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[Lyeos]

Wait for the pain to pass!

Then do this, I guess.

Ustris: Be cynical as ever and ask about and/or experiment with new powers or whatever these shards actually do.

[Karkov]

   The first thing Ustris was aware of was that he could feel the gravel against his face.  Feeling came back slowly, his body's nerves shot from the immense amount of pain he had just been subjected to.  Hearing came back after he could feel his toes, though the only sound he could hear were Kleine's shaky breathing that echoed his own.  One by one his faculties came back to him, he wasn't sure how long it took, though he noticed Kleine's breathing had slowed to a regular pace.  His body felt foreign to him, as though everything had been replaced while he had been unconscious, and for all he knew the Shard quite possibly could have done that. 

   He shifted his weight, trying to find a slightly more comfortable position to lie in the gravel, and found his body immediately wracked with pain.  He recognized this pain however, from when he had first been sold to the mining company.  Everything was aching with muscle soreness, something which he knew would pass with time.  He pushed himself up into a sitting position that took him far more effort than he'd ever admit.  His limbs seemed to work differently than they used to, he had trouble coordinating his arms to push himself up, something was very definitely odd with his body.

   "Your bodies are growing more accustomed to the new limits, think back to when you were but mere toddlers, and how you grew and grew until after your years of puberty.  The Shards inside your bodies increased the potential growth your bodies can handle again, as well as giving you a kick-start.  You could find the strongest human blacksmith out there and insult his heritage, make sure his family is nearby, then beat them all into submission with only one arm.  That's only a small fraction of what you can do now, and the longer your bodies are given the chances to grow, that fraction becomes smaller and smaller.  This doesn't only affect your bodies, however, it also affects your minds.  To a certain extent, it also affects your relationships with others who would follow you - at this point, humans."

   Ustris had finally found a position where the soreness wasn't all-consuming, and was able to  absorb this as Gilgamesh spoke to them from across the room.  He had resumed his seat upon his throne, there was no rambling from him anymore.  His face had taken on a serious guise, and Ustris was sure that with their ascension and the creature's death, something had changed in Gilgamesh as well.

   "How much can our bodies change, is there a limit?"

   "There's a limit to all things, even the amount of power this hellhole of a planet can give to a God.  The limits of the Shard that I gave you are more than enough to to allow even you to destroy one of these pretender 'Gods' that have popped up in my stead.  When you two have given me enough energy, I will emerge from this shell that used to be my prison,  and we can begin a conquest against these Gods that have pushed down your race into mere servitude.  The fact that not a single one of them used the greatest asset they could have is beyond even my knowledge.  Since I won't be leaving this shell a while longer, I'll need two pieces of information from you two.  Firstly, what is the current name of this planet?"

   "Acheron."  Kleine had finally managed to sit herself up as well, looking as haggard as Ustris felt.  Her red hair fell over her face in disarray.  Ustris blinked at that, red hair?  Didn't she used to have brown?  Had he physically changed as well?  He noticed that Kleine was looking at him oddly as well.

   "Acheron?  The river between Styx and Hades itself? ... Hah, a barrier directly before hell, where the dead cross only with the help of a ferryman.  Poetic in a way, I like it.  Secondly, I need the signs of these Gods I'm to fight for my own kingdom.

   "I've only seen one, I saw a Champion in Rikuroa once, he met with the trader who had bought me.  It was..."  Kleine began scratching a symbol in the gravel.  "... This."

                 ♎

   Ustris nodded, "Right, I've seen that one.  The other towns are more flagrant with their symbols, if a Champion lives there they usually decorate their entire city with the signs.  The two others that I've seen are these."

            ♉      ♋

   "Beyond that, I can't tell you anymore."

   "That's quite alright, I already know that there are twelve 'Gods' that need to be killed, I also know that they're quite unimaginitive.  Probably primitive compared to what used to be the precedent.  Here I was hoping I'd actually have a challenge."  Gilgamesh let out a deep sigh.  "I almost don't want to take over this land...  What's the current state of magic?  How often is it used?  What types?"

   Ustris and Kleine shared a glance.  "Only a few Champions know enough to cast it that we know of.  As to types of magic... Isn't destruction the only kind?"

   Gilgamesh's head snapped up.  "Destruction?  The only magic?  You've walked up to my prison, through the city above us, full of preserved knowledge from possibly eons ago, and you ask me if there's only destructive magics?"

