The Complementation Between Magic
Frost 5th, 120th Year, AoS
Another day of training within the snowy arena of the Proving Grounds, another day of building towards his goal of the Argent Hand. Though many of the days spent training had been mainly physical, the occasional addition of the magical played a part sometimes too. How else could Rickter better his skills as a warrior, and as a guardian, when those aspects of his magic played a crucial role with the two? Telion had accompanied him as always, this time without her staff, however, as the bard knew what Rickter's focus would be in regards to today's training. Not that he didn't make it outright obvious, for the wolf was eager to learn when it came to something new. This was why today he'd be practicing Elementalism today, to ascertain his current limits and how to navigate them, so that in the near future he'd be able to carry it further when he needed to.
"Okay!" Telion called out with her gloved hands together, her fingers interlocked as she lightly rubbed the leather of her thumbs over one another. "Looks like you're ready to begin!" She teased with a slight bend before Rickter, giggling as he crossed his arms with a slight grin on his face. "You remember how to manifest an element?" Rickter's answer was that of a firm nod, with a tilt of his head when he addressed her with an inquiry.
"As for manipulating elements, does it have to be one I'm able to control?" In asking it, however, Telion's eyes widened in utter confusion. Clearly what he'd asked was rather absurd, and for a moment he felt like the novice he truly was.
"I think you're worried about the manifestation aspect still," She reasoned with a light shrug to him in turn, "because manipulation allows you to control elements in their natural form. Which," her smile increased as she twisted to gesture at the field, "if you look around there's plenty of." Rickter's eyes narrowed briefly before he caught on, his gaze drifting over the snow in the area, before it fell back upon the woman near him entirely.
"So I can control a natural element with manipulation... Interesting." He ruminated on that fact thoughtfully, thinking of ways he could use snow to his advantage. It was naturally water-given a solid form after all, which led him to wonder if Elementalism offered further control over Elemental forms somehow.
"As you are now, manipulating it is probably the easier route to go. Eventually, with a bit of practice, you'll be able to manifest other elements. One step at a time though! Let's see," Her sentence was cut off when she noticed Rickter brought his hand out, holding it out with the palm down as he focused. Channeling his aether into the air he coaxed at the snow with it, tugging at the natural element with his aether before the particles of ice started to rise. At least a foot beneath where his hand lingered, specks of snow started to rise and fall within the trail of aether he'd created, the dust swirling about almost in a cloud-like manner as it accumulated within the heart of his aether. More of the particles lifted from the ground as he focused, his hand shifting so that he pushed into the air itself, causing his aether to fly forth and send the cluster of snow hurdling away.
Telion was rather surprised, especially with how quickly he'd seem to catch on. "What?!" He inquired with a slight shrug. "It's almost as easy as it sounds honestly."
"Hah! Okay then," Telion nearly laughed aloud with her hands rested on her hip, "it figures you'd get a feel of it yourself. But just remember manipulating elements in their natural form is limited, you can beckon elements to your will but subjecting them to change entirely is something we'll have to cover later! Right now you need to practice more!"
"Practice huh? You saying I can change the Elements and their form?" To that inquiry she stiffened a bit, her eyes up in thought with a finger under her chin.
"Well, if you're referring to their forms such as ice to snow then it's possible, yes." She then loosened and held up her two hands, focusing on her left hand as she attracted snow to it, catching loose particles within the air as well as pulling some from the ground. When a perfectly round snowball accumulated above her palm, Telion then flexed her fingers a few times before steam started to rise from the ball. Gradually the snowball started to melt in the air, becoming an orb of water still generating a bit of steam as it floated in place. "As you grow in power with practice, you'll be able to play with combinations a bit. Altering forms of elements takes practice, but as you can see I can make snow and ice turn into water, even steam if I want to commit to it." She elaborated with her free hand pointing at the air around the water ball.
"Interesting." The wolf observed with a look of intrigue in his eyes, his arms crossed once more as he watched Telion continue the lesson.
"We'll practice refining your control, but it won't be too long before you can even combine elements with your weaponry!" she pointed out with a hearty grin, leading Rickter to remember Aoren and the other Kathar he'd met once, and how they could coat their weaponry in flames at the time. If that was a trick of an Elementalist, then could he not also use that for Reaving? The thought led him to wonder, though, not before seeing Telion generate a pocket of wind above her other hand. Particles of snow blew about frantically above her other palm, as the air above it lightly whistled in turn as she displayed both the water and the wind elements for Rickter.
"Eventually you can even combine natural elements, to make what is called Para-Elements." In explaining this she brought her hands closer, almost to where their sides touched, and the elements seemingly merged with one another. Water and wind swirled about to form into a mist, before the body of liquid itself hardened into that of a ball of ice entirely. "Like ice."
