"Sir? Please... Just call me Norman. 'Sir' always felt too stiff for my liking." Norman's face contorted as he recalled an unpleasant memory before shaking it off and turning to his ballista. The rubber ball would be the first projectile and suffice to say hardly a good judge of the effectiveness of Cecil's shield: Amuné could be fired upon and be unharmed from this. But rather than rush into matters they should work their way up, both to find what eventually might break through and whether or not repeated blasts would weaken it. Common sense said yes but only testing would tell. "A very astute observation! Though its not as though this weapon fires terribly quickly, nor are the projectiles we're launching at you terribly large. In all regards we may as well be throwing them for all the damage it might do." Sensing there might be a slight unease Norman poignantly repeated the final word - twice for Cecil's sake, since in all likelihood he would emerge from today totally unscathed. Probably. 

"Ah, so it turns on still! Good, good! We can rule out faulty wiring then, which means we're good to begin! Just stand still and er... Take it like a man, hm?" Much like the table on which Norman stored his ammunition the joke fell flat, only a single cough from one of the assistants breaking the awkward silence. Smiling despite himself the engineer then proceeded to load in the ball and take aim, firing for center mass where Cecil's plating should be heaviest - to shield his core and energy. With little more than a dull 'thwap' the ballista launched its munitions and the ball bounced harmlessly off the shield, not even registering it seemed as the field remained entirely undisturbed. "Well it seems that should a bird ever fly into your shield you're protected! Or if a child should lose their ball." But errant winged beasts and children's playthings were hardly the purpose of this shield. Taking then a ball formed from a fallen tree's trunk Norman carefully placed it in his weapon and aimed again, smiling as he casually fired it off the shield to the same result. "And random flying pieces of wood, we're off to a good start!" 

[center]----------[/center]

Training was never easy and training a new skill only added to the difficulty. Ethan had been there when he'd learned swordplay, when he'd learned magic - albeit incorrectly it seemed - and when he'd learned to hunt on his own. In retrospect perhaps training in how to read a map properly and use a compass would have been good. Would Kensen laugh if he asked for that? Or would he argue that it was a waste of time, and that magic was more important. 

"Training sure stinks. You screw up loads, you see how well everyone else does and it makes you feel pretty crappy, you know? Makes it hard to focus on what you're doing," Ethan agreed, nodding his head knowingly, "Especially if your teacher is a jerk. My instructor in the town guard was kind of tough. Not unfair but uh... Well a lot like what Gage is probably like. But you know what? They usually know what they're talking about. And know what else? If you can stick with it you'll come out better than when you started! Which is kind of obvious... But you know what I mean!" Cedric always argued people learned best through adversity. You didn't question how to do something or try to reinvent things until you understood the basics, it's why Ethan himself never dabbled much in his own magic: he scarcely understood it. Kensen on the other hand clearly knew what he was doing, hence his willingness to follow the Dimuran no matter how tough he might be. And why Amuné should follow Gage for the same reason.

"It's probably not fair for me to say 'tough it out', but you really should keep going with it. Even if you don't have to fight it'd make hunting loads easier for you. And then you could catch something for Wyth for lunch!" Reaching over Ethan scratched beneath the moorcat's chin and chuckled as he nuzzled back, giving Amuné's head a gentle pat then. "If I can find some time I'll come say hi if you want. Maybe ask the guy to be a bit nicer? I mean he does seem kind of... Well like a jerk, but I'm sure he's not totally heartless. If we just talked with him I'm willing to bet he'd be more than happy to lighten up a little." Or they could go to Taliya and ask her, though he felt like doing that was only going to piss off Gage. 

Hells this was infuriating! Between the failures of her ability to imbue her weapon and practicing under Kensen's gaze, Nymira found herself growing increasingly irritated. For mere seconds at a time she could manage but much longer and the flame began to quickly fade away. And it wasn't that she couldn't see the use of the ability either: a permanently heated blade meant easier and cleaner cuts, coupled with burns to inflict more damage. People were far less inclined to fight someone whose weapon was alight. That said she was just as content to use her magic as she had been, enchantments be damned. She was torn between the two and yet had conceded despite her reservations to learn. If this would earn her favor with Taliya - and in turn whoever led Mutebo itself, then she'd suffer through it. All of her other training had been far more rigorous besides, this just happened to be the most infuriating. 

----------

Of course Taliya had sent someone after him. And of course it had to be Adrianna. Not that Lionel minded all that much - Adrianna was good for a laugh or two - but as far as being combat capable? The jury was still out on that one. If they did come under attack again that meant just one more person to watch over, though having a healer to keep him going certainly made it a little easier. Not that he'd [i]welcome[/i] another fight - pain was painful after all - but it was of some peace of mind knowing he probably wouldn't die.

"Rest? And waste this beautiful day sitting around? I think not!" came Lionel's reply, a cheeky grin sent Adrianna's way. Resting wasn't an option no matter how much he might need it or how his wards might complain. The sooner they reached Mutebo the better and unless someone suddenly dropped dead they didn't stop for anything. Though from the way their company was hounding him about taking a breather you'd think someone was on the verge of dying. He was the one who'd just fought! Growing irritated from one of the woman's constant remarks Lionel gave her a quip about keeping her mouth shut or she'd attract all sorts of beasts to them... Only in far more rude terms. Thinking himself a knight defending some maidens honor perhaps one of the men then began to argue with him in turn, something the healer tried to tune out entirely. And he was successful in doing so right up until the man grabbed his shirt to stop him in his tracks. Letting out a sigh Lionel turned to face the man, smiling as he came so close his spit was speckling the boy's face.

"Are you done? Feel better? Got that out of your system?" Unsurprisingly a patronizing attitude did little to diffuse the situation. "Listen, if I leave you here you die, got that? So suck it up and keep moving, the traveling won't kill her but hunters just might. If you're so concerned with her safety then shut up and keep moving, alright? Unless you're just trying to posture to get into her pants?" That seemed to have struck a nerve. Lionel smiled and leaned aside when the man threw a punch, grabbing his arm and wrenching it as he swept the legs out from under him. Holding him on the ground he rolled his eyes as the man struggled, twisting his arm slightly to make him stop. "I've got a real simple job for you okay: Listen to what I say. Can you do that for me?" The man muttered a reluctant yes and thus was released, though Lionel was far from done with him. After helping the man to his feet he turned the man and pointed towards the trees before giving an order. "See those trees? I want you to walk over to every single one and apologize for wasting the oxygen they've worked oh so hard to make for us." Asked if he was joking the boy gave a deadpan stare and pointed again, sending the man off with no small degree of loathing, a stream of curse words spewing from his mouth. "A hug might help too! Trees like hugs!"