A Dragon's Workout

Hannah needed to work off tension often. She had a pretty good temper at times and she tried to keep that under control. She hated losing control, almost as much as she hated losing at any sort of competition. So to work off her tension she tried to train and workout a lot. It was good as it kept her in top fighting form and worked off some of her tension.

So Hannah often went to the training yard, and that’s where she was today. Hannah tried to go there when no one else was around. She liked her privacy and it allowed for her to use her magic and not have to worry as much about people. She never tried her dragon roar, even when she was sure she was alone. She didn’t want to risk it, and its not like that attack was quiet or anything. And its not like the outside was ever that private.

Hannah was not wearing her typical jeans and combat boots, instead she was wearing gym shorts, a tank top, and running shoes. She always felt odd when she was dressed like that, and it was just another reason she tried to train and workout alone. Hannah started her workout with some pushups. She didn’t just do typical pushups, she went all out and did one arm pushups. They sucked, but the stress from them helped Hannah push herself harder. After she was done with her warm-up, she might put out a practice dummy and blow it up with a cannon ball, or saw it in half. It all depended on her mood.

Tatsuma quickly threw on his track pants, skipping the shirt altogether as he took off running for the training yard. There usually wasn't anyone in the room at this time and he got a chance to cut loose. It was his one chance to get in a nice long lonely work out, the best kinds for avoiding distractions. That borne in mind, today was not a typical day.

As he burst through the door, thoughts of uninterrupted training were dashed as he burst into the yard, his bare feet stamping slightly on the floor. Suddenly he was gazing at a girl in shorts and a tank top doing one handed pushups. He recognized her as a Fairy Tail mage and the mark on her shoulder blade lent credence to that. Still he found his training mode suddenly interrupted by his watching mode which, at the moment, seemed to be more important.

A series of impure thoughts flew through his head for a moment, but he wasn't in the forest anymore and he had learned from the first six times that he had been slapped when he first came to town, that animal mating behaviors were not considered appropriate for social interaction with the fairer sex. Still he couldn't get himself to say anything right off the bat, so he simply watched and waited for her to notice him as he tried to decide whether he should go ahead and start training or not.

Hannah continued to do her pushups for a bit, but she eventually smelled something. She stopped mid pushup and sniffed the air before turning around and noticing she was being watched by a young man. Things like this are why she liked to train alone. It was annoying but hey, it could also be a compliment of sorts that the man was staring. Or more like boy. He looked younger than her. Hannah had seen him around, but she didn’t know who he was exactly. He smelled funny though. She studied him for a bit before she went back to her workout. He looked like he was in the yard for the same reason she was, the track pants and lack of shirt spoke to that.

Hannah did a few more pushups hoping he would go away, but she felt awkward doing these things while being watched. She stopped, sat down and turned to look at him. She was trying not to be rude, but her voice didn’t exactly sound pleasant. “Can I help you? Are you enjoying the view?” She figured he was, and if he was a bit older Hannah probably could have enjoyed the view from her perspective since he was shirtless. Hannah was also kind of interested in a guy already. She could be a flirt, but she felt guilty about such things now. She was probably going soft, and she didn’t like that.

It quickly became evident that he had been watching her for too long. Though when she sat down the spell was broken and the makeshift honeymoon is his head was over. Now that he could more clearly see her face she was probably a little bit older, but it was harder to tell with girls sometimes. So naturally when she spoke to him his mind danced between sarcastic response and acting taken aback... It was the former that won that battle.
"Well if I was enjoying the view there's obviously something you can do to help. Since you're no long running my little mental vacation I guess I had better get to work. Sorry if it offended you. He said as he walked toward the area the training dummies were kept. He didn't really want anyone watching while he worked on his fighting style, but a fellow guild mate didn't have to be hidden away in secrets.

"My name's Tatsuma. I haven't seen you around here, then again I'm brand new so I haven't met a lot of people." He explained while looking at her from the corner of his eye as he set up the training dummies. He was hoping the nature of their meeting would result in a fight, but it seemed like people here pretty much loved it, and he really couldn't complain himself.

"I don't suppose you would feel like sparring or something? These dummies are fun but they don't really fight back." He said with a wide, innocent grin, and actually looking at her. She was actually kind of attractive. The random hair spikes were kind of odd, but she had a nice chest. It was a factor he kept to himself thanks to yet another trial and error experience from when he first started going into towns.

