Chapter Four Hundred and Eighty-Four - Zap Zap

"Yowch!" I said with a hiss before I shook my arm. That had stung!

Caprica's method for training Thick Skin as a skill involved, unsurprisingly, hurting my skin until it became thicker. Or at least, metaphorically thicker.

That sounded all nice and easy on paper, but the training method Caprica had me using was a lot less fun.

First, I had to get rid of one of the arms of my gambeson. That wasn't too hard, since the arms were just laced onto the torso, so they were removable. Probably to make it easier to repair and clean. There were lots of nifty little things like that with the clothing and such, I found.

Then, I had to wrap a thick rubber band around my forearm. Every few minutes, when the stinging stopped hurting, I'd pull the band back, then let it snap back down.

I wasn't sure if I was going to get Thick Skin as a skill after all.

"Don't be a cry-bunny," Caprica said. "I did that for a week before I earned the skill. I even had one of my ladies maids come into my room at night to snap my skin."

"But this hurts," I complained before I dabbed some tears out of my eyes.

"I think that there's a common human expression that applies here," Caprica said. "One you might be familiar with, on account of having been one. It's 'no pain, no gain.'"

"I've heard of that before, but I really don't like it," I admitted. "Pain hurts. Why can't we have gains without it? Besides, it's not always true. When you gain friends it doesn't hurt at all. Actually, there's a lot of things you can gain that don't hurt. Nice memories, a good nap, what about stuff like spending a day looking at something pret-- Ow!"

I rubbed my arm where a sneaky Amaryllis had come around and snapped the band. "The expression is rather foolish," she agreed with a smug smile. "But I find the situation amusing enough that I don't think it matters. You haven't gained the skill yet, I take it?"

I shook my head. "I'm reconsidering it as we speak."

"Don't be a baby," Amaryllis said.

I glared as hard as I could. "I'm not a baby. Not liking being hurt isn't a baby trait, it's a perfectly natural thing to want. Or not want, I guess."

"Come now, I've never known you to be the sort of woman that gives up on things so easily," Amaryllis said. That warmed my heart a little. "Now, let's get started on that Mana Regeneration training?"

"Okay," I said.

We made our way up to the top deck, where we had some room to practice without interruptions. We were only half a day out from Port Royal, so this would be my last chance to really practice stuff before we arrived.

"The basics of gaining the skill is quite simple," Amaryllis said. "You need to regenerate mana, over and over again. I think it's best done if you completely deplete yourself then build your stores all the way back up to your maximum."

"I can do that," I said. The ship was about to be very clean. More so than usual, even.

"You might want to use up all of your mana practising a spell that you want to improve on," Amaryllis said. "Or using a mana-intensive skill that hasn't reached its peak. There's no point in practising if you can't do it efficiently."

I frowned at that. She might not be wrong. I could spend all of my mana on huge Cleaning moves, or I could use it up on other things. I was getting pretty good with my mini fireballs, but more practice couldn't hurt. Making them faster and bigger could help.

On the other hand, they tended to pop when I made them wrong, and if I was pumping a fireball full with all of my mana and then it destabilised, I wouldn't be dealing with a small pop but a big boom.

Big fiery explosions were an absolute no-go aboard an airship.

I glanced at my skills list, in case I could find something else to practice on, when I noticed a skill I'd been neglecting, and it was one that happened to be pretty mana-intensive too. "Proportion Distortion!" I said.

"Your size-changing spell?" Amaryllis asked. "You haven't capped that one, right?"

"Yup! Still have a ways to go before it hits one hundred percent," I said with a grin. "What about you, do you have anything to practice?"

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Amaryllis smiled. It was a smile that made me instantly nervous. "As a matter of fact, I do, Broccoli."

"Amaryllis, why am I feeling afraid?" I asked.

"That's likely a similar reaction to what small prey animals feel when they notice their natural predator around," Amaryllis said. It wasn't very reassuring. "I happen to have a general skills called Precision Magic. It's still got some ways to go before it becomes a truly useful skill. The best way to practice it is, of course, to use magic very precisely. For example, I could use it to hit a small, quick-moving target."

I felt my ears wilt. "Amaryllis," I said.

She smiled and raised a hand. There was a snap-snap-snap as little electrical sparks flew between her talons. "It'll even double as Thick Skin practice!"

"Amy!" I said. I could feel tears stinging my eyes. I didn't wanna be zapped!

Amaryllis huffed, it was a 'oh fine,' sort of huff, and I felt myself calming down a little. "I won't actually hurt you. Come on, I'm not a brute. Although, it would be nice to practice together."

"As long as you're not making it hurt, I guess it can't be that bad. It'll be dodging practice too," I said.

She smiled again. "That's the spirit! Now, get dodging!"

I eeped, jumping up and pushing some mana to activate Proportion Distortion. Between one hop and the next, I felt like the entire world had grown to twice the size it had been just moments before. The rails on the edge of the deck no longer stopped at my thigh, but at my chest, then they were a smidge taller than I was.

My ears flopped behind me, and I felt my tail straining at the hole in my skirt. I still hadn't gotten the knack to make them shrink along with the rest of me, so both my ears and tail stayed at the same size while the rest of me shrunk. It was a little awkward because my ears now trailed on the floor behind me as I ran.

A small zap-hiss sounded out, and I hopped up just in time to dodge a teeny-tiny bolt of electrical energy that singed the deck.

I ducked another the next, then dove forwards to avoid a trio of little zaps. Amaryllis really did have to work on her aim if she wasn't able to hit me from so close up. Or maybe her aim would be a lot better if she wasn't cackling and laughing maniacally.

"How's your mana holding up?" Caprica asked from where she sat on a rail. She let her fairy wings spread out behind her to soak in the sun a little.

"It's not tha--ouch!" I hopped forwards a few times and rubbed at my behind where Amaryllis had scored a hit. It didn't hurt that much, less than the rubber band, but it was still painful. "It's holding," I said.

My mana was dropping steadily as I continued to round around the deck and tried to use whatever I came across as cover from Amaryllis. She was at least staying stationary, so it made it easier to tell where her attacks were coming from.

If I loosened my hold on the skill, I'd start to revert back to my normal size, which was handy because having longer legs made running so much easier.

I had never really used Proportion Distortion seriously as a skill in fights and such. It was nice for grabbing things in the cabinets that were too tall, or for fetching something under my bed, but otherwise it didn't come up very often, but it had some really good potential as a skill to unbalance an opponent.

As long as the opponent didn't have armoured shins, then this skill might actually be a lot stronger than I'd given it credit.

After running around for a couple of minutes, I started to run out of breath and mana at about the same time. "O-okay," I said through some panting. I let go of the skill, and allowed myself to flop onto the deck. "Urgh... everything is spinny."

"That's mana exhaustion," Amaryllis said as she walked over. "It's a right pain in the rear. Let me know if you feel like you're going to vomit. The least I can do is turn you onto your side."

"Amaryllis," I said as I looked up to her. "I don't know if I like training. It's hard."

She huffed. There was no pity there.

***