Kaspian Bladeheart
I had expected some skill at least hearing about this kid from Jasmine, her letter would keep praising Arthur non-stop. I'm sure she would be embarrassed if I had shared that information with anyone else. But looking at him myself, I am even more surprised his mana core had already progressed to the dark red core, and his mana channels are well-developed. He is sure to be a great augmenter when he grows older. His level of maturity had surprised me but honestly what stood out more than all that, was the fact he hadn't backed down.
While he was introducing himself I used mana to spook him a bit, I often do this to mess with some lower-level mages and it even works on some veterans. But he simply brushed off my form of intimidation, I truly wonder what else I will see from this boy.
"I am honored to spar with you, we should take this to the backyard, however." He says before leading me to the backyard.
While we walk I inspect the way he carries himself, he moves like a refined noble. Not someone who was simply raised by powerful figures, but as if he was one. But there is a variation in the way he carries himself, his footsteps are quiet and he moves cautiously as if a trained warrior had encountered a powerful foe or mana beast.
Normally people would tell me I'm reading too much into this boy but I'd beg to differ. This boy, like the letter states, is a literal walking anomaly. Arthur leads me to the back door and opens it to take us outside, His parents and the Helstea family follow suit. Only me and Arthur walk out to the field, only there I ask "Do you use a preferred weapon?"
"I don't wish to fight a weaponless opponent," he replies boldly, I can't tell if he is just being cocky or chivalrous. I take off my gloves and reveal my dimension ring, I pull out my prized rapier.
"Happy now? Since this is a spar I will be using mana to dull my blade" I say to put ease into the parent's watching so they don't have to worry for their child. I look over to Arthur but his gaze is absorbed by my sword, no, my ring. Had he never seen a dimension ring before? He snaps out of it and walks over towards the manor and grabs a wooden training sword fit for his height. If I hadn't helped train my niece Claire I would have simply mistaken the small sword for a dagger.
He gets in a fighting stance, his gaze falls upon me and I suddenly feel a powerful aura. Many skilled adventurers develop a kind of battle aura they can use to intimidate mana beasts but to have one this powerful at such a young age. Before I knew it I was smiling like a madman.
He makes the first move when he dashes forward and leaps, he slashes at my right arm which I wield my blade with. I parry his blade with my own, I swing my sword and push his sword to face downwards, He catches himself and swiftly readjusts to counter-attack my leg.
I simply jump back taking me out of his range of attack, I adjust myself and stab my rapier forwards at him, He strikes my sword out of the way parrying my attack, then using the opening he created he swings his sword at my undefended chest.
I back step to avoid it but he continues with another swing, deciding to stop this. I stab forward with my rapier this time it grazes past his shoulder, if I hadn't dulled the blade with mana he would be cut. 'He has potential its just limited from his small size'
To his surprise, I dash forward to elbow him in the stomach launching him back several feet. He stomps his feet down on the ground and stops himself, I continue with my attacks until he parries another strike, expecting just a normal swing from him again. I irrationally decide to attempt to catch his sword. But the attack that came was not what I had expected, his sword swing was enhanced with fire when I caught it, it had burned my hand. Damn, I let myself get injured by a four-year-old, I chuckle to myself. Before he attempts to attack again I put away my rapier.
The sight of this surprises him but he backs off. "I've seen enough, you're skilled with magic enough to not only fend me off for a short bit, as well as use fire attribute magic. I'll happily take you up as my student." After saying this he looks happy and his family is all ecstatic. But after a second Arthur is beginning to look pale and begins to fall to the ground, I swiftly catch them before they hit the ground. His concerned family ran over and I handed him to them. "He is just exhausted from the spar, he should be fine after some rest. That entire fight must have been too much for his little body."
Before his family takes him to his room to rest, I withdraw something from my dimension ring. A small wooden training rapier, It's a bit too big for his height but he will surely grow into it. On it is engraved the Bladeheart family logo. My niece Claire used to train with the same rapier back when I taught her, she should be turning 10 soon, hopefully, those two become friends in the future.
Arthur Leywin P.O.V.
