It took two more days for Mordecai to find the moment he was looking for. He’d talked it over with Kazue and Moriko to make sure they agreed first, and there was some amount of risk. The note that he’d given Shizoku had been vague from necessity, the girl couldn’t know more than that there was a plan to help her student that would involve surprise and a small probability risk for herself. She had not asked or said anything after reading the note.
Derek had taken some more coaching before he could commit to fighting even the first-floor dire rabbits, and that had included getting bit, poked, and headbutted several more times because of his hesitation. With his commitment had come confidence and stronger signs of elemental manipulation, despite the lack of any intermediary forces.
The training group had been progressing nicely, and today’s exercises involved coping with a type of swarm. Their training area was flooded with dire rabbits running and jumping everywhere in a mad frenzy, and only occasionally would one of them turn to attack someone. Takehiko’s reflexes were sharp enough that this was no challenge for him on this floor, so he was simply observing for later training remarks.
Shizoku, Brongrim, and Nainvil were not terribly pushed, but it was just enough to make them keep alert. The three trainees on the other hand, they were struggling. Especially Derek. And then the moment arrived that he wanted. Shizoku was distracted, Derek was at the right angle to see an attacker before she could, and he was at just enough of a distance to make it difficult to reach her in time.
A dire rabbit with a piercing horn was hurled out of the swarm, its face twisted with seeming blood lust, its horn aimed directly at Shizoku. Derek shouted a warning, and the kitsune turned toward the danger, panic flashing across her face. The boy threw himself at the rabbit, and the dungeon cores watched with great satisfaction as elemental wind gathered and pushed him forward, while earth gathered at the end of his staff, briefly creating stone at the tip to give it extra weight as it smashed into the dire rabbit.
Derek stood there for a moment, gasping hard. Mordecai called off all the rabbits and manifested his avatar next to the boy, clasping him on the shoulder. “Good job, I was hoping that would help provoke a stronger response from your abilities.”
The twelve-year-old boy looked dazed and didn’t have an immediate response. Shizoku had something she wanted to say, of course. “Mordecai, could you and Kazue talk with me for a moment, in private?” The thirteen-year-old stalked off to an empty corner, and with some amusement, Mordecai followed after waving the priestess toward the exhausted young man, with Kazue’s avatar appearing next to Shizoku. “Alright, I accepted the note, but that was a little extreme don’t you think?” The girl’s voice was terse and a little strained.
Kazue grinned. “Not as bad as it looked. Moriko was involved too, and she broke the horn earlier, then made sure our fake replacement looked good. It was rigid enough, but a direct impact would have caused it to collapse. Also, we were both watching you and ready to despawn the rabbit as our first option. If Derek didn’t get there in time, the fake horn was our fallback. And even without that, your magic would have protected you from anything too bad, it was only a floor one bunny after all.” Though not as dramatic a change as those following a martial path, a spell caster’s craft also fortified the flesh.
Shizoku frowned in response. “Well, it worked, I guess. And you did give me a warning that something would happen. Derek got to show off a moment of heroism and activate his power in a moment of an emergency…” The thirteen-year-old kitsune’s voice trailed off as she heard what she’d just said, and her gaze became suspicious. “You wouldn’t have any other reasons for that setup, would you?”
Mordecai laughed. “You are too smart for your own good. Don’t let your cynicism get in the way. His reactions and your reactions were both sincere. Derek may not be a bookish sort, but he’s not dumb either, and he’s a very considerate young man. Also, when he’s not dazzled, he’s quite willing to argue with you, which I think you can appreciate in a friend at least.”
She arced a brow at him. “Dazzled?”
Kazue giggled. “The boy had an instant crush on you. It’s cute. But he’s also adapting, and no longer stumbles over himself when talking with you. But seriously, he’d make a good friend for you. It’s not the only option, but you are both a little young to worry about that too much, don’t you think?”
A sigh escaped from Shizoku. “I guess. I’ll consider it. Well, should we go back and talk about what we learned with Derek?”
Kazue had managed to pull together some clues from their recent deluge of old books, so they decided to end the training for today and go over everything together. Kazue took charge of this meeting. “Alright, so I was able to find some references that sound right, but not a lot. If we have the right identity, Derek’s sort of powers are translated as either ‘Resonant Elementalist’, or ‘Elemental Resonance’. Or both, depending on if you are referring to the person or the power.” She waited for nods of acknowledgment before she continued.
“We reviewed what we learned from books and what we learned from observation of Derek with my mother, and we have formed a few conclusions. The name clearly references that Derek ‘resonates’ with elemental energy without having to manipulate it with chi or magic or anything like that. This means he should still be able to use his powers in places where a mage would not be able to cast any spells. However, it seems to draw directly on his stamina instead, and we saw how dazed Derek was after he pushed himself. So if Derek wants to develop his power, he needs to also focus a lot on physical training.”
The boy in question paused in the middle of scarfing down his second sandwich since the training was completed, then pointed at his food quizzically.
“Yes, eating will help, that’s why you are so hungry now. Now, while this does mean that Shizoku’s knowledge of spell craft isn’t of much direct help, her knowledge of elemental interactions should be ideal. So we want to promote the two of you training together as much as feasible, whether here or by visiting each other, and we will be sending letters to your respective elders stating this.” Kazue completely ignored the look that Shizoku shot her. It was fun messing with the barely-teenage girl genius.
“On the assumption that Derek will be practicing while not here, on your next visit we’d like to see you try a proper dungeon run, but we think you should take a break now, along with your fellow trainees. Instead, we would like to ask Brongrim, Nainvil, Takehiko, and Shizoku to recruit a couple of other people and delve tomorrow or the day after. We haven’t had anyone clear the fifth floor yet, and the only reason Moriko hasn’t been completely bored is because she started her own training group. And yes, we’ll bump you up the line, other than my parents you are our strongest visitors right now. Oh, and they are not recruitable. Will that work for you?”
Derek managed to swallow enough of his food to respond, “Yes, thank you Miss Kazue. I think I could use the rest.” His other trainees agreed, though they did not look quite as ragged as he did.
Brongrim chuckled. “Having seen the fifth floor, I can understand why. It looks nasty. But don’t worry Nainvil, I’ll protect your delicate hide.” He grinned up at the half-orc, who rolled his eyes.
“Just see that you keep up, and don’t make me pull you out of that little river we saw. Last I heard, dwarves don’t float very well.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “Though if I decide I’ve had enough of your mouth, I suppose tossing you in there would be one way to feed the dungeon.”
Kazue smiled at their banter, she was glad to see them doing so well. They’d still been a little tense during their last visit, but it was clear they’d worked out how they wanted to live their new chance at life. “Alright, why don’t you four figure out who else you might want to work with for the delve, and you three can either just rest or you can join a team for running my path, and you don’t have to stay together. Moriko says she’ll make sure you’ll have a memorable fight when you reach her.” Kazue paused, tilted her head, and put a finger on her chin in an exaggeratedly thoughtful manner. “I don’t think she’s still holding a grudge.”
She winked at the pair of former mercenaries turned temporary bandits, then disappeared along with Mordecai.
It hadn’t taken long for them to decide on three guards who were willing to join them, and there was not a lot of coordination that needed to be done. Brongrim and Nainvil were going to be the spearhead of the offense, the three guards were going to keep enemies from swarming Takehiko and Shizoku, and the two kitsune were going to focus on being support and throwing in additional offense where needed. None of these three groups had worked together before, so keeping them segregated for their tasks was least likely to cause any confusion.
Shizoku had plenty of time to herself to think after that, which was good because she had some thoughts to chew on. Later that evening, she hunted down Derek, whom she found inside one of the shrines near the entrance. He was crouched down next to one of the dire rabbits and was giving the horned creature scritches behind its ear. She watched him for a moment before nodding to herself.
“Hey.” She said, and tried to not laugh as the boy shot up to his feet. “I want to talk to you about something.” Shizoku paced forward and started circling Derek while making a show of examining him.
“Oh? Um, what about?” He replied nervously. Huh, this was kind of fun.
“Mmm.” Shizoku stopped in front of him, her tails swishing softly. “You,” she poked him in the chest, choosing to not notice that the twelve-year-old was slightly taller than her, “Are going to make an interesting test subject. Not only do I want to understand how your powers work, but I am also going to be verifying certain elemental interactions. The problem is that magic is powered in part by will, so manipulation of elemental essence without magic as an intermediary should prove useful in validating the results, rather than being a side effect of expectations.”
Derek blinked at her in confusion for a moment as he processed what she said. “Okay, I think I understand that. Sort of. But why are you saying this now?”
Shizoku smirked. “I am making sure you understand what is expected of you. I am going to need you fit and strong to carry out your part of the experiments, and we will probably need to go dangerous places eventually, so you need to be able to handle yourself. I expect you to exercise and train diligently, and not just burn yourself out with elemental tricks. So while I am off delving, you need to work out.” She paused as if thinking about something for the first time. “Oh, and I expect that I will need to come visit you upon occasion. When you get back home, make sure there is someplace for me to sleep, I may not always be able to give an accurate schedule of my visits. Now, I need to go get my rest.” With a toss of her hair, she spun around, her tails ‘accidentally’ brushing against Derek, then sauntered off.
When she was certain he couldn’t see or hear her anymore, Shizoku giggled. Oh, that had been even more fun than she was expecting. The stunned look on his face had been perfect. Kazue was right, friends were enough for now, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t lay groundwork for the future.