Sarah focused on the energy in her palm, the image of the hour glass potent in her mind.

She visualized the droplet as it passed the final neck of the hourglass, it passed safely and dropped into the pool of energy.

Finally Sarah let out a breathe, it had been the last drop of energy converted.

The process felt less strange now, the energy was slippery like a bar of soap, the more she tightened her control the more difficult it became to use, the less she tried to 'squeeze' it the more pliable it was.

Following more of Adara's instruction she imagined it in a sphere similar her previous fire-ball, it took shape slowly.

The result was an almost exact replica of Alex's healing bolt.

"Wonderful." Adara had her elbow on the table and lay her head's weight the palm of her hand.

"Is this it?" Sarah couldn't help but feel giddy.

"Yes." Adara leaned her back unto the chair and stretched.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief, it had taken her seven days to succeed.

Adara had made her take several breaks in between to 'rest her mind' as she put it.

The success was wonderful to feel, but the healing bolt slowly shrunk and she tried to push energy into it.

The energy she applied refused to enter the bolt and rushed back into her well, it wasn't painful.

The healing bolt fizzled out of existence, leaving solely it's memory behind.

Sarah's mouth opened in shock.

Had she failed once more?

"Did you try to apply more energy to the spell?" Adara looked at her with a small smirk.

Sarah nodded and closed her mouth.

"It failed because your natural spiritual energy is of fire, the spell you used was made of converted healing energy. The energies won't mix without a pattern for the spell, nor a technique for the fusion." Adara pointed to her now empty palm.

"Oh." Sarah blinked, she supposed that made sense.

She was feeling drained though, practicing so long had left her mentally exhausted despite breaks.

For a moment she had felt like standing and screaming her lungs out in frustration, due to the spells failure.

"Remember little flame, don't go trying to mix them yet, you have difficulty in just the conversion, spell fusion is beyond you for now." Adara shrugged.

Adara looked directly at her eyes and held her attention.

"Converted spells like that one are best use quickly, before the energy dissipates. Else you must constantly convert energy to maintain it and that in itself is wasteful." Adara stood slowly and leisurely stretched.

Sarah also got up, it was nice to stretch her legs, even if it was all in her mind.

"What kinds of spell can I use like this then?" Sarah breathed in deeply and her heart sped up.

"Bolts, short-channels, molding is possible as well. Earth is unadvised though and don't use death energy for now." Adara sat down again.

"Why?" Sarah yawned, that was weird.

"Earth is too slow to be useful without greater power. Pay attention. Death energy will harm your body, you will need almost immediate attention if you survive it. Don't try." Adara's eyes were once more focused on her and her voice was serious.

"So I can't use death spells?" Sarah found that a bit unfair.

"For now. There are ways, which I'll teach you at another time, if you want." Adara nodded.

"When exactly?." Sarah tilted her head slightly, then sighed.

She wanted to be unhindered in magic and being unable to use even one type was such a hindrance.

"Perhaps the next time, when you reach the epitome of human spirit. Consider it a small gift for remaining true to my teachings, if you remain true of course." Adara's smile seemed to know Sarah's thoughts.

Sarah's mind froze.

Did she know?

"Also after you reach that point we will arrive at a schedule to program your learning. I will grant you a way to contact me then as well." Adara focused on her eyes.

"Wouldn't it be more useful to give me the way to contact you now?" Sarah held some hope.

"Perhaps, but you might just decide to stop training spirit and focus on something else. I can't give you something that will hinder you after all." Adara smiled knowingly at her.

'Damn it.' Sarah sighed, she had considered placing one point in body, now that she knew Adara could contact her at anytime.

A short time passed.

"I think you should practice the conversion technique, at least a bit more for now. Keep at it till it feels more natural. When the time is nearing the end I will teach you you're next power." Adara broke her out of her sour thoughts.

"What is my next power?" With everything else Sarah had forgotten.

"I think you'll like this one. It's the ability to hold more spells at full in front of you, without losing control. For now you'll only be able to hold four, but it will go up with more power." Adara demonstrated by summoning four fire-balls easily.

The spells spun in a lazy circle atop Adara's palm.

Sarah froze unblinking, that would be extremely useful, so far she was limited to two bolts.

********

Eian deflected most of Ul's swipe with his shield, the impact sent him stumbling a pace backwards.