"Interesting..." Now his tone had grown academic in a way, his eyes shifting from the ice ball to his own hands afterward. So. He knew what was possible with Elementalism now, all that was left was to experiment and see where his limitations lay for now. Almost immediately he held out his left hand, breathing in deeply before he concentrated, and manifested the Pact bastard sword he used in battle. Telion looked at him confused, the ice ball crumbling away as aetheric particles dissipated from within it. She looked to question him for calling upon his weaponry here, when today was simply meant to be a practice with magic entirely.
Thankfully that's just what Rickter had planned to do, for when he saw his reflection in the iron of his blade, he thought back to the moment he'd seen weaponry like his burning. That other Kathar... Though he never got a name, Rickter knew him to be a Reaver as well, Aoren too when he remembered seeing those weapons materialize and dematerialize at the High Hopes last season. If they were Elementalists and had Reaving, then perhaps there was a way to bridge the two together. Thinking about it he gripped the hilt of the blade with both hands, his eyes closed as he thought about how to achieve this process. Simply combining or melding them together didn't feel right, it was just too easy of a theory to set to practice. "Rickter?" He heard Telion check with him curiously, a brief opening of his eyes showed her watching him a little unsurely.
He simply focused once more though on the subject in his mind, thinking more on the fundaments of his Pact weaponry, that it until an idea finally seemed to dawn on him just then. "Pact weaponry is an extension of one's soul..." He reiterated from his lessons with the Reaver from his past. "It is the bridge between the Reaver and the weapon itself one must master." Taking in a deep breath of air he focused on his weapon, as well as the link that existed between it and him in turn. Breathing as calmly as he did he felt nothing out of the ordinary, just the embodiment of his soul given form. So how did one imbue it with the form of an element in its current form? Perhaps... the answer was a simple as that, because in their fully manifested state it didn't seem likely. But...
If Rickter could control the level of materialization, then perhaps, he could manage to focus more on the bridge between them. Rickter tuned his focus on dematerialization, allowing it to only do so within the outer edges of the blade itself. The result of this action led his bastard sword to take on a different form, the blade still half corporeal while the edges appeared foggy with aether swirling around it. So that was the ambient aether within his soul then? He could have willed it back into his being then, but something told him that he was getting somewhere now, thinking more on that aether and how affixed it was with the weapon. The gears in his head were turning now, and Telion could see that in his eyes, therefore she watched almost inquisitively as the wolf stared hard at his weapon. Now... if I'm correct it should be as simple as manifesting...
Yet it wasn't. Because when Rickter thought about it, and the element flourished along the edges of his weapon, heat came coursing through Rickter's entire form as fire burned along the outer edges of his sword. Telion jumped at the sudden manifestation of the element, her hands brought up to her mouth as she looked to Rickter with awe. "Rickter!!" There was a sense of concern but she waited, baffled to see that he could actually maintain the element's form on his weapon. "How?!"
"Neat trick right?" He remarked with his eyes never leaving the burning blade, as a light sheen of sweat started to build over his forehead. "As a Reaver I've wondered how this was done... now I think I understand." The bard looked to him even more confused then, her head tilted slightly as she held her hands close to her chest anxiously. "It's all right Telion, believe it or not this is a Reaver's ability."
"But... how?" She looked at him all the more puzzled. "New Elementalists need more time to practice before they can mesh an element to a weapon, so how can you do it when you've just started?"
"I already told you," The wolf lightly mused as he held his sword pointed out and away from them, "Reaver's can do something similar with their weapons. It's a concept I've seen done a few times, but I've never been able to pull it off on my own." As he expressed this Rickter dematerialized the rest of his weapon, the flames smoldering out entirely as the aether from his sword came rushing back to him. "Reaver's have an intimate bond between their weapons, though it's more akin to a bridge more than anything. Through it, they can do incredible things with their weaponry, and that had to be one of them just now."
"I... I see." Telion's worry seemed to lessen then, the relief in her eyes backed with profound curiosity. "If that's the case then... couldn't you use Dragonshards also?" The inquiry astounded Rickter once he heard it, leading him to realize that in a way, he actually could apply the same trick with a Dragonshard if he wanted to. Aether was aether after all, and to imbue a weapon with an effect, one merely needed to apply it as though it were a coating of some sort. While he'd only grasped at the trick for it, Rickter still wasn't aware of it's limitations entirely, just the possibilities that were now open to him.
"I could actually, it's not a bad call." He answered thoughtfully after a bit, crossing his arms when he looked down at Telion once more. "Something tells me that this is only the beginning of my new abilities."
Telion looked to him with a fond smile then, lightly laughing before placing her hands on her hips. "Well then, first we better refine your control over the elements! We'll start with switching it up a bit, juggling elemental manipulation with a bit of manifestation. You ready?"
To that the wolf nodded, breathing in deeply as he and Telion prepared to continue with his training.
