-Acceleration-

[A special Energy Manipulation technique.

Dilates the user’s sense of time, allowing for faster

movement and event processing.]

The next day started with breakfast, and was followed by more training and combat practice in the park. Nadred and Jarou joined us, and Kared spectated, saying she’s “interested in Jarou’s progress since she was last home.” While they were near Oroske and I, our training was almost completely separated from each other. I mentioned that I’d like to try sparring against Jarou sometime, which Oroske said he’d see about getting a match set up.

After Oroske and I finished our last match before we broke for lunch, Kared approached me, saying she wanted to talk to me and give me some advice. Apparently she did the same for Jarou before when they were taking a short break. “So with the big battle tonight, I’ve got two main pieces of advice,” she started, sitting down on a bench, gesturing for me to do the same. “First is more a word of warning, something I’ve seen go wrong from personal experience. Nadred and Oroske, and these days myself, are very skilled fighters. To the point where there are very few people who can hold their own against us. Nadred’s a lot better about this, but Oroske and I tend to fight casually, and try to have fun with it. I know you died once already, though I don’t really know the circumstances around it, but until you’re a more skilled fighter, you should take combat seriously. Some advice I got from a former red cloak when I was younger; treat every battle like your life is on the line, because it is.” She waved her hand casually and clarified she’s not trying to be rude or anything like that, just wants to make sure I’m on the right path.

Without getting much time to chew on the advice, she continued. “And second, is some advice to give you a bit of an edge. For all I know you don’t really need it, but after observing you for a bit I thought maybe it would be useful. You should try to learn, or at least practice, using magic in conjunction with swordplay. I noticed that the few times you would use magic in your matches against Oroske, you’d stop using your sword and switch focus. Again, maybe it’s something you already know to do, but it could really give you an edge in combat against non-Hunters.” She paused for a minute as another topic popped in her mind, “Oh, and if you’re worried at all about suddenly switching like that in the middle of a match against Oroske, don’t be. He’s an exceptional fighter, and in terms of a sparring partner, there’s few that are better. He’ll match whatever pace you set, and adjust quickly if you change it up. And who knows, maybe doing things like that will help you get some wins on him.” She finished with a small laugh.

She got up from the bench and started walking towards Nadred and Jarou, before stopping and turning around halfway. “I look forward to seeing how you perform in a real fight,” She said, making eye contact with a smile, before turning back around and waving, seemingly to both me and Nadred.

Oroske approached, raising his hand in greeting. “What did Kared want?”

“Oh, she just wanted to give me some advice.”

“I see, anything useful?” He sat next to me on the bench.

“I think so. They were more reminders of things I already knew, but still welcome advice.”

He nodded, before patting me on the head. “Well hey, you’re doing great,” he said as he looked at the sky, “It’s just about lunchtime. Kared and I have some extra business to attend to, so you’ll have to tag along with Nadred and Jarou. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. What kind of business do you need to do?”

“It’s a continuation of our conversation from yesterday. Specially assigned work from Danfis himself. I wish I could tell you more, but I’d hate to make him mad at me,” he said flatly, with no emotion to betray his actual thoughts. It was a tone he used rarely, and it piqued my curiosity on what he was actually thinking. Especially since he usually seemed so open about his feelings. He switched to his usual tone, and with a laugh he said “I mainly feel bad you’ll probably have to sit through another one of Nadred’s lectures.”

I laughed with him before responding, “I enjoy them, even if only a little bit of what he says actually sticks with me.”

“Well that’s good, guy’s a fountain of knowledge. You should try to learn as much from him as possible.”

As I voiced my understanding, Nadred himself came over to us. “Hey, we’re about to leave for lunch. Did Oroske already tell you he won’t be joining us today?” I confirmed with a nod, “Alright, good.” He turned to Oroske, “Well then, we’ll see you and Kared back at the hotel!

“Indeed, see you then,” Oroske said with a wave as we parted ways, Kared joining him near the entrance to the park. Nadred and I met up with Jarou, making small talk as we exited the park as well.

We entered the main street through an alleyway formed by our hotel and the building next to it, and walked further into the city, towards the center. I felt much more aware of the scale of the city that day than I did the previous. The buildings all towered over us, casting shadows over the entire street in the just-before-noon sunlight, broken only by the occasional alley or street. Just as it was the previous two days, the city was bustling with people walking around, Aeth’mobiles going up and down the main street, every now and then a few would turn off onto other streets. It was such a different experience from walking around Tsumi’din, even the atmosphere was different. Back home, it felt like there were far more people relaxed as they went about their day, but here it seemed like most people were stressfully rushing around to get wherever they were going. Maybe it was because the City of Towers was so much larger, and they had larger distances to travel in the same amount of time?

