Still Weak

As the carriage door opened, a suffocating aura poured out. The air felt dense—heavy even, as if I was breathing through fog. Even from inside the house, I could feel it pressing down on me. There was no doubt about it, the cloaked man had come back. The cloaked man stepped from the carriage, but this time, he wasn’t cloaked at all. 

He stepped out slowly, tall and broad-shouldered, his dark hair streaked with gray, a scar covering his right eye, and a scruffy beard framing a face hardened by years. Knight’s armor hugged his frame, and a sword hung at his side, gleaming faintly in the dim light. Cloak or no cloak, that aura was unmistakable.

This time, I wasn’t a helpless baby. Years of training had brought me here. I wasn’t wasting this moment. I slammed the door open and unleashed my spell. Throughout the years of training I developed my own spell. It was powerful and in the shape of a dragon so I called it Ryū. A beast made up of lightning mana. It surged forward, moving faster than the eye could track. I could fire it straight or guide it mid-flight so it could fight alongside me. Its fangs glowed with fire mana, primed to explode on contact. Earth mana lined its scales, making it tough enough to plow through most spells. It had taken a year to perfect. I hoped it would be enough.

The moment he saw my attack, a cold smile crept across his face, like he’d been waiting for this. “Come to me, celebrated one!” he shouted.

Is this trying to provoke me? Well, shit—it’s working.

I drew my sword and charged, Ryū twisting and darting alongside me. One hand guided the dragon, the other gripped my blade.

I’ll strike from below and my dragon and get him from on top.

He blocked my sword with his scabbard, drew his blade mid-motion, and sliced the dragon in half. The spell split clean through.

Damn, the scales would’ve been strong enough to plow through any other spell, but not a physical attack.

I jumped back instantly but I wasn’t done yet. When a spell’s destroyed, its mana doesn’t vanish right away. It lingers in the air.

I can turn the mana residue into fire mana and detonate it in his face.

BOOM

Dust exploded outward, swallowing the battlefield.

Was it over? Had I won?

The silence stretched, but then a calm voice pierced through the haze. “What a powerful spell. A spell that mostly consists of control and technique rather than a heavy amount of mana. Along with being well versed in spells, you’re also a powerful warrior. I could feel it from the attack of your sword. You swapped from the lightning attribute to the fire one on contact. Quite impressive. ”

As the dust settles, the man stands there, unscathed. He maniacally laughs, as if he’s having the time of his life. Then he went still. “Now, let’s get serious.” He gripped his sword with both hands, mana gathering along the blade.

“Try dodging this!” he shouted.

The man lunges at me with his sword raised. He was fast but I was able to react. Right when I was about to parry him, he disappeared

Shit, where’d he go?

Along with him, his aura disappeared. No spell should be able to hide that much aura. And even if a spell could, it would take way too much mana. Then, I felt his aura reappear.

Behind me!

I turned just in time to block. His strike sent me skidding back several yards. His swing was heavy, it felt like I was being hit by a truck.

How was he able to build up so much mana that quickly without his sword shattering. Maybe he relied on his blunt force but if he imbued himself with mana then there’s no way that blade could withstand such force. The only reason mine could is because I changed all the mana in my sword from the lightning attribute to the earth one.

“You’re quick!”

“How’d you do that?” I asked.

“You haven’t learned it yet? Well, I guess it’s a technique that is taught within the noble families. Being a commoner, it makes sense why you don’t have it.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Demanding, aren’t you?” He chuckled. “It’s called the Split Step. You must use ascended mana to teleport a short distance. But within that moment, you can’t attack, only move.”

“Ascended mana?”

“Don’t tell me, you haven’t learned about that yet?” I stared at him, blank faced. “You really don’t know anything?” he said, almost pitying. “Each element has its purified form. You know the six basics, right? Ascend them and there will be twelve.”

Twelve elements? How have I never heard of this? After all my training... am I still behind?

“W-what?”

He shook his head. “With your talent, had you been born noble... you’d already be strong enough to defeat me.”

I gripped harder onto my sword and bit down on my teeth. “I’ll kill you without all that noble bullshit.”

“Then show me!”

I slammed my palm to the ground, channeling earth mana into jagged spikes that erupted upward in a ring around him. Fire mana surged through the tips, turning them molten. Before the could stab him, he slammed his fist on the ground. It destroyed all the spiked around him but this moment of distraction is what I needed.

I raised my hand and fired a condensed malif blast. This attack creates a mana blast using my life force, and by tapping into my life force, I put it in overdrive mode. So my life force is producing a bunch of mana without me being on my last legs so I’ll have an abundance of mana throughout this fight.

I kept the blast small, compact, and disguised. Anyone watching would think it was a normal mana shot. Even sensing the mana, you can barely tell it’s filled with absolute power. This technique is similar to suppressing my mana, but instead of doing it on myself, I do it on an attack.

