A Working Vacation [train/solo]

Lexi hummed softly to herself, Leo traipsing beside the horse at a happy lope. He seemed excited to be out of the city and headed for open space. With her new companion, she felt it was beyond time to brush up on her skills and maybe broaden her repertoire of abilities. But first, she needed to work on the toning on her body, she had her eye on a new, stronger bow and she knew she would need to work on her arms if she hoped to be able to wield it effectively. She also needed to work on moving faster and more quietly.

Leo dashed off for the oasis as soon as it was in sight, the horse soon following his lead. Both of the animals were tired and thirsty after the long trip. She simply chuckled and gave the horse the rein it needed to move as it pleased and it took off at a joyous run for the tree line. Within a few moments, they were in the shade of the oasis and Leo was splashing through the small lake. She slid from the horses back and followed it to the edge of the water, stripping the saddle and bags from its back as it drank. While the animals rested, she set about setting up camp with a happy tune trilling in her throat.

[227/1000 for Dex training]

Bright and early the next morning, Lexi grabbed a piece of fruit to snack on before taking off at a jog. Leo rose along with her and trotted beside her, keeping perfect pace with her as she warmed up. She knew that increasing her speed was an absolute necessity, so once she had warmed up, she slowly increased her pace. The terrain was by no means smooth, but for now, solid ground was better than running on sand. As her pace increased, Leo took to it like a game, darting between the trees and seeming to encourage her to move faster after him. She gave a strained laugh, already almost out of breath just trying to keep him in sight. They took a small break for lunch, Leo prancing back proudly with a desert hare that she seared over a quickly made fire. Once they had both eaten, she made sure the fire was out before they were off again.

To ensure she remained nimble and reactive, she began chasing Leo through the trees, finding the movements working muscles she did not often give much attention to. On more than one occasion, she had to catch herself on a tree to keep from smashing into it. One thing she could say, chasing a tiger through trees certainly improved her nimbleness. The night, she collapsed, exhausted into her bed roll, Leo stretched out near her on his back, his tongue hanging from his mouth. She spent the next several days doing nothing more than running and chasing the tiger and she found it to be less difficult each day. When she found she could chase the tiger without smashing into the environment, she gave them both a much needed day of rest and relaxation.

[520/1000]

After their day of rest, she focused more on her arm strength. A stronger bow would be much more difficult to draw. To prepare, she rigged herself a makeshift bow from a strong but flexible piece of wood and some string. While it had horrible accuracy, her entire aim was simply improving the strength in her arms. Simply trying to pull the string back make her arms shake and she grunted with the effort. Instead of using arrows, she found suitable sticks laying along the ground, simply something that gave her the feel of an arrow for her to practice shooting. Her morning were still occupied with running, but the afternoons were now dedicated to working with her makeshift bow. Leo took it as something of a game, running after the sticks that went flying and bringing them back to her. When she became bored, she would occasionally pick up a heavy piece of fruit from the ground and try launching it and the tiger would pounce after it and try to catch it in his mouth.

Each day, it became easier to pull back the string and soon, picking up her actual bow seemed unnatural for the ease with which she could pull back the string. Each night, she and Leo collapsed into bed. While he was simply enjoying the time out in the open, she was exhausted each night.

[751/1000]

As her strength increased, she decided to turn her focus back to her aim. While she was relatively comfortable with her current aim, she needed to work on aiming while moving. Taking a piece of charred wood, she picked out three trees and made an X on them. The next few days were spent dashing through the trees with Leo and working on hitting those three spots with her arrows while she moved around. With her training with her crudely-made practice bow, she found her arrows traveled faster, which helped her to hit what she was aiming for. She found it easier to line up shots while moving than when she had been practicing her Multi-Shot and soon she hit the targets more often than she missed.

She found herself slightly less exhausted each night and while her muscles ached, it was not nearly as bad as the first few days. However, when she and Leo stumbled upon a small hot spring, she wasted no time in stripping down and submerging herself in the steamy water. With a small hiss, she unwrapped her hands and fingers, gingerly rinsing out the blisters and sores from pushing herself so hard with the bow. Both hands suffered punishment and she was careful to get them clean as her body rejoiced in the hot water that relaxed away the knots and tension.

