I threw myself into training, and Alphonse couldn’t have been happier. While Paul immersed himself in scrolls, learning ways to survive in all terrains, I was busy honing my aura and magic. The more I worked with them, the more I realized that the saying that they were two sides of the same coin was rather apt. Both required conviction, and seemed to be linked to your soul. But magic was sterile. In order to get the best results, you needed to purge yourself of all emotion. A calm, steady mind was key. Otherwise you risked surges in the wrong place, and the spell would unravel.

Aura was an entirely different beast. It changed on your emotions, which could be good or bad. The best way to go undetected was to try and emulate the surroundings. Cities were almost all business, paying attention to only your own needs. Outdoors were usually a balance between the caution of a vermin seeking food and the searching of predators looking for prey.

After nearly three weeks of constant practice, Alphonse decided that my aura practice was acceptable. I had managed to purge nearly 85% of myself from my hiding aura, but that wasn’t all that aura could be used for.

“Brandon. This could possibly be the most important lesson I ever give to you. When the upper echelon of vampires battle, they battle on three fronts. The lowest battle is physical. You will never come across a vampire that isn’t adept with some form of physical weapon. Adding in magic to your battles catapults you to the second tier, and this is the extent of the abilities of 95% of vampires. But the upper 5%, the true powers that you will come across, are able to mix aura into their battle. You are barely entering the second phase of battling as a vampire, but since we will have limited time, I am going to teach you to battle with your aura.” As he spoke, blobs of his aura shot out and cloaked the magical lights, sending the training room into a gloomy twilight. I watched in awe as his aura rose up behind him, opening two massive red eyes.

“Battling auras is art as much as skill. It is a deadly dance of amorphous beings with no end, each struggling to consume the other. Let streaks of rage temper the edges of your conjured weapons while malice injects creeping poisons. Purge infiltrations and blind your enemy with bursts of joy and wonder. Let your determination steel your defenses. But most of all, allow your open mind to unleash your unending potential.” As he spoke, his cloak of aura billowed outward, taking uncountable shapes and constantly morphing. A curved dagger became a talon in a foot that morphed into a mouth of teeth. Tentacles of hardened armor and blades that wound about their target before shredding them defied logic. Eyes blazed with rage as edges glowed sickly green and orange with envy and malice. Fanciful creatures emerged at the crest of waves, falling down upon ranks of pikemen.

The strangest part was when an aural shadow kicked me in the chest, forcing me backwards with the force. Aura was intangible! How did it cause a physical reaction?

“The look on your face speaks volumes.” Alphonse said, finally retracting his aura and returning the room to normal. “You have practice spreading out your aura, and you know that others can sense it. This is the opposite. You simply compact your aura to the point that it can cause a physical reaction. It takes a lot, and is easily blocked if you know it is coming. Which is why fakes are so important.” As he said that, three aura shadows surrounded me and unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches, all of which flowed through me. The only effect was a fleeting sensation of coldness.

My aura wasn’t nearly as massive nor as dense as Alphonse’s was, but still we battled. He obviously held back, but just enough that he wasn’t overwhelming me. I was forced to struggle to my utmost before he would allow me to lose. I couldn’t make near the array he could, but I did my best, throwing surprises where I could. Blades grew teeth that would spin, drilling into their target. A pierced target would explode as a massive surge of rage erupted from within.

As we battled, I did notice something odd. Severed pieces of both of our auras would be absorbed. It didn’t bother me, until I wondered what would happen if He simply sent a wave of his aura to absorb mine.

“What’s with the absorption?” I asked, panting at our next break. I had managed to last all of three minutes that time.

“You noticed? Good. You must be aware of the entire battlefield.” Alphonse nodded. One of his first victories was sending an assassin behind me and smashing into me. “Severed aura doesn’t last long. Once it is severed, it also loses all connection to its former owner. So don’t worry about absorbing it from others, it isn’t going to overwhelm you like absorbing too much mana can. It’s either that, or watch as it dissipates to nothingness.”

