Chapter 8: Aura

The other students watched in awe, impressed by how well Ariella was holding up against Barrett’s assault. She dodged his attacks effortlessly, but even then, she never countered. They thought Barrett’s assault was too much to handle, but that was far from the truth, and both Barrett and the instructor could tell at a glance.

Instructor Ward knew better that what she was showing was barely the surface of her strength and being limited to no enhancement magic wasn’t a shackle she might make it out to be. Before they received the income of kids from their sister school, Instructor Ward would take a peek and see if anyone promising was going to enroll, and to his surprise, he saw one kid in particular. Younger than the others, so he couldn’t invite her immediately, but Ariella even back then was a menace. Not only did she have the strength, but she also had the drive to improve and learn, so he researched. Found out everything he could about her, and now that he had the full picture, he knew what she was doing.

“Why aren’t you fighting back?” Barrett asked in frustration. “I’m well aware at this point that you aren’t weak.”

“I was curious,” Ariella answered. “You’re the strongest here, right? I was wondering what that strength was. So I wanted to study you. See what you could do.”

Light whispers roared from the kids watching on the side while Instructor Ward buried his head in his hand, hiding a smile. However, Barrett was furious. It was clear he was being played with, and that itself was what triggered him. Despite challenging Ariella to a fight and acting pretentious, he thrived in one-on-ones and found them sacred in a sense. Two people put their everything into the fight until one person came out on top, so even if he lost to Ariella, that would’ve been fine. He didn’t care who won or lost. He simply wanted to see if she was strong enough, and while she was without a doubt, the way she treated their fight went against everything he believed in, and that only fueled the flames.

“Are you kidding me?” Barrett snarled.

Ariella recoiled at his response. She couldn’t quite understand where his anger was coming from. It was only a spar, so she wanted to use that opportunity to improve. “What’s wrong with that?”

Barrett’s sword flickered from the hilt.

“Barrett!” Instructor Ward yelled out. “No magic allowed!”

The room went quiet as Barrett’s mana activated. It coursed through his body, and when it was ready to activate, he unleashed his magic. A heavy wave of wind shot out from underneath his feet, causing even the small crowd watching to stagger back to catch themselves. His sword was immediately encompassed by a layer of wind that consistently whirled sharply around the blade, while his shield received similar treatment. Then, his wind that was causing havoc around the classroom steadied, then swirled back to him to give him a layer of protection. He then dug his foot down and sprinted towards Ariella, who watched silently from a distance.

Even Ariella had to admit Barrett was fast. Maybe not as fast as her, but his speed was impressive nonetheless, but now it was as if it had doubled. Not only did his magic make his blade sharper and his shield more dangerous, it made him quicker, but it also made her wonder.

“That takes a lot of mana to use, doesn’t it?” Ariella asked while dodging Barret’s lunge.

However, Barrett didn’t answer. In fact, he couldn’t hear her. While he was indeed furious, the cause was the wind. It was something he was working on, but hadn’t found an answer just yet, so even when Instructor Ward demanded him to stop, he continued his next string of attacks by readjusting his sword sideways. He then took a step to the side towards Ariella, and with the help wind, aimed for Ariella’s stomach.

The movements were the same as his opening attack, yet the speed was way faster, so instead of trying to run away, Ariella lowered her greatsword to meet his attack head-on.

His sword clashed with hers, and at first, it looked as if they were at a standstill, but Barrett’s wind around his blade slowly sawed through Ariella’s greatsword with ease, and when she finally noticed, it was too late. A large crack formed, and Ariella pushed away.

Anymore pressure would break the weapon. He had taken advantage of their wooden structure, and he planned to keep it going before Ariella could catch on. The moment she backed up for some distance, Barrett followed with a slash aimed at her shoulder from an angle, and when she dodged that attack, he lifted his shield and used his momentum to bash his shield at her and the wind that swirled on its surface looked even deadlier than his sword.

Having to act quickly, Ariella broke her weapon in two, dropped the half she didn’t need, then jammed what remained at his shield and as she did, Ariella activated her own magic and enhanced the strength of her broken greatsword. Normally, it would improve a steel weapon to make it nearly indestructible, but a wooden weapon was different. It without a doubt improved the weapon’s strength, but it only made it as durable as steel. But for the situation they were in, that was good enough.

Seeing that she was blocking his attack, Barrett pulled his sword back and stabbed his blade. “Shit,” he said with widened eyes as he noticed where he was aiming for. It wasn’t intentional. He was simply enjoying their exchange, and in the heat of the moment, he saw an opening and wanted to take advantage of it, but it was too late to pull back.

Although Instructor Ward yelled at them to stop, he couldn’t bring himself to end the fight right away. Being an instructor and his curiosity about what Ariella was capable of clashed. He knew Barrett very well. He was one of the youngest in his generation to not only learn how to use sword aura but to implement it in other ways other than just his weapon. The ability was in its experimental stages, so Ward banned its use until he mastered it, but the devil whispered to let the fight continue. That not only would it be the perfect opportunity to see how strong Ariella is. It could also help Barrett master his aura even more, but with Barrett’s last attack, he had to stop it immediately.

Keeping a steady flow of mana to her weapon, Ariella focused a large clump of it into her hand, and with the help of enhanced strength, she grabbed the blade and forced the wind to disperse.

Just in time to stop any follow-up attacks, Instructor Ward stepped in and broke the two apart. Barrett dropped his aura and fell to his knees, exhausted, while Ariella looked down at her hand.

“Do you have any wraps for this?” She raised her hand to show the bleeding. “It’s not deep, but I don’t want to drip blood everywhere.”

“Jayce, can you get the emergency kit? It’s on the counter in my office.” Instructor Ward’s stern but calm voice shook Jayce back to reality. “Emergency kit. My office,” he nodded towards the door, and Jayce ran to it. “Are you both alright?” He said with a sigh.

Barrett nodded his head while Ariella inspected her broken weapon.

“Thank you,” he took the kit from Jayce and then wrapped Ariella’s hand. “That should be good. Does it hurt?”

“No, it wasn’t deep.”

“You should still get it healed at the infirmary. There should be healers there that could patch it up immediately.”

“I’ll do that after school then. My classes are too far apart so I don’t have time to run over there, and I promised a friend I would have lunch with her.”

Instructor Ward rubbed his eyes. “Fine, since it’s not anything major, I won’t force you to go right away, but make sure you do, even if it’s later. They’re open all day long. Now then,” Instructor Ward urged the two to join their classmates before continuing. “Shall we start the class?”