Terrified To Talk
Strength 162
Speed 201
Defense 102
Intelligence 122+30
Quick learner(Rank E) Advanced Appraisal(Rank E) Stealth(Rank F) Mana Consume(Rank C)
Better Balance(Rank F) Fast Thinker(Rank E)
Ever just play around with magic? This destructive power that's made to destroy! Ya but it's kind of fun to play with. I mean technically I'm practicing my "control" and "sustainability".
Well, I'm supposed to be learning how to actually make the magic move where I want it to. I mean If I tried I could probably figure it out but I don't want to make Mara feel that bad.
Speaking of which, the person that's supposed to be teaching me is instead trying to be taught by me. She's still trying the whole silent chant stuff. So far we've only got it to where she has to chant it in her head but it's still progress.
I then notice Mara successfully completing a silent chant but leaving out an annoyed voice so I guess she failed again. She then decides to sit next to me by the stump I'm leaning against.
"I'm so close I just know it," She says as she sits down.
I give her a nod and get ready to start my practice. We do this in turns as when one person becomes tired we can just switch out and they can instruct us on what to do but of course I don't really feel the need for breaks so I just do it for her.
This would be the part where I would get up and try the casting with the instruction of Mara like how I did with her but I hear something just before I get up.
I look around the stump to see Ren and another cat girl. That looks surprisingly like Mara. Sister? Ahh well, the more important thing is Ren. And even more importantly is the fact it looks like she's casting a spell at the stump I am sitting behind.
So In desperation, I use mana consume. It's very difficult but I am able to move it to the area where Ren was casting the spell. A very dangerous move by me but a successful one.
Ren looks at her hands disappointed so I guess it worked. The next step is to make sure they make understand this isnt just a normal stump. So I get up and think of a way to start a conversation.
"Ren? And Woah, another mara?" I say as I leave the stump.
Mara looks surprised by my words and takes the moment to look over the stump. Not too soon after having a grimace on her face.
I barely ever see Ren and I have never seen her out in the training area. Not only that but she's dragging someone I haven't met before so I guess It's good to come off as nice.
I casually start walking over to Ren and Mara 2.0. I take a glance at Mara and her face does not look like she's taking this casually. She actually seems really mad. Was this a mistake? Is there something going on here?
Guess it's too late since Ren and her friend have also decided to walk over to us. We keep walking until we meet in the middle of the training area. We finally stopped once were not too far apart from each other.
What type of showdown is going on here?! This atmosphere is not what I wanted today. Seriously I'm scared if I look away for a second someone may die. Why on earth does Ren's friend look so scared?! This sucks.
"What? What could you possibly need, interrupting my tests." Ren is the first one to speak.
Yikes, that's aggressive. I kind of want us to be on good terms before she leaves and this is not helping. I mean she said she was doing tests? I mean come on, I'm right here. Why would I interrupt them when my job is to help you out?
Maybe she needs to let off some steam? I glance over at Mara to ask her something but she is not looking very happy. Welp no help from her. Guess I'll just ask. I mean we are in the training grounds.
"Oh if you're here practicing, we could spare you know? Then we wouldn't be such a bother. It's a win-win. Plus it sounds cool. I've never done it before so why not?" I say half lying about my reasons.
Man, I really hope that will calm down this situation.
"Actually, we were leaving, clearing's yours." Ren's friend says.
No! It didn't work at all! See this is why I don't talk cause now it looks like im a bully not letting other people in the training area.
They brush right past me and I don't have a lot of time to think of something. Do I say I was joking? Maybe they just let them have it?
Hmm, oh wait it looks like Mara is about to say something. Let's hope she can calm everyone down.
"Yeah sure, go ahead, you'll probably be protecting Ren the entire time because 'oh no my precious senpai'. Just because Marissa is gone gives you no reason to act like a fucking psycho"
…
I uh, well at least she tried? I mean this whole thing is ruined anyway so I guess I'll just compliment Mara.
"Wow, good job Mara didn't expect you to use that word so perfectly" I held my hand out for a high five, another thing I taught Mara.
She looks up at me surprised. I bet she thought I was gonna say something else but at this point, It doesn't matter. It takes her a moment to realize what I'm doing but she gets her hand into the position for the high five but-
"Hey!"
Mara disappears from my sight and I'm stuck standing there like an idiot with my hand out. It looks like some type of magic hit her and she flew back. I look in the opposite direction of Mara to see Ren's girlfrie- I mean friend racing after Mara.
