Master Of None

” Ah hello elder, you have perfect timing.” Walker manipulated more earth in to a bench for him to sit. He also pulled an extra blanket from his storage, ” I’m sorry to pull you from the fire, I hope this is more comfortable for you while you observe.” Hopefully this gesture would earn him some respect but also keep the elder from jumping in too much, Otis was impressed by the blatant attempt to butter the elder up.

” very thoughtful, if every little one was born like you I could say the world would be filled with only kindness.” Laughing to himself the elder settled in eyes examining the trainees preparing to evaluate everything that happened.

” first of all my party meme we Gil will be our ranger attacker. Otis will be our front line attacker. The two will demonstrate to you an example of timing for attacks please watch.” With his words Gil notched an arrow and giving a nod to Otis. Otis launched forward in to range of the first earth pillar. Over his shoulder an arrow flew by lodging in to the pillar. The next moment Otis unleashed a soft kick to the pillar. Immediately retreating the second arrow from Gil found its mark. Otis returned to gils side and the two went to rest.

” now who can tell me what happened and why their timing would be beneficial to a battle?” Pop quiz time, the elder would get a kick from this since this required firm thinking on the why an action was used instead of pure instinctual battle.

The trainee that had used their strong legs to jump forward at the target the other day spoke up first. ” if the target was a monster the archer would have caused damage with their first shot. This would put the monster off balance so their would be forced to take the attackers hit. The second shot caused more damage to stop a counter to the attacker.”

This was the response walker wanted, it was a simple maneuver. It would be extremely simple to learn this tactic especially for younger adventurers that would often fight single targets in a group.

” well I’m sure this was simpler or everyone to understand. Now the real challenge comes when you add a magic user. For example, Gil Otis are you ready? Well use the strategy we did on the greater ice imp.” The to have a nod falling in to a ready stance. ” let’s go then!” Walker pulled his staff from his storage and activated his fire flower skill, the flames began to build and condense as he spent his mana.

Gil fired an arrow as Otis attacked this was the same as last time however as Otis retreated it was walkers turn. ”Fire flower!” Walker made a point to yell out his attack to signal it would hit. This was more to demonstrate proper communication a spell caster should use, often stories of the main attacker being his accidentally with a spell would make the rounds as gossip.

The condensed seed of fire penetrated the target Gil and Otis had damaged. Walker started to retreat, Otis to states the target shouting at it like he and Remey had done.

”Otis retreat Gil cover!” Walker dropped the commands and Otis retreated back to walker while gold fired to arrows towards the base of the earth pillar. The trainees were confused, the spell did nothing why did they retreat? There was nothing properly gained. However before they could start to ask flaming vines bursts from the stone pillar, the tangling fire scorching the surface and causing cracks a it tightened. Within seconds buds were formed and moments later began to bloom. The three prepared themselves for the backslash, a chorus of explosions causing the pillar to shatter in to pieces deafened everyone around. The wave of air pushed everyone but Gil, Otis, and walker back due to their preparedness. As soon as the knock back passed walker had switched his staff for the scythe and rushed forward brining a downward attack in to the larger chunk left near the ground. Leaving it stabbed in to the remains of the pillar walker stood and watched the stunned trainees.

The small crowd had taken quite the surprise some falling over completely. The elder still sat unfazed analyzing what was to come next. Waiting a few minutes for everyone’s hearing to return walker motioned for Gil and Otis to come to him. Once the two stood next to him the trainees seemed to come back to reality a bit. Expecting walker to ask for the reasons they used this strategy they were all prepared to answer the oncoming question.

” how many seconds did it take for my spell to cause an explosion which produced knock back?” Every single onlooker and trainee was at a loss, not a single one had counted the time between the release of the spell and the explosion it caused. Seeing that they all had no answers Walker looked at Gil and Otis. ” can you two gentlemen enlighten these trainees to how many seconds it took for the spell to fully activate?” Walkers words were filled with strength, this was the difference in l experience that gave them the edge.

”12 seconds” the two responded in unison, the trainees were again awestruck.

” now I’ve only ever used this spell twice, yet these two were able to memorize the time it takes for this spell to cause its explosion. The reason? Because timing isn’t just what order someone attacks it’s also what time they attack, what time they dodge, what time they distract, what time they retreat, what time...” letting the sentence trail off he could see the gears grinding in the trainees heads. ” since you have plenty to think I’m let’s move on, form up teams, any magic users can utilize long range spells of not I will use a mana shot spell. Gil how many seconds does it take?”

” five seconds to fire not much of a building time only about half a second.” Gil was spot on it was to be expected. Gil may be a bit goofy at times but when it came to keeping an eye on the entire battle he was fairly advanced, always keeping track with a sharp eye.

”In relation it takes Gil one second to notch an arrow, half a second to pull the bow, and two seconds to aim. That’s all without using quick shot which cuts a second from aiming. His targets rarely dodge his arrow. He will work in place of a mage, he has a rather nice bow.” This brought a smile to gils face, he had been practicing rather hard lately to limit the amount of mana used in his wind affinity arrow so that he could use a weaker version more often. If he allowed it to run its full course it could burn half his mana away but after exhausting himself too many times he managed to bring his overall number to seven shots.

The groups started to form and soon they were displaying their own combinations trying to blend their timing. Impressively that was an earth magic user with them that could fire small earth projectiles. This further enhanced the amount of times they could all practice. Once the final target had been broken the trainees lined up expecting more to be created instead something more disinter occurs...the elder stood.

”Ten seconds to create an earth needle! What were you focusing on the clouds in the sky? And you, are you only able to run and nothing more? Learn to use that speed in multiple hit attacks. Boy the next time I see you count with your fingers I’ll double your math lesson..” the elders words went on and on. Now walker and Gil gained the full strict elder effect. It was indeed terrifying and they understood how Otis must have felt in his younger years training under the elder. ” now walker make us more of those targets, we need more practice. You’ll be joining them I expect that mana shot spell down by a second at least. Otis don’t you dare think I didn’t notice you were I to using your right leg to attack, what do you plan to hop on one foot the rest of your life? You Gil was it? Those wind arrows are too slow, they are but a soft breeze we could sneeze them off course!” And that was it now they were no longer instructors but trainees themselves. Otis could almost hear let’s of his heart break, but he wasn’t alone in his pain, Gil and walker were both standing with the jaws dropped. Over the course of the next hour everyone was pushed to a slumped mess of sweat and empty mana reserves. Walker now felt his mana shot spell was second nature to home while Gil wishes he’d never found this amazing bow. Otis was still stuck in a squatting position as punishment for not using both legs equally to attack. The only question they all had was, how could they make it to dinner without passing out right there?