Casting "spells" (open)

[Soen Spellflinger]

Soen has had extensive Force training in the area of Force Alteration. He learned it as a child, under the pretense that it was "magic". The boy's recent experiences with Hob have taught him better, and now that he knows it's the Force, his skills have grown considerably. Take his "fire spell" for instance. He still needs the focus of the "incantation", but he's learning to control it.

"Ignesco!"

A tiny ball of fire zips from his staff, curving at a shapr arc to strike a dummy to his left. It bursts into flame as the fire expands, and Soen smiles at his handiwork.

"Not bad. I'm doing really good today."

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Are you?"

With a snap, a fireball easily twice Soen's illuminates the side of Hob's face. Even with the extra light, the small creature is still a grinning menace of half shadows.

"Think fast."

Hob's fingers flick, and the fireball flies towards Soen.

[Soen Spellflinger]

"AAH!! Obex!"

Soen's fear focuses out, broadening an area of Force before him into a shield, one he hopes will stop Hob's fireball. The boy stumbles as he backs away, seeing the Master's attack take down his barrier with fair ease.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

The fireball washed away into snippets of flame that faded quickly.

The goblin over a second fireball growing in one of his claw-tipped hands. "Useless, your tricks will be," he stated. "Unless immediately, you can bring them to bear."

Hob shooed the fireball towards Soen. In constructing this flame, Hob traded speed for heat and size; enough to easily take down one of Soen's barriers and keep coming. The dwarf's interest lay in seeing how his young charge would handle something stronger than his own power.

[Soen Spellflinger]

Soen's first, and most immediate reaction, is to form another barrier...but in a new method. A small, pale green spark flies out of his staff to meet the fireball as it's creator begins to roll aside. The barrier expands, swelling as it struggles, before collapsing and letting it pass. Soen watches the ball fly past his body by a mere inches, shielding his eyes from the intense light and heat.

"H-hey! Are you trying to kill me!?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Others would show you less mercy," Hob snarls. "You must at all times be ready!"

Hob flung a hand to each side and called two more fireballs into existence. Each was fairly small, but they would fly fast.

The dwarf flung his weapons at Soen; one to either side and close enough that should his pupil be startled into dodging, he would likely be hit.

Standing firm and confronting his aggressor, however, would keep Soen safe.

[Soen Spellflinger]

"Less!?" he squeaks. "But you're not showing any!"

Soen's getting frustrated by Hob, and he's had enough of the dwarf taunting him into forming paper-thin barriers. He plunges the staff into the ground hard, screaming his next Force-focusing "incantation".

"MOTUS TERRAE!"

A solid wall of earth and stone rises quickly to meet the fiery projectiles, taking the hits before falling back into place as quickly as it had come. The little magician is sweating bullets and breathing heavily; that one's generally not meant for that kind of use. But it was stronger, and he's safe.

"Stupid barrier spell...I need to make the regular one stronger...then I won't need to worry about it breaking all the time! It's alot easier to hold!"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Smoke curled from the ground where a pair of scorch marks lay. Soen had done well to block the attack entirely, but the effort was taxing.

"A more precise focus, do you need," Hob stated firmly. "This, will I teach you."

Hob raised both hands, palms outward towards Soen. With a final push, a gout of flame appeared. It coalesced into a tunnel and burned its way towards the apprentice.

The actual key to defeating this attack was simple, but tricky. At the very center of and slightly behind the outer edge of flame lay a thin tunnel of air that pushed the fire onward. Blocking that would block the entire attack; not blocking it meant that the tunnel would carry itself forward against whatever barrier Soen could create with minimal assistance from Hob.

To sense the tunnel would require the precision of which Hob spoke. Was Soen up to the challenge?

[Soen Spellflinger]

Soen knows how fire's made. It needs air; that's why he couldn't create fire outside his window while he was travelling by shuttle from one planet to the next. If he can snuff this flame's source of oxygen, he can snuff the flame as well. He starts to focus on it, but his confidence wavers. He doesn't know a skill for doing that! This realization throws a bit of panic into Soen's heart, and the boy flings himself on the ground to let it pass overhead.

