Bastard's Grove, Yaralon
40th Ymiden, 719
40th Ymiden, 719
"Let's see now... A little to the left? No, that's not right..."
With tentative steps Tio shuffled forwards, tapping the ground before him with his umbrella to make sure he didn't stumble over anything. Although he had the ability to 'see' out of his hand, Tio had deliberately worn gloves today in order to willingly blind himself. His attunement master, Thena, had told him that the spark had abilities that could help blind people that he might find useful, and that she believed his spark had grown strong enough in order to access these special techniques. The first was called Dousing; a power that could seek out frequencies he hadn't yet attuned to, and the second was Omnivision; a power that could give him a supernatural awareness of his surroundings.
Unfortunately from his perspective it had been arcs since he'd last used a magical spark, and reconnecting to the dormant power was proving to be trickier than expected. It was like prodding a hibernating bear until it woke up. He'd gone into Bastard's Grove, planning to use the abilities in order to navigate through the trees and find his way back home, but so far was truly and utterly lost. What little he was able to sense with Omnivision was blurry and vague at best, and the notes he attempted to catch with Dousing kept slipping out of his grasp before he could follow them.
He took a step forward and winced as his foot sank into a patch of mud. It was only after he tugged the now sodden shoe out of the grime that his spark deigned to tell him about the river he was standing by the bank of. Mentally cursing the laziness of his freeloading soul parasites, Tio followed a more secure patch of earth closer to the water and scooped up a handful. He'd been walking for ages now and his throat was beginning to get a bit scratchy from thirst. A splash of water was just what he needed.
The first few drops had just trickled past his lips when his spark detected something approaching. He couldn't tell what it was, but he didn't detect any notes of hostility from it and so decided not to treat it as a threat. He subtlety kept his attention on it as it came to stand a few feet away from him down the river and also leaned over to drink. Silence drew out across the river as the two of them focused simply on drinking.
"Skinny ass b***h." The stranger muttered, just loudly enough for him to hear.
Tio looked up sharply, letting the water slip through his fingers. "What was that?!"
The stranger jumped a little, apparently not expecting Tio to have heard him. "You... You can understand me?"
"I understand that you're too much of a little pansy to say to my face what you're whispering behind my back."
The stranger scoffed in disbelief. "And you're picking a fight with me?! Are you blind?"
Tio raised a hand to his face and waved it slowly across the part of his mask covering his eyes. "No s**t. Now are you going to back those words up?"
The stranger gaped at him for a while, then began to chuckle. That chuckle slowly began to grow into a cruel laugh. "Seriously? You think a scrawny little human like you can take me on? Fine then; I'll tear you apart!"
The blurred shape of the stranger began to stand up, and it began to dawn on Tio that he had, perhaps, made a huge mistake; mainly because the stranger was equally as huge! He had to be as big as a bear! With a wide, lumbering gait the stranger staggered towards him until they were just an inch apart and growled, blasting a gust of hot, fishy air into his face.
"Spirits, you need to learn to use a toothbrush mate!"
The stranger unleashed a feral roar, and through his distorted vision Tio saw the silhouette of something extend from his side and swing towards him. An arm! He ducked as the meaty fist swiped above his head with enough force to take it off. Bloody hell, this guy was strong! He dodged back as another blur, the stranger's second arm, followed up with a swing as well.
He dodged again and again as the stranger took wild but powerful swings at him, beginning to feel his stomach tighten as fear took root within him. Perhaps he'd bitten off more than he could chew here. This guy fought like an animal! And with his vision impaired it was taking all of his focus just to dodge. But no battle could be won purely by defense, he had to attack at some point. If only he could just see properly he might be able to spot an opening to take advantage of, but this guy wasn't giving him an opportunity to take his glove off!
And yet, as he rolled to the side as the guy charged forward to bite him of all things, Tio noticed something. Perhaps it was just a trick of the mind, but he could swear that his reaction time was speeding up by just a fractionally small amount with each dodge. And it wasn't because he was getting faster either, it was because he was beginning to notice things just a little bit quicker. He spun back from another swing. Yes, now that he thought about it the stranger's form was a bit more defined than it had been before, enough for him to notice that his opponent was seriously hairy. No wonder his breath stank: the guy clearly had no appreciation for personal hygiene.
Perhaps his lazy little spark was finally starting to wake up? After all this fight was forcing him to push it hard; use its powers as a substitute for his eyes on pure instinct. He concentrated harder on his opponent, using his freshened clarity to watch their next attack. For all his strength this guy really was clumsy in his attacks, there were a lot of openings in his form. Most people didn't have the strength to make any great use of those openings since the guy was so damn heavy, but Tio wasn't most people.
When the next swipe came he ducked forwards this time, rolling into the stranger's guard. As he did so he called down into his soul for his spark of defiance and fed his ether into it, demanding its power in return. In reply the wind blew with renewed strength and wrapped around his arms, forming gauntlets of spiraling wind. With a warcry he slammed both enhanced fists upwards in a hammer blow that collided with his opponent's chin with a deafening crack. The wind followed his blow instantly with a sharp blast that pushed the stranger back headfirst into the stream.
"Bwuaaa..." The stranger let out some kind of strangled gargling sound as his mouth, slightly submerged in the water of the river, lolled to the side. It appeared he'd been knocked unconscious. Tio chuckled smugly to himself as he removed the glove over his hand, preparing to gloat about his victory. "Well well, I guess that for all that big talk your really just a... huh?!"
Perhaps he was seeing things. His hand-eye vision must be malfunctioning. Lying in the spot where the stranger had fallen, with unfocused eyes gazing blankly up at the sky, was a bloody bear! Not in the metaphorical sense either; it was a literal, flesh-and-blood bear! Had he just had a fistfight with a bear? But... but it had talked to him! How had a bear learnt to speak common?
"Must be magical or something." He muttered to himself as he removed a few vials from his domain bag. While it was unconscious he took of few samples of its hair, claws and blood, figuring that whatever magic it possessed might be useful for his alchemy experiments. Once he was done Tio decided it might be a good idea to get the hell out of there before the big guy woke up again and tried for round two.
Now if only his dousing would point him in the right direction home...
Off Topic
Just to clarify the bear isn't actually magical. Tio was able to understand it because of the seasonal event.