He sneered. “Is that all? I expected more after your opener.”

The man lifted his hand up and put up a barrier. The way a barrier works is that it spreads the mana of an attack throughout the barrier, but if an attack is too much for the barrier to handle.

It shatters.

My blast broke through his barrier and hit him directly in his stomach. The explosion hit him dead-on and tore through part of the house.

I can still sense him, he’s still alive. Good. I wasn’t done.

I charged, sword humming with the mana I’d been feeding it. I couldn’t overload it all at once—it would’ve shattered. So I charged it gradually, throughout the fight.

I swung the sword at him but he disappeared again.

He’s going to reappear behind me.

I spun, slashing backward—connected. Sent him flying. Bits of his armor clattered across the field.

I have to keep pressuring him.

While he was airborne, I launched every dragon spell I had left. They chased him down, biting into him and exploding midair. Like fireworks. A body flung across the sky with each blast. I even imbued some of them with malif. Even when he stopped moving—I kept firing.

I have to kill him. I have to kill him. I have to kill him.

I could fill the mana slowly drain out of my body until I eventually ran out. I dropped to one knee, gasping. The limbs fell limp and I was barely able to stand. All I had left was my malif and the mana which my life force was producing was all sent to my muscles. Making sure that I was able to keep standing.

I-I won.

Then I felt it. Another aura. It was overwhelmingly powerful. It was his.

How was this possible? Even if he was able to split step behind me, he shouldn’t be this strong.

A voice behind me said. “You did a good job against my double. But if only you didn’t go overboard on him we could still be fighting.”

As I turned I felt his foot push through my stomach. I was able to soften the hit with earth mana but it was painful. It sent me flying. My body thumped on the ground, like a sack of potatoes getting tossed around. I jammed my sword into the ground to pull myself up.

He didn’t give me time to rest. He stepped right in front of me and I was met with a right rook. I could feel my head shake and my ears ring. It knocked me a few yards away as I rolled like a barrel.

“My blessing allows me to create clones,” he said. “Each time I split, I divide my power between them. What you just fought... was only half of me.”

Blessing?

He walked toward me and grabbed my throat. “You did put up a good fight. Maybe I would’ve broken a sweat if I had gone all out.” he smirked as he said that.

After all my training I can’t be this weak. I won’t allow myself to be defeated.

I needed to heal up but I was out of mana. There was only one option left, I had to resort to using my malif. But with that low amount, I would be risking my life. I was going to die anyways, I had to give it a shot.

“You’re trying to heal yourself with malif?” he said, amused. “Dangerous. But if you manage, you could recover up to eighty percent.”

How’d he know?

He tossed me aside. “Go on. Do it. Or die.” He pointed his sword at me, “Show me what a child of the celebrated generation is capable of!”

I forced myself to my feet. I closed my eyes and focused. Using what malif I had left I turned it all into nature energy. My vision went blurry. My legs gave out. Everything faded.

Then—

It came back. My body felt better, stronger than when I had gone into the fight. The malif infused nature mana enhanced my body a lot more than I could imagine.

I caught myself mid-fall. Planted my foot. “You’ll regret giving me time to recover.”

“Then show me what I’ll regret, child.”

I charged at him again but he reacted quickly. He swung at me so I threw up a barrier.

“You fool. Barriers are for spells!” Normally he’d be correct, but I had a plan. The barrier I used was imbued with malif, putting my life force further into overdrive mode.

As he shattered the barrier I jumped back. The shattered barrier left more malif residue in the air, which I detonated by turning it into fire malif.

BOOM

“Fell for it again, old bastard?”

This attack he won’t be able to brush off so easily.

Before the dust settled, I fired another condensed malif blast and rushed in. He dodged, but I curved it back around, guiding it while we clashed. His technique was immaculate and he would be outclassing me in the sword fight if I didn’t have the ball of malif assisting me. He had to worry about my sword along with my ball of malif swirling around.

“You can fight and guide a malif core at the same time?” he said, grinning. “You’re quite the prodigy aren’t you.”

“Enough talking, just fight me.”

The longer we fought, the more mana I generated. My life force surged with it. Being part of the celebrated generation, a battle of attrition worked in my favor—I had the edge in both body regeneration and mana recovery. While I healed, he weakened. I could feel it. Victory is within my grasp.

He split stepped away, putting distance between us. “This has been fun,” he said. “But now... it ends.”

“Giving up already? Don’t die so easily now old man.”

“Hilarious boy, but watch your misplaced confidence.” He lifted his finger, “I still haven’t tapped into my life force yet.”

“You may be fast,” I said, “but even with malif, you can’t match me.”

He laughed. “That may be true but don’t you know that when using malif with a blessing it activates a trump card. Now that I think about it, you haven’t used your blessing have you.”