Opening my eyes I find myself in my bed, remembering what had happened before I passed out. I smile. 'He was strong' I wouldn't think I'd miss encountering strong opponents like that, the entire fight my whole body was telling me to flee. I need to grow stronger if I want to combat strong opponents like him. Motivated, I begin to get up to head out to train but when I'm about to get up my door opens and my mother and father walk in. 'haha, right I forgot, family first' my mother runs to me hugging me.
"Art you're awake! I was so worried when you passed out. You shouldn't push yourself like that." She bombards me with her concerns, I hug her back realizing that I can't just risk my health like how I've done prior. I now had people around who genuinely care for me, something I wished I had in my past life.
"I'm fine now mom, I won't try to push myself like that anymore, I promise." I try to reassure her of my safety, she begins to calm down. My father comes over and sits down next to me.
"I can't believe you had used fire magic, you are my little genius huh." he laughs at his joke until my mother cuts in.
"He's got my intelligence. What do you mean your genius?" It then looks as if my father had been stabbed in the chest.
"Don't worry dad I got your battle intelligence." I try to cheer him up, "But you should start training more, before long I'm gonna surpass you." Just to knock him right off his pedestal.
"Why do you both do this to me?!" Upon hearing this we all laugh at our stupid antics. I only realized after the conversation ended that I had called them mom and dad until now I had just been referring to them as Father and Mother, I just couldn't get it to click in my stupid head of mine but I truly had a family now and people to care for. Before long my younger sibling will come into this world and join this happy little family.
As if I had triggered a response in my head I thought back to the people I had used to call 'family' in my old world, Nico and Cecilia. If only I could have saved them, not just from our enemies, but from myself.
My mom and dad eventually leave my room to let me rest, instead of training like I had planned to, I lay back down and take a nap.
***
I later wake up full of energy and get up, looking outside and seeing the sun is rising. I sigh. 'Did I just sleep the whole day yesterday?" I get up and stretch and go to the kitchen, I already smell the breakfast the maids have been preparing. Walking out I see my family and the Helsteas sitting around the table eating breakfast. They all say hello to me and ask if I'm alright since I've been sleeping for the past two days. I grab a plate and tell them I'm alright, I begin eating.
I think back on the fight and try to find what I could have improved or changed on my behalf of the fight. I remember the strange ring he had used that summoned the rapier he used, curious about it I ask Vincent. "Hey Vincent, what was that ring Kaspian used to get his Rapier?."
He takes a break from eating to answer my question. "Oh, I'm surprised you haven't heard of them, they are dimension rings. They are used to store an abundance of objects in a small pocket dimension held within the ring. Although they are no longer able to be made, artificers can turn one ring into many, splitting up the pocket dimension between them."
"That's amazing" I honestly couldn't believe this could be done with magic.
"Yeah, but they are insanely expensive since there is a limited number of them."
There are so many mysteries to magic, I ponder this statement for the rest of breakfast and soon head back to my room.
I've learned that the different ki styles and the elements of magic are closely related, so what's left to do is test out my theories. I had already expanded upon my wind and fire elements a bit but what of water and earth?
I decide to test out ki styles that I believe would be linked or connected with elements, after some time of testing I get water. Even though I had been trying to get it, it still came as a shock to see it appear.
The water was coated around my hand, I was fascinated in the thought I can just summon water like this. It wasn't till I had lost focus and stopped using mana the water dropped off my hand and spilled onto the floor. '...fuck' I quickly get a towel and dry up the mess.
Learning from my recent mistake I go outside and begin training with magic... and not make a total mess.
***
After spending the next several hours training I now have access to all four elements. Just hearing it myself sounds weird, mastering something it would take people decades to do in a few hours messing around in my backyard. Ignoring those thoughts I go over everything I learned.
I am best with fire and wind, with water coming in a close third. My use and application of earth are pitiful at best, I probably should work on that. Although being able to use all four elements is useful and all, I can't master all of them like how someone only training with one element for decades can.
A phrase comes to mind from my old world, "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master with one." sounds uplifting in my situation, sure I can use all four elements, but I'm definitely a master of none, and currently, I'm better than no one let alone a master with one. I take a break from training and lay down to face the clouds above. Just you wait new world, this jack of all trades is on their way to becoming a master of all.
____________________________________________________________
If you want to find more TBATE fanfics or just want to get pinged on the news or new chapter updates for this series please join this discord server if you hadn't already
https://discord.gg/P9Qc7Q9H