Shadow Dragon Training (Haretsa's Secondary Magic Training w/ Ayeseru)

"I’m the mongoose and you’re gonna be my dinner."

- Haretsa

     While Haretsa was occupied with her excitement, she caught Ayeseru slipping through the shadows to avoid her attack as the roar blasted against the ground where he once stood. The grass lit up with the black flames from the roar and before she could properly process what was happening, Ayeseru was directly in front of her with his hand gripping her face. Her head was about to be driven down into the ground rather hard if she didn’t do something quickly. Luckily, Haretsa was rather flexible due to the martial art she studied. She threw her legs up and locked them firmly around Ayeseru’s arm, throwing her own arms back above her head with the momentum in order to land on them in a handstand. Using her newfound strength together with the momentum, Haretsa pulled on Ayeseru’s arm with her legs to bring him up above her before attempting to drive him down into the ground. Unwrapping her legs from his arm, Haretsa then took her right hand out of her handstand and threw a right hook straight into Ayeseru’s elbow pit in order to release his grip from her face before quickly cartwheeling a safe distance away.

    Once she had landed on her feet, the young Slayer quickly turned her attention to the wildfire that was slowly beginning to spread from where her roar had impacted earlier. While she knew that Ayeseru could eat shadows, she presumed that he wouldn’t be able to eat these one’s considering they were flames as well. Knowing that her own flames didn’t affect her very much, Haretsa rushed towards the wildfire; skidding to a stop in the middle of them. However, she wasn’t just using this as a defensive measure, but also as a way to mask her next move. ”Alright, I know I can make my arm a flaming scythe… lets see if I can send something like that through the shadows to hit him from behind!” she thought to herself, concentrating her shadow flames onto her right leg before making a slight stomping motion with her foot. She felt the flames leave her foot and travel through the shadows straight towards Ayeseru at a fairly quick pace before popping out in front of him at his current location in the form a 7 ft long scythe and slashing at him. ”Dammit I said BEHIND him, not in front of him! Ugh, gonna have to practice that a bit then to get the timing down…”

"I’m the mongoose and you’re gonna be my dinner."

- Haretsa

     Before she knew it, Ayeseru was standing before her yet again; disregarding the flames that they were standing in all together. Either he was resistant to the flames just the same as Haretsa was or he had one of hell of pain tolerance level. Whichever the case, Ayeseru was preparing an attack and he looked incredibly terrifying as he did. His body was an entire shadow with a rather creepy, blood red smile with matching eyes. ”Damn, he is freaking fast… Speed… I need more speed, or this is really gonna hurt…” she thought, as her left arm flashed with a bright, firey orange color. Feeling the adrenaline surge over her entire body, Haretsa’s black eyes were glued to the fist Ayeseru was charging with all of those shadows.


  The split second Ayeseru through his punch, both of Haretsa’s scaly hands caught the punch as the shadows that he kept built up unleashed in their full fury. Haretsa dug her newfound claws deep into Ayeseru’s fist; dragging him with her as the unrelenting torrent of shadows pushed the young girl back slowly. Her feet were being dug into the ground by the sheer force of the attack that she was choosing to challenge. The pain that was being blasted straight into her hands was unlike anything she had felt before. It felt like her arms were going to be destroyed if she didn’t do something quickly. ”Wait a second… I should be able to eat them, just like I can eat flames!!” she thought, opening her mouth as she began to inhale the shadow magic that she was being assaulted with.

   This worked to a degree, until Haretsa felt her stomach begin to churn and her throat flare up in agony. Thankfully, what she had eaten seemed to be the majority of the remainder of the spell as she removed her claws from Ayeseru’s hand, falling down to her knees as she began to vomit. ”OH GOD… IT TASTED...LIKE HORSE…. SHIT…MIXED WITH FRIGGIN BROCCOLI..AND IT BURNS! UGH.” she managed to blurt out in between vomiting; coughing and gasping for air. It took about a minute or two for the pain to subside, but it finally did. The young Slayer looked down at her trembling hands that hurt like hell. Despite the pain, Haretsa was luckily able to still move them and they weren’t disintegrated or anything, so that was a good thing.  ”Ok… can’t eat another shadow slayer’s magic… That’s… That’s a good mental note for later…” she panted, looking up at Ayeseru and wondering if he was going to attack her not.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

      Before she knew it, Ayeseru had taken Haretsa to a completely different realm. It was here in this massive graveyard that Ayeseru began to truly teach Haretsa the ways of her shadow magic; even if it was bound to her flames. However, Haretsa was actually exicted about her magic for once in her life. Even if he didn’t know a thing about fire, Ayeseru was still there to train Haretsa and was capable of eating her flames so long as they had her shadow magic mixed in. With this knowledge, Haretsa would be able to cut loose a little and realized the limits of her flames without endangering innocent people.

     Time seemed as if it was flying by as the intense training progressed. Over the course of what felt like month’s, Haretsa learned that these flames were an entirely separate magic from her Fire Dragon and weren’t just limited to the spells that she had come up with for it. This Blazing Shadow Dragon magic, as she called it, was able to be used outside of the powerful state that she had dubbed Fusion Force; though this “secondary” magic seemed to be rather limited in terms of its use outside of the form. Ayeseru also taught her how to maximize the potential of her Fusion Force as well as guiding her in the ways of swimming through the shadows as effortlessly as he and Sapphiron could. The training was incredibly harsh, but Haretsa managed to live through it and she was much stronger because of it.

    After Ayeseru deemed her training complete, he brought the two of them back to the real world. ”It feels a little weird, being back in my real body.” she laughed, pushing herself up off the ground and stretching out as much as she could. ”Other than that, I feel a hell of a lot stronger than before! I feel like I could cut a mountain in half with my bare hands! she exclaimed enthusiastically before wrapping her teacher in a giant hug. Haretsa really was thankful to Ayeseru for helping her with this power and felt like she had made a good new friend in the process; even if he was a bit scary at times. Releasing him from the hug, Haretsa gave Ayeseru a smile before bidding him farewell. ”Hopefully the next time we meet I’ll be a lot stronger. Until then, stay frosty! ...I have no clue what that means. Haretsa Shikon, out!” she said, waving goodbye as she merged back into the shadows and blasted off for the mainland of Fiore.

   ”If there are other kinds of Shadow Slayers out in the world, then there should definitely be other kinds of Fire Slayers too. The only problem is finding one and asking him to train me…. come to think of it, Ayeseru never did say what kind of Slayer he was… HEY, FIRE DRAGON LACRIMA THINGY!! YOU WANNA PULL THE SAME THING SAPPHIRE DID AND GUIDE ME TO ANOTHER FIRE SLAYER?!” she shouted as she traveled, hearing no response but her own voice echoing throughout the Void. ”I guess you’re just lazy, then. Fine, be that way ya overgrown gecko! I’ll find them on my own! Although first, I should probably stop by Talonia and see how Jerry’s doing. I need to pick up more parts for Ragna anyway… and this makes traveling so much easier!! NO MORE FREAKING TRAIN OR BOAT RIDES FOR ME!!”