Renose & Flamelord Collab (Part 3)

Serin looked at Thomas as he seemed to have somewhat of a hard time sensing the properties of the magic, but was pleased as he saw the boy absorbing the spell into his sword and its mana into his body. He clapped a few times, a small smile on his face. "Good... good. You are quite the fast learner. I hope you have somewhat of a feel of how to use this skill now, because that was just the basics. Its gonna take a while before you are capable of using this skill in actual battle and before you are able to use the second skill I have to teach. But still, that was good. Let us try again, this time faster, as this time I won't be warning you when I throw the spell". 

Serin waited for Thomas to get situated, walking slowly around in Thomas' field of vision a bit, watching Thomas' movements and how the other mage was looking at him. Suddenly Serin thrust his palm out towards Thomas once, a small jet of flame instead of a fireball this time heading straight for the other mage. Serin did not chant his spells, nor did he seem to cast them as their individual stages nor as the individual affects intended, casting instead in the same fashion Reno did, which made sense as after all Serin was the one who taught Reno how to cast spells like that. 

Thomas shrugged. 'Guess we'll see," he replied, having figured as much already, though he was intrigued with the knowledge that there would be another lesson to go with this one. the more skills he got, the better it would be in his mind. To catch up, to be what he felt having the Keyblade meant, it was something he was willing to work for, though getting help from Reno's foster father was a bit off putting. But he could put that aside, and did.

So now he settled in to repeat the process, eyes following Serin as the mage paced, sword following in preparation. Still, it was a shock when the spell finally came, and it took him a few precious seconds to react, mind stretching forward. But what he felt confused him. It wasn't as simple as fire, the magic more comple, a mix of spells and a different casting. How was he supposed to disentangle them all in time? He tried, but he just wasn't getting it, maybe a lack of creativity, or just something he was missing that was simple.

Then, he got that feeling again and he knew. His other self had been guiding him, pushing him along certain paths to get it down, and that angered him, the thought that his accomplishments weren't his own, so he pushed back. Let me do it myself, he growled angrily. But that was enough of a distraction to use up his remaining time, and he had to quickly side step to dodge the spell, grimacing in anger, partially at himself, partially at his other self for messing him up. He was sure he could have got it. Probably. And his mind turned to working over what he could have done as he waited for Serin to throw at him again.

Something was going on with Thomas. Serin couldn't tell what, but something strange was happening. Still, it wasn't his place to intrude. He was simply here to teach the mage. If Thomas wanted his help with whatever else was happening then he would give it to him, but for now Serin focused on this lesson. "You have to feel the magic. Fire is Fire. It does not matter what form a fire spell is cast in, it is fire nonetheless. I taught Reno to not think of fire magic as simply a bunch of different fire spells, but instead just one singular spell to control the element of fire. The same goes with the other elemental spells. Do not try to categorize what a spell is, simply feel the spell for what it is made of and when it hits you, grasp it". 

After his short speech Serin shot yet another small jet of flame at Thomas, not a fireball. He hoped that these words would help Thomas get what he was trying to covney here and would help Thomas get a better feel for magic itself, since being able to connect to magic with his very will was an ultimate way to gain a better grasp of it. 

Thomas understood, but it was just hard to grasp, at odds with how he had been taught magic, how he had used it his entire life. Whether it was someone's fault was an unreasonable thing to debate, since it was just a matter of teaching styles and personal preference, but he couldn't help but wonder if learning this from the start would have made him stronger than he was now. As it was, his mind was ordered, categorical, and to try and simplify things like that was difficult when he was aware of the differences between the elemental spells as he had learned them. Another quick rebuke went out to his other self, who accepted it with some measure of grace, and Thomas could return to the matter at hand, bending his way of thinking to this new method. 

Another Fire spell came, another continuation of the process. He had to force himself to relax, to ignore the various interwoven elements of the spell that characterized Fire from Fira and the others, and to just focus on the base of the spell. It unraveled like the layers of an onion until he got to the core, and then it just clicked into place and he went for it. Sitll, his grasp wasn't perfect as he grabbed for the spell, and it showed as metal heated up all of a sudden, eliciting a hiss of pain as he dropped it, rubbing at his heated hand. Fortunately it didn't hurt too much. "That could have gone better," He commented, though it was a step up from before.

Serin waved his hand, a wave of green light washing over Thomas' hands to heal the burns on his hand and alleviate the pain, the spell Water having been combined with the spell of cure as cool, soothing water had also washed over Thomas' hands. "You did good though. For one who isn't used to not categorizing magic and connecting to magic with their will you are learning quite quickly. When I taught Oner this skill he was already used to how I cast magic, but you haven't gotten that chance. The fact that within three tries you have gotten this grasp of it is a pretty big step, but you are still not ready to use it in battle". 

Serin paused, a small smirk forming on his face. "Not yet anyway". With that he would wait for Thomas to pick up his sword, waiting for the other mage to get ready once again. Once he was ready Serin would walk around a few moments before this time a small jet of water erupting from his palm, and a few moments after the jet of water shot at Thomas a small surge of electricity followed. Again these were all cast in the unique way that both Serin and Reno cast their spells, not thinking of them as individualized spells, but just a spell to control a specific element in whatever way one desired, which was something that Serin was also trying to teach Thomas during their lesson in Runic. 
"Thanks," Thomas replied, though leaving out the statement that he was perfectly capable of healing himself. At least the water being added didn't make his skin itch as it was healed. It was some praise though, and he accepted it and even began to look up again, that he was the person that they had seen in that small village all those years ago before he became a mage, the potential for greatness within. Some legitimate (in his mind) acknowledgement of that was a boost, to be sure. 

He reached down, carefully picking up the sword while making sure it wasn't still hot to the touch, then resuming his combat position.Then water came at him, and Thunder. Water was hard, he wouldn't lie. He didn't klnow that spell and unraveling iot to get to the pure element within was a difficult task, especially compounded with the rush for time. In his haste, he changed his mind with a mental 'screw it', and switched to the Thunder, something he could more easily understand. Somehow he managed to stay standing through the jet of water and absorbed the surge of thunder, a tingling in his fingertips from that he couldn't absorb. He looked over at serin, fully expecting an air spell to dry him off, though he'd be fine if it didn;t show up. "Sorry. Not used to Water. And, you know, doing two at once," he explained with some chagrin.

Serin chuckled a small bit. "Sorry. I just got a little to into it, with your great progress and all. But still, you need to learn how to absorb spells you are unfamiliar with. Your enemies may possess dark magic or other forms of magic you may not know. Even if you do not know those spells, you need to learn how to get a feel as to what they are. But for now, lets do a little more practice with spells you do know so you can get a better hang of using the skill more quickly and absorbing more power of a spell. Then we can take a little break for you to meditate on what you have learned and then we can start with spells that are unfamiliar to you". 

Serin, for about the next half hour or so with small, short breaks in between would throw balls or jets of fire at Thomas, to give him more practice. He would mix it up as well, shooting streams of icy wind or just pure shards of ice at Thomas as well as lightning bolts from his fingers or surges of electricity. He would change the pace regularly, sometimes going slow, other times going fast, all to keep Thomas on his toes. He would also help Thomas get a feel for taking in spells one after another with fire then ice, all the while hoping that Thomas was grasping more on the idea of spells as singular elements rather than spells in their individual categories and versions.