Hannah was a bit surprised. In a way he admitted that he had been checking her out. It was sarcastic, but at least he had the guts to not act like he wasn’t looking. She could appreciate that, even though she didn’t like being ogled at. He wasn’t bad looking either, just probably too young for her. Hannah figured she could get back to work now that the guy went off to the training dummies, but that didn’t last too long. He walked off, but Hannah had a feeling he kept an eye on her anyway.

He told her his name and admitted to being new around. She had guessed that much. “Name’s Hannah.  Good to meet you Tatsuma.” Hannah figured she would keep trying to be polite. Hannah wasn’t too in a mood to fight, but that thing happened often around the guild. They were a pretty aggressive bunch there after all.

Well, so much for that, he asked to spar. Hannah tried not to sigh and barely managed. “Well, since you’re new and asked so nicely…. Sure why not?” Hannah got up and popped her neck and shoulders as she walked over to him. “So, any rules for sparing, or just go?” She put her hands up and got in a fighting stance in case he was the kind to just go for it. Being new she didn’t know what he was like.

At first he was a little taken aback at her sudden agreement to spar with him. His first thought was that she had some passive aggressive violence she wanted to work into active aggressive violence. Then she asked about rules which meant to him that she wasn't actually angry. In light of that evidence he decided to move on this his invitation.

"First to one hundred? I'm not sure honestly. I only ever sparred with someone from here once, but they kind of mopped the floor with me and it was pretty one sided... how about first to give up?" It was actually kind of frustrating. Rhidran always trained him using lightning magic so he wouldn't get as badly hurt, the mountains were life or death, the forest was life or death... He had literally no idea what to do when it came to a friendly sparring match.

"First one to use up all of their mana?... or you could set the rules. As far as magic goes I don't care what you use. I love challenges!" He said, scratching the back of his head as he tried to keep his eyes from wandering, but found himself checking her out anyway. He wanted to enjoy the battle as best he could though so he closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them, resolute to treat her just like another warrior.

He took a stance, his right foot stepping in front of his left so that his shoulders were rolled back while his left arm hung low with his right arm crossing in front of it. It looked like he was unbalanced and tangled up, but in fact it was a defensive stance, allowing for quick horizontal movement and back stepping as well as minimizing his body as a target. It also served to demonstrate that he was ready.

The new guy was pretty inexperienced with sparing apparently. That was alright, Hannah wasn’t used to it too much either. If she wanted a fight there were plenty of people in the world that needed a real butt kicking, not just some practice fighting. Hannah chuckled a bit at the new guy’s thoughts for rules. They were kind of funny. Hannah never liked to fight until she was out of magical energy. That was just a bad plan. Emergencies did happen occasionally and she did not want to be exhausted if one did happen. Never know when a dark guild might attack or the Magic Council tried to take over the world or whatever craziness they had planned.

“Let’s just go till one of us gives up or we get tired. And no permanent damage, okay?” She figured those were good basic rules that they could both understand. She was fighting a bit blind and that was not her style. She had no idea how strong the new kid was or what kind of magic he used, and for all she knew he could have been lying about losing his first sparing match. Hannah was cocky but she was calculating.

She thought about powering up her Iron Hide armor, but she didn’t want to throw all her cards out on the table, that was just dumb. So she went for something basic. “Alright, let’s go!” She announced as she turned her arm in to a small artillery cannon and fired a ball on a chain at the new guy. She figured if not everyone in the guild was up, the sound of a cannon would wake them up right quick.

MP: 190/200:

Tatsuma watched her like a hawk though it was a little early when he started.
"Sounds good to me." He responded excitedly. Though at her announcement of let's go, when she didn't make a physical move toward him he assumed she was either going to charge faster than he could see, or she was going to use something long range. Thus wearily activated his shock shield just after her arm turned into a ****ing cannon. He was lucky he managed to pull it up as her wrecking ball launched toward him. Reflexively his stance changed as it made contact, though she was in for a surprise if she didn't pull the ball back and it hit. In that event the ball would be electrified and sent flying right back at her. The resulting damage combined with the shocking nature of the damage would slow her and he planned his next move following that logic.

He was reminded of the time he had first developed the spell. It seemed like the effect of the shield was different when it came to different types of attacks. In the case of the Frost Vulcan that tried to strike him when he had stolen some food back in the mountains it had electrified its fists, but the fists hadn't been sent flying back, it had simply roared and slowed so he could escape from it. After that the magic bullet that had been used one day in town when he had stolen food from a food stall had been electrified and sent flying back at the shooter. Based on that Tatsu concluded that magic was repelled back while mundane attacks were simply delt out right then, though with this being a combination of the two he had no idea exactly how it would respond.

