“How about some weapons training? Here, take this sword!” Tyronius handed me a broadsword with gems ingrained in the handle. “Try attacking this dummy. Here’s the most simple move.” He slashed at the dummy fluidly.

I tried to copy his movements, but then, instead of cutting the dummy, I cut deep into the ground. When I finally pulled it out, I accidentally cut myself. Tyronius sighed and then continued to attempt to teach me sword fighting.

“Maybe you need to try a different weapon,” Tyronius informed me after an hour.

“Maybe a staff? That’s how I defeated a Mukoili Yeti.” I asked.

“What’s a Mukoili Yeti… never mind. Anyways, here’s a staff.” Tyronius handed me a simple, smooth wooden staff.

“What makes it different?” I asked him.

“Nothing! It’s just a normal staff.” Tyronius told me.

“Okay, so can I use my staff instead? Well, twin staffs.” I questioned.

“Of course! You’re welcome to use your weapons!” Tyronius announced, and I grinned. I infused my twin staffs using my Infuse spell, and I twirled them around. Then, I started practicing a technique that I had thought up. I whirled them around and then leaped up and smashed the dummy. It crumbled into dust.

“Not bad!” Tyronius mused, raising his eyebrows. “Hey, try this!” He pointed at another dummy. He unsheathed his sword and slashed at the dummy. The dummy still stood, so he slid under its legs and stabbed it in its back, and the dummy crashed to the floor in a thump. I spun my staffs, whacked the dummy with one of them, and then slid under it. I then jumped up from behind, using my staffs as stilts. I then came crashing down on the dummy, with my infused staffs blasting at it. The dummy exploded into ashes.

“Wow, you are decent with the staff.” Typronius complimented me, and then told me to spar with him.

I infused my staffs to make them unbreakable and then searched for an opening in Tyronius’s defense. He slashed at me, but I deflected the blow with one of my staffs, and then I attempted to catch Tyronius off guard by attacking him with my other staff. His reflexes allowed him to dodge the attack, and he started a frenzied attack. I kept trying to deflect the attacks, but he was too fast. He was in control of the battle, and he eventually slipped through my defense and hit me.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!” I screamed as I got launched out of the forest. I bounced off an invisible barrier, and I got slingshotted back to the clearing where we were sparring. I tumbled past Tyronius and started rolling down the hill. I eventually hit a rock, which left a big lump on the side of my head. “Owwwwww.” I groaned as Tyronius ran down the hill.

“Seriously? I should have used less power, you should be better,” Tyronius facepalmed as he helped me up.

“Sorry!” I squeaked out.

“I guess you still have to improve your skills, Mensal!” Tyronius remarked.

“I guess so.” I slumped in frustration.

“It’s okay, Mensal. You can’t master weapons training instantly. You can still improve by a lot.” Tyronius comforted me.

“Come on, let’s resume our sparring. I want to improve my weapon skills!” I yelled in determination.

“All right, you eager quokka. Bring it.” Tyronius grinned maliciously.

I brought out my twin staffs, blocking a blow from Tyronius. I leaped up and swung my staff and Tyronius blocked it with his sword. I tried to take my other staff and swing it under Tyronius’s sword to hit him in the chest, but he quickly parried the blow.

That left my other hand open, so I swung with it. Somehow, Tyronius deflected the staff to where the other staff was, and then blocked both staffs at the same time. “Wow!” I exclaimed.

“Thank you.” Tyronius took the compliment and then took the opportunity to strike, disarming me in a matter of seconds.

“Dang it!” I screamed in frustration.

“Relax, Mensal. The first lesson: do not be frustrated when you fail. It will do nothing. You have to let your inner fighter take control of your body, and then you can strike fluidly with power. You always have to predict your opponent’s movements, and remember to use your surroundings to your benefit. You should always fight battles like they’re your last, so don’t hold back. You should never attempt to save energy; always go all out and fight like it’s your last battle.” Tyronius advised me.

“Got it!” I excitedly replied.

After another year of training, I finally managed to land a blow on Tyronius.

“Congratulations, Mensal! You have finished your training with the staff, as the only ones to have hit me were Malkallam, Zloty, and the Shade King. Now, let’s have you try some other weapons.” Tyronius informed me.

I tried the ax, mace, spear, pike, javelin, bow and arrow, and shurikens, and I was slightly above average with the bow and arrow, and I was pretty good with the shurikens, but… let’s just say I was horrible with the rest, and I was even worse with the sword. “Seems like the only weapons you are fine with are the staff, bow and arrow, and shurikens.” Tyronius took note.

“Got it. I’ll try practicing the bow and arrow first.” I grabbed a bow and took a quiver full of arrows.

I aimed carefully at the bullseye, and then I let the practice arrow fly. For some reason, it got directed off course and headed straight for Thiro. Thiro acted fast, deflecting it away. It now got sent towards Tyronius, who in return deflected the arrow towards Iris.

Iris batted the arrow, and it went flying back to me. I was unprepared, so I panicked and jumped up. The arrow hit the bullseye, but for some strange reason, it bounced off the target and headed back towards the midair. I screamed in terror, and the arrow knocked me into a deep, dark hole instead of puncturing me, and I tumbled down. The tunnel was like a roller coaster, and it brought me into and out from the ground. I got launched into the air and catapulted into a tree. Tyronius started laughing, then he was on the ground laughing and shaking uncontrollably.

I groaned as the tree branches stabbed into me like knives. I quickly shifted into a bird and flew out. “Glad I was able to get out of the stick-y situation!”

“Ugh, bad pun, Mensal!” Tyronius groaned and then facepalmed. Then, he looked up quickly in realization. “But wait, hold on… you can shapeshift?!”

“Yeah… it’s one of my skills. What’s wrong?” I asked in confusion as Tyronius stared at me.

“THIRO, WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT MENSAL CAN SHAPESHIFT?!” Tyronius raged.

OK, Tyronius, Mensal can shapeshift. Thiro remarked sarcastically.

“THANK YOU, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! DON’T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD’VE TOLD ME EARLIER THAT THOUSANDS ARE GOING TO DIE?!” Tyronius raged.

“Wait wait wait, what do you mean when you say that thousands are going to die?” I demanded what he meant by that.

“Mensal, the ability to shape-shift means that thousands are going to die. You are a good luck charm but a bad omen. Well, that is how Thiro explained it to me, anyways. Blame him if it is bad. I also think you and I are the only 2 shapeshifters to ever exist at the same time. This might mean millions will die instead of thousands,” Tyronius explained.

“I will never be able to look at myself in the same way anymore,” I muttered as I looked down at my hands. “I’d rather die than cause thousands to die. I’d rather just sacrifice myself to save those thousands of lives.”

“Mensal, even though your talk of self-sacrifice is noble and heroic, it is the incorrect decision. You’re the only hope to save those lives; the omen has already appeared; you can’t change what you are born as. If you stay alive, thousands will die, but you will also be able to save thousands of lives. If you sacrifice yourself, billions will die because you won’t be there to save their lives.” Tyronius gave me a pep talk.

“I guess…” I muttered.

“All right, now that we’re done talking about that, let’s keep on training,” Tyronius remarked.

After a couple of days, Tyronius played another prank on me. When I pulled the arrow to my cheek and was about to shoot, both the bow and the arrow burst into flames and a white flash rendered me temporarily blind. I screamed and dropped both the bow and the arrow on the ground and when my vision cleared, I saw Tyronius rolling around the ground, laughing and shaking uncontrollably. I also noticed that nothing on me was burned and nowhere hurt.

I glared at Tyronius and said, “Not funny, Tyronius.”

“I agree. Tyronius, you should not play these pranks on your student,” Thiro solemnly remarked.

I finally figured out how to hit the bullseye 20 times in a row after a couple more years (with Tyronius playing a new prank on me every 2 days, it was pretty hard).

Then, Tyronius and Thiro started adding in wind magic to blow the arrow off close. I decided to incase the arrow with my forcefield after I shot the arrow. However, the wind deflected the arrow before I could cast Forcefield, and the forcefield was effectively rendered useless. “Wow, how fast did you cast that?!” I exclaimed.

“I already had my wind built up, I only had to release it,” Tyronius explained.

“Ohhhhhhh!” I suddenly understood.

I knew that if I released the arrow with no protection on it, the wind would immediately blow it off target. I thought, What is strong against air? Ah! I got it! Air is just fuel for flames. Flames burn in the air! So I should coat my arrows in flame!

I used my fire Elementalism and lit up my arrow with it. I quickly then shot my arrow like, well, an arrow! “This probably will work, so watch out, Tyronius!”

Tyronius merely waved, and the flame on the arrow turned around and flew back at me. I yelped and jumped out of the way.

“You’ll have to do better than that, Mensal!” I took the moment of distraction to cast Forcefield, and the arrow flew straight into the bullseye.

“Oh, nice strategy! Using the fire to distract the air magic, and then taking that window of opportunity to cast Forcefield. Very nice!” Tyronius complimented. “You are definitely more skilled than me in the world of archery.”

Yes, indeed. Tyronius here has never gotten a single bullseye. Thiro rumbled in amusement.

