Daemon and Lyanna stood on the bank of the Red Forks River, their auras flared in a valiant effort to maintain the intense display of power. The strain was evident on their faces as they struggled to keep their auras at their peak. The air around them crackled with energy, and despite their determination, it was a demanding feat to uphold.
Lyanna, showing her indomitable spirit, pushed herself to the limit, falling to the ground but quickly rising again to reactivate her aura, albeit without flaring it. Her resilience was commendable, but even she felt the weight of exhaustion bearing down on her.
Daemon, too, felt the strain, trying his best to hold on to his aura as sweat poured down his forehead. The effort required to maintain the intense aura display was taking a toll on his body and mind.
Their mentor, Martyn Cassel, stood nearby, observing their struggle. Instead of offering encouragement, he chose to mock them for their perceived failure. His words carried a hint of superiority, aimed at highlighting their struggle and weaknesses.
"You call that flaring your auras?" Martyn scoffed, a condescending smirk on his face. "Pathetic! I've seen children wield their auras with more finesse than you two."
Martyn chuckled darkly, crossing his arms. "Giving up? That seems to be your speciality. Your auras are weak, and so are your spirits."
Daemon's fists clenched, his frustration growing. "Prick" he whispered much to Lyanna's amusement.
"You're too weak, too undisciplined. True aura users don't falter like you do." He continued
Despite the mockery, Daemon and Lyanna pressed on, knowing that pushing their limits was a vital part of their training. They were determined to prove their worth and master the complexities of aura manipulation.
After a grueling few minutes, Martyn finally relents and instructs them to take a break. Both Daemon and Lyanna release their flaring auras and collapse to their knees, gasping for breath. Exhaustion weighed heavily upon them, evidence of their intense training session.
Martyn's voice cut through the air, informing them of a 30-minute respite before they had to resume their training. Lyanna, still panting, couldn't help but voice her frustration. "This is all we've been doing for the past week," she complained. "When are we going to learn how to use aura abilities?"
Daemon nodded in agreement, wiping sweat from his brow. "Yeah, we've been practicing basic control and flaring our auras, but when do we get to learn the really cool stuff?"
Martyn's expression remained stern, unmoved by their complaints. "You can't expect to master aura abilities overnight," he replied sternly. "Training your auras is the foundation of it all. Without a strong foundation, your abilities will be weak and uncontrolled."
"But the bandit Big Pete had an Aura ability and he didn't have much more aura than Daemon" Lyanna reasoned as Daemon nodded.
Martyn shook his head as he looked at the two Aura initiates "You can't simply an aura users strength based on such a simplistic scale"
He then takes a seat on a log and gestures for the two to sit in front of him "What do you know about Aura abilities?" He asks them.
Daemon shrugs his shoulders looking at Lyanna who looks confident that she knows the answer "It's personal expression of aura where a person uses it to create unique abilities" she says smugly.
Martyn laughs "Seems like someone's been listening on their brothers training" he says making Lyanna go red.
"But you are right, however can you tell me what factors decide the kind of ability you can develop" he asks, however this time they are both silent as they didn't think there were any factors besides using aura.
"Every Aura user is born with a specific type of aura that will give them a certain affinity for certain aura abilities, while making it harder for them to learn others" he explains.
Lyanna's eyes widen as she starts to get excited "How do we learn what type we are!" She says practically commanding him to tell her.
Martyn laughs shaking his head before he stands up and picks up the cup of ale he was drinking from before pouring it on the ground, he then headed to the river bank filling it with water and heading back to the log. He then put the cup on the log before pulling a leaf off a nearby tree.
"This is water divination it's been used to discover aura affinities since the children of the forest still walked amongst us" Martyn explained as he placed the leaf on the cup.
"If the volume of the water changes, the user is a Brute"
"If the taste of the water changes, the user is an Alchemist"
"If the color of the water changes, the user is an Archer"
"If impurities appear in the water, the user is a Magician"
"If the leaf moves on the water's surface, the user is a Manipulator"
"If something completely different happens, the user is a King"
Martyn explains all the possible Aura affinities that either of them could have. He then puts a hand around the cup and channels his aura "Have a taste" he says, both Daemon and Lyanna stick their fingers in and taste it.
