Chapter 10: Graduation - 8
As night fell, one could feel that the forest was abnormally quiet, with only the stars and moon providing an eerie light.
Under the cover of darkness a small lithe figure could be seen running around in a circle, planting what looked like arrows floating in the air around a small hill with a peculiar little boy standing at the top.
One could not help but be frightened when they saw the cold dark metal gleam on the boy's mask from the moonlight.
At the exact moment that the moon reached its apex, the attack began. Arrows suddenly began flying from one direction, then another, and another, and another. It seemed like an endless storm of arrows was flying towards this one young boy, but the boy seemed unfazed because as soon as the arrows reached him, they fell to the ground or were caught in his hands.
Struggling, Luyra decided to put all that she had left in her last arrow and when she released the arrow, it created a supersonic boom, rushing at Taiga at a speed that was faster than the speed of sound, imbued with wind and fire magic.
The flaming arrow cut through the sea of arrows and headed straight for the head of the little boy. At the last possible second, the boy blocked the arrow with his hand, but it still pierced right through it and stopped with the tip of it a millimeter from his eye.
After he saw that no major damage had been done to him, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luyra swaying and realizing what was about to happen, he rushed towards her and was by her side in a second, catching her as she fell and lost consciousness.
When Luyra opened her eyes she saw the slightly pink/orange sky signifying dawn. The second thing she saw was the mask of her teacher, who for some reason always wore a long black trench coat with his hood always up, showing nobody the other features of his face.
She then felt a gentle, calloused hand stroking her hair and the warm lap that she was resting her head on.
"Don't move, you still need time to recover"
She then saw her teacher laughing loudly.
"Who would've thought that you would be reckless enough to deplete your mana to zero in just one singular move" he said guffawing loudly again.
"You know that you could have died right" she nodded her head which earned her another round of laughter.
Seeing her confused face, Taiga said
"Don't worry about it, you just reminded me of someone from my past, someone that like you, gave every challenge that they went up against their all" he said mysteriously.
But then she thought, how could a little boy be acting like such an old man, and what was this thing about saying "someone from my past" like he was old enough to say that.
But knowing that it was pointless to ask, she instead cautiously asked
"Did I win?"
"Yes you won" he said with a smile, showing her the arrow in his arm.
Her eyes grew wide and she suddenly started trying to sit up, but her master put a hand on her forehead, telling her to keep still.
"It doesn't hurt, and I just kept the arrow in my arm to show you that you actually succeeded, so you have nothing to worry about."
He then proceeded to pull the arrow out of his arm, and then used holy magic to heal his body.
After a few more minutes, he propped her up against the tree at the top of the hill and they sat there side by side with her leaning on his shoulder, as they watched the sun rise together in silence, feeling that the days that they were together were coming to an end.
After the sun had fully risen, the master and the student stood up. Although now, the student was the master's equal.
"I have a few graduation gifts you know" said Taiga with a small smile on his face, although she couldn't see it."
He first gave her a full size bow that he handcrafted with the same features as the first bow that he gave her.
Staring at it, Luyra was speechless,
"Tha... than... thank you so much!"
"Also, this bow is a little different from a normal bow. You see the 4 stones here, these are called mana stones, where if you flood them with your mana and nock an arrow, they will give the arrow the power of that element, increasing the arrows power and given the arrow a special ability, which you will have to find out for yourself" he said in a mischievous tone.
"Also, do not fill up this black crystal here no matter what. You can only use it in a life threatening situation where it is your final trump card as it holds great distructive power," he said as he warned her.
"You can also use the black stone to fire an arrow into the sky, once the arrow is fired, I will rush over to your location as quickly as possible and help you no matter what, that is a promise," he declared.
Her eyes filled with tears as she heard this, both thankful and grateful that she had met him.
"Your second present is this," as he gave her two guns that were meant to be dual wielded.
(If you remember from before, Taiga said that the bow was the second best weapon that suited her, he had always known that she would be very proficient with guns.)
"This is a weapon called a gun, to use it, you have to fill up the combined fire and earth stone in it and then you pull this thing called the trigger." he said as he demonstrated the gun for her.
She was astounded, as when he pulled the trigger, something so fast came out of the barrel, so fast that she couldn't see it! Then she saw the destructive power of it, as it left a gaping hole in an Ein tree.
Taiga was a little surprised too, as he had modified the mechanisms of the gun so that it would fit in this world more, as a normal bullet could just be stopped with a mana shield, but he hadn't expected it to have so much power!
He then gave it to her and after a few test runs, she decided that this was a very useful weapon because as long as she had mana, she would have an infinite amount of these destructive bullets and she had a set of guns which were meant to be dual wielded, this meant that she have a lot of fighting power now.
Taiga then went on to give her his third present.
"This is a sniper rifle, it is basically a gun but meant for long distances."
"This is the scope, which has the same affect as your eagle eyes but it is made of glass."
He then proceeded to show her how the sniper worked, and then gave it a test go. he shot it at a tree about 1 1/2 miles away and hit it right in the center, causing the tree to implode.
Luyra gaped at it, as she could see exactly the damage that it had caused with the full extent of her eagle eyes.
Taiga then taught Luyra all she needed to know about the sniper rifle and then made a strap for it, so that she could carry it on her back with her quiver. He also made her a holster belt so that she could carry her duel-wielded pistols at each side, with compartments here and there for storing other necessities.
Gawking at all of these gifts, Luyra didn't know what to say.
Taiga then gave Luyra his final gift, a glittering silver hairpin, that he had actually made from his orichalcum mask that had a beautiful portrait of the moon at the end of it.
"I noticed that you were always pushing your hair out of your eyes when you were trying to aim, so her you go" he said as he hurriedly pushed it into her hands out of embarrassment.
"co... could you put it on for me" she asked, her cheeks and tips of her ears blushing red in embarrassment.
He then gently pushed the hairpin into her brown hair.
"How do I look," she asked.
"You look pretty" he mumbled.
"I couldn't hear you" she said with her hand cupped around her ear.
"Okay, okay, I said that you looked pretty."
"Hmph, I just look 'pretty'" she asked.
"Fine, you look beautiful with that hairpin on."
"Are you implying that I wasn't pretty before the hairpin."
"No, no, it's just that I wouldn't call somebody that looks like an 11 year old beautiful yet."
"Fine, I'll accept that answer."
After this exchange, they spent some more time together, with Taiga making her a graduation lunch, which she thought was delicious, and then they spent some time, laying down, staring at the sky together.
At sunset, the two figures parted ways with each other. While one would walk down the path of righteousness, the other who was fated to walk down a dark, twisted path felt something light in their chest, as they realized that they maybe could stop their fate, that one day, they could live in happiness.
[Taiga's Stats]
Strength: 508
Agility: 871
Health: 666 Hp
Intelligence: 101,017
Mana: 100,004
Luck: -4
(Luck is always going to be in the negatives as the player is destined to be the Demon King)
Skills:
[Touch Enhancement (Level 88): Increases the user's sense of touch and feeling by 20 fold
(always in effect) - Epic]
[Weapon Proficiency (Level 0): Lets the user quickly master a weapon of their choice
(only effective with choice weapon) - Uncommon]
[Insight (Level 52): lets you quickly understand anything
(is turned on at any time by the user, infinite uses) - Epic]
[Large Mana Pool (Level 5): user has an abnormally large mana pool, user can cast more spells
(always in effect) - Mythical]
[Spell Creation (Level 9): the user is able to make new spells
(always in effect) - Epic]
Unique Skills:
[Remember (Level 100): lets the user retain all memories from their past life
(always in effect) - Godly]
[Sage's Eye (Level 100): the user is able to see all of the stats of any object including living things
(is turned on at any time by the user, infinite uses) - Legendary]
[Growth (Level 0): allows the user's skills to grow, becoming "Superior" skills which can then lead to "Godly" skills
(always in effect) - Legendary]
[Resilience (Level 36): gives the user mild resistance to all harmful attacks and statuses
(always in effect) - Legendary]
[Rascal (Level 0): gives the user the unique ability to steal any power skills that they have been affected by
(always in effect) - Godly]
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
WorthyAdversary
WorthyAdversary Thank you for reading!
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