Frost 5th, 120th Year, AoS
Another day of training within the snowy arena of the Proving Grounds, another day of building towards his goal of the Argent Hand. Though many of the days spent training had been mainly physical, the occasional addition of the magical played a part sometimes too. How else could Rickter better his skills as a warrior, and as a guardian, when those aspects of his magic played a crucial role with the two? Telion had accompanied him as always, this time without her staff, however, as the bard knew what Rickter's focus would be in regards to today's training. Not that he didn't make it outright obvious, for the wolf was eager to learn when it came to something new. This was why today he'd be practicing Elementalism today, to ascertain his current limits and how to navigate them, so that in the near future he'd be able to carry it further when he needed to.
"Okay!" Telion called out with her gloved hands together, her fingers interlocked as she lightly rubbed the leather of her thumbs over one another. "Looks like you're ready to begin!" She teased with a slight bend before Rickter, giggling as he crossed his arms with a slight grin on his face. "You remember how to manifest an element?" Rickter's answer was that of a firm nod, with a tilt of his head when he addressed her with an inquiry.
"As for manipulating elements, does it have to be one I'm able to control?" In asking it, however, Telion's eyes widened in utter confusion. Clearly what he'd asked was rather absurd, and for a moment he felt like the novice he truly was.
"I think you're worried about the manifestation aspect still," She reasoned with a light shrug to him in turn, "because manipulation allows you to control elements in their natural form. Which," her smile increased as she twisted to gesture at the field, "if you look around there's plenty of." Rickter's eyes narrowed briefly before he caught on, his gaze drifting over the snow in the area, before it fell back upon the woman near him entirely.
"So I can control a natural element with manipulation... Interesting." He ruminated on that fact thoughtfully, thinking of ways he could use snow to his advantage. It was naturally water-given a solid form after all, which led him to wonder if Elementalism offered further control over Elemental forms somehow.
"As you are now, manipulating it is probably the easier route to go. Eventually, with a bit of practice, you'll be able to manifest other elements. One step at a time though! Let's see," Her sentence was cut off when she noticed Rickter brought his hand out, holding it out with the palm down as he focused. Channeling his aether into the air he coaxed at the snow with it, tugging at the natural element with his aether before the particles of ice started to rise. At least a foot beneath where his hand lingered, specks of snow started to rise and fall within the trail of aether he'd created, the dust swirling about almost in a cloud-like manner as it accumulated within the heart of his aether. More of the particles lifted from the ground as he focused, his hand shifting so that he pushed into the air itself, causing his aether to fly forth and send the cluster of snow hurdling away.
Telion was rather surprised, especially with how quickly he'd seem to catch on. "What?!" He inquired with a slight shrug. "It's almost as easy as it sounds honestly."
"Hah! Okay then," Telion nearly laughed aloud with her hands rested on her hip, "it figures you'd get a feel of it yourself. But just remember manipulating elements in their natural form is limited, you can beckon elements to your will but subjecting them to change entirely is something we'll have to cover later! Right now you need to practice more!"
"Practice huh? You saying I can change the Elements and their form?" To that inquiry she stiffened a bit, her eyes up in thought with a finger under her chin.
"Well, if you're referring to their forms such as ice to snow then it's possible, yes." She then loosened and held up her two hands, focusing on her left hand as she attracted snow to it, catching loose particles within the air as well as pulling some from the ground. When a perfectly round snowball accumulated above her palm, Telion then flexed her fingers a few times before steam started to rise from the ball. Gradually the snowball started to melt in the air, becoming an orb of water still generating a bit of steam as it floated in place. "As you grow in power with practice, you'll be able to play with combinations a bit. Altering forms of elements takes practice, but as you can see I can make snow and ice turn into water, even steam if I want to commit to it." She elaborated with her free hand pointing at the air around the water ball.
"Interesting." The wolf observed with a look of intrigue in his eyes, his arms crossed once more as he watched Telion continue the lesson.
"We'll practice refining your control, but it won't be too long before you can even combine elements with your weaponry!" she pointed out with a hearty grin, leading Rickter to remember Aoren and the other Kathar he'd met once, and how they could coat their weaponry in flames at the time. If that was a trick of an Elementalist, then could he not also use that for Reaving? The thought led him to wonder, though, not before seeing Telion generate a pocket of wind above her other hand. Particles of snow blew about frantically above her other palm, as the air above it lightly whistled in turn as she displayed both the water and the wind elements for Rickter.
"Eventually you can even combine natural elements, to make what is called Para-Elements." In explaining this she brought her hands closer, almost to where their sides touched, and the elements seemingly merged with one another. Water and wind swirled about to form into a mist, before the body of liquid itself hardened into that of a ball of ice entirely. "Like ice."
