Chapter 9-Noah+Khione vs Flint

Old-Man F yawns as he exits our tent and stretches.

Old-Man F then looks down, where he sees Khione and I standing across from him.

"Khione! Noah!" Old-Man F calls to us, "You two are up early!"

Slowly…Khione and I turn around to face Old-Man F, revealing our sleep-deprived, dried out eyes.

"YIKES!" Old-Man F yelps as he recoils, "What happened to you two?!"

"We…trained all night…" I mumble.

"Without sleeping…" Khione adds.

Old-Man F pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. "Alright, well…get some sleep," he orders, "And we'll move out later in the day."

"No!" I exclaim, "Khione and I have something to show you first!"

"Yeah," Khione smirks as she cracks her knuckles, "I GUARANTEE that Noah and I can beat you now."

"Alright," Old-Man F smirks as he drops his bag, "Let's begin."

Khione and I resume our Charge Stances, and a burst of icy-blue and seafoam-green sparks swirl around our bodies respectively.

"Khione!" I order.

"Right!" Khione replies as she swings both of her hands outwards, "Ice Charge, Level Three: Solid Lance!"

Old-Man F's eyes widen. "So you've developed a level three spell in just one night?!" He exactly cries, "Impressive, Khione!"

"You haven't seen anything yet!" Khione smirks as lances of ice fly out of the ground in a circle around Old-Man F, trapping him in place.

"Amazing…" Old-Man F marvels as he spins in a small circle, studying Khione's lances of ice, "The amount of precision required in order to freeze the air in such a way that you form multiple lances of ice is unmatched. You've leveled up a lot from that angry little girl who could only freeze blocks of ice."

"Thank you, Master F!" Khione booms with a wide smile.

"Now, Noah, it's your turn!" Khione orders.

"Right!" I reply, "Water Charge, Level One: Bullet Rain!"

I hold my arms up as I begin to twirl my hands throught he air, and a moment later, gray storm clouds come in as it begins to rain.

"Rain…?" Old-Man F asks as he holds a hand up.

But Old-Man F doesn't feel any moisture. And that's because I make it rain in a circle all round Old-Man F, but not ON him.

My droplets of rain fall to the ground, and as they do, they pierce the sandstone with enough force to shatter the floor.

Yikes!" Old-Man F recoils.

"Just warning you, old man," I smirk, "You may want to dodge."

And then…razor-sharp droplets of rain begin falling upon Old-Man F in over a fifty-foot radius.

Old-Man F's eyes widen as he looks around frantically. "Dodge?!" He cires, "How can I do that?! The spell is too wide to dodge!"

"Endless breaks…here we come!" I cackle as my needles of rain begin to fall upon Old-Man F.

In response, Old-Man F enters his charge stance, which is accompanied by a burst of Golden-tan sparks, before swiping an arm upwards.

"Sand Charge, Level Four: Sand Whip!" Old-Man F shouts as a tendril of sand flies out of the ground then covers Old-Man F's head as he swipes his arm over his head, using the tendril of sand to block my attack.

"Damn," I grumble as my Bullet Rain is countered by Old-Man F's Sand Whip.

"And now…" Old-Man F continues as he resumes his charge stance again, accompanied by another burst of Golden-tan smirks.

"Sand Charge, Level Two: Sand Storm!" Old-Man F shouts as he launches a flurry of kicks towards me, firing off a ball of sand with each kick.

Old-Man F's balls of sand fly forwards, shattering Khione's ice lances in front of him, which then blast into Khione and I, causing us to yelp in pain as we crash to the ground.

"Is that all you've got?" Old-Man F smirks as he takes a step up to Khione and I.

"Of course it's not!" Khione and I exclaim as we stand up to face Old-Man F, but before we can do anything else, Khione and I crash face forwards onto the ground in a puff of sand.

Flint sighs as he stares down at his two pupils. "I guess they really DID train through the night…"

A smirk then spreads across Flint's lips. "Boy did they progress…"

…

"Although you two weren't able to land a spell on me, I still want to honor my half of the deal," Old-Man F says as the three of us continue on our quest, wandering through the abandoned desert wasteland onwards to our next location–Brokolyn Village.

Of course, after failing to land our ice-and-water combo spell on Old-Man F, Khione had fallen asleep due to the exhaustion that comes from spending the entire night training rather than sleeping! Old-Man F was kind enough to allow Khione and I to sleep through the entirety of the next day and night. And so, after waking up, the three of us packed up and got a move on! And now, we begin day three of our four day walk towards Brokolyn Village, and we're barely any closer than we were when we stopped to train on our first day…

"Hey, don't look down on us, the deal was to land a spell on you by the NEXT training session!" Khione exclaims.

"I believe I said 'TOMORROW'S' training session," Old-Man F smirks, "And you two slept through it."

"Damn…" Khione flinches.

"Old-Man F's got a point, Khione," I sigh, "We've lost."

"But you two really wowed me with your progress in just one night," Old-Man F chimes in.

"Eh? See!" I exclaim as I elbow Khione in the ribs, "I told you that we would 'wow' him!"

"And we sure did!" Khione exclaims.

"I've only met a few other E-Chargers other than you two in my forty-nine years of life-" Old-Man F begins to say.

Khione raises an eyebrow at me.

"-But I've NEVER seen an E-Charge progress as much as you two have in such a short amount of time," Old-Man F continues, "Noah…you were able to develop a Level One Spell after TECHNICALLY only being able to E-Charge for like…a day, and Khione, you already developed a Level Three Spell with such extreme precision that I've never seen before!"

"Thank you, Master!" Khione and I boom with excited grins.

"So how about it," Old-Man F smirks, "You kids need a break already?"

"Um, actually…" Khione stammers.

"We want to forgo our half of the deal," I finish.

Old-Man F's eyes widen. "Are you…sure…?" He asks.

"Yeah," Khione answers, "Noah and I had a long talk last night about our motivations, and…I think we both discovered a new sense of determination for our quest."

"And if we take constant breaks everytime Khione and I nagged you, then we would NEVER get anything done," I add, "Both Khione and I NEED to become powerful E-Chargers."

"So you had a long talk with my daughter, huh…?" Old-Man F growls as he leers at me.

"Th-that's not what I meant, sir!" I stammer as I hold both of my hands up in surrender.

"I know, I'm joking!" Old-Man F laughs as he pats his stomach, causing me to breathe out a sigh of relief.

"You two DO realize that without breaks…this quest is going to be a long and grueling one," Old-Man F smirks, "We will be walking for up to fifteen hours at a time."

"We're ready!" I smirk back, "Our physical training is just as important as our E-Charger training!"

"Good answer!" Old-Man F replies, "As we continue on our quest, you'll come to find that most E-Chargers are in amazing shape, and that's because we need to be in order to draw the maximum amount of strength possible from our E-Charge. Flimsy bodies can't use as much strength when E-Charging."