Realm Quest - A Fantasy Text Adventure

[Jetroid]

>Enquire with others as to how you know when your first course starts.

[stagnantAntler]

>Check the time if it's been more than four hours or so *guesstimate* head to the baths and and wash the sweat off, also play with the water via wielding.

Darde would do this, that is, if we had any control over his thoughts at the moments. Alas, we don't, Dardes actions are his own for a while as we find ourselves somewhere else entirerely.

It's dark in Southquarter, with only a few faint lights adorning the sky. A lone soldier is making his way through the narrow streets of a region he knows all too well. He's been walking for most of the day and sighs as he finally finds himself in front of his destination. The building he's standing in front of is small. It looks like it belongs to one of the lower ranked officers. Curtains are drawn behind every window of the building, preventing the soldier from seeing anything going on, on the inside.

The soldier stops in front of the large wooden door, pausing for a second to look around, the street is empty. The soldier knocks four times, pausing for a second between the second and third knock. The sound of footsteps can be heard from the inside, from whoever is coming to answer the door. A slit in the door is pulled aside to reveal a pair of brown eyes "Who's there?" the man says in a rough tone "It's me, Herken" the soldier whispers, revealing his identity.

The pair of eyes dart back and forth, inspecting the street "Were you followed?" the man asks nervously "I wouldn't come here if I was" Herken remarks "Alright then", a series of clicks can be heard as the door is unlocked. The large chunk of wood swings inwards revealing a stout man in a captains outfit. The man is a good deal older than Herken, but still in his prime Herken recognizes the man by the name Greff "Come on in".

Herken steps through the hallway straight towards the next room, where muffled voices can be heard, Herken can't make out what they're saying and as he enters the room, they all stop talking. Greff steps in beside him exclaming ”It's alright, just Herken come for a visit. He's been on a long trip, so be easy with him.” a few of the residents laugh in response, most of them recognizing Herken, as they've met before.

Herken eyes slide across the room, there are six people in there, besides Greff and himself. Three of them wearing masks to hide their identities. Despite the masks, Herken recognizes all of them, but one, a large fellow with an orange beard clearly sticking out beneath his mask. Herken gives the man a look and the man stares back through a slit in his mask. Herken takes a seat within the group and one of the masked women, who Herken knows by the name of Crawling Arrow speaks up.

”So how's the countryside?” ”It's the same as always” Herken begins, the switches to a slightly more serioues tone ”they brought Darde as I feared” ”That boy you've been babbling about since you joined us?” Crawling Arrow jokes ”So how did he take the news?”

”Well...” Herken pauses in embarrasment ”I didn't tell him I just couldn't. He had enough to deal with already.” an unmasked man cuts in ”If he's going to be a valuable asset to us, you'll have to tell him eventually, I doubt he'd trust us otherwise.” ”I doubt he'll be much of an asset to us anyhow” Herken pauses again, not looking forward to breaking the news ”He was sent to Northquarter, he's currently in Northquarter acedemy.”

The room falls silent for a second before Greff speaks up ”What!? How are we going to reach him from halfway across the capitol.” before Herken can muster up an argument the tall masked man cuts in ”I might be of service here. I'm sure the Northquarter group would not mind another member. Especially if this boy is as skilled as you all seem to think he is.”

Herken looks at the man in bewilderment ”Sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Blind Talon, of the Northquarter underground. I can assure you, I only have the boys best intensions in mind.” ”Yes, yes of course” Herken is at a loss for words, the whole situation has already spiralled out of control, he doesn't feel comfortable putting Darde in the hands of a complete stranger, but sees no other choice. ”Alright then, I'll send a messanger to him informing him of your arrival. I can't stress this enough though, you'll have to wait until just before his graduation, I can't have him involved prematurely.”

Blind Talon scoffs ”The Northquarter underground are not a bunch of soft-heads Herken, we know the procedure as well as you do. If at all possible I'd advice you to contact him beforehand, and let him know.” Herken simply nods ”I will take my leave then.” Blind Talon says ”The plans are set in motion. A messenger will be sent as per usual with the information.” and with that, the masked man is out the door.

