That day, Zaos woke up feeling full of energy. After almost two years of reading old magic books day in and day out, he finally found something that could be used by him in his spars. He was crazy to test it since he spent a good part of the night learning the spell.
As usual, Zaos found his father waiting for him on the training grounds, but instead of a good morning, he was received with a frown.
"Where are your helmet and chainmail?" Laiex asked.
Lately, Zaos has been using some pieces of Armor that kids of his age could use. While he grew in strength and stamina thanks to them, they never helped Zaos in staying conscious while he trained with his father.
"I won't need them today," Zaos said.
"Is that so…" Laiex said.
Laiex knew that his son was up to something, but he had no idea what. While Zaos got faster in the last two hours, he still was years away from his level.
Regardless, when Laiex gave the sign of the start, as usual, he dashed toward Zaos side and prepared to hit him below the year as usual. Zaos's sword was already moving, but Laiex was much faster. However, Laiex frowned when he felt a slight pain in his right hand the very moment his attack landed. At the same time, Zaos didn't fall on the ground as he usually would. He just moved slightly and showed a slight expression of pain on his face.
A few moments later, Zaos's wooden sword touched Laiex's left side, but the attack was stopped by his left hand.
"Tsk…" Zaos clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Not enough, huh."
Laiex moved slightly to the side and saw that the region below Zaos's right ear looked weird. A round brown sphere was decreasing in size, and it looked like it was the thing that blocked his attack.
"You used magic to harden your skin," Laiex said. "A decent trick, but one that won't work for long."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Zaos said.
Laiex was underestimating his son and tried to hit the same spot. However, he felt the same resistance as before… somehow, Zaos activated that spell in just a few moments. Laiex had no idea what his son did, but he knew how to solve the problem. He hit it a few more times until Zaos emptied his mana and couldn't defend himself anymore. Zaos tried to free his sword in a panic, but his father's grip didn't move an inch. In the end, Zaos fell unconscious after failing to use the spell Stone Skin due to the lack of mana.
When Zaos woke up, his father was still nearby. That was unusual. He always leaves for work as soon as Zaos is out cold. Still, Zaos could easily imagine what he was about to do.
"You won't be able to win this bet by relying on cheap tricks," Laiex said. "It looks like you found a simple enough spell that increases your defense, but even that proved itself to be useless. Spells aren't useful in a real fight. They take too much time and concentration to use."
"Where is that written?" Zaos asked.
"That is common sense. Even a small wound can prevent a mage from keeping themselves focused. The spell will also fail if you suffer any attack," Laiex said. "Thus spells are useless against most warriors."
Zaos already knew that. Lately, he has also been trying to use spells during the spars, but most of them take too much time to be used. While Zaos was making progress in that aspect, it didn't seem like he would master the fighting style where he could use offensive magic and keep swinging his sword anytime soon. It might even take decades…
"Someday, you might even manage to do something that was supposed to be impossible, but to keep relying on mana to fight won't do you any good," Laiex said. "What are you going to do once you find an enemy that will force you to use all your mana at the beginning of the fight?"
That conversation was starting to get on Zaos's nerves. Unfortunately, he couldn't say anything back. After all, he knew where his father was coming from. Still, Zaos refused to follow the same path as him.
"... Remember, you only have three more years," Laiex said after a long sigh. "Let's hope you won't regret spending all this time studying and practicing magic.:
After Laiex left, Zaos began to hit his wooden sword on the ground violently. Since he was alone, he could act like that. Lately, Lyra has been avoiding watching father and son spar. Regardless, all that only made Zaos feel more miserable. He finally found a way to improve, but then he quickly realized it had been almost useless in spar… that was very annoying, to say the least.
"Let's proceed to the next phase…" Zaos said and then headed to the storeroom.
It was time to do things seriously. First of all, once Zaos entered the storeroom, he equipped himself with an iron helmet and chainmail. After that, he looked for a small buckle as well. Zaos's body was starting to feel pretty heavy with those, but he didn't stop there. Zaos also equipped some iron gloves and boots. While those were a bit big to his size, they were the smallest ones. Lastly, Zaos put his wooden sword away and grabbed a real iron sword… just to make sure nothing bad will happen and he won't get scolded. Zaos sealed the scabbard completely with a small hope.
With all that weight, Zaos barely could run, but in the end, he needed to do at least that much to truly improve. He will make his body reach the next level of strength much faster than expected, and he will do the same with his concentration. After all, Zaos was planning to train his body and magic at the same time. He will show his father that he can use a sword and magic at the same time.