I go out to step in front of her to block her path but instead, I get blocked by Ren. Oh, shoot, are we sparing now? I guess they changed their mind. I mean now that I think about It Ren probably stopped me because a spare is only one-on-one.
Uhh ok well sure. Step one I guess is to get some distance. After that, I think I'll just use some magic on her to scare her or something.
Sadly I don't even know what magic I'm using since my focus is on another fight. Mara and Rens' friend have seemingly goton in on a one-on-one brawl, fighting each other in hand-to-hand combat.
It's really interesting to watch actually. I'm not sure why Rens' friend would go into close combat with Mara, I had assumed she was some type of magic user. Now it's true that Mara also uses magic but she uses it for supporting her combat not supporting from behind.
Basically, Mara is winning so far.
Now let's see what Ren's doing- OH GOD!
Quickly I hit the two real metal knives out of her hand, making them drop to the ground. For some reason, she had come at me with real knives as if she was really gonna cut me with them.
Why on earth would she do that?! Trying to find an answer I look around and find a black charred spot in the training area. Did I use fire magic against her? It also looks like I made it into a projectile as well, sorry Mara. Well, let's try and fix this.
I toss some wooden short swords similar to her daggers to her.
"It's a sparring match, not a killing match, dummy," I try and say confidently
"Shut up I knew that," She says as she lunges at me with her new nonlethal weapons.
Thankfully I'm able to easily doge every attack she tries to hit me with. Until she finally activates her self-control ability. Oh, I guess she finally got serious.
"Finally" I accidentally say as I get a wooden weapon of my own.
With that, she comes at me surprisingly fast and strong. But it's uhh not what I expected. It's either I got way stronger or something happened to Ren. Or both. I guess that means I can keep up on what Mara's doing.
So in the middle of my fight with Ren, I try to aggravate her as much as I can so I can at least get some stats out of this. While I also keep up on Mara's fight.
Rens' friend uses a magical chant at Mara. The spell seems to be an ice spell. In return Mara responded with two earth spells. They don't come out at the same time but the first is able to come out right as the ice spell forms and the second one is able to hit her before she can react.
So it looks like Mara beats her in both hand-to-hand and far distance battles. After realizing what happened Ren's friend for some reason thinks the best strategy is to run at Mara again. Mara takes that moment to use a wind spell and earth spell to try and stop her but neither do.
Ren's friend is somehow able to reach Mara and tackle her to the ground. I expect some type of brutal beat down after that and even get ready to step in but neither do anything. They just both sit there for a moment.
They then both start talking to each other. I guess they're coming to a resolution to who won or something. I guess me and Ren should do the same. Ren had just tried to use wind magic to push me away but I canceled it halfway with mana consume.
Now she was watching the ending to the fight between the two cat girls, leaving herself wide open. So I take that moment and take a swift but controlled hit on her leg. She falls over not too soon after.
Ren quickly makes a derogatory statement which grabs the attention of the two cat girls that come over to see what all the noise is about. Before that, I made sure the fights ended and helped her up.
When the cat girls finally get over to us one of them stands to the side of me and the other runs over to Ren's hurting leg.
Mara also checks if I'm ok but more normal like asking if I'm good. Not racing over to my leg to see if it's ok.
Something that catches my eye though is the magic Rens' friend is using. It must be some type of healing magic, one of the few I haven't learned yet. I better keep that in mind.
For now, it doesn't really look like she wants to teach me anything but what pain feels like but thankfully Ren calms her down and they decide to leave. However, the fact that Ren is slightly limping is kinda worrying.
"Uh, I'm sorry I hope you're ok!" I say trying to think of something nice.
She of course retorts with another derogatory statement.
With them finally gone I let out a sigh and fall on the ground. Of course, I didn't fall from physical exertion but mental. I never like interacting with my sister but that was probably the worst of it.
"You're not tired from that are you," Mara says as her face appears above me blocking the sky.
"Course not, you should know that."
Mara takes a position on the ground similar to mine.
"You know I saw you use that fire spell. honestly, you really didn't need any teaching from me. I bet if you could talk to people better you could rule the whole kingdom"
"Hah even getting transported from another world didn't fix that," I say trying to act like I didn't hear the first part of that sentence.
"Well, I thought that your job would help you out a little." She says with a whine
"Ah well that's complicated, you could come with me to see what I mean"
"Really?!" Mara exclaims as she sits up.
"Uhh ya I guess?"