//------------------------------//
// 3: Combining their Strength, a test of strategy 
// Story: Adventures in Kingmaker 
// by Meadow_Dawn 
//------------------------------//

Cyrus is outside in an open part of the castle, it was night and he was practicing using his spell strikes, chanting the spell then swinging his sword. He wasn't really using the spell as the blade of his rapier is never charged with magic. "Shocking grasp!" He says then thrusts the blade at an invisible target.

Dawn walks on the scene, watching him practice, her hoof steps quiet before saying, "You've been hard at work... sure we're ready to give this a try?"

Cyrus stops what he is doing and looks at Dawn, "Hey, didn't see you there, if you're talking about the combine magic thing I was talking about earlier, then yeah. The sooner we master it, the sooner we can use it to go home once we find my sword." Cyrus says as he sheaths his Rapier.

Dawn shook her head, "I don't mind helping, but you need to find time to rest eventually... I'm not your mother, so I'll leave it at that." She said, setting down her supplies and taking off her hat and cloak, trying to ignore the chilly air.

"Yeah I know, I'll probably find some time to practice during the day at some point." Cyrus says as he approaches, he will admit that sometimes he does go a little overboard when he practices while they are in the kingdom.

Dawn shook her head, "As your not-doctor, I insist that tomorrow you rest, and I'm going to keep my eye on you to make sure you do!" She chuckled before approaching, "So, we've gotten some of the basic theory down... you focus on casting the spell, and I focus on making it stronger.  Should I be focusing on your horn, or your sword, your hoof, or what?"

Cyrus draws his rapier, "Well we won't really know until we try, let's try it on my sword first once it's charged with Shocking grasp." Cyrus says as he touches his Sword with his hoof, "Shocking Grasp!" he chants, the blade glowed a bright yellow color with electricity pulsing in the blade. "Ready!"

Dawn nodded and focused on pumping raw magical power into his sword, trying to picture how electricity would be put into that sword in even greater strength, despite her lack of understanding of how that spell is normally cast

Cyrus sees the electricity starting to pulse fiercely, the blade started to glow twice as bright and more electricity is being produced, "I think it's working!" Cyrus says smiling as he sees the results, however, his smile quickly goes upside down as he realizes that the light is getting way to bright and the electricity was starting to make the fur on his hoof stand on end, his pupils shrunk with fear. "Stop! You-" He tries to tell Dawn to stop, that she is charging it with too much magic, but he was cut off when the magic in the sword literally exploded. Sending him flying towards a tree, he crashed with enough force to make the tree topple over. Some of his fur was black from the explosion.

Dawn gasped and rushed over to him, pulling her healing kit and getting her healing spell readied in case his injuries were severe. She felt horrible and practically fumbled as she tried to help despite her magic

Cyrus was in a daze, it looked like his eyeballs were spinning as though he were in a cartoon. "Wow... why are the stars spinning?" He asks in the daze. He then coughed and a puff of smoke came out, his face and other parts of his pearl white fur were stained with black soot.
Dawn was over his back and sides, looking for any signs of broken bones, open wounds or anything, feeling guiltier as she went despite no issues found so far.

Surprisingly despite hitting that tree with a lot of force, there were no broken bones found anywhere, and his spine seemed to be perfectly intact. Cyrus barely slips out of his daze and realizes he is in a lot of pain, "OW ow ow ow, my back!" He says in pain, he was glad he was wearing his chain shirt under his clothes again, he didn’t want to think of what might have happened if he didn't.

Dawn sighed in relief and punched him in the shoulder.

"OW!" He yelps when he got punched there, "That was uncalled for!" He struggled to get back up, his legs feeling like jelly because of all pain he is in. He then pulls out his wand of cure light wounds, he always seems to carry that around no matter what. He tries to use it to heal himself, but his pain wouldn't let him concentrate and he ends up dropping it.

Dawns casts her celestial healing before muttering, "That's for making me worry..."

"Not like I meant to!" He says as he tried to use his wand again. He failed a few times before he finally managed to use it, the celestial healing helped greatly by constantly lessening his pain. He managed to heal himself enough to where he just aches. "That's a whole lot better..." he says with his lessened pain. "I knew something would go wrong, but I didn't think THAT would happen." He says rubbing his back with his hoof.

Dawn sighed and stuck very close to him, "Damn... that went south fast...what happened? I heard you say something but couldn’t cut it off..."

