Atlas

"HAH! HAH! HAH!"

*THWACK THWACK THWACK*

"CONTROL YOURSELF! IF YOU KEEP OVER SWINGING YOU'LL GET YOURSELF KILLED!"

Atlas picks up the wooden pole he's been using for training. He looks at his father and to the other knights on the training field. Around ten other men are here, all dressed in exercise clothes. Beside his father are two knights fully dressed in black plate armor with gold trim. One knight has a halberd with an enormous head and the other has a sword nearly the same height and width as him.

"Father, I don't believe that polearms are for me. I feel wrong every time I touch one."

Baron Luce looks at his son with a puzzled face.

"So… You don't feel anything good when you touch a bow, an axe, a polearm, or just a straight up stick huh?"

Baron Luce paces back and forth while running the green tinted stubble on his chin. One of the knights behind him steps forward,

"Master Luce, I believe he may be the same as me."

On the knights back is a sword nearly as big as he is.

"Hm. Yes, he may be a berserker class… Do you mind letting him touch it?"

"Not at all, my liege."

The knight walks over to Atlas and draws the buster sword from his back with a single hand. He kneels down with his black and gold armor glinting sunlight into Atlas' eyes. He holds the sword out across his knee and says,

"Young master, if you will, touch the handle and see how it feels."

Atlas reaches over, gripping the brass handle of the sword. After a few seconds, the young boy lets go and shakes his head with a dejected look on his face.

"No father. I don't believe this is for me either."

His dad gives him an understanding smile and says,

"Hah… I guess you take your class after your mom then. I'll arrange a magic teacher for you. Luckily I know an arch-mage who'd be willing to teach you. Until then, your mother will be the one to teach you."

Atlas gets a big smile on his face as he hears this. Atlas has always been incredibly interested in magic from the first day he was born. His father; however, wanted his only son to be the one to take his class. Unfortunately for him, his daughter Amy was the one who inherited it from her preference of weapons.

Atlas gets a confused look on his face as he thinks deeply about something,

"Wait… Father, if I was said to have incredible talent with magic when I was born, why did we waste time training with weapons?"

Baron Luce gets a grin on his face as he says,

"My boy, mages aren't the only ones who use magic. Us knights, for example, use it to enhance our body beyond what humans are capable of. Condensing our muscles, increasing our speed, and even mana slashes."

He walks over to the kneeling knight and takes the buster sword into one hand. He gets into a stance where one of his arms is forwards while the other is holding the sword with the tip pointed forward. He steps forward as a bright green light envelopes the massive sword. His short hair starts flowing in the non-existent wind, and his eyes start to glow green. As his foot hits the ground, he slashes upwards. The bright green light leaves the sword, traveling forward at a blinding speed. As it passes, an incredible maelstrom of wind blasts through, knocking weapons off their stands and knocking over the weaker soldiers. The light flies into a straw dummy set up nearly 30 feet away from Baron Luce, traveling straight through it. The light continues on and slams into the stone wall behind it, leaving a deep gash.

As the light dissipates, the straw dummy falls over into two pieces. Atlas looks forward completely dumbfounded. In all his five long years of life he'd never seen anything like that. He's seen his sister casting weak magic, but never anything higher than lesser tier!

He looks at his father who has a smug look on his face. Atlas grabs his fathers hand, expectantly.

"That was a mana slash! Of course, it was a relatively weak one because my class is only of great level, your grandpa would've cut through the entire castle and then some."

Atlas gets stars in his eyes. He runs over to a wooden stick and picks it up, imitating his dads movements. The knights surrounding them as well as his dad all smile at him warmly. It's always adorable seeing a child try to imitate their parents.

Usually.

However, those warm smiles soon turned to shock.

A weak green aura started to spread from the little boys hands to surround the stick. Veins start showing from the boys arms as they seem to turn muscular. His shoulder length hair starts flowing slightly as his eyes release a low green glow. He takes all the power in his little body and steps forward, thrusting with the stick. A small windstorm comes from the tip of the stick as the weak green energy barrels forward. With a loud *THWACK!* it slams into the hay target, leaving a fist sized hole in the chest. As the energy leaves the back of the target, it slowly dissipates into nothingness. Atlas turns towards his father and gives him a big toothy smile, while his father just keeps staring at the target completely dumbfounded. Atlas walks over to his father, slowly losing his smile as his eyes start to feel tired and he's overwhelmed by exhaustion. He falls over right when he reaches his dad, who snaps out of it and catches him.

Atlas speaks up,

"Why am I so tired suddenly?"

He asks as his dad picks him up.

"… That's because you pushed your body beyond its limits for the first time."

Before he's even able to finish his sentence, Atlas falls asleep in his arms.

Baron Luce speaks to the knights around him,

"It seems my boy is even more of a genius than we thought he was," he says with the biggest grin, though, suddenly his face turns dark as he addresses them, "nobody will say a word about anything that happened here, understand?"

The knights stand up straight and say, "yes ser!"

Suddenly, the temperature drops throughout the whole training field. Baron Luce slowly turns around and sees his wife staring at him with a cold smile on her face. The air around her is tinted blue and the ground is covered in a layer of frost.

"Honey, why is my baby boy passed out? And why is there a giant gash in our wall?"

Baron Luce smiles as a single tear falls down his face.

"Help…"