Nadred led us down a new street, a couple blocks away from the central ring. After passing a handful of buildings, he stopped and said, “This is it, Tower Burger.” He gestured to a tower that had a big sign with Tower Burger written in big, bubbly letters just above the first floor. “This is actually something of a chain, with a couple locations in the city,” he explained as we entered, “and a few in other cities too. But, this one is the original, and my personal favorite.”

The restaurant was packed with people for the lunch rush, with a long line just to order.

As we approached the counter, he asked if there was anything I didn’t want on my burger, to which I shook my head. He ordered three of the signature burgers and drinks for all of us. As the person taking his order was about to accept Nadred’s coins, another man, short and stout with a full face of hair, interrupted. “It’s on the house,” he said with almost panic in his voice. Nadred looked at him quizzically, with his head tilted. “I owe a bit of a debt to the Clan, don’t worry about payment,” the man said. The person that took our order shrugged, handed us our drinks and informed us our food would be out shortly. We filled our drink cups at a sort of fountain with an assortment of flavors, Nadred and Jarou both recommended one that was a strange green liquid that tasted like melon. It was much sweeter than the coffee from the other day, and I quite enjoyed it. We sat down at a table near the middle of the room, as all the tables near the windows were taken.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, when I decided to ask “Nadred, can you tell me more about you, Oroske, and Kared?”

Nadred had been staring over at the counter, rhythmically tapping on the table with his right hand. He turned to me, supporting his head on his hand, “Sure, anything in particular you want to know?”

“I’m curious to hear what you were all like when you were younger.”

It seemed as though Jarou was curious too, as he seemed a lot more attentive after I said that.

“Hmm, alright, let’s see…” He thought about what to say for a few moments. “Oroske for one has always been the way he is, brash, competitive, and addicted to combat. For one reason or another, Danfis has always had a special interest in him, and has trusted him for a long time too. I’d wager he hasn’t told you, but Danfis has actually asked him to join the Red Cloaks on more than a few occasions. But Oroske being Oroske, he’s always declined. I asked him about it once, said he made a promise that’s far more important to him. Not sure what it is exactly.”

He collected his thoughts once again before continuing. “For me, even if I hadn’t become a Hunter, I would have devoted myself to studies of the Arcane. My dad was a scholar himself, and I inherited all of his books and materials. Apparently, while he wasn’t a student, he was directly employed by a higher-up at the School of Towers for several years before I was born. Oroske is the one who found out about my talent with magic and convinced me to become a Hunter in the first place. Found me a mentor and everything.” He finished with a chuckle, then continued without pause.

“And Kared, my Second Soul, and love of my life. I believe I’ve mentioned she wasn’t born in the Clan, but I didn’t mention where she’s from, did I?” I shook my head, “Thought so. She’s from a group that’s related to the Clan, but split off from us a few centuries ago. They’re called the Crimson Twilight. Many consider them to be the rulers of the underworld, so to speak, or at least they see them as criminals. Oroske and I met Kared when we were on a Hunt in the Ishen Realm. We came across her after she had been cast aside by the man who was raising her, apparently since she had failed in her task. I helped Oroske devise a plan to train her on our days off. After a while, we got caught, and Danfis invited her to join the Clan. The rest of that I believe I’ve told you.”

Our food arrived shortly before he finished and we were set to eat. Before we dug in, Nadred stopped us. “I propose a challenge. If one of you can eat even half of your food before I finish mine, I’ll give you some sort of reward.” I could see why it would be challenging, the burger seemed to reflect the city, in the sense that it was very tall. The name Tower Burger wasn’t just because it was from this city, it seemed. Jarou and I both accepted the challenge, unaware of what Nadred was planning.

He gave us his signal to go, and the three of us began digging into the oversized sandwiches. I lost some time and hesitated, unsure of where to start. Even if I hadn’t hesitated, I don’t think it would’ve made a difference, as mere moments after I started, only a few bites in, Nadred declared his victory. I was shocked, I wasn’t even close to half way, and Jarou was only a little further than I was. When I looked up at him and verified he ate his entire burger, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me as there seemed to be what looked like feathers made of light around him. I blinked and shook my head and they were gone.

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Jarou suddenly exclaimed, eliciting a laugh from Nadred, “You used acceleration!” Nadred admitted to his supposed cheat, explaining this was supposed to be a lesson for us, saying “You should always expect your opponent to use every ability they have in their arsenal, and you should do so yourself.”

“What’s acceleration?” I hadn’t even heard the term before.

“Ah, yes. That.” Nadred began his next lecture. “Acceleration is a pretty advanced Energy Manipulation technique, similar to Demon Sheath. When you use it, your perception of time is altered, and your body’s movement with it. Essentially, what’s 1 second of time for you, is 2 seconds for me when I use Acceleration, and that means I’m moving that much faster as well. A secondary effect, which I think you may have noticed, is that when you use it there is some change to the area around you. It becomes more drastic the ‘faster’ you go, and changes person to person. For example, when I go as fast as I did, which is about as fast as I can get currently, feathers of light begin appearing around me.”

