Ezra quickly understood what she meant by that. It was correct to say that she was attacking him, though he was more than welcome to attempt to defend himself. She didn’t use her weapons, but pushed her aura towards him.
“This is what’s called an aural shroud. It’s different from using an aural attack. Instead, it makes every one of my attacks carry the force of my aura,” she explained as Ezra fought to maintain consciousness against the attacks. “I’m not really attacking you, instead using it to pressure you. This pressure will force your inner world to strengthen itself and fortify you against whatever’s attempting to hurt you, me in this case.”
For his part, Ezra tried to fend off the pressure of her shroud. It sent flares of aura at him like shadows boxing at his face in the same patterns that Chloe herself fought with. He could only see flashes of the attacks, and after ten seconds, he felt his inner world straining against the attacks flying in his face. He tried to stand tall, but the pressure of Chloe’s shroud kept him hunched, and after only maybe twenty seconds, his knees buckled.
As soon as he fell, the pressure from the shroud died off as she stopped creating it or whatever, though Chloe’s general presence remained. The same feeling that he’d felt while in the meeting room with her remained, but since he’d exhausted himself, that pressure seemed to be much more overwhelming than before. His vision swam, and he groaned as he felt blood trickle from his nostrils.
“Ah, shit,” Chloe said as Ezra’s head hit the sand and he lost consciousness.
***
He woke sputtering, cold water pouring over his face.
“You alive in there?” asked Chloe as Ezra blinked away the water. His body was chilled, but he could tell it hadn’t been long.
“Yeah,” Ezra replied as he blew the water off his lips and took a good deep breath. The cold air helped him come back to consciousness as well, and he pushed himself up into a sitting position. More than ever before, his entire body was sore, so sore that he didn’t want to move at all.
“That sucked,” he grunted as he looked into Chloe’s face. “I’ll guess it’s good for me, though?”
“What makes you say that?” she smiled as she offered a hand.
“Because I don’t think you’re a useless teacher who’d knock me out for no reason at all,” he answered as his hands started shaking.
“Nah, I’m not,” she agreed. “Might have underestimated just how hard you were willing to push yourself, though. I guess that’s why you’re a prodigy, huh?”
Ezra just hung his head and raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“Yes, of course,” Chloe waved her hand dismissively. “You didn’t know. Most Initiates are kinda weak when it comes to standing up for themselves. They face my shroud and only give it a few seconds before giving up. You didn’t, and so I went further than usual. In that case, I’m going to be more careful with you moving forward.
“Anyways,” she changed the subject without hesitation, “this is good for you. You can develop your inner world bit by bit, make a kind of a sand castle that looks so pretty with enough time. It wouldn’t look like a sand castle, but that’s what it would be. And then it would fall apart the first moment that something challenged you.”
“This… isn’t making sense,” Ezra shook his head. “What’re you meaning by sand castle? My inner world doesn’t really have a look. It’s just… there.”
“It has a look,” Chloe disagreed. “You probably don’t quite understand how to look in there quite yet, but it definitely has a look. Mine looks like a hill that’s growing into a mountain with a buncha spikes sticking out all over. Tristan, the other Pseudo-Knight who’s going to be leading this expedition, has a windy plain that just is constantly blowing the grass everywhere. Makes sense, my aura tends to be rocky and his is windy, and they suit our fighting styles.”
“You can see someone else’s inner world?” Ezra asked, pushing himself up to his knees and then his feet.
“Not a Pseudo-Knight’s,” Chloe shook her head. “Once someone’s a Knight, you can see it a bit in their shroud, and I’m told they can force it to be more visible. That’s what my master said at least. You’ll be able to ask him if you end up joining with the Duke’s army.”
“The Duke has a Knight?” Ezra felt his pulse quicken at the thought.
“One. He’s getting a bit old, so he doesn’t go on smaller expeditions like this any more,” Chloe confirmed. “But don’t say that I told you that! He doesn’t like to be told that he’s getting older.”
Ezra rolled his shoulders and neck, the pain from being attacked by Chloe’s shroud still thrumming in beat with his heart. While he tried to get himself back to sorts and pulled the ambient aura into his inner world, a question somewhat spurred on by Jormun’s words before sprang almost accidentally from his lips: “Why do you think your aura is rocky? Like, the way you fight seems more like fire.”
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“Ugh, not you too?” Chloe whined, and with each thing she said, more and more of the mystique of a Pseudo-Knight was stripped away until Ezra realized that she was just another person, probably just a handful of years older than he was.
“Sorry?” Ezra replied, unsure of the grumpy response.
“No, it’s not your fault,” she sighed. “It’s a question that Master’s constantly asking me. My aura’s been like that since I got to the peak of Adept, and I think it’s good for me. Keeps my fists from breaking when I punch things, and it’s a longer-lasting aural attribute, so that’s doubly good for me when I’m focused on being able to outlast my enemies while destroying them with tons of hits.”
