Chapitre 27: Natural Mana
CLANG—CLANG—
The sound of two metal swords colliding echoed throughout the training hall.
Arthur pulled back after that massive swing and was surprised he could still stand after withstanding its force. His training uniform was covered with scratches from the small quick attacks Elizabeth had thrown at him as they exchanged blows.
To him, she was a beast at swordsmanship. His sword hadn't even touched her from the time this training session started—which was an hour ago. Her movements were instantaneous and he couldn't catch up despite the improved stamina he had been rewarded after the exam.
"You're pathetic. You should know that by now, right?" she said, watching him pant like a tired dog after a long run.
"Excuse me for not being a superhuman like you," he exclaimed. "Are you sure you're not using magic to make yourself stronger?"
"No…" she responded with a flat tone. "I am using my normal strength. Aren't you the one who asked me to train you how to fight with a sword to increase your chances of getting to class A?"
She had her golden hair pulled back into a ponytail so that it doesn't interrupt her vision when training with him—though the fight was not that serious. Arthur's swordsmanship had improved to some point, but it was still not good enough. He was a fast learner, and it made sense why he was getting better with each lesson.
He then inhaled some air to catch his breath after the exhaustion he was going through. "I know it's been three weeks ever since the exam and I still haven't made that much progress. But if I stop now, I'll never catch up to you guys. So please…one more."
Sigh!
Elizabeth smiled after seeing Arthur's bright green eyes blaze with pure determination. There must have been more reasons to why he joined this academy, but she wasn't the type to ask questions. She pointed her training sword at him: these were similar to normal swords without magic and were meant for sparring purposes by students, hence, they didn't inflict that much damage during a fight. However, they were still capable of inflicting pain when used rightly.
"Fine," she sighed, admitting to the fact that she was enjoying these after-school training sessions with him. "But this time I am not holding back, so give me your best shot."
Arthur grinned. He was holding the handle of his sword like it was a snake trying to escape his grip. "…hell yah!"
Elizabeth braced herself and then converted part of her mana to all parts of her body to enhance her physical abilities by 20%.
She vanished from his sight and reappeared behind him, with her eyes flashing blue like some kind of monster. She swung her bastard sword—but to her surprise, Arthur managed to block her attack for the first time since she started training with him.
He had moved fast enough to block her quick attack and she hadn't even noticed it. She smiled inwardly seeing that he had finally managed to block at least one attack.
Their eyes locked as she pushed Arthur back with just her strength and sword.
"Fuck…" he cursed as he tried to oppose her inhuman strength. He was still deciding what to do next when she kicked him in the stomach with her milky knee and broke his entire formation in one move.
The pain didn't give him time to cry out—his eyes bulged and his mouth opened halfway in surprise. Then, he dropped his sword and slowly crumpled to the floor as Elizabeth watched with coldness in her eyes.
"Why…?" he groaned in pain.
"I told you I wasn't holding back. These swords are not meant for actual combat, so I decided to use something else that I can use for combat."
"You're saying I was supposed to expect that…?"
She nodded, "Yes, you owe me a burger by the way. I was supposed to eat one an hour ago, and I think they're out."
She clicked her tongue as she picked up her bag that was on the other side of the room.
The training room was a large rectangular gymnasium with a well-polished wooden floor and windows at the extreme top to give light and air to the place. The walls were enforced with mana so that anything happening within the training room doesn't affect the outside world in any way.
"See you tomorrow." she then sought her way out without saying anything else.
Once she was gone, he lifted himself from the floor and picked up the practice sword like nothing had happened. He touched where she kicked and quickly healed himself using the little recovery magic he had learned from magic classes.
Because she had greater physical strength than him, her attack would have been more severe and painful if he hadn't made any progress over the past weeks.
He had taken his time to learn more about magic and how it worked so that he could have better control over his new powers. In his previous life, he didn't get to see that many magic users because whoever awakened in the village saw no need to stay there anymore—he or she could just move to the royal capital where they could put more use of their abilities. Arthur had no chance of awakening because of his demon side but could sense mana, and something tap into bits of it.
Now that he had awakened, Arthur now saw why the magic users moved to the royal capital. Life here was way better in every single way—the air was clean and the streets were made of stone other than the mud and sewage that would fill the streets when it was raining. Here, he had a soft bed to sleep on; a room of his own; warm water for each bath he took, and quality good food from the cafeteria that was free of charge because he was on a scholarship. These were the luxuries he always admired five hundred years ago.
The only person he missed in his previous life was his mother. It was his and her death that kept him awake most nights due to the nightmares that still haunted him—although that voice hadn't returned since then.
The trauma from his past life was still attached to his soul. The hatred he had was deep enough and was now a part of him.
"If she still lives, I will find her myself. I can't have people like her in my peaceful life."
.
.
.
On his way to the dormitory, Arthur still had much on his mind.
He had been coming here to train every day in hope that he might bump into Stella once again since he had finally joined the dark knight sector, and could now be called her colleague. Sadly, he hadn't seen her since that day with her vice president. He wondered if her disappearance was connected to the worried look she had on her face that day.
"Yelp, I can't involve myself in human matters without figuring out what I am yet," he thought out loud as he started to notice the dormitory building ahead of him.
"I'm not even sure of what element he had an affinity for."
Every human magic user had an element that they could use frequently and effectively because they were more connected to them. Turning mana into an element with ease only meant that you had a special connection with that element. If it's fire, most of your powerful spells had to come from fire since it was your strongest source.
And if a magic user's affinity was a primal source, their magic spells were usually stronger than those with affinities like lightning, gravity, sound, and nature magic. So far, Bairon was the only first-year who could use lightning and water magic—though it required him to use a wand in case he needed to use both attributes at the same time.
Arthur had been teaching himself how to absorb mana from nature while moving to avoid making it obvious, and so far, it was difficult to maintain that state. Drawing in natural mana was common among advanced races like dragons and elves but rare in humans and half-breeds. The humans who were capable of this ability could only use it for healing and nothing more.
Maybe it was his demon inheritance or the black grimoire, but Arthur could use the mana to create magic. Just recently, he was trying to create a fireball and a green light appeared and turned into a tiny twister of air spinning in the center of his palm. He had discovered his affinity for air magic
"What if I can combine two primal sources at the same time?" he asked himself.
He stopped and visualized the mana around him, converting the natural mana into a ball of air. Then, keeping his focus, he drew the mana in his body and it turned into a fireball in his right hand.
He cackled and attempted to merge the two elements. He was close when-
BOOM**
The two spells merging backfired with a force that launched him across the walkway and rolled a few dozen times before stopping.
"Who is there?!" One of the guards heard the noise and rushed to the scene, carrying a black rapier drawn in his right hand.
He was light-skinned, and from the black cloak over his uniform, Arthur identified him as part of the school's security.
"What are you doing here?" There was anger in his voice as he grunted out the question.
"I was practicing magic and…I guess I got carried away," Arthur coughed as he did his best to hide the pain he was feeling from that unexpected explosion.
The guard's eyes flashed with gaiety after hearing Arthur's reply, "It's past your curfew."
"I lost track of time," Arthur scratched the back of his back messy hair in search of a better lie.
The guard grunted like he was about to shout at him, but he heaved out a sigh and said, "This is the first and final warning. If I catch you outside again at this hour of the night, you'll have to answer to the principal."
"T—Thank…you…" his voice trembled. He then stood up and glared straight into the man's eyes. From just this small glimpse, this man seemed to have seen a lot throughout his lifetime.
'Strange. I thought these were peaceful times. Why is there so much horror in this man's eyes?'
He asked himself as he continued to the dorms.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone