day's."

"Got it. what happens after 12pm though?"

"Ah, lunch will go on until 12:30pm, at which time we will head back to the training room for magic training."

"Wait, I don't know any spells for my elements yet," Denac interrupted. "Or... have you forgotten that I was brought here straight away after what you did to my parents?"

"Worry not, I have not forgotten," Ivo replied calmly. "We will be solving that issue right about... now, actually. Follow me - let's go to the library."

Saying this, he stood up, but then stopped.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. After a certain point, I'll be using magic in our combat lessons as well. Also, magic lessons in the afternoon will go all the way until dinner time: 5pm."