   The duo shared a glance with themselves and the ground, even the ground looked embarrased for them.

   "I don't have the time or energy to dedicate to teaching the both of you, so I'll have to throw you into a trial by fire.  If either of you need help, feel free to talk to the Shard within you.  It should be experienced enough to guide you."

   "Wait, what do you mean by-" 

   Gilgamesh waved his hand and muttered a word of power, and the humans vanished from his sight.  He sat back in his throne and sighed again.  "Once again I am thrown into the fray, this time by my own design.  For some reason, I have a good feeling about it this go around."  He smiled and leaned back in his throne.  It was to be a long wait, but nothing compared to what it had been last time.


OOC:  Next block, action!  Fighting!  Finally figuring out what's up with the weapon system I cooked up forever ago.

EDIT: As a sort of blatantly obvious tie in, it's now possible for us to level up.  I'll throw up a stat sheet later, expect really, really low stats everywhere.  It will probably show up after we gain weapons and away to freedom-land.

DOUBLEEDIT:  If anyone has a question, there are actually some explanations behind things that happened here, not just me railroading everything (getting out of the prison of a God by using a God's magic, for one).  OOC Questions are fine, they'd probably explain more than me skirting the explanations here and there.  Anyway, next part will be posted after I wake up in the morning, nursing a headache and extremely tired for some reason.

[Karkov]

   "-that.  What in the?!"  Kleine was understandably confused, both of the humans were suddenly back at the hallway from when they had first entered the mountain.  "How did we end up back here!?"

   Ustris had been thinking of what Gilgamesh had implicated.  He could gain enough power to kill a God?  Just how powerful had Gilgamesh been before?  Multiple kinds of magic?  All that was used in this time was powerful destructive magics, enchanting was extremely uncommon, rumors amongst the slaves had been that only one race could even perform it.  One prevalent question entered his mind though, "Kleine, what do you think he meant by 'ask the Shard if you have any questions?'"

   "Who knows?  If you listen to what he rambled on about then you'd end up believing that he brought humans here.  And asking a Shard questions?  How would we even begin doing that."

   "I believe I may be able to answer your questions, sir and madame."

   Kleine jumped, she was certain there was no one else in the hallway with them.  Ustris however had been expecting something like this.  "I assume you're the Shard, correct?"

   "Correct, sire.  Lord Gilgamesh instructed me to be a teacher and a guide to facilitate your growth and as Champions.  If you have any questions I will use my experience to answer them."

   "I have one then, how are you talking to both of us at the same time, or even talking to us in the first place?  Weren't you torn into two Shards?"

   "It is because Gilgamesh did not break my essence in twain, merely my physical form.  As such, I can respond to both madame and sire at the same time.  As for conversing with you, any Shard directly implanted within its' host may speak directly to the his or her mind. "

   "So if I understand you correctly, no one else can hear you and you can respond to both of us...

   "Correct."

   "Is it possible for you to relay messages from me to Kleine if we're too far to talk to each other?"

   "Indeed I could, but it would be more efficient for you to take use of the link and do it yourself."

   "Excuse me?"

   "When my halves were implanted in the both of you, Gilgamesh created a bond between yourselves and my halves.  As such, if you use a minute amount of energy, you can send your thoughts to the other...  Excuse me sire, but I thought you said no other humans had a Shard within their possession."

   "There aren't, the entire race has been treated as slaves since before even my mother's time."

   "Then I must inform you that we have hostile company approaching."

   "What do you mean?"

   "I sense another Shard of Heaven outside the premesis... Two, in fact.  If they do not belong to humans, I assume them to be hostile."

   Kleine reacted almost instantly.  "The Skrellits must have sent slave hunters after us, the other humans!  They're in danger!"  She dashed out of the cave, Ustris followed after her.

   "Kleine, wait!  We don't know what's out there!"  He ran outside of the mountain, discovering that night had fallen some hours ago.  Torches  burned down where the group of humans had taken shelter earlier.  Kleine had already covered half of the distance between the entrance of the cave and the torches.  A quick estimate put the count of torches at fifteen, though Ustris was certain there were more than that down there.

   "That woman's going to be the death of both of us."

   "She is rather feisty, isn't she sire?"

[Lyeos]

Railroad!

[The Froggy Ninja]

KILLDEATHMURDERSTAB!

