The Apprentice (Solo)

Job Title: The Apprentice

Rank: C

Player Requirements: C-Ranked Wizard (Solo Only), This Job is Not Available to Self Taught Wizards, This Job May Only Be Completed Once by any Character.

Job Requirements: Thread must be 50 posts long or 15,000 words in one Post. 350 Words per post. Must train with your former Master or Mentor; for 1 week after being warped and pulled inside the Gem of Time.

Job Location: The Sky Tower

Job Description: Rumours have been heard of a gem that sits at the top of the Sky Tower; it cannot supposedly cannot be moved; lifted, or budged. Even by the Gods themselves. Tales say that the Gem of Time sits held up by two mighty stone griffons at the peak of the sky tower; on it's large, platform like roof. You have managed to climb the Sky Tower, and have found the rumours to be true. You note your surroundings and see that the top of the Sky Tower is gorgeous; with a ritual and mural of the sky in a mosaic on the floor. There are no edges at the peak; just flat surface; the griffons, and the clouds.

You can see all of Fiore from here. If you look off the tower's east side; you'll see the forest, and Magnolia; and even further off in the distance; you'll see Clover Lake; and the Inferno Mountains even furhter still.

If you look too the tower's left; you'll see the Sabertooth Guild Hall; nestled in the mountains you're in, far, far down below; the building nothing but a spec from way up here. However, looking straight ahead, you'll behold the beauty of Fiore's grasslands; the twin cities of Era and Crocus shining in the plains; whether it be day or night.

Too your north, you can see the Royal Palace; the home of the Politicians, nestled in the forest; and even see the gigantic beanstalk from Beanstalk Village piercing the clouds up above as you are here on the Sky Tower; and also Rose Garden, glistening in the distance like a rainbow under a constant enchantment.

Too your South, you see the Peace River; and Peace Village; nestled as a tiny spec off in the distant southern grasslands.

Although the beauty is breathtaking; you're here for one reason only. The jewel itself is said too grant one the ability too 'learn with one's master once more'; whatever the hell the rumours mean; many have tried to climb the Sky Tower and failed because of this opportunity. You however, being a Wizard; have managed to reach it's peak by scaling the massive dungeon inside.

Held up by the two Griffons----sits the Gem of Time. A clear white diamond; that fans with a golden light within every few seconds. Upon reaching up to tap a finger or hand on it; you twist into a golden glitter and are yanked inside of the gem.

(Environment of your Choosing)

There you stand; whether on mountain peak; open ocean, white lake; or open plain. With your former Mentor, and Master.

(Train well. Your Master will fight you for 24 hours at a time; with one day of rest inbetween each day of training too remember old times, smiles, and lessons. When your training is complete; the next touch from your master; whether it be a hand shake; a hug, or a pat in the shoulder; will warp you back to the Sky Tower at Dawn.)

Enemies:

Boss: Your Old Master

Reward: Triple Experience (3 C-Ranked Jobs Complete)

Ryo sighed as he looked up all of the stairs that he had to ascend in the Sky Tower. He sighed heavily and shook his head ever so slightly. He didn’t want to ascend all of the stairs that were in the Tower. Still he couldn’t turn back now. He heard a rumor that the gem at the top of the tower was unmovable. He really didn’t believe things like that. He had to find out if there was something more to this than rumor. He groaned ever so softly and began to ascend the steps his loud spurs clicking and even echoing up the steps.

Ryo couldn’t believe what was going on with this place, and part of him was truly amazed. He didn’t realize just how close he was to the guild hall, and he had never bothered to even look for or at the tower in any way shape or form. Still he had now found it and heard the rumors behind it and the mysterious place it was. He kept ascending the steps one foot after the other foot after the other. The spurs the only company he had in the world. He looked down with a slightly sad look on his face.

Normally, he would have his new pet Gora with him wherever he went, but for this particular mission he didn’t want to risk Gora getting hurt and he didn’t want to lose him. He really didn’t know how this mission would turn out so he didn’t want to risk anything bad befalling the still very young Dire Wolf. He had left him in Ian’s care. Thankfully that was something he really didn’t have to worry about, but he was more than happy to simply let Ian take care of their new pet. He was sure that Ian didn’t like him going off on another mission alone, but this mission was something that he had to do on his own. He just felt it was the right thing for him to do. He continued to walk up the stairs shaking his head in disgust with how many stairs there were.

He slowly got up after his nice break and stretched himself out several of his bones popping in the process. He looked up at the stairs once more and gave a great sigh of exhaustion. He could already feel how tired he would be by the end of this. Still he wasn’t about to give up and so he began to ascend the rest of the stairs that were in front of him. Of course he wasn’t fully alone and the tower was far from empty seeing as how his spurs continued to clink and the sound reverberated off of the walls causing a loud echo.

