Chapter 3: Hypno and Spear
"This is a Qwoil," explained Reddel. "We use these to practice certain types of incapacitation arts."
Melia observed the new training dummy. It resembled a snake standing on its tail, its internal machinery making thousands of adjustments per second to keep itself upright, resulting in a curious, spinning, undulating dance. It was quite mesmerising.
"Now, as you might have guessed by my explanation, you'll be learning an incapacitation art today."
Melia tore her eyes away from the Qwoil and focused on Reddel. After five months of doing nothing but summoning bolts and flares, she was both excited and nervous to learn something new.
"The art I'll be teaching you is called Hypnotise. It is non-damaging, instead causing its target to fall asleep. It's a bit of a misnomer, but it's nevertheless a useful tool. I shall demonstrate."
Reddel pointed his staff at the Qwoil. A second later, its movements began slowing down significantly, and it quickly fell to the floor motionless.
"As you can guess, this art is quite effective at reducing the number of foes you have to fight at once. It is less useful against a single enemy, as you can't expect something to stay asleep if you attack it, but it can still provide an opening for another technique or to escape."
Melia watched the Qwoil "wake up" and resume its mechanical rhythm, returning to its upright position. She wasn't quite sure if she liked the idea of putting foes to sleep in a battle; it seemed somewhat dishonourable.
"Now, the process of using Hypnotise is a bit different than what you're used to," Reddel continued. "Instead of focusing on a specific element, you have to envision your target being enveloped in a cloud of warm, inviting ether, while at the same time willing them to go to sleep. Go ahead and give it a try."
Remaining apprehensively wordless, Melia pointed her staff at the shifting Qwoil and started imagining a big fluffy cloud surrounding it, yellowish in colour and warm as a shower, surrounded by cartoonish "Z"s. She held the thought for well over a minute. Nothing happened. She started to wave her staff a bit, using it to collect more imaginary gas into the cloud while at the same time making what she hoped were calm swirling motions. Three minutes later, and there was still no effect. With her arm getting sore from holding the staff aloft, she broke off the attempt.
"Don't feel disappointed," Reddel said. "It's quite a radical difference in mental state compared to summoning elementals; no one has ever accomplished it on their first try. Keep at it."
For the next several minutes, Melia continued to try and put the Qwoil to sleep. She changed the colour and temperature of the imaginary cloud alongside various combinations of different staff motions. She could almost feel a soothing warmth beneath her fingers, but wasn't sure if it was also being imagined. After a total of twenty minutes, she had still accomplished nothing.
Frustrated, she turned to Reddel. "Use the art on me."
Reddel was taken aback. "Beg pardon?"
"Use the art on me. I wish to know what it feels like."
"Well, I...hmm..." Reddel stood with a hand on his chin for several seconds, his moustache rocking back and forth. "It is sensible that knowing the sensation of the art would help one reproduce it themselves. However, I am forbidden to use damaging or otherwise detrimental arts on students." Another pause to think. "I believe there is precedent for this sort of thing, so if you will excuse me, I will go seek the training committee's input." He hustled to the exit, muttering to himself.
Left alone, Melia decided to pass the time by conjuring a bolt and tossing it up and down with her staff. She didn't normally get much time to observe elementals before discharging them, so she amused herself by watching the ball lightning crackle. The compulsion to touch it was very strong, but she knew better - Reddel had warned her that her high ether power combined with her low resilience meant that a single careless bolt could easily put her in the hospital.
After about seven minutes, Reddel returned alongside someone who Melia didn't recognise.
"This is Hyugens, of the training committee," said Reddel. "He is here to oversee your signing of this, should you agree of course." He presented Melia with a short, one-sentence document.
I, Melia Antiqua, agree to permit my instructor to utilise the art Hypnotise on me for the purposes of training.
Without hesitation, Melia took the quill presented to her and signed her name on the page. Hyugens signed his initials alongside, nodded to Reddel, and left the room.
"Well, that was simpler than I expected." Reddel directed Melia to a mat. "Whenever you're ready, step onto the mat."
Melia quickly hopped onto the squishy surface.
"Very well." Reddel raised his staff and performed the sleep-inflicting art.
Melia felt a comforting sensation descend upon her body, as if she was being cocooned by layers of heated blankets on a cold night. She felt her legs crumble and was fast asleep before she hit the floor.
It took about three minutes for Reddel to wake her up again. "You make a good demonstration," he chuckled.
Still a bit sleepy, Melia stood up and faced the Qwoil. Instead of a cloud of gas, she imagined wrapping it in fluffy blankets, spinning her staff like a glassblower. The Qwoil did seem to change its pattern somewhat, moving in slightly more exaggerated arcs as if it was paying less attention. After about thirty seconds of focus, it started running slowly enough that it began clattering across the floor; another twenty seconds later, and it was motionless.
"Excellent!" exclaimed Reddel. "A perfect example of how one's frame of mind must be just so for many ether arts."
Melia lowered her staff, somewhat pleased with herself. Sure, her Hypnotise took significant concentration and the better part of a minute to execute, but it was due to what was apparently an unusual idea that she had succeeded at all. She wondered if she could use the art on herself - she'd love to have a foolproof way of falling asleep without fuss.
"Hello, Melia." While Reddel normally waited in the observation room for Melia to arrive, today he was holding an official-looking document. "I need to speak with you before we begin today."
Melia sat down in an adjacent chair. With the end of March coming soon, an entire year and month since her training began, she suspected it was something to do with her upcoming evaluation. She was quickly vindicated.
