Ryuu paced back and forth among the trees. He was angry, and he appeared to try to 'burn' out the anger as he would his stamina and energy. Although it didn't look like it, the constant motion of walking back and forth was soothing, but Ryuu had never been this fumed for a while. It did little to calm his nerves. Still, it did. Suddenly, he stopped and took in a deep breathe. He could feel as if his blood boiled the moment he stopped, and instantly punched a tree in retaliation. His arm broke through the thick tree, and went out the other end. A bit of blood trickled down from his knuckle as he withdrew from it, still furious.
He began thinking of the unpleasant things he would be doing to the competitors he despised, which was basically everyone. Closing his eyes, he made mental pictures of all of them getting their just deserts. He saw the angels, the humans, Marisa. Kerin. Then he saw Bern in his mind again, and screamed loudly, unable to control himself as he tackled the visual representation of her in his mind, and beat it senseless. He abused his knuckles, hands and forearms with a vast array of hits and punches. Just then, the visual representation became a reality, and he saw that 'Bern' was nothing more than a tree branch. He screamed once more and got up, and began pacing again. Standing still wouldn't help to bring his temper down, so he had to keep moving. He had to keep burning all that extra anger and energy.
In the distance now, he saw Natruo, standing in the center of the room. He spoke to all of the contestants.
"Listen up! And feel grateful for this day. You are all here to train, for one reason or another. Either your pitifully weak, or you want to become stronger. If you want to survive, use this day to your advantage! Each station has one professional at it. You are expected to keep the weapons within their eyesight. No fights between participants are permitted. Fail to restrain yourself, will result in your immediate termination."
Obviously, Natruo shot a quick glance at Ryuu. Ryuu stared coldly back at Natruo. He didn't care if they sent the entire God district at him, nobody was getting in his way anymore. Still, there was one big problem. Ryuu had one disadvantage against other demons. They had wings. For a reason long in his past, Ryuu did not. He was the only wingless demon. He made up for it with his strength, but if they were to take to the air, which they very well might, Ryuu needed something long-range to combat them with. The barriers disappeared, a professional was at each station, awaiting to help train them. A whole day of training would be nice, and Ryuu would make the most of it. The question was, what was he going to train in?
Ryuu walked passed the other contestants as if they weren't there, and eyed each station with limited interest. There were all kinds of stations for weapons, and abilities. Then he got to the magic section. He walked passed each one with limited interest. Wind Magic. Fire Magic. Water Magic. Void Magic. Iron Magic.
Then he got to another one. He eyed it, with interest. There was a man who stood there. Ryuu approached him, and examined it. Earth Magic. He always liked the ground. Like him, it was harsh, hard, strong, and able to crush mostly anything.
"Hello, sir." The god said. Ryuu didn't return a hello, only stared off into the same direction, in his mind thinking the possibilities. It was plainly obvious of one thing. He needed to get a way to target people in the air. Finally, Ryuu spoke.
"What is this for?"
"Earth Magic, sir. The ability to control minerals. Most commonly, the dirt around you, but not limited to that. You can also use sand, and oth-"
"What about long-range capabilities?" Ryuu demanded, cutting off the god.
"Earth Magic has that capability too. There are a variety of techniques for both long and short range fighting. Obviously, Earth is strongest the closer to ground the opponent is, but-"
"Show me." Ryuu said again, cutting him off. The god nodded, and the proceeded off to the side a bit. He then concentrated on a point a little ways away from him. Suddenly, the dirt in the area over there moved, and shot a few feet into the air, then hit back down. Ryuu looked intently at what had just happened. He wasn't impressed.
"What if a target is in the air?" He demanded.
"Earth Magic's capability with what I can teach you will be limited with people in the air, sir. I can probably teach you to move a piece of earth up to four feet in diameter."
Ryuu snorted, and looked back where the rock he moved once was. He yelled.
"That's it?! Pah! Useless!" He said as he made his way away. The god kept his cool, and spoke.
"Sir, if I may explain something?"
"WHAT?!" He yelled back at him.
"Earth Magic is perfect for one such as you. The main ability of it is all about endurance. From looking at you, I can tell this is exactly what you're about." Ryuu's attention was grabbed now, and he listened with interest. "A demon may have wings, but can they maintain flight forever? No, they will eventually have to go to the ground. And once they do, if you choose to learn what I teach you, you will, to be put frankly, dominate them."
Ryuu grinned a bit, and spoke. "Alright, then. What do you have in mind?"
The god nodded. "Earth Magic has many different abilities. But for the purpose of time and interest, I will teach you how to use two main ones." He moved over to the side, and began to demonstrate. The first is the Armor of Earth." The god moved his hands into the air, and different pieces of earth flew around him, and soon covered his body almost like another, bulky layer of skin. Ryuu watched intently.