When she returned to their camp, she made sure to apply soothing balms to her hands before re-wrapping them. It had been a productive chunk of time and she knew the next step was to work on expanding her various abilities.

[1020/1000 Dex training complete]

Lexi nudged Leo awake the next morning, eager to try and make some more abilities. First she wanted to expand on some of her smaller skills. She wanted to be able to disable without causing serious damage. Thinking back on her training with Shelby, she decided to work on a paralyzing shot that would do minimal damage while still slowing down her opponent. She let Leo sniff out an area that had a group of what looked like wild goats and she figured it would be a good test. If she could disable one without seriously harming it, she would be happy. She watched from a distance, remembering her lessons in which areas contained nerves that were most likely to disable.

Once she was fairly certain of which areas were the best to target, she slowly crept closer and drew an arrow. Taking careful aim, she shot for one of the goats and watched as the arrow sailed forward, striking just in front of its hind leg. The goat gave a loud bleat of pain and tried to run off, its hind leg refusing to cooperate and dragging behind it. Knowing she would not be able to remove the arrow while the goat was awake, she gave a mercy shot between its eyes, the goat falling over. She hated having to harm the animals, but at least it would not go to waste. She quietly moved to find another goat and repeated the previous motion, the arrow striking true. Again, she performed a mercy killing before coming out of her hiding spot. She motioned to Leo to stay where he was as she wanted a chance to skin the goats before the tiger tore into them. When she examined the bodies, she found that her arrows had in fact struck the appropriate grouping of nerves and she said a soft blessing over the animal, thanking it for its unwitting sacrifice to help her perfect her art.

[326/250]

Ability Trained:

Confident with her Stumbling Shot, Lexi moved on to the next minor ability she was wanting to work on. Digging through her pack, she found some of the poison she had not yet augmented and applied it to her arrow tips and went off in search of larger prey. The goats would not be a very good judge for the poison, so she left Leo at the camp and went in search of a larger opponent. It did not take her long to find a large crocodile that would be large enough to survive the initial shot of the poison.

She found herself a comfortable post to watch the crocodile from, carefully handling the arrows she had tipped in the weaker poison. The first arrow she launched glanced off the tough skin of the crocodile and she frowned down at it. The crocodile had turned to snap at the irritation, exposing a slender portion of its softer belly and Lexi took advantage of the situation. Quickly stringing up another poisoned arrow, she aimed for the tender belly, smiling to herself as it scraped along the skin, the poison acting in the scratch and making the crocodile roar out in pain. Unlike the goats, the arrow had not stuck in the creature and she watched to see how the crocodile reacted to the poison from the safety of her perch.

While the crocodile seemed irritated and angry, it did not seem seriously injured. It crept along in obvious pain, but soon it appeared the pain faded. Either that or the croc simply stopped caring. Either way, it had the effect she was hoping for, something to pain and irritate an opponent without risking serious damage.

[284/250]

Ability Trained: Minor Poison Shot:

After taking another day of rest, Lexi continued with her training, intent on learning as much as she could on her trip. She was slowly building up her abilities, but she intended to expand it much farther before she left this peaceful haven. She wanted to work on her speed with drawing and shooting arrows, and had prepared a large bundle of arrows before she began her next leg of training.

She started off slow, warming up her muscles, the motions already long ago memorized. As she slowly sped up her motions, she focused on pulling the arrows from the quiver cleanly and quickly. The faster she moved, the more she fumbled with the thin wooden shafts, but she was determined to make this work. One after the other, the arrows flew towards a target, each one hitting in quick succession with the last. She spent close to two full days working on nothing but the speed of freeing an arrow and notching it on the bowstring. Once she was sufficiently satisfied with the speed of her draw, she honed her focus down to speed and accuracy. As she launched one arrow after the other, slowly, her aim became more and more accurate.

That night, she rested at the hot spring to help relax her aching arms and shoulders while Leo pawed at the water. As she allowed the heated water to melt away the tension, her mind was still busy reviewing every movement she had made during the past few days of training and trying to think of ways to improve her shots and her speed. With a sigh, she pulled herself from the water, dressed and returned to the camp to make up more arrows, almost half of hers broken from training.

