An ability takes shape (solo)

The days seemed to blend together. How many days had he been working in the caves? How many weeks had he toiled and trained? He now had plenty of time, but no way to measure it. His hunger would come totally randomly and Moldale would take him to a hunting ground above ground when needed. He joined in the hunts finding smaller prey to feed upon. He still didn't like the taste, but had gotten used to it. Had the day come to an end when he rested? Stratus wasn't sure when he truly slept. After using his energy multiple times he would take breaks to recover. After eating he felt just as re-energized as if he'd slept for 10 hours. But the closest thing he had come to sleep was sitting down, closing his eyes, and letting his mind go blank. It wasn't true sleep more like meditation. There wasn't much else for him to do. He occasionally saw Rei & Roun, but never spoke to him. Moldale would give him some pep talks once in awhile, but nothing helpful otherwise.

The fruit of his labors; he was now able to make stable crystals. He shot a strand of slime from his hand. Once it hit the wall he shifted the taunt rope into crystal. It happened almost as fast as it had taken for it to hit the wall. He released it from his hand. A crystal pillar stretched horizontal from the wall to where his hand once was. He tapped the spear with one finger and gave it a small burst of energy, it shattered into thousand of pieces and fell to the floor. Time for the second exercise. With each hand he fired a strand of slime from his hand. This trick took timing. As he fired them from his hands he sent out his energy. The strand didn't reach the wall this time it stopped not far from his hands. He now wielded two crystal rods barely 3ft long. Due to the nature of the crystal the rods were more like swords. Although he preferred his claws the thin rods were stronger and extended his reach. He examined the rods in his hands. One was slightly longer than the other. His timing was still off, but has barely gotten the length right. Despite the size the crystal was very heavy, letting it get too long made it unmanageable. Stratus swung his crystal blades experimentally. Since he had chosen to take up the blades he had to learn how to use them. Moldale was able to use his own ability in a similar fashion, but stuck with claw like attacks. So Stratus was forced to teach himself swordplay. To this end he had Moldale make him some targets. The room had been mostly empty before, now it had several large rocks almost equal to Stratus' height and of various widths.

There were many of these "Target" rocks throughout the room. Some he used for target practice. But some he used to practice swings on. He approached one of these rocks. The target had many cuts in it already from previous sessions. He made no stance or pose, advanced on the target and tried his best to keep his arms working in unison in hacking at the rock. He brought both blades in from the right slashing against the rock, small sparks were made where he hit the stone. He swung is right blade back the way it came while he slashed downward with this left. Keeping the blades parallel was easy, but trying to make them do two separate things was his goal. While one slashed the other would stab, a slash up when the other went down. He made opposite diagonal cuts on the rock, making an "X" across it. Stratus arms became a flurry of movement as the blades sang. When the blades hit just right it almost made a chime noise. All of his movements were crude, but paired with his brute strength and speed made them more quite effective. Chunks of stone fell away as he spun his weapons and danced around the rock. He made dodging motions, hopping from his left to his right avoiding imaginary blows. He felt silly, but it was the best he could do. He kept at it until is arms felt heavy and breathing labored. He had started to sweat, his grip on one weapon gave out and it went spinning out of his hand. He sighed and sent energy into the remaining blade and it shattered he sat down to rest.

As he rested he looked at his handiwork. The rock was in shambles. There were countless breaks and cuts all along it's surface, other parts slowly crumbled from it's new found instability. Stratus laughed to himself. It was a rewarding sight even if it was rock it represented a foe defeated. He didn't feel tired anymore so he dusted himself off and stood up. He got ready for his next exercise.
"Might as well finish this guy off." he muttered. He distanced himself away from the nearly demolished target and took a deep breath. In the blink of an eye he created a wad of slime in each hand. Just as quickly he crystallized it, now he had two green spheres cupped in his claws. Barely bigger than a softball the emerald orbs had quite abit of heft to them. He threw the ball lightly into the air getting a feel for it. As it spun in the air, he noted it wasn't completely round, more like an egg but closer to a football. He eyed his target and gripped the orb tightly in his hand. He aimed and threw the projectile with all his might. There was a slight whistle as the green gem sailed through the air. When the orb hit the top of rock target exploded sending a shower of rock to the ground. Stratus was once again proud of himself, his accuracy was spot on. The weight of the gem made the small orbs heavy, so his aiming needed work, but now he could launch these emerald cannonballs with near pin point accuracy. True it was against a stationary target, but he felt that it was a good sign he could hit what he was aiming for. He looked at the second sphere in his left, this time he aimed below where the first had hit. The gray hollow gave a grunt as he threw the second shot. Again there was a slight whistle and then the crunch of impact, the rock shattered again, but this time Stratus saw the green orb half embedded into the stone's body. The spheres, while roundish did have a slight edge to them. The whistling when he threw them was in fact the sound of the cutting of the air as they spun. Spinning so fast they were like drills upon impact, the weight and speed alone where enough to make an impression. The drill effect was just a happy bonus. The rock target was barely half it's previous size, pieces of rock fell from it slowly to the floor. The first shot had gone through the top half, the second had only impacted and shattered it further; it was of no more use. Stratus laughed to himself. Time for the next one.


His next target barely reached past his chin. It was hard getting rocks perfectly his size, but it was close enough. He moved close to the target rock and created two new wads of slime in each hand. This time he closed his hands on the slime crushing it across his hands and lifted his arms letting is run down his forearms. The rest of the slime covered his claws, Stratus flexed his fingers then crystallized the slime. It looked like he had put on shiny green gloves. He examined his hands to make sure there were no part of his hand not covered. They looked completely green, he then tried to wiggle his fingers, they didn't move a millimeter. Much like the accidental discovery of his power, the limb was encased completely by the crystal and unmovable. Although his hands were now stiff he had a new set of green claws an inch long. Rather than wielding swords he had made his arms into swords. Stratus performed swings with the weapons cutting easily into the stone. It was a more comfortable way of fighting for him, not as awkward as the swords has been. The swings came faster as he jumped around the new target and tore at the stone. He reached back and stabbed his hand forward into the stone as hard as he could. The rock was no match for his strength and his hand drove into the rock up to his wrist. His arm felt fine, he hadn't felt even the slightest pain for hitting the rock so hard. With a little effort he withdrew his hand. The crystal on his hands was still intact. With a thought he caused the green gloves to shatter. It was a nice trick, but the obvious flaw was that he couldn't move his hands while they were like that, and they were his primary way of creating and directing slime. A slight increase in offense and defense at the expense of his other abilities seemed stupid even to him. The hollow sighed and shrugged his shoulders, it was just another toy to play with.