Awake

Seth woke up to strange sight for the third time in as many days. His chest was bare, still throbbing from the thrashing he suffered at Sera's hand. He pushed to his feet. To his left, he found Sera laughing and muttering to herself as retrieved her discarded knives, to his front, Germo, Raylee, and Brick discussing, and to his left Ren and Tula.

Tula smiled when she saw that Seth was awake and approached him in her oversized white airy cloak, "That artifact of yours. It's really something. It's not been five minutes since you fell unconscious. You have to let me study it sometime."

Upon hearing her words, Seth's eyes fell. He'd somehow forgotten about his defeat. Did she hit him that hard?

"Leave the kid alone, Tula." Ren interrupted. "Don't think you can pass off the kid's family treasure as payment for what you owe," she teased.

"Hmph," Tula huffed. "He would have won if she didn't try to take off his head with a tier two spell," she said with a mild glare directed at Sera.

"But he survived. All I hear are excuses," Ren waved dismissively.

Tula gnashed her teeth as she stared the smirking Metal mage down. Ren was a head taller than her, with the latter's height a bit above 5 feet.

"you are so cute when you are angry," Ren laughed.

She ignored Ren and faced Seth, "I'll see you later, Atreus." She stormed off in the direction of the remainder of the team. Seth's eyes followed her and then swiveled back to the mage in front of him.

"You bet I would lose?" Seth didn't mind that they'd taken bets. He cared that she predicted his loss.

"Of course," she nodded. "Though you were stronger and faster, you lack control. All that new strength is robbing you of your technique. Skill and cunning always trumps strength." Ren lectured as she handed him his estoc, and daggers which he'd lost during the duel.

"Skill and cunning," his mind revisited his previous fights and remembered how well planning and scheming had aided him when he faced Sera. He also recalled how limited he felt after shattering his hand. He accepted his blade and looked to Ren, "How do we correct my imbalances?"

"By sparring, a lot." Ren fetched a blunted steel sword from her dimensional bracelet and inspected it as she spoke. She flicked the hilt of the blade, twirled it mid-air, squared her shoulder, straightened her hips, and caught the sword as it descended. "I am going to help you temper your techniques and form by practicing with you for as long as you take."

"Won't I benefit more from a better technique?" he asked. The sword style you used when you faced me would easily give me an edge over most adepts and junior mages," He had run through the knight forms thousands of times over the years. He was confident It'd be all but useless against a foe with magic or a better sword technique.

Ren chuckled, "you think some secret technique will give you a magical edge over your opponent?" Seth didn't respond, but she took his silence as answer enough.

"Tell you what, If you manage to land a hit, with proper technique, I will teach sword the sword style and stances I used back in Acerno," she promised with a mischievous grin.

Seth's eyes flashed with excitement at the challenge and assumed a stance. He slowed his breath and looked to her with calculative eyes. There were no gaps in her stance. She seemed almost aloof, almost condescending as she awaited his charge. Seth understood that he could clearly not match her in skill, nor could he outwit her, so he decided to study her until he noticed a pattern he could exploit.

And so the spars began. The duration of the sessions was uneven. Seth would sometimes last minutes, exchanging blows, parries, and blocking Ren's half-hearted blows. Other times, Ren would disarm him in seconds, after which she would point out what flaws she noted in his forms and remedied them through repeated spars. Their sessions lasted two whole hours, during which Seth hadn't managed to glance a hit, much less land one. The session left him tired, and sweaty, and too sore to even sit up straight.

"We made good progress today, but we are going to be arriving at the town gate tomorrow evening, so we have more work to do. And we will be practicing for two hours straight tomorrow, and then on and off as we travel. The group won't stop for us, so we'll have to jog ahead and have short sessions too. Of course, you will also practice the formation we will be using, and you'll need to squeeze in an extra hour of bow practice with Germo. But, that should be after we've arrived at the gate…"

Seth wordlessly nodded and sighed as Ren prattled on. He didn't mind the training. He just feared that he'd be too tired to continue after training to practice darkness magic.

The day that followed was every bit as grueling as Seth thought it'd be. He was cycled off night duty, so he could only practice shadow cloak and shroud away from watching eyes for a few hours before they settled for the night. Because of that, he had enough sleep and was fully recovered by the time he awoke, but the spars and activities Ren planned sapped him of all that energy he'd accumulated.

Ren worked him to the bone the minute he woke up. She sparred with him before they left camp and six other times along beside the Emperor's road. With each spar, Seth technique and control improved leaps and bounds. Ren was ruthless in her instruction, faulting, and sometimes smacking him with the flat of her blade or her palm as he made mistakes.

Though he improved at a terrifying pace, the more he sparred, the more he realized that Ren, his masochist instructor's skill with the blade far outstripped his, or any other knight he personally knew. Even his sister wouldn't last seconds.

"Your skill with the blade is frightening," Seth said, in between short breaths as he sat on a patchy field just below a copse of trees where he and Ren were sparring for the fourth time that day.

"Thank you." Ren smiled. "But if you have the strength to kiss up, surely you have at least another minute of sparring left in you." She dashed forward and struck the base of the tree with her blunted blade.

Seth rolled out of the way in time and hurried to his feet, with his estoc in hand.

"How did you get so good?" he asked, in an attempt to buy more time.

She saw through his unremarkable plot but chose to still explain anyway. She still attacked as she explained.

"I'm a lot older than you think. After you become a lesser mage, you age slower." Her voice grew louder as their blades rang out, sparks flaring from each swing. "After I discovered that I could control one of the paths of earth, metal, I picked up a sword and found that I couldn't stop. I've mastered over a dozen sword styles, and I'm looking to master a few more before I try to become a greater mage."

Seth pulled back, and panted in short breaths. His shirt was slick with sweat, and he was in desperate need of a shower. He wanted a break to catch his breath, but he knew Ren wouldn't allow it, so he swung at her once more. "Just how old are you?"

"Old enough to have lived through the last war," she casually said as she parried his overhead slash from Seth and followed with a firm palm to his chest.

"Your form was failing as you charged at me, and you need to learn to be more efficient with your strength. Use less strength as you trade blows. Only strike hard when you see the opportunity to," she lectured. "Again!"

Without more than a few seconds rest, they began to spar again. She only lessened her assault when she noticed that the team had caught up. She forced him back to the group, and they continued onwards towards the city.

The group stopped by a nearby river to practice formations again. Some of them were different from the last ones, and a few were complicated versions of the previous formations they'd practiced the day before. During the session, Germo got into specifics of how they'd exploit what they'd learned so far.

"We have to burn the bodies lying around us as soon we begin our assault," Germo explained as he dabbed sweat off his forehead. The group gathered in a circle around him, listening to the final details of the plan, in a clearing near a river.

"This task will fall to you, Seth. You and Sera will get a map and stock up on firebombs when we get to Grechit in a few hours. Though the stores will be empty now, I know a mage who should have some ready for us, along with winter bombs and a few other potions." Seth and Sera nodded in unison.

"Our approach to this mage will focus on counter and deflection. His blood abilities will be the most troublesome. So, I will focus on burning his blood spells, while Raylee will focus on freezing them. Sera will strengthen our spells whenever there is need. Tula, you stay on the sidelines and provide aid when she can, and Ren will provide backup and reshape the terrain to better suit us."

"What about his other spells?" Seth asked. The blood mage used three lost magic. Germo only suggested counters for just one.

"I can counter darkness magic with the light my fire produces, and we'll keep constant pressure on him so that he can't use any major offensive sound magic. If we fail, we'll have Ren dampen the effect with earth wall."

After Germo's explanation, the team carried on with practice. Seth and Brick practiced formations once more. Seth's performance improved much to the giant's surprise, but Brick pretended like he hardly noticed. Germo squeezed in a short archery session afterward, and Ren continued with her torturous training till the time allotted to practice passed.

After practice, they departed the clearing in haste and continued down the Emperor's path. Soon the brown, aged barks and the forest's green gave way to flatlands and rolling fields of crop. Seth spied small farming settlement, massive Boulder Oxen, and simple folk returning to their home after a hard day of work. Tiny clusters of lamp lights shone from the settlements as the sun faded sunk, dying the sky orange and red.

After an hour or walking, they passed the settlements, and the fields of green and soft warmth of lamp light faded. It was replaced by the near overbearing glow of white that shone from light towers that illuminated giant walls of the city and spread to the surrounding lands below.

The team grew quiet as they neared the tall Black gates of Grechit. Trebuchets and bowmen stood dotted its massive grey walls, and armored men waved in mercenaries and merchants. They waited about an hour before they were waved through, and the bustling city of Grechit unfolded before them.

Miles away from the city, in a large shadowed cave, a small fire crackled in-between two people. The first sat on stone, munching on a large haunch of meat, while the other laid prone on bearskin, with a bandaged wrapped around her face, jaw, and the majority of her upper torso. Sweat streaked from her disturbed face as she bumped and twitched with her eyes shut.

A jug of water sat in the corner, along with fresh bandages, a makeshift herb table a stool carved from rock.

"I wonder if Saya could mend your jaw. I've never been particularly gifted at healing," Tolkien said in between bites.

"Travelling with your unconscious body is going to be tedious. It'd be better if I just ripped out your core and be done with it," he folded his arm and stared at her as if waiting for a response. "Unfortunately, I can't do that"- his lips curled- "yet. I need you to keep that brother of yours desperate and angry." Tessa stirred, but her eyes still remained firmly shut.

"Talking to humans always sours my mood," he sighed and stared at the haunch of meat he previously munched on. "It's even robbed me of my appetite. I never thought there'd be a day when I'd grow sick of Fire bears." He flung the haunch, and it clattered as it landed atop a pile of Fire Bear bones.

"Of course, that is not your fault," he grinned. "You can't speak if you wanted to. I suppose it's settled then. We are going to make the trip, though I don't look forward to it."

He sighed and got to his feet, "I need to prepare a few blood sacks for your brothers and those pesky mages to slaughter. Hopefully, by now, he's figured out how to strengthen himself with just blood."

"Don't go anywhere. I will be right back," he grinned as he disappeared into the darkness. Tessa's eyes shot open as the echoes of his footfall grew more distant. After three days of recovering, she'd woken to find herself in a strange cave.