The next day, she was much more refreshed and was able to hit with better speed and accuracy than before. Once she had warmed up her still tender muscles, her movements were more fluid and natural than the stilted effects of being too tense. Blocking out all other thoughts, she drew her focus back to her practice. It was not until she was able to launch five consecutive shots that she moved on to the next step, hitting multiple targets. She knew her aim tended to err when she was moving rapidly between targets. So one arrow after another, she shot at a variety of targets painted in ash on the trees. And slowly, her aim improved until she rarely missed. It took her another two days to be happy with both the speed and accuracy of her shots, but she finally accomplished four successive shots at four targets without missing a beat.

Satisfied with her progress with the move, she sank into her bedding, personally vowing to herself that she would take another day off before she moved on to yet another technique. Her training was taking longer than she had initially planned, but she knew it was worth it, if she hoped to find and rescue her family from captivity.

[506/500]

Ability Learned: Rapid Shot:

Her day of rest was much needed and even Leo seemed more peaceful and rested after spending a day playing and rolling around, without feeling like he should be helping his adopted mother with her tasks. She started the next day feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. After making sure her stock of arrows was enough to get her through the next stages of her self-imposed training, she slung her quiver across her back, took her bow in hand and whistled at Leo to follow her.

They took off at a slow jog for an area she had seen several crocodiles and she chased him through the trees with a grin. It did not take long to arrive at the watering hole where crocodiles were relaxing along the shore line, waiting for unsuspecting prey to move too close. She moved up to a higher vantage point, finally settling at a ledge with a small waterfall and resting on the hard stone. Mentally, she was going through different nerve groups and deciding which would be best for immobilizing and dealing a nice chunk of damage. She hoped that a more powerful shot would help her to penetrate the thicker skin of the crocodile and hummed quietly to herself to bring her mind into focus as she took aim with two arrows.

She had targeted two crocodiles that were close to each other, the two arrows flying forward and striking the two crocodiles just behind their front legs. Both of the crocodiles roared in anger and tried to twist at each other with lame limbs. She grinned as she saw them snapping at each other while keeping an eye on the deadened limbs to see how long it took them to start moving again. Once they began moving again, she made a mental note on the time it took before drawing two more arrows. The other crocodiles were now rustled and shifting to see about the drama and as she released her arrows, one of the two crocodiles she had targets twisted and caught both arrows in its side. It seems to be in much more pain than the first crocodiles had been, but the effects on its limbs were the same.

Leo was getting restless and wandered off to higher ground to hunt while she continued to test the damage and paralyzing effects on the crocodiles, who were becoming increasingly confused at where the attacks were coming from. They were moving around more now, some retreating to the water and her task became more difficult to hit the pertinent nerve bundles. She found the water often slowed the arrows too much to actually have any effect on the nerves, so she was forced to aim for more difficult areas. If nothing else, it was good practice, as she was certain her targets would rarely be standing still and waiting for her arrows.

By the time Leo returned from his hunting trip, licking blood from his lips, she had a much better grasp on how to hit two of the crocodiles to paralyze limbs and most of the animals had either retreated to the water or back into the woods. She deemed her efforts as acceptable and vowed to repeat the process again the next day to become more certain of herself.

The next day proceeded much as the first had, but her accuracy was much better from the start and she had a better idea of the best nerve bundles to aim for on the tough creatures. By the end of the day, she was much more confident in her ability and decided it was time to move on to her next set of training.

[617/500]

Ability Learned: Disabling Shots:

Lexi sang happily to Leo as they headed for a more open area with plenty of greenery. She wanted to try out some techniques involving fire and she had no desire to risk burning down the oasis. She had brought some of both of her fire arrows, planning on practicing more with the older style but she also wanted to try the newer heads Benny had designed. She had come up with the theory on her technique after watching an archer in Heliohapt showing off different artistic shots and she felt she had a better purpose for one of the shots she had seen than simply looking interesting.

She started a small fire once she and Leo arrived at a good spot, deciding it would be easier than lighting each of the arrows with flint and steel. Once the small fire was going, she pulled out her basic arrows. She decided to try the shot without lighting them first, just to get the orientation of the arrows correct. After several unsuccessful tries, she strip the feathers from one side of the arrows and then tried again. She smiled as they began to show signs of twisting in the way she was wanting. It took several attempts and many de-feathered arrows before she was able to find the proper condition for providing the spiraling effect.