[Karkov]

   Kleine streaked across the desert floor, her cloak flowing behind her, her bare feet not even feeling the sand beneath her feet.  All she could see were the figures huddled at the base of the mountain.  She had spent weeks with them, and if anyone hurt one more hair on their head they would pay for it.  She could see one of the Skrellits approaching them,  a curved sword in its' hand.  She would not let it happen.

   The Skrellit never saw her coming, the Champions at the back of the pack barely saw the blur a moment before the impact.  Kleine streaked across the air in a magnificent drop kick and decapitated the Skrellit with one blow.  His head arced across the sky and landed between the two Champions, who shared a glance and drew their weapons.  The other Skrellits had a different reaction, their morale shaken almost to breaking immediately. 

   "What was that!?  A demon!?"

   "Stay calm, we're here to protect you."

   "How can you protect us from that!?"

   Kleine had regained her footing, picking up the curved sword from the fallen Skrellit.  Her body was more powerful than she remembered, she had expected a tackle, something to stun the Skrellit, not to decapitate it.  She knew now that Gilgamesh's words rung true, she could defeat all of these Skrellits by herself.  She propelled herself into the mass of Skrellits, her body acting automatically.  She became a whirlwind of death, killing four Skrellits before they could unsheathe their weapons.  The two Champions charged towards her, they knew they would be rewarded if they could kill this demon.  The other Skrellits didn't have the resolve of the Champions though, and routed, running just to get away from this demon.

   Ustris saw the two Champions heading towards Kleine, he knew that she would be in trouble by herself, and he didn't know how the bond would affect both of them if one of them died.  He charged down to help his companion, reaching moments after the Skrellits broke.  One tried fleeing past him, Ustris nearly let him past but decided to test his own powers, and kicked him across the stomach.  Ustris hadn't realized that Skrellits shatter when enough force is applied, but it was a very satisfying sound and sight.  The Skrellit had dropped an iron staff with his death, Ustris grabbed it and ran towards Kleine.

   Kleine had engaged the Champions, one who wielded a crossbow, the other a battle axe.  They were pathetically slow compared to her, but there were two of them and only one of her.  The axe-Skrellit charged her, slicing at her with a monstrous axe that would have made a lumberjack blush.  She tried to block it with the sword, but it was made of materials too weak to withstand the forces she exerted on it, and shattered completely.  She dropped the useless hilt, and twisted just enough for a crossbow bolt to miss her torso.  She knew if she could get in close she could wrest the axe out of the Skrellits hands, but she was certain that the crossbow-Skrellit would keep her from that.  She was at a loss of what to do, until a metal pole emerged from the other Skrellit's chest.

   Ustris had seen Kleine's predicament, and threw his staff like a javelin with great precision.  It sailed the short distance to the  other Skrellit and struck with enough force to go three-fourths of the way through it.  Ustris was getting more and more impressed with his new powers the more he used them.  The Skrellit wasn't dead yet, with his last breath, he raised his crossbow and shot at Kleine once again.

   Kleine took the opportunity, she saw the bolt coming at her, dodged slightly to the side, and grabbed it out of the air.  The axe-Skrellit charged at her, sounding forth a warcry, however he was far too slow for her.  She dodged his wide swing, got inside his guard, and shoved the bolt into the side of his head.  He slumped forwards, it appeared that even golems died when something pointy was shoved inside their head.

   Kleine sat down, breathing hard, the two Champions that would have been impossible to beat before had just been killed by her and Ustris' hands.  She had decapitated a being made of fine metals by kicking it.  They could do it.  Her and Ustris could save the humans.

   Ustris ran over to Kleine, once he saw that she was fine he retrieved his staff, grabbing the crossbow from the impaled Skrellit.  He tossed it in her lap, "I think this will benefit you more than it would me."

   Kleine shrugged and looked over the crossbow, it was extremely ornate, gilded with gold and made mostly from metals.  It would take an extreme effort to pull back the draw string.  She lazily pulled on the stream, and found that she had pulled it back without any effort.  She smiled maliciously, "Oh yes, I do think I'll keep this one."

   "Madame, Sire, I must congratulate you on your first victory.  I would like to inform you that you can convert the Shards from the recently deceased.  If you do so, I can instruct you on how to implant them into the weapons you are currently carrying."

   "What would that do for us?"

