A New Stage

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and before I knew it, I already turned six, and then seven, and then eight. Eight years I have lived in this world. Eight happy and eventful years.

My days alternated between individual magic training, or combat practice with dad before lunch. The second half of the day I always spent with my friends. Some days we played games, all of which were traditional elven outside children's games, or unique ones made up by Tariel. Some days we just strolled around the place, to the market, to the fountains, to the gardens. Other days I would demonstrate a new magic spell to my friends, and become something like their teacher as they tried to replicate it, at times successfully, but most of the time, not so much.

I made sure not to reveal too much about my ability to cast magic. If I were to begin demonstrating vine magic for example, that would surely attract unwanted attention to me, even more so than it already did. Just after one demonstration I was already known amongst my friends as a magic prodigy, and that belief constantly increased the more I taught them.

By the way, my progress in regards to combat and magic did not slow down at all, even though I missed out on a whole half a day of training. My earth and water elemental magic became even more refined, and some spells like my very first "Stone Fling" I was finally able to perform with chantless casting. My vine magic also developed for the better. They became thicker, more durable, and my control over them increased substantially. With them, I could lift heavy weights such as logs that otherwise would have taken a grown adult to pick up.

Air magic has also improved, as I finally got complete control over not allowing it to disperse, and was capable of casting a few simple spells. My first air spell that I have ever attempted, and completed successfully not so long ago was "Wind Arrow". And instead of the "poof" of air that usually came out, I finally was able to mold the wind attribute mana into the form of an arrow, and successfully cause a small dent in a nearby standing tree. I was overjoyed.

My training with dad also brought results. My stamina and physical strength increased drastically, and dad frequently took me for early morning runs before actually starting the training. I could complete over a hundred sword swings without feeling as exhausted as I did before. Dad taught me more advanced swings and strikes once my basic swings became more sturdy and quick. 

I was also taught hand to hand techniques. Dad demonstrated and taught me how to properly throw a punch.

"Make sure to have the punch start at the ball of your dominant leg. Begin to pivot with your dominant leg, at the same time twisting your upper body forward to create momentum, and release the punch. You always must follow through with it, don't stop it halfway or else the impact will be much weaker. Think as though you are not punching a surface, but punching through it!"

He taught me a series of various kinds of punches, hooks, crosses, uppercuts. Demonstrated to me different styles of kicks, side kick, push kick, roundhouse, back kick, and so on. 

Every time we trained, he would fall into a series of punches and kicks, and made sure that I followed along with him, copying his every move. Sometimes he froze in place midway through a kick, forcing me to copy him and balance on one foot while maintaining a solid undisturbed position. I found that maintaining such frozen positions was even more difficult than learning a new technique. It required not only physical strength to keep your leg stretched out and elevated without bringing it down, but also immense concentration to keep your balance and not topple over. 

But perhaps the most engaging lesson was when dad taught me how to use mana, alongside martial arts. He told me that a mage must be versatile, and be able to deal with opponents not only at long ranges, but in close quarter fights as well. That is what makes a warrior so much more powerful.

He, as many soldiers, was capable of manipulating pure mana in his body, and concentrating it both as a layer on the outside, and within. Dad explained how utilizing mana in such a way was perhaps one of the most effective spells for close quarter brawls, due to the mana heightening your senses, reactions, increasing your durability, physical strength, and speed. Not only that, but the weapon of the warrior could also be infused with mana to make it much more durable and so powerful it could easily cleave through armored steel.

That day he told me to throw two punches at him. The first punch landed against his hardened core muscles. The second time he used mana body strengthening, and encouraged me to try again. Punching him felt like punching a granite wall, and the pain that followed right after as well.

Given that spell casting was not new to me, when my dad taught me this technique of pure mana manipulation at the age of seven, I was able to get the hang of it on that same day. I was already accustomed to controlling the flow of mana in my body, and the sensation of concentrating it into my hands or legs to cast a spell.

Flowing mana into my wooden sword was a bit more difficult. I had to visualize the sword as an extension of my own arm, and only after numerous unsuccessful attempts I was finally able to do it. 

Although during my first attempts, my physical abilities increased very slightly, almost unnoticeably, by the time I turned eight, I was able to react to almost any punch, kick, or sword swing my dad threw at me during our sparring sessions. 

My body grew even stronger, my stamina rose higher. At eight years of age I was already capable of chantless casting almost all of my earth and water attribute spells, some wind spells as well.

Because of this, my spars with dad became more fast paced, and more violent. We spun, kicked, punched, and cast spells at each other while infusing our bodies with mana. Dad would win every time, but not before he himself began sweating profusely. Holding his ground against me grew more and more difficult, and he knew it. To get through my defenses, his punches and kicks required much more strength, but if he were to hit me with something like that then I would definitely be knocked unconscious or get injured. So to him, winning against me became a pain in the ass.

