Arcanum

"Umm Mr Ashley is there any advice you can give me..?..." Helen hesitantly asked.

"Well he"s still young when it comes to artificing.... currently he focuses on potions... that means you wouldn"t need to worry about golems, gadgets and gizmos." Ashley explained.

"Potions???...." Helen asked.

"Yes alchemy although different to artificing is the first step in the study of artificing.... it"s the most basic method of imbuing properties into things and the meticulous understanding of what produces certain properties." Ashley explained.

"What sort of potions should I expect to come across???.." Helen asked.

"Well from what I discovered is he doesnt normally engage in close combat but his knowledge in potions are vast... he also very intelligent in his recorded duels he has shown ample ability in countering and negating his targets offensive capabilities... being a alchemists there is no way he can produce potions on the fly..... So most probably he has researched you and have the correct potions to counter you." Ashley explained.

"So what advise can you give me to beat him???...." Helen asked looking and sounding more worried.

"So from my opinion you have two options.... do the unexpected... or blow past his stock of potions thus leaving him defenceless..." Ashley advised.

"So don"t use druidic spells??...." Helen asked.

"Well.... as you may know druids are also known to use normal spells as well... so he"s probably antic.i.p.ating that as well." Ashley replied.

"So what should I do then??..." Helen asked.

"Well I"d suggest you to fight him in close combat with a weapon..... He hasn"t shown to be adept with a weapon so... how good are you with a weapon???....close combat fighting??.... That"s would defiantly surprise him." Ashley smiled.

"Do casters often forgo close combat training???..." I whispered to Jay.

"Yes..... We casters normally focus on spells over relying on close combat." Ashley replied

"Ohhh I see...." I nodded in understanding.

"Ummmm I don"t excel in close combat..... But I have received said training in an elven long sword..." Helen answered.

"We have a couple of those spare right??..." Ashley asked Scarlet.

"Yeah we do." Scarlet smiled quickly walking to the sword displays picking up a sword and walking back with a very elegant sword, it had a slightly curved edge with the brown leather handle curving the opposite direction. The wrist guard was almost non-existent compared to normal swords and my daggers. On the base of the blade and the bottom of the handle brandished a symbol of some sort.

"Wow!!! A Blade from house Lylith...." Grace said in awe looking in shock at the blade.

"What"s Lylith?.." I asked.

"It"s a special Elven house that breed the best Elven swordsman.... their swords are crafted from a secret blend of mithril and adamantium. Their blades are almost unbreakable second to Scarlets unique sword... and as light as a feather" Grace explained to me.

"Would this sword be adequate?.." Ashley asked as Scarlet handed her the sword.

"Ohhh no.... I can"t..... I"m not allowed to wield a blade like that..." Helen refused politely.

"I mean..... A lot of the weapons we have here on display are gifts from friends and family..." Ashley replied.

"Don"t worry about it.... it"s only us in this place..." Scarlet smiled.

"I... can"t..... Only a swordsman of Lylith may wield such a blade...." She insisted.

"Okay Okay.... I deem you worthy." Scarlet said holding it out to her.

"No.... I can"t really..!" Helen insisted.

"Okay okay Scarlet fetch us a....." Ashley asked pondering.

"I"ll get a Mithril long sword... they are different in shape but at least comparable in weight." Scarlet said walking back to the weapon stands.

"So so sorry....." Helen apologized profusely.

"No No.... it"s our fault.... sorry we don"t stock ordinary weapons here." Ashley apologized feeling bad that she feels the need to apologize.

"Okay try this...." Scarlet said handing the sword to her.

"Okay... sorry again." She apologized accepting the sword from scarlet.

"Don"t worry about it, Do your best!" Scarlet smiled and exited the arena.

"Okay.... so you"re gonna take out advise and do the unexpected?.." Jay asked.

"Well so far all your advice hasn"t led us astray." Helen smiled as she tied the blade to her hip.

"Well when you"re ready then." Ashley said with a giant smile on his face.

"Okay!" Helen said nodding to herself.

"Okay!" Ashley replied waving in the Artificer hologram. The hologram walked into the arena standing opposite to Helen.

