I do not own Dragon Quest VIII or any of its characters.
Practicing
Angelo narrowed his eyes slightly, then lunged, thrusting his rapier at Kane, only for Kane to knock the blade aside, slashing at Angelo. Angelo deflected it off of his new, red-faced, steel shield. It was the standard shield for the Templars, Angelo claimed, though red where the other Templars had blue, like with his uniform, however, he was good with it, despite being a fencer. He used it almost as often as his sword to deflect and parry Kane's blade as Kane pressed him. Kane had to admit, Angelo was good. He was fast and precise, but he wasn't nearly good enough. After barely a minute, Angelo's breaths were coming in ragged pants, and on his next thrust, Kane deflected Angelo's rapier off his shield, then slammed the sole of his foot into Angelo's chest, hurling him backward to the ground.
"You need to work on stamina and strength," Kane said. "As well as magic. I can sense it inside of you, but you haven't used any."
"I've never needed it," Angelo said. "I've always led a safe, comfortable life, even as the Templar outcast. I've never needed magic before."
"Well, you do now," Kane said. "The stronger your magic becomes, the more resistant your body will be to hostile magic."
Angelo nodded. "And how do I go about using magic?"
"Turn around," Kane said.
Angelo complied, and Kane pressed a hand to his back. For a moment, he focused, then channeled some of his own magic into Angelo's, freeing it from the stasis and mire of having never been tapped into before, as well as letting Angelo know what it felt like. Then, he removed his hand.
"You focus on that, and will it to cast a spell," Kane said, pulling a thick tome from his bag. "This has a list of spells and descriptions to help cast them. Study it."
Angelo nodded, and Bran walked over to where Jessica was struggling with her own magical training. She was sweating, breathing hard, and had learned a new spell, Crack. It caused icy spears to burst from the ground, skewering the target. She'd also improved with her fire spells, able to use them faster and more powerfully.
"How're you doing?" Kane asked.
"I should be asking you that question," Jessica said, focusing. Then, she swung a hand, and sent a massive fireball flashing from her palm, sending it exploding against a tree ahead of her. "I think I've learned the spell to increase someone's physical strength."
"Let's find out," Kane invited, spreading his arms invitingly.
She nodded, focusing, then cast the spell, comically named Oomph, on him. He felt the spell take effect and hummed thoughtfully as he stared at his hands. Then, he walked over to a tree and punched it, shattering its trunk.
He grinned, nodding. "Perfect. That's going to be useful."
Jessica sighed, smiling, and the pair of them walked over to where they could watch Marik and Yangus training at the foot of a hill. Marik was working on his magic, but was specifically trying to learn how to heal, at least at the moment, and Yangus was working on his speed and his raw strength.
"You know this training will take years to get us to Dhoulmagus's level," Jessica commented.
"We don't need to individually be his level," Kane said. "We need to be his level together. And that we can do."
"How?" Jessica asked. "I don't understand how we could possibly improve that much that fast."
"Because we don't have a choice," Kane said. "Either we improve, or we fail."
Jessica sighed, nodding. "Alright. Then we have no choice. I should get back to work."
Kane nodded, and as he watched Marik cut his own forearm then successfully heal it three times, he moved down the hill to help him learn to combine his magic with his swordsmanship.
"I'm exhausted!" Angelo complained, returning from bathing himself in a nearby river. "I haven't run that long or that hard in my life!"
"And that's why you have no stamina," Kane said offhandedly. "What you just did is a warmup for me and Marik."
"You're joking!" Angelo gaped.
"He's not," Marik shook his head. "Kane's a slave driver."
"Yes, well, if we're going to beat Dhoulmagus, that's probably exactly what we need," Jessica spoke up, still drying her hair from her own bath.
"I'm just glad 'e ain't got me doin' one o' that weird magic stuff," Yangus said.
"You will be," Kane said. "Probably not much, but you'll certainly be doing some."
Yangus groaned, but nodded.
"Dinner!" King Trode almost sang, beginning to hand out bowls of stew. "I, for one, think it's a marvelous idea for you all to put in a bit of training! And there's no one better for that than Kane!" He glared at Kane. "He's done nothing except train in the times when he was supposed to be resting and having a proper life aside from duty."
