I parried Red's attacks with ease as I was looking for an opening. He was doing the same, searching for an opening in my defense which he could exploit.
I was superior to him in most basic physical and mental parameters. I would always react faster than him, parry more concisely and realize traps before he was even done setting them. However, my techniques when it came to fighting were far beneath his. I might notice the traps he was setting but some of them were so well set that I couldn't escape them even though I was both faster than him and knew what was happening.
Neither of us was using any powers so I was at an obvious disadvantage. The outcome of this battle was honestly a foregone conclusion but sometimes fighting wasn't about winning. It still pissed me off that I lost though.
The fight had been brought to an end when the trap Red had begun to set at the very beginning was completed. All my dodging and parrying had forced me right where he wanted me to be. It was checkmate, any possible way to further dodge had been cut off due to my positioning and I could only parry so much.
Within a storm of blades, I can spot the one that will end this fight. But I was a stubborn child sometimes and liked to draw things out. The finished blow approached wreathed in faints and diversions only to harmlessly bounce off of Aegis, my legendary (grade 9) shield.
"You really had to bring out Aegis. Fighting you while you have that always drags things out. Sigh, why are you like this?"
"This is supposed to be a learning experience for both of us. I always learn a lot from seeing your technique in action but you won't learn anything from this. Finding a way to get around my shield would be an adequate challenge."
Red cringed and lowered his sword. All the battle lust in his eyes had died out.
"Thank you but no thank you. Getting around that shield is too much of a bother. I'd rather spend some time training with the bunny people. Now that we have entered a direct conflict with the gods they will surely send more people. We can't be here to defend them all the time."
"Hoping for a group of people that has yet to even produce a single archmage to fight world gods is a little much, wouldn't you agree?"
"Be honest with me Abel, how long would it take for you to get Kesh to the level where he could fight those guys if you pushed it?"
"If I was prepared to waste his talent and future development I could do so within a day. But that is not how we do things. He will reap the most if he advances through his own efforts."
"Can you at least help him break through to archmage then? He is at the precipice but his soul can't take that last step without a slight push."
"If he wishes to get the push knowing the risks I will help. We can also give some of the potions I'm about to make from what I harvested from the gods to the bunny people."
"That would surely be beneficial to strengthen our forces. What do you plan on making?"
"Not too sure myself. I'll probably use the divine power of the light elemental gods to make divine physique cleansing potions. You can have some but Aurelia will want in on that. With the wind and sand ones, I was thinking of trying my hand at some divine inspiration potions."
"Please just keep your potioneering within our treehouse. I'd like to keep our abilities secret in case the gods of the pantheon are monitoring this place."
"I can do that."
I return to the treehouse and find myself a room to make some potions. I started with the divine physique cleansing potions since I had already made one of them recently and felt quite confident in making those.
Their quality was slightly better than the first one I made since the divine power came directly from a god. However, seeing as they were weaker than Eclesias the difference was hardly noticeable.
Next up were the potions of divine inspiration. They weren't hard to make in general but since they dealt in inspiration I had to be careful not to taint them with my own thoughts.
Inspiration was a term referring to a chance to comprehend an innate understanding. This type of potion was usually very sought after by rank 1 archmages since it could directly allow them to advance to rank 2 and if they were talented even rank 3.
For those below the effect still worked but the innate understanding could only be gained upon advancing to be an archmage.
Luckily, neither sand nor wind were elements that I had a particularly high affinity with. Keeping my innate understanding from getting mixed up into the potions would be easier.
The best way I had discovered to keep myself from tainting the energies I was handling was to think of myself as a still lake. The energies I direct would be like colorful fireflies flitting around in the sky above the lake. Their image would appear on the lake's surface and be like my innate understandings. Close but never touching the fireflies.
Ripples would then appear on the surface of the lake and as the reflection was disturbed a phantom wind carried the fireflies to where they needed to be.
After the old fireflies were gone the lake's surface would return to its former tranquil state and the next group of fireflies would appear and be reflected upon it.
This mental image was rather extensive but it really helped me keep myself in check. This wasn't much of a problem for weaker mages but from me, a single stray thought could completely corrupt the divine power and make it a copy of my innate understandings.
Drinking that potion would inevitably result in a flawed or even biased understanding.