As Ryo continued to ascend the stairs and his spurs continued to echo throughout the tower’s stairwell he couldn’t help but start to take steps two at a time, do fun dance moves up the stairs, and even just start dancing up most of them. Doing this for too long actually managed to tire him out even more than usual so he was forced to put these antics to the side and just simply climb the stairs normally. It wasn’t exactly fun, but he had a hope and a feeling that he would soon reach the top of the steps and find exactly what he had come here in search of.

Before Ryo had made the decision to come here he had done a lot of research on the place. He thought back to the guild hall where he had first heard of this place. A few of the other members had been talking about this mysterious tower, and the very mysterious gem that was at the top of it. The gem was held by mighty looking stone griffons, and it was said to do something spectacular. It was said that the gem at the top of this place could allow one to train with their teacher even though they were so far away. Ryo didn’t know if this was true or not, but if it was he wouldn’t pass up such an opportunity. He missed his teacher very much as she was very special to him, and he wanted to see her and show her just what he had accomplished.

He fondly touched his vest pocket with a soft smile on his face. Inside of it were two cards that he didn’t tell his teacher that he had made, and the spell he had made them for. It wasn’t a spell she had taught him, and it was one that he had invented himself. He wanted to show it to her sooner or later and if this gem did what it was rumored to do then he would actually get his chance to do what he wanted. These thoughts were quickly driven from his head as he arrived in the gem platform at the top of the tower. The first thing that he saw was of course the gem.

The gem looked amazing it was a beautiful pristine crystal that was simply held up by the majestic stone griffons. He couldn’t believe how beautiful it looked and the picture it created was truly amazing to him. He then noticed that there were four great windows that allowed him to see out into the rest of Fiore. He walked to the window that was facing to the North. In the horizon he could see the Royal palace sitting out there looking regal and majestic. He wanted to live in a castle, but then thought better about it.

A castle would be nice, but just not his thing too big and too many people looking to scam him out of it. He walked to the window that was facing the east. He looked out and first saw the forest, but then he spotted Magnolia town and that was rather astonishing to him. He knew it was a distance, but it looked so close he could touch it. He left the east facing window and moved towards the south facing window. He looked out and saw the Peace River, and even the Peace Village. Ryo hadn’t been to that village before, but he knew he would have to put it on his list of places to go. He went to the last window that was facing to the west and he looked out of it to spy the old Sabertooth Guild Hall. He knew the real one was high up in the clouds just out of sight.

He couldn’t help but be dumbfounded by the beauty of all of these scenes truly the Sky Tower was some kind of engineering and architectural masterpiece. He realized what he had to do however and despite the beautiful scenery he had a reason for coming to this wonderful place. He turned and faced the beautiful Gem once more. He wanted to take it for himself, but he really couldn’t as he had heard that this gem was unable to be moved, even by the gods. As he looked at the gem it shone brightly in the day light, and Ryo swore that a golden glitter passed over the beautiful perfect diamond.

Ryo let himself bask in the glow of the brilliant gem for a little bit longer, but after a few moments he took a deep breath and walked towards the gem. He carefully raised a hand up to the beautiful diamond and then pressed his hand against its surface. At first nothing happened and he truly thought that nothing was going to happen. As he removed his hand from the diamond he was suddenly turned into golden glitter. He couldn’t believe it and he tried his best to calm down, but it didn’t work out. In the blink of an eye he was swallowed into the diamond.

After several intense seconds of twisting and turning breaking and churning he finally appeared in a new location. He slammed into the ground landing with a hard sounding crash. He was completely dazed from his crash landing and he groaned loudly as he started to try and get back up to his feet. He managed to get to his hands and knees looking around very confused. He was standing in the middle of a great grass sea. It was truly an open field as far as the eye could see. Ryo wasn’t sure where he was so he reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the green cards placing it on the ground carefully. As he stood up and looked around even more there was nothing aside from him. He sighed as he wanted to find his master, but there was no one. Then he heard a familiar voice “Well you’re a sight for sore eyes.”

Ryo stood there frozen in fear, astoundment, and true surprise. He slowly turned around to see his old teacher standing there looking the picture she always looked like. In the years they had spent together she hadn’t aged a day and Ryo wondered if she had managed to find some kind of immortality magic. She stood there in the field hand on her cocked out hip dressed in her usual clothes. Black jeans that accented the curves of her lower body. A short cut black T-shirt –on the T-shirt was a red diamond that sat directly in the middle of her chest -that exposed her mid-drift and the red heart belly button piercing. Her boots reached almost half way to her knees with their own pronounced heels. Her clubs and spades earrings hung low and accented her black hair that was pulled back into a short pony tail.

This was his old teacher, his mistress, and the one who Ryo owed his life and magic to. His teacher Amelia Lockhart. Ryo was dumbfounded and he quickly knelt down on one knew with his hat over his heart “Mistress Amelia…I-I am so honored to see you again. It has truly been too long.” Amelia giggled softly as she walked over to him gently tapping his shoulder “Go ahead and stand up. I swear you are far too formal. You forget we bathed together, and stole together. Don’t put me on so high of a pedestal.” This needless to say caused Ryo to become greatly embarrassed and he quickly rose to his feet putting his hat back on his head “Oh right sorry. I just…I’m so happy to see you Amelia.”

