Lord was running at high speed in a circle around Marduk, to make him lose track of his movements. Marduk's eyes were already brimming with power as he used his unique skill to analyze Lord's every movement.
Then suddenly Lord bolted towards Marduk with incredible high speed, his jaws wide open and the crackling sound of thunders on each of his steps.
'How can I fight without using martial arts? I'm a martial artist, so even if I don't use the power of my martial technique, my movements and attacks will be much smoother and stronger. Well, shoot, he is fast, for now let's just focus on dodging his attacks.' Marduk thought while making the smallest of movements to dodge Lord's attacks.
The fight grew in speed as Lord started to take it more seriously and Marduk searched for a new fighting style, until he couldn't take it anymore and started using basic martial arts to defend himself.
'I will just use simple movements, without using any type of technique, just straight normal punches and kicks.'
Lord in the meantime was surprised at Marduk's nimble and precise small movements, which helped him to dodge every attack Lord threw.
'He has great senses if he can detect me and my attacks at this speed.'
At that moment Marduk finally took the initiative. He lowered his barycenter, to avoid Lord's claw, took a step forward, and using all his body from the tip of his feet to his shoulders, threw a fast straight to Lord's jaws. Marduk's attack was easily avoided by Lord's speed.
"Wait, wait , wait! You even switched your enchantment from wind to metal in such a short time? Damn kid, are you trying to punch my head to oblivion?"
"Oh shut up, I knew from the start you weren't using your full speed and force." Marduk said with an annoyed tone.
"Well… ok. So it is a draw."
"What are you saying? You Won. I could never hit you at that speed."
"Well, yes. But I feel that I couldn't have squared a good hit on you even at my full speed. What's up with those senses? Have you got some type of super power?"
"I will tell you when you'll have taught me that 'twist' you were talking about."
"Seems fair. Let's go, kid. There are too many prying eyes here."
The bout was actually a warning to the other beasts of the forest to avoid attacking Lord's disciple.
Marduk and Lord went back to the cave, where the next lesson would take place.
Lord started talking and Marduk sat in the lotus position.
"As you already know, mana is made of five different components, each with different attributes."
"Yeah, red, blue, green, yellow and white."
"Exactly. And what do you know about those components?"
"Well each type of magic is composed of those in different densities, for example if I were to use fire magic I would be using red mana."
"Well that's mostly correct, the error resides in the human's vision of this fundamental magic concept. Magic ain't that simple. Don't misunderstand me, all you said about types of magic is indeed correct, what you got wrong is the part about fire magic…"
While talking, Lord assumed his human form, and placed himself in front of Marduk.
"Magic has infinite possibilities, and is too complicated for us mere mortals, so we simplify it to understand it and use it. For example humans, and demons and elves with them, think that fire magic and the other basic types of magic are composed solely by the corresponding type of mana."
Marduk nodded in silence to confirm Lord's affirmation.
"Wait a minute, how much do you know about it?"
"Well, I knew from the start. After all logically thinking, mana is the fuel for magic and any type of magic needs mana, thereby since mana needs all of its components to be stable any kind of magic needs all mana's components."
"Damn, kid. Your intelligence surprises me every time. Well, having understood this, you must have caught on to what I want to teach you, right?"
"Well, I suppose that this 'twist' thing, would imply 're-adjust' the composition of the mana needed to cast magic."
"Right, but it isn't as simple as you make it. Mana's components are misunderstood by humans, red mana is not fire mana, but the destructive and energetic part of mana. To twist the mana's composition you need a deep control and knowledge over your mana and mana in general. You also need to manually do what mana naturally does each time you use magic, namely rebalance mana to make it stable. Now start meditating and channeling mana. I will show you how it is done." Lord said, placing his hands on Marduk's back.
In the meantime Shen had returned successfully from his delivering mission, and was reporting the result to Kayden.
"So? How did it go?" Kayden asked impatiently.
"She agreed to your suggestion."
"Oh well, that's unexpected."
"Yes, she seemed furious about the way you wrote the letter, but I believe she has a deep interest in Marduk's development."
"Well, we will see how the situation evolves."
Marduk's daily routine changed yet again. This time his training was centered on magic studies and twisting magic type, of course without neglecting his martial arts
and some meditation for his mental sanity. In the next five months he learned to use the most basic types of magic proficiently both in their basic and twisted versions, except light and dark magic. He even mastered thunder and wind magic, to the point where he could use each of their twisted forms with ease. His fusion magic had grown by leaps and bounds, now he could use two types of magic simultaneously on his whole body, and even use different types on different body parts at the same time.
Three months were left until Marduk's birthday. Marduk was meditating in the cave, which had been his new home since the beginning of his training, when a sudden voice broke the peaceful silence.
"Marduk! I wanna learn too!" It was a cute, eager voice.
Marduk slowly opened one of his eyes. His face stayed plain as he answered.
"Zarke? What do you mean?"
"Zarke is big now. Zarke wants to be stronger. Magic, Zarke wants to learn magic too."
Zarke, indeed, had grown very much and was nearly one year old already. He was now only a little shorter than his young master.
"Well, I should teach you how to talk first…" Marduk stopped for a moment to look carefully at Zarke. "But why not, let's ask Lor..UFFF" Marduk was interrupted by Zarke, who jumped at him and started licking his face.
"Ahahahaha" a joyful laugh slipped Marduk's lips, which abruptly halted Zarke's assault.
"Marduk laughed!!! Great! Great! Zarke is so happy!" Zarke said as he got back to licking Marduk's face.
"Lord! Can I ask you for a favour?" Marduk's question woke Lord up from his nap.
"Marduk? Yes of course but you will have to do me a favour in return. What is it?"
"Could you teach Zarke the fundamentals of magic and how to use fusion magic to some degree?"
"Well, yes. What species does he belong to anyway? I have never seen anything resembling him, is he some type of chimera?"
"Well yes and no, he is an ancestor of dragons, a Mushussu. He indeed resembles a chimera but his species is born naturally and not the product of a human experiment like other chimeras."
"The ancestor of dragons? Like the Ancient Dragons? Well it will be interesting to see how much a species, comparable to those named 'gods slayers', can do."
"Wait 'gods slayers'?"
"Yes, the legend says that ancient dragons have a powerful type of magic that is able to kill gods, 'Nature' magic or 'Dragon' magic by name. They also had fangs and claws able to cut through the immortal flesh of gods. That is why they were wiped out by those same gods." Lord said, spitting on the ground as if trying to cleanse his mouth from the disgust he felt for those selfish creatures.
"Well let's see Zarke's affinities." Lord said, bringing out of his small treasury an adorned white magic crystal. It had a diameter of 10 centimeters, and had a gold trimming in a strange pattern all over the crystal except on the top which was plain.
"Wait! Can you lend me that magic object after Zarke is done with it?"
"Of course. But what do you need it for?"
"I just need to take a closer look at it."
"Well, ok. Zarke lend me a paw for a second." Lord said, making Zarke touch the top of the crystal. "As expected, he has a high affinity with any type of magic. Being a dragon he has to choose and focus on one to three magic types to further evolve."
"Well for now teach him the basics, then we will decide together."
Such is the way Zarke's training started while Marduk focused on Lord's "favour".
In practice he had to go and do Lord's work keeping the peace in the forest by subsiding the many insurgencies, which were frequent in the magic beasts' world.
"This time it is a problem with the Chimmons, uh. It sure brings back memories."