Chapter Ten

~

Alistair held a long sword in right hand, left hand on a shorter sword he used to parry. He crossed the swords, ready for his opponent's attack.

Theone's sword bounced off Alistair's crossed swords, Alistair stumbled backwards a bit.

Alistair advances on his opponent. He lunges, aiming to disarm his opponent, but he's easily blocked and almost caught off balance.

He spins around to his left, blade first, but his opponent blocks that too. Their swords clash so hard, Alistair's arm vibrates from the force. He decided to pulls back and readjusts his stance.

It's his mentor's turn. Alistair tries and fail to block his attacks. He can feel the physical difference between the two and it annoyed him.

Theone deflects his sword easily, but the lack of enthusiasm for their training makes Ian even more annoyed. Alistair advances again, striking Theone's blade once, twice—three times before he holds his sword steady, the two blades suspended against each other.

Alistair pushes forward, putting his full bodyweight into the locked blades. His mentor's arms bend at the elbow, and Alistair pushes forward even more.

"Troubles?" he teases.

Theone grunted before shoving off his student and sending him back a few steps.

Alistair doesn't waste time and jumps forward, he moves left, one foot crossing over the other, eyes not leaving his mentor. His mentor springs, leaping forward. His sword meets his mentor's sword, but swivels his own, using the momentum to displace his mentor's position. Unfortunately his mentor was fast enough to place some distance between the two.

Regardless, Theone is faster – not that his student is slow – it just that he is more precise, better balanced, much faster. A blade in the dark, he would be best compared to. His student's disadvantage is that he needs to be more than his weapon, more than his technique, more than a dancer practising the same steps. Alistair just needs to lure him into a situation that better suits his strength.

Unfortunately the is not much the six year old could do. He's body wasn't moving as fast as his mind, he tended to lose concentration when fighting and fought with no order. That sort of technique would work on someone lesser than him, but not Theone. With his mentor he needed to analyze him, look for weakness, protect his vital points and attack all at the same time.

Swords clash, hard steel against hard steel, loud and bright and bold.

Alistair swings his blade to the left, only to be blocked by his opponent again. The noise rings in his ears, heard only over his own harsh breathing. The clearing is silent around them, just outside the training walls and surrounded by a dense forest.

"I win" his mentor said with his sword pointing to Alistair's heart, digging a bit deep.

The boy didn't struggle and dropped down on the floor, harshly panting. "How did I do this time?"

"Fine, but the weapon choice is a problem. You are still too small." Theone said walking to give his student some water.

"I know, swords are not my taste. I prefer using my hands or a bo staff."

"Really? A bo staff, that is quite a limiting weapon"

"True but I prefer it more than a sword or any other weapons. Especially when you can separate it into clubs and and one club has blades on either end."

"That's very specific of you." Theone said handing him a bottle of water.

Alistair just casually shrugged, accepting the water "mhm"

"Also, you used a different technique this time. It had a simple pattern, but you tried to compensate it with your speed and reflexes."

"Yeah, but my body isn't as fast as my mind"

"True, perhaps if we were using mana it might have work much better." Theone hummed in deep thought, "Say if you were using a sword, what type of sword would you use."

"A Rapier or a Katana, maybe."

"A Rapier would suit your speed but not your strength. I have never heard of a Katana though, explain?"

'Huh? They haven't made it, yet.'

Alistair smirked and leaned forward to his mentor, "Ajusshi, what's the magic word?"

"And then there's this word you keep referring to me as." Theone retorted. "Ajusshi" he says slowly, the pronunciation was a bit shakey but good.

"A Katana is a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. It is an advantage to my strength and as well as my speed and my other amazing quality."

'It was also a gift from a friend of mine. He-'

"I think I see it."

"Is training over now?"

"No, go fetch a spear there. I want to see your skills with one"

Alistair groaned, jogged to the weapons holder, grabbing the smallest spear, best suited for his size.

...

Alistair wished training was over, the muscles in his lower calves were really starting to ache, because fighting with a weapon was half the fun for him.

Next was hand to hand combat. Theone had him eating and taking a nap for two hours before their resumed training and it wasn't immediate.

"Did you stretch?" his mentor asked.

"Kinda," Alistair said with a shrug, wrapping up his fist .

"What do you mean kinda?" his mentor asked, his voice strained as he arched his back.

