"Text" : Speech, everyone can hear

"Text" : Thoughts

["Text"
"Text"] : Memory

Text : sound of the action or the movement itself

"Text" : Action being done within a sentence.

'Text' : Exclusive for some people, like another person speaking inside their head.

I'm back! Missed me? Well after almost an entire month of not posting I finally managed to get myself hyped enough for writing and wrote this. Originally I was already supposed to write the "mission chapter" but decided against it and went with this instead.

A few kilometers away from Vale, Warehouse: 10am
Ruby POV

"Cmon Ruby, I know you can do better than this." Auntie said to me as I launched a left hook, prompting her to shift her body. "You're good without your magic."

She deflected the attack and went straight into a leg sweep. I tried to side-step the attack but I still felt the hit connect with my foot, causing me to fall off balance. Placing my hand in front of me, I managed to catch myself before I fell face first to the ground. I could hear the pounding of my heart as I took a second to catch my breath, doing my best to stabilize it.

"But you have to adapt to the fact that you can't use your magic too much." Auntie stated. "If you use your magic almost all of the time, at some point someone will get suspicious."

"I, hahhh, know that." I responded, as I slowly stood back up and got into form. "But… what if I… make sure they don't realize it's magic?"

"Then you're either the most cunning student I have ever met." She stared me right in the eyes and got into position as well. "Or the most idiotic."

She stopped talking as I shuffled forward before stepping in closer and throwing a right jab. As soon as I saw auntie shift her body to defend against the attack, I halted the jab, shifted my feet and rotated my body halfway to throw a heel-kick at her midsection. I felt my kick connect with a hard surface but as I tried to place my foot back to the ground, I couldn't.

"It'll take more than that to throw me off Ruby." Auntie said as I turned my attention towards her, her hands locking my feet right beside her chest. "If you really want to be a great huntress in this plane… well…."

"I made a mistake." I thought as auntie went on the offensive

The moment I thought that I felt myself forcibly pulled in closer as my right leg was pulled towards auntie. Before I could even react I felt myself knocked off balance as something hard had hit my only supporting leg, causing the world to spin. Then… I fell face first onto the ground. "Augh… now that one hurt."

"You're going to have to do better than that." Auntie said while I heard her coming closer to me. "You… ok?"

"Y-yeah." I panted as I raised my arm, gesturing to her not to help me up. "I'm… hahh, ok."

My entire body was racking with exhaustion, I could feel the aura coating over my body, the bruises I would normally have were completely healed at this point. But, nonetheless l the exhaustion is making itself more apparent as it was telling me to stop… "But I can't, can I?"

"Should we take a break for now?" Auntie said, pointing to a table with refreshments on it. "I could go for a re-."

"No…" I answered, still panting as I got into position. "I can… keep on going."

"Well I didn't mean you, but okay." She replied, getting into position as well. "After this we're gonna take a break… oh and a piece of advice, make yourself less predictable."

I nodded as I drew in another breath, gazing into her eyes as I focused on her body. I Placed my right foot forward, shifted my left foot to face outward, put my left arm near my chest and right arm on a slope right above my leg. With one last moment I exhaled, then bursted forward.

While approaching her, I shifted my front leg, switching between left and right. I watched as auntie shifted her body to match me, allowing me to shuffle my feet again before stopping midway to launch a left leg sweep. Then, I saw auntie twirled around my attack and immediately went for a heel kick. "Cmon!"

I dodged right under the attack and stepped in closer, launching a left hook right at face. The attack was mere inches away from her head when I saw her smirk and dodge backwards. Then I suddenly felt my aura shatter as something fast hit my lower jaw, causing me to fly into the sky and fall on my back.

"Haah…." I panted heavily as I finally felt the exhaustion taking its toll on my body. "Ha…. haahhh…"

My entire body felt like it was on fire, I could feel my heart pounding like crazy, and even my lower jaw was pulsating with pain… The only thing I could do was lie there on the ground, panting heavily as I looked up at the warehouse ceiling.

"Have I really gotten used to using magic that much?" I thought as I layed on the ground. "I think I've lost touch."
"Stop doubting yourself." Auntie told me as she stood beside me, extending her hand. "I can see that expression on your face."

"But… hahhh… I lost." I did my best to get the words out of my mouth as I grabbed her hand. "Ag- gulp… haaa… again."

"Well… before I became a planeswalker, I was a monk." Auntie said as she pulled me up, as she did I could see the sweat dripping on her face. "Secondly I'm older, so it's okay for you to not do well against me."

"Well yeah bu-." I tried to interject but auntie cut me off.

"Uh uh uh." Auntie said, giving me a water bottle at the same time. "Let me finish before you make your own assumption."

I said nothing as I nodded, sitting at one of the chairs that had been setup. "Well okay then."

"So, before you cut me off, I was gonna say that you're already doing great for your age, for example you beat Pyrrha." Auntie stated as she sat down at one of the chairs beside me. "Without using magic."

"Y-yeah, without magic." I chuckled, before I started chugging down the water. "Though, I think I did use magic the first time I fought her."

