Steph's Training

Another afternoon, and another day of training for the young Stephanie at "The Testing Ground". Located in her uncle's private land that's at most 3 hours away from nearest civilization, it gives her and her uncle the opportunity to hone their skills without disturbing anyone (well, except the local wildlife). The barren ground actually gives her some advantages, since there are little to no obstacles for her to freely use her newly-found powers. Boulders, rocks, pebbles, dust, you name it, almost every earthen material is either here or buried in various depth, thanks to her uncle's attempt to make this the perfect place for every earth benders.

Stephanie, suited in her rock armor, is standing at one end of the arena while her uncle, wearing nothing but a simple shirt and knee-long pants, is at the other end, preparing. Both of them are blindfolded, and now she can only rely on her newly learned skill - to detect movements of her opponent via earth. It is one of the most basic things an earthbender must master, according to her uncle. They both have come to an agreement to not injure each other, but it is always broken at the end of the day by either side.

Steph can now 'feel' the earth below her feet, glowing in a weird shade of orange. This is how a 'normal' ground should be, and any disturb to the earth should be visualized as a ripple coming from the source of the disturbance. The keyword in this explanation is should, because she is definitely not feeling ripples. She's feeling waves, coming right at her like tsunami on shores.

"What? I thought this will be a simple training!" She shouted at the tsunami coming without preparing any sort of counter attack, or even basic defense.

"THIS IS basic training, my boy! Back when I was in your age I have to deal with thing twice this size!" the wave replied, sounding a bit angry. If Stephanie can see normally, she would see her uncle literally riding a massive boulder with dozens of smaller boulders following him, leaving a notable dent as it makes its way towards the girl. Oh, and he's posing in that 'you-can't-touch-my-swag' pose.

Thinking fast, Stephanie made a counter attack using anything she can get, that's in this case is a lot of dust. Unfortunately her status as beginner earthbender means she can't control a full-sized dust storm, and she can only manage a one person storm. She still sends her rather pathetic counter to the incoming attack anyway, hoping it would distract her opponent by a little.

Stephanie forgot that they're both wearing a blindfold and thus her attack is useless. Shit. Her dust attack is also very weak too, it dispersed about halfway from meeting its supposed target. Damnit.

===

On the other side, her uncle, Jonathan "Hard Rock" Golden, is grinning like a kid on a candy store. He might be in his sixties, but he still have that POWER OF THE YOUTH flowing in his veins. His wrinkly skin hides underneath, a full-time badass. Unlike his student who just recently discovered her power, he knew he was different since he was a child, and he traveled to many places to learn more about his power. Lived the adventurer's life, he finally settled on Neon City with his wife and three children, running a pawn shop.

His experiences gives him one of the best vision an earthbender could have, being able to detect someone walking from ten miles away and detect hidden places nobody know. His vision is clear, glowing in much paler shade of orange, while he can feel his greying hair being caressed by the wind. All of this were only a small remnants of who he was, an untiring person always on the quest.

As an old adventurer, sure he missed the feeling of beating up random guys on the streets of a village in the middle of nowhere, or literally walking through a desert to find a hidden treasure of an ancient civilization. But those were days when he's still young and full of energy, and now this simple battle will be enough to drain his energy for days to come. That's enough backstory for now.

His incoming wave of boulders is unstoppable, ready to crush the poor Steph below. But at the last moment he changed directions, and instead bring them up above, where he's literally invincible. At least to Stephanie. This particular set of power have a weakness : It cannot detect attacks from the skies.

"WATCH OUT, MY BOY!" He screamed from above, loud enough for Stephanie to at least prepare.

===

Stephanie is dumbfounded. The tsunami is suddenly gone, and there was only silence. The calm before the storm. She was just about to ask why it's gone, and then her eccentric uncle shouted from above.

Goddamn, this isn't a part of the plan, this is NOT a part of the plan. Her rock armor can't handle attack of that size, and there's only two options now : Fight, or Flight. Flight is not an option. Fight... Isn't exactly an option either. She thought of an attack plan when a massive ripple comes from her far left. Then her far right. With the interval of about ten seconds, the ripple's source are getting closer and closer. Yep, he's targeting her. Although he /did/ take some precaution, such as the shout and the progressive attacks, it's still a huge surprise for Steph.

Oh, she's so going to take a weekend off.

In the spite of panic, she raised both of her arms, hands shaping like a cup. Four thick walls soon build up around her, standing almost eight feet tall (the highest she can manage for now without breaking it after a minute) and safely covering her. In this place, at least she's safe. She thinks it's time to call for a time out.

She took off her rock armor (she still have her human attire underneath, surprise surprise!) and slid down underground. Just after she's tucked underground a freaking large boulder hits where she was a few feet above her head. She barely managed to escape from death. It is time to call a time out.

After a few moments of digging she rose up, eyes uncovered. She looked like one of those scenes in action movies where the antagonist thought he already defeated the protagonist but just after he laughed his enemy is back up again in a very badass style. She clearly is frowning, hands clenched, and fury radiates from her eyes.

"OI! STOP THE FIGHT!" She screams at her still floating, blindfolded uncle.

"WHAT?! WE'VE ONLY DOING IT FOR THREE MINUTES STEPH! THREE GODDAMNED MINUTES!"

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN, JUST COME DOWN AND EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT HAPPENED. NOW."

"Tch. ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT."

===

All rocks are now cleared from the arena, and both Steph and Johnny are in the center, sight fully functional.

"Now, please explain why did you made such an unpredictable attack. That almost killed me. I thought you agree that we will NOT use harmful moves and/or attack that can possibly risk our lives, and you BROKE IT. AGAIN." Stephanie was the first to speak, breaking the silence.

"My boy, you still can't think quick and adapt to your situation. You could've evade as soon as I screamed-"

"THAT IS NOT THE POINT RIGHT NOW. Tell me WHY you did such a risky act that almost made you a murderer."

"... Stop cutting into my words now. You could have escaped as soon as you heard me screaming. You can escape while I purposefully send you far off attacks, and even counter me with one of the landed boulder! You, Stephanie Jacklynn Golden, still needs more surprise attacks like the one we just did. When you found yourself in the middle of a battle you will not have the pleasure of thinking. You have to think as you act. This is a controlled environment suited for us earth manipulators. You need to prepare for every possible scenario, and I am here to help. Understood?"

That reply from her uncle was enough to make Steph thinking for a while.

".... You made a fair point, Sir."

Johnny grins at her, and fixes his messy hair.

"Okay, we'll grab a cold drink from car and rest. After that we'll do another sense training. NO complaints this time. Cut your reaction time."

"Understood, sir!" She said as she sprints towards the car.

This is just another normal training day for Stephanie.