   "Not only would it augment your current powers, it would make the weapons unbreakable, and able to grow themselves.  I could also speak to the Shards, and glean from them any pertinent information."

   Ustris began rummaging through the belongings of the dead Champions, eventually finding the Shards.  One had been wearing a necklace in the shape of ♎  , which he found engraved on a ring on the other corpse.

   "Perfect, now pour a small amount of energy into the Shards, I should be able to focus it into a cleansing power which will replace the original God's influence with our own."

   "How do we do that?  We can't use magic."

   "Ah, if you focus on the image it needs to become I can assist with that."

   Over a what seemed to be a grueling amount of time, the Shards slowly changed shape into the familiar snake eating its tail.  "Good, now you can insert it into the weapon by focusing on the image that you wish the weapon to take."

   Ustris placed his Shard in his staff, which slowly became completely smooth and crystalline.  Kleine inserted her Shard into her crossbow.  Nothing apparent changed, but it seemed to exude a silent power now.  The two were equipped, and had enough power to kill Champions.  They were able to do anything they wanted, and their God didn't care what they did.

   What would they do first?


OOC:  We're there!  Glorious freedom!  That took me longer than I thought it would.  Anyway, you can ask any questions in character to the Shard who will answer them to the best of his abilities.  I'll write up a stat sheet and we'll start doing rolling for most encounters from now on (though that won't appear in the write-ups).  You and your weapons can level up, the Shards can do a synopsis of that when we get there (Probably the next encounter).

[Lyeos]

Check on the other humans, naturally! Leading them to the water in the mountain might not be appreciated by a certain someone, but alerting them to the Skrellits' attack and deaths should be a priority*.

Oh, but first search the Skrellits for anything useful.

*Take that one's head as proof, because otherwise they might not believe us!

[The Froggy Ninja]

If they're made of precious metals bring back their bodies. We could melt them down for future use. Also ask the Shard how to magic.

[Karkov]

   Kleine climbed to her feet, feeling much more exhausted than she had expected herself to be.  Shuffling over to two of the corpses that fell upon one another, she began to loot them for anything valuable.  Ustris had been picking through the belongings of the other bodies littering the ground, from them he grabbed a couple of unlit torches.  Supplies that had dropped when the Skrellits fled littered the ground, including a sealed barrel of water.  Apparently the slave hunters had wanted to bring back most of them alive, it would've been a waste to just kill them after all.  The real treasure though were the weapons that had been dropped in the hasty retreat.  Six curved swords, two spears, and the monstrous battle axe wielded by the deceased Champion.

   "... Kleine?  Ustris?"  A hesitant call came out from behind a nearby rock.

   "Barnaby!  Is everyone alright?"

   "We're as fine as the circumstances, what happened here?"

   "It's pretty obvious, we killed some Skrellits that were going to put you back into slavery."

   "You what?  That's impossible, Skrellits can easily overpower a human, even one as large as you."

   Ustris lazily leaned on his staff.  "How do you explain these corpses, then?"  A smug look etched upon his face.  "Here, take a closer look."  He kicked at a round object at his feet, which flew into Barnaby's face.  It was the decapitated head of the first Skrellit.  Barnaby dropped it as though it were a poisonous snake.

   "Do you have any idea what you've done!?  You're going to bring the wrath of the entire race upon us!  We can't fight them!  You've doomed us!"  Barnaby seemed to fly into a rage, he stalked towards Ustris, tensed like he was ready to fight.  Ustris continued leaning against his staff, secretly hoping that Barnaby would be stupid enough to try something.

   Kleine intervened however. "Barnaby, calm down, we'll get through this.  Come on, we need to tell the others what's happened.  There's water nearby, the Skrellits dropped at least one barrel of it, I think the others would have dropped it when they ran."  Kleine began leading Barnaby away, Ustris watching all of this with a sour smile on his face.  He couldn't stand the man, but he had some influence with the other humans.  He could be used.

   "Shard, I have a couple of questions for you.  Firstly, what should I call you?"

   "You may call me anything you wish, sire.  However, if you wish for me to choose a name, I would prefer being called Jeeves."

   "Jeeves?  Well if that's what you wish.  Secondly, can you teach me how to use magic?"

   "I can, sire.  However, learning magic takes a rather large amount of time depending on the individual.  You must learn to cycle energy through your mana circuits, much like you learned to walk.  Afterwards, you must then learn how to expel the energy through those same circuits.  After that, it's a matter of technique dependent upon your goal."

