"Clay today is our rematch, this time I will defeat you."
"We will see who wins in a few minutes" I said
'She looks hyped for the rematch but she will lose today too. She doesnt know anything about hand to hand combat,
I dont have any practice in hand to hand combat either but I've watched a lot of movies and animes so I know some moves that are possible for me.
In this week all we did was train our mana control, sir Cliff didnt teach us any hand to hand combat.'
"Ah there's sir Cliff"
"You guys are here already"
"Yes sir I cant wait to defeat Clay"
"Good good you have enthusiasm.
Lets start the duel." He said that and a boundary was created around us
"Bow" sir Cliff said
we bowed
"Start"
'Just like last time Cera swinged her arm to punch my face and just like last time I dodged and caught her ar....
I released her arm and stepped back a bit as soon as I felt my palms burning, she was using her magic.'
"Wait, are we allowed to use magic" I asked sir Cliff
He nodded
'Just when I turned to ask sir, Cera sent a huge ball of fire towards me, the fire was big enough engulf me whole
I reacted in time and created an air shield but my right hand was burning from the heat.
(I have to be in physical contact with the air object or else the air object dissapears)
The fire is surrounding me, I have no choice but box myself.
I created a six by six box around myself, the box is heating up, I knew it thats why I didnt want to box myself.
I know a solution to save myself from the flames but its very risky, I dont have a choice.
I released the mana air box and quickly created a wind vortex.
"It worked"
I said that because all the fire which was around me started to form a fire whirl and I had the control
Cera was taken aback when she saw all the fire being sucked into the whirl
She started to increase her fire output and as she did, all the fire was sucked into the whirl making it go from 2 meter to 20 meter tall.
It was now a fire tornado, all of us could feel the heat. Many soldiers came to see what was happening, some were alarmed and some were just watching the duel.
I was now getting scared because the fire tornado was so huge that I thought I might lose its control.
The forest was only a few hundred meters away, I was scared that if we dont stop now we might burn the whole forest down.
We could even burn the wheat farms, which are the only source of income to the people of the village.'
"Sir Cliff stop the duel!!!" I yelled at him
He was just standing there with an expresionless face
'Fuck what should I do to stop this.... Why didnt this come to my mind first, I am so stupid.'
"I forfeit" right when I said those words sir Cliff commanded "Stop the duel"
Cera immediately stopped conjuring her bright red flames.
When she stopped it, I also dissipated the fire tornado.
I could've done that earlier but Cera's fire would've turned me to toast even before I could prepare both of my hands and conjure an air shield.
"The winner is Cera" sir Cliff announced
'Cera had won but she wasnt happy probably because I quit instead of her defeating me'
"Both of you come here." we did what he said
"Clay you did the right thing, you wasted minimal energy, you used the opponent's attack against them, you were using your brain properly.
As for you Cera I cant tell the same, you were being reckless, you werent using your magic properly, you let the opponent use you.
Cera you are a stage above him, you are supposed to be much stronger but still he managed to deafeat you because he combined his brain and strength.
And if you dont fight with both your brain and magic, then you wont be able to win any match.
Strength, without brain is vain."
wow that rhymed
"But dont worry, the whole reason I am here is to train you." sir Cliff said
"Yes sir" she said, she was really exhausted because she used up a lot of mana
'I didnt know that Cera is this much powerful, if she had used her magic properly she, might've defeated me
All the soldiers went back to their works when our duel ended.'
"In this week I had just told you kids to strengthen your weaknesses but the next week will be different.
I will be teaching you hand to hand combat the next week so you guys can go home early today."
'He is letting us go home already, it hasnt even been 8 am. This guy is a legend'
"Thanks very much sir" I said being very happy
"Dont be too happy, I am giving you day off because next week is going to be very painful for you kids."
'I dont give a shit of how painful the next week's training is going to be, I just want a holiday.'
"Cera we can go to the village today"
'Her face was still filled with dissapointment.'
"Cheer up Cera, why do you look so sad. You even won the duel." I said
"I know, thats the reason I am sad. You should be the winner, not me.
The way you fought made me like an amateur."
"Well you are an amateur." I said to tease her
She puffed up her cheeks "Cant you even give me some words of encouragement."
"You dont need words of encouragement, you are already back to the way you were."
"Yeah you're right, the way you tease also makes me calm."
after a pause I spoke "Lets go to the village without telling the guards."
"What? why dont you want to tell the guards."
"I just want to go to the village without anybody following us."
'Our sponsorship contract stated that we couldnt go anywhere without a soldier accompanying us.'
"But how will you do that, the only road leading to the village is filled with the guards from Sian mansion."
"We will go through the forest"
"Yeah, we can just follow the roads and stay in the forest."
"No I meant go through the forest"
"What? Are you sucidal or something, there are hundreds of monsters in the forest, we will be dead instantly. Why cant we just stay near the road." Cera looked very worried
"If we walk in the forest near the road, the guards will definitely hear us so its better if we go through to the forest.
And as for the monsters I have just the thing which can hide us from them." I said that and pulled the cloak out from my pocket, which my grandpa gave me. The cloak could be folded into just the size of a napkin.
"What is that" Cera asked
"Its an invisiblity and a storage cloak, my grandpa gave it to me.
We both cover ourselves with this cloak and channel mana into the cloak, we will become invisible."
"But what if a monster detects us?"
"Come on why are you scared, just a few minutes ago we created a 20 meter tall fire tornado. We are way prepared to face the monsters, all the monsters in the forest are below brown core stage.
Also the village is just 2 kilometers away we will be there in just 30 minutes so need to worry."
Cera reluctantly agreed
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Some unexplained things
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When mana is used to create an element/water, fire, air(its impossible to create earth). The element which is created by mana is different from the normal natural element.
Fire created by mana is different from normal fire.
(If mana fire comes in contact with a flammable substance and substance catches fire then normal fire is created.)
The people of this world believe the difference between element created by mana and normal element is that mana temporarily turns into an element.
And thats probably why the elements created by mana can be canceled/dissipitated.
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Some people of this world believe in a cycle called mana cycle.
Mana cycle - We absorb mana from the nature and when we conjure something the mana is dissipated back into the nature and we absorb the dissipated mana, hence creating a cycle.
But the mana cycle has a lot of loopholes so not a lot of people believe it