Vivi watched the mid-morning sun rise high over the crystal blue sea. The sound of the waves crashing, the feeling of the cool water soaking across her feet, the smell of salty sea water, it was all rather refreshing. She had never been one for travel to distant places, it never really seemed like it was important enough to deal with, but she couldn't deny how exciting it was to see somewhere so blatantly at odds with everything she had ever known before. By any comparison to Luluhawa Island, Fiore was a cold and dismal place. But the sun and the sounds here were so much more vibrant and warm, she could almost feel the spirit in the air. Still, she hadn't come to Luluhawa to sit around and soak the day away in comfort. Really, she didn't know why she had come at all, but when Nana had told her too she didn't really have a reason to argue so she'd simply followed orders and come along. She was glad she had, of course, but she couldn't just sit on her hands forever. She needed to be active, she needed to be working on her self-improvement. Strength was her deity and she had long been lax in her visits to its altar.

Clutching her axe in one hand, Vivi took a few breaths before she kipped it up off the sand and swung it back over her shoulder. Pushing her right shoulder forward before it came all the way back, she swung it fiercely in the air, imagining the skull of an enemy in front of her. Her swing was strong, she certainly didn't lack for power. She wasn't at any sort of pinnacle, but with her weapon in hand Vivi knew she could take on opponents who were much stronger or faster than her. She needed to land a good hit, sure, but that was why she was there. Vivi had neglected to consider the importance of her magic, and in doing so she had failed to prepare herself adequately for her duties. Her fight against Nana on the day she had met her would stand as testament to that thought. She had not been able to break through her mentor's defense, though she likely could have with more effort. But effort was not going to win her battles. She needed to have power, she needed to be able to punch through any barrier in front of her in one blow or she'd never be able to survive in a real fight. If she let herself get bogged down in slug matches then she would lose, that was simply going to be a fact for her. If she could not break past her opponent's defenses in a single act then she would not be able to keep up in the long term against people who were stronger than her, and she knew how long the list of people like that there were.

As she propped her axe up for the fifth time, Vivi twisted her body and gripped the haft with both hands. Again she swung in a downward motion, working even harder to put not just power behind her swing but also intent. She knew she had to work actual spells into her fighting style with more fluidity than she had been. She needed to be able to throw out attacks in succession rather than pausing to launch one after the other. Again and again she chopped at the air, swinging her axe down and stopping it just before she hit the muddy sand beneath the tide. Her swings needed to be consistent, she needed to be precise. Ten, twenty, thirty chops. She was getting faster but she still lacked the focus. Another ten. It still wasn't enough. She couldn't gather mana fast enough to actually perform the attack she was trying to. In theory she understood it, but she had never put so much effort into understanding the application of magic. She tried using more force to exude mana into her weapon, but that made her strike wild and uncontrolled. She tried trickling it in over time, but it simply dissipated before she could actually make a real impact.

Whatever the trick to a steady stream of it was she just wasn't grasping it. But she was resolved. Vivi wasn't the kind of person who gave up because something was too hard, adversity was the seedbed of strength after all and she refused to back down because of that. She tried to focus on where her issue was. She needed to maintain her mana while also building it up to a high enough level where it would detonate on impact. Doing so took work. She couldn't just force it, she had to almost let go of her control. Thinking of her axe as an extension of her body, drawing a connection between it and the rest of herself not just as an end point but as a loop. It went through her axe and back into her. If she could think of the flow in that manner then she could understand it better. Watching the water as it ebbed and flowed across the beach helped. It wasn't just a close-ended system, it was constantly recycling that which it used.

Ten more strikes, then ten more. She swung with force and struck hard again. As she began to understand the way her mana flowed more, she felt it coming. Another strike, cleaving down into the sand. Vivi gasped as her face was showered with a burst of sea water as an explosion ripped through the sea from her axe. She blinked a few times as the water filled in the circular gap she had cut into it with her magic. It took another three strikes before she could do it again, creating another explosion which vaporized the water. She kept going and going, again and again until she was able to do it with consistency on every strike. Of course, it tired her out quickly and she had to take a break, but she had started to realize the way her magic could function outside of purely the conventional.

