Primrose watched as Atlas crawled towards the entrance of a cave. She wished him the best as she looked around for something to help her get to his side of the crater. She couldn't help but feel an enormous amount of guilt. One, for leaving Hungus behind. Two, for taking a part in injuring Atlas so badly.
A giant boulder stood in her way from getting to the other side. Primrose peaked through the cracks once again and noticed that Atlas had disappeared. She needed to hurry before he bled out. Primrose pulled back her fist and punched the giant boulder. Dust and rock particles erupted and flew everywhere. When the air cleared, the boulder remained standing. A small crack stood at the centre.
"Damn it," Primrose mumbled.
She looked around to see if she could find her sword, which she had lost when they'd crashed.
"You looking for this?"
Primrose felt goosebumps make their way up from her arms to her neck. She hadn't sensed anyone around her and yet…someone was talking to her. In front of her stood a giant blue woman. She had scales covering her entire body, long white hair to contrast her blue skin, horns coming out of her head, and sharp teeth. In her hands rested a giant hammer and Primrose's sword.
"Who are you? If you intend to fight me, you'll lose!" Primrose yelled, trying to sound confident.
Whether it came across as that was unclear, however, the princess knew that she was bluffing and that there was no way she'd win the battle.
"Let's test that theory, shall we?"
The ground burst underneath the woman and she flew towards Primrose at an alarming speed. The princess considered her options and realized she couldn't run away…she'd get caught by one of the woman's weapons. She would have to block, but by blocking she would get her arms chopped off, so she needed to block with her battle aura. Primrose concentrated all of her battle aura onto her arms and formed an X to stop the blow.
The swords made contact with her arms, but the force that the woman had put on them was enough to send the poor princess flying. After crashing through multiple rocks, Primrose managed to get back onto her feet. Quickly, she surrounded herself with battle aura to heal any wounds.
"So you have a battle aura, eh?"
The woman laughed and smiled.
"Well, Largos has definitely left me an interesting one."
Primrose wiped some blood from her mouth and charged towards the woman. Using wind magic, she propelled herself into the air.
"Wiva Boost!"
Primrose flew towards the woman, her fist out, and struck her across the face. She landed on all fours next to her and turned to look at her opponent. Primrose's eyes widened and her blood turned cold.
The woman hadn't even flinched. It was almost as if she had wanted to be struck. Someone of that caliber wouldn't have been struck by someone like Primrose unless they wanted to. But why?
"Here, catch," the woman said as she tossed Primrose's sword at her.
The princess caught it, confusion drenched her face.
"Oh, did you think this was an actual battle? It was a mock one."
"..."
"Did I not say it was a mock battle?"
"No."
"Did I introduce myself?"
"NO!"
The woman sighed and took a seat on a nearby rock.
"I am…Nemesis…yes, Nemesis. I'm here to train you."
Primrose sighed and stood up. She began heading to the boulder that blocked the way to Atlas. If she could enhance her punch with battle aura-
"I didn't say it was optional."
"..."
"I'll kill you if you don't do it and you'll never save the elf boy."
"Screw you," Primrose said, without taking her eyes off the boulder.
"Well, maybe you wouldn't save him. He's off training with Largos!"
"He's crippled currently," Primrose muttered.
"Believe me or don't believe me; the end result is the same. You will be trained by me and only when I deem you ready, you will be able to see Atlas."
Primrose sighed and turned around.
"Fine. Teach me."
"First of all, what is the difference between mages and knights?"
Nemesis and Primrose sat across from each other on tall rocks.
"Mages mostly control mana in offensive spells and that can include different types of magic and knights control mana to boost their physical abilities and that's limited exclusively to wind magic."
"Correct, but that's not what you've been doing."
"Huh?"
Primrose looked at Nemesis with a confused expression.
"Allow me to explain, child. What you've been doing is firing off spells to boost your movement like firing wind spells at your feet. However, what knights usually do is collect mana internally and fire off wind magic in their muscles to make themselves more agile."
"Cut to the chase."
"You're supposed to be a mage; not a knight."
"What?!"
"That seemed to catch you off guard, brat! Bwahahaha!"
"But I want to be a knight!" Primrose said, ignoring Nemesis.
"And you can be. It's unheard of for a mage to have a battle aura, which is what you have. You're special, don't get me wrong."
"So, what?"
"You can be a knight AND a mage, child. That's what is so amazing about you."
Primrose didn't know how to respond. Her whole life she was told she didn't have any talent as a knight and she shouldn't even try, but to think that she had an aptitude for both being a mage and a knight? It didn't make sense to listen to her stupid father who wanted her to remain a petite princess in a small kingdom.
"How do I get stronger?"
Her new goal was to be stronger than anyone that dared step in her path.
Nemesis grinned at Primrose. "First, let's work on enhancing your movements: the knight path. Then, let's work on teaching you a new school of magic…water. Finally, let's work on your battle aura."
"Let's do this!"
Primrose focused her energy and pictured balls of mana floating around her. She could clearly see the golden puffs of magical energy that surrounded her. She held out her hand and pulled them towards her, storing them in her body as she did.
Once inside, the mana was converted into wind magic and spread throughout her bones and muscles. Primrose opened her eyes and burst forward at an incredible speed; smashing through rocks like it was nothing.
"Gwood," Nemesis said as she munched on a sandwich while Primrose trained. "Nwow, it's time to leawn how to jump."
Primrose stopped, out of breath, and closed her eyes once more. Once she was ready, she jumped and screamed as she flew into the air and landed outside of the crater.
Nemesis gave her a thumbs up.
"You need to learn how to not meditate before doing it, princess. It should be unconscious for you."
"While 'princess' is my official title, why do I feel like you're mocking me?" Primrose yelled into the crater.
"Maybe 'cause I am," Nemesis replied as she licked her fingers.
Primrose jumped down and slowed her fall with wind magic. Nemesis approached her and drew her sword.
"Let's duel. That's the only way you'll be able to do it."
After losing multiple times, Primrose was finally able to meditate for one second and hold thirty seconds of mana in her body. It had been a week since they started and Primrose hadn't slept in days.
"Let's move onto the next lesson, water manipulation."
"I seriously need a break," Primrose said while breathing heavily.
"Fine, let's take a water break."
Water burst out of the ground and began to form into a giant ball around the palm of Nemesis' hand.
"Nevermind, let's continue!" Primrose said excitedly.
To manipulate any element, one must control the mana that makes up water. It took Primrose a couple weeks, but she was able to manipulate water. She learned a very useful technique; one that would help her in the future in tough encounters. She would wrap her sword and sharpen it with water. How could water make something more sharp? Primrose would tap into the mana in the water and manipulate its pressure. This made her a more fearsome opponent.
"It's time to work on your third task…battle aura."
The pair sat next to each other meditating.
"You wrap yourself using your stamina, which is a valid way to do so, but try using the mana around you like you did when storing mana in your muscles."
With most of her training complete, this was an easy feat for Primrose. She conjured the mana around her and willed it to wrap itself around her body. When she opened her eyes, an orange-like substance surrounded her body. Primrose took this opportunity to walk over to the boulder that had blocked her way for the past month and proceeded to punch it.
Shards of rock erupted as the boulder collapsed. After thirty seconds, her battle aura disappeared.
"You are ready," Nemesis said as she sipped on a cup of coffee.
"Why does everyone like that gross stuff?" Primrose complained.
Nemesis chuckled and stood up. She approached Primrose and patted her head.
"Be mindful of the elf. Largos wouldn't have gone easy on him."
"Who is-"
But there was no one to hear her question. Nemesis was gone.