"Interesting..." Now his tone had grown academic in a way, his eyes shifting from the ice ball to his own hands afterward. So. He knew what was possible with Elementalism now, all that was left was to experiment and see where his limitations lay for now. Almost immediately he held out his left hand, breathing in deeply before he concentrated, and manifested the Pact bastard sword he used in battle. Telion looked at him confused, the ice ball crumbling away as aetheric particles dissipated from within it. She looked to question him for calling upon his weaponry here, when today was simply meant to be a practice with magic entirely.
Thankfully that's just what Rickter had planned to do, for when he saw his reflection in the iron of his blade, he thought back to the moment he'd seen weaponry like his burning. That other Kathar... Though he never got a name, Rickter knew him to be a Reaver as well, Aoren too when he remembered seeing those weapons materialize and dematerialize at the High Hopes last season. If they were Elementalists and had Reaving, then perhaps there was a way to bridge the two together. Thinking about it he gripped the hilt of the blade with both hands, his eyes closed as he thought about how to achieve this process. Simply combining or melding them together didn't feel right, it was just too easy of a theory to set to practice. "Rickter?" He heard Telion check with him curiously, a brief opening of his eyes showed her watching him a little unsurely.
He simply focused once more though on the subject in his mind, thinking more on the fundaments of his Pact weaponry, that it until an idea finally seemed to dawn on him just then. "Pact weaponry is an extension of one's soul..." He reiterated from his lessons with the Reaver from his past. "It is the bridge between the Reaver and the weapon itself one must master." Taking in a deep breath of air he focused on his weapon, as well as the link that existed between it and him in turn. Breathing as calmly as he did he felt nothing out of the ordinary, just the embodiment of his soul given form. So how did one imbue it with the form of an element in its current form? Perhaps... the answer was a simple as that, because in their fully manifested state it didn't seem likely. But...
If Rickter could control the level of materialization, then perhaps, he could manage to focus more on the bridge between them. Rickter tuned his focus on dematerialization, allowing it to only do so within the outer edges of the blade itself. The result of this action led his bastard sword to take on a different form, the blade still half corporeal while the edges appeared foggy with aether swirling around it. So that was the ambient aether within his soul then? He could have willed it back into his being then, but something told him that he was getting somewhere now, thinking more on that aether and how affixed it was with the weapon. The gears in his head were turning now, and Telion could see that in his eyes, therefore she watched almost inquisitively as the wolf stared hard at his weapon. Now... if I'm correct it should be as simple as manifesting...
Yet it wasn't. Because when Rickter thought about it, and the element flourished along the edges of his weapon, heat came coursing through Rickter's entire form as fire burned along the outer edges of his sword. Telion jumped at the sudden manifestation of the element, her hands brought up to her mouth as she looked to Rickter with awe. "Rickter!!" There was a sense of concern but she waited, baffled to see that he could actually maintain the element's form on his weapon. "How?!"
"Neat trick right?" He remarked with his eyes never leaving the burning blade, as a light sheen of sweat started to build over his forehead. "As a Reaver I've wondered how this was done... now I think I understand." The bard looked to him even more confused then, her head tilted slightly as she held her hands close to her chest anxiously. "It's all right Telion, believe it or not this is a Reaver's ability."
"But... how?" She looked at him all the more puzzled. "New Elementalists need more time to practice before they can mesh an element to a weapon, so how can you do it when you've just started?"
"I already told you," The wolf lightly mused as he held his sword pointed out and away from them, "Reaver's can do something similar with their weapons. It's a concept I've seen done a few times, but I've never been able to pull it off on my own." As he expressed this Rickter dematerialized the rest of his weapon, the flames smoldering out entirely as the aether from his sword came rushing back to him. "Reaver's have an intimate bond between their weapons, though it's more akin to a bridge more than anything. Through it, they can do incredible things with their weaponry, and that had to be one of them just now."
"I... I see." Telion's worry seemed to lessen then, the relief in her eyes backed with profound curiosity. "If that's the case then... couldn't you use Dragonshards also?" The inquiry astounded Rickter once he heard it, leading him to realize that in a way, he actually could apply the same trick with a Dragonshard if he wanted to. Aether was aether after all, and to imbue a weapon with an effect, one merely needed to apply it as though it were a coating of some sort. While he'd only grasped at the trick for it, Rickter still wasn't aware of it's limitations entirely, just the possibilities that were now open to him.
"I could actually, it's not a bad call." He answered thoughtfully after a bit, crossing his arms when he looked down at Telion once more. "Something tells me that this is only the beginning of my new abilities."
Telion looked to him with a fond smile then, lightly laughing before placing her hands on her hips. "Well then, first we better refine your control over the elements! We'll start with switching it up a bit, juggling elemental manipulation with a bit of manifestation. You ready?"
To that the wolf nodded, breathing in deeply as he and Telion prepared to continue with his training.