"Duty is my life, Your Majesty," Kane shrugged.
"Wait, your whole life has been serving him?" Angelo asked. "You hung out with your friends?"
"I never had friends," Kane said. "All that matters to me is my duty to His Majesty. Friends are a distraction from that, unless they directly contribute to it. I get on well enough with Marik, don't I?"
"But 'e's your bruv," Yangus said. "That don't count!"
Kane shrugged. "As I said, I don't need friends."
"Well...what about women?" Angelo asked. "Alcohol? Fun!"
"I never cared about any of those," Kane said. "Alcohol if fine in small quantities, but overindulgence dulls the mind and makes one worthless as a guard. Fun uses up precious time that could be spent attending to duties. As for women, I never devoted any time to anything that could distract me from my duty to His Majesty, or that could in any way jeopardize him."
"So you ain't never been wiv a bird before?" Yangus asked.
"Never," Kane said.
"Not once?" Angelo gaped.
"Never," Kane shrugged.
"Not even a kiss?" Jessica asked.
"Do none of you understand the meaning of the word 'never'?" Kane asked. "I've never had any form of relationship or anything related to it. As I said, my duty to His Majesty is my life."
"You poor, neglected man," Angelo said. "This explains so much."
"Says the man who can't be around a woman for more than a handful of seconds without trying to bed her," Kane said dryly. "I don't think you're in any position to judge. Judging by your stamina, you flirt with every woman you see because if not, you'd run out of fans after they all got disappointed after their thirty seconds of fun."
Jessica snorted as Yangus laughed.
"That's not true!" Angelo snapped, then huffed. "You can't really talk about that, though, can you?"
"I can talk all I want," Kane shrugged. "Just because I have no experience doesn't mean I'm wrong."
Angelo narrowed his eyes. "Child."
"Gigolo," Kane countered.
"That's enough, you two," Marik finally sighed. "Eat your dinner. We've got a long day of traveling and training to do tomorrow."
Everyone except Kane and Marik grumbled but complied.
Kane watched as a trio of mummies charged Jessica. She threw her arms out to the sides instantly, and a pair of walls of flames roared to life on either side of her, rushing inward and wallowing the mummies. It was similar to the spell the undead priest had used on them, but it didn't explode like that one had. He turned to the other side as Marik used several repetitions of Kane's Dragon Slash to kill several Jargons. The last lifted his jar to his lips, only for Yangus to leap into the air, swiping his axe as hard as he could. The head of the axe tore through the Jargon, splitting its neck from the left side to the spine and the Jargon collapsed, dying within seconds. A Slime Knight, a gigantic, green slime that had extended part of its body on top up into a suit of armor to allow it to wield a sword and shield, hopped toward Yangus, but Yangus spun his axe around himself like a propeller, focusing to gather the wind it created into a ranged strike. Except, the strike faded before reaching the slime. It was improvement, however, as usually the strike failed to charge properly. As the Slime Knight leapt into the air to strike at Yangus from above, Marik deflected the strike with his sword, then slashed hard, flames roaring along his blade. Kane nodded approvingly and turned his gaze to Angelo instead, finding him surrounded by dozens of giant moths and hornets, but he was deftly stepping through the swarm of massive insects, his sword tearing through them rapidly. Kane opened his mouth to yell for him to use his new training, not his usual tricks, only for his voice to die in his throat as first flames augmented a slash, then as Angelo's sword shone and two strikes split a pair of giant hornets on either side of him at nearly the same exact instant. Then, he swung a hand, and a tornado roared to life, pulling in the remaining insects as it raged around Angelo, blades of razor-sharp wind shredding them.