"I tried to tell you to stop because you were charging my spell with too much power. Though to be frank, I didn't realize how close it was to doing that when I tried to warn you." Cyrus explains, "Geez it feels like my dad is right when he told me I have the devil's own luck..." he says looking at the toppled tree.

Dawn smirks and gives him a tight hug before quickly getting up and saying, so a slower buildup of energy until we find that tipping point.

"Yeah, I think that would be best. I don't want to try my luck again with another tree... or my back." He says rubbing his back. "Now that I think about it, where did my sword go?" He says  looking around. He casts light on his horn to see what's in the dark.

Dawn adds her light to the search until she stepped on the handle and heard a crunch. She moved her hoof and called out, "Cyrus? Uhmmm... I found your sword." She said before mumbling, "the handle and hilt at least..."

Cyrus went to her location and whistles at the black singed object. "... well... glad that wasn't me." He says looking at the broken sword. "Looks like I'll have to use the long sword then." He says as he draws his long sword. "Ok, from the top, we were too hasty last time, now that we know that, things should be smoother." He says as he gets into position. "Shocking grasp!" He chants, the blade glow like the previous sword did and is producing electricity. "Alright, nice and slow this time!" Cyrus says, not wanting a repeat of last time.

Dawn nodded, already trying to slowly ease that power in, focusing on the blade and pausing every other second to listen to his cue.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, but the spell eventually began to get a slight bit stronger, slowly the light emitted by the blade got stronger and the electricity started to become more rampant. "So far so good..." Cyrus says as he continues to use his magic to maintain the shocking grasp, to keep it from dispelling prematurely.

Dawn continued, feeling the strain of enhancing the spell, letting it get more intense as they continued to build it up

Cyrus feels the spell is enhanced a good amount and is yet to feel like it is at the verge of exploding. "Ok, maintain it there." Cyrus says, he knows it could go further, but didn’t want to risk a surprise explosion to the face again. He wanted to see how much more powerful it is currently.

Dawn heeds his order, doing her best to maintain it despite the magical strain, she could not easily defend herself with her sword and shield she realized, as they stayed sheathed and she did her best, the power wavering but she did her best to maintain it and feel roughly how much power she was pouring into that blade

"Ok... now to see how this goes." He says as he readies a swing, he swung the blade, but because both were exhausted from maintaining the magic for so long that the magic dispelled on its own. Cyrus was finally showing his exhaustion. "I think we need to find a way to do this more efficiently. I feel really drained." He says as he sat down on the ground. Shocking grasp was never meant to last that long in the first place.

Dawn nodded, collapsing next to him and half laid on him like a recliner, "Yeah... we can't keep this up during combat for long... I'm a sitting duck, and it's not like foal stories where the bad guys will sit there waiting..."

"I know what you mean... sure would be nice though." He says as he looks up at the night sky, "I think we need to get an idea of how much to put in at once so that I can use the spell immediately, that way we won't be left open." He says thinking about how to get the spells out immediately and not take so long to get it prepared.

Dawn took a moment to catch her breath, "The hardest part, honestly, was maintaining it... getting it to that level shouldn't be too hard, we just can't do it for more than that sword swing...

"Yeah, not to mention shocking grasp was never meant to be held for that long... so we have to get the spell out quickly or everything dissipates." Cyrus points out, he wasn't sure if he wanted to try that again, he burned through his magic reserves just from trying to keep shocking grasp active for so long.
Dawn nods, still laying against him as she asked, "Does your sword always need to be a focal point? I'd hate to try and cast that spell and have it be your hoof that blows apart..."

"That would not be pretty." Cyrus says as he cringes at the idea of losing his hoof. "I think it depends on whether or not I'm using my spell strikes. It's not a problem with spells like shocking grasp or frigid touch, but for others like snowball, magic missile, and scorching ray, I think those might require that my hoof or I myself be the focal point since those are used at a distance." He says as he tries to see how to go about it.

Dawn nods, "What about some sort of metal rod like an uncharged wand for safety?"

"I guess that could work, it would absorb most of the excess magic if something like that happens again, plus it can be used afterwards as well." Cyrus says thinking about it. "I think we can save trying it again for another time, I ache all over and that shocking grasp drained a lot of magic." He then loses himself in thought, "Um, out of curiosity... When you do get home, what are you going to do once you get there?" He asks, he didn’t know why, but he felt like asking. he then rubbed his eyes with his hoof and left white circles on his black face.

Dawn shrugged, "I honestly don't know.  I usually read or study anymore, but it's gotten old... Why, what do you do?"

