The Invitation (1)

Varjan Maxamaus's Residence….

It's been nearly two months since the events involving Tammis's hallowed ones occurred, and the only thing I have done was training. It took almost a month to get used to my body and be comfortable enough to fight.

Magic, on the other hand, was a completely different beast. My body was used to controlling dark magic, and now it was being told to use shadow magic. Thanks to Embrues, my body wasn't going crazy trying to adjust. The most he did most was show me how to walk. Everything else was on me.

"Little Ran, shadow magic is much more refined than dark magic. You do not need brute force like when you use dark magic." Lucia said as she watched me cast a shadow sphere

Only Cas and Lucia currently knew that I had shadow magic. Cas knew because she was best girl, of course, and Lucia figured it out. It only took her two weeks. I guess that's what happens when you hire the best. You can't get away with anything.

When she figured out that I had acquired, she was surprised, but then a terrifying smile crept up on her face.

"Little Ran. She began, "When I return, we will double your training, and don't expect me to take it easy on you anymore." She finished as she began to gather her things and left later that day.

Two weeks later, she returned, and sure enough, we started training that evening, and it was pure hell.

"Little Ran, remember that shadow magic is a mutation of dark magic, and while it requires less mana to use, it requires more control for effective use." She paused as she examined me. "Currently, you are just throwing mana out, hoping it forms what you want." She spoke again, sending a little of her magic into my sphere. "While it will get the job done." And smiled when the sphere blew up in the palm of my hand. "It is useless when in combat."

"What the hell, Luci!" I yelped as I jumped away from the explosion. "That could have killed me!"

"Says the person who underwent a forced mutation to change his magic." Was her rebuke

"I knew what I was doing." I Lied

"Then this should be nothing for you. Next, make two more spheres." She demanded

"Meanie," I complained

"Dummy." She retorted

For the next month, this was our interaction. She would call me a dummy for what I did, and I would tell her that it was planned and I had everything under control, but slowly but surely, I was getting better at controlling my magic and could now effectively use it in combat situations.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Axton's POV)

Knocking the rapier to the side, Axton lashed his foot out, which connected with Callista knocking her off-balance.

"Don't overextend yourself." He told her as he sidestepped the arrow that came to his left

"That had no killing intent Lady Elizabeth." He yelled at the person who fired the arrow

Every other day, the young lord, his aide, and his fiancé would fight against him. To see how well they fought as a team and how strong they had become.

He wouldn't lie, it was getting more challenging to win against them, and he would need to pull out more and more tricks to stop them.

Bringing him out of his thought, he felt danger coming from behind him, and a glance told him that Callista was still off balance, so she would not be able to help the young lord.

Quickly doing an about-face to meet the threat behind him, surprise crossed his face when no one was there.

"Your moves are getting predictable, Mr. Lambert." A voice from his right side said

The danger Axton felt just now was the most he had ever felt. The young lord purposely attacked him from behind, forcing him to turn around to meet the threat, and as Axton was turning, the boy turned with him and stayed in his blind spot, and now the boy was attempting to pierce him from the right side.

"Not bad, kid," Axton said as he jumped back to avoid the attack.

After jumping back, he quickly dodged to the left to avoid the arrow fired at him, only to meet Callista as she readied a powerful thrust attack.

"Your timing is too slow if you had attacked as I was dodging. Then you would have connected." He said as he redirected her attack, knocking her off balance again.

All three of them had problems that Axton was trying to fix. Lady Elizabeth was too scared to kill or wound an opponent, which showed in her attack as it was not as powerful as it could be. On the other hand, Callista wanted to end her opponent as quickly as possible and often resorted to all-out attacks. Still, for someone as experienced as him, it was easy to dodge, parry, or reflect it, which resulted in her being off-balanced, which reduced her fighting power.

The young lord, on the other hand, made him nervous to go up against, but what offset that was the fact that he was very prideful. He wanted his opponent to know that he was better, which caused the young lord to prolong the fight as he wanted to see despair and fear from his opponent, and as long as Axton didn't show fear or signs of being overwhelmed, then it would frustrate the young lord, causing him to make mistakes.

Kicking Callista in the midsection while she was off balanced caused her to fly, and Axton turned around to face off against the young lord.

"Just you and I now, kid," Axton said as he smirked, trying to rattle the young lord.

Without saying anything, the young lord charged forward and attempted to pierce his midsection. Anticipating the attack, Axton moved forward to parry it but became shocked when the boy dropped his sword and jumped to the left. In that split second, he took his eyes off the boy as he followed the sword falling, which was all it took, and he felt danger from the right in the next moment.

Turning his head, he saw the young lord holding Callista's rapier and aiming to pierce just under his armpit. The look in the kid's eyes showed him that he was prepared to deliver the death blow, and a smile broke from his lips as he shouted.

"Ice wall!"