Emerald decides to sit and rest for a second. Hearing voices, he turns to see what Ruby is up to. She has her sheathed knife out, and she is swinging it at the dummy against the nearby wall.

"Yeowch! Ack! Well done! I do believe you got my liver with that one, young mistress! Oh!" The dummy remarks as Ruby prods and slashes his straw filled body. Ruby looks incredibly amused by this.

Emerald turns again to see a chuckling Joyride looking at Ruby, and he asks her if it's better to cast a lot of small spells at once or big ones and drain magic quickly if he wants to build up reserves.

"Hmm… Well if you want to cast a lot of stuff with continuous effects or you are going for endurance casting I'd just go with a bunch of small spells. But if you want to get up to the big spells in the quickest manner possible I'd go with hitting your limit as fast as possible." Joyride says with a nod.

Emerald asks what zebra lands are like.

"It's basically the same as here, except with a lot less forest. Rolling, flat fields with an occasional tree or patch of woods here or there. It's most famous for it's jungle though, which is where we'll be going. Anyway, you ready for a round two, lil' perv?" Joyride asks extending a hoof.

Emerald gets up and says that he is ready to try again. He points a hoof at Joyride, and squinting his eyes in concentration fires off another Magic Missile

>Body Check
>Rolled 5, failed

*Thump!

"-shot lil' perv. You okay?"

"Perv?"

…
..
.

(End of Chapter 18)