Prince of Salvation

Over the next few days, the rest eventually caught up to Azrael. Noor said their time was already impressive but the gang still felt like defeated given how quickly Azrael had advanced.

Azrael was having arguably the best time of his life; seeing Zahra consistently did wonders on his mental state. He had become more natural with her and they had even had a few conversations together, well they talked about the weather and who's duty it was to cook but conversations nonetheless.

Zahra was a solar priest - she specialized in healing and granting blessings. As she was already adept at controlling and calling upon her taqa, her training regimen was vastly different from the soon to be mages and warriors: Zahra went around the local hospitals or barracks and healed the injured and sick. In her spare time, she would have personal training with Noor. All in all, her position as a priest made penance a relatively easy procedure, it was part of her training!

Azrael could now successively call upon his taqa and even produce sizeable flames, albeit, not at will. He was ready to move on to the next part of his training but his master held him back a bit, she was a bit worried about his pace, no she was frightened yet she finally caved in and decided to just let him move at his pace.

"Master...now that I'm supposed to begin actual training, I was curious how do we specialize in one field and how will I be able to choose to pursue both the Solar priest path and mage path?" Azrael questioned.

They were in Noor's study, the rest were still out in the sun and were tasked with calling upon their fire , conjuring it and circulating their taqa inside their bodies. The former being Luene's task and the latter the Warriors'.

" Oh yeah...see there's an innate difference between how a Warrior utilises and drives their taqa as opposed to yourself. They circulate it in their bodies to put it simply, while, as I'm sure you've noticed, you're more of a conduit for the power - releasing it out of you. Both are very similar on a deeper level but that's basically what goes on. The reason it is hard to accommodate all 3 routes at once lies in the true definition of what your tether is. It is a passageway for the taqa but also a processsor of sorts, overload it too early with 2 vastly different jobs and it will weaken and reduce your perception. Priests and mages are easier to marry together due to the fact that they both act as conduits." 

 " Anyway, I wanted to give you these books, one is on a martial technique I want you to memorise while the other describes long range projectiles. These are the two basic fighting methods available to Mages." Noor handed out two leather back books, both were the same size. only an inch thick altogether. 

Azrael bowed and took his leave to go read, he'd then spar lightly with Noor to slowly integrate the use of his blessing into his body but that was for tomorrow. 

He was walking from his master's bedroom when he bumped into Zahra on the way. The two exchanged a few pleasantries before Azrael noticed she was holding a familiar book. 

" Wait, is that Chronicles of Aurora's Frantic Search..? I love that book" Azrael really did not care much for the book but he wanted to strike up a conversation with the gorgeous lady. 

" Yeah it is, I never expected I'd meet another fan...that is so cool. Uhm...I am kinda rushing to the parish right now but when I get back do you want to maybe talk about it?" Zahra said full of zeal and excitement. She had let her joy flow out in a very childlike manner, this was different from the usual demeanour she showed around her juniors, she was after all 2 years older than the 20 year old Orion -the oldest of the bunch.

Azrael was in no way going to turn down such a opportunity, he fumbled his words a bit but managed to pass a simple yes as he nodded at the lady whose enthusiastic eyes smothered him in their zeal. Adding on the fact that they stood at the same height, it was almost impossible for him to say no to her.

In his room, Azrael studied the martial art book first. From his master's description, he found it the most interesting by far. The book had a short foreword that highlighted stuff Noor had already mentioned but in a more complicated way. It felt like the author was trying to impress with their vocabulary rather than convey to the reader any useable information. The rest of the book was filled with illustrations of different stances and in depth descriptions regarding the stances. The illustrations were seen breathing fire from their mouths, shooting fire from their fists, palms and feet. Azrael found it very interesting and readily began recreating the different kicks, jabs and various martial techniques he saw.

While performing this, he felt that it eerily resembled a sort of occult dance when put together. And it was almost hypnotizing to see the movements connect to each other. A straight and then a backheel turn into another straight, followed by a low kick that transitioned into a spin in there air followed by another 360 kick. It was quite the impressive gymnastic performance, one that resembled a ritualistic dance. 

Although Azrael was a very athletic person, he himself felt that it was almost scary how normal the move sets were to him. It was as if he had regained a missing limb he never knew he had lost.

After the room reeked of sweat from the vigorous display of athleticism, Azrael had an idea. 

' I want to call upon my taqa using my breath like the book says, I'll then let it rush out as I perform the dance...let's call it the solar dance. I'm worried I'll burn something down but I doubt I have access to much taqa now...' Azrael knew he was just convincing himself with the last statement but he really wanted to try it out.

The room quieted down as he readied his stance ; his right foot facing forward, his other turned 90 degrees outward and his centre lowered. He then drew his breath, visualised his tether and consequently taqa rushing in him, and with his breath flowing outward, rushing out of the fist he threw out like a whip . But nothing happened to his dismay. He stood there looking at his fist, examining what he might have been doing wrong.

He went over the motions in his head, he gained insight! He could just expend his taqa continuously and then consolidate it in the last minute for his attack! But this was too wasteful...

'I think I should stop thinking about it in steps...can I shorten the process so that the whole thing happens concurrently as my fist flies out? Can I process all that at once? Well since I'm proficient in calling upon taqa I can leave that process to the feeling ingrained in my body. I only need to control my motion and breath. Let's try it'

He withdrew his other fist slowly...in an almost imperceivable speed, his right fist concurrently flew outwards as he turn his body and put his weight into it. His lungs filled with air, his body filled with taqa that then followed the path laid out for it....

BAM! 

Azrael stood rooted to the ground, the space before him telling the tale, his bed was blasted into splinters, in the air dust and smoke rained down, on his wall a deep dark mark etched. He had produced a sizeable flame!

"Oh my lord...yes! That felt so good!...Fuck ! It was so big.....oh shit!" he finally said when he calmed down.

"Shit is very apt commentary my boy...." Noor stood at the doorway. Azrael was not sure when she had arrived but he quickly bowed.

" I am really sorry master....I didn't mean to....uh cause all this..." he pleaded.

"Heh....you've made a hell of a mess...well it seems you're alright. I noticed the fluctuation and rushed here but it seems it's just you practicing. You're one scary monster big boy....but I'm honestly proud of you...hehe."

The two then stared at the mess of a room while the rest of the house eventually came up, also responding to the sound.