"So, are you ready?" Kayda ask.
"Can't we do it at a training ground?" I ask, looking at the crowd around us.
"No, I am in the mood to do it now," Kayda said, moving closer to me.
"Tsk, fine. Just give a second." I said, taking off my scarf and hoodie. Looking back at her, I sighed and took a fighting stance. Lifting my hands, I said. "I am ready."
"To think you look like that under your hoodie." Kayda whistles looking me over. Grinning, she threw two scorch balls at me.
"Haah, whatever," I said, punching one of the scorch balls resulting in exploding on impact. "That kind of hurts," I added, still punching the other one.
"Why would you do that," Kayda said, looking at my hands. To her surprise, it was completely fine and was covered with ice. "I see, so you do have a racial element," She muttered. Even though she was more than 20 meters away, I could still hear her.
"Yes, I do. You as well, right?" I said, nodding.
"You could hear me from there?" Nodding at her, she added. "Is that so? It's our little secret then." She said, grinned, and continued her onslaught.
"Yes, of course," I said, lifting my hands. Seeing more attacks coming, I move forward to hit them. I kept up with the blocking and attacking, slowly moving closer to her.
Looking at her position 4 meters away. I decide to run at her dodging the attacks instead of hitting them.
"Do you think because I am a sage, I am weak close range?" She said, annoyed.
"Huh? Of course not," I said with an emotionless face. Using Flash Step, appearing to her right, I brought down a war hammer on her position.
"The reason is simple I cant use long-range attacks yet," I said looked at her a few steps away from her previous position.
"Wow, your..." She couldn't comment further as she had to dodge a whip coming at her. Before she could get her bearings right, her eyes widen at seeing a scythe heading towards her neck. Ducking down under the scythe, she got another surprise at seeing ice spikes coming out of the ground heading towards her but at a prolonged rate.
Using her scorch magic, she blocked the spikes and had enough time to make space between us.
"Are you trying to kill me?" Kayda said, looking at me. Seeing me still having no emotions on my face, she sighed and threw spells at me again.
'I don't really have a lot of mana left. All that running and using Flash Step the entire time pooped me out.' I thought, feeling fatigued set in.
Making a halberd in my right hand, leaving a bit of mana left for incase. Looking at the attacks, I spinning the halberd. I sliced the one spell in the middle and re-directed the other one past me. I started running towards her again.
"You sliced it." She said, surprised. Moving to the right, she dodged the halberd pointed at her. Before I could take the halberd back, she uses her scorch magic to destroy the top of the halberd.
Not giving a reaction, I used the broken halberd as a staff and spun it around, aiming for her liver.
"You really remind me of someone I know," Kayda said, stepping back dodging the staff.
"Is that so?" I said, stepping forward bringing the staff down.
"Yeah," She said, grabbing the staff and pulled me towards her.
Seeing her action, I dispelled the staff and took two daggers out of my storage, leaving me with no mana left. Using the momentum of her pull, I swung the left dagger upwards at her.
Stepping backward again, she dodged the dagger. She was about to use a spell but needed to do it again to dodge the other dagger as well. from an outside perspective. It looked more like Kayda was playing with me. They might not be wrong, but for a veteran, it was a different story.
"Geez, you are quite a prodigy for your age. No more like a monster prodigy." Kayda said, smiling at me.
"Pfft, and what does that have to do with anything," I said, not letting up the attack.
"You really are..." Feeling danger, both of us looked at each other wide-eyed. Jumping to the side, barely dodging a dozen swords coming down at us.
"She is outraged, this time," I said, pulling out one sword from my thigh. Looking at Kayda that was standing next to me, I ask. "Can you transfer mana?"
"Yes, I can. Why?" She asks, looking at me weirdly.
"Well, I don't have any left, and I really don't want to die today," I said, reaching my hand out.
"I see," She said, taking my hand and transferring her mana.
'Mana can only be transferred by people who have exceptional mana control. Something I don't have.' I thought, a bit depressed.
"Thank you," I said, nodding at her. Looking at Mom that just jumped down from the aircraft. Her expression made me groan, knowing at the amount of pain I was about to feel.
"Do you know what you two just interrupted!?" Mom said aggressively.
"If I think about it, I have an idea, but I don't want to say it," I said, putting on some battle gear that still fits me.
"Ooh, you do?" Mom said, tilting her at me.
"You do?" Kayda asks, still confused about what my relationship with Stacy was.
"You know she was away for 3 years, right," I whispered. Seeing her nod, I continued. "Well, she was away from Dean as well."
"Ooh, Oohhh" Realizing what we did, she looked at Mom, smirking.
"You were busy 'stress-relieving' with Dean, weren't you," Kayda said, pointing at mom.
"Haha, Kayda, you really looking to die today." Mom said menacingly.
"Can you not make it worse," I said, annoyed.
"Oh, come on, we both know you won't kill your best friend," Kayda said, shrugging. Hearing Kayda dismissing her, she pulled a sword out of the ground.
Seeing her movement, I kicked Kayda out of the way, making her barely miss the sword coming towards her. Looking at Kayda, I said. "Can you not taunt her right now."
"Did I not teach you not to take your eyes off your opponent." Mom said from behind me.
Mom didn't give any time for me to react and kicked me into a building.
"Wow, Stacy, isn't that a bit too much," Kayda said, running towards the building I was sent towards.
"Where do you think you're going?" Mom said, throwing daggers at Kaydas' back.
Clicking her tongue Kayda jumped out of the way.
"Calm down. You might have killed her just now," Kayda said, worried.
"Do you really think a daughter of mine would die that easily?" Mom said, laughing.
"Daughter!?" Kayda yelled in surprise.
"For fuck sakes, mom!? Can you not send me into a building." I shouted in annoyance. Hearing me, Kayda looked at the building, surprised. Instead of me coming out, two crosswheels came out, heading towards mom.
"Ooh, are we taking this seriously now?" Mom said, blocking both crosswheels.
"Ooh, shut up," I said, walking out of the broken building with a war hammer on my shoulder and a 1 meter in diameter rock in my other hand.
'I still don't have a bat, so this war hammer should do.' I thought, throwing the rocking in the air. I took the war hammer with both my hands and swung it sideways, hitting the rock towards Mom.
Dropping the war hammer, I used Flash Step to get next to Kayda.
"Attack her from a distance. Don't worry about me being in your way." I said, running towards mom with an ice katana.
"Okay?" Kayda said, confused.
"Oi, don't think your plans will work that easily." Mom said, paring my attack with her own katana. Luckily she didn't use mana fortification, or my make-shift ice katana would have been useless.
Not saying anything to her, I dropped down, going for her legs. She easily dodges it but was surprised seeing Kaydas spells coming over my head towards her.
"Kayda, you know these kinds of spells don't work on me." Mom said, slicing both the scorch balls.
"Oi, the only way to get out of this is to hit her at least once," I shouted while bringing the katana upwards.
"That's right!" Mom said, kicking me in the stomach.
'I need to train more.' It was the only thought Zagan, Amari, and Rachel had looking at the fight in front of them, that they can't even see half what is happening.
(10 minutes later)
"In the end, you couldn't hit me." Mom said, looking down at Kayda sitting in seiza position and me laying face down in my own blood next to her.
"You demoness, of course, we didn't hit you. Kayda was too scared to go all out, and I am weak," I mumbled, picking my head up. Looking at Kayda, I ask her for mana, but she said she was out. Sighing, I looked at Mom but was denied as well.
'WEAK!!?? If you are weak, then. I am nothing but a booger.' Zagan thought, getting depressed.
"Sis is really strong." Amari thought, clenching her fist.