“Not true! I've gotten like...3 without magic and a really large number with magic!” Tyronius replied to Thiro.

“Can I work on shurikens now? And after that can I work on stealth?” I asked.

“Yes and no, yes shurikens, not stealth though. You can’t train out stealth, you just have the natural ability. Also, you sound like you want to become a ninja.” Tyronius informed me.

“In fact, I do want to be a ninja!” I declared.

“Well, you would be the worst ninja ever considering how much you talk and how horrible you are with a sword,” Tyronius offered.

“Thanks for the vote of encouragement,” I muttered sarcastically.

I took out a straight star shuriken. I threw it at the wooden dummy, but I accidentally hit the pole instead of the dummy itself. I then tried a forked blade ninja star. Just like a fork, it went right into where the dummy’s mouth would’ve been. I then tried out the curved star shuriken. I flung it, and it hit the dummy right in the chest, knocking it down.

“Good job, Mensal!” Tyronius applauded. “Now, try this dummy with armor!”

He gestured at a dummy wearing Kevlar armor. I noticed one thing: the pole was unprotected. I launched my shuriken at the unprotected wooden pole. The pole cracked, and the dummy toppled to the floor.

“Good job, Mensal! You found a weak point! But, you have to figure out how to also be able to knock down people from places with armor, they will usually be completely covered in armor.” Tyronius told me.

“Great…” I groaned. I threw a shuriken at the dummy covered with Kevlar armor. He was knocked to the ground, and then I took out my bow, nocked an arrow, shot it, and then leaped towards the dummy with my staff in hand.

I used one as a vaulting pole and then I channeled my magic through it and blasted the dummy. Then, I finished it off by smashing my stuff into where a person’s neck would’ve been. However, the neck pad deflected my staff. I then threw a shuriken at the neck, and the neck pad started ripping a bit. I kept throwing shurikens.

The neck pad was almost completely ripped, and I grabbed for another shuriken, but there were no more. “Tyronius? How can I defeat it now? I’m out of shurikens!”

“You should not waste them,” Tyronius suggested. “But I have a solution for you. I’ll give you a pouch that gives you 500 shurikens per day, but they don’t stack, they will only reset to 500. Also, it is bound permanently to you, and the only way it can be unequipped is if you will it. No one else can pick it up.”

My eyes opened wide. “Thank you, Tyronius!”

“DIE!” Tyronius yelled.

“Uh…what?” I questioned. He leaped at me and slashed with his sword, and I closed my eyes for my impending doom. Then, I opened my eyes and saw that there was a carcass behind me.

“Sorry, Mensal. There was a Nóstimo behind you. They are dangerous, they can spit acid, shoot fireballs, and throw you a mile through the sky with their tail, but once they’re dead, you can cook them and they are very delicious!” Tyronius apologized.

“Wow… didn’t think that poisonous creatures could be so yummy!” I remarked. Tyronius got the fire ready and started slicing up the Nóstimo.

The Nóstimo had a reddish inside and rings of blue. The skin was orange and dotted tan. Tyronius fixed a meal from it.

“Enjoy, Mensal! I used to sort of be a cook before I was thrown into prison on a ship and sent out to sea with no food. I also learned to cook here,” Tyronius smiled, handing over a platter of steaming hot delicious-looking meat.

I took a small bite. My eyes opened wide as the flavor of the meat exploded in my mouth. The flavor spread over my tongue, enveloping my mouth in a heavenly taste. My stomach felt like it was in heaven, and I sighed deeply.

“Thank you, Tyronius!” I thanked him.

“No nad tu tunk mi, Manuo!” Tyronius remarked as he chowed down on the Nóstimo meat.

I took my fork and knife and started cutting up the Nóstimo meat. I ate some of it and saved the rest for my journey. After I polished off the delicious Nóstimo meat, I asked Tyronius, “Can we continue training?”

“I don’t see why not, Mensal!” Tyronius enthusiastically cheered. I took the enchanted pouch that Tyronius gave me and pressed each one to my forehead. Then, I concentrated hard, and I somehow levitated a circle of shurikens around me, and then sent them spinning at the same target. The dummies were lined up, and my shurikens toppled each and every one of them.

I turned around to see Tyronius staring at me. “What?!” I asked.

“I’ve never seen anything like that! You obliterated every single dummy with one move!” Tyronius exclaimed.

“I don’t know, I think this is a new ability! I think I’m going to name it Shuriken Strike!” I informed Tyornius.

“OK, good name, Mensal! I thought you were going to name it something weird like Shuriken Death.” Tyronius appraised my name for the ability.