The memories flashed through his mind in the blink of an eye and he was left seeing the world almost as if it was in slow motion as the limit of his reaction time was reached and he stood as a wider target, making it more likely for the ball to hit.

Shock Shield:

MP: 180/200

Hannah hadn’t expected the reflexive shield, it was a pretty handy trick to have apparently. Her wrecking ball smashed into the shield and the blow was absorbed. Unlucky for her the shield bit back. A jolt of electricity ran down the chain and shocked Hannah. She flinched back and pulled the cannon ball back to her. She would have to rethink her plan of attack. She flexed her hands, trying to shake off the new numb feeling in her limbs. Great, now Hannah couldn’t feel her hands very well, or a lot for that fact.

“Ouch, that hurt… nice moves.” She had to admit that the kid had fast reflexes, but that didn’t mean she was happy about getting shocked. Hannah tried again to shake off some of the numbness, but it wasn’t working too well. She had to keep up the offensive though, staying on the offensive was the key to winning. Hannah tensed up and focused, and her skin turned into solid iron scales. She didn’t want to risk another ranged attack, and she figured that Tatsuma would manage to get off an attack before she could close into melee range.

Hannah charged Tatsuma, ready for whatever he had. She assumed he used some sort of lightning magic, as that would explain the shock from her wrecking ball.

Iron Hide::

MP: 175

Tatsuma watched as she charged, he watched as the scales covered her body. As near as he could tell she used metal magic of some kind, but he had no idea what exactly that entailed. It certainly wasn't something he had seen before. Still he activated his lightning speed, taking off toward her. She would most likely see just a blur coming at her, regardless he was definitely faster now in this mode, and he used his momentum to try to cause more damage. He didn't now if he was strong enough to damage iron with his fists or feet but he was going to try it. His foot stuck out as he went to connect. He had other plans if it didn't work, but right now he was having a blast.

"Normal foot!" He shouted as he flew toward her. He mostly shouted it as a joke rather than as any form of incanting, but he hoped the humor would maybe make her loosen up a bit. The next plan he was making was to start using lightning again if it failed, but he wasn't sure exactly what to do. This method of defense seemed truely impressive and he had no idea how to shatter it. In the end he decided it would be best to save his dragon roar for once it was down. That severely limited the spells he could use in this situation. If his foot somehow managed to do anything to it he would continue with that frame of mind, but if not he decided that he would immediately break out his lightning palm.

Hannah was impressed, but not surprised with the kid’s speed. He obviously used some sort of lightning magic and as the saying went, he was fast as lightning. Her numbed reflexes probably didn’t help her keep an eye on him any, but he still was fast. His foot connected, but with only increased speed it wasn’t terribly affective against her hardened skin. She chuckled a bit, but not too much as she didn’t want to be too mean today. The armor didn’t last forever though, and she would have to hurry before it wore off.

Hannah did laugh a bit at his announcing his normal kick. It was kind of fun to be in a not serious fight, even though she took everything seriously. His tactic worked though and she loosened up. It would probably help her though by not being tense. Once he kicked she knew he was in close enough. Hannah turned her arm into a chain and whipped it at him, hoping to snare him in it. He might be fast, but he can’t run if she had ahold of him right? She knew there was inherent danger with holding onto something that used lightning magic, but what other choice did she have. He was fast so she had to get in close, and he had a shield so she had to break it.

Chain Whip:

MP:165/200

Tatsuma got in close, but he had been having so much fun that his mind hadn't factored in that she would turn her arm into a chain. The disadvantage with wrapping him up in anything was that his lightning had a path to take. Still, she had caught him fair and square and he figured she'd earned a shock-free victory in that. Instead he took the opportunity to try to get into her head. After all, a battle between mages wasn't about who had more magic, better magic, or more overwhelming power. It was primarily about who could use their mind, magic, and versatility the most. At least that was how he looked at it. It would be a minute before he could amass the mana to use his shock shield again anyway and he had a feeling she wouldn't be able to hold him forever.

"So, this is an awkward situation. It seems you caught me with my pants down... got any secret plans for me now that you have me tied up? Is that what this move is for? I mean I can get kind of animalistic when I'm caged or in a corner." He said with a wry smile. It wasn't quite getting into her head at this point, but if he could get her to drop her guard, come closer, lose her temper, or otherwise make a mistake he would have the edge. All that remained was to see how she would react.

