The thirty-second day of summer, 512 AV.
Keene stood in the center of several chalk marked trees he'd denoted with a small, white numbers denoting distance on the bark. For the time being, Mella had headed to the library to investigate patterns of weather from several hundred years ago on a hunch. That left her young assistant alone in the forest with the directive to: "get better at petching reimancy while I'm gone". He had long since realized his ability to manipulate res had a very definitive area of control, namely two and a half meters in any direction. Any res sent beyond his ring of influence was immediately lost to him through dissipation or dissolution depending on the form it was in. While he'd identified the rough boundary of his ability before, Keene had taken time to denote one, two, and three meter circles (roughly placed on trees that were about the proper distance from his central location using the measurement of a three meter pole). Once that had been accomplished, he'd slowly extended a rotating ball of res through first the one, then the two meter circles. Pushing it beyond that resulted in loss of control about halfway between the two and the three, an indication that that was the extent of his influence.
Having identified his limitations, Keene planned to explore the potential manipulation of said limitations. While he knew moving would increase his range in a sense, Keene had decided to see what could be done from a stationary point, as movement often made casting all the more difficult with having to focus on more than just the manipulation of his res. He had marked several trees at differing distances throughout the area, marking nothing beyond ten meters. He'd carefully marked the distances, measuring with the pole that was about three meters total. The act of marking three meters, shifting the pole, and marking another three had taken him quite a bit of time, especially when he arrived at a tree and had forgotten how many meters he'd traveled. From his perspective at the center of the "circle", he could see that many differing marks upon the trees had been drawn out a bit small, making them difficult to read. Having little desire to redraw them, however, he was content for a close approximation of the distances rather than keeping things exact. His measuring tool had been a long wooden stick, after all.
Eyeing the nearest target which was about four meters away, Keene readied a small ball of res to form in his hand, feeling the changes in his Djed spark the familiar sensation of excitement and pleasure. Transmuting the outer shell of the res into a solid layer of ice, Keene felt shivers run down his spine. Ever since he'd learned the proper processes to directly transmute his res into ice, the resulting sensation was that of cold and chill, though it only lasted for the duration of the change. Willing the icy orb to hover a few inches above his palm, Keene thrust his hand forward, sending the sphere spinning towards the tree. As it passed over the two meter mark, Keene let the rest of the res become ice in time for it to pass the tree meter mark without losing any of its mass. It crashed into the bark with a solid strike, splintering the wooden barrier with a satisfying crunch of fibers. He'd been aiming for the the center mark of the tree, but had managed to land the projectile to the lower right of the chalked number. Taking into consideration the sudden increase in weight of the icy sphere, Keene noted that it affected the trajectory, even over the short span of several meters.
Readying another sphere, Keene shook of the shivers, glaring at a tree that he'd measured at about ten meters away from him. It was as far as he believed he could both throw something and manage to hit what he was aiming for with some semblance of accuracy. Anything beyond that had about an equal amount of potential to be hit as it did to be missed with little added effort on his part. Once more, his arm extended, shooting the ball with much more force than before, transmuting the interior a bit late resulting in a few pockets of air within the sphere. He watched as it traveled through the air, missing the tree by a wide berth before smashing into pieces against the base of a tree a few meters behind it. The ball was difficult to aim, and Keene found that while it had a powerful impact, it was impractical for longer distances. The force and spin on the sphere was all very nice, but it sacrificed accuracy and speed. When he had first begun experimenting with reimancy, Mella had informed him that while she was interested primarily in using their magic for the eventual control of the weather, there was no better way to improve oneself than through physical training and problem solving. Thus, though Keene had little interest in the gritty side of combat, Keene had dedicated his afternoons to either offensive training or defensive and applied experimentation within the confines of their home.
With a more aerodynamic method of projectile in mind, Keene carefully drew fourth a thin, short spear of liquid res from his palm, pulling it through gesture with his free hand. Appraising the length of res that was slightly shorter than his forearm, Keene decided if he were going to cast an arrow of ice, he might as well use a bow and an actual arrow. Moving a hand across the floating res, he let his fingers break it up into seven smaller blobs, each floating slightly towards the direction the hand had passed through. Rotating his wrist to the right, Keene altered the shape of the res, giving them pointed ends in a shape similar to a raindrop. Using both hands, Keene carefully drew his fingers towards his palms a fluid motion, the double-sided raindrops of bluish liquid falling into a straight line as he aimed for the ten-meter tree. Drawing his left hand back towards his hip, the outer layers of the res droplets were transmuted to ice, the chill passing over him as he extended his right arm forward, launching the droplets at top speed towards his target. Wasting little time, Keene immediately retracted his hand, transmuting the rest of the res before it made it much farther than the two-meter mark.