Amelia smiled and hugged Ryo tightly “I am happy to see you too Son. It has been far too long since I last saw you. Although I have been able to keep track of your exploits. After all I know your guild’s bartender rather well. He’s told me a lot about you and your guild. I am very proud of you. So why are we here…wherever here is anyway.” Ryo laughed softly as he nodded his head “Oh right. Well we are here to train together like old times.” Amelia smiled very slyly “Oh boy. This’ll be fun.”

She reached down to her belt and began to pull out the iconic hand three uses, three elements, and two playing cards. Ryo smiled widely as he drew the same hand and they both couldn’t wait to actually start doing what they did best. Ryo and Amelia quickly began to vie for position and they circled each other very carefully. Amelia was the one to make the first move. She pulled out two cards and spoke “Attack Combo: Earth Shotgun!” A blast of earthen shards sailed towards Ryo. He knew that she didn’t like to use the Attack and Defense combos as much anymore as she had far more powerful magic. He on the other hand loved them.

He held up two cards and spoke “Defense Combo: Earth Repel!” the card shone with a bright, but deep brown colored light. As the earthen shards hit the light they flew off in several different directions. This was one of the many different direction repels that were among the white cards. He looked at his remaining hand and quickly pulled up his wind element and his black melee card “Attack Combo: Wind Spear!” He quickly threw it once it had formed in his hand. His teacher however wasn’t the least bit putt off and instead she simply leapt out of the line of fire.

His teacher began to throw element cards along with regular playing cards at Ryo as quickly as she could. Ryo began to run as fast as he could to the side and pull out several more playing cards as he did so. Once his hand was full he stopped and swiped the cards through the air “Lightning Strike!” From the spell circle emerged several bolts of lightning. All of these were sent directly at Amelia and they flew as fast as was possible for the spell’s rank. Amelia smirked as she pulled out cards and threw them on the ground “Attack Combo: Steel Rod!!” she threw it into the ground and dodged away as all of the bolts of lightning struck the rod that was impaled into the ground as it acted like a lightning rod.

Defense Combo Start
Attack Combo Start
Lightning Edge cool down start
75/100% mana left

Ryo couldn’t help but enjoy this sparing session. It had been such a long time since he last sparred with his mistress and he couldn’t help but reminisce while in the midst of this battle. Ryo was quick to draw his hand, but as he looked down at them he tossed his uses cards away they were all useless for him, and he quickly threw them away. They were all completely useless as he had no more spells that he could use with them. As he pulled out the next two cards and another playing card he saw that there were two enhancement cards and he thanked his lucky stars.

He was quick however to notice that his teacher pulled up new cards and she smirked at him “Earth Shower!” She swiped the cards through the air and from them emerged a spell circle that was brown in color. Ryo managed to catch the cards she used for this spell in particular. In her hand was an earth element card, and a detonation card. From the spell circle emerged several large spikes made of earth. Ryo’s eyes went as wide as they could and he quickly whipped out his green card pressing it to his forehead and he quickly winked his right eye.

This gesture served to confuse his teacher and when Ryo’s body began to shattering into dozens of green cards. They flew past the earth spikes and even past Amelia. She whipped around caught completely off guard as she just stared at him and the spell he had just cast.

She had no idea what the spell he used was capable of. As the cards landed where he had placed his anchor point and they began to form into him once more he smirked and looked at Amelia holding his right hand as two green cards appeared in it. With the look on her face Ryo laughed and nodded his head “Your student has learned some new tricks there teach.” With this he tucked the cards back into his vest pocket and threw his element cards. They formed into lightning, earth, and metal respectively. Amelia was caught off guard, but she dodged as best she could, but she was still struck by the metal element card in the shoulder.

Blink Cool Down Start
1 / 2 attack
1/ 3 Defense
1/ 9 Lightning
65/100% magic

She swore loudly as she landed and hit rather hard on the ground trying not to injure herself even more than she already was. She looked to her student with slightly impressed eyes she wasn’t sure how he had created such a spell, but she was sure that she needed to figure out just how to use it herself. Still she wasn’t anywhere near finished teaching him some new tricks. She smirked and stood up slowly reaching into her cards “Well that was certainly impressive Ryo. You have gotten a lot better than you used to be, but I see you are still only using three decks of cards. I’m a bit disappointed in you. Here allow me to show you what I mean.” She reached behind herself and pulled out a single card. This was tarot card and she smiled widely “This is what I mean.” She held up what looked like a tarot card, an enhancement card, and the rest of her hand was playing cards, and even her left hand was full of playing cards.

Ryo had no idea what she was going to do with all of these cards, but he knew this. It was a brand new spell that she had pulled out of her hat of tricks. Ryo watched very carefully as she dropped all of these cards down on the ground in front of her. She spoke a soft incantation and suddenly the cards began to multiply and take form. Ryo stood there completely dumbfounded as it formed into a bear. She smirked as she looked at him and pet the bear made of cards “This is my newest spell. You still have some time to get to the point where you can use it, but I know you will get there one day.” She looked to the bear smiling “Get him.” The bear roared at Ryo and Ryo for the first time looked very afraid. He quickly jumping back away from the charging card bear. He pulled out three playing cards and grabbed his enhancement card and wind element card “Wind’s edge!” he threw these cards out towards the bear and they formed into a long curved slice of wind. As it hit the bear however only a few of the cards were taken off of the bear’s body, and it kept coming.

Ryo swore loudly as the bear kept coming at him, and Ryo was really starting to run out of ideas. He quickly pulled up the pair of cards he was able to use for the base of his next spell, but he was not able to get the spell cast before the great big bear came charging him even faster. Ryo swore and dove to the left of the bear tucking and rolling as he tried to get away. He didn’t make it though as the bear managed to stomp on his leg. He cried out loudly as the pain was intense, he didn’t feel anything break, but it still hurt more than he thought it would. He looked up in time to see the bear turn on him and as it raised its great paw in the air it suddenly shattered and dozens upon dozens of cards fell down on top of him, and he was soon buried in them. Ryo laid there buried under the cards and he really didn’t feel like moving.

After a few minutes he heard Amelia stop next to him. She looked down and gently wiped the cards out of his face nodding her head lightly “That beast could’ve lasted much longer. I stopped it because I know how deadly that spell can be.” Ryo sighed heavily as he looked up at his teacher “Tell me when I will be able to use a spell as powerful as that one?” She giggled softly and began to pull the cards into her hand “not for a time I am afraid, but don’t worry soon you will be able to just use playing cards along with your uses deck. However, that isn’t what is important right now, what is important is that I have won this round, and we are still here. What more is there to this place?” Ryo sat up as he picked up a few more of the cards lying around and he shrugged his shoulders “Well I’m not sure about that, but for now let’s just catch up. I haven’t seen you in so long Amelia. I’ve missed you terribly.”

Amelia giggled softly as she nodded her head lightly and sat down next to him shuffling her own new deck of playing cards “I know. I’ve missed you as well. So go ahead and tell me what’s new in your life. After all I really want to know this. You’re the closest thing to a son I’ll ever have.” Ryo couldn’t help but blush slightly as he nodded his head “You’ve quickly become my new mother…I was truly alone when you found me…I never thought my life would turn out like this…I have so much to thank you for…Truly I do.” Amelia found herself blushing as she shook her head “Don’t you worry about that. Now just tell me what’s going on in your life with your guild…what was it called…uh.. Oh right Sabertooth. Interesting name for a guild, and from your tattoo I have to say that it is also a very interesting brand to wear.”

Ryo nodded his head lightly as he looked at the rolling fields “yes indeed. I have to admit I’ve had some very interesting adventures being a member of Sabertooth, I’ve seen first-hand the kind of evil that some mages will bring upon the world if allowed to continue with their madness. I have also seen the good that I can do for others with my magic. It has become painfully clear to me that mages are both good and bad for the world. So far I’ve seen more good than bad, and that makes me happy.” Amelia giggled softly shaking her head “I forgot just how deep and philosophical you can be. Well, all of those deep philosophical points aside I can honestly say this. You’re not good or bad. You’re simply a person. You do things that one might consider good, or one might consider bad. If you recall you were a thief when I met you. Not like before where you were stealing to stay alive, no when I met you, you were stealing to afford a life you didn’t have.” Ryo sighed slightly as he nodded his head in agreement “And I have never forgotten it, and will never regret it, and I will never apologize for it either.”

Amelia giggled as she nodded her head once more “Good. Nor should you. Your past gave you a place to start from and your future is going to shape you into the person you want to be. Now then enough of this how about something simple. Any friends? Girls? Guys? Anyone else in your life besides little ol’ me?” Ryo laughed as he looked at her “Old? You don’t look any older than the day we first met. Don’t be ridiculous. Now as for that yes I have several friends. Most of them are in my guild…well not several, but I have some, and all of my guild mates have sort of become my second…or rather third family. Now friends I have Marick, he is rather interesting. Another card mage, but his magic is very different from mine. I can’t imagine where he learned such a thing, but I have to assume that since it is card magic that it was taught to him by someone. Much like I was. Of course there is also…well there is Ian.” Amelia looked at Ryo with a rather interested look as he said the name “Ian” clearly Ryo had something big for this particular person.

She smiled and nudged him “So who is this Ian?” she asked in a cheerful and happy tone. Ryo smiled up at the sky as he thought about Ian “He is a mage in Sabertooth. He specializes in Wind Magic. He’s almost as carefree and unbound as his magic, but there is something that stops him. It is self- doubt, or something, but he holds himself back, but for what reason I can’t ever say. He won’t let me in far enough yet to make a guess. Ian and I…well…we’ve become rather close…I love him Amelia…I really do, and the more time I spend with him, the stronger these feelings get. I can’t help it, but part of me has no problem with that at all. He takes my heart and soars with it like he soars through the sky.” Amelia giggled ever so softly nodding her head “yes love can do that to you, but don’t get too hurt should Ian drop your heart while he is flying high.”

Ryo snapped his gaze to his teacher with a slightly upset look “I am aware of that Amelia. This world is hardly ever kind to those who forget the simple fact that everything you love, and hold dear can be taken from you in the blink of an eye and leave you all alone to face the world without that comfort, or any other comfort ever again.” Amelia nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbow which pried a loud gasp of pain from him. He looked to her and she had a stern look on her face “now you listen here boy, and don’t get it twisted, life may drop you low, but when I told you when one door closes another opens I meant it, and you’d better not be all mopey like this all the time. I know I brought you up better than that you understand me?” she said with a rather angry tone of voice.

Ryo smiled as he lay back in the grass looking up at the sky above him “Yes I understand ‘Mom’ I will do just as you have said, there is no need to be so harsh on me.” Amelia hit him playfully on the leg as she too lay back to look up at the sky “You little ass. Anyway anything else about your rather interesting life since last we met?” it took Ryo a moment, but then he smirked “I got a dog. Like you would never let me have.” Amelia groaned loudly but smiled “Well you always loved dogs, but we couldn’t have one because we were in a very harsh environment and that wouldn’t have been healthy to bring a dog into, much less the intense training I put you through barely left you conscious when we had free time. What kind of dog?” Ryo smiled a bit wider and looked at her “A dire wolf from the books I’ve read on the subject.” Amelia looked at him like he was completely out of his mind “you found a what? You did what?! Have you lost what’s left of your card filled mind?!”

Ryo laughed softly as he shook his head “Nah I haven’t lost my mind. The pup was injured and I found it on my last mission. It was about to be eaten by some huge swarm of ugly insects, and I refused to let that stand in my view. So I killed all of the insects, and then bandaged the pup, fed it, and that’s how I got it to come with me and be mine. His name is Gora; he is truly the sweetest little thing. He only needed a home and someone to show him love, and that is exactly what I did for him. Now he’s with me, and that is truly the best for both of us. He’s still only a puppy and I have lots of training to do with him, but he will be up to snuff in no time.” Amelia sighed and just continued to lay back staring up at the sky “Well I guess you seem to know what you are doing so I won’t bother you anymore with what I think.” She smiled softly as the night began its approach “It looks like we are going to be here over night then huh?”

Ryo shrugged lightly as he looked up “Aye. It appears to be so, but the air is still warm so I think we shall have a most comfortable sleep this night. All we need do is sleep and relax.” With that he tipped his hat in front of his head and Amelia rolled her eyes as she yawned and closed her eyes getting ready for sleep herself. She was far more than exhausted and she needed to recoup her strength if she was going to spend even more time training Ryo. The pair laid there in the vast grassland and simply slept through the dark of night. As the sun slowly rose over the pair of sleeping mages both of them stirred and awoke. Ryo was the first to wake and he smiled as he sat up groaning lightly from the stretching he was putting through his body as it slowly woke up with him.

He looked to his teacher with a smile as she only opened her eyes to look at him “You know I have so missed that face when I wake in the mornings. My home is so empty now without you around.” Ryo laughed as he shook his head “You could always take on another student. That way you wouldn’t be alone in your home anymore.” She shook her head as she sat up “Not an option. I told you before I am only to teach one person my magic and in doing so pass it on to the next generation. Should you die then I would do such a thing as take on another pupil, but until then you were my last pupil and that is alright with me. Now then my student; we have lots more to do today, so you be sure and give me all you have otherwise this won’t be much of a fight.”

Ryo stood up and stretched once more and walked a few paces away casually dropping one of his green cards onto the ground. This act went unnoticed by his teacher, and that was something he had been counting on. He reached into his decks and drew his hand rather slowly this time. The cards he had now were somewhat helpful, but he would only have one non-combo spell that would be his to use. This is something he had hoped wouldn’t be the case, but he knew that enhancement cards formed only a small portion of his uses deck. He would have to remedy that sooner, or later, but for now he was going to focus on the task at hand. He looked back at Amelia who was already standing up with her cards in hand “Well my student, it will be much like yesterday. Fight me until your last breath, and I don’t want you to even attempt to hold yourself back. I will only hold back when I know the blow will be fatal, you’ve already tried to kill me once, and you saw how that played out. So show me what you can do Ryo, show me the strength of your cards, and your will.”

