-John C. Maxwell

After the conference with Moira's father, John had been left with little to do. He made a quick call to his mother to explain that, yes, the phone call from the Brightons regarding his "cram week" was legitimate and, no, he didn't need her to run him an emergency aid kit full of snacks and the essentials. Then he set up camp in a room one of the servants showed him to, which he was to share with four other Knights. John had been somewhat embarrassed but not entirely disappointed to learn that the rooms were coed - he'd been placed with Knight Etriyya too, the knight who had been so kind as to explain a bit more about the Albidian Society after his first mission with them. Given the Order's meticulous discipline, he doubted that it was an accident.

Now, with nothing else to do but wait worriedly and watch the clock for when Seras was going to show up, John had decided to do something more useful. With the Order at war, John needed to get stronger, fast. He didn't want to do a Dungeon Barrier when he could need to answer his phone, so John decided to fix a problem he'd not dealt with in a while - his lack of skills. Literally.

"Just like before… come on, you can do this… you need this…"

John was sweating, despite the fact that his body actually felt almost no fatigue. But for all his efforts, he'd gained no new techniques yet. John's magical arsenal currently consisted of only one real spell - Fire Orb - not counting his now nearly useless Elemental Control and the very situational Purify. He wanted to learn something better, and he had a few ideas, but so far he'd only ever learned one technique through practice, so he wanted something similar and simple. Fire Orb was a pretty nice spell, but its splash damage meant that it was a huge liability in group fights and to the environment in any fight.

He'd tried doing what he did for the Fire Orb, picturing mana flowing from his fingers and providing a base for the bolt, but that didn't seem to work. He hadn't even used a single point of mana except for an occasional crackle of very mundane electricity, which were so infrequent he had regenerated all the wasted mana in his last few minutes of unsuccessful attempts. The training dummy he’d asked to be set up was still completely untouched.

"Well, if it isn't my new roommate! Welcome to the Order, young Knight!"

John had barely registered the voice before an armored hand was clasped around his shoulders, pulling him tightly to an unyielding wall of plate armor. John turned his head to see a startlingly attractive woman holding him, her smile and casual demeanor shocking while still within the Order's grounds. He wasn't sure which feature to focus on first - so many of them jumped out that John found himself frantically looking between them, trying to take all of them in at once.

Her gentle brown hair was cut relatively short in the front, forming bangs that hung just above her jawline, but in the back reached a ponytail that John could see hanging down well past the midsection of her back. On her forehead was a tattoo with a strange object with eight points of varying sizes holding a gemstone in the middle, two smaller lines reaching out toward either of her eyes from the sides of the object with a dot at the end of both lines as well as the bottom point of the shape itself.

Her sharp, well-formed jawline was cut with its own tattoo. That one was a bit simpler, looking more like the popular tribal styles of tattoos with its blocky shapes combined to form a weaving black mass with only thin strips of unmarked skin between each shape for effect. It continued down her neck and well into her armor, where John could not see the rest of it to make out the overall shape. While the armor itself was not especially notable compared to the rest of the Order's soldiers, there was a singular blue gem that was embedded in her right glove - John only happened to notice it because she was holding her right arm around his neck and dangling her hand over his right shoulder. None of these were things he recognized, but from her earlier comment John hazarded a guess.

"…Knight Etriyya? Is that you?"

"Ah, you remembered me! I guess I made an impression after all. You still look shocked to see me, though."

"You never took off your helmet last time," John pointed out, shrugging. "I never knew what you looked like."

"Didn't expect such a pretty lass like me to show up, eh?" Etriyya teased, elbowing John as she released him from her grasp. "That's the way we like it around here - I'm in my armor because we're on high alert, but once the helmet goes on and the mission begins, you're a soldier of the Order - and that's all that matters. You shouldn't be worried about whether the person next to you is a man or a woman, black or white, redhead or brunette. All that matters is that they'll lay down their life for you and your cause."

"That's… I guess that makes sense, kind of. You seem pretty laid back for high alert, though," John observed. Her behavior last time had been extremely reserved, to the point of indifference.

"Well, can't blame a girl for being a bit out of it after she almost died, can you? From what I remember you were pretty out of it yourself."

"Yeah, I guess that's fair."

"Now, it looks to me like you're trying to learn a spell," Etriyya interjected, pointing at the dummy, "but not having much luck. I'm a bit more arcane than our average knight, so if you tell me what you want to accomplish, I might have an idea or two that could help."

"Well, my abilities are a bit odd, but…" John explained his impasse with learning to cast a lightning spell that could hurt non-mundane targets and that he wasn't having much success in adapting his magic the way he had before.

"You dunce!"

-2 HP (Subdual Damage)!