“But why do you think it’s rock instead of fire or something? Lighting? Or even ice or metal?” Ezra insisted.
Chloe grumbled and raised her fists. “It’s the last question I’ll let you have for now. I think it’s because I’ve been getting trained for fifteen years, and I’ve always preferred fighting with my body instead of a weapon, and I’ve never been great with any weapon, so I started using heavy gloves with studs, and the aura got harder and harder after that. Why it’s not metal? I don’t know. Okay?”
She’d gotten more and more frustrated as she spoke, and Ezra got the distinct impression he’d messed up by asking. When he raised his shield and spear to defend himself, he was proven right when the shroud pressed twice as hard against his defenses as before. Though he hadn’t figured out how to defend himself the first time, Ezra didn’t hold back as he tried to do… something with his inner world. After all, that had to be what could defend him against this assault, right?
Though he tried to influence the way that the aura moved within him, he had no luck and was pummeled by what felt like mental fists, his vision immediately swimming as his knees buckled.
Her intent’s strong, Jormun said with an infuriating tone above him while Ezra struggled to remain on his feet. She really just needs to sort out that aura mismatch and she’d be welcome on the front lines against the demons. Who knows how long that’ll take.
Ezra wanted to demand the damned ghost help him somehow, but he wasn’t about to talk to him as he fought against the Pseudo-Knight. Instead he tried to get his aura to listen to him, but only a handful of seconds passed, just long enough for Jormun to speak before Ezra’s legs buckled and he fell to his knees.
This time, Chloe had a better handle on herself and her presence faded entirely before Ezra was knocked out. He managed to keep himself from tumbling facedown into the wet sand and gasped. He closed his eyes and felt the aura of the sand and the ice, pulling both into himself in an attempt to keep himself conscious. Feeling that aura was initially more difficult, but then Ezra was surprised to feel that it flowed into his inner world faster than he’d expected and faster than before. His breath calmed as he strengthened himself, and Chloe’s words pulled him from losing himself further in his aura.
“That’s what the purpose of this is,” she explained, waiting for him to look up and meet her eyes. “Since you’re able to move aura pretty well already, there’s less of a need for you to just keep doing what you’re already capable of. You’ll be plateauing pretty quick if you just keep doing the same thing. Have you noticed that?”
“Not really,” Ezra admitted. “I’ve only been doing this for like two months, so I feel like I’m just getting better.”
“Damn you,” Chloe laughed. “You know, people call me a prodigy. Started training at eight, became an Initiate at nine, Adept at twelve and Pseudo-Knight at eighteen. Sure, I had other things to do than just train, but people have always called me a genius. How old are you?”
“Eighteen,” Ezra answered.
“Yeah, you’re going to be an Adept before you’re twenty, with at most a one year training period to go from someone with no idea what aura is to a damn Adept. You’d probably get there that fast even without someone like me helping you along. With this? I bet you only need two months to confronting the barrier to Adept.”
Ezra’s vision swam, and not only because he was trying to recover from this painful training. She was a genius, and he was closing ground between them that quickly?
Don’t get too big for your britches, Jormun cut in to Ezra’s thoughts. You’re at the easiest part.
With that, Ezra fought to his feet and nodded at his current teacher. “Go ahead, let’s go again.”
“Oh, no, I can’t,” she shook her head. “If I do it again, you run the risk of having my aura enter your inner world, which, with the difference in our strength, would be poisonous. Now, I’m going to train you in dueling.”
Ezra blinked. “Dueling?”
“Yeah, dueling,” Chloe nodded. “If you’re not so stupid as to get yourself killed, you’re guaranteed to become at least a Pseudo-Knight. If you get to this point, you’ll spend more time working as a noble’s guard or champion than fighting among a bunch of soldiers. After all, do you think that the way I fought would work well with others?”
“No, but can’t you fight beside someone else, adjust your fighting style a little?”
“Not really,” Chloe denied. “Look, the stronger you get, the worse of a soldier you become. That’s a large part of why the Duke’s going to want you out of this tiny county and somewhere where you can make a difference. Each person, as they develop their inner world, works less and less like a good little soldier. They’re too focused on their own abilities, and it’s a waste to make anyone stronger than an Adept to stand on a shield wall. I’m a much better asset on a battlefield finding the strongest enemies and making sure they aren’t making mincemeat out of the regular soldiers. Same as what I’m going to be doing on this mission.”
“I… already had this thought,” Ezra admitted. “So, should we get training, then?”
“Oh, you’re one of the training maniacs?” Chloe laughed. “To tell you the truth, I’m the same.”
Then, without saying anything else, she collected a training sword and shield from nearby and gestured for him to collect his spear and shield. Ezra rolled his shoulders, knowing that he was in for another rough lesson, and welcoming it. Without another word, he raised his shield and charged forward.