Once she had figured out the perfect fletching necessary, she moved on to the older flame arrows and proceeded to strip several of them of the correct feathers. When she launched the arrows, she frowned. The arrows produces an extremely lopsided spiral that eventually fizzled out and landed nowhere close to where she intended. She tried it again with similar results. She was able to slightly tighten the spiral, but it still did not have the reach or spiral she was hoping for. Deciding that possibly the arrow tips were simply too heavy, she opted to try the newer arrows. The arrow tips were slightly heavier than a normal arrowhead, but they were similar in size and shape.

She tested it a couple of times, finding the pattern was much closer to the regular arrows and she began reconfiguring how she would need to de-fletch the fire arrows. When she finally found the correct combination of fletching, she smiled and dragged the arrow tips along a stone to light them. Taking careful aim for the target, she released the arrows and clapped happily as they produced the desired spiral effect and slammed into the target. The singe marks on the tree were fairly impressive and she eyes her supply of arrows. She wanted to make sure of her orientation and fletching techniques for the arrows and so she tested it several more times, concreting her satisfaction in her mind at the damage and tight spiral pattern of the arrows. She gathered up all of her arrows, meticulous about not leaving behind obvious evidence of her training and trying not to disturb the wildlife as much as was avoidable. Her cleaning task complete, she whistled for Leo and they trotted back to the camp site and settled in for some dinner, courtesy of the white tiger.

[529/500]

Ability Learned - Minor Twisting Flames:

Her training thus far had been going quite well and she was rather proud of herself. There were only a few more items on her list for this set of training at least that was her plan at this point. By this point, she was beginning to crave a change of scenery and she decided to pack up her small camp and began a search for a new oasis, one with more flat, open land. After searching for a couple of days, she found one she was looking for. While there was still plenty of shade and water here, there was also a large, open flat area so she and Leo could run and pounce without having to dodge trees and roots while they played. The open field would also serve as a good place to practice her new ability.

But before she could commence with more training, she would need to restock her supply of arrows. She spent the better part of the next two days gathering wood, cutting the pieces down to the appropriate length and thickness and then sitting beside the small river and using sand and water to smooth out the shafts of wood, the motions almost meditative to her. She had been able to salvage most of her arrowheads, luckily, so she had no shortage of those. Once the shafts were fully prepared, she moved on to the more delicate practice of fletching them, her stock of feathers dwindled by the time she was done. It could be tedious work but it was necessary, especially with the amount of training she had been doing.

The next ability on her mental checklist involved a different shooting style than she usually used and once she had finished making arrows, she immediately set forth to practice the new shot style. She pulled out a single arrow and made a mental note of the area she was hoping to hit before pulling back the string. This time, instead of shooting straight forward, she raised the tip of the arrow up, her back arched as she released the arrow. The arrow flew up and away in an arc, landing about thirty meters away. She sat her quiver down where she stood before retrieving a colorful cloth and moving to the area she had shot to. When she found the arrow lodged in the soft ground, she tied the piece of cloth to the end of the arrow so it would be easier to locate from her original post.

She moved back to where her quiver was and strung it across her back again. Pulling free another arrow, she repeated her original movements and made to aim for where the original arrow was. For now, she focused on how her aim had to change based on the arc of the shot and where it would land. It took the rest of the day for her to have a relative amount of accuracy in where her shots landed, the final shots all landing within seven or eight meters of the original arrow. Gathering up the spent arrows, she and Leo made camp for the night in the field, staring up at the stars as she mentally configured how to adjust her shots in the morning.

When the morning sun peaked over the horizon, she was back at her original post and worked on tightening the circle of where she was hitting. By the time noon hit and she stopped for a quick bite to eat, she was able to shrink the radius of her aim to one to two meters from the original arrow. Once she was confident with the new style of shooting, she worked on expanding it into the skill she had mentally pictured. Grabbing several arrows, she notched them all on the arrow string at the same time and refocused herself. Using the same technique she used for her Multi-Shot, she made sure her arrows had a planned trajectory and made an attempt to keep them tightly grouped as she released the tension on the string. The group of arrows arced up and over to where the original arrow was stuck in the ground. She went over and gathered the arrows she had shot, taking note of where they had landed. It was a start, but she wanted to create a painful grouping of shots for a relatively small area.