“Oh, so I didn’t just imagine those,” I said with apparent surprise, “How do you do it?”

“How to explain it…” Nadred thought for a moment, scratching his head, “You remember how to visualize and manipulate the energy used in Demon Sheath, correct? You start by bringing that energy into every part of your body, the more evenly spread the better. Then, you command it to accelerate the functions of every part of the body. There is a natural way to do it, but it’s hard to force that to happen without putting yourself in extreme danger. That said, that’s how I and Oroske learned it. In that case, the adrenaline from being in mortal peril kicks in, and your body instinctively uses the energy to accelerate what it needs to be faster.

“If you’d like to start training your ability to use it, what I’ve suggested Jarou do is to take it in steps. Begin by bringing the energy in, and trying to spread it out evenly. Once you feel like you’ve got that step down, introduce the commands. Then once you begin feeling more comfortable with the sensation of accelerating, start moving and doing things while in that state. It takes a lot of concentration to keep it up and be able to move at the same time when you’re starting out, so you’ll have to practice it for a while.

“That said, this technique can be quite risky at times as it heightens every process your body does, so if you really mess up, it could get you hurt. And, due to that, and the immense amount of concentration it takes, it is extremely exhausting to use. I can only use it at the speed I went for about 30 seconds in actual time.” He finished lamentably, as he took a sip of his drink.

“How do you get faster?” Jarou asked as he wiped his mouth, having just finished his food.

“Once you’ve got the endurance to last a while, you can start bringing in more and more energy into your body. That said, pacing yourself is the most important thing.” Nadred explained.

He then confirmed everyone was done with their food, and satisfied their hunger. “Well then, may as well head back to the hotel. You can practice the bringing in of energy, but I’d wager Oroske would agree we should rest up until we depart for our mission. We’ll want all the energy we can get.”

Jarou and I nodded in agreement, and left the restaurant. On the way back, I asked him for a bit more info regarding Kared. “Is she always out on long missions or something?” I asked, having learned from him that he only sees her once or twice a year these days.

“That, and she’s still a member of the Crimson Twilight, and does similarly long jobs for them every now and then. But as a Red Cloak, she’s trusted with very long, important jobs. I wish I could know more about what kinds of jobs they are, but sadly I’m not allowed to know unless I become a Red Cloak myself.” He said with a sigh, and explained he’d like to become one someday, but doesn’t know how realistic that is.

“So she’s one of Danfis’s most trusted, but still a member of a different group? How does that work?”

“No clue, honestly. Nadred and Oroske occasionally joke about a ‘real reason’ she was made a Red Cloak, I think it might have something to do with that. But I don’t know for sure.”

As I acknowledged my vague understanding, we approached the hotel building, where Oroske and Kared were also just returning from the opposite direction. We greeted each other and entered.

Back in our hotel room, we spent the rest of the day relaxing. Jarou and I did some passive magic training together, including practicing the first step of acceleration. Nadred read a book, Kared worked out and broke out a piece of paper and began writing on it, while Oroske took a nap on one of the chairs in the lounge area. A few hours after the sun had set, deep in the dark of night, Kared declared it was time to leave.

We traveled swiftly and quietly through the night. All was quiet save for the distant sounds of the tournament. Magic being cast, winners and losers being announced, and fights commentated on. Occasionally we’d see another person, or an Aeth’Mobile driving by, but never long enough for them to interact with us.

We reached our destination relatively quickly, standing a little ways away from the towering building.

“So, how do we want to enter? We talked about entering from above and working our way down, but how do we want to get up there?” Oroske asked, in a tone suggesting he already knew a good way to get up there and was quizzing Jarou and I.

“How about we use the shorter buildings nearby, and jump off of them, using magic to reach the higher levels of the building?” Jarou suggested after a moment of thinking.

“Sure, that’ll work,” Oroske said with a nod.

Oroske instructed me on how to use wind magic to boost my jumps, which would allow me to reach the top of the shorter buildings nearby. It was fairly simple, using sen’tur on my feet as I jump, and direct the wind blast upward, so that it carries me up.

We followed through with the plan, jumping up to the shorter of the two closest buildings. And from that roof, we aimed for the fifth floor, which was one from the top, and two higher than we were at. The building was structured in such a way that at the top and bottom of each floor, there was a protrusion, creating a ledge you could stand on. Oroske and Nadred went first, landing on their feet with ease. Kared overshot a little, and ended up having to brace herself against the far wall, sliding down to her feet. Jarou didn’t have quite enough power in his jump and had to catch the ledge, pulling himself up with Nadred’s help. I, on the other hand, almost didn’t even make it, and Oroske had to catch me.

After Oroske pulled me up, we found a nearby window, which we would use to enter the building. After ensuring everyone was prepared, Kared opened the window, and jumped in. My first encounter with a Necromancer was nearly at hand.