“Ok. So how long does it take to recover should I use too much aura?”

“About a day.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t happen that often. Most of these duels end in death, and they stop in training before you overexert yourself.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Our physical training wasn’t static either. Instructor Daniels was adamant they would have us prepared for the worst battlefields, and so he would add new things every few days, and the first set was to counter one of the major complaints.

“Instructor Daniels, sir?” He asked at the end of our second day of training with the mud. “Is there any reason why we can’t add spiked soles to our boots to gain some extra traction?”

“Excellent question recruit.” He answered with a smile that had us shaking from what he was planning. “You’ll find out tomorrow.”

Tomorrow came, and with it a wagonload of large rocks to mix into our clay. Daniels made sure we marked one of the larger rocks, and kept a clear area beside it. Once that was all done, he beckoned Alfred forward. “Your question recruit, time to find the answer.” He said, handing him a set of spiked soles. Alfred put them on, and first stepped into the clear area.

“Brace!” Daniels called, and Alfred did it with no issues whatsoever.

“Right. Step to your left, and do it again.” This time when Alfred went to brace, there was a horrendous screeching sound as his foot slipped off the rock. He managed to avoid a mud bath with a quick slam of his shield, but it was a close one.

“And that is why we don’t use spiked shoes on unknown terrain. Unless we are absolutely sure that it is mud with no stone underneath, spiked shoes are more dangerous to you than the enemy.” And so began our first few days of practice. We fought the pells, and tried not to roll our ankles. “Better to miss a striking chance and be sure of your footing than to fall. Falling is death.” Daniels called out as he pushed us forward. A few days later, we came out to a horrendous stench. As several members fought the urge to vomit, Daniels chuckled.

“Welcome to your next step. Any seasoned soldier will tell you that battlefields stink. Thanks to several of the inns nearby, we got some free manure from their stalls. Now you get to fight in a literal shithole.” And that wasn’t the worst of it. For two weeks, they would add in animal blood as well. Our courtyard rapidly became a source of stench that was absolutely horrendous, but our noses were well burnt out before it became too bad for us. They were taking no chances with disease, making sure we took a double bath after every training session, and an extra bath after we had cleaned our equipment.

Professor Michio continued his lessons, only they were switched to the mornings and given as we did our warm up drills. Rumors flew around, mostly about how things weren’t going as planned on the frontlines and how reinforcements were needed as swiftly as possible. The other main one was how nobody was using traditional battle tactics. We had no idea, and it didn’t really matter to us. We were here to improve our battle abilities, and we focused on that.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Start of advanced training

“We ready?” Dorian asked as soon everyone was awake.

“Mostly.” Alfred grumbled. “Any ideas what we will be doing with this combined training?”

“Good morning recruits!” Instructor Daniels called out as he walked in the door. “Glad to see everyone is up and ready to go. Today we start advanced training, but our facilities aren’t safe enough for it. So after breakfast we will be heading over to the academy. So hurry with your breakfast.” He turned to walk out, stopped and turned back. “Oh, one more thing. The clay pit has served its usefulness. We will have people coming in to dispose of it, so you won’t have to be smelling it anymore.”

“Oh thank the gods.” Several people muttered, and excitement shot through the group. With a new sense of excitement, we headed to a quick breakfast before lining up to march to the academy. It was only a few blocks away, and we arrived to see ten people dressed in plain red robes with an instructor on each end that had gold trim to their robes and stylized flames stitched within.

“Greetings, I’m Instructor Daniels of the Legion. This is our group.” Daniels said, walking through the introduction. As he said each name, we would give a quick salute. When he was done it was time to meet our counterparts.

“Greetings and welcome to our combination training. I am Instructor Fines, and my counterpart here is Instructor Bethany.” The older man said, motioning to his much younger helper. She simply glared at us, possibly giving the barest of nods. Like Instructor Daniels, he went through the names of his trainees.