"As you know, your yearly all-abilities evaluation will take place next week. I have no doubt about the strength of your improvements. However, I have been reminded of a new regulation that passed only a few years ago that I have not yet had to deal with, which states that all students in an ether-based program must regardless be taught at least one physical art within their first year."
Melia instantly became worried. Knowing that her strength was awful was bad enough, and now she had to be forced to learn a technique based on it, which would probably have to be tested on in the upcoming evaluation.
"I can see from your face that you're not looking forward to it," said Reddel. "I myself disagree with this rule, but it is what it is. So, this means you have a choice to make." He handed the paper he was holding to Melia. "You must choose one of these four arts to learn."
Melia looked at the list, which described four different arts involving physical staff attacks.
Rod Bruise: A side swipe into the enemy's ribs. Lowers agility on hit.
Spear Break: A jab with the head of the staff. Inflicts Break.
Ankle Cut: A low swipe into the enemy's legs. Inflicts Topple.
Head Rattle: A powerful strike to the enemy's skull. Inflicts Daze.
"As you can see, we have one art from four separate categories: damage, break, topple, and daze. It is your choice what you wish to go with."
Melia considered the choices. It seems counter-productive for me to have to rush towards the enemy to get a physical hit in response to a Break. Attempting to cause physical damage is not my goal. Spear Break has no restrictions on targeting a specific body part, and so seems easier to grasp. "I will take Spear Break."
"Very well. Let's get you down there so you can learn it."
On the floor of the training room, Reddel had set up a more advanced training drone: a Luxer, a humanoid device capable of being broken, toppled, and dazed like a real enemy combatant. Upon activation, it stood still in its bipedal battle stance, waiting to be attacked.
"As a physical art, Spear Break is comparatively simple. It consists of gripping your staff tightly and jabbing it into the enemy." Reddel demonstrated. The Luxer reeled backward, remaining upright, but clearly unstabilised. "There's not really much more to it: no mental concentration or ether involved, just pure physical motion. The intent of the attack is to destabilise the enemy; any damage caused is purely a bonus. Just throw all your strength at it."
After waiting for the Luxer to recover, Melia took a deep breath, took her staff in both hands, and poked her target. It was like prodding a rock wall. Not much happened; the drone didn't even react to the attack. She tried again, with similar lack of results. Throwing her whole body into a third attempt, she lost her grip on contact and ended up almost jabbing herself in the foot.
With no real advice to provide, Reddel had not much choice but to simply watch as Melia continued to poke the Luxer without so much as a single point of damage. Only upon Melia losing her composure and clobbering the drone over the head with her staff did it make an appreciable reaction, and even then only because she had scored a critical hit.
"I appreciate your passion for success," began Reddel, "but perhaps you should mix other arts into your practice to avoid becoming too frustrated with this one."
The frustrated Melia heeded the advice, tossing a few elementals into distant targets, but still had no luck when going back to the physical attack. She even tried building a burst aura before using the break art, hoping that the feeling of power would have a beneficial effect, but it was not to be. No hint of success ever materialised.
Once the training session was over, Melia retreated to her room and started venting rage on pillows, half mad at herself for failing, half mad at the rules for setting her up to fail, and another half mad at how she would have to repeat this failure many times over with no sign of progress.
COMBAT TRAINING EVALUATION
26 March Entirmina 298
Evaluator: Keldon, James
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name: Antiqua, Melia
Gender: F
Race: High Entia father, Homs mother
D.o.B: 22 February Entirmina 232 (age 66)
Height: 136cm
Weight: 40.4kg
Specialisation: Ether staff
STATISTICS
Note: Due to low magnitude, all provided values are estimates. Each value is scored on the related Eryth Combat Scale.
Physical Strength: 2 Unsurprisingly, with little training in this weak area, no improvement has been seen. It is still too early, however, to make a call on whether this needs specific focus.
Ether Attenuation: 13 Improvement as expected. Still above-average; no action needed.
Agility: 4 Little improvement, but not out of the ordinary. Again, recommend nothing but patience.
Resilience: 22 To be perfectly frank, it is a bit of a mystery as to how a healthy adolescent girl cannot sustain as much physical punishment as some children half her age.
Overall Combat Level: ~0.17 Melia's improvements over the past year are, overall, well within the average.
ARTS
Elemental Discharge: A There has been little change here, with summoned elementals retaining perfect accuracy via physical propulsion. Burst aura now requires 27 discharges for activation.
Summon Bolt: B+ Summoning time varies between 5 and 8 seconds, with slightly degrading performance under pressure. Discharged bolts travel in perfectly straight lines at high speed.
Summon Flare: B+ Summoning time varies between 6 and 9 seconds, with slightly degrading performance under pressure. Discharged flares now travel in straight lines, though Melia seems to enjoy making them travel in curves for dramatic effect.
Burst End: D+ Despite a year of practice, there is a marked lack of improvement here. As burst aura generation is still somewhat slow, this is not entirely unexpected, and should be rectified in time.
Hypnotise: C While the casting of this art is always successful, it takes between 25 and 35 seconds to reach full effectiveness, requiring constant concentration the entire time.
Spear Break: F Even given that this art was learned a mere week before this evaluation, Melia shows a complete and utter inability to even damage defenceless targets with it, let alone break their defensive stance. Should this persist for another month, consider providing some way of practising outside training sessions.
Overall Arts Grade: C+ As an average, this grade is somewhat misleading; Melia's elemental arts remain as effective as ever, and together are easily worth an A. It is her non-elemental arts that drag her down, and which are recommended for extra focus in the upcoming year.