"I am usually just trying to take a load off and do whatever I feel like, but that's if our spell sends me to the castle. If not, then I guess it's to get to the castle post haste." Cyrus answers. He honestly was not sure what he would do once he does make it back to his castle.

Dawn nodded, getting up slowly, "Mind if I join you?"

Cyrus gets up as well "Hmm? You mean coming to my world? I don't mind in all honesty, in fact, I welcome it." Cyrus says, though his face does show a slight concern, "But aren't there others you want to see in your home?" He asks.

Dawn laughs, "what's this about going to your world? I was asking if I could join you at the castle!" She chuckled a little more before asking, "Why, are you maybe hoping I will come with you?"

"Uh... I completely misunderstood what you meant." Cyrus says, the soot staining the fur on his face was hiding his blush, "But yeah heading back to the castle is good, let's go." He says, now he felt incredibly awkward. I am a freaking dumb ass, He thought.

Dawn smirks, "You didn't answer my question," She said quietly, "I think I'll take that as a yes..." She teased, bumping him with her shoulder.

"Well think what you want, it's not like it matters too much right now." Cyrus was not very good at hiding his embarrassment, even with the soot covering his blush.

Dawn laughed, sticking really close to him and finding him rather adorable

Cyrus now feels rather conflicted, while this was making him rather uncomfortable, yet he doesn't mind it all that much. Because of how conflicted he is, he can't exactly say anything without it sounding incredibly stupid, so he decides not to talk for now.

Dawn quietly chimed in as they walked in, "so have you played any board or strategy games?"

"Well, I have been required to learn to play chess." Cyrus says thinking about it, learning to play that was a necessity while he grew up, he never understood why, "other than that, I haven't played anything else."

Dawn smirked, "so, I've been trying to recreate a strategy game I had seen once in a mirror, watching another world... care to join me and see what you think?"

"Well, considering I have nothing better to do... alright, let's see it." Cyrus says, he was quite curious about this game from another world.

Dawn smiled, "Been getting a woodcarver to help me out a bit. It's rough, but I'll show you how it plays." She said, easily reached her room and revealed the simple yet well-lit place.

"Alright, let's see it then." Cyrus says, he looks around the room, he wasn't expecting Dawn's room to be so simple, yet that is probably what he finds so charming about it.

Dawn chimed in, "Sorry about the mess..." she motioned to the desk with scrolls and a bookshelf littered with scrolls and books in no particular order. She went to the moderately comfy chair and moved them next to the bed, "feel free to climb up on my bed, put a few spells on it for comfort I came across. I'm rather picky about my chair." She said as she pulled out a rather elaborate wooden board, which was smoothed with many terrain details painted or lightly etched in, then got many of the smaller pieces resembling a wall, with one side painted with a red or blue flag, the other holding a number or letter.

Cyrus climbs on the bed since dawn offered, "Huh, it somewhat reminds me of those maps that commanders use to plan out a battle." Cyrus comments as he looks at the board.

Dawn smirked, "That's the idea... this guy went so overboard, I paid him extra, which he tried to insist I didn't, so I told him to take that money and duplicate it for others so he could sell it for profit.  told him how to play too.  Now, each of these pieces gets to be on a square in these first four rows, and this board is 10 by 10, so that's 92 squares if you don't count the 2 lakes over here." She said, pointing to the middle, relatively evenly spaced between the sides.

Dawn continued, "You line up your pieces where you want them to be.  10 is the weakest unit, and there's a bunch of them, but they're the only unit that can move more than one square at a time but only in a linear way.  there's about 10 10s, 9 9s, and so on, and the lower the number, the better chances they have to win, unless," She pauses and smirks, "They meet the S.  The S is a spy that can kill your 1 and only 1 general numbered... one! however, it loses to all the other units.  The B is a bomb! Some sort of fire magic that acts like fireball or something, that kills the attacking unit unless you have a minesweeper unit get it, and that’s an 8.  The F? that's your flag, the thing you want to protect the most."

"I see, the goal is to capture the enemy's flag while defending your own, sounds simple enough." Cyrus says, he is starting to think of how to approach this game. "Is there a limit to how many pieces you can move in one turn?" He asks.

Dawn nodded, "Of course, just one piece per turn."

Dawn pulled up pieces and started placing them on the board, number and letter side up, "Here, let's play like this so I can show you, unless you don't like strategy... I should have a couple others around here..."

