"How long do you plan on being depressed for? You call yourself a man like that?"
"I'm not a man yet, I'm just a fragile little boy. Also, the cognition that men shouldn't be vulnerable is very unpleasant and sexist, so please refrain from using it."
I was sitting in a fetal position, with my chin on my knees, having lost most motivation to actually keep going at that point. And I don't wanna hear any mother fucker try to blame me, because if you were in my shoes you would've probably lost your goddamn mind a while ago. So with all due respect, I'd like to be allowed to sulk once in a while like the fragile little boy that I am.
"Is that so?"
She then crouched next to me, poking me in the cheek from my side.
"I don't know if Luna is into fragile little boys though, you know?"
"So what? She doesn't like me anyway."
In the past 2 months, I had met her quite a few times in town honestly, and while we definitely got closer as friends, it sometimes felt as if she looked at me like I was a puppy that needed protection, and the same way you'd look at your friend's younger sibling; Basically, she doesn't even see me as a guy. Albeit I am still a little boy, but regardless. It's not like I mind the treatment, since she's extremely kind in the end, but it definitely doesn't feel like she likes me.
"Hmm, and why are you saying that?"
"I mean, it's pretty obvious… it feels like she only sees me as "Maia's little brother" instead of Cael Ashford…"
"Haha, is it because she spoils you?"
"That too…"
"That's just Luna's way of expressing her affection. She usually looks at any other man with dead eyes, you know? You being looked at as if you're precious and need protection isn't a bad thing."
I pushed away her hand, turning my head towards her, surprise was probably written all over my face as I also couldn't hold back a smile creeping up on my lips.
"Are you serious?? I cannot imagine Luna having any kind of dead or cold expression towards anyone…"
"It is true. She already knows about your training plans obviously, and was actually reeeeally looking forward to seeing you become stronger you know? She said she wants to see how you'll grow into a strong and independent man."
I sighed.
"Even then, what makes you think that just because you said that I'll jump right up on my feet?"
"I mean, you already are doing it so."
"…Shut up."
I started stretching my arms, while doing my best to switch topics as fast as possible. Could she have lied about it just to get me going? Hell yeah. Did it work? Hell yeah. Does it matter? Perhaps? Nonetheless, my aura has definitely taken a negative decrease because of how fast I got up, but come on. The "your crush said" technique has a solid 70% success rate on any man honestly, so with all due respect, I think my reaction is pretty, completely and totally understandable.
"Let's take a different approach then, just for the sake of speeding things up a little. I already have something prepared, but I need you to get used to it first. Here, take this."
Reaching for her big ass backpack on the ground, she took out a wooden sword, tossing it then to me.
I guess that makes sense.
I think anyone would have guessed what was going to happen next, considering she was also getting in a more relaxed stance as she distanced herself a little.
"We've clearly made sure that you are in fact able to do both of them, but that alone doesn't mean you won't get absolutely mauled in a fight. I'll match your speed and strength more or less, so don't worry about that, but from now on while we have a match, you're only allowed to use mana attacks or blasts while in offense. No hand to hand, or regular swings permissed. Got it?"
I finished stretching my arms while holding the sword, then centering my right side and arm, holding my blade straight in front of me, I got ready. When it comes to swordsmanship, with a katana at least, I can confidently say that I am not just above average, but one of the best. Arrogantly or not, I just couldn't deny that which seemed like a fact In the end. The sword that she gave me was obviously not a katana, but I honestly think that even my general swordsmanship level with more or less any blade is at least above average, so I didn't have any complaints.
"Got it."
"You can use your sword or hands and feet but only defensively, and that's about all of the rules. Ready?"
Instead of replying, I lowered my right arm, quickly enhancing my body, specifically in its speed with a tiny condensed amount of my own mana, and prepared to dash forward. Seeing that, she quickly matched my own dash as we clashed. I wasn't able to go offensively with my sword or anything else for that matter, but I was redirecting her punches with my hands and sword, alternating between the two depending on whichever was more convenient.
I can definitely keep up with this, but there's no point if all I do is defend, is there?
So instead of dragging this on the ground for too long, I quickly jumped in the sky, levitating as I waited for her to follow me. Obviously though, I didn't simply wait still. Charging up a mana attack within my sword, I released it downwards as she started ascending, not really dealing any damage but I did still hit her. Some smoke? Can I even call it smoke? I guess that or mana dust? I don't even know, but regardless before whatever you want to call it dissipated completely, she quickly sprinted out of it, and thankfully enough I was able to barely react in time as her hand was going straight for my face, dodging it by turning my head to the side. Her punch had barely brushed against my cheek, leaving a small cut behind, but it was nothing for me to worry about.
She's holding back her strength, but not her actual fighting level, huh?
