Episode 13: Practice Makes Perfect: Part 2
Punch!
Kick!
Sweep!
Jump!
Breathe!
Repeat!
Ven is drenched in sweat and his legs are on literal fire. He has been doing this exercise with Enishi everyday for two weeks for hours on end. When he is not punching, kicking, sweeping, jumping and breathing, he is meditating. Ven’s breath control has significantly improved, even though he has yet to shoot any fire out of his hands or any other part of his body for that matter. The ranking ceremony will be held in two months, giving Ven enough time to learn how to control his ability, at least Enishi hopes so.
“Break! Time to meditate,” Enishi says and signals for Ven to stop his exercise.
They both are training by Lake Nyr that runs north and south of the Meridian Forest. It is also the famous lake where Kia nearly killed Enishi for making fun of her.
“Whew!” Ven says as he wipes sweat from his brow and gets into his meditation pose next to Enishi.
“How do you feel?” Enishi asks Ven.
“Good! The exercise feels easy for me now.”
“That’s good. Now, deep breaths. You know the drill.”
In
Out
In
Out
The two men sit in silence for about thirty minutes, listening to nothing but the soothing sounds of the lake.
“That’s it for today,” Enishi says as he gets up and dusts his pants of the dirt. “We’ll pick this up tomorrow.”
“Same exercise tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Ven sighs. “Enishi.”
Enishi raises his eyebrows and looks at Ven.
“Show me.”
“Had enough breathing and jumping?”
“Yes.”
“Wrong answer,” Enishi counters.
Ven quickly gets to his feet and stands infront of him.
“Enishi! Why are you stalling?! The ceremony is in two months and I have yet to even form a flame. How much longer are you going to drag this out for? I'm sure Lox has mastered four new techniques by now!"
"I do not care. You're not Lox."
Ven growls. "I COULD be if you would actually train me."
"You don't think I'm training you?" Enishi laughs. "Fine. You want to play with fire? Fine then."
Enishi suddenly engulfs himself in flames. He then lifts his right palm and forms a small fire ball, about the size of a baseball. Ven bites his cheek and backs up quickly.
"Hold this!" he says and then suddenly throws the ball at Ven.
"Aggh!" Ven screams and rolls out of the way just in time to avoid getting burned by the fire.
"What the hell is wrong with y-!"
He ducks and avoids three more balls that are being pelted at him.
"Enishi! Stop it!" Ven pleads, tilting his head quickly to the left to avoid being scorched by a ball.
"I thought you wanted to play with fire?!" Enishi taunts Ven as he hurls more and more balls at him. "Come on Ven! Catch one and throw it back at me!"
He quickly forms five more fire balls and pelts them all at Ven. Each ball that Enishi throws at him is harder and faster than the previous one. Ven ducks, jumps and manages to avoid them all.
"How do you expect me to catch any of these?!"
"By sticking your hand out! Come on!" Enishi forms a ball, but holds onto it and charges it, making it grow bigger and bigger.
"Enishi! Ven yells as his eyes get bigger and he backs up even more. "Chill out! That's about the size of a soccer ball!"
"Don't know what that is! Catch this and I will!" Enishi smirks. "Here it comes!"
Enishi raises his hand and throws the ball with so much force, that Ven could've sworn that he felt the Earth shake. Ven quickly gets into a defensive stance, and he swears he can hear Kia in the back of his head shouting at him.
"You are a PILLAR. When you are on defense, you plant your feet and you hold your ground, NO MATTER WHAT. If you move, I will personally come and kick your ass no matter where you are!"
Ven plants his feet and raises his arms. He places his left arm infront of his face and has his right arm by his right side.
*Time yourself*
*Wait for the right moment and then strike!*
Ven's vision turns red from the hue of the oncoming flame. He grits his teeth.
*NOW!*
Ven lets out a scream as he puts his right hand out and reaches for the flame and closes his eyes as the flame and his hand connect.
"Oh?!" Enishi mutters and tilts his head to side.
Ven then opens his eyes and looks at his right hand and sees what once was a giant ball of fire, nothing more than a small ember burning calmly in the palm of his hand.
"YES!!!" Ven screams in delight. "I did it! This is awesome!" Ven jumps up and down with the ball and tosses it between his two hands.
Ven's excitement quickly dissipates. "Ughh. How do I do that?"
"Breathe. Imagine YOU are the flame. Control it. Regulate your body temperature. Slowly raise it so that the heat from the inside of your body emits just enough heat so that you can keep the fire going. The tricky part is that when you throw it, air is going to make the flame stronger, so if you don't want to burn everything down, you have to make sure you don't give it too much juice since the air will take care of that for you. The more you practice, you will see what I'm talking about. Now give it a try. Throw it and don't burn down the forest and don't kill me nor yourself."
"Ok."
Ven takes a deep breath and focuses on his palm. He slowly increases his body temperature. As his temperature increases, he can see the ball of fire get slightly bigger.
"Nice and easy. Control the flame," Enishi coaches.
Ven increases his body temperature more, and the flame gets even bigger. It's about the size of a soccerball now.
"Ok. That's enough. Throw it at me now."
Ven takes a deep breath.
"Here it goes!" Ven raises his hand, cocks it back, and just before he lets it go, he gives it more heat, causing it to grow to about the size of a basketball, and hurls it at Enishi. But as it travels through the air, the ball gets even bigger and grows into the size of an exercise ball.
"Oh shit."
"Ven!" Enishi gasps as it hits him directly, causing an explosion.
"Enishi!" Ven yells and runs over to Enishi, coughing over the smoke and dirt that has been kicked up into the air. "Enishi are you OK?!" He yells.
"I'm just peachy," he says sarcastically.