Her overall plan was to create a rain of poison arrows in a small radius, but for training, she did not wish to waste her poison. For the next three days, she worked on increasing her accuracy and the number of arrows she released. By the end of the third day, she was able to shoot up to ten arrows and have them all land in a five meter circle, the arrows relatively equal in their spacing, ensuring that anything caught in the circle would be caught by at least two or three arrows, depending on how their bodies were positioned. She was happy with her progress on the new shooting style and decided the next day would be spent moving on to a new ability.

[857/500]

Ability Learned - Rain of Pain:

The next morning, she heard the sound of voices encroaching upon the peaceful oasis and she went to investigate, instructing Leo to stay behind. It did not take long for her to find the source of the noise, two young women traveling through and taking a rest. The noise that had drawn her attention was the sound of the two women training together, taunts and advice being tossed back and forth as their blades crashed together. She approached their camping spot cautiously, but the women seemed to simply be doing as she was, enjoying the peaceful area while they worked on their swordsmanship. She made a point of making noise as she moved through the trees to where they were, clearing her throat softly to get their attention. When the women heard her approach, they paused in their practice, tensing slightly as they gauged the danger of the situation. When they noted it was a single girl with a bow, they relaxed only slightly as they waited for her to speak.

Lexi offered a bright smile and approached them, but left a god distance between her and the two women. “Hi, my name is Lexiara. I was wondering if I might join you two for some training!”

The two women introduced themselves as Iyara and Firoh, moving forward to shake Lexi’s hand and give her a warm greeting. Lexi invited them to her camp area, pointing out that it would be easier to practice outside of the small ring of trees and the women agreed. While they packed up their camp and began to follow her, Lexi made sure to warn them of Leo, not wanting the white tiger to cause panic and get harmed. As the three of them came to where the trees parted for the field, the large tiger pounced from the tree line at Lexi, tackling her to the ground and purring as he licked her face.

The women laughed at the enthusiastic greeting of the tiger before setting up their camp. Once they had gotten set back up, with plenty of help from a curious feline, the two women turned to Lexi and they discussed how they might go about training together. Lexi knew something she needed to work on was the ability to deflect incoming attacks and the more experienced fighters discussed with her different ways she could go about deflecting attacks.

They showed her slowed down basic melee attacks with their swords and talked her through the best ways to shoot at the blades in order to deflect a shot away from her. Once they felt she fully understood the idea behind the shot, they allowed her to attempt to deflect a much slower version of regular attacks, reminding her to aim for the blade and not for them. Her first attempt to hit the blade missed and she was forced to re-evaluate how she was aiming at the attack. When the next blade came forward, she repositioned how she held the bow and then released the string. This time, the arrow connected with the blade, forcing the attack to be deflected.

The women applauded her, making sure to note for her where her opportunities were before repeated the attack. With each swipe of the sword, either Iyara or Firoh would speed up just slightly to make sure she had a better grasp on how to aim her shot. The day went on like this, each of the women trying a different technique or approach for her to deflect. By the end of the first day, she was able to at least hit each of the attacks, if not completely deflect it.

That night was spent cooking and chatting over a camp fire and Leo made his rounds through the surrounding trees to find his meal before coming over to harass each of the women for attention. Over roasted fish and fresh fruit, Iyara and Firoh gave her more advice on how to perfect her technique before the three women made their way to their respective sleeping spots for the evening.

The next day they warmed up before continuing with the training, the two women alternating their attacks on Lexi. She worked on her careful aim and her speed, incorporating her Dash into the deflecting shot to help her gain some distance while deflecting an attack at the same time. This continued until after the sun had set and picked up again the next day. For nearly a week, they worked together to train on their individual abilities. Lexi’s deflecting shots helped them both to perfect their approach with blades. They also incorporated throwing knives and arrows into the training, expanding on Lexi’s ability to follow projectiles and smaller targets. By the time the women chose to return to the city, Lexi was able to deflect almost every attack thrown at her and she had gained two new friends in the city.

[819/500]

Ability Learned - Deflectin Shot: