Magic Emission

It had been four days now since Rion had come to the Academy.

Four days of rising earlier than the dawn and going to sleep much later in the day. Four days of beating in the sun drenched stone walls, of aching muscles and crimting palms, of falling into bed and not quite having strength to think, or to dream. The beat was rough, but there was protection in the certainty of the beat. A contrast to the wreck and ruin which had made his way here all that could well be.

He spent all his time on the drill fields. Not because he had to, but when his muscles throbbed and his skin bubbled, the nightnare did not come to see him. Well Not quite, They tried sometimes in fits, searing on the border of sleep like fire on scorched wood, but exhaustion kept them suppressed.

He didn't talk much to others or wander around the Academy. There was comfort in the monotony of eat, drink, swing, sleep, repeat. It was enough, more than enough.

Food wasn't so nice.

The cafeteria was a war zone of reek. Burnt flesh, crispy meat, spices that burned like smoke and decay. He had once tried to eat a slice of grilled meat. It had dissolved on his tongue, then squirmed. Be something different. The recollection smothered him. He'd convulse, gagging, watering eyes, the acrid flavor of death between his teeth. He'd woken up that night with fists clenched and with the heat of blood on his wrists.

After that, he stuck to bread, or fruit, or basically anything other than meat that could enter his stomach without he suddenly feel want to puke. Safe and Soft things. Things that did not make him remember.

---

The fogging mist of sweat and the ring of sound, the thwack of wood blades, the snarls of the cadets, the acid fizz of laughter. Rion's shirt clung to his back like a wet shroud. His arms trembling already from morning drills, Leon did not give him an inch. The Beast standing infront of him, his practice blade hovering from his hand like it was weightless.

"Ready?" Leon asked, smiling.

Rion sweated away a glob of sweat on his forehead with his sleeve. "No," he growled, flashing his sword.

"Too bad."

Leon initiated the charge. His first blow shimmered low and swift, then curved upward into a feint. Rion dodged off to one side, caught the real one that flashed to his ribs, and whirled around, deflection more a reflex than training. The two of them whirled around in a circle, boots scraping against weathered stone. Leon's grin never wavering, even when Rion could parry every strike by inches.

Leon feigned going left, and then leaped, his body springing upward with unprovoked height as if whipped by the air itself. Rion dodged to the side, his training sword flashing up in a lightning like rising cut, attempting to send Leon off balance flying.

But Leon spun around. His boot kicked at nothing followed by the sound of a snapped string, and now he wasn't plummeting but kicking off nothing, twisting sideways as Rion's sword flashed past.

Rion's arms protested with the power of his wasted blow. He hadn't even had a moment to feel the whirling before Leon's heel caught his shoulder, gently, but hard enough to send him stumbling.

"Air's, quite underrated great stepping stone," Leon said, landing lightly behind him as Rion hit the dirt with a grunt.

Rion groaned, rolling onto his side. The courtyard spun briefly before settling. "You're joking."

"Nope." Leon stuck out his hand, and snatched it back as Rion tried to grasp it. "Oops, its too slow."

Rion grumbled and pulled himself up, shaking off the dust of his pants. "You kicked the air. How can that be ?!"

"Trampoline technique," Leon demonstrated, with his arms out straight. "Point your emission towards the ground, pack it in tight and dense, shoot it out in a burst. Blasts you off along briefly for a while, lets you bounce away mid air. Great for dodges, dismounts, starting attacks, impressing others, annoying others. Easy to use but very useful for many situations."

Rion blinked. "...What's emission?"

Leon blinked. "Oh, wow. You really are new." He breathed in, leaned forward, and offered his hand. "Touch this."

Rion struggled and then touched his fingers to Leon's hand.

"Did you feel that?" Leon asked.

"Yeah. I touched your hand."

"No. You're wrong," Leon interrupted. "That's not me. That's my emission. You're feeling my magic, not my skin."

Rion scowled. The pressure had not been defined, not really hard, as on the surface of a tranquil lake. "It felt like, a pressure or maybe a barrier."

"Exactly." Leon struck Rion's forehead, and that same strange resistance vibrated against his knuckles. "Mages always bleed magic unconcioussly. The stronger you are, the farther out the field of emission. It's a shield that keeps everything you don't want to touch your body like temperature, or dust. You never realize how off is your sense of touch is?"

Rion's head reeled. That gentle pulling when he'd unsheathed his sword. The way his boots never ever became wet.

"I thought it was just my imagination."

"Congratulations," Leon said. "You have a emission and a magic field. Now let's see if you can actually use it."

He dropped into a crouch. "First, feel your own field, then breathe in, and breath out. Put your awareness outward, like stretching your skin through the air."

Rion folded his brows. "That is probably the most unclear instructions I ever heard, like what you mean with strecthing your skin through the air?"

"Just shut up and try to do it."

He did. There was nothing first, and then gradually he felt it. The slightest of sensations like the hum of static a feeling of heat at tips of his fingers. The sensation went and came, like the effort to catch smoke in his hands.

"There," Leon taught him, observing the transformation. "That's your emission, sealing it now into your feet, squeeze and compress, like snapping a muscle you'd never known before."

Rion clenched his teeth. The magic grudgingly took hold, a fizzing tension at the balls of his feet.

"Now let it erupt!"

He expelled the energy with an abrupt breath. His legs twitched as though kicked up by a hidden force. He stumbled backwards, his equilibrium entirely gone.

Leon grinned. "Not bad at all for a test flight! You'll face plant if you do that in the air though."

Rion glared at his boots. His bones hummed, as though he'd walked on a beehive. "That was, what was that?"

"Your trampoline," Leon said, grinning. "Practice, and you'll be leaping over heads and kicking off walls. Emission shaping's the beginning of how to improve your combat capability."

He tossed Rion's sword back to him. "Now get ready."

"What, again?"

Leon swung his sword in quick arc. "Did you think you were done with one attempt? You are going to jump, swing, fall and you are going to repeat it over and over again for many times."

Rion relaxed his shoulders and breathed slowly out of his nostrils. "Alright, but please just no foot kicking this time."

Leon's grin. "No guarantees."

They dashed to each other, blades clashing in sunlight.