Ryo nodded his head and tipped his hat over his head once more “A clean slate today, you’ve given me all the time I need to recover my mana, and deal with you. Well then. I am ready to fight you now. So here we go.” With that he drew up two cards “Attack Combo: Flame Rapier!” in his hand the sword formed into a rapier that was made of flames. He rushed forward with it and lunged with the blade. Amelia smiled as she danced out of range “Attack Combo: Water Rapier.” In her hands the two cards formed into a Rapier made of water. She then lunged for him only to have him parry the strike with one of his own “Well my student your fencing has improved.” With a few more strikes from both opponents along with several more parries from them as well both blades vanished from the wielders.

Ryo leapt back out of range as he quickly pulled up another set of cards, he was nearly ready to strike and he had to quickly grab two more playing cards from his playing card deck. He wasn’t going to get much time to really react as his teacher threw down her own cards and began her spell. It was the Prayer Fountain spell, and this one was coming right for Ryo. Ryo swore and pulled up his white card and his water card “Defense Combo: Water Dome shield!” he threw the cards down in front of him as he knelt down to hide behind the shield. As the torrents of water hit the dome they were forced to glance off, but it was only after the third one that Ryo’s shield was starting to break. Ryo growled softly and dodged out of his shield as the last three hit it and shattered his shield. He quickly grabbed the last two cards he needed from his playing card deck and stood up “Lightning Strike!” six bolts shot from the spell circle as he waved the circle into existence. Five of them held still and the one that didn’t shot right towards Amelia.

Amelia couldn’t believe her eyes her student had that level of control over his spell, and this was amazing to her, as she didn’t even control this spell as well as this. She quickly dodged the lightning bolt as it sailed past her although she didn’t stop to rest. Ryo didn’t give her a chance to rest either as he let two more of the bolts fly towards her on either side of where she would be if she dodged to either the left or the right. Amelia swore softly as she quickly pulled up two more cards “you are the only one with a spell! Defense Combo: Lightning Cancel!” she threw the cards at one of his lightning bolts and the moment the bolt hit it his whole spell came unraveled and he stood there now with an empty hand. He swore softly as he realized just what that meant and he really wasn’t in the position where he could have an empty hand.

He quickly reached into his pocket and drew out more cards. He was unable to get them out fast enough and was stuck by a great dirt clod. He grunted as he was knocked down to the ground. He groaned lightly as he rolled over to get up. He managed to get to his feet and turn around just in time to see several cards flying towards him. He quickly dove to the left and tucked tightly to roll away. When he stopped rolling he stood up and whipped around and threw five cards at Amelia “Projectile Cards”. As these cards flew towards Amelia, and after a moment of traveling they split and doubled. All ten of these cards were sent flying towards her.

Amelia swore softly as she tried to get out of the line of fire, but didn’t manage it. Instead she got hit by several of the cards and these sent her flying onto her backside. She swore softly as she looked up at him “Sneaky trick there boyo, but don’t expect that to be a repeat performance from here on out. I’ve got all the tricks I need to take you down.”

Ryo smirked as he looked at his teacher “Oh I have no doubt that you have plenty of tricks, but remember what you taught me. Those who talk a big game must not have enough luck up their sleeve to finish the game.” He quickly pulled up more cards ready to fight back. Amelia smirked and stood up throwing cards at him. As they traveled the cards burst into flame and quickly became a true threat. Ryo didn’t worry about it. He quickly pulled up two cards “Defense Combo: Fire Repel!” as the flaming cards rushed at him they suddenly hit an invisible wall.

As they struck the wall they shot away, some of them even went flying back towards Amelia. She was quick to dodge much like her student had and now they were even on hits and defense. Ryo smiled as he looked at his teacher again, but this time he pulled up two more cards “Attack Combo: Water Torrent!” from the cards a great torrent of water surged forth like water from a fire hose. Amelia swore as she did her best to get away from the blast, but she was sadly just far too slow. She was sprayed with a good portion of the water struck her almost full force.

She cursed her rotten luck as she was sent in a sprawl from the blast she had just taken. As she got up it was slow moving, but she still was determined to get up and counter. She smirked and pulled up more playing cards along with a tarot card “Card Creation: Animal, Tiger.” The cards from her hands fell and began to form into a creature. It slowly formed into a large Tiger made of cards. She smiled and nodded her head “Good now go get him, but don’t kill him.” The tiger snarled as it turned to Ryo and slowly stalked towards him. Ryo swore as he drew up more cards ever so slowly so as not to warrant an outright lunge at himself. He nodded his head lightly as he pulled up to cards to be at the ready as the tiger drew ever closer.

Ryo looked at his hand and bit down on his bottom lip. He had only a few cards that he could possibly use to mount a defense. He quickly brought up one of his black cards with a slow steady hand. As he slowly stepped back he began to concentrate. The card quickly changed and he smiled now. He pulled up two more cards “Defense Combo: Metal Dome!” he threw the cards down and knelt over them as a large dome of metal formed over him. The tiger stood there completely shocked and caught off guard. It stood there trying to figure out how it would get at Ryo now.