John winced as Etriyya slapped him upside the head with her gauntleted hand, rolling her eyes as she continued on.

"You're picturing mana as fuel for a fire when what you're doing has very little to do with any kind of inferno! Try conjuring your mana like a bolt of lightning, and let the spell flow from there. A spell like that should already have the path figured out when you cast it - and a fairly straight one, at that. Worry about curving and twisting lightning when you have a few more years under your belt. For now, point those fingers in a straight line and focus your mana on following a path you already have, not forming a path you've never even considered!"

John turned toward the dummy and kept Etriyya's words in mind. It was true, he was only picturing his mana forming the bolt, not forming a path for it. With two fingers outstretched as a reverse lightning rod, John imagined a straight line toward the training dummy and summoned up all the mana he could muster.

John's weariness grew in a spike, and his eyes were suddenly searing as a large white bolt of energy shot from his hand and directly into the training dummy. The dummy exploded, sending flaming hay scattering across the training grounds. Thankfully, the training grounds were mostly abandoned - there was one surprised grunt from a nearby soldier who was resting on a bench, but John was quickly able to put out the small embers with a few casts of Elemental Control to conjure some ordinary water.

"Hah! Thought you'd take at least another hour on that one, you're a quick learner," Etriyya complimented, patting John on the back. He found himself wishing she'd remove the gauntlets so that every move she made wasn't so painful.

Skill Innovation! New Skill learned!

White Lightning Level 1 - A bolt of lightning emanates from the user's fingertips and strikes along a straight path to its target. Mana Cost: 75, [Damage: 20-25 +.4x Intelligence]

When the last of the sparks had died out, John heard a soft whistle from behind him. He turned to see Etriyya giving him a thumbs-up, smiling as she glanced around at the fallen debris.

"Yeah, I- I guess I just had to think about it the right way. I probably would've run out of daylight before I figured that out on my own though, so thank you!"

"Hey, that's what roommates are for! Now, how about a few more practice shots?"

"Actually, that's… basically all of my mana," John mumbled, glancing down in shame. "I don't have very much, and that's a super costly spell. Pretty effective, but I'll have to use it sparingly until I get stronger."

"No big deal, then! Moira told me you've got a blade - pick it up and let's have a go!"

"I- wait, really? Why so suddenly interested in my training?"

John's question went mostly unanswered, because Etriyya was too busy coaxing him into a sparring arena. Despite the fact that he was unarmored, Etriyya insisted on using their actual weapons, although she did cast a spell she claimed would blunt the edges - John had no actual proof of that of course since he couldn't see anything around the razor-sharp blade.

Thankfully, her words proved true when she struck the first blow of their duel - John's HP dropped slightly, and he was sure his arm would've been thoroughly bruised from the sideways slash if it weren't for Gamer's Body, but his skin remained unblemished. They continued for quite a while, taking occasional breaks when Knight Etriyya broke their duel off to criticize one of John's stances or to tell him he was holding his blade improperly.

The stop to their match came so abruptly John was nearly ready to swing upon her. It was only at the last moment he realized her eyes were somewhere else, and yet even then she managed a half-hearted block that sent John's blade careening into the ground. When she made no follow-up, John turned to see exactly what she was looking at so intently and couldn't help the smile that broke across his face as he did so.

"Seras!" John cried out, running forward. Seras seemed almost as shocked as John was when his arms wrapped around her in a hug. He was subconsciously aware of the pressure of her massive mammaries against him as he did so but chose to ignore it in favor of the simple comfort of her presence. Seras chuckled nervously but said nothing, and for the first time John noticed her eyes nervously shift to the woman next to her.

"So, it's true then. You do have a relationship with this… unnatural one," the woman growled, gently fingering what John noticed was a lengthy katana at her side. While John had obviously seen her standing there next to Seras, her words caused him for the first time to actually consider her appearance.

She was a very pretty woman, that could not be denied, but her appearance was different from both the mundane women of John's personal life and the armored women of his now magical one. She was Asian, which was unusual amidst the Order's very white, very British composition, but compared to the rest of her unique features, that was hardly worth mentioning. She wore no plate, not even chain, opting for a simple pair of tight-fitting spandex pants that clung to every curve of her thin body and a simple t-shirt with a triangular section cut out of her chest area to reveal a golden necklace that hung from her neck. From her waist, meanwhile, hung a blade that was decorated with gold inlays from the tip of the hilt all the way down through the crossguard, and then where the sheath began, it became a truly intricate display of wealth and power, including several gemstones embedded along the sheath’s length.

