Sol was a little nervous. As excited as he was to finally be able to use Artes, he felt a little insuperior seeing how Aladar was gonna train with him.

"So, what ground-type artes do I know?" He asked.

Ever since Incineroar got to him, he felt the need to learn these move in case he ever encountered him again.

Hopefully that would be never though.

"Umm, let's see here..."

Aladar looked through his phone with a scanning app he had.

"You currently know three ground artes." The Zangoose replied.

'Only three?'

"You know Stone Blast, Slag Assault, and Air Pressure." He said. "However, you also know a few special artes that can be altered into ground artes."

'Pardon?'

"Well," The Zangoose continued. "Why don't you start by using Stone Blast."

That said, Aladar assumed a casting pose, and a beige light surrounded him.

"O' din of this modest land." He chanted. "Stone Blast!"

Solgaleo watched as the training dummy Aladar casted upon had be assaulted by stones that flew upwards from the ground.

It looked easy enough, but Sol had a question.

"Are you sure Stone Blast is a ground-type move?" He asked. "It sounds more like a rock-type move to me."

"Stone Blast is a basic move, and in this case, it's dependent on the user whether it's Rock or Ground." Aladar explained. "In my case, it's Rock, but I'm sure that it'll be Ground for you because that's what you want it to be. Now you try."

Solgaleo nodded.

Taking a deep breath, the lion took his own casting stance, and he felt power surge through him as light appeared around him. Though this light was a darker brown than Aladar's was.

"O' din of this modest land," He chanted. "Stone Blast!"

The sun lion smiled quite wide as he successfully casted his first spell, and in this case, his first arte.

'That felt quite awesome!' He thought as he watched the training dummy once again get assaulted by stones.

"Okay, now cast that spell again!" Aladar called.

Solgaleo nodded, and once again he was surrounded by a brown light.

Though this time was different.

His body flashed white for a second, and he was confused, but his mouth decided to speak on its own.

"Stalagmite!"

He watched the spell play out. This time the dummy wasn't just assaulted by stones, but the ground beneath it opened up and jutting spurs of earth flew out, crashing into the dummy in a pyramid shape before retreating back into ground.

"Woah!"

"Wow! You learned Stalagmite!!" Aladar called out, jumping up and down.

Solgaleo found this adorable, Not that that he wasn't already smiling, but he felt very loved, seeing his new boyfriend teaching him how artes worked.

Aladar then walked closer to him.

"You see, over time artes get upgrades. Seeing how you're a legendary at your age, I knew that using Stone Blast only twice should get you a new move. It'll be the same for the other artes you know as well." Aladar explained.

"Ah, so that's why you said I only knew three ground artes." The older male replied.

Aladar nodded.

"Yeah, and just by using these artes, you'll get new sets of artes with their own upgrades."

That said, Aladar stepped back again.

"Okay, now you have a move called Rending Thrust." He continued. "It's a physical arte, go do it."

"How?" Sol asked.

"Just say the move, your body will show you." The Zangoose replied. "All artes you've never used will show you how to be used."

Solgaleo thought that was a bit weird, but he trusted his Zangoose.

'Okay.' He thought, soon rushing towards the dummy. "Rending Thrust!"

As he said that, his left arm delivered what seemed like a gut punch, and his right arm delivered an uppercut followed along with some energy that followed his arm.

'Okay, this is a nice physical arte.' He thought.

"Alright, now use Slag Assault!" Aladar called out.

This time Solgaleo didn't question him, and just used the move.

"Slag Assault!"

Saying that, he did a short hop, and as his feet hit the ground, his fist followed, making a shockwave.

"Quick!" The Zangoose called. "Use Rending Thrust again!"

As Solgaleo followed the instructions of the younger male, he expected to perform said move, but this time his body flashed again.

"I'll crush you!!" He called out. "Rending Quake!"

His body did the work once again. The first strike from his fist was the same as Rending Thrust, but the uppercut he delivered caused the ground below him to glow a bright orange, and shards of the earth rose along with his uppercut, causing the area around him to shake violently.

"Woah!"

"Yay!!! You did it!!!"

Solgaleo looked back to see Aladar jumping up and down again.

As cute as the Zangoose looked, Sol assumed that Aladar was very knowledgeable about artes and how they could be altered.

"Okay, okay, let's do another one!"
_______________________________________________________

For those who don't know, Tales of the Abyss is my favorite Tales of game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mb.....RVmAg&t=0s

Art is by FDolagaray on twitter: https://twitter.com/FDolagaray