This gave Ryo the time he wanted to have and he quickly pulled up two more of his playing cards. He also tucked his remaining combo away in his back pocket and finished rounding out his hand with playing cards. Amelia on the outside smirked as she looked at the shield “Pathetic.” She pulled up two cards “Defense Combo: Metal Cancel” she threw the cards at the dome and it vanished the moment the cards touched it. Ryo smirked as he looked at the tiger in front of him that just seemed to come back to life and realize that its target was out in the open.

Ryo watched as the tiger got ready to attack him, but Ryo was faster “Burning Cards!” He threw the cards and the now flaming cards, five cards in total surged forward towards the tiger that had already committed itself to the lunge. All five of the burning cards found their target striking the tiger in various different places. Some in the head, some in the chest, some in the legs, all in all the tiger was struck by the full brunt of this attack. The cards that made up the tiger’s body flew off of it faster than Ryo could possibly believe. As the tiger struck the ground only the claws and one half of the head remained. Thankfully this wasn’t nearly enough of a body to let the tiger stay and it shattered into the cards that had created it.

As the beast shattered into the cards that had created it Ryo looked up at his teacher with a smirk on his face “You know that is one neat trick, but for some reason I think it is quite taxing on your mana reserves. I know us card mages have never really be one to worry about such things, but it seems to me that such reckless casting might cause far more harm to you. I advise you to be careful.” Amelia scoffed as she looked at him “You are truly silly. I am not a fragile little girl I’ll have you know I am much, much older than you whelp. Don’t you go assuming things.”

She stood up pulling more cards from her various deck boxes smirking “We haven’t even begun to play for the day. It’s still late morning my friend we are going to have quite the fight today. So don’t you even worry about me.” She pulled up two more cards, but this was odd as from the look of them they were a playing card, and a black card. Ryo knew she had some new trick, but he didn’t know it was something as strong as what he was seeing. She smirked and spoke her spell “Attack Combo: Card Barrage!” From the two cards shot many in a rapid fire pattern.

These cards flew towards Ryo like bullets, and Ryo was quick to try and avoid the attack. He quickly pulled up several cards and put them in a special spell circle. From this spell circle came a great slashing form of wind that formed a wall in front of him. The cards smashed into it and this allowed Ryo to duck and dodge from the incoming attack that was pounding through his temporary shield. This was the perfect opportunity for him he pulled up even more of his cards and quickly found the cards that he needed. He threw the cards down and spoke his spell “Prayer Fountain!” from the spell circle, and the maximum amount of cards he could use several great torrents of water surged towards his teacher.

His teacher was caught off guard by this sudden act and the torrents of water that were coming at her. She couldn’t believe that her student was able to do something like this under such a pressure. Still she had to figure out how to block or avoid this attack as best she possibly could. She pulled up two cards and spoke “Defense Combo: Card Wall!” in front of her formed a thick wall made of dozens, upon dozens of cards. Most of them blocked the great water torrents, but finally the wall couldn’t hold and the torrents of water busted through.

Amelia swore loudly as she jumped away tucking and rolling. She hated to admit that he was actually starting to put the pressure on her, and she was starting to run out of options. She might’ve trained him too well, but she then reflected back onto the fact that he was now a guild mage. This meant that he probably had a lot more training than what he had left her with. At least she hoped that was the case. She wanted him to become the best wizard that he possibly could be. As she landed she turned and threw several playing cards and elemental cards without a uses card to form a spell.

This bought her some time as she set up her next spell. She pulled up an earth card, an enhancement card and four playing cards throwing them in a straight line in front of her “Earth Spike!” from each of the cards emerged a giant spike of earth, and stone. These spikes shot from the ground and towards Ryo. Ryo was quick and he put the green blink card to his forehead and winked at it. He shattered into cards once more and flew to the card that was placed on the ground. As he arrived at the location he began to reform into his usual self. He was quickly met by a large ball of cards striking him in the chest. He swore as the ball knocked him clean off of his feet and sent him flying.

As Ryo flew backwards from the force of the impact his hat was blown off of his head and he landed hard in the dirt. Once he hit the ground loudly trying to get to his feet under him. He wanted to get up and fight, but it was much harder than he expected it to be. It took him several minutes, but he finally managed to sit upright on his ass of course, but still he was up and ready. As he looked up he saw his hat in front of his face. He smiled ever so softly as he knew who was holding it for him.

He reached up and took his hat in hand putting it back on top of his head “Thanks for that Teach. What the hell are all of these spells you’ve been using? I wasn’t aware you could use regular playing cards with uses cards. This is completely crazy. You are using this magic in a far different light than I could ever hope to imagine. Also how did you make it so your magic can do something as amazing as summoning an animal made of cards? Shouldn’t that be just beyond us? Like beyond the capability of our magic?”