Lightning Flash sustain cost 5:

MP: 175/200

Hannah was glad she didn’t get a shock from grabbing the kid. It was honestly something that crossed her mind. But what choice did she have? He was faster than her so she had to slow him down. The chain worked wonders for that. Hannah would have disagreed. Sometimes someone can be powerful enough that the best tactics wouldn’t work on them. That was definitely not the case right now. The wizards seemed fairly evenly matched for the time being. But Hannah was not about to stop using her brain in this fight.

Hannah’s Iron Hide wouldn’t last much longer, so she figured she would get one last good use out of it. Tatsuma was running his mouth and trying to get in her head. She figured that’s what he was doing. Most of the time when she talked during a fight that was her goal. ”Your pants are not down… and no, this move is for this!” Hannah pulled the tied up kid over and delivered a swift head-butt to him since he was mostly stationary. She figured that was the best last use of her power.

Her Iron Hide faded and she retracted her chain. Now she was at a bit of a disadvantage. Now armor to protect her and the boy could move at the speed he wanted to.

Tatsuma completely lost balance as he was pulled forward and rolled along the floor after the chain was retracted as he tried to recover from the now growing lump on his head. Once he recovered and stood back up he looked at her quizzically.
"Hey no fair I only hit you with a normal foot!" He protested as he jumped from one foot to the other in a quickening pace that was meant to both make his immediate next steps faster.

"That is probably going to end up costing you, especially since I won't hold back on you just because you're a girl." He warned acknowledging that she was a warrior and not just a girl, his body blurring now that he was jumping from leg to leg as he prepared to either dodge or move forward. He wasn't actually planning on waiting for her to answer, and took off, blurred and moving on an extremely low crouch. As he stepped past and moved behind her he extended his hand toward her as a split second burst of electricity surged over his hand and a sphere of electricity launched toward her back at near touch range. He didn't wait to see how it worked or whether she would react as he quickly turned back around to face her.
"Lightning DRAGON ROAR!!" He shouted as a violet bolt of electricity erupted from his mouth launching at her and moving as a lightning bolt was expected.

Lightning dragon burst:

Lightning Flash (sustain):

Lightning Dragon Roar (non-overcharged version):

MP: 125/200
HP: 230/250

Tatsuma landed a good double hit on Hannah. His speed really helped him with that. In a blur he was behind her. Hannah was in mid turn to face him when his ball of lightning hit. It really hurt  but luckily Hannah was a tough girl. However she got shocked as she was being electrocuted. He turned around  and let loose a roar. A dragon roar in fact. That right there stunned Hannah more than his speed or getting shocked.

She was blown back by the two attacks and as she slid to a stop she managed to say. ”Time the fuck out! You’re a dragon slayer?!” He was very open about that fact and very liberal in the use of his particular brand of magic.

Hannah was not happy and really wanted to lay into the kid with her Iron Dragon Roar just to show him, but she didn’t. She stood up and dusted herself off, she was quite sore from the attacks. ”But really… dragon slayer? That’s um… something.” She was running through the questions she wanted to ask in her head while also trying to not be overly angry. He had kind of won, that last blow was a really good one.

Tatsu was getting ready to rush again when Hannah said, and he was quoting, "time the fuck out! You're a dragon slayer?". That caught his attention. He had used his roar in front of other people before, but they hadn't just called him out and said anything about it. Maybe they knew but weren't surprised by the time he ended up using it. Or maybe she had met others like him... or maybe he was more famous than he thought he was.
"Yeah... it is something... but you know what else is something? How did you figure that out. I mean you're the first person to figure that out without my telling them." He said, stating a matter of fact. He found it odd that she managed to put that together, but if she had met others then maybe she could tell him where to find one. There were other sets of information that he desperately needed to know, but only another dragon slayer would definitely be able to answer any questions. No books had been helpful so far, and no random old mages from any guild period had managed to give him anything but rumors. Surely someone knew where the dragons went... or a clue that could lead him to someone or something that could.

Hannah was glad the speedy kid had paused. She was no longer in any mood to fight. She wondered how many other dragon slayers there were out there. Seriously she had ran into two now in a very short time frame. It could be a coincidence but really, what were the odds.

Hannah finished dusting herself off, and looked like she was no longer interested in fighting. She could give the kid his victory, she was fine with that. He asked how she had pieced that together. She probably should have held her composure a bit more, but he really had taken her by surprise.

