Chapter Seven

Tengeshi took a ready stance he had seen a male elf take within his dreams. Though the stance felt somewhat strange, he wasn't going to pretend he didn't practice the stance every once in a while when his father wasn't looking. He felt clumsy compared to Elysia who seemed like she had always stood in a ready position. One foot in front of the other with her leg slightly bent, sword poised at the ready. She may have looked eight years old, but her posture spoke of years of experience.

Whether he was ready or not, Elysia stepped forward in a thrust. Though she didn't use the agility glyph, Tengeshi was still taken by surprise as the wooden blade batted his aside in an instant, the next second he felt his legs go out from under him and he saw the blue sky through the trees. He didn't even see the girl move, yet he did see the practice bade against his throat.

"That was a good stance, but I think the trick is to block my blade." She smiled as she lowered the practice sword and held out a hand.

Tengeshi saw the laughter in her eyes. Though he was thoroughly embarrassed, he still smiled when he grabbed her hand and got back to his feet. He hadn't seen that playfulness in her since they had started their journey, however shor a time that was. "I thought the plan was to teach me how to use a blade, not get butchered by one." He looked down at the wooden sword with a complicated expression.

"There's no better way to learn than to get beaten up a bunch of times by a girl, right?" She twirled the blade playfully, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She treated the sword like a lifelong friend, while Tengeshi saw his sword as just a hunk of wood. "Again!" She took her ready stance.

Tengeshi began to bring up the sword into a ready position, but Elysia was already closing in. He saw the briefest of motions as she dropped to the ground and swung her sword out. The end result was a beautiful view of the clouds in the sky once more. Though instead of complaining, he got back to his feet and took a ready stance once more.

The sun went from early rising to high in the sky before they decided to take a break. Through the hours of getting knocked off his feet, Tengeshi was able to start moving the sword just a little faster. Though still not fast enough to block Elysia's blade, he still found it to be an improvement. "I think I might be able to do better if we trained with life force." He rubbed his arm where a bruise formed.

"Glyphs can help multiply your combat proficiency, but if you have a low combat potential, it would be wasted. You need to learn to fight without life force, that way you will be proficient enough if you run out during a fight." Elysia sat against a tree while eating a slice of the chicken they had cooked earlier that day.

"But if we don't use life force, we won't be able to train it." He complained. What was the use of having an amazing gift like life force if they weren't going to use it?

Elysia sighed. "I understand, and you are right. I was intending on bringing life force into the training, but not during sparring." She finished up her chicken and got back to her feet. "For now, let's activate agility."

Tengeshi nodded as he allowed his life force to flow into the glyphs at his feet. He smiled as he waited expectantly for her next instructions.

"I keep forgetting we are only eight." She rolled her eyes at him. "You won't be so excited after we get started, I promise." She gave him a knowing smile as she activated her own glyphs. "All you have to do is keep up with me!"

Tengeshi's eyes went wide as Elysia all but vanished from where she was only a moment before. His eyes picked up a blur of motion thanks to the agility glyph. Instead of questioning it, he began to run. As soon as he did, Elysia appeared next to him.

"Since you still aren't used to this speed, I'll keep in step with you." She giggled as they blurred through the woodline. Since they were in just a small wooded area, they had to do laps. It was still good training due to the branches they had to jump over. Tengeshi still fell on his face a few times after not watching where he was going.

Running at full speed, it took less than two hours before Tengeshi had used up all of his life force. He pushed himself until all but a strand remained, only to keep himself from passing out.

After they stopped to replenish their life force, they began to spar again. Even after using glyphs to attain insane speed, Tengeshi retained none of it as he took the sword to his face more times than he parried. No matter what he did, he could not defend from the onslaught of sword slashes from his opponent. Though, with a little time, he knew he might be able to defend one or two blows. He had a feeling she was using the same attacks in order for him to catch on. In some ways, he was. His eyes were able to follow her movements for the most part, it was his body that wasn't able to keep up.

After a few more hours of pain, Tengeshi finally put his sword into their travel bag. "I think I've had enough of being your beating post for the day." Sweat poured from his body, drenching the shirt he was wearing.

"We still have a little light left," Elysia looked through the trees to find the slowly fading sunlight. "What do you think we should do?"

Tengeshi took in their surroundings before activating the strength and agility glyphs in his legs and jumped to the top of the treeline. He made sure to use only a fraction of his life force this time, so that he wouldn't launch himself into the air. Even still, he had to grab hold of a tree in order to stop climbing after he reached the top. As he did, he looked in all directions before locking in on a large rock outside the treeline near a stream of water.

Dropping back down, he told Elysia of the stone. Though she didn't understand his excitement, she still followed him to the stone.

Tengeshi used his strength glyph to pick the boulder up. Even with the glyph, he still strained under the weight of the stone. They had to take turns carrying the stone to return it to the woods, but when they finally entered the threshold, Tengeshi dropped it and fell to the floor, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Would you mind telling me what this is about?" Elysia dropped next to him.

"This will be my forge." His eyes lit up in excitement as he stared at the large rock.

"As nice as that sounds, how are we going to make anything without alerting the gargoyles?" She did see how the stone could make a good heat source after he hollowed it out.

"Where do you think we'll find the minerals to make the weapons in the first place?" Tengeshi smiled as he looked at Elysia. "No matter where we go, it would be dangerous to forge anything. So where would be safe to find materials and forge?"

Elysia shrugged. "You've obviously figured out a way, so why don't you just tell me?"

Instead of answering her question, Tengeshi looked at the ground. "I think the center of the woods would be best." He brought the stone the rest of the way to the center of their new home. As soon as he set it down, he kept the strength glyph active and moved the flow of life force to his hands instead. After measuring for a few moments, he punched the earth. Where his fist landed, a small hole appeared under it. "I don't mean to have a forge out in the open." He smiled.

"You're crazy." Elysia rubbed her hand as if feeling the force of the blow through her. "You have no idea how long it'll take."

"It's like you said." He punched the ground again, enlarging the small crater. "We need to be prepared."