Even that would not have been notable in itself, except that her body was structured with an even greater tone to it than Moira's, a tone that her leggings did nothing to conceal. John felt like he could see every fiber of her calves and thighs, and they screamed that she was a woman who was not to be trifled with. While her emerald shirt bearing a crimson dragon across its front was far less revealing, it did nothing to conceal her forearms or lower biceps, which looked as solid as rocks and far less yielding. John wasn't sure which expression best described her - femme fatale didn't seem to do her justice, she was more like the humanization of the phrase "crush a man's head between her thighs", because she looked perfectly capable of doing exactly that with her legs, plus with every other muscle in her body…

Then there was her face. She had plump lips that looked completely unattended; she wore no lipstick or eyeliner yet looked beautiful in her own way, despite those lips being permanently locked in a tight scowl. Her hair was cut in an attractive bob, despite the fact it was cut so evenly and haphazardly that John got the brief impression she may well have cut it herself with the very sword she wore at her waist. John also noted after his initial impression passed that her ear had no less than three piercings in it, two on the upper lobe and a more classical piercing down below.

"Yes, I do," John said cautiously, gauging this new woman with a certain amount of hesitance. "That seems to be a problem for you, though."

"I can smell the necromancy on her… she reeks of undeath," the woman said simply. Despite her words, and her obvious distaste, she did not flinch away from Seras or show any excessive hate, unlike Moira's first encounter with her. "I do not know why the Order has gathered a necromancer to their ranks, but my clan will not tolerate any undue practice of your skills, John Newman."

"I'm not a necromancer, I just-" John sighed as he remembered both Moira and Tricia clearly warning him against sharing his abilities with others. Clearly Moira had avoided sharing the exact details of Seras' nature with her, so John found it prudent to do the same. "It's complicated. She's undead, but not by any… unholy means, I suppose is the best way to put it. She's also independent and free-willed, so I would appreciate it if you stopped referring to her as if she weren't here."

"I, uh… I don' want to cause any problems. You brought me 'ere, that's enough. Thank you," Seras said, giving a quick head bow to the Asian woman. "I'm Seras, Seras Victorias, an' I don' know what I'd have done if you 'adn't showed up an' my Master 'adn't come home tonigh'."

"You are more than… it was only my duty, nothing worth gratitude," the woman said, narrowing her eyes. She seemed almost suspicious of the gratitude, but John could think of nothing to assuage her obvious doubts. "I suggest you forget it entirely; only my clan's goodwill toward the nature of the Order of the Golden Rose brought me here."

"You seem pretty hostile despite saying you're here to help. I can't really blame you for suspicion, but what exactly brought this hostility between us? We haven't even been properly introduced yet."

"You ask many questions for someone who has proven worthy of few answers," the woman warned, shaking her head in dissatisfaction. "You will learn in time that trust and innocence are not valued qualities in the Abyss. For now… Moira says that you have the ability to enhance the growth of those around you. Perhaps if you show a willingness to share that ability to help us prepare better for the war we now find ourselves embroiled in, we can start from there?"

John narrowed his eyes, cautious of the haste with which the woman approached him regarding his abilities. Even if Moira so readily shared his powers with others - which, given her desire to **** his abilities, he didn't doubt - he was shocked by the speed with which she suggested doing so. John locked his eyes on the Asian woman for a moment, focusing his mana into an Observe spell.

Kim Moon
Level 16 Slayer
<Silver Crane of the Moon Clan>
475 / 475 HP
Relationship: -25
Alignment: +30
Status Effects: Slayer's Precision

"What did you have in mind? I was kind of practicing spells over here…" John said, trailing off without either spelling out or denying any of his own abilities. Whatever Moira had told this woman, John didn't want to play his hand too early.

"I wish to see how you train, beyond mere practice, John Newman," Kim advised, crossing her arms. "Moira has told me that you can train yourself to new heights within a Barrier and that those with you can grow almost as quickly in your presence. This war will require a great effort from all of us. Show me this growth she speaks of."

"Alright," John said quietly, bringing up the menu for his Dungeon Barriers, "but if you want a real set of gains, I have to make a Barrier that will challenge even you. Think you can handle it?"

It was a risky move, one he wasn’t entirely sure of. Even Moira had had a bit of difficulty protecting all of them - though she had been very tired from having just fought the Cabal. But John thought it might just pay off. This Kim Moon girl seemed eager to exploit John’s abilities - so he would exploit hers. If she could carry them through a high level dungeon, John could abandon the safe and quickly diminishing runs of lower-level tiers. His plan seemed to be working, judging by her reaction. For the first time, John saw a gleam of pure pride enter the woman's eyes, although her smile only became a soft reflection of that arrogance.

"Best a Slayer, John Newman," Kim began, "and we shall see if you cannot win this war entirely on your own."