In a moment of silence, we stood a few meters apart in the air from each other. I wiped the few blood droplets going down my cheek with my hand, but at this point I was pretty much out of mana reserves. I was already using my own mana to enhance my body and fly which didn't take any real effort fortunately enough. I could just get away with condensing the fuck out of a few droplets, so that wasn't a problem. But I could now see what the point of this fight really was.
"Let me guess, you're practically out of mana, aren't you?"
"Hit the nail right on its tail. I should've realized sooner what this was all about… my apologies, my dear older sister."
"It's all good, my dear little brother. As long as you understand what you need to do. Not to mention, you're holding up extremely well. Your battle sense at least is legit, unlike your mana capabilities."
"You could've left the last part out… it's only a temporary thing anyway. Who knows, maybe one day my mana will be strong enough to vaporize you with a single blast?"
I said cheekily with a sarcastic grin, which she also matched with a smile just as wicked as mine. I guess that in the end, I can't just talk shit about Maia that much, when it seems like both of us are equally twisted in a way or another. Clearly, she was still worse than me, but at the very least there was one twisted trait we both shared. We both really Enjoy Fighting!
As fast as I possibly could, I replenished my mana pool, and we dashed forward once again. Her hits were starting to get faster, and dodging alone would simply not cut it anymore. I had to find a way to counterattack, but my limitations were pretty brutal at the moment.
I can charge up a mana attack pretty easily even while dodging, but it gets pretty iffy when it comes to blasts… I have to find a way to get over that.
But what though? Or rather, how? I arched my back to dodge a kick from hers, but as the kick passed above me, I noticed something that had given me an idea. The clouds above us reminded me of when I was learning to fly. Why? Because after I had actually succeeded in doing so, merging my mana with the one in the air, I was able to "see" or rather, know my surroundings, almost like a 6th sense.
Probably because I was focused on dodging and parrying, but I was completely ignoring that 6th sense. I guess all people really do have it in the end actually, I remember Maia saying something like that, regardless of whether I was merged with it or not, didn't she? So maybe this would apply on the ground as well, but I had no intention of going down just to test it now. While flying around, I then decided to try it.
I need to find an opening though. Even though it shouldn't be hard, I still need a point to begin from man. Maybe if…
I had to wait for a chance. Her hits seemed to have a pretty consistent pattern, which were: around 5 punches, 2 kicks, and repeated all over again; not sure if that was something intentional or not, but it didn't matter. What I had to wait for was a kick. We were at the 3rd punch, so it wouldn't be long.
Come on… just 2 more.
The 4th, aimed towards my ribs, came. I avoided the hit without any real problems. Then, preparing myself for when I'd get my opening, I subtly enhanced my reaction time and speed, since I only had 1 miss chance, but no intention of actually using it.
Alright, just one left… there it is.
I focused my eyes as hard as I possibly could at that point. Her speed was relative to mine more or less, so if I enhanced my reaction time, and general speed I could actually see her movement so clearly that it almost seemed to be in slow motion. The 5th and last punch which was aimed straight for my jaw then came. Instead of dodging it, I waited for her fist to reach just below my chin, then with the back of my palm I redirected it.
That redirection threw her off! The kick is coming, now's the chance!
I could see it. So clearly that it was almost funny. She was aiming for my left leg, probably aiming on using her second kick to send me straight to the ground. I wasn't planning on allowing that unfortunately though. Thank God that I also remembered I can just levitate freely. As the kick was just about to hit, I allowed myself to "fall", which caught her by suspense just enough for me to quickly intercept her foot with mine from below, and drag her down at full force.
Now, as she was forcefully going down ever so slightly, I took my change right away. Charging a mana attack on my blade while dashing down, she had stopped her fall and was preparing her arm to tank it, but as I released it in her direction, there was a little something she hadn't thought of… Behind her. Forming a mana blast at the same time, I fired it at her back while she was tanking my first attack, and got a clean hit.
"…Your battle sense really is something."
She came out of the smoke, stopping midair with a smile on her face. I knew it wouldn't do a lot of damage if any, so I wasn't actually surprised obviously.
"Seems like it. At this rate, maybe I could Hold my own even with just mana blasts, you know?"
"Hmm. That's actually…. An Interesting Idea."
"Huh-…?"
You can't be serious-!
What used to be a wooden sword in my hand, was now nothing but a handle. Holding the blade part, she burnt it right in front of, not even leaving it's ashes behind. Alright… now I'm starting to sweat.
"W-wait, i was just joking…!"
I waved my hands, letting go of the handle. I don't think I had many options at this point. I was 100% faster at forming mana attacks than blasts, not to mention that it was easier to focus on my sword while dodging than dynamically and efficiently create blasts. But she didn't listen. Suddenly dashing forward, then behind me way too fast for me to react, she kicked me in the back, too hard for me to actually stop midair.
