The next three days continued as Zerif had explained. Each morning he would spare with him and make very little progress. Each time he would come close to landing a hit, a new spell would be revealed causing him to fail. His solo training had progressed well, he could manifest his Wind Walk to be used as intended. He could walk around the air forming the disks under his feet with each step. Running was less polished, sometimes a disk would not form like he wanted due to his split concentration and he would fall.
On the fourth morning things changed, Zerif walked up to Kyroth and stabbed his blade into the ground. "Now you will learn the Gale Blade. It is a spell I learned by watching the mantis in the area. You have seen it plenty of times as well." Walking away he turned and waited watching Kyroth as he did so.
Hesitantly Kyroth grabbed the blade and pulled it out of the ground expecting the large blade to be heavy. Falling back slightly he had used too much force for the light blade. Holding it gingerly in his hands he was amazed at how light it actually was. A few practice swings later he stood ready to listen to his teacher.
"As you noticed the blade is light. The mantis push mana into the blade there and then slash sending out the Gale Blade. The weapon helps for a faster casting as well as more powerful." Slashing out his hand a Gale Blade was sent out slamming into a rock only going a few inches in. "Using that sword will help you learn the spell faster and with more ease."
"First you will want to fill the blade with wind mana. Hold it there for a few second and then swing willing it to fly out in the shape of a blade. The more mana you put in the farther and stronger it will be." Zerif stated walking next to Kyroth to watch him.
Taking a few steadying breaths Kyroth pushed his mana into the sword feeling it as if it was a extension of his own body. It was a strange feeling, letting it gather and set up he took a low stance and swung as hard as he could willing the blade to launch out of it. A small green blade ripped from it to the side making a gash in a nearby tree. "Well that was unexpected."
"You created a blade which is good, however it was small and went in a random location. You will have to focus it and force it to fly in the direction you want it to go." Zerif explained slowly.
The next few hours were painful for Kyroth as each attempt was just as bad as the first either too small to go far or it would go off in a random trajectory. The blade definitely helped the process he could feel the ease in which the blade formed but it was hard to focus the direction.
After another hour of practicing Kyroth growled tossing the blade aside. "This is not working." He huffed collapsing against a tree sweat dripping down his face. It was infuriating to Kyroth, a lot of the magic had come so naturally that this was a new feeling. Syn must feel like this, he thought as he ripped some grass up.
"You did well, it will take time. Let us take a break, there is someplace I would like to show you." Scooping up his sword he flourished it a bit before sliding it into it's sheath. Reaching down he helped Kyroth off the ground. Zerif had been rough on the kid, but he knew that he would need all the help he could get.
Dusting off his pants he started to follow Zerif as he went down a new path. It was strange how little of the area Kyroth had seen. Most of his time had been spent at the tree house or at the training clearing that they were currently leaving. Much of his trip to the tree house was a blur, wind almost blinding him as they traveled via a tornado. Kyroth could not really complain about it though, he had learned a new spell and gained invaluable knowledge.
Half a hour of silence was enough as Kyroth broke it. "Hey Zerif, I noticed that my Full augment is now green instead of blue, but I am not trying to use wind mana in it?" He asked tossing one of his daggers into the air and nimbly catching it.
"Aw yes, I too noticed the shift but wanted to see if you had. As I stated earlier you can use arcane mana or wind mana in order to fuel your spells. Depending on the element that you use a spell can change. Your Full Augment is subconsciously changing to wind.
Stopping Zerif raised his hand, a blueish white glow covering it. Kyroth had seen this before, it was similar to when Syn had been practicing her healing spell. "For example using arcane energy on my healing spell causes it to look like this and allow me to heal a person directly through touch." Letting the blue light die off it was replaced by a ball of green energy that when he blew on it broke into little specs of energy that started to blow around the two of them and expand several feet out.
As soon as the green specs floated around him Kyroth's entire body started to relax the cuts and scrapes on his body mending. It was a unique sensation, he could feel the magic coursing through him fixing places that he had been injured. It was the first time magic had healed him, nothing could quite compare to the sensation.
"By adding wind to my heal spell it caused it to turn into a healing breeze. It is slightly weaker in terms of how much it can heal however anyone inside this area will heal. That also brings up its downside, even enemies or things trying to kill me will be healed inside of it. So it must be used with caution." Zerif explained as he let the healing breeze die down the green specks winking out.
It was not long before the terrain started to shift, becoming steeper as the progressed. The trees all around the two were thinning out with more distance in between the trees. It was relaxing to be back in the woods, even with the strange plants everywhere. The herbalist in him wanted to go in and start figuring out what they were. Kyroth knew better though, even the most innocent looking plant could be the most deadly.
Cresting the steep ridge, Kyroth gasped as the view in front of him was breathtaking. Rolling hills in the middle of a large plains like area spread out in front of him. Small clutches of trees stood in isolated from the rest breaking the plains up. Several ponds and small lakes dotted the area gleaming light of the surface of the water. To his right he could see a large mountain off in that distance that he had not seen before due to the trees. Dark clouds seemed to circle it, obscuring a good portion of it.
Focusing back to the plains he saw that creatures of various shapes and sizes were roaming around. A good portion of them were around the ponds, drinking from it before running back into the plains or into the patches of trees. Horses with wings seemed to gallop and fly around the plains moving in a pack.
Movement to his left drew Kyroth's eyes as he noticed rocks were moving. Squinting his eyes a little and letting his augment envelop them he saw them clearer. Green energy could be seen in between the rocks, the nearest moving rock looked roughly like a bear. "What are those?" He asked Zerif.
"Aw, those are called wind golems. They are made up of rocks merged together with wind mana. How they came about and what gives them sentience is still a mystery. The rock parts can rearrange forming various other mimicry's of other creatures. They have low intellect and for the most part are docile. Some creatures live off of mana, and since wind golems have quite a bit of mana sometimes get targeted. When threatened they become quite formidable foes, even some mages hunt them for their magic cores." Zerif explained as one of them shifted from a dog to a long snake.
It was not until this moment that Kyroth realized just how vast and mysterious this new world of magic was that he had become a part of. He had only been here for less then a month, but it still seemed like a life time of new information he had learned. "What do you mean by magic cores?"
Chuckling he waved his hand to dismiss the question but stopped short. Looking back at him he sighed, "You will learn about in in a while, but every magical being even ourselves, have magic cores. It is solidified mana inside of us, your is probably the size of a apple. The more mana you have the large the core is or sometimes just more powerful." Zerif explained trying to keep it brief and simple.
"Wouldn't we feel a solid mass inside of us?" Kyroth asked, quite a bit confused by the explanation that was given to him.
"No, for most living things when they die the mana in them condenses and forms into a magic core. These cores are then able to be used to create magical items and tools. Some of the giant crystals that you used in your class are magical cores. Again you will learn much more about this later so for now this is all you need to know." With a sly smile Zerif nodded to the highest hill in the distance and then took off at a dead sprint.
Shaking his head and laughing Kyroth took off after his teacher, it was very clear that he was not going to be able to keep up with his normal speed. Letting mana flow from his pool green aura rippled around his body and he took off. To his surprise it felt like he was moving much faster then before, or at least he covered more ground. Each step seemed to take him at least twice as far as it had before.
Deciding to test it out a bit more he pushed hard off the ground and rose high into the air. The jump was easily ten feet high and by the time he landed had covered easily twenty feet if not more. Letting out a exhilarated laugh he used a combination of these jumps and normal running to catch up to Zerif.
It did not take long for the two of them to reach the hill, sliding to a stop Kyroth noticed what Zerif had wanted to show him. The other side of the hill dropped fast and turned into a stone ravine. A large cat could be seen on a ledge half way up the ravine, slowly stalking a creature that looked similar to a deer. The cat had grayish fur, large green fangs easily the size of his daggers dropped from it upper jaw. Equally deadly looking blades were attached to each paw on the outside. Kyroth only knew that because they sprung out from being flush to the creatures fur as it pounced down on the deer with incredible speed cutting a leg off with the blade.
"That is a Gale Saber, there are several creatures in this region we would classify as Apex Predators. These are high on that list, so are the Wind Mantis's. They are very deadly, not only can those blades cut through stone the cats are able to use something similar to your full augment." Zerif explained watching as the gale saber finished off its prey.
Kyroth was still watching the Gale Saber eat its prey when Zerif cursed. Turning he followed his gaze towards the large mountain and the dark clouds. It looked to be spreading towards the forest line but was still a ways out. Kyroth had outrun quite a few storms in his days. "What, its just a storm." He muttered to Zerif.
"No, no it is not. Storms do not go in that direction here. Not to mention it is moving far to fast to be normal." With little to no warning Zerif put his arm around Kyroth and the tornado formed around them zipping up into the sky. From this vantage point, Kyroth could see that he was right, it was moving rather fast and opposite of the natural wind.