Pieces of Sonder

Daveth’s malicious grin made Freya want to scowl. Instead, she gave the appropriate look of wide-eyed fear. Sure enough, the demoniclast appeared pleasantly amused. 

He patted her on the shoulder, “The battle itself is merely to appease onlookers. So long as you can hit one of us with qi, you’ll pass.”

Freya internally sneered, I disarmed and almost killed one of you before. I can do it again.

She remembered when Sangen first discovered she had a Player Card. With her Hit Redirect skill and a nicely timed qi-powered Shockwave hit, she had kicked the demoniclast’s sword out of his hand. However, the second time they met, she’d been more out-classed. At that time, Sangen had acquired a Player Card and also rose two levels higher than Freya. In the end, it had taken Nightscythe, K13, and ultimately Heilong to beat Sangen. However, even during that battle, Freya had hit him with qi. 

Looking back on it now, her qi-based skills hadn’t worked as well against him during their second fight. Perhaps he had worked on some skill to minimize qi-powered attacks.

“Would you like to practice with me?” Daveth asked. “Since you’ve already awakened your qi, you can get some advanced lessons.”

Freya’s eye’s brightened.

“Yes!”

“Or we can skip-,” Daveth paused with his hand in the air. “Oh? You’re interested?”

“Yes, well, I know the basics, but I’ve never used qi against higher demons, or people.”

That should be true for the average shaman apprentice, Freya thought. I’m not going to pass up this opportunity! I thought I’d have to wait until I actually pass the trials to learn something. Daveth’s a bit scary, but I’m sure I can learn something from him. 

“Really? You seemed pretty confident against that slime.”

“... I didn’t use qi to beat the slime.”

Daveth laughed, “Alright, alright. I suppose that is different. Go take one of those swords over there.”

Freya breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t question her further. When she got to the sword rack, she noticed two slots were already empty. She searched the crowd for the swords. Near the front entrance, a blonde-haired boy flashed a sliver of steel forward. The demoniclast next to him nodded his head. Freya squinted at the textbox above the boy’s head.

[Arthyen Casworon]

[Lvl 13 Student]

Ah, the angry boy that drew a lesser-fen mushroom to fight against, Freya remembered. No wonder he was mad. He probably wanted to show off his qi control. 

Close to him, Freya spotted the other missing sword. Jensina, the girl who had been the first contestant to win in the second trial, stood still with a sword in her hands. Freya recalled Jensina seemed proficient in swordsmanship during her fight. It seemed she had also already awakened her qi if she was moving onto a sword during these lessons.

Freya wondered where the two of them had learned to control their qi. Perhaps they had been taught by shamans. During her apprenticeship, her shaman master had taken on a demoniclast hopeful. She didn’t remember her master awakening him, but maybe she had missed it. At that time, she had temporarily worked under another shaman master. 

Taking a sword, she returned to Daveth. 

“Okay, let’s see how well you can channel first,” the demoniclast said. “Unsheath the sword and pour some qi in.”

Freya followed his directions. She carefully held the sword away from her body. Gathering her energy, she directed her qi to her hands and then out into the sword. Her palms heated and warmed the cold hilt. The iron took in her qi. Something about the sensation felt wrong compared to her wooden shaman staff. Her qi seemed to rattle around in the iron.

“Let’s see,” Daveth said, reaching out to touch the sword.

“Ah!”

Freya yelped and drew back the sword. Daveth looked at her, amused.

“Just hold the sword still. It’s not going to shock me. I’m just going to see how well you’re channeling your qi.”

“Really? But I’m putting in a lot of destructive qi.”

“It’s fine,” Daveth assured her.

There were a lot of better ways to test how well she was channeling her qi, but she didn’t want to lecture him. Freya brought the sword back up and continued the exercise. Daveth touched a finger to the flat part of the blade.

He winced but didn’t immediately draw his hand back as Freya expected. She hadn’t held back her output and did not attempt to temper her qi.

“You’re putting out a good amount of energy. I don’t think you’ll need any power-building drills,” Daveth said, grimacing. He finally withdrew his finger.

Freya frowned, “How did you do that?”

Daveth raised an eyebrow. 

“How can you touch the end of a qi-channeling weapon?” Freya repeated. “If these demoniclast swords are like shaman staffs, how can you touch the output part without severe damage to your meridian lines?”

“Hm, it’s a bit of an advanced technique. But, since we have the time…”

“Please teach me!”