"Ale?" Daemon says with confusion.
Martyn laughs heartily "I never truly appreciated my aura type until I realised I could make my water taste like ale"
Daemons eyes widen in recognition "So you're an alchemist?" He asks getting a nod in return from Martyn.
"I can change my aura into something else, for example this is my aura ability" he states as he activated his aura.
For a minute he stands still and closes his eyes while tensing his muscles and slowly his aura that surrounds his body turns to stone, Lyanna and Daemon look wide eyed.
"This is my Aura ability I call it Castling" he says with a chuckle at the joke though Lyanna and Daemon just look at him blankly.
"Anyway aura abilities are complex, I spent almost a year and a half touching stone with my hands and my aura, feeling it's weight and it's texture. I wouldn't have been able to change my aura into it otherwise" Martyn explains.
Daemon and Lyanna nod their heads eagerly as they want to discover their own aura affinity. Lyanna goes first as she activated her aura and channels it into the cup. The amount of water in the cup increases overflowing over the sides.
"Ah just like your older brother, a brute, though with how hotheaded you are it doesn't surprise me" Martyn says with a chuckle getting one from Daemon as well until Lyanna glares at him.
"What can a brute do with their Aura" Lyanna asks curiously, she suspected she already knew but still wanted to know everything she could.
"Well from what I've heard of your encounter with the bandit, he sounds like a brute type" he then turned to Daemon "You said his ability was called impact and he held his hammer up in the air before it would crash down at a speed nearly too fast to see" he asks getting a nod from Daemon.
Martyn rubs his grey beard as he thinks "What it sounds like he did was pour his aura into his hammer making it stronger but he also made it heavier, doing this he wouldn't need the strength to swing it that fast he'd just need to direct it" he explained.
Daemon scrunches his brow "But you said he wasn't very strong, if that's the case how did he get such a strong ability"
Martyn smiles "That is a good question lad, and it brings me to the main factor in creating Aura abilities"
"Vows and Restrictions, using these when creating your own ability allow it to surpass your current level of mastery" Martyn says to the duo as they listen with apt attention.
"My ability isn't very complicated nor does it exceed what I'm capable of, however you'll notice that the stone my aura mimics is much stronger than normal stone, this is because of the restrictions I placed on it" He continues.
"I must stand still when activating the ability"
"I must close my eyes when activating it"
"It always takes a minute to activate"
"These restrictions have allowed my ability to be stronger than it would usually as the restrictions could be fatal when in a battle if I've not prepared it beforehand" Martyn states.
"The bandit you faced sounds like he has similar restrictions, it sounds like he wasn't able to move when the ability is initiated and he could only swing downwards. Simple restrictions but they still make for a powerful ability when used in the right circumstances" Martyn says while rubbing his chin.
Lyanna was excited to say the least, she stood up and was ready to make her own ability "I can see that look, we won't be doing anything like that until you get good enough at the basics" Martyn says with a smirk
"Shroud, the most basic form of aura control, when you first control the flow of your aura and stop it from leaving your body you've achieved this"
"Suppression, closing off your aura nodes completely, an assassination and hunting technique but it has its users for warriors who wish to recover from battle"
"Enhance, when you flare your aura explosively, this increases your physical abilities, by how much? Depends on the amount of aura you can summon"
"Aura expression, your personal abilities that you'll eventually develop"
"These are the four basics I'll cover with you, you two are currently working on the third principe 'Enhance' as you have sufficient mastery in the others" Martyn states getting groans of disappointment from the two.
"Now get back to training, I'm going to take a piss" he says crudely as he walks off.
Daemon waited until he left and then put his hands around the cup channeling his aura into it. Suddenly the leaf burst into flames making him jump back in surprise. Lyanna who had walked back to the river didn't see it.
'King Type Aura, interesting...' he thought to himself.
(AN: Daemon has himself his first instructor, one of many as I'm sure some of you know. The start of his journey to become a Nen Master as truly started. Hope you enjoyed.)
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