Damn it… she was protecting me with her magic so I didn't take too much damage, but that still hurt like hell!
"What the hell happened to "matching my speed and strength"?!"
She descended as well, now on the ground and slowly walking towards me.
"What happened to "I won't need a weapon"?
"Tsk… I was joking…"
"Do you think that an enemy would take it as a joke if this was a real fight?"
"Thats-!…"
"Get up, Cael. Show me if you really can hold your own without a real weapon or not."
"Can we talk this out-"
Of course though, the answer was pretty obvious as she sprinted towards me once again. The pace of the whole thing had sped up exponentially, and at this point I was actually so focused on dodging, that I could simply not manage to do anything else. Move your head out of the way or she'll obliterate it. Dodge that kick or your ribs will get broken. Deviate that punch or you'll get knocked out. This kept going for around 20 seconds where I could do absolutely nothing but defend myself to my best capabilities.
It's of no use. I don't have the time to do this shit! I really need a weapon…
Or at the very least, it would've saved me a lot of time if the blasts didn't just go straight ahead. She had already taken one to her back, so I was 100% sure that her guard was up now when it came to that, so if I tried to make another one behind her, she'd probably just dodge and I would be the one getting hit.
Alright, think Cael. Think. What the fuck am I going to do now?
From the looks of it, she was either getting bored or sick of this pattern, so I don't think I had a lot of time left either. This was getting serious, so I really needed a solution for this, and I needed it quickly. Getting distracted for a single fucking instant alone, was somehow enough for her to get a clean opening, kicking me straight in my stomach, sending me flying backwards but following it up with a clean dash and facepalmed me to the ground after getting behind me.
"Come on now, you're telling me this is all you can do?"
"I-I…I'd be able to do… a lot more. If I actually could fight without mana attacks!"
I took some of the broken dirt around me, and threw it at her.
"Do you really think you'll always have the luxury of fighting an opponent that's on your same fighting skill level?"
"…"
I couldn't deny that she was right. If I found myself fighting someone or a monster that was too fast for me to fight with hands, my only real other option would be mana. But even then, I'm 100% sure that my chances would increase if I at least had a weapon… but that too, isn't guaranteed to always be at hand.
"Get up."
Taking a deep breath, and exhaling it through my mouth, I did as she said. I also replenished my mana reserve once again though, since this time I had decided to actually try something that had been lingering on the back of my mind for the past minute or so. I'm not really sure if it'll work, but I don't really have any choice but to try it after all.
"I'm ready when you are."
Her smirk reappeared on her face, but so did mine. Further enhancing my speed, reaction time and agility, I intercepted her first charge towards me with my left hand, then immediately followed it up by a punch to her stomach, sending her up. I had to get some distance between us in order to try out my idea, which was given to me with that. She then hardened the air directly above her, and turned around so her head would be facing downwards, crouching on the hardened spot to gain strength and dashing down towards me, but I was more than prepared.
I'm not sure if this will work… but oh well. There's only one way to find out.
With my hand pointed towards her, I quickly formed a mana blast, sending it upwards. The idea was to try and actually dematerialize the blast, then while she thought it simply reached its length limit, manipulate the flow, and make it change movement and hit her from her side or something like that instead of just making it reappear straight ahead. I have never heard of anyone doing this before, nor I know if it's possible, but as the blast approached her, feeling the mana inside of it, I somehow managed to successfully dematerialize it. Now, all I had to do was change its trajectory, and thankfully she didn't seem to have caught on to what I was trying to do.
Still coming down, I could see her grin getting even larger as the distance between us was now only around 50 meters, but I had no time to waste thinking about it too much. Imagine it, I could feel the mana I had dematerialized still being there. Curve it, change the trajectory to take a left turn, then hit her right back into her ribs. This is now My mana, I can definitely do it. It has to listen to me.
The distance was closing down fast, extremely fast. But it wasn't a problem. I closed my eyes for a single second while imagining the blast materialized once again and it doing what I wanted it to, and reopened them.
Here it comes!
Making it appear in front of her once again at first, she was clearly surprised but didn't worry too much as she tried to simply punch it off… but. When she did, the blast had swiftly changed trajectory, moving to her side way too fast for her to even react. Before she could fully turn around, it had already hit her straight on her side, sending her crashing down.
I-I did it! Holy shit, I actually did it! I had no idea this was even possible, but fuck it, it doesn't even matter anymore!
I ran towards her crashing spot, excited as I called out to her.
"Maia, Maia! Did you see that?! I did it! I manipulated the flow of the blast!-"
But when the dirt that spread from the ground breaking dispersed, and I finally saw her expression properly, my smile dropped instantly. Not really in a bad way, but I couldn't help but be confused and curious about why she looked so shocked.
"Cael, you… can you do that again?"