A sense of relief goes through the room ”Well know that that's done with,” Greff exclaims ”Let's drink to the return of our junior member and the future of Southquarter underground”

As the festivities commence, Herken sends one last thought to the novice he's come to know so well. It would be a long time until the two had a chance to meet face to face again.

End of Prologue

[stagnantAntler]

Chapter 1

A young man at Northquarter acedemy is getting ready to take the tests to prove his worth and ultimately his rank in Kit'Aegan society. The young mans face has a look of determination, his slightly crooked nose and small eyes doesn't exactly make him the most attractive lad in the acedemy, but he's muscular from the long days of training, though slightly thin from malnourishment. His brown curly hair falls just below his ears quite untidy, yet perfectly clean.
Right now he's wearing a novices uniform similar to the first he wore when he first entered the acedemy so many years ago, but he's brought along a variety of other outfits for the purposes of the many different tests he's going to go through. The large variety of uniforms has seemed strange to alot of the people he's met in the past, but Darde enjoys changing between them, it assures that he's always got an ace up his sleeve.

Behind him a group of no less than 15 novices have joined to watch how he fairs in his tests. Among them is Girri, a waterwielder Darde's age with straight, jet black hair. Her novice uniform covers a bruised, overworked frame, she too is very thin, but strong of spirit, her deep dark blue eyes give away a sense of pride.

A short young man, likewise Darde's age, has a serious look on his face. It's only about a year since he abandoned his former group in favor of the Grains of the Flood let by Darde. Caeld keeps his hair short, it has a red tint to it, but is otherwise much likes Darde's. Caeld, like many other fire wielders, prefers his uniform short and sleeveless, the uniform he's wearing right now is made from very thick leather and shows off his relatively small shoulders. Caeld always prefered not to get into the hard physical training and it shows, though his face is as hard as that of the other members of the group.

A third very important member of the group and a former member of the Lambs, stands head and shoulders over every other member of the group. His skin has a slightly darker tint than many of the acedemies inhabitants. Many see this trait as Kartusian or Tralenian, but his height and smooth face makes it hard to pinpoint his ancestry. Aldt always wears a warhammer on his belt, it's length and weight perfect for his size, though he's just as skilled with light swords and daggers.

At Aldts side is a small girl. About as old as Darde when he first came to the acedemy, but marginally more skilled in her main wielding ability, water. Her hair is dark blond, and she gives off a presence that's somehow threatening despite her size. She wears a long coat made from thick wool, which makes the inbuilt waterpockets invisible at first glance.

Common to the novices in the group is their clear loyalty to the novice in front of them. They're all watching with anticipation as Darde walks up to the officer who's in charge of his final tests. The officer has a slightly bored expression on his face ”oh yes, Darde was it? You've been put down to tests on two elements, armed, unarmed, archery AND tactical tests. An impressive summary. Your main element is water as far as I remember, but lets start with the secondary shall we. What was it again? I forget.”

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Yep, you get to choose a secondary element now. Let's list the possibilites shall we

Fire: You've learned to master the heat in your mind to manifest outside yourself. Fire wielding is explosive and mostly combat oriented. You can wield fire up to 15 meters away from yourself, but projectiles can be flung much longer, and this comes into good use.
Earth: You've become one with the earth below your feet, you can feel pulses through the earth up to 25 meters away and can wield it up to 10 meters away. Lifting earth is hard, but can be extremely useful, though wielding the earth and rocks beneath the feet of your enemies can be just as deadly.
Metal: You've learned something from all that swinging around with metal weapons. Metal wielding is hard beyond 5 meters, but then again you don't need to wield beyond that most of the time, since your wielding is mostly based off your weapons and armor shifting along with combat. You can disarm an opponent with a thought and extend your weapons with another. Carrying large weapons and armor is no problem, though it will take a bit of your concentration away from doing other things with the element.
Wood: Practice swords, quarter staves, spears, these weapons ended up being very light to for some reason. The grass and roots on the training fields became part of your training, you've learned to turn a tuft of grass into a deadly weapon and you can instantly tell what plants contain poison and use it in combat if necessary. Arrows can be redirected and weapons containing wood can be disarmed. Spikes can suddenly spring from an enemies quarterstaff impaling his hands, the possibilities are endless (and sometimes very cruel). Wood and plants can be wielded up to 10 meters away.

[Jetroid]

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Augh I can't choose you make them all sound so interesting!

Metal or Wood.

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Yeah I said Fire before. Sue me.

[Sifright]

I'm torn between Fire and Metal

[Sifright]

on further reflection im going to choose WOOD

It has to many upsides to go for anything else.

Wood > grow crops in minutes if skilled enough. All plant matter becomes a weapon for us and plants are ever present in most areas. Poison awareness is always great and immunity to any arrows we are aware of.

[Jetroid]

In that case I completely second Wood because Plants run on Water and Darde is a waterwielder - you know it makes sense.

[chimericWilder]

Wood, yes.

[stagnantAntler]

Wood, yes.

"Ah, right." the examiner smiles "Let's start with range shall we. I assume you know the drill" Darde nods as the examiner calls for a training log to be put up exactly 5 meters away from Darde. As the examiner calls to start the test, Darde focuses on the log, lifting the block with ease. The examiner calls for the log to be moved a meter further away and Darde prheoceeds to do the same thing again. This continues until the log is 12 meters away. Darde focuses the best he can, but the stump only lifts half off the ground before falling back down. "12 meters" the examiner notes.

"Next up is strength" the examiner calls up 5 wood wielding novices who've volunteered to help with the tests. Darde's next test involves keeping a piece of wood whole while the novices try to break it. It's harder than it sounds, the novices are only of 1st control level and 1 is added at a time. One novice is easy enough, Darde effortlessly throws off his efforts to break the stick, two novices is alot harder, Darde has to concentrate hard to deal with the doubled force. Three novices is an added force that Darde has a hard time dealing with, but he succeeds. Four novices is almost impossible, sweat starts forming on Dardes brow as he pressures the novices away. The examiner seems surprised "I didn't think we'd need to use all 5 novices for this one, oh well in you go". As the final novice adds his wielding force to the mix the stick finally snaps. Darde's group of friends cheer, Dardes pure wielding strength has always been one of his strong points, the instructor seems impressed as well.

The third test is a concentration test. Darde has to lift several blocks of wood close to him, starting with one and adding one at each stage. He ends up lifting no less than 17 of them before some of them start falling when he adds more. "Not as impressive as the strength test, but still good" the examiner says

"The final test as I'm sure you're aware is the freeform test. Show me anything unique or interesting you can do with your ability, I'll rate it on its usefulness in combat." Darde is presented with several wood blocks and wooden training weapons (swords, quarter staves, bows etc.) to do with as he pleases, the yard he's standing in also has two trees and a bunch of grass and roots beneath his feet. The plants are mostly common, as far as Darde can tell most of them contain at least a low amount of poison (Poison in plants is actually very common, look it up). There's a couple of arrow targets on the other side of the yard that can be used for projectiles.

It's time for Darde to show off what he can do.

[Sifright]

>Explode the block of wood, form up the sharpnel into wooden projectiles and send them hurtling into the targets. rip the tree out of the ground by first cracking the roots wield the tip of the tree into a point and then launch into the targets. *might be a stretch haha*

[Jetroid]

>Levitate one of the swords, lift a Bow up beside it, launch the sword as an arrow from the bow. Stop the sword mid-air, turn it 180 degrees and then towards a target, morphing it into an arrow as it flies.

>Intensify the poison in a plant and then make it grow all over one of the targets (Like Poison Ivy, for example.)

(For this next one, I'm going to assume Darde has new armour (Or additions to his old) to accommodate his new ability)
>Darde forms an arm out of living wood on his chestplate, allowing it to wield a sword whilst he holds a shield with both hands. Proceeds to fight off Novices.

>Darde makes the grass around the instructor and novices grow rapidly and toughly, making it hard for them to move around. He then slices it all down with a wave of his hand.

>Darde forms a thick protective barrier out of the plants in front of him.

>Darde gets the plants to grow over him, until he is effectively wearing an exo-skeleton of plants. This allows him to protect himself as well as extend his reach. His affinity to plant may also help them to heal him.

[chimericWilder]

First, spend a few seconds to hone the edges of the various wooden objects to become jagged and sharp. Then proceed to whirl them around yourself at a high speed, effectively creating a storm of steel wood around yourself. Make certain to keep them at a good distance, though, in a real scenario another wood wielder could use this against you if you're not careful.

[stagnantAntler]

>Explode the block of wood, form up the sharpnel into wooden projectiles and send them hurtling into the targets. rip the tree out of the ground by first cracking the roots wield the tip of the tree into a point and then launch into the targets. *might be a stretch haha*

First, spend a few seconds to hone the edges of the various wooden objects to become jagged and sharp. Then proceed to whirl them around yourself at a high speed, effectively creating a storm of steel wood around yourself. Make certain to keep them at a good distance, though, in a real scenario another wood wielder could use this against you if you're not careful.

Darde starts his performance up by sending his wielding strength into a piece of wood, as it starts cracking he forces the wood apart, creating an explosion of shrapnel, which he picks up through the air. He spends a few seconds making sure everything is nice and pointy, then starts swirling the pieces of sharp wood around himself, in a pile at first, but then, in a trance like motion slightly resembling his water dance moves the wooden darts apart. As he flings the projectiles around he lets a few of them go at just the right moment to send them catapulting into several of the targets.

His most noteworthy trick secured, Darde tries a few other things to show his versatility.

>Intensify the poison in a plant and then make it grow all over one of the targets (Like Poison Ivy, for example.)

Darde musters up a plant called hailroot from beneath, the root in itself is hardly poisonous, but the rough leaves that sprout atop the ground definitly are. He pressures the leaves with his invisible arms (I guess you could describe wielding this way in a sense, though it's a long shot) making them spout out the venom contained within and have the plants crawl together, bringing the leaves with them underground. As the roots erupt, they've formed into one deadly plant, thorns sprouted from the roots have pierced the venom soaked leaves, making a sting positively deadly. He proceeds to writhe the plant around like a snake on the ground. Some of the younger novices watching shudder. "Now imagine if I'd let it sprout right beneath your feet" Darde grins

(For this next one, I'm going to assume Darde has new armour (Or additions to his old) to accommodate his new ability)
>Darde forms an arm out of living wood on his chestplate, allowing it to wield a sword whilst he holds a shield with both hands. Proceeds to fight off Novices.

After Darde discovered his earthwielding abilities, he's added wooden shoulder inlays to alot of his outfits, the one he's put on for the wood wielding tests (the "squire" one) also has inlaid wood in breast and back, though not so much that it hinders his movement. Darde wields the wood into a strange wooden arm on his back that he hands a practice sword. The arm is slower than his other arms, but by a combination of alot of wooden fingers and dropping the sword a few centimeters every once in a while he can keep up with the sword fighting of a few sword fighting novices that he chooses to spar with him. The examiner frowns a little over the arm "I'm not sure if it's the best use of your abilities, but it does have a certain aura of intimidation to it." Darde eyes the arm, the strange arm even creeps himself out at times. The long crooked fingers and thin "muscle" textures of the arm make for quite the appendage.

>Darde makes the grass around the instructor and novices grow rapidly and toughly, making it hard for them to move around. He then slices it all down with a wave of his hand.

Darde asks the examiner if he can use a little water wielding to show off a trick and draws water from the ground into the roots of the grass around the feet of his own band of novices. The grass grows thick with the added water, though it gets a strange texture from all the added moisture it has the desired effect. The grass grows into a mossy thick substance, that utilizes both leaves and roots of the grass to entrap the band of novices. Darde gives a gesture and the novices start moving, showing off just how hard it is for them to get anywhere without stumbling.

>Darde forms a thick protective barrier out of the plants in front of him.

To save time, Darde uses the strange mossy ground underneath the Grains of the Flood to weave a shield in front of himself. He uses roots and other plant material to further strengthen the shield. Forming the shield takes too much time for a conventional fight, but having something like it ready before a fight might be a good use of his ability in certain situations, at least the examiner seems to think so.

>Darde gets the plants to grow over him, until he is effectively wearing an exo-skeleton of plants. This allows him to protect himself as well as extend his reach. His affinity to plant may also help them to heal him.

Darde let's the shield of plants and roots cover his body, he's quick to explain that he doesn't need the shield to do this, but that it's a timesaver for the test. The "exoskeleton" that Darde has covered himself in is a little hard to move around in, but gives him some useful protection and extra plant material at hand to wield this. The examiner gives Darde a nod of approval.

"I've seen variations of all these things before, but your pure arsenal of different abilities astounds me, you've definitly passed this test for your level. You're put up to wield at a control stage of 6, but I think you could compete with most 7 or even 8 stages." Darde thanks the examiner and looks back at his group of friends, they're all smiling and cheering. Darde turns around to face the examiner again, he can't loose his footing now, still many tests to go.

"What should we do next?" the examiner asks "We've still got tests to do in the following.

-Water wielding
-Armed combat
-Unarmed combat
-Archery

We've also got the tactical test, but we'll do that in a separate location after the other tests."

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Lazy author is lazy. I'll update again tomorrow, feel free to choose which of the categories you want to be tested in next. Tried to use your commands to the best of my ability, I hope to gradually show off what Darde is capable of so the translation from your plans into the actual fights and whatnot are smoother.

[Sifright]

>Archery *We can cheat like buggery*

[Jetroid]

After Darde discovered his earthwielding abilities,

Darde, is there something you're not telling us?

>Waterwielding!!!!

[Raziel]

Hey, I saw this and thought its awesome, so im gonna start posting on it too if no one minds.

>I vote unarmed, just so he can show us how badass he is now

[chimericWilder]

Tiebreaker

Pick a test at 'random', might aswell start somewhere.

[Sifright]

>Water wielding (ignore my previous choice)

[stagnantAntler]

>Water wielding (ignore my previous choice)

"Waterwielding next? Let's begin, same procedure as wood wielding" the examiner says as he starts testing Darde in his most useful field. Over the last couple of months Darde has reached the 17th water wielding stage and it shows in the tests.

The first test is a range test like before. Darde hovers the water from a bucket at a range of 26 meters at his best, at 27 lifting the water gets strenuous and the examiner stops the test there.

The next test determines strength. Darde is faced with a single novice at first, wielding a jet of water at him from a well, Darde's job is to repel the water. Just as before a new novice joins the test every time Darde has proved his strength. The novices are all between stage 3 and 7 and Darde ends up holding up against 9 of them, a jet off water flowing at extreme speeds from the combined power of the 9 novices, while Darde repels it all, his brow furrowed in concentration. The examiner seems impressed even as he falls from the tenth novice adding his power.

The next test is that of concentration. Darde has to maintain orbs of water suspended in the air. His final count is 30 orbs all floating peacefully in the air, not a drop escapes until Darde adds the next orb.

And finally, the freeform test. Rules are the same as before and Darde has at least one trick in mind that he plans to save for last, the dance of water. He's going to start off with some of the other tricks he's learned over the many years of water wielding practice. Among them, some including ice, which he's mastered, partly due to a book he picked up on the subject back when he first came to the acedemy, The art of Ice.

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Obviously these tests are a little repetitive, but I think they're a good way for you to get aquainted with the different parameters of the "combat system" before the really dangerous shit starts.

You might have noticed that Darde only has 17 water wielding. Well... Since I had to fit in the wood wielding classes somewhere, I've cut the top of some of the classes. Here's a list of the complete "skillset". Tactical lessons and the rest aren't stage based, so I haven't included them.

Water wielding: stage 17
Wood wielding: stage 6
Unarmed combat: stage 4 (trust me, 4 is good enough. Consider 5 pretty much complete mastery of unarmed combat.)
Archery: stage 2 (since you didn't specify how much archery you wanted I just gave him a reasonable amount)
Armed combat: stage 8

Hey, I saw this and thought its awesome, so im gonna start posting on it too if no one minds.

Well I certainly don't. The more the merrier :oP I doubt there's really a roof to how many can post on this thing, since it'll just come to a vote in most cases. So feel free to join in. Glad you like it by the way.

Darde, is there something you're not telling us?

Oops :oP that one kinda slipped. Imma fix it in a second.

[Jetroid]

>Dance of Water but including Ice into the mix, potentially creating a tough shieldwall.

>Ice Barrier.

>Electrified Water. (Maybe.)

>Ice Dart/Shards.

>Water Surfing.

>Water Elemental (Living Water creature thingy.) - Probably requires intense concentration.

>Errode Terrain with water then freezing it so Earthwielders have trouble using it.

>Rust Metal (Making it not usable for MetalWielding) with the water.

>Other stuff which combines his other abilities. (Possibly combining water and woodwielding, to create poisoned water which can be applied to Darde's arrows or whatever)

>Bringing a tree down onto some of the targets by using a combination of water (heavy, solid ice) and wood wielding.

>Freezing water into the shape of a body, then adding helmets and armour and weapons onto the ice (Bonus points if he lifts it using water! :P), to make a decoy soldier? (I'm not even sure if this would be possible or what.)

>Ice which isn't cold and doesn't melt. (Can be used for shelter).

>Hindering movement. (Making the ground into a water swamp which reacts as you try to cross it by shooting water at you. (Or hell, even a big piece of ice. That'd be effective!))

>Armour made from warm ice. (Maybe)

>Mist to obscure vision.

>Float water over a target and then freeze it. (Ie: You would encase a foe's head in a block of ice. Imagine that!)

>Ice Arrow (Could be used for assassination. No murder weapon would be left behind as the ice would melt.)

[Raziel]

>Soak some water through the trunk of a tree, and then freeze it. Then unfreeze it, and add more to fill up the new cracks. Then do that a few more times, and then do it one last time, expanding the water as much as you can when you do, making the tree practically explode. Then ask for a brick or two to do the same thing to. Show that you could do the same thing to a castle wall, or gate. That should blow some minds, people always underestimate water

[Raziel]

>Maybe not neccesarily case an oppenents head in ice, but do what you can to severely lower their body tempeture, making it hell for them to concentrate. Also demonstrate that you can counteract a blast of fire from an equal level fire wielder.

[Sifright]

>draw the water out of the air around you and swirl the water incredibly fast to generate a wall of wind and water, suddenly turn the water into into ice projectiles at a single point so that the ice all gets flung into the targets.
> Boil the water by rubbing the water against it's self *boiling hot water is a pretty nasty weapon.*

[Raziel]

> Boil the water by rubbing the water against it's self *boiling hot water is a pretty nasty weapon.*

Thats a good idea, i didnt even think of that. I was too focused on the cold, lmao

[stagnantAntler]

Suddenly Darde's head is flooded with different ideas on what he should show the examiner. Some of them he's done before, others he's thought about doing before and some are so completely impossible that he can't imagine why he'd even think of them.

This one per instance.

>Ice which isn't cold and doesn't melt. (Can be used for shelter).

Darde has never heard anyone talking about something like this. He admits the idea is interesting, but actually doing it seems impossible.

>Armour made from warm ice. (Maybe)

Even more impossible.

>Electrified Water. (Maybe.)

For that Darde would need to master lightning wielding, something that he's only heard rumors of in the past. Darde wonders if lightning even goes through water, if he could wield lightning he most likely wouldn't bother putting it through water first, he'd just shoot it straight through the air (like this, zap pafzzt, zapzt pazap)

>Other stuff which combines his other abilities. (Possibly combining water and woodwielding, to create poisoned water which can be applied to Darde's arrows or whatever)

As far as Darde knows, poison and other liquids from plants already contain water. Wielding the water in a plant isn't the same as wielding the plant and is very hard, the plant seems to have a mind of its own, but once the liquid has been squeezed out of the plant, or otherwise removed it can be wielded pretty much as well as regular water. This combined with his skill in wood wielding is actually pretty useful and Darde decides to show this off. He squeezes the poisonous plant from before, draining most of the poison the picks it up with water wielding, the result is a small orb of strong poison. The novices around you seem pretty insecure with Darde wielding the liquid poison and he understands why. Poison wielding, though it is quite useful isn't exactly recommended. Get too close to the stuff and you might end up inhaling it. A water wielder with enough finesse can wield poison so thin that it is almost invisible. Even a fellow water wielder (or the water wielder himself) would have a hard time fending off all the poison once it starts evaporating. Darde quickly freezes the poison orb and buries it. The examiner sinks a lump "I didn't think they even taught that anymore. Promise me you won't use that unless you really need to" Darde nods

>Errode Terrain with water then freezing it so Earthwielders have trouble using it.

>Hindering movement. (Making the ground into a water swamp which reacts as you try to cross it by shooting water at you. (Or hell, even a big piece of ice. That'd be effective!))

Now freezing water is something Darde knows how to do. Most earthwielders are versatile enough to wield any kind of earth, frozen, eroded, moist, rockhard even solid cliff, but the movement hindering is a good idea. Darde spreads out as thick layer of water and freezes it before it soaks into the ground. The result is a large patch of ice, thick enough to stand on. It's far enough into the grass that the grass hides it a little, making it a useful trap. The examiner gives a nod of approval and Darde proceeds with his next trick.

>Soak some water through the trunk of a tree, and then freeze it. Then unfreeze it, and add more to fill up the new cracks. Then do that a few more times, and then do it one last time, expanding the water as much as you can when you do, making the tree practically explode. Then ask for a brick or two to do the same thing to. Show that you could do the same thing to a castle wall, or gate. That should blow some minds, people always underestimate water

Another good idea, Darde has done this a few times before. He decides to use it on one of the chunks of wood lying around to spare the tree. The result is pretty satisfactory, the chunk of wood splits into a thousand pieces. Doing the same on a brick is slightly harder, Kit'Aegar bricks are very smooth because they're wielded rather than carved. Darde finds a rock lying around the yard and uses that instead. At least he could use it to break down a more regular type of wall, especially made with mortar and bricks rather than one formed from a single cliff like the Kit'Aegan walls. The examiner accepts this.

>Float water over a target and then freeze it. (Ie: You would encase a foe's head in a block of ice. Imagine that!)
>Maybe not neccesarily case an oppenents head in ice, but do what you can to severely lower their body tempeture, making it hell for them to concentrate. Also demonstrate that you can counteract a blast of fire from an equal level fire wielder.

The first notion is one Darde has always found funny. He can't quite freeze that much water so quickly, so in most cases it most likely wouldn't work. He demonstrates on a training doll how he can soak and opponents clothing, and then start freezing it, lowering the temperature over time and eventually killing the target if given enough time. This seems to go well with the examiner and he motions Darde to proceed. Darde asks if he can get a duel with an equal level fire wielder, but the examiner says there's no need, Darde will get a chance for that later.

[QUOTE]>draw the water out of the air around you and swirl the water incredibly fast to generate a wall of wind and water, suddenly turn the water into into ice projectiles at a single point so that the ice all gets flung into the targets.[/QUOTE

Suddenly freezing water is hard to do, but Darde attempts this anyhow. He creates a round wall of water and ice, spinning so fast the air around it gets flung into a roar. Darde solidifies the water into shards end let's them go as the rest of the water flings around, instead of one wave of ice projectiles he fires them in quick succesion (machine gun style xD) into a target). Darde puts a hand to his head after this, his head is almost spinning as quickly as the water wall.

> Boil the water by rubbing the water against it's self *boiling hot water is a pretty nasty weapon.*

Boiling water? sounds like a good plan, only Darde hasn't quite gotten the hand of this yet. As it turns out heating water is a lot different than freezing it, Darde can turn ice into water almost as quickly as water into ice, but so far he's only been able to raise waters temperature up to that of a hot bath and bathing the enemy in a pleasant warm shower isn't exactly battle material.

>Mist to obscure vision.

Mist is easy, all Darde has to do is draw water from the air, but not draw it together. Darde can easily draw out a thick mist and maintain it for a good while. A does so anyhow, explaining the practicality of using it in battle. The examinator points out that it might do as much bad as good because it will make it harder for Darde to see his target as well, but that he sees it as useful skill in some situations. "As you might now, not all water wielders can draw water out of the air quite that easily, even at your level."