   "Technique?  How so?"

   "Without shaping the flow of mana you would just be expelling force, while effective, it's extremely tiring and inefficient.  If you shape the flow with certain techniques, you can achieve whatever goal you wish through the use magic."

   "What are the main techniques?"

   "There are two common practices of magic, evocation and ritualism.  Ritualism is the act of preparing sort of channel for the mana, something that you may pour mana into and it will complete itself.  These normally take time to prepare, along with extra materials in the creation of the ritual site.  Ritualism is, generally speaking, much more powerful than evocation.  Evocation is the form of speaking to shape mana.  You must learn the words of power and expel mana from your circuits at the same time.  A skilled evocation caster is adept at hectic situations.  This obviously takes less time than ritualistic spells, but at the cost of less powerful spells."

   "Could you teach us how to begin using these mana circuits?  How long until we could cast magic."

   "Since Lord Gilgamesh implanted me directly into your bodies, I have a sort of influence over them.  I am able to facilitate the growths of your bodies in your desired directions.  If you wish for me to expand your mana circuits, then I may do so.  Think back to the analogy of learning to walk.  First your muscles had to grow to accommodate the weight of your own body, afterwards you had to learn how to use those muscles in a specific way.  I will first have to strengthen your unused circuits, then I can proceed to teach you.  After I have grown accustomed to your body, and you have grown accustomed to me, I can begin the expansion.  I foresee that it will be a couple of weeks before I'm used to a moving host again.  Afterwards, learning spells are completely up to you."

   "So we have to rely on our physical prowess for now, alright.  At least I know where we stand now."

   Kleine had been walking back towards Ustris, the humans had emerged from their hiding spots.  Barnaby began yelling at them to move which brought on a flurry of activity.  The humans began scavenging the corpses themselves, the weapons were snatched up by greedy hands.  Two more appeared over the dunes some time later carrying a barrel of water each.  That much water could sustain them a travel back across the desert.  They might have to hunt for food, but their water issues were over.


OOC:  Water's been solved! 

Froggy, on the first part of your suggestion, the precious metals aren't very useful unless you're in a commercial situation, and currently we're as far away from that as possible.  They're made of the finer metals - silver, metal, a couple are fine pewter, the hardier ones of brass.  While those would be great later, we're pretty far away from being able to utilize them.

[Lyeos]

OOC Question!: This may have already been addressed by the story, but the screen on my iPod is tiny and I don't have my glasses right now... So, do we know of any lands in the direction we were originally heading?

If not, propose going back across the desert - not quite in the same direction we came from. We have some time, since it will take the fleeing Skrellits a while to get back to wherever they came from, hopefully, and it's doubtful that they expect us to return.

[Karkov]

OOC Question!: This may have already been addressed by the story, but the screen on my iPod is tiny and I don't have my glasses right now... So, do we know of any lands in the direction we were originally heading?

The only lands I've mentioned insofar have been the mountainous region to the east.  To get to it, there'd be the same trek to get out of the desert that it would take you to get to Rikuroa - a couple of weeks journey.  After that you'd enter a much rockier, and temperate area than the one you're in now, with civilization still being about a week journey away after that.  Ustris and Kleine could make it, the rest of the humans would have difficulties.  It's an option though.  (By the way, the town you were in is to the northeast.  I'll post the map whenever we acquire one.)

EDIT: I'm gonna go ahead and take a break for a bit, I haven't played anything in a bit and I have a mighty need!  If there are anymore questions or suggestions before we head out, it'd probably be best for them now.  Also, during traveling sequences, if you designate something for the characters to work on, they'll do so in the interim.  If you don't specify I'll probably have them work on the things that are the most pressing at the time (skills, learning magic, things like that, possibly learning to read.)

[Karkov]

   When everything had been scavenged, and water had been rationed out, Ustris called to Barnaby.  "Get them ready to go northeast.  We leave in the hour while it's still dark."

   "You want to go back towards Rikuroa?  Why?  We have our freedom!"

   "A lot of good that's doing us in the middle of a forsaken desert.  We can skirt around Rikuroa if you're so apprehensive about it."

   "We'd just get sold back into slavery, there's nothing we can do to a Skrellit and you know it!"

   "Maybe you can't do anything, but I'd say me and Kleine could do a lot."  Ustris waved a hand at the bundles that had been stacked beside a dune.  "I'm telling you this now, it isn't up for discussion.  Get them ready to leave within the hour."

   Barnaby shot a hateful, yet resigned glance towards Ustris as he walked away, carrying that crystalline staff that glinted even in the night.  Kleine had been sitting on a dunetop, staring out over the desert.  "We have a long way to go, don't we?"  She asked Ustris as he walked in earshot.

   Ustris nodded, "Yes, I think it's finally beginning."

   "But what do we do?"

   "Whatever we want.  That's the beauty of it.  We might not be strong enough to take on the warmongering races, but we've killed two Skrellit Champions.  Two!  At the same time!"

   "If I may interject sire, they had both Champions had receieved their Shards directly before they had followed you out to this desolate locale."

   Ustris and Kleine's heads jerked up in unison.  "What do you mean?"

   "The recently deceased's Shards have been blathering on quite happily, they're happy to be something other than mere accessories unused to their full potential, and they both remember being gifted to the 'blithering idiots,' their words not mine, a day or two before they began pursuit of your merry company."

   "You mean to say that they had just received their powers as well, and were inept at using them.."

   "Quite, they also did not have the Shards directly inserted into their bodies, which is vastly inferior than Lord Gilgamesh's technique.  The growth limit is normally infitisemal compared to me, of course, however I can make them both splendid Shards, I'm sure of it.  One had been given to his Champion through familial ties, the other was scavenged from a Champion who died in a duel.  Both were inadequately trained to deal with other Champions.  A group of malnourished and thirsty slaves however would be a completely different story."

   "... We got lucky, is that it?"

   "I wouldn't say lucky... Fortunate, more accurately.  They had both been enlisted to 'Round up some idiot slaves' by a much more financially stable Champion.  Everything that I can glean from this chatty pair says that there are probably two more Champions within Rikuroa, much more experienced that his pair."

   "So we can't go back.  Where do we go now?"

   "I wouldn't say you couldn't go back... It's a couple of weeks travel from our current residence to this city, from all accounts, by then I will be far more familiar with your bodies.  I am confident in my ability to provide you the potential to defeat the both of them.  I'm sure your weapons would appreciate the time to practice as well."

   "I hadn't thought about that.  I'm not exactly used to my own powers yet either.  I'd be up to sparring if you would be, Ustris."

   "Certainly, although that would be an absurd drain upon our water and food."

   "Ah, forgive me for not mentioning earlier, Sire, but your bodies will require one tenth of what was necessary before."

   "What?"  Ustris looked utterly confused for once, a tenth of basic necessities?

   "Yes, I'm quite ashamed to say a tenth.  Dreadfully inefficient.  Your bodies are still quite foreign to what I am accustomed.  I can siphon energy from the immediate vicinity to fuel your bodies.  Once I understand how your blasted toe musculature works, I'll be able to sustain you without any support.  How you two even stand those toes and... fingers, I'll never know.  Hooves are so much better, or even being a wall.  Easier on me, too."

   Ustris supressed a laugh.  This was even better than he imagined.  Barnaby had been climbing the dune they were standing on, where he shot a dirty glace at Ustris.  To Kleine he reported that they were ready to leave and stalked back down the dune.

   Ustris had the first genuine smile plastered on his face that Kleine had seen in the past few weeks, he offered her his hand.  "Come, Kleine.  We have some people to lead."  The small band of humans began their trek back towards their previous home.

[Lyeos]

Yes! Also spar with the normal folk, limiting yourselves of course, to train them with some of the weapons we gained from the fallen Skrellits! Then, despite not being super capable, they can at least be of some use! And, perhaps, put them a little more at ease if they know they can handle themselves decently.

[The Froggy Ninja]

((So once we gain some combat prowess everyone else is a chump compared to us except maybe the false gods whom we will be able to kill once we become more powerful?))
I'd say continue while sparing with each other and then once our manna circuits are developed learn the magicks.

[Karkov]

((So once we gain some combat prowess everyone else is a chump compared to us except maybe the false gods whom we will be able to kill once we become more powerful?))
I'd say continue while sparing with each other and then once our manna circuits are developed learn the magicks.

((Not completely, there are some Champions who have enough experience with their Shards that it will be possible very likely to die to them.  Also, the world isn't completely static, so there might be changes over time.  Let it be known though that I have an extreme like for strong characters.))