***

After another one of our sparring sessions, my body started to ache, and I felt dizzy and ready to throw up. Dad picked me up and rushed me home where he entrusted me to mom, and ran out to find Haldir who possessed healing magic, who came after about half an hour.

"I'm not sure what happened. One moment he was in perfect condition, and the next he toppled down with his palm over his mouth!"

"Are you sure you did not hit him hard somewhere during your spar?"

"'Course I am sure. I ain't ever hit him hard enough to put him in such a state."

"Perhaps that is what you felt, but to the child it was completely different." Haldir said coldly. I glanced over at mom who was also glaring at my dad, but didn't say anything.

"Shall we ask Ardiel what really happened?" With these words, Haldir left my dad's side who stayed in place, anxiously fidgeting with his fingers.

"Ardiel, are you in pain right now?"

"No uncle Haldir."

"Did you fall over because your father hit you too hard during your spar? What did you feel?"

"No, I do not think it was because of him. I just suddenly felt dizzy and I felt like vomiting?"

Haldir paused for a while and looked at me with a concerned and stern look. He really did remind me of a doctor.

"Felt dizzy you say? Did you perhaps feel overwhelmed by the heat, or did you feel exhausted?"

"No…none of that, I don't think."

"Alright then, let me cast a healing spell on you. Stay still please."

His palm made its way over to me before hovering just a little above my solar plexus. I felt the warmth of the green light coming off of his hands, but the dizziness did not go away, and neither did the sensation of barfing.

Hadir frowned, stood up, and motioned for mom and dad to follow him elsewhere so that I didn't hear their conversation.

Now I was really beginning to feel nervous. Haldir didn't look pale as he usually did when he found something concerning, but his frown did not evoke any sense of reassurance in me either. To add on to that, the healing magic he cast on me seemed to do nothing to ease my spinning head or sick stomach. I thought healing was supposed to heal, so why did it not work? Was Haldir just a second rate healer then? But that didn't seem to be the case. The magic pressure that radiated off of him, just as it did off of every other living thing in this world, was especially strong in the cases when he cast magic, so he by no means was a weak mage. So why didn't the magic work?

Haldir stepped back into my view, but without my parents by his side. He made his way over to my bed, and leaned in. Then in a quiet voice, without beating around the bush, he just went out and said it.

"It seems that you have made it to the next stage of your mana flow, Ardiel."

"Huh?"

"Your mana flow Ardiel. It seems you are in the gray stage now. The magic I cast on you before was not to heal, but to analyze the state of your mana. You have made it to the next stage. Congratulations Ardiel."

I got so shocked that I just stared blankly at Haldir without being able to express any more words. He proceeded to explain to me his hypothesis of perhaps why this has happened. In his opinion, my regular magic training sessions, and spars with dad that involved constant absorption of atmospheric mana, and its circulation throughout the body, allowed me to break through to the next stage of my mana flow. I was able to go from dark gray, to gray! The second stage. 

When Haldir delivered the news to my parents, dad was ecstatic, and mom wore a gentle but proud smile. I suppose that mom no longer saw my anomalously fast magic development as something concerning, and she got used to it. 

"I know I said it so many times but I gotta say it again. My boy's a genius, A GENIUS! HAHAHAHAHA. I am a father to a prodigy!"

My mom however was more level headed, and sat down on my bed while beginning to stroke my hair.

"How are you feeling hun? Are you still feeling sick?"

"Yes, but just a little. I will be fine with just some rest." I smiled reassuringly at my mom, who visibly softened at my reply, and gave me a gentle smile. 

***

The power boost I felt the next day when I went out for my training sessions was clear as day. I was able to absorb mana from my surroundings much more quickly, and the circulation felt less strenuous, and more smooth. The amount of mana I was able to store in my body doubled, if not tripled in quantity. Chantless magic became more simpler than it did before, my spells formed much faster, and they were evidently more powerful than when I previously cast them. 

"You ready, Ardy?" My dad said, raising his fists, preparing for a spar.

"It's you who should be ready dad. This will be much more different than before."

My dad grinned in anticipation. "Come at me then, brat!"

Augmenting my body with mana, and infusing an additional amount into my legs, I dashed forward, covering the five meter distance in two quick leaps.

Dad brought his right leg into a roundhouse kick. I ducked under and to the right, spun on my right foot, and struck with the back of my left mana-clad fist into his stomach, which didn't even make him budge. 

He grabbed my arm with his left hand, sweeped my legs from under me, and with his right palm he slammed me into the ground, cracking it.

Ignoring the weight of the impact, I yelled, "WIND BURST!"