Amelia smiled and shook her head lightly “Well that’s never been truly defined. After all I am a woman of many talents. However, if you want the truth of the matter is it far simpler than what you think. Quite simply magic is not a rock. It is a living organism. It has the ability to change, grow, evolve into newer higher, and become something almost entirely new. I only just recently learned how to use playing cards in tandem with the uses deck. You will be the first to learn all of this. Not only that, but you seem to have some things to teach me. That little jumping spell you use is quite something.”  Ryo rolled his eyes as he looked up at her “Obviously not that great otherwise I wouldn’t have been slammed by that ball of cards you shot at me.”

Amelia giggled ever so softly as she sat down next to Ryo looking up at the sky “I know how it may seem, but I promise that one day you will learn all that I have. However what you need to do is focus on Tarot cards. You see those fortune telling cards are actually filled with an ancient magic that even I can’t begin to understand. What I can understand is that if we access their powers we will be able to make our magic even stronger. You see the tarot cards I was using were animal tarots. You need a deck of them yourself.”

Ryo frowned as he gave his teachers words of wisdom some serious thought. He pulled out the deck of Tarot cards he always kept with him and looked at them “You’re telling me that I can use these in those kinds of spells? I am very interested in learning this magic. Not to mention the playing card spells that you have been using. I find it very hard to believe that this is simple Combo Card Magic. Well if it is then you have made it completely different than when you taught it to me in the first place.”

Amelia giggled again “I told you already. Magic evolves. The magic I taught you and the magic I used have evolved. You can do that Blinking spell of yours while I can do playing card magic and other such things. However if you noticed the base spells I’ve been using are still the basic of the combo card spells. Elements, Playing cards, and Uses Decks. These three card decks are the basis of our magics. No matter what this is what it means to be a Combo Card Mage.” She smiled and gently slapped Ryo on the back “Also being a Combo Card mage means that we always find and make new combos. So never stop looking for new ways to form combos and add diversity to your magic. Ours is the most diverse of magics, not just card magics in general but magics as a whole.”

Ryo nodded his head with a giant smile on his face. He was ready to continue their training fight once more. He slowly got up to his feet smiling down at his teacher extending his hand to her in order to pull her up “Come on then Mistress. We have even more things we need to get done. After all I still need to keep training with you. I need to get strong enough that you are proud of me and have no reason to doubt that our brand of card magic will be passed on to the next generation.”

She smiled up at Ryo as she took his hand and pulled herself up to her feet with a satisfied grunt. As she dusted herself off she spoke “Well Ryo my boy you have no reason to worry about all of that. After all I wouldn’t have taught you my magic in the first place if I wasn’t sure it would be passed on, and as for the proud of you thing. I’ve never been more proud of anyone in this world Ryo. Be sure of that and you can take that to the bank if you so desire, but I’m not sure it is worth much at the moment. Now then let’s get back to it.”

Both she and Ryo take out their hands for their next section of cards. They were going to use these hands in order to battle each other. Both of them had pretty standard hands in fact they were almost completely identical. The only true difference was the fact that Amelia had more playing cards in her hand than Ryo had in his, but he had to wonder just what she was doing to draw so many enhancement cards in order to use all of these spells that used a lot of black cards. He would have to make a note to ask her before the sun went down and they went to sleep for the night. He whipped around to see her and frowned slightly as he held up his cards in front of his face.

He didn’t get a chance to really do anything as of yet as Amelia was faster still. She picked up a few cards and held them up “Attack Combo: Flame Thrower!” Ryo wasn’t about to be caught off guard that bad and quickly held up two cards “Defense Combo: Flame Absorb!” All of the flames from his teacher’s attack filled the card and then the red glow of the flames sank into Ryo giving him the mana boost that he really needed and now he was ready to launch his attack. He pulled up two more cards and smirked as he spoke his next spell “Attack Combo: Metal Missile!”

From the cards in his hand emerged a missile made entirely of metal. It flew towards Amelia, but she wasn’t caught off guard yet and she pulled up two more cards, but this time it was a playing card and a white uses card. She spoke quickly “Defense Combo: Card Wall!” in front of her formed the same wall of cards that saved her earlier. This time however she was too slow the missile was caught in the middle of her wall and the moment the wall finished the missile exploded sending shrapnel, ball bearings, and various debris all over the battlefield indiscriminately.

This caused even Ryo to try and dodge the debris and when he finally landed he stood up to see Amelia standing looking kinda beaten up at this point. She sighed heavily as she looked at him. She then just collapsed to the grassy land bellow her. Ryo was horrified by this sight and he rushed over to her kneeling down in the grass picking her head up carefully “Amelia?! Oh gods are you alright?” She opened her eyes slightly with a soft nod “yeah…I’ll be fine I just can’t believe that you’ve gotten this powerful…okay you win this round. You mind if we take a bit of a break so I can recover some.” Ryo smiled widely as he nodded his head “Yeah sure. We can the rest of the day off. No hurries anyway I think we are here for a while.”