"You got this Helen!!!" We all yelled as she stood there looking nervous her sword already drawn nodding up and down.

"Wow she"s really gonna try fighting without spells..." Jay whispered surprised at Helens decision.

"Don"t worry..... She"s had some training with swords and other weapons." Grace said confident with Helens skill.

"Ready?..." Ashely asked smiling.

"Let"s go!" Helen yelled looking pumped.

"Begin countdown!" Ashely yelled.

The moment the countdown hit zero Helen went morphed into a wolf rapidly closing the distance between the hologram, before the hologram could even react Helen pounced on it knocking it down to the floor. Morphing out of her wolf form without warning stabbed her sword down into the holograms shoulder.

The hologram began thrashing as Helen pulled out the sword for another strike, with a loud pop purple smog began spraying out the holograms hip expanding rapidly creating a dense thick fog making it impossible see inside.

Helen came out coughing quickly falling to her knees heaving. The hologram walked out totally unaffected by the fog. It confidently walked slowly towards Helen pulling out a small dagger and cloth rubbing the blade in the cloth. Lifting Helen up by the hair it pulled its dagger back ready to stab her.

Grace quickly drew her bow ready to fire at it, when suddenly Helen morphed into a huge grizzly bear knocking the hologram to the ground. Without giving it a second to recover Helen savagely mauled its arms and legs and went for a huge bite on the shoulder. Grace lowered her bow noticing that Helen was okay.

"... So she can morph into an animal to make her better in close combat???..." I asked a.n.a.lysing the duel.

"Seems like it..." Jay answered.

"That"s so cool!!!! What else can she transform into?.." I asked curiously imagining what It"d be if I could morph into animals.

"Not sure.... I"m sure Grace would know.... but there has been myths of some individuals shifting into a dragon." Jay answered.

"No way!" I gasped looking at him in shock.

"Well it"s only a myth... but apparently it"s possible..." he replied.

"Hey grace what sort of things can Helen transform into?.." I asked.

"I"ve only seen her transform into animals." Grace answered still fixated on the fight.

Helen quickly dispatched her opponent savagely attacking the hologram, unable to withstand the raw strength of a grizzly bear. "Anddddd that"s a wrap." Ashley clapped smiling.

"Well done!" Scarlet congratulated her.

"So it looks like each of you are formidable students despite being freshman, which is amazing." Ashley smiled issuing us all to come in together.

"Yup you all are quite impressive." Scarlet smiled.

"Thanks for the sword." Helen said returning it to Ashley.

"No problem, but to be honest you didn"t really need it." Ashley replied taking it off her.

"Sorry..... I didn"t mention I could animal shape." Helen replied.

"No no.... it"s a great skill!" Ashley smiled.

"So as you can see..... The hologram had one strong counter for Helen..... Its poison cloud obscured Helen"s vision as well as choke her stopping her from casting spells. If it was able to set up on her, it would have been over before it even started, but Helen"s unrelenting offense forced it to dispense its poison cloud defensively." Ashley explained.

"Yes.... your ability to animal shape really surprised the hologram." Scarlet agreed.

"Are animal shapeshifters rare?.." I asked Helen.

"The ability to shape shift is common among druids..... But there is a chance that the shifter won"t be able to shift back and remain as an animal forever..... So it"s not really practiced." Helen answered.

"Aren"t you afraid of the risks?..." I asked Helen quietly.

"Not really... my family are renowned shifters..... So it kind of runs in the family." She smiled.

"You know.... I would have loved to learn to animal shift.... but after you mentioned the chance of never being able to shift back... I think I"ll pa.s.s." I chuckled.

"Yeah.... that"s why shifters are rather rare.." Helen smiled.

"So now you"ll have had a taste of your opponents, Ashley and I are extremely confident you guys will have a good duel." Scarlet smiled speaking to everyone.

"Ummm.... can we still train with you in the mornings?.." Helen hesitantly asked.

"Of course.... meet me here the same time every morning.... we"ll get some training done." Scarlet smiled.

"Yes.... if you all need I can also tweak the holograms to make the more difficult if you all want a challenge." Ashley added.

"So.... as always we have some spare time of resting before you guys need to head off to cla.s.s." Scarlet smiled.