Chapter 32 : Mid-Morning
Fiona grunted angrily as she dropped her arms in fatigue. Winded, she took several deep, frustrated breaths as she watched the ring of glowing, green light disappear from around her sister.
Kianna blew a heavy sigh out of her mouth in relief.
"Hey! Don't get comfortable over there!" declared Fiona as she pointed her ears straight back and glared at her sister "I'm not done yet!"
Kianna grimaced as her shoulders slumped.
The two dark elves were in the central area of the dungeon, just in front of the classroom. This section had most of its implements moved out of the way to leave a large open space that had now been converted into a training area where they could practice preforming their magical abilities.
Kianna currently stood in the center of this space. Although she didn't know it, she was at the moment currently facing her sister.
In accordance with the idea of "training" she was dressed in form fitting athletic garb that consisted of a tank top and tight fitting shorts that hugged her hips. Both items matched each other and were colored black with pink-colored stripes along their stitching.
She stood freely with her legs barely spread and her arms hanging loose at her sides. A thick black-colored, leather blindfold was placed over her eyes and had been buckled tightly around her head. This blindfold prevented her from either reacting to or resisting her sister's efforts to entrap her with a binding ring.
Fiona stood about four meters away from her sister. She was dressed in almost identical clothing, save for the fact that her's were colored a solid white.
Behind and off to the side of them sat Anton. He was in one of the high-backed chairs and was casually sipping from a mug of coffee as he watched them practice. Sitting on one of the bedside tables that had been placed next to him, was a ticking egg timer that would signal a change in turns once it went off.
"Why is this so hard now!?" exclaimed Fiona as she tried to shake the tension out of her shoulders "It wasn't this hard yesterday... What am I doing wrong?"
"It's the exact same ability." said Anton with a chuckle "So there's no reason it should be any easier or harder than it was before."
"It feels like it was easier though." stated Fiona as she held her hands out in front of herself and flexed her fingers.
"Well, the only thing that's changed is your target... When you were targeting me it was easy, right?" reasoned Anton "But now that it's Kianna it's hard, so I'm guessing you wanted to target me, but don't feel the same way about your sister?"
"Aw! You actually do love me!" cried Kianna as her ears pointed themselves straight upwards and gave her a "happy" look "That's so sweet!"
"Nah. That doesn't make any sense either..." reasoned Fiona "After what she did to me, I definitely want to chain this bitch up."
Kianna's jaw became set as her ears shifted themselves straight back in irritation.
"Hm... Well if that's not the issue..." mused Anton "It doesn't feel like your mana pool has been spent already... Which it shouldn't be. You haven't even done anything yet..."
Fiona absently ran the tip of her tongue over her teeth as she stared at her sister.
"It could be that you're just trying too hard..." said Anton as he took another sip from his mug "Maybe you should try to practice a different ability for now. See if that helps to get things flowing again. You could try making an aura field, or manifesting one of the new items you learned this morning. Like one of the whips."
Kianna's head immediately swiveled towards the sound of his voice as her features scrunched up in worry.
"Wait! What did you just say!?" she cried as her ears pointed themselves straight upwards in panic "Don't tell her she can do that!"
"Oh! Okay!" cried Fiona as a wicked smile spread across her face "Yeah, I think I can do that!"
"W-what! No! Wait!" cried Kianna as her head turned back to face her sister and she raised her hands in a effort to stop the situation "Hold on a second!"
"One whip! Coming right up!" smiled Fiona as her eyes began to glow with excitement.
Raising her right hand, Fiona willed her aura to concentrate itself towards the center of her palm and forced it into the shape a ball as she brought it into near existence. Using a drop of her mana as a spark, she ignited the concentrated aura and burnt it into reality. The moment the ball of aura shifted into the physical world she took control of its form and immediately began to mold it into the shape that she desired. In a flash of ethereal light, the long leather-bound handle of a bullwhip took shape in the air in front of Fiona's hand. The handle was made of green, glowing light and appeared to be semi-transparent until she reached forward and took hold of it. In the instant she touched the handle, it made a direct link to her mana pool and took a solid form. Still green in color, the handle began to glow brighter as Fiona filled it with more of her power.
With her smile growing broader the dark elf raised the handle into the air and with the flair of a eager hand she swung the handle forwards and down. This motion caused the concentrated energy within the handle to snake outwards and form into a long, sinuous whip with two tiny flairs at its end. Fiona then quickly twisted her wrist around and brought the whip back in on itself. This quick motion caused the whip to snap back in an instant, creating its iconic sound as its now physical form sliced its way through the air.
Kianna jumped at the crack of the whip and immediately began to back away from the source of the terrifying sound.
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait!" she cried as she reached up and desperately tried to force the blindfold up and off of her eyes.
"Hey! How dare you!" growled Fiona "You aren't going anywhere!"
Fueled by the delicious taste of fear that was now hanging heavy in the air. Fiona raised her left hand and sent a stream of her power to flow outwards toward her sister turned prey.
Kianna jerked as she felt the sensation of two glowing, rings of green light suddenly winking into existence both around her shoulders and at her knees. Thin, vine-like glowing chains snaked their way out from the edges of both circles and immediately began to coil themselves around the dark elf trapped between them.
"Wait! Fiona! Stop it!" cried Kianna as she began to twist and struggle against the chains that were quickly wrapping themselves around her body. The poor blind dark elf became more and more frantic as she desperately tried to pull and yank the thin chains off and away from her limbs. Her struggles quickly proved to be useless as she was almost instantly overcome. Whimpering in fear, she thrashed her head and feet wildly as the rest of her body was stretched taunt and held in place by the relentless and ensnaring chains.
Smiling viciously, Fiona raised the whip and angled it to the side as she took aim at her sister. Just as she was about to strike, a shrill buzzing sound filled the air.
"Times up!" called Anton as he tapped the large shut off button on top of the egg timer.
"...Seriously!?" snarled Fiona as she looked from him to her sister and back "C'mon! Just one more minute!"
"Nope. You're done." said Anton as he shook his head "Better luck next time."