Kane nodded approvingly, then turned to his own foes. Using monsters to train had been Marik and Yangus's idea, and Kane had initially been hesitant. However, it was working out well. All of them had improved. And now, it was his turn to test his improvement. Before him stood five Jargons and a trio of armored bulldogs each the size of a wagon, standing on two feet and holding spiked collars attached to them by chains. Kane drew his sword, then exploded forward, his sword shining. Two strikes split one of the dogs in an instant, and Kane leapt over it, bringing his sword down into one of the Jargons, an explosion ripping its insides apart. He turned, launching himself forward, and drilled a kick into the next Jargon, folding it over before twisting and severing its neck. Then, a collar slammed into the back of his neck, clicking closed in the front before the dog yanked, slamming him to the ground.
He flipped instantly, gripping the chain, and yanked, but the dog held fast, pulling hard. But that was fine. That was the intention. Kane charged, and before the dog could react, Kane had split it down the front, flames roaring along his blade, then severed the chain. The other dog hurled both collars, and Kane slashed them both aside before raising a hand. A split-second later, several bolts of lightning flashed down from above, blasting through the trees overhead and slamming into the remaining monsters, blasting them all. One of the Jargons survived, beginning to rise, only for Kane to raise a hand, massive, icy spears bursting from the ground and impaling it, finishing it off.
"You can summon lightning?" Jessica asked.
"It's a very high-level spell," Kane explained, looking up at the trees. "And it requires being outside."
"So as long as we can get Dhoulmagus outside, you could use it on him," Marik reasoned.
"I keep telling you, Marik, if you'd been applying yourself, you'd be stronger than me by now," Kane said. "And then you could use that spell or stronger."
"Yeah, well, I'm applying myself now!" Marik pointed out.
"True," Kane nodded as they walked over to a small cave in a cliff face where King Trode and Medea had patiently, and safely, been waiting for them. "Ready to continue?"
"Absolutely," King Trode nodded. "How was the test?"
"We've all progressed well, but we're far from ready," Kane said. "We're still too slow, too fragile, and Angelo's endurance still sucks."
"Hey, I'm trying, alright!?" Angelo demanded. "It's been a few days! I'd say learning the new techniques and spells we have in that time is impressive!"
"Do you think Dhoulmagus will be impressed enough to allow us to take his head off?" Kane asked.
"Well, no," Angelo admitted.
"If we catch up to him right now, do you think we could kill him?" Kane asked.
"Maybe," Angelo said.
"Probably not," Jessica countered.
"If the answer isn't a yes, then it doesn't matter how impressive our improvement is," Kane said. "You can be as impressed as you want to by learning to do things that are already within your power. If the enemy exceeds your power, how impressive you think you are means nothing. Being impressed is an excuse to take it easy, and I'm not allowing it."
Angelo sighed. "You really are a slave driver."
Kane didn't respond, and after a while, they stopped for the night. It was Kane's turn to cook, so he used some of the Jargon meat he'd gathered earlier in the day to cook them dragon steaks.
Kane stared at the bridge before them. It was wide and long, more so than Kane was expecting, and it was currently occupied by a handful of Slime Knights. Kane drew his sword, leaving his shield on his back for now, and he, Marik, and Angelo charged. A Slime Knight hopped toward each, then leapt into the air to strike hard from above. Marik sidestepped his opponent's strike, then slashed from above as the Slime Knight's sword missed him, nearly bisecting the slime and the armor alike, killing it. Angelo jumped backward, out of the way, then shot forward, a pair of lightning-fast slashes splitting the slime and the armor at the same instant. Kane, on the other hand, leapt into the air, slashing in an upward arc. His blade only barely reached the slime, but compressed air had gathered at the tip of the blade, forming a blade of wind to double the blade's length, and that bisected the slime perfectly up the middle.
Another slime began to hop forward, but Yangus stepped up ahead of the others, spinning his axe once more to charge the ranged, wind-type magic attack. Then, he swung, shouting in effort, and this time, the strike was successfully, if aimed improperly. The blast slammed into the ground just ahead of the Slime Knight, tearing a deep gouge across the width of the bridge, but the blast also erupted into an explosion, blowing the Slime Knight backward into the remaining two. Then, Jessica stepped up beside him, her whip snapping out faster and more violently than Kane had ever seen her swing it. Its end lashed out so violently that the two passes tore a pair of deep gouges in the Slime Knights, even passing through any armor it reached seemingly easily. The strike was far from fatal, of course, but it would definitely hurt. However, Jessica huffed, then focused, swiping her arms across her body. A line of jagged icy spikes burst from the ground, spearing the three Slime Knights and finishing them.
