Org. XIV (story)

Aleri regained his normal speed. "Good. Now try speeding me up."

<Slow is White Magic. Buffs and Debuffs are generally White, Crowd Control and Ailments are Black Magic. For the record, Aleri uses both kinds of magic. You've seen him throwing around Firaga like there's no tommorrow.>

<Seriously? I was under the impression that Slow was considered an Ailment...I know it was originally White Magic, but I could've sworn they changed it...And if he knows both kinds of magic, why did he need to use items to inflict Poison and Blind? I dunno, I'm just slightly confused.>

<He couldn't bear the thought of actually casting that stuff on himself. It's one thing use an item, and another to cast the spell. He can stab himself, though he did hesitate a little the first time.>
<...Wait, why would they change it? Meh, I prefer to go by FFIV if I can help it. FFVI just gategorized them as Black/White/Grey, FFVII didn't classify it at all, neither did FFVIII... IX brought it back, though. Even then, I'm certain Slow was still White Magic.>

<Alright, I looked it up. I got it backwards, it was Black in FFI, White in FFII-FFIV, Time in FFV, Gray in FFVI, Black again in FFIX, White in FFX and FFXI (MMO, does not count), Time again in FFXII. So about half the time it's White, a quarter Black, and a quarter...some other one. Weird.>

Dante nodds and then pictured Aleri moving faster in his mind before casting haste

Aleri began to move faster than normal. "FunnyhowsometimesspeechisaffectedbySlowandHaste,butsometimesitisn't.Isn'tthatjustweird?Imeanit'slikesomeinconsistantwritertryingtofindsomekindofexcusefor..."

He paused mid-sentence to pull off his shoe, shake a couple of rocks out of it, and put it back on. He did all this in the span of half of a second.

"...makingerepetitiveexercisesmoreinteresting."

He checked his movement speed by swiping at the air with TELOS. The giant Keyblade moved faster than was humanly possible.

"OkaycoolnowI'lltrytoimaginemeasnormal,butnotinagoodway.Trypicturingmewithoutanymagicalboostslikefrombuffs.ThisspelliscalledDispel,anditremovesbuffsfromenemies."

<...The part with the shoe was there because part of the line wouldn't show up, because the textbox refused to break up the word. So I got creative with it.>

Dante followed Aleris orders

<...Now you're just getting lazy.>

Aleri returned to normal.

[Dante learned Slow!]
[Dante learned Haste!]
[Dante learned Dispel!]

Aleri shrugged. "Now, what was I gonna teach after that...? Meh, I forget. ...Ah, right! The Raise spell, which wakes up people up when they're knocked out. it doesn't restore their vitality much, though. Since I can't tell you what to do, or observe your skill while I'm KO'd, and we don't have a third person here... nuts. Maybe... you could summon one of your pets? Nah, that'd be kinda cruel... Ah! I've got just the thing. Dante, can you summon a zombie? Raise instantly destroys undead enemies. You do have Necromancy... if you can't summon one, we could go somewhere with zombies."

Dante thought it over, though his thoughts came back to him knocking Aleri unconscious with a rock, he nodded. "I-i guess I can dig someone up'

Aleri closed his eyes and nodded firmly. "I don't care for the idea, but the alternative is too time-consuming, and it'd be hard for you to learn that way."

Dante closed his eyes, throwing out his mental fishing line into the endless sea of the deceased.

Aleri glanced around. Xeromus once mentioned that a number of people were unable to survive when the Heartless overtook this world. There are definitely some corpses buried around here. It shouldn't be hard to find them... and we can always re-bury them afterwards. Kinda cold of us, but it's better than leaving Dante without a critical skill.

He found one directly behind Aleri, and focused on 'reeling' him in back to the land of the living.

A rotting hand burst from the ground behind the fighter-turner-magic-teacher. Aleri spun on the spot, then jumped back. "Holy... you did that on purpose! Ehh... well, focus on the feeling of life. Then project it onto this zombie, and it'll insta-re-kill him. It won't obliterate a zombie, usually, but in the case of those twisted to true evil, they'll burn to ash."

"You got it" he said as he focused on life engery and such before pushing it into the zombie, Aleri was correct, but the zombie exploded on Aleri's front

Aleri casually raised a hand, generating a weak barrier that blocked the hail of rotten innards. "Careful! That was way too much magical energy, not enough life. That was more of a... an internal explosion. I think that's called 'Dia', a spell that hurts zombies like Cure, but doesn't heal people. Not to be confused with Persona's 'Dia' and its relatives 'Media' 'Diarama' 'Mediarama' 'Diarahan' and 'Mediarahan'."

Dante shrugged. "I apologize, I thought that was normal"

Aleri shrugged. "Yeah, usually, they'll either turn to ash on the spot, or just collapse. Explosions, as a general rule, only happen with malicious or high-energy spells."

"Ah yes I see" Dante said nodding then brushed his icy white bangs from his eyes. "Let me try again ....it should repair itself if I do...this" he snapped his fingers and the bones and dead flesh started rolling together.

Aleri nodded. "Now try again. Don't force too much energy into it, or it'll explode again." I'd be more freaked out by this... but I defeated Festus. I'll have no trouble with undead creatures.

<FF's Dia...so friggin useless...>

Dante closed his eyes, and focused again but didn't pump it full of engery the second time, as it started shaking, then it Slowly started to fall apart and disintegrate

Aleri pointed at the remaining pile of somehow-less-disgusting remain. "THAT'S how you do it. Used on an unconscious person, it'll wake 'em up nd restore enough vitality to keep 'em up for a while."

<Yep. Dia... was useless and stupid. It only existed because you couldn't target your enemies with Cure. They fixed that in FFII... but the ability to target yourself in a game where your Max HP is increased by taking lots of damage... is exploitable.>

Dante cocked his head to the side. "So it's like a Phoenix Down that's always on hand?"

"Yeah, the Raise spell has the same effect as Phoenix Down. Arise is the high-tier version of Raise, and it revives you with full health. Reraise sets up a Raise spell that activates when you get knocked out, so you'll self-revive. That stuff's too powerful to teach a beginner, regardless of aptitude."

Aleri shrugged. "Well, we should work on your charge time and MP conservation, but that aside, you'll need experience using those skills in battle before you can move on."