"I'm stretching right now," Alistair offered, as he latched his hands to each other and raised his arms above his head.

After an excessive amount of twisting and bending and huffs and puffs, Alistair shook himself loose and raised his fists in front of his body.

"Whenever you're ready Ajusshi." Alistair said after stretching after what felt like an eternity.

Alistair supposed he should be grateful that he would be the one to initiate the fight, and that he could use mana - only to coax his body, no spells- but the disadvantage between the two body sizes was killing him.

Alistair feinted left and unsurprisingly Theone followed. Excited for the opportunity Alistair turned right then spun and snuck a hit to Theone's side, but he only had a moment to celebrate before Theone was clutching Alistair's outstretched leg. Theone tugged Alistair up and over his shoulder and Alistair tumbled through the air to land in a heap at Theone's feet.

"Offence and defense, make it happen," Theone said as Alistair clambered back into his fighting stance.

They traded blows, mostly Alistair - Theone was on defense, but they danced dizzying circles around each other. Alistair had a suspicion he'd been getting better, but being able to hold his own against Theone proved it, even if he wasn't on full power m. He was still getting his butt handed to him, but considerably less than last time.

The spar ended up with him panting on the floor and his mentor handing in some water. The man barely broke into a sweat, and yet Alistair was downing in his sweat. He vowed to get at least on good and heavy punch on his mentor, one that neither will never forget, but for now he was getting the short end of the stick.

'Ajusshi has too much time on him, for him to be beating up a kid.' he jokingly thought.

"I hope you are smiling because you are thinking a way to improve."

"No." he said, lying isn't really he's style, especially unnecessary lying.

"Common get up, I'm sending you home early today. I have an arrand to handle."

Now that picked Alistair's curiosity. "I'll go with you!" he said, dusting himself.

"no."

The refusal entered one ears and went out the other, "So where are we going?"

"I said no. You are going home."

"Are we going to send a love letter to your beloved or maybe retrieve the small box you left to your important friends that contains your life's work."

"You have too much time on your hands, maybe I should increase training."

"I'm going with you, Ajusshi. I'll even have a disguise."

"Really now?"

Alistair sat up straight in a lotus pose, and whispered a spell.

The spell turned his auburn colored hair black and his blue eyes also black. His face structure changed to a slightly average looking face.

'phew! That took a lot more than I thought it would.'

Theone on the other hand was awe, "Ho- I honestly should not be surprised anymore." he said sighing.

"I'm ready to go."

"If anyone asks you, you are my student. In fact don't talk to anyone, and stay close. I don't want you creating chao."

"Sir yes sir!" Alistair saluted.

...

Theone wonders what is it with this child he took in. He acts so goofy and childish, even to the point of annoying him, but when they are training or sparring he shows discipline, discipline that he had not seen since before the war, when there were still a few good people.

The kid has a large amount of mana. More than I've ever seen before, more than the mana beast I've hunted. And the level of control is unbelievable, he know the limits of his body and tends to pull past them. Unfortunately he's still a child and that body of he's tends to limit his potential and his weird refusal to use weapons.

As an augmentor he is powerful, but as a conjurer, the kid is untouchable. The kid, he has a whole battle field in front of him and can utilize it simultaneously. It's as if he's playing chess; he controls the entire game and you're just one piece. But he refuses to play that game and fights with his hands instead.

Alistair skipped down the sidewalk, walking around in circles of his mentor.

Theone looks at the boy, he acts as if he's playing but he's actually looking at his surroundings.

His mentor is such a mother hen, always worrying about what he's doing or eating and sometimes on how he fights. He knows he's methods are unorthodox for a child but that's the thrill in every.

The boy tends to imitate people - an attempt to act normal or civilized, sometimes he's imitation resembles a beast. Wild and predatoral. He likes to fight a cat and mouse fight, where he makes you feel like the mouse, despite the fact Theone is stronger than him.

They turn a couple of more street corners before finding themselves on one that was as populated as the city. Today was probably one of the most busiest days of the year.

Theone scoops up Alistair he squeaks up in surprise. With eased practice, the slip through the crowd and head in through the back door to the building. They heard to the teleportion gate to their destination, Alistair behaving for once and keeping quiet. Theone guided him though the gate and they arrived to a completely different place.

Alistair, excited about seeing a new place asks: "What is this place?"

"The Adventurers Guide."