This time, the frozen, miniature spears stuck into the intended tree. Four found their way into the bark while the other three whizzed past and disappeared into the forest. In comparison to the sphere, the spears had come much closer to the intended target. One of them had embedded itself at the lower end of "1" he'd marked. The thinner nature of the ice spikes made them easier to aim, though compared to the blunt force of the sphere he smashed into the four-meter tree, the level of destruction was highly mitigated. Preferring finesse over straight brawn, Keene found the smaller, quicker particles to me more to his liking. The amount of time it took to produce seven of them was about as long as the sphere, meaning he had six more projectiles to release in the same amount of time. As far as efficiency was concerned, Keene felt as though he had made a relatively useful discovery in terms of his theoretical battle tactics. In a true fight, however, he doubted the splinters would be of much use beyond irritation without the proper accuracy to land a hit on a vulnerable spot.
With that thought in mind, Keene turned his attention to a tree he'd marked at six meters. It was close enough he felt confident he could strike it with some accuracy. The purpose of the current exercise as he developed it was for not only accuracy but speed and control. Rubbing his hands together, Keene let a layer of res seep from the hands, the friction inducing motion releasing the liquid into the smaller balls that floated around the limbs they'd been produced from. Once more, twisting his wrist to alter the shape of the balls into their more aerodynamic spear cousins, Keene let them hang in the air around him. Using his left hand, he touched a finger to the bottom of one of the several spears of res, drawing it downwards with a grounding of his elbow. As he turned his hand so that his palm faced downward, the spear was transmuted to ice, the res center remaining. With a quick shove, Keene sent the spear hurtlding towards his target, quickly drawing his arm back to him to transmute the center. Without waiting to see if he'd hit, Keene repeated the motions with his right hand, alternating back and fourth as the projectiles were launched. Once they had all been cast, Keene appraised his work.
Few of they icy thorns had missed the tree entirely. Out of the ten he'd cast, nine were lodged somewhere in the dark color of the bark, stark white against the earthy tone. Of the nine, only two had landed where he'd been aiming, and even they were slightly weighted to the left. The remaining seven were scattered across the bark in a haphazard manner. Having tried to do too many things too quickly, Keene wasn't surprised he'd failed to perform at his best. Flexing his fingers, Keene stuck them under his arms. Lately, he found the more he used ice reimancy the lower his body temperature would fall. It seemed like a logical sort of side-effect, but it did make things inconvenient for prolonged practice. Alternatively, it was also a good way for him to be reminded to take periodic breaks when working with the element. Transmuting res into air just gave him a bit of a light head, something that was not conducive to making clever or well thought out decisions.
PurchasesChalk - 1 CM, 10 Foot Pole - 2 SM | total cost: 2 SM 1 CM
Keene stood in the center of several chalk marked trees he'd denoted with a small, white numbers denoting distance on the bark. For the time being, Mella had headed to the library to investigate patterns of weather from several hundred years ago on a hunch. That left her young assistant alone in the forest with the directive to: "get better at petching reimancy while I'm gone". He had long since realized his ability to manipulate res had a very definitive area of control, namely two and a half meters in any direction. Any res sent beyond his ring of influence was immediately lost to him through dissipation or dissolution depending on the form it was in. While he'd identified the rough boundary of his ability before, Keene had taken time to denote one, two, and three meter circles (roughly placed on trees that were about the proper distance from his central location using the measurement of a three meter pole). Once that had been accomplished, he'd slowly extended a rotating ball of res through first the one, then the two meter circles. Pushing it beyond that resulted in loss of control about halfway between the two and the three, an indication that that was the extent of his influence.
Having identified his limitations, Keene planned to explore the potential manipulation of said limitations. While he knew moving would increase his range in a sense, Keene had decided to see what could be done from a stationary point, as movement often made casting all the more difficult with having to focus on more than just the manipulation of his res. He had marked several trees at differing distances throughout the area, marking nothing beyond ten meters. He'd carefully marked the distances, measuring with the pole that was about three meters total. The act of marking three meters, shifting the pole, and marking another three had taken him quite a bit of time, especially when he arrived at a tree and had forgotten how many meters he'd traveled. From his perspective at the center of the "circle", he could see that many differing marks upon the trees had been drawn out a bit small, making them difficult to read. Having little desire to redraw them, however, he was content for a close approximation of the distances rather than keeping things exact. His measuring tool had been a long wooden stick, after all.
Eyeing the nearest target which was about four meters away, Keene readied a small ball of res to form in his hand, feeling the changes in his Djed spark the familiar sensation of excitement and pleasure. Transmuting the outer shell of the res into a solid layer of ice, Keene felt shivers run down his spine. Ever since he'd learned the proper processes to directly transmute his res into ice, the resulting sensation was that of cold and chill, though it only lasted for the duration of the change. Willing the icy orb to hover a few inches above his palm, Keene thrust his hand forward, sending the sphere spinning towards the tree. As it passed over the two meter mark, Keene let the rest of the res become ice in time for it to pass the tree meter mark without losing any of its mass. It crashed into the bark with a solid strike, splintering the wooden barrier with a satisfying crunch of fibers. He'd been aiming for the the center mark of the tree, but had managed to land the projectile to the lower right of the chalked number. Taking into consideration the sudden increase in weight of the icy sphere, Keene noted that it affected the trajectory, even over the short span of several meters.
