A barrage of purple balls shot through the air by the dozen. Some shot in straight lines, others curved, some wiggled in the air like a knuckleball.
"If you can dodge a ball, you can dodge a wrench!" I yelled from next to Myst. It was a good exercise for him. Creating this many projectiles, while controlling the power level, would help with his fine control. Not that he really needed any extra help, but it didn't hurt to practice.
Across the turf field was a kid in athletic garb scrambling to dodge the waves of projectiles. Alongside him was a Blaziken and Pikachu. I'd asked Niel to release two pokemon for the exercise.
Any time a shadow ball hit Niel, it dissipated harmlessly. The same did not hold true for Blaziken and Pikachu. Both seemed outside of their comfort zone, getting clipped every once in a while.
"Hey this is unfair! How is that Zorua so strong?! And why am I the only one doing this? And why would I have to worry about getting hit by a wrench?" Niel yelled between rolls.
He had caught on to the exercise pretty quick. Pikachu and Blaziken had too. The short bursts of pain had been sufficient for the Pikachu and Blaziken. They had gotten used to suppressing their instincts, only moving at Niel's command. This exercise was doing wonders to train that out of them. Niel, on the other hand, was stubborn enough to not want to be outdone by his pokemon. Despite not even feeling the shadow balls as more than a light pop of air, he quickly began trying his hardest to dodge every single one coming his way.
"I won't be throwing wrenches at you anytime soon, if that's what you're asking. Just the ramblings of a mad man. You'll get used to it." I replied.
He did bring up a good point though.
"Alright Myst that's enough." The barrage of shadow balls stopped. Myst yawned. Not out of exhaustion. Out of boredom.
"Okay that's good for now! You can come over and take a rest." I yelled.
Niel and the two pokemon stumbled over. The earlier enthusiasm they had, running everywhere they went, seemed to have vanished as they succumbed to exhaustion.
Blaziken collapsed on the ground next to Myst, chest heaving. The fire chicken waved me off when I offered a water.
I released Circe. The Eevee had done some dodging training before, but never this intense. It was a good thing she couldn't take any damage from the barrage.
I nodded to Niel as he walked past and threw him the water I offered Blaziken. He dumped it on his face, sighing contentedly before collapsing to the ground next to the flaming fighter.
"Myst! Same thing." The Zorua stood up, having curled up after the exercise. He looked dejected, knowing that his attacks wouldn't do anything to either of the two targets.
I stood across the turf field, focusing my aura.
Pinpricks ran along my skin as a brownish hue began to coat my body. I closed my eyes, feeling my body from within. I moved my limbs, noticing the muscles contract. I breathed, centering myself. I could feel my nerves tingling as the aura took hold.
Zuko and I practiced at least fifteen minutes every day. It had been paying off, and I felt pretty comfortable summoning the energy.
"Woah how'd you do that?! My dad said he'd teach me when I'm older." Niel's face fell at the topic, but was now invested.
Myst was also more invested. Me focusing my aura into fighting energy now meant that the shadow balls could actually hurt me.
"I'll explain later!" I looked down. "Circe, Myst is going to try and hit us with shadow balls. This is an exercise, and none of these balls will hurt you. Try to dodge them anyway, okay." I explained, receiving a fierce nod in return.
Circe dropped low onto all fours, baring her teeth and growling at Myst in anticipation.
"Whenever you're ready Myst!"
A flurry of shadow balls immediately rocketed towards me. By instinct, I tried to swat the first one to the side. It completely ignored the gesture, exploding against my skin.
Shit!
I jumped and rolled to the right to avoid the rest of the barrage. My right hand burned, like I'd placed the back of my hand on the top of a stove.
The shadow balls continued with a vengeance. I slid under two, jumped over one, slipped between three, jumped back to avoid a swerving one.
The barrage was far more intense than the one Niel had to deal with. I barely had the time to notice, but more than three quarters of the shadow balls Myst was sending out seemed to be heading in my direction, rather than Circe's.
Screw this.
I frantically continued dodging as I began to focus a new energy into my hands. I could feel the energies revolting against one another, but I steeled my will. It was possible. It could be done.
I failed to completely sway out of the way, and a shadow ball grazed the side of my cheek, making it sting.
This was hard. This was really hard. I hadn't been able to do this before, when there weren't a bunch of shadow balls rocketing towards me. To be fair, I'd never actually attempted this before. I had the tools though. I could focus the energy into my hands. I'd done it once before. Coating it over a layer of fighting energy was a little different, and this really wasn't the best time to be trying to manifest the energies in this way, but I was getting pissed. Besides, trial by fire is usually pretty effective.
Another shadow ball grazed my leg. Another slammed into my arm, disrupting my focus. It felt like somebody had tossed boiling water onto me, but I set my mind straight and kept working.
