Even with Lord Srox's explanations of the position of her so called 'Void Clan' that stood more on the middle of the road, Zanya remained lost. The very concept of the void was something she had never known about before a few minutes ago, and now Lord Srox had tossed Zanya in a mysterious library throbbing with strange magic, telling her to use emotions as a medium for magic with a six foot tall and heavily muscled 'Void Lord' standing behind her. Everything was nothing short of confusion. Zanya was used to going into a situation informed and prepared, yet now with every question she asked, five more sprung up.

Now Zanya faced a group of dummies animated with whatever this void magic was, and empowered enough to injure Zanya's currently unarmored frame, which also called for a bit of creativity. She quickly reanalyzed the room. No platforms to jump on, which meant no advantageous firing positions. It was just Zanya, a floor, and an army of magically enhanced dummies. Her own talents in martial arts were relatively limited, and strength was out of the question, so there was only one solution left: magic.

The process went more smoothly this time. Zanya pooled her focus, envisioning a force of sharp cold pooling in her chest before flowing down her arms. Instead of pooling into her palms, Zanya forced the energy out of her skin and coating her arms in a thick layer of tightly packed sky blue energy. Zanya raised her arms in front of her chest and face in a boxer's position and charged, driving a fist into the belly of the nearest dummy.

The two Void Lords watched as she battled the dummies. Both watched her body movements and how she used her magic. They kept a keen eye on the fact on how her body is reacting to the new "Stress Test". All of this is a giant test to see how far her body would go until it would break. Lord Srox had to know of her breaking point and what parts she needed to focus on. The first few dummies had been taken care of very easily. Zanya would have noticed that knocking them to the ground is very easy. The only issue is that they kept getting back up.

Thus, straining on her use of magic. "No weapons, the only thing you can use is your fist, feet, and magic. In the situations that will present themselves, you must be ready to fight in any situation. The enemy Void Lords that you will face, will not show you mercy. Thus, you should not show these false dummies mercy. They are your current enemy and you will show them your wrath."

Lord Srox yelled over the fighting. Void Lord Taelonso never took his eyes off the girl, " Her magic is out of control but she is slowly learning. She will have to have her body get use to the large amount of magic. The first few days, she might puke out of exhaustion, and I will not clean it up." he mumbled to Srox. Srox smiled but she knew that he spoke the truth. How she remembered those days when she could barely stand during her training.  As Zanya fought and kept knocking the dummies down. They kept getting up but sooner or later, they began to show wear on their bodies.

Zanya hated to admit it, but she was tiring quickly. Bullets of sweat had already begun beading from her head after the first few hits and her breathing became ever more labored. She cursed silently as the dummies she had already knocked over slowly stood back up and began crowding around her. The field of energy over her arms wavered as the dummies drew closer and closer. With such a lack of strength and talent - both in martial arts and magic - there was virtually nothing Zanya could hope to do in order to finish out the fight. If it was even meant to be a fight to begin with. 

One of the nearer dummies threw a punch, which Zanya sluggishly batted to the side and retaliated with a clumsy punch to its left collarbone. Two more punches struck Zanya in the back, knocking her forward into a trio of dummies, who sent a burst of void magic Zanya barely deflected with the remaining energy around her forearms. The sky blue light flickered and died. Whatever energy Zanya still had quickly faded and she collapsed on the ground.

Lord Srox and Taelonso watched as they could see the fight is slowly getting to her. The sweat on her face, the sluggish movements and responses, and the lack of focus. Near the end of the fight, Lord Srox could see the magic fade from her body and she collapsed to the floor. With a wave of her hand, the dummies stopped and the walked back to their original positions. Lord Srox glanced at Taelonso, he never took his eyes off Zanya. Lord Srox walked over and waved her hand over the girl. Using portions of her own magic, she gave Zanya enough energy to wake up and listen.

"Remember this feeling, the feeling of exhaustion. These moments, if you're still fighting your enemy, and you collapse. You will die if you don't know the magic to help build your stamina or replenish your strength." Said she was she walked over to the large amount of book cases. She looked over the shelves until she finally pulled one out. She placed the book next to Zanya, "From this day forward, I will teach you the language of Void Magic. With your expansion of the vocabulary, so will your understanding of Void Magic. The book next to you is about taking the life forces of your enemy. All being have it. Organic and non organic. Such things as potential energy and molecules have such energy. This will help you fight those dummies and when you learn to take their energy, you can beat them."

Zanya barely registered the dummys' deactivation as she lay barely conscious on the floor. In her own eyes, Zanya had failed. Her magical strength was virtually nothing, and her actual ability to efficiently manipulate the the energies flowing throughout the universe were nonexistent. Even with the promise of training and knowledge, it all continued to feel unattainable.

Moments later, Srox filled Zanya with a type of temporary vigor, just enough energy to come to her senses. Though unfocused, Zanya managed to comprehend Srox's continued lectures on the usages of Void Magic and it's purpose, this time about making sure not to collapse of exhaustion. To do that, Zanya had to start by learning what appeared to be one of the most basic forms of Void Magic: the ability to steal the life force from other beings, sentient or not. But even before that, she would have to learn the alphabet void lords used. The complexity of the runes on the cover of the ancient void tome shocked Zanya with their complexity. At the moment, she could barely hope to learn their meanings in any efficient amount of time.

"I sure hope so," Zanya replied once Srox finished speaking.

She looked at the girl as she seemed to still struggle to stand up. "There is much to learn, however, you need to learn the language of the Void Lords. This is the only true way to learn Void Magic. No short cuts and no cheat sheets. IT's either the hard way or you quit and I don't think you're the kind to give up." she said as she helped Zanya to her feet. "This will be a long path towards becoming Void Lord and it won't be easy., I believe that you can do it. Now take a break from training for the day. This was the first taste of things to come" she said as she walking away. She paused and looked back," Congratulations on the promotion, Warrant Officer Grade 3. The order came down from High Command."

Zanya had finally managed to recover enough strength to stand up straight just as Lord Srox informed her of the promotion. Zanya tossed the thought around in her head. She had never expected to get a promotion in the way she just had. Great achievements on the battlefield such as a brilliant strategy or saving a battalion from certain defeat. Definitely not for simply showing a sliver of affinity for magic. She took a moment to stare at the completely foreign text printed on the cover of the void tome Srox had handed her. It was time to get learning all over again.

"Take time to learn everything. Never rush things, if you have learned everything in this book, move onto the next. Always ask questions things. Tomorrow, we will begin training and discuss our next operations on Xarn. We will reveal our Void Clan and by the time of our next operations, you will be ready to fight other Void Lords or apprentices." She said as she turned around and walked off. This indeed is the beginning of the real test, to see if her body could handle Void Magic.


END