"We're improving," Angelo commented.
"It's not enough," Kane said seriously, walking forward to inspect the gash left by Yangus's strike. "Yangus, we'll work on your aim, but that was good."
"Turns ou', I wasn't swingin' 'ard enough," Yangus said as they crossed the bridge.
"That's good to know, but if you can't land a direct hit, it's not going to work on Dhoulmagus," Kane said seriously, looking around. "It's getting late."
"Well, if someone wasn't making us spend so much time training, we'd be there already," Angelo griped.
"Do you want revenge for Abbot Francisco or not?" Kane growled.
Angelo grimaced, then sighed, nodding. "Yes, I do."
"Then stop complaining," Kane said.
"Excuse me!" someone called out as King Trode reached them, all of them turning to a chapel beside the far end of the bridge where a young nun was peeking out through the door. "Did you kill those monsters?"
"Yes, we did," Marik nodded. "They didn't hurt anyone, did they?"
"No, we all just hid inside of the church," the nun said. "Are you on your way to Ascantha?"
"Yes, we are," Kane nodded. "We're looking for someone, and that's the only place we can think of that he might have gone."
"I see," the nun nodded. "You shouldn't travel that way after dark. It gets dangerous at night in this area. Stay the night here. We usually require a small donation, but it's a religious holiday, so for tonight, you may stay for free."
Kane glanced at King Trode. "You'd be willing to put our companion up for the night?"
The nun glanced at King Trode, then nodded. "If you have the ability to slay monsters, and yet you haven't slain him, then he must not be a monster."
"I like her," King Trode beamed. "She's just marvelous!"
"Alright, we'll take you up on your offer," Marik nodded, smiling. "Thank you."
The nun smiled and nodded, and King Trode parked the carriage beside the small chapel. They all headed inside, however, they were a bed short. That was fine, however, since Kane had decided he would spend the night guarding Medea. Without having Ripper, he couldn't leave protection for her at night.
"Are you sure?" Jessica asked. "You've barely slept at all in...well...since I met you, really."
Kane nodded. "I'll be fine. I'll catch up on sleep when there's time, and safety, to do so. I'm not leaving Medea unprotected."
Jessica nodded, and Kane headed back outside. He sighed as he sat down, pulling a heart-shaped, pale-red, palm-sized piece of cheese from his pouch and eating a piece, smiling. Medea nickered and nudged him, and he smiled, nodding.
"I miss the old days," Kane smiled. "When I could gorge myself on cheese whenever I wanted. I...I really miss it." He sighed, looking up at the sky. "I wonder if I'm forgotten, yet."
Medea nudged him again, and he smiled, resting his head against hers.
"I don't know how you managed to keep my secret all those years," Kane smiled. "Thank you for always being my friend, Medea."
Medea whinied softly, and Kane ate another piece. Then, he glanced down as something tapped his foot, and smiled, seeing Marik's most faithful companion, Munchie the mouse, sitting beside his foot. Kane smiled, tearing off a piece of the cheese and holding it out to the mouse. Munchie's body was a light brown with white underneath, except for a line of longer, dark-brown hair from the center of its head to the middle of its back, then a tuft of matching hair at the tip of his tail.
"Hello, Munchie," Kane smiled. "It's not often you leave Marik's side." His smile faded. "Do you feel the same way I do? That sense of foreboding that hangs around Dhoulmagus?"
Munchie stood up on his hind legs, holding his piece of cheese between his front feet, but nodded before he began to eat.
"There's something about him," Kane frowned. "Something I can't quite put my finger on. Whatever it is, he's dangerous."
Again Munchie nodded, stuffing the piece of cheese into his mouth, then raised a paw in a wave.
"See you around," Kane smiled.
Munchie turned, scurrying back to the chapel and to Marik where he liked to ride in Marik's coat's right pocket. Kane sighed, finishing his own cheese before staring up at the stars once more.
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