"But, as we both know, we use magic quite a bit in our fights, especially in the past months." She shifted her seat towards me while she spoke. "Foundations are important, especially in this plane where there's no magic, there might be aura, but again that is something that people also train."

"So, you're telling me to focus on improving those areas instead of magic?" I asked, making sure my tone had no demeaning accent.

"Well, yes and no." She chuckled, the stillness in the air fading as she spoke. "What I'm trying to say is you need to build up your strength."

"What do you mean?" I questioned, confused about the latter part of her sentence.

"We all have different learning curves, yours is no different." She replied, her tone not once sounding condescending. "You said 'what if I make sure they don't realize that it's magic,' right?"

"Yeah I did." I answered, although somewhat unsure. "But you said not to use magi-."

"No, I didn't." She interjected as she shook her head, dropping her hands to the ground. "I never once said that you aren't allowed to use magic, I only said that we might attract unnecessary attention."

"Y-yeah…" I replied, the light mood suddenly feeling heavy. "Y-you never did say that."

"It's alright, we can sometimes think something happened but it has not." Auntie said, before her mood shifted as she saw my expression. "But it seems that it is more than that."

"I think so too." I thought as I averted my eyes away from her. "No, I know that it's more than that."

"Ruby, may I ask you a question? You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Auntie asked, making me think for a second before nodding. "Does your presumption have to do with your time in Tarkir?"

"N-... Ac-... gulp... Yes it does." I mumbled as I took another breath. "Yes it does have something to do… with… my time in Tarkir."

"Sigh, does it still bother you?" Auntie asked, placing her hand on my shoulder at the same time. "You know it's not your fault righ-."

"... Auntie, I'm fine." I cut her off, taking her hand from my shoulder and placing it between my clasped hands. "I already accepted that… it isn't my fault… but I can't accept that I couldn't have done more… I can't accept that I couldn't save her and everyone else if I just knew more."

Auntie said nothing as she placed her other hand on top of my own, tightening her grip on it.

"But I won't waste the chance I'm being given." I said, with a proud smile on my face. "That's why I decided to do what I need to do and why I accepted Junior's mission even if I have to do it alone."

"And I have no doubt that you will be able to do it." Auntie responded as she removed her hand and placed it on my head, scrubbing it. "I'm sure you'll be better than all of us."

"Thanks auntie." I replied, accepting the hug at the same time.

"Oh, thanking me now?" She retorted before smiling. "You're always welcome, Ruby."

Then suddenly a loud bell was heard coming above us making me jump and look towards the door. I unsheathed my sword from my side but found that it wasn't there… "Right… I forgot." I looked towards auntie and saw that she didn't look all too worried as she just started walking towards the door.

"Speaking of magic and hindrances, our special package is here." Auntie said before turning towards me. "You might wanna put on your Robe and… she put her hand on her face and acted as if she was putting on a mask."

I turned towards the door and looked at auntie before nodding… "Special package? What exactly is that?"

With a deep breath I shook off the thought and headed towards the locker room and grabbed a towel. It didn't take too long for me to remove the sweat and change into my usual attire. Again I formed a mask that covered the top part of my face, there were a few attempts of trying to add more aesthetics on the mask… but I failed to make any.

As I went out of the locker room I could feel slight tremors and the sound of metal being dropped. Without hesitation I ran over to the door, hand placed on the hilt of Perseus… but as I went out, my jaw dropped as I saw something I really didn't expect.

Three beowulfs trapped in three separate cages, growling as they tried to claw their way out of the cages. Each one differed in size and their eyes… My gut wrenched as I felt something come up from my throat before I gulped it back down, … "What the…"

"No need to put on your mask, Junior's goons already left." Auntie told me as her attention stayed on the beowulfs. "These grimm are gonna be our test subject, you said you wanted to get better right?"

"Y-yeah I did." I replied, coming closer to her as I kept my attention on the beowulfs the entire time. "But what do… these beowulfs have to do with getting better?"

"Well I wanted to teach you how to paralyze a living being at least for a short while." She responded, crossing her arms as she did. "I may not be the best in mind magic but I can at least teach you the basics."

"Haaaah… okay." I looked towards the beowulfs and looked into their gaze, the same gut wrenching feeling surfaced again. "So… what do I do?"

"You're going to try and paralyze the smallest one and once you succeed in paralyzing one we move on to the next one." Auntie went behind my back and brought me closer to the first beowulf on the left. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah…" After looking again, I could see black dust lines restraining their mouths. "Why exactly are we studying this kind of magic now? I could just… I tightened my grip as I placed my hand over my head and acted like I hit my head with a hammer."

"Well for one, you always need a backup plan, secondly… while Junior did say we can decide if we want to use lethal force…" She said as she stood behind me, her expression somewhat serious. "I'm not sure that would be good for your conscience…"

"What do you mean?" I asked, a ball of guilt forming in my throat… "It's not as if my hands are clean."

"If you think that because your hands aren't clean it's okay for you to kill, then remove that kind of thinking." She said, her tone now actually serious. "Don't ever think that way, and one more thing, these people that you're being asked to repel? They're normal people who have no other choice but to do the things they are doing."

