I didn't expect this. I really didn't expect this. That stupid guard almost choked the life out of me. Barbaric dog.
After 4 years of quiet, in the warm embrace of mother nature, and in the company of my kind teacher I forgot that this was not my home.
This also reminded me of the time Master warned me that Uncle Danulo might be hiding some insidious schemes. The outside world is really a scary place. I must not let my guard down.
"Hey, kid? Are you alright now?"
As I was setting my resolve while wincing in pain, a slightly concerned voice of the pudgy elder drifted in my ears.
"I-I'm fine now, elder. I express my gratitude—"
"Don't mind it kid, here take this mana restoration pill or you'll soon have internal damage too."
Esteemed Lumien bowed slightly, his stomach bulging even more as he offered me a pill offhandedly.
I looked at him once more when the pain flared again, so I took the pill he was offering and tossed it in my mouth.
"Many thanks, kind elder."
No matter the reason for his kindness, I owed him a favor for saving me today, much like how I still owe uncle Danulo a huge favor, whatever his intentions of helping me might be.
Lumien walked back and found a place to sit down as he started peering at me as if he was waiting to watch a chimp perform in a traveling carnival.
As I looked back at him, I noticed a shadow standing nearby.
"Daney?"
Instead of replying to me, he just snorted with some angst and looked away.
Those annoying facial expressions of his didn't change much, even though he seemed to have grown much over the years.
I guess he's already a head taller than me by now. Oh well, I started circulating my mana core so that the mana restoration pill might work better, but since I wasn't suffering from mana exhaustion anyway, it had a limited effect on me.
One hour soon passed by and those two still sat at the same place in silence.
I stood up wobbling, my arm and shoulder still hurting when my benefactor Lumien finally broke his silence.
"Now that you're all healed up, I'd like you to spar with my little disciple Daney here."
My eyes opened wide but before I could interrupt his sentence he waved his arm to signal me to wait and continued,
"Don't worry, I know you're still not completely healed so I'll give you an advantage, as long as you can make Daney use mana, it shall be your victory. If you manage to win, I shall give you a grade-3 flesh reinforcing pill as an award."
I silently considered his offer. If I accepted it, I wouldn't owe him anymore and I might also receive a nice little bonus.
Lumien's words seemed to have given Daney quite a shock as he turned towards the elderly mage and let out a shout,
"You goddamn pig, you refused to give me that pill all this time!"
I noticed Lumien's brows twitching furiously as he replied kindly to his disciple,
"If you manage to win against that kid without using mana, it would be yours."
A wide smile crept up to Daney's face as he replied,
"You said it old fart, don't go back on your words later."
Saying his piece, he ignored the dark expression on his master's face and stood two meters in front of me.
"Don't worry traitor, I won't take long" Daney said with a smirk.
As the only person of my age group near me, Daney always gave me an urge to tease him with that thick skull of his but I needed to finish this quick as I was feeling tired and hurt already.
"Indeed. I won't take long" I gave him a nod seriously and cast a 'fireball' spell instantaneously.
Mana started flowing fluidly from my mana core as I felt the fire elemental mana stir quietly within the surroundings.
The last spar made me realize how dumb and arrogant I was to stay still in front of a warrior and let him come near me. I should've utilized my advantages instead.
By the time Daney could felt the little ball of fire forming on my fingertips, I had already thrown it towards his chest.
Gritting his teeth, he moved aside in an attempt to dodge out of harm's way but the Grade-1 spell fireball still managed to put a little hole in his clothes.
Glaring at me again, Daney rushed towards me as I cast another 'fireball' in his direction which made him stop in his tracks to avoid it again.
Although I don't have much combat power, as long as I have some time to prepare, I would definitely be able to square off against a Mid-grade 2 mage with a constant barrage of spells due to my huge reserve of mana.
According to what Master told me, my mana should be much purer and hence more destructive than the people of my grade, though I still don't know by how much.
To test the destructive power of my mana, I needed to hit Daney directly. I quickly thought of a plan as I kept backing off to maintain the distance between me and Daney while rapidly firing 'fireballs' and 'wind blades'.
Daney's expression continued darkening as he couldn't close the seemingly insignificant distance between us.
Suddenly his eyes shone with a strange glow as he ducked to avoid the 'wind blade' I threw towards him and leaped with his fist punching out.
Although I possess no spells and runes related to the time element, it still enhanced my senses and perception to an exaggerated extent, allowing me to witness anyone below grade-3 moving in a slow manner if I put my focus to it.
In the last spar, if I had my superior perception activated, I would have suffered no injury during the bout with that dumb kid. Perhaps, it would have also allowed me some degree of protection against that barbarian but Master strictly prohibited me from using it all the time due to the risk of exposing the time element to others.
How annoying it is, to have powers but not being able to use them? I saw Daney moving towards me in slow motion, his every action and breath long and drawn.
I knew that it was not possible to avoid another injury, since my body was still as weak, my reflexes were not as quick as my perception.
I shifted my head in a jerk and Daney ended up hitting my forehead instead of my cheeks. The blow managed to stun me for good but my left arm, covered in a layer of fire hit him squarely in the chest.
Grade-2 fire elemental spell, 'fiery proliferation' that I had been preparing stealthily since the beginning of this spar, my trump card, was finally executed.
Daney looked down at his chest and found his cloak burnt away, my handprint drew crystal clear on his chest, scorching and roasting his skin.
Eyes wide open, Daney looked at me as if he was looking at me for the first time before coughing blood and dropping on the ground when he tried to let out a shout.
However, the most dangerous part of the spell wasn't even over yet. It was a spell personally designed by me with slight help from my master.
Time elemental mana stuck close to fire elemental mana and promoted the corrosiveness and damage of the spell.
If no external help was given to Daney during this time, the fire elemental mana causing Daney damage would continue to proliferate like a raging fire and won't stop until his body burnt to a crisp.
I didn't have to worry much about them finding out the crucial damage factor of my spell since by the time I took a couple of heavy breaths, still slightly stunned after his punch, Lumien had already begun to heal Daney.
I closed my eyes to digest the experience gained from this fight as their shouts rang in my ears,
"Stay away Pig, I haven't.. ugh..lost yet."
"SHUT UP, why didn't you use water elemental mana to heal yourself, do you want to die"
"I haven't—"
"Warrior warrior warrior, you braindead little kid, can't you see you're only wasting your time by trying to be a muscle head. I thought this fight would've been enough to wake you up but it seems I've underestimated your madness."
After not hearing Daney's expected retort after a while, I opened my eyes to check what they were doing and saw Daney glaring at me with red flickering eyes, tears threatening to spill out of them, and Lumien feeding him a pill.
Suddenly, Lumien turned towards me and threw me a ragged black pill that stunk like feces,
"Flesh reinforcing pill, like promised, now SCRAM."
I think even Lumien was having trouble curing Daney as my 'fiery proliferation' spell would've caused him considerable damage by then. I didn't mind his harsh words as I was much more concerned about healing myself.
I turned around and started walking away, utterly neglecting the rekindled argument between the odd master and disciple pair.