My body was an autopilot, dodging shadow balls on pure instinct, before I finally felt the void energy settle over the martial aura on my hands.
Experimentally, I stared down the next batch of shadow balls and swatted one to the side. This time, it actually worked. The shadow balls went sailing off into the wall, exploding into nothingness.
The next five shadow balls met the same fate.
My eyes lit up. This was fun.
I ignored the searing pain coming from where the shadow balls had hit me, and started closing the distance on Myst.
Noticing a swerving shadow ball arcing to come behind me, I turned around and jumped, swatting the shadow ball into the ground.
Myst increased his intensity. Circe had stopped trying to dodge the shadow balls, simply letting them dissipate harmlessly against her fur as she watched me swat shadow balls out of the air, arms almost blurring.
As I got closer, the shadow balls began to grow in number.
One slammed into my leg, making me lose my footing. As I tried to stand back up, three more slammed into my torso, knocking the wind out of me. I flew back a couple feet and landed on my back.
Time stopped as I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, chest heaving, before finally noticing the shadow balls had stopped.
A brown object appeared in my vision as Circe ran up to lick my face.
I then felt a weight on my stomach, making my lungs burn even more. I tried to lift my head up to see what it was, only to see Myst openly declaring his victory, standing over my body in conquest.
My head dropped back into the turf. My body hurt. Everywhere. Shadow balls are not fun to get hit by. I let my aura fade back, but the pain refused to leave me. I still felt like my skin was boiling.
"Hey Red, should I get my notebook? I thought I was supposed to dodge the balls. But you got hit by them instead. Should I write down that I'm supposed to recklessly charge into overwhelming enemy fire?" Niel prodded my side with his foot. "Red? Answer me!"
"Uuuuugggghhhh." My mouth managed to make sounds despite my collapsed lungs and broken ribcage. That had to be the extent of my injuries, nothing else could describe the pain I was in.
"Wow. How wise! I'll do my best to emulate your teachings, oh master." Niel giggled.
Damn it. What happened to the stubborn moping Niel? When did he get so sarcastic?
Myst had jumped off my chest, doing a victory lap. I slowly began the process of getting up. Over near Myst, a podium had appeared out of thin air, as well as a mini jumbotron above it. Myst was on top of the podium, haid raised in regal elegance. A shadowy figure held a gold medal, putting it around the Zorua's neck. The jumbotron was replaying a video of me getting hit by the last trio of shadow balls. Different angles showed my chest getting decimated by the consecutive blows.
"Hey Red, how does your Zorua do that? I didn't know that Zorua can do that. My Dad said that the ranger Zoroark bend light around the camp to hide it, but he never said they could do stuff like this."
There was finally enough air in my lungs for me to start forming words again.
"Aaaa." "Ahem." I coughed. "Myst is a special case. You'll get used to it. He's a complete showboat, but he means well. Probably."
Niel nodded. He giggled as he saw another replay of me getting hit by shadow balls, this time a shot from behind.
Pikachu was awe struck, eyes wide as it stared at Myst's antics. Blaziken was in a similar state.
I slowly began to regain feeling in my fingers and toes. The burning sensation coming from my torso simmered. Like a paper cut, but across my entire chest, rather than third degree burns. Mostly just a stinging sensation.
"Alright Myst. That's enough for now."
Myst cackled. The podium and jumbotron both faded into nothingness, and Myst dropped to the ground. He slowly made his way over to me, each step filled with exaggerated swagger.
I sighed.
This wasn't how I wanted today to go. I'd gotten carried away. I saw the opportunity to try something new. I'd done it. Actually succeeded. That was huge. Being able to hold two different types of aura was something I'd never done before. Plus, void aura was still something I was pretty novel at. Being able to do this was huge. But I'd taken things too far. I'd tried to win.
It was a training exercise. It was merely supposed to be to help train dodging. Yet in the heat of the moment, I'd come up with a different way to tackle the exercise. One that let me fight the projectiles, rather than dodge them. I'd taken it further, seeing it as an opportunity to one up Myst.
I failed. I hadn't even gotten within twenty feet of him.
Niel crouched down and held out his fist. Myst raised his paw, hitting it against the fist. They both turned, cackling as they looked at me.
Great. There were two of them.
I rubbed my fingers against my temples, trying to ignore the roar of blood pounding in my skull. Man, getting hit by ghost moves really sucks. I'm tempted to never use aura again, just to be immune to stray attacks.
"Alright, I'm gonna take five. Myst, Niel, you're back up. Niel, if you want different team members to join, feel free."
"What? No fair! You lost, and you're still making me do this?"
"Well, since I lost, doesn't it mean that much more if you dodge them?" I retorted.
That seemed to shut him up. I really was excited about the aura breakthroughs. I couldn't wait until the pain faded so I could truly appreciate it.
In the meantime, I'd drink water and try to get some vindication as Niel and his team got more dodging practice.