Crossing Boundaries Pt. 08

"Move quickly, Kael."

She was training him, in a way, though he could focus on that, despite the dragoness' excellent aim. That was to be expected, yet she flung rocky projectiles that didn't seem to come from the clearing or the forest around them at all, forming them out of nothing, chasing him with one into the path of another.

Damn it!

He cursed inwardly, not wanting her to see him sweat, though the intensity of their sparring had, at the very least, made it so that he didn't want to focus on her appearance as much as he had. It forced him to concentrate, for which he was grateful, but the attack pressed with shards of ice, fired at him one after the other, rendered him hurling his body about clumsily, feet no longer touching the ground at all between attacks. It was easier and harder to levitate, forced to split his attention, though it both made him more mobile and less mobile, sweat trickling around the edge of his eyebrows and into his eyes. Striving to blink it away, he missed an attack, a bolt of lightning that was bigger than any other that had been hurled forth so far slamming directly into his front.

His power blocked it, mostly, though it still shocked him back, pushing back at her as if he was shoving both hands into a door that would not budge. There was a feeling of energy there, crackling with life, the heaviness of grinding through it, a growl of fervour ripping itself from the back of his throat. Giselle smiled, knowing something that he didn't, but the ice attacks did not stop, the dragoness leaping and hovering, using her large wings to keep her there, sunlight filtering through them.

"You block well, but your attacks require refining! Use the environment to your advantage!"

But how did he do that? It was not how his abilities worked, even if it was how magic worked, humans creating things with their powers so that they could fight. In its raw form, it was even cruder, and the frustration of that roiled and twisted in the pit of his stomach, no more the pit of snakes than anything else should have been. The lust was gone, flaring through with heart pounding need, the need to stay alive, that was. Every battle would come to be such eventually, the body not recognising the difference between sparring and something that, more truly, was life or death.

But he had to stop it, had to bring it to a close, chest heaving, his grasp on his power growing stronger and stronger. He had to check how much force he could put into things, to explore the safety of using it some, but throwing rocks at Oshun, who merely blocked him by raising rock walls to harry his path and that of his projectiles, was not going to get him anywhere. With a battle cry, she flared out her wings and used her tail to direct ice shards at him again, pressing the attack as if to bear him into the ground, following them as if to break through his defences in following.

Closer and closer, she flew in, jaws agape, eyes gleaming with the thrill of battle. An ice shard that he could not block in time, more like a spike the size of a small person, slammed into his shoulder, distracting him, sending him spinning. The forest turned dizzyingly around him, leaves whirling, but he had to freeze, to place himself, other shards shattering over his defences, the dragoness close -- too close!

With his powers, he clung to her, wrapping them around her, freezing her in place, imagining that his power was like the ice that she had spent such a great deal of time accosting him with. Yet that was the part, when he used his powers, that took the least effort at all, finally leaning into something that he felt more than able to do, something that would not hurt her, even if she would not be able to move.

"What in the skies?"

Oshun thrashed, struggling, though the dragoness was not even able to get a single wing free as she was held in place. Maybe the more direct option was the way to go as Kael pressed in around her, his powers building, testing the force, squeezing, her chest heaving, though a moment of distraction as her breasts moved with her snatched breath almost had him releasing her.

And, just like that, everything came easily again, exhaling a sigh of relief, her magic fizzling out where it had been flung around him, spattering uselessly to the ground, the dragoness forced firmly down to the ground, on her knees. She hissed and snarled, using her teeth too to snap, but even her tail was restrained as if in bondage, imagining her frozen, a statute. And even a statute, sooner or later, had to keep their mouths shut too. Thus, it was that he clamped her jaws closed, quieting her protests, eyes wide with shocked fury, though she could not be too angry at him for using what power had been at his disposal.

More gently, he closed his powers around her, immobilising her muscles completely, handing her lightly with the ease that a child would a doll, her arms tugged behind her back. Even the sense of stiffness that she could have used to resist was gone from her, hands pressed together behind her back, Kael smiling faintly, closing the distance between them.

Easier when I use what I've got.

Yet he still yearned for magic, the elaborate powers that had enticed him to the delicateness of it, the feats of magic that could be performed at any time and any place. A machine to spit bullets could be forced using the powers of human beings, but it would not be as refined nor as delicate as magic and it would have to be taken wherever it was needed. The same went for medical purposes and he felt so very strongly, in his heart, that there was more to be had there, something that both anthros and humans could share, to the betterment of all their species coming together.

Tapping the dragoness lightly on the head, he drew back, setting himself on the grass again, Giselle clapping her hands together as she had seen humans do.

"Well done, Kael!"

Of course, she knew what he was capable of, though he longed for other things, her praise warming him through. He released Oshun and bowed politely, as he had read was customary, though it was still a little bit more awkward than expected, considering the difference between them as student and teacher. Despite feeling as if things were forced in the moment of sparring, his muscles were strong and soft after the match, his breath returned to normal already, the majority of the exertion in his head rather than anything physical.

Oshun blinked, half-dropping forward before she caught herself, standing, shaking her head, laughing out loud.

"Well, well... I can't say that I expected that, young one!"

It almost didn't feel right, not even to her, to call him as a young one, a student, after he had bested her, her heart pounding, shock reeling in the back of her mind.

"Come with me, I think we should rather sit down and discuss that, don't you?"

Continued in part nine...