The Pathway To Success

Samuel knew that the fastest way to try out his plan would be a trial by fire, as if every lesson before had not been exactly that!

He took only a few moments to visualize his thoughts into one singular line of concentration, meditating for quite some time and the next day he arrived at the training hall to find Alsian already waiting for him.

"You have entered with quite the confidence in your step today I see!" Alsian quickly snorted as if unimpressed, but he broke it with a small smile quickly thereafter.

"I think I have taken one step forward!" Samuel replied with a simple smile.

"Very well then!" Alsian took out his swords. "How about we try it out again!" He winked at Samuel who also drew both his blades that seemed to sing in anticipation.

He could hear the muffled song of both blades until he brought both swords together in front of his face. 'Focus your line of thoughts into one concentrated being!' He reapeated to himself those words in his mind.

Until all his thoughts became one clear line with one purpose. In a air reverberation as if both swords emitted a vibration he could hear their song clearly. One sang it's tale of mastership and perfection.

The other like a wild inferno with a hidden message of grace. He aimed both blades forward and nodded while closing his eyes to signal that he was ready.

Alsian didn't know what the youth was thinking when he closed his eyes but he didn't let that stop him. He charged forward like so many other times before, silent and deadly like a sabercat.

He swung his sword in a downward arc only for Samuel to block it perfectly with an x cross with his swords.

But that didn't stop Alsian from unleashing a swift torrent of continuous attacks, but something was truly different this time, usually Samuel had to dodge a few of them to avoid being hit, but this time he was parrying each blow perfectly.

More than that, what truly surprised Alsian was the fact that Samuel still had closed eyes. Alsian grinned from ear to ear and perfectly jumped several meters backward and dodged Samuels counterattack at the same time.

"You have successfully surprised me!" Alsian laughed and Samuel opened his eyes.

"I just did something really scary! I followed my instinct and listened to my swords!" Samuel spoke while holding up his swords with both his arms shaking. His plan to follow instinct and listen to the song of his swords had worked, but it didn't make it less scary!

"Well, I hope you are ready for phase two then!"

Samuel took a step back upon hearing those words. "W-Whats phase two?"

All he was met by was Alsian's grin, "Mixing in magic while we fight. Like this..."

Upon those words Alsian once again had used time magic to boost his speed and he was suddenly right in front of Samuel swinging his blade.

Samuel didn't close his eyes because this time he needed them, his little breakthrough not only caused one thing, but the moment Alsian used time magic with a snap of a finger...

His eyes awoke their ability, and he saw time moving in slow motion, Alsian that was moving faster because of his magic suddenly moved like normal. "Break-Point" Samuel whispered and his arm moved to parry Alsian's blade once more.

The loud sound of metal parrying metal was heard through the hall and Alsian almost had a hard time to believe what he saw, Samuel had finally been able to perfectly protect himself from when he had used magic.

"We'll... I'll be damned! It looks like I need to get a bit more serious and up the ante a little bit huh!" Alsian couldn't help but smile proudly at the sight before him as Samuel stood tall, albeit a little bit shocked.

He wasn't the only one surprised, on the sidelines stood many of the souls as well as Night that had watched, they all had anticipated Samuel to be defeated once again as per usual. But when time had stood still for most of them and Alsian moved from one place to the next - most thought it over.

But then they saw that Samuel had parried even that blow and now many of them were cheering for Samuel. "Good job Kid!" or "Yeah finally! or "Hah I knew he could do it!" Were only some of the voices that spoke from the small crowd.

Alsian once again took a few steps back and readied his blade as if he was going to strike. "Here I come! Second Encore!" In a flash he was gone again, but Samuel kept parrying his blades every time.

"Thid Encore!" Alsian resounded after a while and now Samuel started struggling to keep up. His eyes were not able to keep up with Alsian's speed, and he now started realizing just how dangerous time wizards could be... as rare as they come as dangerous they might be.