Cyrus nods, "Alright, let's see how this plays." he picks up some of the pieces as well and starts placing them on the board like how Dawn has been placing hers though he places his pieces differently.

Dawn smiled as he placed his pieces, and then began teaching as they went. She took it easy on him, explaining why she did what she did and why he might consider different moves at times. In the end, she still won, but hoped he learned a lot if he liked it.

"I think I have the general gist of it now." Cyrus says setting up his pieces again, "I will tell ya right now, I am a sore loser and these games won't stop until I win." He warns.

Dawn smirked, "It's almost midnight... you sure?"

"Try me." He said in a serious tone.

Dawn nodded and set up once more, this time getting her pieces upright with her color flag facing him. She was tired already, but wasn't about to give up!

Cyrus was right when he said he was a sore loser, he kept demanding rematches every time he lost, strategy may not be his strong suit, but that didn't stop him from having fun with the game.

Dawn eventually lost from sheer fatigue, and after he won, she climbed into the bed with him and leaned on him before falling asleep faster than he could take a breath.

Before Cyrus could even react to anything his drowsiness kicks him hard, "Oh gods... I think I... over did... it...again..." he says before he immediately fell asleep. He remembers this happening with almost anything that involved winning or losing, he was competitive to a fault. At some point it made his friend Tom throw some sparring matches just so he can rest due to Cyrus being way too competitive. Cyrus instinctively leaned to Dawn because she was the warmest thing closest to him.

Dawn innocently slept against him and eventually fell on her side on the bed due to his weight. letting him half lay or cling to her in her sleep as she enjoyed the warmth shared

Because he is asleep, Cyrus isn't aware of what he does, he reached for Dawn and pulled her towards him. He liked the warmth and wants to keep it close, not aware of what it is. a smile was on his sleeping face, for he felt at peace.

Dawn definitely didn't mind at all for that same reason and slept peacefully until dawn, when she started to wake, not wanting to move because of that comfort

When the sun's light hit Cyrus's face, he buries his head into the bed, "No... Five more minutes..." By how his tone sounded, he wasn't aware of anything around him, only aware of the sunlight trying to wake him.

Dawn tensed at first, then giggled quietly, remembering the fun they had last night and let him stay put... they had been through so much he deserved some time sleeping in.

Instead of five, he slept for ten minutes before he started to wake up, "Ugh, sometimes I hate you sun..." he says as he opens his eyes and gets his face out of the bed. He starts to drowsily look around until he noticed Dawn beside him, "...... uh...... morning." he says, realizing that he ended up sleeping in Dawn's room, with Dawn right next to him. Needless to say, his face turned bright red.

Dawn giggled again, and on a spurt of impulse, moved in to kiss him and said, "You're a father." Before busting out laughing.

There was a look of horror when she said he was a father, he was speechless and a lot of panic was going through his head as he felt he wasn't ready to be a father yet. However, when she burst out laughing, he understood that it wasn't true. "Dang it! Don't do that, I thought my heart was going to stop!" He says, though a bit relieved that he really didn't do the deed.

Dawn laughed harder before calming and moving quickly to pin him to bed. "That's what you get for going and going and going, little king... I expect we'll need to play these types of games more often." She said as she got off him and climbed down from the bed to get dressed. "Besides being good mental training... it's really fun to do those things with a good friend, ya know?" She asked as she barely got her shirt on her neck, turning to look at him expectantly

"That's true. It was pretty fun, even though I lost most of the time." He said with a grin. He gets off the bed and stretches. "As Tom says, I am way too competitive for my own good, as you saw last night." Cyrus says before a yawn came out. "But I will admit I did go overboard again."

She laughed, "Well then, how about this, each night, we'll play one or two games, until one of us have won 100 times.  Winner of that night decides who sleeps where that night." She smirked, "a mare could get used to having a body pillow~"

Cyrus's competitive nature got the better of him, "Alright You're on!" He says with a grin, not thinking about what happens if he loses since this is between friends. He had no intention of losing.

Dawn smiled as she walked past him, and flicked her tail in his face, "Better get accustomed to losing... I won't take it easy on you now!"

"Well, I won't make it easy to win either." Cyrus says, though a small part of him in the back of his head was starting to think he might have dug his own hole. Cyrus pretty much ignored that small part of his mind and headed out, he needed to change his clothes as well and get some breakfast, he knows he will fall asleep if they make him do paperwork again.

Dawn turns back around and goes into her room, packing away her game into her tent supplies.  she was going to make sure he didn't get away from this unless they were in battle!