The smoke clears and Ven sees Enishi sitting with his legs crossed, covered in soot, with an annoyed look on his face but more or less unscathed.
"That's enough for today," he says as he spits dirt out of his mouth while Ven falls on the floor, laughing hysterically.
*The Tower of The Republic*
The Tower of The Republic is run by Ezreal, who has served a term much longer than fifty years, and two other members, are referred to as the Grand Masters, that oversee everything at The Tower. The Tower of The Republic is located in the middle of the Meridian Forest, surrounded by miles of trees. The Tower is also an orphanage/ training ground for young Madokais and normal citizens that can come from any of the kingdoms. They also conduct rescue missions and other secret missions, that mostly Enishi, Kia and Nyx handle on the Grand Masters (Sumon (House of Water), Errol (House of Wind) & Ezreal (House of Fire) behalf. The Grand Masters also have political pull throughout the kingdoms.
Tenaris: Tenaris were humans that contained the essence of any one of the Gods. Resembling fae, the Tenaris were equipped with pointed ears and were also granted the power of Wielding, however, due to them possessing the essence of the Gods, they were far more powerful than regular Madokais and were mostly feared. The Tenaris have since gone extinct, with the exception of Ven, who is the only one to be seen within the last fifty years. The Fire Tenaris were the most feared of all due to them being more aggressive and years of them attempting to rule the kingdoms.
Dark Arts: Created by demons, this form of magic is forbidden to practice. If one practices it, they will be put to death, immediately. Dark Mages can grant anyone the ability to use it, however it always comes at a price. The magic grants the user to summon dark, sinister creatures, known as Shadows, that can do the users' bidding and other demonic creatures and can give the user unexplainable power. Dark Magic is said to change the user, making their pupils dark, and making them lifeless. Some users of Dark Magic can become possessed by a demon, losing their humanity in the process.
House of Fire
Arguably the most powerful House, the House of Fire is located in the land of Voltaria. The members of House Fire worship the fire God, Anix, the God of all Gods. The House of Fire is broken down into two main locations (Sun Kingdom & Desert). The House of Fire is the great house to the people of the world that possess the pyrokinetic ability to create and control fire. The house is made up of regular fire Madokais, fire Tenaris, Sunists and the now exiled, Desert Bandits.
The fire Tenaris were the highest-class members of the House of Fire. They were extremely powerful, have pointy ears and were highly skilled in combat and wielding. They were “supposedly” direct descendants of the fire God, Anix. Voltaria was ruled by a group of highly powerful fire Tenaris for over 400 years but their rule came to an end when they were overthrown by a group of people known as the Sunists, who are a race of people that also lived in the Fire Kingdom. During the war, the Sunists killed off majority of the fire Tenaris and the others that survived, were exiled.
Today, the Sunists, have now become the most powerful members of the House of Fire. Their main place of residence is the Sun Kingdom, a section in Voltaria that has been ruled by the Sun King and his family for generations. The Sun King is a direct descendant of the Sunists that killed off majority of the Tenaris, 100 years ago.
The exiled people of the desert, are known as the Desert Bandits. They are located 100 miles east of the Sun Kingdom. Once part of the Fire Kingdom, the Desert Bandits people stem from a line of people that have been said to possess the Mazoku gene. The Mazoku, a group of people that are the offspring of a Tenari and a demon, were extremely powerful & uncontrollable, and they mostly resemble their demon ancestors. In “Rage” form, their canines elongate, their eyes change color, and they become completely uncontrollable and violent, destroying any and everything in their path. They are a rarity, as most of them die in childbirth and only a handful have been known to ever exist. Due to their violent nature, the Houses came to agree that the Mazoku should be exterminated. However, the desert bandits broke this agreement and continued to reproduce them. As punishment, the Mazoku children that the desert Bandits produced were slaughtered and the people that produced them, have been exiled and placed in a separate place from the other inhabitants of the Sun Kingdom, which is now the Desert Kingdom.
House of Water
House of water is located in the Kingdom of Rain, where it rains for 235 days out of the year. In order to get into the Water Kingdom, one must get past the Lukwata, a legendary water-dwelling sea serpent that has been the guardian of the Water Kingdom for decades.
Full of water Madokais, the water kingdom also produce Madokais that have healing capabilities. The water Kingdom is also home to mystical creatures that are said to be as old as the Gods themselves. The Water Kingdom worships the water Goddess, Raava. They are a spiritual group of people that strive for peace and mostly keep to themselves. The kingdom is run by three individuals known as Kais (The Grand, Elite & The Supreme Kai). Water Tenaris did exist at one point but it isn't clear as to what exactly happened to them, same as the Earth & Wind Tenaris.
House of Earth (Land of Grout):
The House of Earth is located in the underground land called Grout, located somewhere South. Their kingdom was above ground at what point but once the Wielder of the Dragtagon came around, they decided to move underground to protect themselves. No one is sure where or how far South they really are. They worship the Earth Goddess, Dunia. The leader of the House of Earth and King of Earth is run by an unknown person. Earth Madokais, also known as Boulders are Madokais that possess the ability to manipulate the ground, and they haven’t been seen in over 50 years.
House of Wind (Kingdom of Air):
The House of Wind is located in the Kingdom of Air, located in the mountains of Hewa, is home to the Madokai’s that possess wind/air manipulation abilities, oracles & other unknown creatures. Not much is known about them, not even who their current leaders are. The people of that land are hardly ever seen because their kingdom is so high in the mountains that only Wind Madokais can get there. One must be escorted by a Wind Madokai if they wish to enter the kingdom. Outsiders that travel there without permission are forbidden to enter the mountains and if someone were to enter without it, they will be beheaded and thrown off the mountain. The land is also the origin land of Oracles and other creatures such as the Drakken ( a winged creature) and the Oya ( Wind spirits).
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