Third Year Begins - Part 3

Samuel instantly flew forward swinging his swords. Thinking he had a clear upper hand with his speed, but for whatever reason his slowmotion like eyesight triggered right away. He didn't understand why until he saw the reason why.

Everything was moving slow like normal, except for Alsian who walked in normal speed towards him and leaving several of his afterimages that were caught by the slow vision.

He walked up and stood face to face with Samuel who was slowly flying forwards in the air, he grinned and planted his hilt right into Samuels face, shattering the spells and everything like it was nothing.

The slow downed version of pain was something Samuel could do nothing about, but it did make his concentration break pretty fast. Losing control over his spells and all he flew forward in the air for another few meters before tumbling to the ground and rolling multiple times before finally coming to a stop halfway down the large hall.

"Ow!" He groaned and slowly stood up, "Don't lose focus in a fight!" Alsian angrily said in haste as he was right next to Samuel again and kicked him in the gut making him lose all air and the next kick was to the side of his face as he was sent to the floor with his blades clattering over the floor in different directions.

Samuel got to his feet as quickly as he could and looked in the direction of where Alsian would be, nowhere to be found until he felt the cold sensation of a sword on his next. "Well! Looks like I win the first bout." Alsian laughed cockily.

Samuel slowly turned around in amazement, they had often trained together but that was mostly physical training and training his breathing technique, the few times they had sparred it was because Alsian had wanted to show him different styles of fighting.

This was the first time they had properly sparred and Samuel stood no chance. He couldn't help but laugh at himself, "You're really strong. I can see what you mean about taking on a lich by yourself."

Alsian raised an eyebrow "Flattery will get you nowhere kiddo." He laughed and Samuel laughed with him. "How did you move so fast? Even with my eyes I was barely able to keep up!"

Alsian raised a finger and now Samuel could see it, there were yellow sparkles almost like mini lightning surrounding Alsian. "Chronomancy... Time magic has it's uses!" His reply left Samuel stunned, never had he thought of time magic being that strong. Then again there were hardly any practitioners of chronomancy as it was one of the rarest forms of magic.

"How did you get so strong?" Samuel asked as he got up from the floor and started using magic to soothe the pain, but the pain was nothing compared to the amazing moment of magic.

Alsian gave him a sideways look and Samuel nodded. "Right... time!" He scoffed and Alsian laughed. "I am pretty old for a human and pretty young for a child of mana chronomancer. But I had my fair share of adventures when I was younger as you might recall." And recall the stories Samuel certainly did.

Alsian walked a half circle around him. "Well I must say it again if I have not already, helluva speech you gave the court down there kiddo!" Which made Samuel wonder his own sanity. "I don't recall seeing you? Maybe I just simply forgot?"

Alsian rolled his eyes, "As the leader of the Praetorians I kind of had to be there for such an important meeting. But you know me, I prefer to stay out of sight unless I haveto be in sight."

Night jumped forward, "Right right, I remember... He was skulking about all sneaky like." Her words earned her a glare from Alsian that shut her up quite quickly and made her hide behind Samuel.

Alsian walked back to the big rack of weapons and put back the sword. "Alright! Here is how this is gonna go. We spar once and then we train your abilities and then we spar again and we keep going that way!"

Alsian grinned, "I don't care what other studies you have, but you will be training like this with me at least six days a week. So you better keep up!" Samuel took a step back. "Six days a week?" He exclaimed with a sigh before nodding.

"Good!" Alsian replied, "Now show me your eyes light up with the flame of mana!" Alsian's command made Samuel realize what a long and hard session this was going to be. But he did as instructed using his breathing technique and finally lightning up his inner fire.

His eyes like a flickering ember slowly started glowing in a teal and yellow mix. "Seems like we still have a lot to train..." Alsian said and pinched his nose.

Between getting his ass kicked and trying to focus on mana while in pain from all the bruises it was a long arduous training session that kept going for who knew how long. No matter what he did he couldn't keep up with Alsians speed, and the pain made it hard to focus on any meditation or breathing techniques.