“Mixing magical attacks and physical attacks are the greatest source of danger to your own allies. Today we will be practicing magical attacks at what is considered ‘danger close’ range. This is the absolute closest we ever cast spells, and you legionnaires need practice continuing fighting in the small opening the spells impact causes. You’ll notice four lines of metal pells. The first set will be attacked by the legion recruits in their lines. You will be divided up into three groups. Each group will have three mages, who will be targeting the third line of pells with their spells. This ensures that only the enemy will be hit by the fireball spell, but the effects of the spell can still have a chance of affecting the front line enemies. Split up and greet your teammates. Since we have odd numbers, Trainee Scotts and Recruit Dorian will be the first to sit on the sidelines, subbing in as necessary.”

We split fairly quickly, and I found myself with Small Paul and Alfred. “Well. Let’s get this over with. I’m Gordian.” The fattest of the mages said. He was so round I doubted he could walk a mile, let alone walk across a battlefield. Flanking him were two mages that looked incredibly similar. “These are Nik and Mick.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m –“ I started, only to be interrupted with a hand wave.

“Yeah, yeah. Faceless soldiers that’ll be dead in a year. Don’t bother, I’m not about to remember your names.” He said, walking over to the training area and turning. “Well? You gonna stand there all day or what?” Nik might have chuckled a bit, while Mick gave a sickly looking grin.

“I don’t trust those guys as far as I can throw the fat one.” Paul muttered as we headed to our positions.

“I hear ya. I’ll keep an eye on him, so listen. If I shout something, do it instantly. Our lives might be on the line.” I said.

“Thanks.” Alfred said. “This life is dangerous enough. We don’t need to worry about our allies as well.”

“Recruits! You will go through the normal striking drills. Three middle, three high, three low and repeat. Got it?” Daniels shouted.

“Yes sir!” We replied, and fell into our routine of attacks. Despite the noise of blunted swords striking shields, I was keeping an ear and my aura on the three behind us.

“You gonna do it?” One of them asked. I was having trouble telling their voices apart.

“Yeah. Can’t do it first time though. Let’s go, I’ll let you know when.” There was a bit of motion then from behind came the call, “Fireball!” We kept moving through our drills, though an orb of flame shot just above and to the side of my head. It was close enough that I felt the heat immediately dry the bit of sweat on my face. It impacted the second row, the blast of heat sending all three of us stumbling.

“What the fuck!” Paul yelled, turning and brandishing his blade at the mages.

“HOLD RECRUIT!” Fines yelled, immediately coming over and stepping between us. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Their spell was entirely too close.’ Paul said.

“That’s rather the point of the exercise.” Fines replied, glaring at Paul. “Are you saying you can’t handle it, recruit?”

“The point of the exercise was to attack the third row of enemies, not the second.” I countered, “and not sending a spell inches from the heads of your allies.”

“Oh? And do you know magic recruit?” Fines sneered, and I figured out quickly where Gordian got his attitude from.

“I do.” I said, getting a shocked look from him.

“Bullshit.” He snarled. “I’ll not have you lie to me. DANIELS!” He shouted, getting the attention of everyone. “Get these lying recruits out of my siiiii-“ He drew out the last word as there was a blood dagger inches from his face. He slowly turned to stare at me, staring at my needlessly outstretched hand.

“That spell is a combination of blood dagger and blood missile.” I said calmly. “Now, before you go embarrassing yourself further by insulting the Legion, I suggest you check the scorch marks on the pells our group was working on. You’ll see an impact site on the second row of pells, exactly where Paul accused your inept mages of targeting.”

“Sir, he’s right.” Instructor Bethany said, straightening from where she had bent over slightly to check. “And from the location of the impact, the spell was cast low.” While she was speaking, I removed the dagger and reabsorbed the blood. Waste not, and all that.

“Fines? Are you sure your trainees are up to the task?” Daniels growled out.

“They’re fine.” He snarled back. “Resume practice.” We all fell back into formation, but I noticed I wasn’t the only one keeping an eye and ear out. It seemed all the Legion were watching their back.