Chapter 27 - Mai vs. Via

"This match will be treated as an unofficial sparring match, therefore it will not affect any records or tier placements." Kenzo stated.

"Is their like a sparring league or something?" Aaron asked.

"How would I know." Kaden replied.

"I Kenzo Miyuki, will act as referee for this match. This is an essence sparring match, so use of weapons and physical attacks not created by an essence type is prohibited. The match ends when one contestant forfeits or if I believe that a contestant can no longer participate. With that being said, contestant one are you ready?"

"Ready." Mai replied as she stood in front of their training pond."

"Contestant two, are you ready?"

"Yes." Via responded nervously.

Aaron, Kaden and Damien stood about ten meters away and watched on from the side.

"This will be my first time encountering an air essence user apart from Kaden." Mai thought. "The only other experience I have dealing with air essence is that Arashi, and that was a complete fail. I can't fail again here."

Via took in a deep breathe of air, held her head high and didn't show any visible uneasiness or fear. She actually appeared more calm than Mai.

"This should be interesting." Damien said.

"Any predictions?" Aaron asked.

"...Based off of what I've seen from these two, this should be an easy fight for the little one."

"You think Via'll win?" Kaden questioned. "I haven't seen her in action but surely it won't be a walk in the park against Maira. They even said air essence isn't the best for fighting."

"Watch and see." Damien stated while crossing his arms.

"...With that being said, this match will now... begin!"

Mai didn't waste any time, pulling two streams of water from the pond behind her and shooting them over to Via. Without hesitation, Via waved her hands over her before directing them towards the floor beneath her.

Whoosh!!

A sudden burst of wind launched Via into a front flip over twenty feet in the air. Mai was stunned by the reckless play, but only for a brief moment. She quickly maneuvered her streams of water in the air towards her.

"That wasn't smart, she's vulnerable up there." Kaden said.

"Is she?" Aaron questioned.

Just before the high velocity streams of water made contact with Via, she used another burst of wind to evade them once again.

"Via mentioned it briefly when we both first arrived in Aestus, but I never asked her about it after that day. Mostly because I believed it was possible."

"You understand we can fly straight out the top of this place with our essence right." Via had said to Damien before.

"Of course flying would be possible with air essence." Aaron stated with a grin.

Mai continued to pursuit Via with her streams of water which she controlled with commendable accuracy and precision. However, Via displayed a mind dazzling performance of aerial acrobatics to skillfully evade every single strike from Mai's streams. Instead of constantly using her essence to keep herself in the air, Via alternated between using small gusts of wind from her right and left palms to direct her trajectory as she flew through the air.

"Amazing." Aaron said as he watched on with a huge smile.

"If she gets a good hit on me and soaks me, then there's a good chance she'll be able to freeze the water on my body." Via thought to herself. "There's no way that she could have the level of endurance that I have, so I should be able to dance around her like this until she gets tired out."

"Get down here!" Mai said as she slammed both of her hands onto the sand.

A sudden torrent of water erupted from the pond which Via had now found herself hovering over.

"She was using the smaller streams to guide Via over the pond." Damien explained.

Via was just as stunned and surprised as Kaden and Aaron who were watching on. At the very last moment before she was blasted by the eruption, she held her palm out and released another gust of wind. She managed to just barely clear herself out of the range of the geyser, but doing so knocked her out of rhythm. One of the high speed water streams flew around the geyser and took aim directly for Via's head. Via who was upside down in the air, managed to lift her upper body out of the way of the stream. She quickly inspected the area around her in an attempt to collect herself once again, but before she realized, Via was met with a hard blast of water into her upper back.

"AAAGGGHHH!" She screamed as she crashed into the pond below her.

"Via-" Aaron said out of concern as Damien extended his arm to stop him from moving.

"Don't intervene." Damien said.

"Getting hit from water moving that fast surely is gonna hurt." Kaden commented.

The hit definitely dazed Via as she slowly got up onto her hands and knees in the pond.

"That eruption distracted me and threw me off balance, so she used it cover up where she was moving the smaller streams." Via thought.

As she kneeled there, the water began to swirl around her rapidly, until she was sat in the middle of a raging vortex. Mai walked over to the edge of the vortex and asked Via...

"Do you submit?"

"Sigh, I might as well." Via thought. "Winning or losing here doesn't matter to me."

Via stood up and readied herself to call it quits and end the match, but before she could, she caught notice of Aaron watching on. He looked straight into Via's eyes and gave her a confident grin while nodding his head. Her eyes widened as she suddenly caught the feeling that she couldn't submit so easily anymore. She clinched her fist as she took in a deep inhale of breathe.

"She's not giving up that easily." Aaron stated.

"For someone you've known for only a short period of time, you sure do know quite a bit about her." Kaden said.

"The fact that she's persistent isn't hard to see."

Via stretched out both of her hands and slowly began to release her breathe. As soon as Mai saw this she elevated the vortex to about ten feet tall, and began to close it in. As she proceeded with closing it, a vortex of wind began to appear at the center of the water vortex. This wind vortex rapidly gained speed and spun counter clockwise, the opposite direction of Mai's water vortex. In almost no time at all the column of air stretched over twenty feet in the air, easily overshadowing Mai's vortex. Mai began to show a bit of concern as even Kaden and the others could've felt the strength of the wind from where they were standing.

"Isn't this a bit much?" Kaden questioned. "She basically created a tornado."

Mai tried to close in her vortex once again, but as she did Via expanded her tornado and the two vortices clashed. The clash resulted in an outward explosion of wind and water which sent Mai flying into the grass, and nearly knocked everyone else off of their feet. The shockwave had the strength of a miniature hurricane, shaking entire branches off of trees and almost eviscerating all of the water out of the pond. Mai pulled herself up onto one knee while panting lightly from slightly overexerting herself.

"Maybe it was a bit too much." Aaron said.

"...What happened to Via?" Kaden asked.

There wasn't any sign of Via following the aftermath of the explosion. They all scanned the area in an attempt to locate her, but she was nowhere to be found.

"She wouldn't..." Kenzo said as he gripped the handle of his blade.

"..."

Mai closed her eyes and breathed calmly through her mouth for a few seconds.

"...Above."

Mai's eyes opened with a jolt as she swiftly looked up towards the descending Via. An intense gust of wind was fired off from Via aimed directly at Mai, however she evaded it fairly easily by leaping backwards. Via used her essence to gently land back on the ground.

"My apologies for underestimating your abilities." Mai said.

"My apologies for overestimating yours." Via replied.

"Excuse me?"

"I thought you'd be able to freeze water like the other water essence users I've met, but if you could you would've done it when I landed in the pond earlier. It would've been an easy win at that point. But, it seems you can't do that can you?"

Mai visibly became frustrated from the accurate assumption Via made.

"Whether I can change water to a solid or gas doesn't matter, I can still win this fight." Mai thought to herself. "My essence is still in the droplets of water that were in the blast. I just have to bring them all together and then-"

"Déno."

"Huh...?"

"That's the match." Damien said casually.

Mai looked down to her own feet which were now wrapped with elongated blades of grass.

"What's this?" Mai questioned as she attempted to pull her feet free.

"Kálymma."

The grass grew even longer until it fully cacooned Mai's body from the neck down. She struggled but was barely able to move her own hands an inch forward. Via confidently walked up to her and raised her palm towards Mai's face.

"...I submit." Mai reluctantly muttered out.

"Iýo."

Kenzo and everyone else approached the two as Mai was being slowly released from the grass prison.

"How did you..."

"It's magic, using life essence to control organic material like grass, vines and so on." Aaron explained.

"Is that allowed?" Mai questioned looking in Kenzo's direction.

"This was an essence battle." Kenzo clarified. "It was never specified that elemental essence was the only type you could've used. So with this being an application of life essence, it is undoubtedly legal."

Mai released a heavy sigh as she hung her head for a few seconds. Only a few seconds though, she recovered rather quickly and took a step towards Via with her hand outstretched.

"Good match." Mai said with a slight grin.

A large smile crept onto Via's face as she also stepped forward to shake Mai's hand. Aaron placed his hand on Via's shoulder and playfully shook her as they also traded smiles at each other. Kaden remained silent, watching the others discuss everything that transpired during the sparring match, but his attention was fixated on one of them more than the others.

"I wonder if I'm the only one who sees her frustration?" Kaden thought to himself.

.....

The remainder of the day went by without any other notable events happening. Via continued her training with Aaron and Kaden, then after a few hours Kaden once again began his meditation Mai. Damien escorted Aaron and Via to there new residence as the two are still adjusting to living in the village. While Mai and Kaden left the training area and walked home together.

"Those two are quite different." Mai stated.

"Who? Aaron and Via?" Kaden questioned.

"Yes. Aaron is very sociable and outgoing with an overall bright personality. Via on the other hand seems very timid and clingy towards Aaron."

"Aaron's just too nice, like you said he has a bright personality, so people who lived in darkness tend to gravitate towards him."

"Would you consider yourself as one of those people?" Mai asked.

"Definitely."

"Hmm..."

"..."

"Mai... you would consider me as a friend, right?" Kaden asked.

"Wh-What's with that question all of a sudden."

Without replying Kaden stared deeply into Mai's eyes.

"...Yes, of course we're friends."

"Alright. You were too passive back there." Kaden stated.

"Huh?"

"Instead of that vortex you made, why didn't you try to drown her in one of those water balls?"

"Because she's just a kid and-"

"That "kid" just bested you in a sparring match. That's what I mean about you playing it passive."

"What if I had actually hurt her?" Mai questioned with her tone of voice rising.

"Kenzo would've intervened. Anymore excuses?"

"They aren't excuses, they're genuine concerns!"

"Bullshit. The moment Via called you out on not being able to freeze water, the match was over." Kaden said as he stopped walking. "Not because she caught on to it, but because she unknowingly struck your weakness."

"My weakness? And what would that be?" Mai asked as she also stopped walking.

"Appearing weak in front of others."

Mai went silent from Kaden's response and stood there stunned without any form of a reply.

"You thought that Via would've been a lot easier to beat, so everytime she showed more of her capabilities, you lost confidence. Her precise use of her air essence along with the strength she showed with that tornado surprised you. When she used her magic you lost all willingness to continue."

"...What was I supposed to do at that point." Mai questioned as she dropped her gaze to the floor. "All I have is my water essence which I can only do so much with. It seems like everyone around me has so much more talent and is capable of doing numerous things."

"You only need that one thing." Kaden replied.

"That's easy for you to say! One day you'll be able to use all four elemental essences, while I'll still only have the one!"

"What's the point in me having all four if I don't know what I'm doing with any of it. After all these weeks I still can't draw out water essence, and I barely can use air for a few minutes before blacking out."

"But in time-"

"Why can't you be the best water essence user in time?" Kaden questioned as he interrupted her. "You're smart, hardworking and diligent. Even if you could never change liquid water to ice, I still believe you could be the best water essence user some day. Water can take on the shape of any container it fills, you told me that. You're trying too hard to be like the other guards when you should just make your own style."

"...Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Cause I'm your friend. Real friends point out each other's flaws and then help each other overcome them. Fake friends talk about your flaws behind your back and hold you down. I want to help you grow just like you've been helping me."

"...I've been trying for so long..."

"By yourself? Well now you don't have to try alone."

Mai looked back up into Kaden's eyes and saw the sincerity along with the care. She felt an emotion that she couldn't put into words even if she tried for hours. An emotion she was unfamiliar with, but in time she'll become even more aware of.

"...Thank you Kaden." She said softly.

"From tomorrow forward, let's train a bit differently." Kaden suggested.