"W-what? What do you mean?" I questioned. "What do normal people mean? Why would they attack a cargo if… they… were normal… oh…"

"The White Fang are humans with… extra animal features." Auntie told me, her serious tone starting to fade. "They've been opre-."

"I understand." I interjected, staring right into her eyes. "There's no need to explain, let's start."

"That's… quite a different reaction than what I anticipated." Auntie chuckled as she looked towards me. "I had an entire speech formulated but if you understand, then let us start."

I nodded as I faced the beowulfs, breathing in and out as I let my uneasiness fade.

"Alright, so this is going to be different from your normal spells as this takes a bit of time to do as well as more concentration and mana." She said right behind me. "You're going to think of paralyzing the grimm, it's alright if you can't do it on your first try, doing more complicated spells whether fast or not is going to be hard and taxing."

"Okay, how much mana should I pull from the leyline?" I asked, turning my head towards her.

"You're going to need as much as you can get, you will have to grasp how much mana you use on your own as it can and will most likely differ from my own." She explained. "After that you'll have to concentrate as you start casting, and please… take your time."

Again I nodded before turning my attention towards the Grimm. I closed my eyes as I slowed down my breathing, blacking out the rest of the world and leaving the beowulf and myself alone. With one final breath I drew as much blue mana as I could from the leyline and started focusing on my spell. "Paralyze the grimm, paralyze the grimm, paralyze the grimm."

I kept repeating the same words over and over again and after a minute of repeating the same words and casting I opened my eyes. Only to see that the beowulf had not been affected as it still growled and tried its best to get out of the cage.

"W-what, I… I really thought I did it." I exclaimed as I looked at my hands, a slight weighing sensation appearing on my back.

"It's okay, just try again." Auntie encouraged me as she placed her arms on my shoulder. "Take your time."

With another deep breath I closed my eyes, trying to draw twice the amount I pulled last time… but I could feel constraints keeping the mana from coming up, it took me a couple more seconds and a second try but I managed to tap into the leyline and pull the mana. Concentrating again, I looked towards the grimm in front of me and started casting.

"Paralyze the grimm, paralyze the grimm." I gritted my teeth as I felt nothing but the blue mana swirling into nothingness. "Fine, just make the grimm unable to attack!"

My back shot up as a hair raising sensation flowed through my body, I felt a tiny connection for a second… a tiny, fading connection but a connection nonetheless. But soon enough the magic faded, making me open my eyes. My body recoiled back as I felt a sickening feeling in my gut, before I knew it I was falling.

"Are you ok?" Auntie asked, her hands holding me from falling. "Your back shot up and you suddenly lurched backwards."

"Y-yeah I'm okay… I think I took too much from the leyline and I… gulp, almost passed out because of it." I responded as I noticed a worried look on auntie's face. "B-but it's okay, I managed to feel a connection between me and the beowulf… a tiny… connection."

"And that's completely fine." She said, cutting me off. "If you need a rest then we can sit down for a while."

"N-no I'm okay, I can… keep on going." I said, the uneasy feeling in my stomach now gone. "I can keep going."

"God… damn… it." I said, trying to breath frantically as my legs started to fail. "One… more… time."

"Ruby, you don't need to-."

"N-no… I… need… to." I interjected, looking towards the clock before focusing solely on the creature I had been trying to paralyze for the past few hours.

I could feel the blood dripping from my lip as I gritted my teeth. With another deep breath I conjured as much blue mana as I could from the leyline, this time it wasn't as hard as the past few tries but hard nonetheless. I placed my hands forward as I could feel the mana starting to swirl around me, with one final exhale I looked towards the grimm and casted my spell.

"Immobilise my opponent." I thought as a connection immediately appeared. "Immobilise my opponent!"

Suddenly the connection grew stronger and stronger, but noticeably harder to maintain at the same time. I tightened my grip and focused, chanting the words in my head again and again. Then out of nowhere a sudden surge of electricity shot up my spine as it transferred to the connection, reaching the beowulf.

I opened my eyes and… saw the beowulf passed out lying on the floor, glancing over to the clock I saw that only a minute had passed.

"I… I di-." My body lurched backward as I felt the strain of my muscles and mind starting to become unbearable.

"I got you ruby, I got you." I heard auntie say as her face appeared in front of me. "Rest easy, you're going to need it for tomorrow."

"B-but… I… only… para…lyzed… one… of… them." I stuttered as I felt my world starting to fade into black.

"And that's more than enough, so rest easy." My auntie said, my body starting to feel weightless as I felt myself being carried somewhere.

Then everything faded into black… and passed out.

"Sometimes… it's better to take it slow."

Tbh, it was hard thinking of a way to convert MTG mechanics into actual mechanics I can use for writing.

For one, mana usage is vital in MTG, don't tap enough? Can't cast a spell. Get too much? You have excess mana. Secondly using sorcery spells instead of instant spells, these were much harder to find a way to do... so I went with this direction.