Regaininng Confidence

Raven sighed and set his bag down. He was in a clearing that he'd spent the last two weeks ferrying supplies to. Fiore was fine for a month, and everything was peaceful. It was the perfect time to center himself and regain what he'd lost. Which was confidence. He hadn't actually gotten any stronger, and the world was growing around him. He needed to change and adapt. Thankfully, he'd given himself a month to fix things. He was set up near a river, so washing himself and clothes weren't a problem. He'd gotten other necessities take care of. And hunting for meat wasn't an issue.

Which left him able to focus. He took off his shirt and threw it into the tent. He started with basic body exercises, spending a better part of the morning stretching and pushing his body physically. He had to let go of the notion that he was lonely. He was a dragon slayer! He had more important duties to the world to fulfill. After a couple hours of that, he went to the ropes that were tethering large rocks about thirty feet into the air. He gave a slight grin as he punched his hand into the palm of his other hand. The goal was to break them all, one at a time with some of the new magic he'd concocted.

He pulled on the first rope, and crouched as the rock hurtled at him. Then fire erupted off his fist, and he shot up with an uppercut. But the rock didn't break as intended. When Raven landed he walked over to the rock to look at it. It was easily three times the size of his head, but it only had a dent in it. And it was rather hot to the touch. Raven gently placed his fist into the dent to get a feel for how he'd failed. Sighing he set the rock down and stared down at his fist. His magic hadn't been solid enough to break it.

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Well, the fun part about self training was the trial and error. If the first rock didn't work, he should simply do it again. If he didn't achieve the desired result, he'd have to review what he's doing and try something else. So he pulled the rope again and punched the boulder with his uppercut. It still didn't break. He did this over and over again until he'd punched six rocks. Then he sat them down around him and began inspecting each of them.

They all turned out the same. Heated, but dented only by the force of his punch and not by his magic. He knew how to make his magic solid, but it seemed he was struggling with making small solid flames. He set the last rock down and folded his arms against his chest. That should be the focus of his training for the time being then. Making his solid fire smaller. Which, was easier said than done. His style of magic was currently to flare up, hit hard, and then drag a body away.

…Which meant he needed to rethink his whole fighting style. If he was all about short bursts, then that's all he was. A short burst like a shooting star in the sky. While it was cool, it wasn't good enough. He wasn't trying to impress anyone. Standing, he saw the sun was setting. He'd spent all day with just basic exercises but at least he knew where the focus truly needed to be. Lasting power and making his spells last.

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