Sword and Mana

Every morning, Blaze waited for Leus in the garden at dawn. He used to wake him up in the beginning, but now Leus got up on his own.

As soon as Leus came out, Blaze threw the sword to him, and Leus caught it with flexibility

"Now that you can stand your ground, I will focus on teaching you how to fight properly"

Leus nodded and fixed his posture

"Watch this"

Blaze took a stance, firmly held the sword with both his hands, and aimed forward, So the tip of his sword was pointing slightly upward

Then, Blaze's red eyes gleamed for a second, And flames engulfed the sword

"You have to think of your sword as a part of your body. Not a separated entity, But an extension of your hand"

The fire calmed down a bit, But the sword was still burning

Leus looked at the sword and said

"I have a question"

"Yes?"

"How is the wood not ... I don't know - Burning?"

After Leus said that he deeply inspected his sword

'No matter how I look at it, It is just an average wooden sword'

'How is it not turning into ashes?'

Leus wanted to ask about this the first time too, but he was too upset to ask about it

"That's because these are not normal swords"

Blaze continued while tapping on his sword

"These are enchanted swords, Inside them, there are Mana Stones that greatly strengthen the sword.

These swords are actually designed for Knights' mock battles"

Leus kept looking at the sword but he didn't see anything of that sort

'Must be hidden inside or something, I can't see or feel anything'

After Leus was done inspecting his sword Blaze continued

"Now focus on the important thing.

To do this, You must transform the mana inside you into the element you want, Then slowly push it out of your body into your sword, Take your time"

Leus concentrated on the mana inside him, transformed it into fire mana, And slowly pushed it out of his body toward his sword

'Heh, This is nothing compared to transforming the Neutral Mana around me to Elemental Mana, This is just so easy'

The flames around Leus' sword weren't stable,

Sometimes they'd not extend to the end of the sword, other times they'd cover only half of the sword,

But regardless of the imperfections, The sword was on fire.

When Blaze saw that his eyes opened wide for a second

'What? Already'

After getting over the initial shock, He started scratching the back of his neck

'That should've been harder'

Nevertheless, he controlled his expression so as not to make Leus feel like he achieved something amazing

'I don't want to praise him too much or spoil him'

Blaze fixed his tone and gave Leus instructions

"Good job, The imperfections are because you're not feeling your sword.

Think of it like this, If you'd extend your arm forward, Even with your eyes closed you'd know how far your arm is extended and you'd be able to feel it.

But you're not feeling your sword, You're thinking about how much mana to put into it, Stop thinking and focus on your senses"

Leus didn't understand exactly what Blaze meant, But he had a rough idea

So he closed his eyes and focused on his senses

Surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult

'After thousands of slashes, I should be able to achieve this much'

But there was something else on Leus' mind

'I want to try something'

Leus put his sword down and summoned his daggers

Blaze just looked at what he was trying to do and didn't say anything

'Hmm'

Leus held two daggers in his hands and tried to push Fire Mana into them, But it didn't work, So he pushed even more mana out

Still, it didn't work

'Why is it not working'

Then Blaze asked him

"What are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to do the same thing with my daggers"

Blaze thought about it for a couple of seconds and then said

"For something like that to work on summoned weapons it requires more complex abstracts"

Leus stopped and looked at him for further explanation

Blaze only shrugged

"I don't know the details, I'm not a magician.

I only know that combining two different types of Mana is a complex process."

Leus nodded and tried for a couple more seconds

He noticed that he was able to put Flame on top of the daggers

'But that's just useless, I'm putting a fire spell on top of the dagger, If that's what I want then it'd be better to put a dagger inside a fireball'

'I want the dagger itself to be burning'

Which wasn't happening,

Sadly, Leus had to give up on his (Super Dagger Theory), He canceled his daggers and picked up his sword again

"Dad, Do I have to use only fire?"

"Hmm? You can use other elements?"

Leus looked at Blaze in confusion

'What does he mean by that'

Leus decided to try different kinds of mana on the sword

Earth Mana

'That's just useless ... Why would I want to cover my sword in rocks?'

Leus tried to add more earth mana thinking that he might be able to sharpen the sword or do something useful with it

'Well, If the mana is properly controlled and big enough I can create a sharp edge, That's cool here with a wooden sword, But there's no use for it on a real sword

Perhaps I can elongate my sword with it ... But ... I don't need more range with my sword, That's what Magic is for'

So he tried a different element

Water Mana

The sword became covered in a thick liquid substance

'What's the use of this?'

Leus slashed with his sword a few times

'There's hardly any difference in weight, But I don't know what's the use of this, Maybe it can extinguish the fire or something?'

The more Mana Leus spent, The thicker the liquid became, But he still couldn't think of a specific use for it so he just moved on to the next element

Ice Mana

'That's just a cold version of earth mana'

Honestly, Leus just hates ice anyway, So he quickly moved on to the next element

Wind Mana

'Interesting'

The wind gathered around the sword and Leus felt control over it

'Hmm, I think I know what this would do'

He started slashing

'As expected, It's like Boost, But smaller and weaker'

When Leus willed it, The wind would just shoot forward, Increasing the speed of the slash

'It's subtle but effective.

I'll need some training to master it but I should be able to do it, It should be easier than learning Boost'

Leus was satisfied with his finding and tried the next element

Light Mana

The sword started shining, The more mana he put the shinier the sword became

'Wow, It's reducing the weight'

Leus became intrigued and kept putting mana into the sword until it became as light as a feather

'That's just fascinating'

Leus was honestly impressed, He didn't expect light to do much but it had a really cool effect

'It negates all the weight of the sword, It's like I'm not carrying anything'

'I wonder what would Darkness do? Would it make the sword heavier?'

Sadly, Leus had no idea how to transform his Mana into Darkness Mana

'Once again, I need Darkness spells'

'That's the first thing I'll learn when I go to Arno'

Leus was done trying all the elements, So he fixed his posture, Took a stance, and looked at Blaze

But Blaze was looking at him in a strange way

"Dad?"