"H-huh? What do you mean-"
"Do it again! Show me, I want to see it properly!"
"Alright, alright…"
What's with her out of the sudden? Did I do some prohibited thing or something? Did I just disgrace our whole bloodline or what?
With a bittersweet taste in the back of my mouth, I turned around and prepared another blast. I don't really think there was any need for me to dematerialize it again, since I think it was the latter part that she was interested in. So after firing it up, taking control of the blast's flow, I not only managed to modify its width and height however I wanted, but it was fairly easy to do as well. Changing up the directions a bit, I kinda just made it go into zigzag for around 5 seconds before I completely let go of it, dematerializing it for good.
"Is that enough?-…"
After doing it once to assure it actually was possible, I found it almost as easy as second nature honestly. Maybe at this rate, I could actually condense it enough to do as much damage as I first imagined it to do? Who knows. But that aside, her expression didn't get any better as I turned back around. It wasn't just shock anymore, mixed within it there was now also just disbelief and a weirdly calculating look. I was actually starting to get anxious now… did I actually use a prohibited or cowardly skill or something? Like trakata type shit?
"Cael…"
I gulped on air.
"…how did you do that?"
Even if you ask me how…
"I just took control over the mana blast? I mean, it is my mana after all, no? I thought that I could just manipulate it to accomodate my needs?"
Is it actually a prohibited thing to do??
"…can you try to materialize some mana, not as a blast but just some raw mana, then try to change its shape? Say, to make a blade with it."
A blade, huh? it would be pretty useful if I did have a weapon, even better if it's made out of mana. So I guess I'll try it out
The process was the same as making a big ass ball of mana for a blast, in the sense of materializing and condensing a shit ton of mana in my hand. Instead of keeping it as some uneven raw mana though, I imagined it taking the shape of a sword, specifically kinda like a katana, and the black and red mixed mana did exactly as I wanted it to, uniformly becoming a katana.
Wuah. This does look pretty damn cool! I could get used to this.
holding it didn't hurt or anything, I guess since it's still my own mana in the end so I just had a cool black and red mana blade in my hand, admiring its beauty as much as I could.
"…so you really can do it."
"What do you mean?"
"Cael, manipulating materialized mana is impossible."
Huh? Impossible? What are you talking about? This was extremely easy once I thought of doing it, there's no way-
"Or so it's supposed to be."
"There is actually another person who can do it, although I'm not actually sure since I haven't met her yet."
"I had heard about it from Luna. She might've already told you, but she has some pretty sketchy almost connections, albeit useful."
I had a hunch about where this was going, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions, so I let her finish in silence. She was talking pretty slowly, almost calculatedly with breaks in between as if carefully choosing her words.
"Apparently, the person who was supposed to be the only one who's able to manipulate materialized mana freely, was The Commander of The Sentinels, Mioalone."
"…But clearly, I guess you're the only second one, huh. I'm not saying this as a joke or as if it's hard for a specific race to do. This is 100% supposed to be an impossible task, but it seems like you two are the only exceptions…"
"…come on Maia, this isn't funny haha… why would it be impossible? It's not that hard to do-"
But her eyes were as serious as they possibly could be, so I knew she wasn't joking. At that realization, I could feel An immense amount of pressure over my shoulders. Me? Being able to do an impossible thing?
And to top it off, the only other exception is the commander herself? I'd ask "what kind of joke is that" but it clearly wasn't one. Was Luna's source even believable though? Maybe she was wrong? Maybe this is also just simply a very hard skill to learn like absorbing natural mana, that anyone can do?… it has to be, right?… right?
But Maia's expression as she looked at the blade I was holding was more than enough to crush my hope to bits so small that there was absolutely no way of glueing them back together. Is it really alright for me to be the only second exception? Am I actually good enough? I used to think I may be the main character or something when I got reincarnated, but Alduin was quick to bring me back to reality. This wasn't a novel, it was real life. Being able to do a seemingly impossible task came with a lot more pressure than expected.
The best way to put it out, is to imagine someone on earth in my previous life being able to use magic or something like that. The government would've captured that individual and dissected them to thousands of pieces in a matter of a week at most if they were good at hiding. What if it was the same here? If people heard about it, wouldn't I be in danger? Sure, there would definitely be a good chunk of people that would just be afraid of me because of it, but there's no guarantee that there won't be another chunk that would start plotting a way to take me out "just to be safe".
Mio doesn't have to worry about that, but me? … what am I even thinking?
If being able to do this may get me in danger, then there's obviously a single thing I have to do.
This could also put my loved ones in danger after all. The gorilla aside, my parents, siblings, Aldric and his family, Luna or my friends. They may all be affected by it. But what if that's the case? All I have to do in order to avoid that is…
Getting stronger. Strong enough to protect them all, whatever it may be that comes after us because of it.