>Rust Metal (Making it not usable for MetalWielding) with the water.

Darde knows for a fact that all metal wielders can wield rusted metal, but it might do for rusting metal weapons none the less. He mentions this briefly to the examiner, hoping for a bonus point. The examiner doesn't seem too impressed.

>Ice Dart/Shards.
>Ice Arrow (Could be used for assassination. No murder weapon would be left behind as the ice would melt.)

These two are basically the same thing. One would be shot with a bow, the other flung with wielding. A longbow might be able to fling the arrow long than Darde could throw a shard though, so he explains this, while also forming an arrow to shoot at a target with a training bow. The Arrow holds up alright and would most likely go through flesh, but would be at a loss against chainmail or other armor. The arrow isn't deflectable by metal and wood wielders though, so that's a plus.

>Freezing water into the shape of a body, then adding helmets and armour and weapons onto the ice (Bonus points if he lifts it using water! :P), to make a decoy soldier? (I'm not even sure if this would be possible or what.)
>Water Elemental (Living Water creature thingy.) - Probably requires intense concentration.

Elemental figures, moving or otherwise are not uncommon in the acedemy, some have an easier time wielding something like the shape of a man or animal because it has some familiarity to them. Some move with an avatar of sorts in front of them that moves like them, using very little concentration on this. Dardes friend Caeld has a very interesting wielding technique involving an avatar of sorts. Darde himself has experimented with this a little, perhaps not surprisingly, he's wielded the figure of a stallion several times, it feels comforting and easy to use of... Darde is not sure how to describe it, after all these years he's still not sure if those two dreams he had were just that, dreams. Or if there was something more to them. But the figure of the horse haunts him sometimes, he feels like a part of him has been ripped away since then.

Not feeling like dwelling on that thought any longer Darde instead creates the figure of a man. He moves it around a little, though it doesn't feel quite right, then freezes it. Declaring it to be a decoy. The examiner nods "I'd like to wrap this up soon. Is that all"

"One more thing," Darde shakes his mind into place and starts dancing. The examiner looks confused for a second as trips around with slow rythmic movements. Then he draws out water from the well next to him. He draws only a little bit at first, then adds more and more. A gallon of water at a time, Darde extends the circle a little to fit all the water in. As the dance gets more vigerous the circle around him completely seperates him from the world around him. He can hardly see anything other than the water around him, the grass under his feet and the skies above. The quantity of water is immense compared to the first time he did it, it's also a lot more than he would normally be able to wield at a time. As he determines there to be enough water around him, he starts freezing part of it, creating symbols of ice along with him. On a whim Darde shifts his dance, the water around him starts solidiying creating a shape, 5 shapes to be exact. Instead of the wall of ice and water around him, frosty water horses now circle him, riding around in the air. Darde stops in a jolt, those stallions have never before appeared during one of his dances.

As he comes to himself, he notices his pack of friends cheering. The examiner looks baffled "I- I've never seen that before."

Darde just stands there silently for a second, trying to gather his thoughts. Well, maybe a bit more than a second, eventually the novices go quiet and the examiner walks up beside Darde. "Darde, you alright?" Darde looks up, smiling "I'm alright, guess I'm a little tired. Can I take a break?" the examiner nods "alright, we'll meet here again after a short break"

Darde sits down on the grass, he's not used to loosing control like that, he's normally very level headed. Girri walks over and puts a hand on his shoulder "That was amazing Darde. Have you been practicing that in secret? I've never seen you use those stallions before." "actually..." Darde is about to tell Girri that he didn't mean to, then changes his mind "yeah, I've been practising a little on that, just a little crowd pleaser" Darde smiles, hoping to look convincing "A little crowd pleaser? I thought those were real horses up there for a second, I've never seen something like that before. I always knew you were amazing but this..." Girri is at a loss for words "Just don't let it get over your head alright" Aldt breaks in "you've still got alot of tests to do" Darde nods "I'd better get to it then" Darde returns to the examiner, with a slightly clearer head, contemplating what test to do next.

-Armed combat
-Archery
-Unarmed combat

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That took a while, mostly since I tried to use as many of your suggestions as possible. At least I got water wielding covered now.