”Dude, you just yelled lightning dragon roar… You just stated your magic right there. How has no one figured that out yet?” Hannah had slipped up and stated she knew what kind of magic that was, but it really didn’t take a genius to figure that one out. She really wanted to ask more questions, but wasn’t sure how best to approach that. ”I happen to be an amateur scholar on dragons, more of a hobby really. So… what do you know about dragons? How did you pick up that magic?” Hannah now looked far more inquisitive than she did aggressive. She hoped that would get the kid to talk.

She was a scholar on dragons? Maybe she knew where he could find any of the books or writings or something he had been looking for. For a brief moment his excitement started to take over, but he chased it down and calmed himself.
"I don't know, maybe people have figured it out but no one has called me on it. Plus it's not like I use my roar extremely often." He answered truthfully. It didn't matter to him what so ever that she had figured it out and he was satisfied with her answer.
"as for your questions I will make you a deal, I will answer your questions in exchange for everything you know about dragons and dragon slayers. Quip pro quot if you will." He answered as he planned his next movements. It didn't matter to him who found out about him and about the dragon slayers. Eventually everyone would, and those who did would be on the forefront of those finding the others. That was all that mattered right now.
"As far as the dragons go, I don't know where they are or what happened to them, that's why I'm looking. As far as how I picked it up, it was from a dragon name Rhidran. The process is really... extensive, but I believe that it's now your turn."

Hannah thought it was odd that no one had called Tatsu on his powers since he used the roar, but if he didn’t use it too often, maybe he got lucky and used it on idiots. Hannah was already calculating how best to get information out of this kid, but the fact was she kind of doubted if he could tell her anything new. She was a bit cynical like that, but oh well.

Hannah nodded in agreement at Tatsu’s proposal. ”Deal. I’ll tell you what I know, and you tell me what you know.” Hananh could be dishonest, and she had no plans to tell him she was also a dragon slayer. She would tell him everything she knew about the dragons though, screw them for disappearing.

Darn, he didn’t know much. Another dead end. ”Damn, I’m not surprised you don’t know a lot. It seems like no one does.” Hannah let out a frustrated sigh. ”Well, I know that at least some of the dragons, could be all of them possibly, trained some humans in their magic. I’ve met a couple other dragon slayers and from what I learned from them, the dragons just all up and disappeared. I’ve got some notes I’ve compiled on the subject, if you would want to look at them.” Hannah figured he would, and the notes were safe for others to see. They had no mention of her in them.

He thought about Hannah's offer, surely it would take him one step closer to finding out what happened. Still he wondered if she was going to ask more of him in exchange for the notes.
"I'd love to use your notes. I'll share any extra information I happen to gather in the future for you to add to them." He said, honestly willing to help compile more information, after all, two heads were better than one. With all the time he tended to spend away from Magnolia he wasn't sure how long it would be before they were both around at the same time for him to be able to get her any real... anything, but he was intent on doing so.

This was the first real lead he had to anything dragon related and he was happy to have gotten this far. Maybe there were other dragon scholars out there that he could find that might have information on what exactly was going on. He didn't have anything solid, but he needed to find out where the information Hannah was getting was coming from as well.
"In your notes is the place from which you got the information included? And do you know of any other dragon scholars. It would have me the trouble of having to search them out myself." He said, a serious look overtaking his features. He intended to find out everything he could on this matter.

One stop closer for Tatsu was one step closer for Hannah, at least that is how she looked at it. If he used her information to find a dragon, surely she would hear about it and find one herself. It was a brilliant plan, and if all went well, Tatsu would be none the wiser that Hannah was only showing this generosity to help herself.


Tatsu offered to share any extra information he found, perfect. ”Great. I look forward to hearing what you find. And yes, two heads are better than one.” Hannah hadn’t ran into other dragon scholars, she wished she had to be honest. It would have made her life much easier, but sadly it wasn’t. It seemed almost like the world forgot the dragons once existed, and that was a sad fact, even if Hannah was still bitter about it. ”Sadly no, I have not ran into any other dragon scholars of note. There are a few people with interest in dragons out there, but nothing serious I have found. And no, my notes don’t have locations. I’ve got a notebook for notes, and an atlas I use to keep track of locations of things. Possible sightings, that sort of thing, but I’ve misplaced it. Its in my room, but I don’t know where.”

Hannah headed back to her room, and figured he would follow. Her place was a bit of a mess, but it wasn’t too bad. It looked lived in more than dirty. She went to her bookshelf and got a notebook down and opened it up. [color=green]”Here we are. Take a look. The book had information on several dragons, and was detailed in some areas and general in others.