A short break was all she needed. She had to get back to training, and that wouldn't do itself. It was an effort, sure, and one that took a lot out of her from end to end. She was far from done, so she had to get up. After just ten minute she was on her feet again, holding her axe with both hands as she swung it with all her might. She'd swapped to a horizontal swing, going back and forth from arm to arm, bringing her weapon around in half moon arches in front of her body. The swing was much harder than before, requiring more of her overall strength to perform, which was only natural given the weight of her weapon. Still, she needed to perfect the habit of the swing before she could work it into her usual repertoire. An axe was not just a weapon, it was a tool meant for all sorts of labor and combat. It was a tool to be respected as it was mastered, and she was working on a lot more than just the basics. Still, with her mind focused on what she'd been able to learn it took a lot of the edge off on the next step of her training. She'd come up with ideas for three spells, things that would be infinitely more useful to her than her original tools in combat. But they were so different that she needed a lot of practice in order to perfect them. She had figured this new technique for offense would be the hardest one to master so she had put it right in the middle, sandwiched in just the way she liked her difficulty. With her swings going back and forth unabated, she kept trying to envision just what she had learned with her attack before. Whereas then she had needed to keep her flow of mana going in a cyclical fashion, here she needed to mold it. That was even more of a foreign concept, but getting a feel for her weapon was beneficial in that regard. The more she swung it the more she grasped its intricacies and unique features. It wasn't a particularly impressive axe, in fact it was a rather standard piece of equipment by any stretch of the word. But, it was unique to her because she would turn it into a tool worthy of being used in battle. Understanding every facet of it was key to her success. Each swing was another step down that road. Extending her mana to the weapon, she focused her mind as the swings became routine and she tried to change her vision. She didn't need to increase the mana, she needed to shape it into a carbon copy of her axe. She needed it to be like a shadow. Yes, that was the better vision. A shadow of her tool, a method of increasing her effective range. While she could hit hard if someone was right next to her, she woefully lacked any sort of ranged power. This would remedy that.

Still, shaping her mana took a lot of work. She swung her arms for over an hour, struggling to make the mana take shape as she wanted it. She managed to make some rather small or misshapen imitations, but they lacked stability and barely smacked into the waves before disappearing. Still, with each failed shot she came closer to her goal. Each swing was forming more consistently, each copy a bit closer to the original than before. Perseverance was her game and she kept at it, swinging faster and faster as she felt herself getting closer to her goal. It took a lot more than a few dozen swings to get it, but eventually one came through. She swung her axe hard and an exact copy, a shining magical axe, shot clean through the air in an arc and sliced through an oncoming wave. Vivi collapsed as she gave that last swing, drained of almost all of her energy after that final attack. She wouldn't be getting another, but she would remember the way that strike felt. She would remember how to do it again.

Resting again, she had to fill her stomach to get back her energy. She'd brought some sandwiches, and they tasted even better with some salty sea wind seasoning. Once she'd stuffed her gullet though, she got right back to her work. There really wasn't another option, she had to deal with the matter at hand. The last spell on her list, her final idea, was another way to cover her weakness. Vivi wasn't necessarily as fast as she wished to bee, though she worked hard to try and make up for that. But in a battle, speed could often determine the outcome of the fight just as much as strength could. She could surely utilize just her strength, but that would be relying more on luck than anything else; and Vivi wasn't really a lucky person to begin with. It would be better to master speed as well as strength if she was going to make it anywhere in this line of work. With both on her side she could more competently go after stronger targets, which meant that she would be able to make herself stronger as a result. There was no way she'd pass up on it.

Getting back onto her feet, she stowed her axe before breaking out into a run down the shoreline. She needed to train her body to be used to the idea of constant movement rather than just short bursts. She needed speed, she needed consistency. Matching those to her mana would take a lot of getting used to, but at least she understood how to move it through her body more competently than before. The run was more to get into the movement rather than to force any particular response. She ran at a steady pace, following the curve of the beach around the mountain as she put all her thought into how her feet were pushing off the ground. Using magic to enhance her speed wasn't just about strengthening her muscles or increasing their density, it was more like using mana to increase the distance of her stride in a way. That was already hard enough, but she needed to consider the taxing nature of using magic in that fashion too. That was where the need for consistency came in. That was where she struggled. But she tried anyway. She'd come up with a method for training her body to go into certain states with somatic movement, and she kept doing it as she ran. Step, step, two taps. Step, step, two taps. That was what she kept repeating. It made her gait awkward and if anyone were to watch her they'd surely think she was insane. Still, she kept on going, trying to trick her body into following her mind. She needed to focus. Repetition bred the idea into existence, however, and she found herself moving just a bit faster each time. Again she pushed herself to the brink of exhaustion, trying to get her body to respond properly. Mana flowing through her feet was easy, getting it to work out of her body in the direction she wished took a lot of effort. Still, she felt the idea forging a new understanding in her mind.

She kept going, digging her heels and toes into the sand as she moved into an almost gliding run. She was getting faster, but the real mark was yet to come. As her feet left the ground, she tapped her heel again, and she felt something come alive for a brief moment. Her mind and body connected in that instant, bringing her thought into reality. Her ankles tingled as magic circles wrapped around her legs, and on the next step she was practically blazing across the beach by comparison. She kept running, going as fast as she could currently push her body and she was absolutely zooming with excitement. She could only sustain the new spell for a little while before her legs gave out and she came to a crashing halt in the sand. Straightening herself out though, she wiped herself clean and sat up again. Looking at the water, she smiled and nodded her head. She'd done it. It had taken nearly a whole day, judging by the position of the sun, but she'd managed to beat this new knowledge into herself inch by damn inch. She knew this was just the start of what she would have to do to master her magical abilities, but it was a good start all the same.

"Now I am just thirsty," She groaned as she picked herself up and limped off the beach. She wanted something tasty to drink.

WC - 2544
Arcana Burst - 1000/1000 Words
Rush Drive - 750/750 Words
Drive Replicate - 750/750 Words