“What’re you talking about?”

He studied my face. “You don’t even have a blessing, do you?” I could only stare at him. I didn’t know what he was talking about, I didn’t know what a blessing is. But more importantly, I didn’t know how much more power he was going to have.

He smiled. “Just watch, this is the pinnacle of a blessing.” He took a deep breath then whispered, “Arcane requiem… Perfect Legion Mirage.”

A second version of him stepped beside him—a perfect double, aura blazing. “My arcane requiem allows me to make a perfect clone of myself. So when making clones, I would no longer need to split up my power. I have to say, I underestimated you at first. You knew you would force me to use this.”

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! I can’t win here!

Before I could react, the man’s clone vanished, then reappeared right in front of me.

He slashed his blade down. I kicked a burst of wind mana to my side, blasting myself out of the arc of his slash. I hit the ground hard, skidding through dirt, but didn’t have time to recover. The clone’s hand snapped forward. Lightning roared toward me.

I slammed my palm to the ground, pulling earth mana into a wall that shot up between us. Defensive mana wrapped it in a faint glow. The bolt struck. The impact detonated, rattling my teeth and blasting a cloud of dust into the air.

I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him. And then, nothing. His presence vanished.

Shit, the split step.

I turned around and he was right there. Even though I knew where he was going to be, he was too fast.

 Steel touched my stomach then it followed up with immediate pain. His blade had pierced through me. At first my skin felt the pain, then I felt it in my organs then my back. His sword had gone completely through me. He was close—too close. I gathered everything I had left. One final shot. I aimed it at his head and fired. I had to kill this clone so my parents would only have to deal with one injured beat up man.

But he vanished again.

Split step. Of course…

Everything began to face. But then I heard a voice.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

That's my mother's voice. Maybe I’ll survive after all.

Gradually, my senses returned. Blood coated my tongue. My mother’s panicked voice echoed in my ears. The sharp scent of iron filled my nose, and a tingling heat spread across my stomach. Eventually, I was able to open my eyes. My mother was hovering over me with tears on her face. Looking over to the side, I saw my father. He had his sword out and was about to attack the man.

“Don’t you move.” My father’s voice was calm, too calm, but the anger beneath it was obvious. He must have been trying to keep calm so my mother wouldn’t panic. “Make any hasty moves and we’ll kill you.”

“Calm down,” the man said. “I was the one who was attacked, don’t act like I’m the threat here.”

“You nearly killed our son!”

“Yes, but I planned to heal him afterward.”

“That doesn’t make what you did right.”

“My actions were self defense. Your son attacked me like a damn beast.”

“You couldn’t just knock him out.”

“No. If I held back at all he would’ve killed me.”

“W-what?” my father froze in place. “There’s no way. You just want an excuse to hurt my son!”

“Look at me and look around, this was all his doing. Your son is a capable warrior, don’t go around underestimating him.”

“We know he’s powerful, but enough to keep up with you?”

“Yes, he was able to keep up with me. He would have been capable of killing me too if he had a blessing. He was even able to heal himself through the use of malif. Most would die attempting that.”

“That kind of control takes years... and we only let him start training with malif six months ago.” Then my mother looked down at me. “Yakusei…”

Oh no, she caught me.

“Yes ma’am.” Immediately answered.

“When did you start practicing with your life force?”

“Uhm uh….”

“Spit it out now.”

“Seven…”

“Seven what?”

“Years… seven years ago.”

“Are you fully healed up?”

“Uh basically.”

My mother immediately slams her forehead into mine.

“Ow!”

“You went behind my back—again?! After what happened last time?”

“Y-yeah but I thought that I was getting better at controlling my mana and like I just assumed I was able to handle it but look at me now I’m able to use it decently well.”

My mother continued to stare at me, I could feel the anger overflowing through her eyes.

She sighed, “I can't do anything about it now.” She pulled me in for a hug, “I’m happy that you’re alive and I’m so proud of you for being so skilled.”

She was talking to me as if I was about to die.

“This man is here to take you.” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“It means,” he interrupted, “you’re being sent to a place where you can hone your skills, until you're capable of defeating the Demon King.”

“And what is this place?”

“It’s a school. But to be more specific, it is a magic academy. Every child from the celebrated generation will gather there and will train until the revival of the Demon King. As soon as you're fully healed, pack your stuff and we’ll take our leave. I’ll be waiting for you in the carriage.”

Once the man left my mother wrapped her arms around me. My father immediately ran up and joined us.

“This may be the last time we see you. So please, make sure you survive the Demon King’s wrath.” His voice was shaky. He sounded scared but I guess he had a right to be. Not many people are able to survive the battle but I’ll make sure I do.

“Don’t worry, I will.”

