The Infinite Chronicles
Btw some slight spoilers and hints for xc2 from this point forward
Act 2: Fallen
Chapter 5
"So you're the legendary Aegis?" I asked. "Shh, best not talk about it here" Avalon looked from side to side. "I'll explain once we are safe." "Safe? What exactly are we not safe fr-" I was shortly cut off by Jess because she hit my side. I groaned, and I saw why she hit me. It seemed like the chief of the village was coming to us. "We thank you for helping us repel our attackers," the chief said. "We would gladly accommodate you as you have requested, I presume you will all stay at Jessica's house?." "Uh well you see-" I began. "Yes we will chief Accol'' Jess quickly interrupted. She ushered all three of us into a decent sized hut, about the same size as my home back on the Crimsona titan. "You must respect the chiefs requests, here in Tentuem, honor is everything, and if you disrespect someone, especially the chief, you might as well kill yourself." she warned. I remembered unmasking one of our assailants and seeing he was another Phantomi. "So why were we fighting one of your kind Jess?" I asked, curious. She sighed "Well you see Tenteum is a rather tribe based culture. We do have agreements that's what the main city is for, other than that, raids and pillaging other tribes are very much allowed." "But why?" I asked again, still confused, "Because of resources," this time Avalon replied. "They see violence as the way to easily gain resources.". Jess nodded "He's right, pillaging is a faster way of getting food rather than growing it down here, as there's almost no light." Suddenly a knock came from the door.
It opened and we saw it was the chief again. "I have arranged a meeting with captain Veluez, as you have requested.". I frowned, maybe Jess also arranged this,but I said "We thank you very much chief Accol". Soon we met at a training ground outside. The captain came and asked us a question, "How well do you know combat?" "Well, I do know how to use a sword and its techniques." I replied. "That is regular combat, you will now learn combat with blades." He summoned his blade, which looked like a knight of some kind. "In this world there is ether, it is the lifeblood of almost every living being." He explained "Blades have the ability to harness ether and channel it for fighting purposes." He borrowed his blade's axe, which was rather big "This is Nightmare by the way." Nightmare saluted smartly at us. Nightmare raised his arms and a blue beam of light flowed from him to captain Veluez. "This is an affinity link" Veluez explained. "It is the connection between a driver and his blade, the better your bond during battle, the link will turn gold and you receive a boost of stamina and strength.". Sure enough his link began to glow and change from blue to gold. "Next we will use Arts," he continued "Each blade has a different Art, I will use one of Nightmare's arts, Horrific Slash, and if you want to use an Art you have to tell your blade which art you want to use, preferably using your voice of course." He turned away from us and faced a practice dummy. "Horrific Slash" he roared as he brought his blade down. A path of dark energy followed his sword and detonated in front of the already sliced dummy. "Now you see, there are 2 types of damage, physical and ether," he said. "Physical damage is like getting cuts or bruises from falling, ether damage however, is different, it doesn't leave a scar, bruise or makes you bleed, but it can definitely still kill you".
"Furthermore there are arts'' Captain Veluez continued "There are driver arts and blade arts, driver arts are more commonly used when the driver is using the blade's weapon and vice versa." "I suppose you have your own Arts?" I asked Avalon. "Have faith in me, I'm not useless" he said sarcastically "Yes I do, pay attention to the names, Frost Striker, Winter Night which was the one I used on the ship to freeze them, Sweeping Strike and one more is your choice." "My choice?" I asked. "He is correct," the Veluez said "Most blades have three Arts, and if they have a new driver sometimes the fourth art will vary, and judging by what your Art names are, I'm guessing your blade element is ice." "Yes, I'm an ice element blade" Avalon replied. "Perfect! Now we will learn about the two main fighting styles, the Lukeranian style and the Jackon style, named after our two heroes of course." Avalon winced when he heard the names of the fighting styles, I'm guessing he had fought with them, but I've never heard of Jackons tale. We soon were put against each other, Jess and Zero against me and Avalon. We tried both styles and I managed to learn all his arts, including his fourth one. "Cyclone smash!" I yelled as I hit my blade down to the ground, sending a violent gust of wind to Jess which knocked her over. After a long day of practicing I was exhausted. "Why do I feel so tired?" I asked. "Channeling ether attacks does take energy from both you and your blade, mostly your blade." Veluez answered. I looked back and saw that Avalon was looking just as tired as I was. "Well I suppose that concludes today's training" the Veluez announced "You may all go back to your sleeping quarters" We all gladley walked back to Jess's house and after taking a good bath and dinner, which Jess made, we all hit our beds hard.
Note: the Lukeranian style is the one used in xc2, driver using blade weapon and switching back and forth and the Jackson style is more like morags style, where she uses one blade and brighid uses another.