--Gremory Point of View--
"What? Fight against you???" I answer the old man.
"Fight between allies it's a common thing, you must fight to become stronger, the only reason we never had a fight was that you were too young and couldn't control your powers"
"So you were afraid of hurting me?"
"hahaha child, you must not fear hurting your allies in order to make them stronger. Yet I can't fully train someone that isn't even able to recover from a simple punch, so yeah... I prefer not to hurt children. But that's not the only reason, the last warriors who were around you during a battle turned to dust, and I don't intend to die the same way"
"So if you were afraid of fighting me, why can't you recognize my power?"
"You really understood nothing, you can use that power in a fight?"
"No... I can't!"
"So tell me, what you will do when this power fails you?"
"Still... I can fight on my own!"
"Let's see then, we can't fight here, but take your weapon and let's head to the training area on the forest"
"Okay, don't expect me to let you win old man"
"Hahaha child, this is going to be funny"
In these four years, I have been able to reach a new level of strength, maybe even further than the old man, I gain some height and my body now have muscles all around, nothing like the old me when I first reach the village, even then I can't properly use a normal sword, so the old man had placed an order for a short sword in the city some years ago. Nothing fancy, it has a wooden handle and the blade is made of iron, it's quite old, but I really maintain the sword in the best state possible.
Also, I learned a lot about magic, I can see much better the dark energy even without the need for focus, which improves a lot my shell.
The first time I made my shell I didn't really know what I was doing, but now I know. The shell is made from the shadow, I just liberate some of them to my body, and it gets attracted by him, it keeps me hidden from the dark energy making me a normal person like any other. When I want to feed I just open the shell, simply enough, and works for me. Now the interesting thing is that back then I couldn't saw the black energy like now, and what I see now is that the dead bodies are constantly releasing this black energy, but at a very slow speed, maybe this is part of what keeps us alive...
Furthermore, this isn't the only things I learned in these four years, the old man had bought me a book "Curiosities About Magic", it is just a book for non-magic people, but since the knowledge books about magic are locked for the Empire, School of Magic and such things... I ended up having access to just this book, already read it eight times and the affinity part really discouraged me a lot, it seems that all magicians have an affinity for one type of element, they are earth, water, or wind. There are some other elements like fire, light, and lightning, that are very rare to see in a mage. But unfortunately, there is nothing like shadow, darkness, or such things, which means that even if I get my hands on those books, it would be for nothing... A mage can use only one element and mine isn't in the books, so every spell has to be done by me.
There are several types of spells and enchantments, and they take years to be done by scholars, the best ones even take decades or whole lives to create. This knowledge is stored in books and passed on to other generations to learn and strengthen, so if there is no knowledge of my type it means that I have the weakest element.
Fortunately, in those four years, I was able to create some spells, nothing strong... Yet useful things.
The first I created was what I call "Shadow Impulse", at first glance the viewer thinks that I am somehow pushing the wind and launching to the front, but the spell basically uses the momentum of the object's shadow to shape from it and launch itself forward. So if I am going to punch someone, I can use the shadow of my fist to launch forward coming from my own arm into the enemy, with a sword I can just release an attack molded on the blade that launches forward for about 5 meters with much greater momentum. It is very useful, but it depends a lot on the object itself, so if the sword is not sharp the attack will simply be like a club, I can use this attack ten times before running out of mana, and it works the same when there is no light.
The other spell I create uses the same principle, but it works with me and not with an object, I call it "Shadow Evasion", it just launches me for 5 meters in any direction.
--We went to the training area--
The old man with no armor and just a sword and shield made of wooden look at me with determination in the eyes and ask.
"Are you ready?"
"You sure about this? Is not better for me to use a wooden sword too?"
"If you want to beat me, you must give all you have"
"Okay then, I am ready!"
As soon I said that he rushed to me with the shield on the front, I tried to avoid the sword by using shadow evasion to the left side, but then the shield hits me on the back, he was not preparing a sword attack, but just playing with me.
"Why did you use your shield?"
"Why not? During a fight I can do whatever I want, you need to be prepared for everything!"
'He is right, but let's think a bit, I just use one of my skills, so I can only use them more than nine times before running out of mana. I need to make them count'
'He knows my ability, maybe I can make him think I am about to use it and just attack his leg'
I went rushing towards him, swinging my sword and preparing the attack, but the moment the shadows surround my sword I canceled the attack, and with my left leg I tried to destabilize him to make him fall, yet... Not a success, he was going to defend his right with the sword. Then the moment I canceled the attack he just moved his shield down defending his leg.
"You need to do better than that!"
Again I try to hit him, this time going with all I have, one, two, three, four, five shadow impulses. Yet all easily defended by the shield. With that I have only three more attacks before running out of mana, it's almost impossible to hit him.
Then he rushed again hitting me again and again, multiple times until I manage to make some distance.
'There is no way to win him, so let's just hit him with all'
I used again the shadow impulse and again that shield blocked.
'Two more to end this'
Launched the other two in quick succession. The first one manages to break the wooden shield that was already quite damaged by all the attacks and the second hit his left hand as he tried to block with the sword.
The cut on his left hand was quite deep. The sword fell to the ground and the blood started pouring nonstop.