Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Ever since his previous failure in what he now referred to as 'The Stagnant Realm', Griar had been trying to better himself and grow more powerful in as many aspects as was possible, to this end, he sought advice from his mother and trained daily with his older sister, Lizi.

The eldest of the sibling group was certainly the most focused on combat, her love for the sword was on full display at all times, and she diligently learned from Antieeld as often as was possible, despite only having wild animals as true opponents, her skill with the blade was undeniable, Antieeld even said once that it was almost supernatural how Lizi wielded a sword.

To the point that she suspected that the girl had actually been born with something that enhances that sort of skills, but unfortunately, without Toby around, it was impossible to verify.

In any case, Lizi was also a very competent energy manipulator, she had no affinity for any element, but that was fine, basic mana was already plenty enough, the raw forms of energies were often set aside in favour of the more flashy, eye-pleasing spectacle of the elements, but in truth, raw mana was in no way truly inferior to mana shaped into an element.

You simply needed a bit more imagination.

Still, despite being very competent in that department as well, and successfully melding her swordsmanship and magic together to achieve something grandiose, Lizi did not consider herself the best one to demonstrate the intricacies of energy manipulation.

Which was why, today, Griar was not only accompanied by one of his sisters, but two.

Lizi could be considered a little bit eccentric in how she went about teaching him, especially when it came to sparring, that girl knew no mercy, but compared to Louizon, the eldest would appear like a gentle angel.

"Griar, do you remember the various aspects of energy?!"

"Y-Yes…"

"Well, the most important one is power! Case in point-" Louizon had an enormous affinity for blast magic, and the spell she casually tossed out exploded several kilometres away, sending a portion of the plains straight to hell, the explosion created dark smoke, and send rocks and bits of dirt flying outward like shrapnel, as for the area that was hit in the first place, nothing was left of it, not even dust or ash.

"Hit someone with that amount of power, and look at their face, you'll see nothing, because they are gone! Torn apart! Reduced to empty space! Boom!"

"Now…" Louizon suddenly straightened her back and took on a calmer tone, like the maniac that was shouting moments ago had been but an illusion, Lizi and Griar had grown used to this, after a good explosion, Louizon would always be calmer, almost like she had just needed to let something that had been bottled up out.

Unlike Lizi, who was lean all across her figure, Louizon had inherited more of Helena's attributes, so when she began to smile gently after turning a perfectly innocent plain into a crater, she actually looked a whole lot like their mother, she even had the same dark blue eyes as her.

In fact, only Lizi had Milo's brown eyes.

"...As you can imagine, achieving that amount of strength will not be as easy for you as it is for me, my blast element is made for that sort of destruction and power output, even my casual spells are capable of demolishing things, for you, it is a bit more complicated, the wind element is more flexible in how it can be used, offensively, defensively, for support, for healing… There is nothing amongst the basics that is truly out of reach for you"

"But wind can still be incredibly destructive, storms are a good example of that- So try casting a storm"

"Huh?"

"You heard me correctly, summon a storm and uproot some trees, make some of those giant animals fly and spin through the air before being dropped to their death, make them fall to the ground and turn into red mist!"

"Louizon, we are supposed to go step by step, that is a bit too complicated of a spell right now…" Lizi whispered to her sister, who sighed in response.

"I guess you are right, let's try something simpler then… Mana masking! That's what I call it, so you guys know that you can conceal your inner energies so that you aren't instantly found out when getting within a radius of another energy user, right?"

"Well, it is also very useful when engaged in combat and goes along very well with feints! Listen, when people are slinging spells at one another, both will typically be trying to eye at the inner energy flow of their opponent, in an attempt to predict when the spell will come, and if they are good enough, the strength of the spell, or even the spell in particular can be guessed"

"So naturally, you should know how to conceal your energy flow from your opponent, but you know what is even better than that? Masking the mana in a spell that has already been cast! When engaged in a battle of spells, it is only natural to rely more heavily on your mana sense than the rest, so having quote-on-quote, 'invisible' spells is a great advantage! By knowing these little tricks, you can also have a false inner flow whilst the real one is hidden to completely mess with your opponent- Of course, that's a bit difficult to pull off"

Louizon puffed her chest and smiled in satisfaction.

"I have hidden twenty mine spells whilst I was speaking, you have to find out where they are by just looking and using your mana sense, here's my first lesson, training your energy sense to pick up on enemies trying to trick, ambush or trap you!"

"That's a pretty good lesson" said Lizi "did you have to plant real mine spells though?"

"What, you want me to put fakes around? Where is the fun in that? A little bit of tension is absolutely beneficial to learning, and besides, those mine spells are rather weak, I wouldn't use anything too strong against my beloved little brother, at best it might break a handful of bones… Nothing Zaya and Zally won't be able to solve!"

"You do realise that mom will be mad even if the damage can be reversed, right?"

"Now… Do not speak of such an ill omen, Lizi… Surely Griar won't get hurt- Griar! Stand still, alright? Just… Spread out your mana sense from where you are"

"Had you seriously forgotten about mom?"

"I got lost in the moment, alright? I am very passionate about magic! And I want the best for Griar…" Louizon looked at her brother and then whispered to Lizi "...Did he tell you what that girlfriend of his looks like? I couldn't get anything out of him last time"

"I don't know either, he refuses to speak about her in any way!"

The two sisters discussed amongst themselves whilst Griar was attempting to find the concealed mines…