The early morning breeze whispers throughout the training grounds as I look around for Ignis.
My eyes eventually fall upon him. He is waving his hand on one side of the training grounds all by himself. My footsteps crunch on some leaves as I make my way over. The training grounds are fairly busy in the morning.
It is probably because we don't have classes for another day, at least because of the current level of danger.
As I walk closer to Ignis, I notice the other Keepers aren't present around the area he is in. Nobody is in fact around him. Is Ignis just that great nobody feels worthy of being around him? I think to myself as I pause in front of him.
"Hi, Nico! Justus recommends you come down here, and I'm glad. I reserved a spot for us to train you. I am an official Keeper now, which means the other Keepers do not even attempt to bother me now."
Well, that explains it.
"Even though they still respected me beforehand," Ignis says as he guides me toward the training area for long-range magic.
As I walk closer to the firing position, my heart beats faster. I feel nervous because my fireball barely does any damage. It doesn't even make it to the target.
"I know what you must be thinking, but do not worry. I have just the thing for that," he says, while pulling out a magical necklace from his pocket. The magical necklace is dark silver and looks like plain jewelry. He hands it to me and I put it on.
"Now, to activate its power, just focus on drawing as much mana as you can into it and then envision what skill you want to use. Then you simply use it. Try using a fireball on that dummy over there," he says while pointing with his wand to the same dummy I failed to hit a few days ago.
I firmly plant my feet on the ground. I raise my wand toward the target. My body is slightly shaking as my nerves are on the edge. My eyes are laser-focused on the target. I imagine all my fire mana gathering into the necklace's centerpiece.
"Flaro!" I shout as the amulet shines brilliantly with an orange light.
Flames begin appearing at the tip of my wand quickly, almost engulfing my entire wand in swirling orange energy. The fireball that forms grows larger and larger. It launches from my wand at an incredible speed at the target dummy. It flies right at the dummy's head, causing it to burn upon impact.
"Good Job Nico! The impact of the fireball might be average, but it's still significant progress from the first time you launched a fireball before here," Ignis says with a smile on his face. I trust Ignis and his words. Even though not that significant, I still made a lot of progress because of the amulet.
My hands feel the cool metal of the necklace. "Why did it glow orange?" I ask Ignis as I look up at him.
"It glowed orange because that is the amount and strength of fire magic within you that you could launch in one shot as a fireball. You still are an inexperienced fire mage. It does not mean you cannot become great at it. You just need to practice a lot. The magic amulet helps you draw more mana out of you than you normally can without it."
"It enhances your absorption capacity to use your mana. However, it has the drawback that it doesn't help you with control. So if you try to draw too much power out of it at once, then you will lose complete control. The amulet might kill you if you use too much power," he says to me, making sure I understand every word.
I nod in response. He shows me another beneficial fire magic spell.
"This next spell is simple to conjure up, but it is very difficult to use correctly. It is a simulated technique taken from light magic," Ignis says as he produces a tiny levitating bright orange flame from his wand.
"Taken from light magic?" I ask curiously.
"Yes, it is essentially a flash-bang meaning to temporarily blind someone with an extreme amount of light or, in this case, an extreme amount of fire for a split second. All you have to do is take this little orange flame, guide it toward someone with your wand, the person you want to blind, and flick your wrist, causing the flame to expand quickly and then extinguish."
"The light from the flame will make the person blind temporarily if used correctly," he says while proceeding to guide the flame behind me with his wand and flicking his wrist.
Even though the flame bursts behind me, I can still see for a moment the insane amount of orange light burst into the air for a second. Being hit with that at point-blank range with no defenses would definitely hinder the opponent for a moment.
"Let me try that!" I say, while producing my little flame from my wand.
"Wait one moment please," Ignis says while putting on a blindfold and smiling.
"You may proceed now."
I feel like he is mocking how bad I was at it before I even try the technique out. The little flame feels so powerful in my hands. The amulet can keep providing me with enough mana to increase the raw output power of the fire. Here goes nothing, I think to myself as I launch the small flame into the air in front of me and flick my wand in a circle with my wrist.
The light is so bright I immediately shut my eyes and turn away from the blast immediately.
"Well, good and bad news," Ignis says while taking off his blindfold as he notices me covering my eyes.
"The good news is that you certainly know how to set off the flash. The bad news is you are horrible at knowing when to use it. First, you do not throw it in front of yourself, you throw it near yourself but aimed directly at the opponent."
"If you throw it in front of yourself, you will do nothing but blind your opponent and yourself," he says to me as I open my eyes.
"Yeah, I think I understand that now," I say back to him as I rub my eyes. Everything is temporarily blurry, but thankfully, my view starts clearing up within a few seconds of change.
"Besides the magical necklace, and the flashbang spell, is there anything important to learn so I don't immediately lose to the others in the GCK?" I ask nervously.
"Honestly, the only thing left to teach you before the upcoming tournament is to tell you how it works. Shortly I will have Zephyr stop by here to teach you more defensive magic and how to fight against particular elements."
"Some of the other academies have powerful wind mages even on par with Zephyr, so you will have to know how to fight against them," Ignis says as he sits down on a bench. I pursue him and feel relieved as I get to sit down.
"Essentially the GCK works in three stages which are Team Fight, Duos, and Individuals. Each team in the first round picks three of their best students and all of them do a big brawl to determine who wins. That also happens with Duos with just one less person."
"Individuals are where each academy picks just one person to represent the entire school to fight for them. The wins and losses added up for each event will determine the eventual winner of the Cup in the end," he says.
"That sounds simple enough. I guess this means I will have to learn how to fight in a team setting, right?" I say, already knowing the answer.
"Yes, it does. That is why he is here," Ignis says while looking at the training grounds' entrance.
Zephyr enters the training grounds with a huge grin on his face and an enormous sword on his back. He is twirling his white wand in his hands.
This training is about to get a lot more hectic.