At the end of the third encore Samuel had started dodging and weaving out of the way again, but he saw a sudden opening. "Lightning REND!" both of Samuel's swords lit up with lightning and he swung two horizontal arcs of lightning slashes.

They both travelled forward toward Alsian that had been approaching from the front, Alsian smirked and whispered "Fourth Encore." Proud as he was, he was not the teacher who would give out a free victory.

In one instant Alsian somersaulted over the two wide lightning slashes, while bringing down the flat side of his sword right over Samuel's head.

Silence ensued and darkness took over.

A short while later Samuel sat up from the ground with a massive headsplitting headache. Groaning "Ugh, what happened?" His short term memory had taken a bit of a hit, he remembered casting two lightning slashes and then nothing.

Night who sat in her dragon form next to him patiently waiting started giggling. "He bonked you on the head with his sword!"

Alsian walked over and threw a waterskin into Samuels lap, "Drink up kiddo... you need it and you deserve it!"

"You know when you came walking in here all smug like I thought It was just you lulling yourself into a fake sense of actually figuring something out, never did I think you would have actually figured out the first step to your own abilities." Alsian smiled wryly.

"My abilities? Huh?" Samuel replied after drinking some water and then looking confused.

"You activated your eyes in a constant flux!" Alsian shrugged, "They shone with a black golden light constantly... which is a pretty good giveaway for children of mana using their abilities!"

As if to emphasize it, Alsian snapped his fingers and his eyes shone in a light blue color as small sparks of yellow light shot from him like lightning. The essence of time magic and Alsian's ability to commune with other children of mana.

"Yeah no... that is pretty cool. Didn't realize my eyes were doing that though? But I do remember using the power at a constant state." Samuel sighed.

"But it didn't feel like I was using a power! It felt like..."

"It felt like you were simply using another part of yourself, something as natural as using your senses!" Alsian finished his sentance and Samuel nodded.

"Well, the simple explanation is that, that is exactly what it is!" Alsian said and crouched down in front of Samuel. "It's as natural as breathing, smelling or seeing something with our own body!"

"In a way we children of mana have more senses than most mortals because of it. Our ability to connect with the flow of mana itself, to convert it into magic almost endlessly. Our abilities given to us at birth, almost as if chosen to match who we are supposed to be!"

"In a way many believe our fates are chosen for us... I am not one of those thankfully, but to deny the fact that something or someone has given us an extra boon to help - That much, is true!"

Alsian sighed and looked at all the spirits that travelled with him. "It is a weird form of affection. Which is one of the big questions I am looking for!"

"We are looking for in other words!" Samuel replied and Alsian let out a hmm and nodded.

"Come now, busy as my schedule is, it would be a waste not to kick your ass a few more times. We are going to repeat the same thing over and over until you master it after all!"

Alsian stood tall and extended his hand to drag Samuel back on his feet.

For the course of the next few weeks they were back at the same thing, Samuel getting his ass kicked but getting better and better at fighting and controlling every aspect of his power.

All while trying to find the next step to what his power really is, slowly buy steadily improving while also trying to focus on his studies and trying to act a little bit as a figurehead for his faction.

But he couldn't help but feel that he was mostly just a mascot for his own faction that was essentially run by Vuloc alone.

But he was completely fine with it, because he was making some headway into getting even better at magic and fighting in general. While also reading about history and learning more about transmutation where he could.

Working on his secret project whenever he had time to spare.

If there was one thing that had become true, it was that he always had plenty of friends and allies to depend on. Others he could learn from and who could help him along the way.

"Even if I am just a one man team!"

"Two person team!" Night retorted quickly. She had also been working her ass off with the children of mana. Learning to control her own powers and regaining some short flashes of memories.

They had become a two person team for sure, knowing eachother inward and out perfectly to cover for eachother. But that didn't stop Alsian from whopping their butts every time they tried.

Time quickly passed along until the next trial slowly approached.