"This is obviously a very tricky and advanced technique to master in one day, so for you, our goal will be for you to be able to put up a Wall of Earth, instead of the full cover of the armor. It is less tricky, but it doesn't provide full 360 degrees protection. However, it does provide protection from many attacks, helping with your endurance plan."
Ryuu nodded. The god continued.
"The second magical ability is called Aftershock. I actually saw you use a very primal stage of it while you were having your fight with Raike. When you crashed down into the ground, and created that deep impact, many surrounding trees and objects were completely destroyed. If, say, you were using Aftershock whilst you would have done that, the length of the damage could double, perhaps even triple." The god walked a bit forward, and tapped the ground with his fist. The resulting collision with the ground casued cracks to form and travel quite a distance away. And that was with just a tap.
"Again, this will largely depend on the amount of force you put into the ground, but it could potentially cause quite a bit of damage. Combining your own natural weight with this attack could be quite threatening, and not just to your opponent."
Ryuu kept listening, holding his comments. These abilities would definitely come in handy.
"Those are the two abilities you should learn in this day. But, none of it can be learned without learning the first fundamental ability of Earth Magic."
The god turned to the side, and saw a boulder a few feet in front of him. In a motion of his arm, the boulder lifted, and moved a few feet to the side.
"Moving a rock. Once you are able to do this ability, the others will follow soon after. However…." He looked back at Ryuu, "…it is a lot more difficult than you may realize. We will probably be spending quite a bit of the day merely attempting to do it. Why don't you give it a try?"
Ryuu snorted, then walked over to the rock. He looked at it, perplexed for a minute, then back at the instructor, speaking plainly with a tone of anger.
"I've never done this before! How the f**k do I start?!" The instructor walked over, and gave an example.
"The most common way, or the most basic way, of moving a rock with Earth Magic is motioning with your hand. Place your hand over the rock, and try to get it to move an inch to the left."
Ryuu was right next to the rock, and lifted his hand, aiming at the rock. He tried to 'concentrate' on it, clenching his other fist as he expected something to happen.
"Do not try to move it with your muscle, Ryuu. Try moving it with your mind."
Ryuu shot him a look that said 'I dare you to say one more thing to me right now'. He then looked back at the rock, and looked at it intently, hoping to see some sort of result.
"Focus on the task. Imagine you have your hand right next to the rock. Now push it. Mentally push it towards the left."
Angry, Ryuu finally snapped.
"YOU WANT ME TO PUSH IT?!" He yelled, before kicking the rock high into the air, it going all the way to the other side of the building. "THERE, I F***IN PUSHED IT!"
The instructor merely observed Ryuu, not speaking for a while as the demon walked back and forth, pacing and angry. The god finally sighed.
"We're going to be in for one long day."
The next few hours consisted of the mundane and supposed simple task of moving the rock. Ryuu got angry on multiple occasions, bursting out screaming numerous times as he crushed rocks, tossed rocks, elbowed rocks, and smashed rocks. If the rocks had any feeling or emotion, they would be in deep pain right now. The god constantly said how the most difficult part of learning Earth Magic would be the first step, the seemingly simple task of moving a rock a mere inch or so to the left. Finally, after much struggle, and what seemed like forever, a breakthrough appeared to be made.
"…use your mind, not your body, and move the rock. Imagine the rock is an extension of your arm. Imagine it is in your arm. Now…give it a gentle nudge to the right."
Ryuu held his arm extended, appearing to concentrate. Still nothing happened. In a sudden and by now routine burst of anger, Ryuu scream loudly again.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHHH! WHY WON'T YOU MOVE!?" He screamed at the rock, as if to achieve some sort of reply. He then proceeded to run at a tree, and with all of his might, lifted it from its roots planted in the ground, and swing it around, preparing to toss it. The top of the branch almost hit the god, who calmly ducked out of the way as Ryuu tossed the tree. Here were two beings who appeared to be complete opposites. Ryuu was a large, strength driven demon. He was arrogant, angry, and quite frankly rather terrific. The instructor was a skinny man, not nearly as tall as Ryuu, nor as big. He had a reserved and quiet demeanor. Indeed, these two men were complete opposite. The god sighed as spoke.
"Perhaps this isn't what's right for you, Ryuu. Maybe you should consid-"
"NO!" Ryuu yelled. "I started this, and I'm gonna finish it." Ryuu walked back to the rock, completely enraged now.
"But Ryuu, it is clear that Magic, of any kind is not good for-"
"I will decide what's good for me, NOT YOU!!!" Ryuu screamed at the god, and as he did, the rock moved to the left. The instructor and Ryuu both turned, perplexed looks on their faces. The god finally spoke.
"Astounding…" he muttered. Ryuu turned to him.
"What?! What happened?!" He yelled, confused. The god now turned to Ryuu.
"…It appears I may have been training you the wrong way. I think you just moved the rock with sheer will and anger, rather than the traditional use of the mind and magic. With you, you combine what little knowledge of magic you know with your…emotions, particularly anger, and it somehow made the rock move."
"So what are you saying?!" Ryuu asked.
"I'm saying…get angry, and let's move some rocks."
Another hour had passed, with Ryuu finally getting the hang of Earth Magic.
"Again." The instructor said. Ryuu yelled out loud as he forced the rock to move to the left a few feet.
"Move on to the bigger one next to it." Ryuu did so, seeming to scream at the rock as his veins appeared around his body. It was focus in a different regard, and the god now saw a different side of Ryuu. He wasn't as mindless as he first thought. He was angry, yes, but he didn't just pour out anger now. He used it. Combining now the newly forming Earth Magic with his superior strength, and you'll have a tough time fighting against him. Ryuu had now become a natural with moving a single rock around. The god nodded, and spoke once more.
"You've mastered the first lesson. Now we'll teach you how to control multiple rocks at the same time. For this, a normal Earth Magic wielder would spread around his concentration to multiple points in the ground before pulling out the rocks. With you, it will be similar. You must concentrate on multiple points in the ground, and with your will and anger, force the rocks out." The instructor gave a quick demonstration as he moved his hands to the side, and multiple rocks popped out, encircling him. They were all the same smooth surface, and all were the exact same size and they encircled him, then popped back down in the ground. "Let's give it a try."
Ryuu nodded, and lowered his head to the ground. For a while, nothing happened as he merely appeared to be looking at the ground. Then suddenly, his arms stiffened and his veins were shown as he appeared to get stressed. His facial expression appeared to be of him lifting a truck. Actually, this wasn't that different from that. Ryuu slowly rose his arms in the air, letting out grunts as he did. Slowly, rocks began popping from the ground, and with one final push, Ryuu yelled, and numerous ones appeared around him, encircling him. Unlike the god's his were all jagged, and every single one was a different size. Still, he had got it done. The rocks fell around Ryuu with a massive thud. Ryuu smiled, please with his progress.
"Excellent work, Ryuu. We can begin learning the aforementioned abilities."
The rest of the training progressed like earlier, the god instructing as Ryuu screamed and yelled for his Earth Magic to perform the required ability. At first, the god found the screams uncomfortable. But eventually, they came so frequently, that the god had gotten used to them.
The day was slowly coming to an end, as the two now faced off at each other. Ryuu stared down the god with a smile, his clothes covered with dirt, and a bit torn. The instructor was clean and untarnished.
"Prepare!" The god suddenly yelled at Ryuu, and began gathering rocks from the ground and sending them flinging at Ryuu. Ryuu held his ground, and parted his feet, raising his arms strenuously as he raised a Wall of Earth right in front of him, the incoming rocks crashing into it. After a few more hits, the Wall of Earth collapsed, but Ryuu was already on the move, dodging the incoming rocks as they attempted to hit him. The instructor marveled at Ryuu's combination of speed and strength, but focused back at tried to knock down Ryuu. He summoned additional Earth from the ground in an attempt to captured Ryuu from all sides, but Ryuu pounded at the ground, using his Aftershock ability to stop the incoming Earth waves in their tracks, ripping them apart. Ryuu was getting awfully close to the god now as the instructor went all out now with Earth Magic, flinging spike-shaped earth at him from the ground, and forming other rocks into balls to fling at him. Ryuu was fast, but he couldn't dodge or protect himself against all of them. He summoned another Wall of Earth, only to see it collapse from the multiple impacts. The other Earth Magic attacks began to surround Ryuu as he soon had no place to go. Close enough to the instructor, however, Ryuu smiled as he jumped up in the air, narrowly avoiding most of the attacks, and then came crashing down right in the region where the god was standing, using Aftershock to amplify the attack on him. The god also prepared as he used other Earth Magic abilities to hit Ryuu at the same time.
The was a large crash as the ground around shook and cracked with their impact. After the smoke and dirt cleared, Ryuu sat on one knee on the ground, breathing heavily as the god stood not too far away, he too breathing rather heavily.
"Excellent work, Ryuu." He said, as he gathered his composure. "You have learned what you set out to learn. I must say you have excelled even my expectations. I'm rather impressed.
The demon merely grinned as he panted heavily. The sun outside was gone now.
"Well, it appears you have accomplished your day's training, and actually gone well into night. I wish you luck in the competition, demon Ryuu."
Ryuu looked over the god as if to analyze him for the first time since they had begun training. After a while, Ryuu gave him a grunt, a sign of his approval, and departed. It was small and meaningless maybe to some, but it was Ryuu's way of saying 'thank you'. This was a rare sight indeed, and something perhaps not to be taken for granted.
Ryuu left the training area finally, and for the first time, his body registered with how tired and hungry he really was. He nearly collapsed on a number occasions as he slowly treaded up the steps to the dining room, where he hoped a hot meal would be ready.
A day of battling and training ended today with Ryuu learning a lot of new abilities, and even learning something additional about himself: Sometimes, sheer will can prevail.