"Oh man..."

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob cackled loudly, letting his creation of flame slam into the wall and then dissipate. "Resourceful, you are, lad," he grinned. "But always on the defensive! No defense holds out forever! At some point, you must attack, or fail entirely!"

A trio of fireballs flared into existence before Hob, and a wave of the dwarf's arm sent them flying at the prone Soen.

[Soen Spellflinger]

"How do I attack if I too busy defending!?"

Soen stands and swings his staff wildly, wishing it were possible to conjure water, when it hits him suddenly. The surprise of it catches him off guard, but luckily he's standing in a gap between the fire.

"Mr. Hob!" he gasps. "Wait a minute! Is it possible to make water or ice from the Force, the way fire is made?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob paused, his eyes brightening. "An astute question, apprentice," he said.

His raised hands lowered. "If it is possible to make air burn, certainly it is possible to conjure water and ice from naught. And yet, nothing is ever created or destroyed, merely moved from one place to another. Theorize, apprentice."

"How would one go about making ice?"

[Soen Spellflinger]

"Um...um..."

Soen's thinking fast, anxious to make up for his earlier mistakes.

"Th-th-th-the air has moisture in it, which means it has water, and water can be frozen to make ice, but to make enough to be a shield or douse flames would be hard to do. Clouds have more than enough, but how would I make a cloud rain with the Force?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob clasps his hands together, then pulled them apart. In one hand, a fireball sat cradled. In the other, was a chunk of ice, much smaller than its counterpart of flame. "Much, you must learn, there is."

[Soen Spellflinger]

Soen gawks.

"How? I don't..."

He stops talking and walks over, staring into the master's palms as if he'd never seen fire nor ice before.

"How'd you do it?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob peered at Soen meaningfully. "In all things, there lies energy: in the brick, in the body, in the air around us, even," Hob began, gesturing to these things as he spoke of them. "To sense it down to the smallest, minute piece of particle, requires great training. Once one is aware of them-"

Hob clasped his hands together, extinguishing the flame with the ice. A wisp of steam curled from between his fingers as he opened them. "One can work with them."

The dwarf bent down and scooped up a small pile of soil. He shaped it into a ball and tossed it gently into the air, where it stayed. "Imagine this to be a particle of energy, only a much bigger model. For that is exactly what it is. Trillions of smaller pieces just like it combine to form its shape."

Hob let the ball drop to the ground. "Now that you know what creates the fire, understand it better, do you?"

[Soen Spellflinger]

"It's energy that makes fire...energy of the Force..."

He doesn't sound very confident, but he's trying.

"So I can make ice the same way, then?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"What is ice, but water without energy?" Hob asked. "And what is air, but water with energy?"

[Soen Spellflinger]

Soen tosses the staff into the ground cupping his hands around each other. He's sweating bullets, and his voice is nervous as he speaks.

"Okay. if ice is water without energy, and the air is water with energy, that means I remove the energy, and..."

He pulls his hands apart to reveal a chunk of ice no bigger than an ice cube. It's hardly a match for Hob's, but it's something.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Excellent, apprentice," Hob nodded with a smile on his devilish face. "Done well, have you."

"However, still think in terms of spells, you do. Be rid of that habit, you must. Use only the power of your mind, you must. Precious in battle, time is. Wasted, it cannot be."

[Soen Spellflinger]

"Spells is how I was taught it, though..." he explains, trying to keep a whine from his voice. "The old man thought it was wizardry, he didn't know it was the Force. Should I just stop talking when I use the Force? Or do I have to do more than learn to concentrate without a few words to help me?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob sighed, which came out as a low growl from his alien mouth. "With but a thought, you must be able to accomplish anything you would will. Against foes that I have faced, there is no time to dwell on the fanciful trappings ye add t'yer spells."

[Soen Spellflinger]

Fanciful trappings? Martial artists shout when they perform their techniques to help their focus. It's much the same for Soen and his Force abilities, but he nods to Hob anyway. He'll overcome this crutch and be silent as he performs his techniques.

"I'll begin on that right away, sir."