Readying another sphere, Keene shook of the shivers, glaring at a tree that he'd measured at about ten meters away from him. It was as far as he believed he could both throw something and manage to hit what he was aiming for with some semblance of accuracy. Anything beyond that had about an equal amount of potential to be hit as it did to be missed with little added effort on his part. Once more, his arm extended, shooting the ball with much more force than before, transmuting the interior a bit late resulting in a few pockets of air within the sphere. He watched as it traveled through the air, missing the tree by a wide berth before smashing into pieces against the base of a tree a few meters behind it. The ball was difficult to aim, and Keene found that while it had a powerful impact, it was impractical for longer distances. The force and spin on the sphere was all very nice, but it sacrificed accuracy and speed. When he had first begun experimenting with reimancy, Mella had informed him that while she was interested primarily in using their magic for the eventual control of the weather, there was no better way to improve oneself than through physical training and problem solving. Thus, though Keene had little interest in the gritty side of combat, Keene had dedicated his afternoons to either offensive training or defensive and applied experimentation within the confines of their home.
With a more aerodynamic method of projectile in mind, Keene carefully drew fourth a thin, short spear of liquid res from his palm, pulling it through gesture with his free hand. Appraising the length of res that was slightly shorter than his forearm, Keene decided if he were going to cast an arrow of ice, he might as well use a bow and an actual arrow. Moving a hand across the floating res, he let his fingers break it up into seven smaller blobs, each floating slightly towards the direction the hand had passed through. Rotating his wrist to the right, Keene altered the shape of the res, giving them pointed ends in a shape similar to a raindrop. Using both hands, Keene carefully drew his fingers towards his palms a fluid motion, the double-sided raindrops of bluish liquid falling into a straight line as he aimed for the ten-meter tree. Drawing his left hand back towards his hip, the outer layers of the res droplets were transmuted to ice, the chill passing over him as he extended his right arm forward, launching the droplets at top speed towards his target. Wasting little time, Keene immediately retracted his hand, transmuting the rest of the res before it made it much farther than the two-meter mark.
This time, the frozen, miniature spears stuck into the intended tree. Four found their way into the bark while the other three whizzed past and disappeared into the forest. In comparison to the sphere, the spears had come much closer to the intended target. One of them had embedded itself at the lower end of "1" he'd marked. The thinner nature of the ice spikes made them easier to aim, though compared to the blunt force of the sphere he smashed into the four-meter tree, the level of destruction was highly mitigated. Preferring finesse over straight brawn, Keene found the smaller, quicker particles to me more to his liking. The amount of time it took to produce seven of them was about as long as the sphere, meaning he had six more projectiles to release in the same amount of time. As far as efficiency was concerned, Keene felt as though he had made a relatively useful discovery in terms of his theoretical battle tactics. In a true fight, however, he doubted the splinters would be of much use beyond irritation without the proper accuracy to land a hit on a vulnerable spot.
With that thought in mind, Keene turned his attention to a tree he'd marked at six meters. It was close enough he felt confident he could strike it with some accuracy. The purpose of the current exercise as he developed it was for not only accuracy but speed and control. Rubbing his hands together, Keene let a layer of res seep from the hands, the friction inducing motion releasing the liquid into the smaller balls that floated around the limbs they'd been produced from. Once more, twisting his wrist to alter the shape of the balls into their more aerodynamic spear cousins, Keene let them hang in the air around him. Using his left hand, he touched a finger to the bottom of one of the several spears of res, drawing it downwards with a grounding of his elbow. As he turned his hand so that his palm faced downward, the spear was transmuted to ice, the res center remaining. With a quick shove, Keene sent the spear hurtlding towards his target, quickly drawing his arm back to him to transmute the center. Without waiting to see if he'd hit, Keene repeated the motions with his right hand, alternating back and fourth as the projectiles were launched. Once they had all been cast, Keene appraised his work.
Few of they icy thorns had missed the tree entirely. Out of the ten he'd cast, nine were lodged somewhere in the dark color of the bark, stark white against the earthy tone. Of the nine, only two had landed where he'd been aiming, and even they were slightly weighted to the left. The remaining seven were scattered across the bark in a haphazard manner. Having tried to do too many things too quickly, Keene wasn't surprised he'd failed to perform at his best. Flexing his fingers, Keene stuck them under his arms. Lately, he found the more he used ice reimancy the lower his body temperature would fall. It seemed like a logical sort of side-effect, but it did make things inconvenient for prolonged practice. Alternatively, it was also a good way for him to be reminded to take periodic breaks when working with the element. Transmuting res into air just gave him a bit of a light head, something that was not conducive to making clever or well thought out decisions.
PurchasesChalk - 1 CM, 10 Foot Pole - 2 SM | total cost: 2 SM 1 CM