“And don’t go on using your malif so recklessly. If you die, it better not be from something so stupid.”

“Okay, I won’t. I promise.”

“You better keep it or I’ll kill you.”

“How will you do that when I’m already dead?”

“I’ll find a way.”

After we hugged I grabbed all my stuff and headed over to the carriage. But before I got in, I felt a tapping on my shoulder. It was my father, he had something behind him.

“I have one last gift before you leave.” He held out a katana. “Here, this is for you.”

“Woah, it looks so cool.”

“Yeah, I picked it out just for you. Apart from being cool it’s also powerful. The material it’s made out of can withstand a whole lot more mana compared to a regular sword. So you won’t have to worry about it shattering when imbuing it with mana.”

“Thank you. Thank you so very much.”

We all held each other one last time before I walked into the carriage. As we strolled away, I waved at them goodbye.

“Come back in one piece!” my mother screamed. I could tell that she was trying to be strong but she couldn’t stop the tears from falling down her face.

“If you die then I’ll have to deal with her wrath alone!” my father added. “So come back as soon as you can!”

“I will!”

As I sat back down I stared at the man. Even though he isn’t a threat anymore, something about him irked me. Like why did he attack my parents at my birth, why did he keep the fight going on even though it wasn’t needed, and why did his aura feel so evil?

“Is something the matter?” he asked. He slowly opened his eyes but kept his arms crossed. “I can feel you staring at me, do you have a question?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then ask away.”

“I want to know, why did you attack my parents?”

“It was only you and I that fought.”

“No, not now. Back then, when I was born. I remember you, your presence as you walked in. You attacked my father and I want to know why.”

“What an outstanding memory you have.”

“Thanks, but answer the question.”

“Still aggressive I see. But I did that because of the way your father reacted to the news of you being sent to fight the Demon King. Every celebrated child’s duty is to use their God given power to fight. There will be no exceptions. Your father tried to talk me out of forcing you but I told him no. Yet, he was adamant. But at the end of the day, the kingdom matters the most. The kingdom is above all life and every singular person. I had to show him that the laws of this kingdom were absolute.”

“Piece of shit.”

“You can call me whatever you want, but I am just following orders. And these orders are what keeps our nation together.”

“Don’t you ever try to hurt my parents again. If you do, I’ll kill you.”

“After what happened today, I don’t think that's likely.’

“Just give me a year—hell, a single month, I’ll surpass you. I’ll be strong enough to hold your life in the palm of my hand.”

The man smirked, “Then how about we make a deal.” He reached out his hand. I looked down at it and something about it was off. There’s some aura leaking out of it but it was unfamiliar. “If you’re best for me in one month’s time then I’ll do everything within my abilities to guarantee your parent’s safety.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you’ll be a permanent soldier to the nation. No matter what, you’ll serve the nation. Despite your wants, needs, or morality, you will do as the nation commands.”

“And how do I know that you’ll follow through on this deal?”

“Look at my hand. You see it don’t you, this strange aura coming off of it. This is known as a magical contract. It can be made with yourself or others, but it guarantees both participants follow through on their deals.”

“And how does it do that?”

“You put something on the line or it will forcefully take something from you if you break the deal.”

“What will we put on the line then?”

“Our lives.” he smirked.

I could tell that he expected me to back out of this deal, but I knew what I was capable of. I knew that I could win. I immediately reached for his hand and shook it. “Then we have a deal.”

“Perfect. Rest up now, we have a long day awaiting us once we get to the academy.”

“And one more thing.” I added. “Tell me about the ascended versions of the elements.”

“Already working towards our bet, I see.”

“That and I want to keep the promise I made. I want to get back alive.”

He chuckled as if I said something foolish. “You children are so naive.” he muttered. “It really is sad to see.”

“Whatever, just tell me about this.”

“As you do know, there are six basic elements.”

“Yeah, being earth, water, fire, wind, lightning, and nature.”

“Each elemental power can ascend into a purer, more perfect form. Lightning becomes Radiant—once mastered, it’s said you can move at the speed of light itself, and every strike is blessed by the heavens. Water transforms into Celestial, wielding the flow of the universe to unleash unimaginable power. Fire ascends to Primordial, the hardest to control, rumored to grant the strength to slay gods. Earth becomes Aegis, embodying the power to halt even the unstoppable. Wind ascends into Aether, granting true freedom of movement and spirit. And Nature reaches Genesis—the pinnacle of regeneration, said to grant immortality to those who master it. Even mastering one would be enough to change the tide of war.”

“And how would I be able to do this?”

“Malif. You would use malif, to ascend each element. At first, you must manually do it, then after some training it'll become second nature.”

“Then a month is all I’ll need then. Just watch, I’ll master each one of these and prove to you how strong I truly am.”

“You better not disappoint then.”