According to Newton's third law, I propelled myself away with a powerful gust of wind from my feet. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Wind burst is a spell that is not very effective at offense, so much as it allows for mobility. Primarily, it can lunge you many feet into the air. In this case however, it allowed myself to slide out from under my dad before he had any chances for another attack.

"Not a bad trick Ardy. It seems your control over wind magic is much better than it was before. But you should have pivoted away right as you struck me so that your arm wouldn't have ended up being caught."

I took a few deep breaths, and looked back at him, once again in a defensive battle stance. Dad was strong, very strong. Despite me having an advantage in the versatility and variety of my spells, he had the advantage in the versatility and variety of his physical attacks, and his own spells hit with a much greater force. His experience in battle far outmatched my own, and he was faster, physically stronger, and his reaction speed was on par with my own. 

It was evident that he fought even fiercer than before, now that I was a gray flow mage. I thought that with the increased effectiveness of the body augmenting spell after my transition I would be able to put up a much better fight against him, but I now saw just how much he was actually holding back when we previously sparred. 

That attack with which he slammed me into the ground, I was sure would have knocked the wind out of me if he had done that before. If not for the additional amount of mana enforcing my body, I would have still been laying there, gasping for breath. Even now my entire back ached.

"I'm waiting, Ardy!"

I underestimated him, way too much for my own sake. I should have been able to see the difference in our strength, but he forced me to believe that I had a chance. A chance which I did not possess. 

I looked at my dad whom I always regarded as a jolly guy, but now as I saw him in that battle stance, I saw nothing but a hardened warrior, with decades of rigorous training in the elven army. He stood like a stone statue, unmovable, solid, and focused. This was the first time I have seen him take a sparring session so seriously.

'No, this is just dad, not some monster. Even if we fight, he will not hurt me. Let go of the fear.'

I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.

"Get ready dad, I'm coming."

"Great, but don't announce it to me next time."

This time I did not charge head on as I did before. I began pacing around in a circular motion, with dad copying me step for step. We were like two predators, moving around in a circle, showing ourselves off to each other and looking for an opportunity to strike.

I had my left side facing my dad, my right hand hidden. There was a spell that I practiced that was likely to give me an opening. I did not yet show all my cards, I still have an ace up my sleeve.

Clenching my right fist as if grabbing something, I whispered, "Stone Feet".

Around my dad's feet, was a mass of stone, trapping him in place. He looked down! A chance!

"Oh, what an interesting spell. I haven't seen one like that bef…"

The moment he looked up, I was already midair. I channeled as much mana as I could into my legs, then leapt into the air to propel me forward even faster with Wind Burst. Midair, I augmented the absolute maximum amount of mana that I could into my right arm, and slammed as fast and hard as I could into dad's chest.

Wait, chest? No that wasn't his chest. Just before my strike landed he brought both his hands up in an "X", and that was what my first collided with.

The power of the impact made the ground crack under dad's feet, and his knees visibly bent as he held against my punch. 

'I can still attack once more, his hands are brought up'

Grabbing the sleeve of his left arm with my right hand, I spun around him midair, and drove my left knee into his side. I figured that by focusing his mana into his arms, he would've forgotten about the rest of his body, but that wasn't the case. He only applied a little more mana into his arms, while maintaining the same amount throughout his body. Driving my knee into his side was like driving it into a wall, and the only way it didn't hurt me instead was due to my own mana protecting my knee from the collision.

Following his advice, once I made contact with the ground, I immediately imbued additional mana into my legs and sprung away from him to avoid a counter attack, but my dad just stood in place.

"What an amazing attack you had there, Ardiel. First you diverted my attention to something else, and then used that opening to attack me not once, but twice. Hahahahahaha! I have to say, my arms actually kinda hurt after that punch. Perhaps I underestimated the power of that punch, because I am sure to have a bruise. Well done Ardy, fantastic job."

'What an absolute monster,' I thought to myself. 

I put all my power into that strike and all he tells me is that it "kinda hurt"? And he didn't even mention me kneeing his side. Did he even feel that at all?

"I see that now with your new mana flow I have to fight you much more seriously Ardy!" My dad exclaimed, now grinning his cheerful smile as usual.

"Don't be discouraged, after all you're still very young. I couldn't even hope to be as strong as you when I myself was your age!"

'Yeah,' I thought to myself. I could see that dad took this spar much more seriously than any other one before. And I suppose I am currency stronger than anyone my age, perhaps even the older kids.

"I'm sure you will even be able to give your upperclassmen in the academy a run for their money when you start going there. Well, you have your lunch with you right? I'll leave you for today."

Dad began walking away before he abruptly turned back again, but with a serious expression on his face. "And Ardy, remember this. Never underestimate your opponent ever again, got it? Today I fought you harder to teach you that lesson. Overconfidence in a fight is a one way ticket to finding yourself at the mercy of your enemy."

With this, he left me to myself.