"Now tell me, what is holding you back!" Alsian finally asked after several hours and Samuel shrugged, "Pain?" He asked and Alsian shook his head, "No no no! Up here!" He said and pointed to his head.

"He is trying not to think of all the people he lost!" Night shyly spoke up and Alsian nodded. "Then let them go, let them rest. It is the best thing you can do for them!" Samuel looked up in surprise.

"They will be with you until the end... no matter what, so do not plague yourself." Alsian looked into the empty room and smiled before turning back to Samuel.

"It would seem they want me to show you, but I think you can see them on your own..." Alsian trailed off before turning back and forth before looking at Samuel. "Set your heart ablaze with mana. Let your feelings guide you..."

Samuel looked into the empty room and took Alsians words to his heart, he closed his eyes and thought about the ones lost, the ones he loved. He thought of not chaining them to his memory more than was necessary, he thought of them as being free.

He took a deep breath and filled his entire being full of the mana that was all around him. He filled not only his lungs but every nook and cranny of his body. He felt the mana grasping his heart tight before letting go, relief.

He opened his eyes and saw about thirty figures standing in the hall, all of them were kind of transparent and he could just barely see through them. But he could see their features and shapes, all so different.

Some had hulking figures and horns, some had tails and some had more than two eyes. One of them was Simul Acri, the one that had introduced herself to Samuel before. She was Alsians number one partner.

"Children of mana..." He whispered to himself and he saw Alsian stand among them rolling mana through his fingers. "Every child of mana is unique, we all come with unique abilities and traits... but mine just might be one of the most unique!" Alsian smiled and Samuel tried to recall everything he knew.

"I can't make illusions with my gift, I can't coat my weapons in mana and make them return at will with my gift..." He walked behind some of them in the order he spoke. "I can't make living animals out of paper objects, I can't call upon thunder with my gift." He looked at Samuel.

"I certainly can't return to life if I die, or whatever it is the hell you do... But what I can do - Is be the shining star of the sky to unite our people, alive or dead."

Samuel remembered, all the visages of people standing in front of him were children of mana that were dead. "But I can bond to the spirits of our ancestors and through that bond I can use their gifts as if it was my own... I can walk into the mindscape of any other child of mana - alive or dead!"

"My power is meant to bring our people together, children of mana are not open about sharing their abilities, but many I have met know what mine is.. or have a general idea of what it is." Alsian couldn't help but sigh.

"It is why, many of our kind respect me... as you will notice at the meeting! Because if one believes in our guardian deity, then one would know that our guardian is the one that gives out the abilities which makes us special."

"It gives out with a purpose in mind, so your ability is at least as unique as mine, just in a very different way." Alsian looked at a wall and made a thinking face for a few seconds. "Whomever gave that old idiot Cador Adytum and his family the ability to create doorways however I will never understand." He mumbled to himself.

"What?" Samuel asked and Alsian turned back. "What?" Which made Samuel shake his head and throw up his arms. "Nevermind!" He exclaimed and noticed all the other children of mana had walked closer.

They had essentially surrounded him, with Simul being the first to float close and smile at him. "It is good to meet you again, most of us are often glad whenever we see you again." Her words made many of them nod in agreement.

"Thanks?" Samuel said slowly and scratched his head before an idea was hatched in his mind. "Can any of you all help teach me things as well? Like how to... do... things...?" He asked witholding a shrug.

Many of them smiled. "Sure thing young man!" One of them that was half his size and looked like a child spoke up. Which made Samuel unsure of what to do, "Alright, but keep your tricks to a minimum you little clown!" Alsian spoke to the figure that hid his mouth behind two colossal sleeves.

But Samuel could hear the giggling. So the hours passed by as many other children of mana started joining in and teaching him bits and pieces of their skills and how to do things. But at the end of the day the only thing Samuel could remember was the pain from all the bruises.