Chapter 16: Preparation
Time did not slow down. The days passed quickly, becoming almost routine for Dolin.
By the third day, everything began to flow, and by the end of the first week, it had turned into a rhythm.
Mornings started the same.
He would wake up early, go to breakfast, and train.
Combat training was where the difference between students became obvious.
At first, Dolin was struggling with the rest. He wasn't getting absolutely crushed, like some of the others, but in the smaller things.
His footwork wasn't matched for swordsmanship, as it mostly came from fights in the outskirts. His tactics were predictable and rough, like a wild beast.
His stance wasn't refined, and his strikes lacked efficiency.
His reactions were slow, relying on instinct rather than insight.
The unity of his body and sword was nonexistent, with his body not following the paths he planned out in his mind.
On the other hand, there were others who had much more experience than him.
Most legacies had training for years before their first nightmare, making their movies cleaner, sharper, and better overall.
Jaren was one of them. Not the best, but good enough to make the difference obvious.
They sparred often, with Dolin losing terribly. Jaren's Aspect was still as unpredictable as before, efficiently pushing him back whenever he tried to attack.
Most of the time, he couldn't even keep up.
But Dolin adapted.
He gradually recognized patterns, testing new techniques and new stances.
It was like he was slowly climbing a humongous mountain, slowly making minute progress.
Jaren helped him grow with swordsmanship, giving him pointers here and there on his techniques and stances.
It didn't make him better right away, but he began to last longer in battles, even winning in some of the sparring matches against other students within the academy.
That wasn't his only focus.
Combat training wasn't the only thing he was focused on. Wilderness survival was.
The classroom was small, yet never quiet.
Rhel never wasted time.
Each lesson built on the last, stacking knowledge in ways that made it impossible to ignore how ignorant they had been before.
The first few days had gone over basics, but it didn't stay that way.
By the second week, they had moved over to more complex topics.
"Alright. How do you hide from a nightmare creature that can smell you for miles? Some nightmare creatures do not rely on sight. Some don't even have eyes."
"...mask your scent?"
"How?"
Dolin hesitated.
"Water?"
Rhel shook his head.
"That is only temporary at best."
Cecilia spoke up next.
"You don't eliminate the scent," she said. "You confuse it."
Rhel nodded slightly.
"Correct."
He turned back to them.
"You cannot erase your presence. You are alive. You breath, sweat, and bleed."
He paused for a second.
"But you can mask your presence. Make it blend in."
He began to list methods.
Each one explained in detail, leaving nothing out. Layering scents, using natural materials.
"Strong smells don't help," Rhel said. "They draw attention. What you want is noise."
"Noise?"
"Overlap," Rhel clarified. "You want your scent to blend in with your surrounding environment so you don't stand out."
He began to point to various sections of the dream realm, giving different methods for hiding scent within each region.
The lessons stayed with Dolin, more than others.
Cecilia remained quiet for most of the lessons, but was never disengaged.
She just seemed to be a bit unsocial, only asking necessary questions.
After her match with Blake, she had been noticeably different.
From the days following the fight, she seemed more distant than usual, if that was even possible.
Her training reflected this. Her movements lost their usual sharpness, but that did not last long.
Within a few days, that dullness disappeared.
Cecilia began training with a level of training that went beyond what Dolin had seen before.
When she sparred, the change became even more obvious.
Over the weeks, her swordsmanship had been growing at a scary rate, with her being more precise than ever.
Her ability to target weaknesses seemed to be growing, and she wasted no movements, as if having no weaknesses herself.
Her loss to Blake hadn't weakened her. If anything, it had refined her into something sharper than ever.
Dolin began to practice his aspect more. Unlike others, who could activate their abilities and immediately see the result, Dolin was left working with something far less direct.
So instead of forcing it, he just began to observe.
During his matches, he tried to recreate that brief hesitation that he had caused during his fight with Jaren.
Apparently, whenever he used his aspect correctly, the counter next to his soul shard counter would grow. It seemed to Dolin that the doubts he caused in others would slowly bring it up.
Currently, the counter was sitting at a crisp [112/5000].
It turned out that this counter that seemed to go up every time he used his aspect also affected his soul sea. He checked his soul sea from day to day, and gradually, the grey mist that had been sitting at the bottom of his sea began to form into cloudy whisps. The array of greyish black silk surrounding the sole shining grey star at the center of his soul sea did not change, only becoming more veiled by the cloudy whisps.
His control grew with every match, leaving some opponents with pained expressions, as if bringing up bad memories or doubts from the backs of their minds.
It wasn't control, yet he could influence.
By the end of the third week, the days blended together.
Training, classes, practice, repetition.
Dolin wasn't the strongest or the fastest, but he was growing.
Blake, on the other hand, remained at the top.
At this point, nobody wanted to step into the ring with him.
By the fourth week, the atmosphere within the academy had changed. Conversations grew serious, laughter less frequent.
The reality of their imminent departure was crashing into them.
The Dream Realm wasn't a choice. It was inevitable.
Just like that, the final few days had passed, and before Dolin even knew it, the winter solstice was upon him.