The shock sent tremors through his arm, Eian cursed himself as he almost let go of his shield.

Deflecting was much better than straight out blocking, but still stupid.

The massive war-hammer was held on one hand and the head must have weighed a hundred pounds.

Ul carried it in one hand like a toddler would carry an overgrown toy, with no visible effort on his part.

"Told ye already, never meet an impact ye can't recover from. Dodge or stop it before it gains momentum." Ul for his part looked slightly bored.

'This mother fucking 'hijo de puta'.' Eian's breathing was erratic and he gashed his teeth at the asshole, almost frothing in rage.

If Eian could shoot lasers with his eyes he would, did Ul think he wanted to take that hit, he was super fast and Eian wasn't up to speed.

Eian had lost track over how long they had been at it, Ul made slave drivers look like angels.

Shattered bones were hindrances in his eyes, fracture were unworthy of repair, Ul claimed he wouldn't have the luxury of fighting uninjured all the time.

One time he had actually disarmed Eian by mistake, literally.

Ul hit him so hard the shield broke and his arm shattered, then almost tore off completely at the elbow, it had been hanging uselessly by an inch of skin.

The memory was easily one of the most painful in Eian's entire life, over shadowed perhaps only by the first spirit infusion.

It had taken an hour of threats and beatings to get Eian angry enough to continue, even after Ul repaired things.

Deep inside Eian wanted to cave the fat midgets skull in, as far as Eian cared he was a serious psycho.

It was depressing, he hadn't even gotten a single hit in, even if deep inside he knew it would so much as scratch the asshole.

"Well that's that." Ul suddenly stood still.

Eian stayed there glaring at the bastard, he wasn't worth his insults.

He was half considering charging and to hell with it.

"Ye done good boy. Very good. Might actually be worth them hairs on yer balls. Heh." Ul snorted, causing Eian's rage to burst.

He charged swing the axe at him.

Ul vanished, Eian's chest caved in, a brief window of intense pain, then everything went black.

He woke later, not knowing how much time had passed and he sighed.

"Well time te teach ye what ye came here for I guess." Ul threw the hammer aside lightly, which stuck to the mountainside as if a giant and hammer it in.

Eian stood there uncomprehending.

He blinked, as his mind tried to catch up to the meaning of the words.

He eyed Ul suspiciously, he wasn't sure this was not some sort of trick to let his guard down.

Ul rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious boy, Earth shatters up next." Ul shrugged.

Eian just stared at him blankly, he blinked a couple times.

"Ye crack in the noggin?" Ul tilted his head comically, furrowed his brows and wore that annoying half-smirk.

"......No." Eian sighed and shook his head in denial.

He didn't have words to express his rage, might as well get this shit over with.

That aside intellectually he knew Ul was helping him, even if it hurt like mother fucking hell.

"Alright next power is Earth shatter as I said. A bit tricky to use, but with more power it's useful though." Ul nodded.

Eian focused, he was ready for a new power.

As useful as earth armor was, it was more of a trump card than a steady attack like Sarah's fire-ball.

"Like rock armor ye'll need empower te use it efficiently fer now. This power breaks down any form of earth ye channel into, compresses it into hard shards and shoots it upwards with force." Ul then breathed in and demonstrated.

Ul stomped a foot into the stone floor, an area of five yards by five yards exploded upwards.

The floor was dug up a foot deep, and several shards of stone were scattered around.

Eians eyes widened, that was definitely kind of cool, though it didn't look as deadly as he had hoped.

"Aim with yer eyes and channel it where ye want, s'long as yer connected to the earth and the area the target is too. Less deadly on sand and dirt, but the compression effect should still stun, and at worst distract. Ye can use it on stone walls too, perfect for demolition or distractions, remember ye can dig out of stone, other enemies usually can't. With more power ye can dig deeper or spread wider. This is also useful for controlling enemies. If yer fighting something strong, ye can use thing to injure and distract approaching enemies." Ul explained.

"It's not deadly, is it?" Eian shrugged, it still sounded kind of cool.

"Stone floors like this one might, but at your level, no. Like I said more power will change that. Cheer up, next powers Earth spike though. That'll skewer yer enemies. Well let's get to it. We'll have te get ye used te it. Practice time." Ul cracked his own neck gently.

Eian felt his previous hopes drop, this was going to hurt, presumably a shit ton.

With Ul involved it was a certainty.