*ELOWEN*
It's been a little over half a year since the events on the mountain and the Wave. Aetherius turned 13, and we celebrated his birthday quietly. Since then, my parents have kept a close eye on him to prevent any mishaps, especially since the emergency potions prepared in the capital were destroyed in the mountain incident. Thankfully, there haven't been any issues during this time.
As for me, it took another two months after that for my core to fully charge and for me to begin refining it and starting my physical training. Being the awesome person I am, I awakened my affiliated earth element when I reached stable orange, though with Therius's help, of course.
I started training physically daily with my father and Therius, and then moved on to sword training. Fate had it that the sword they gave me was intact in the ring my father kept once I bonded with it. When I was ready, I began my sword training, and since then, I haven't stopped.
After all, they can't always protect me every time something like that happens again. Every morning, I head to the training area with my brother. We always start by meditating, then do an hour of warm-up, including a 30-minute run, before moving on to sword training.
I won't lie; at first, dealing with the bodily pain after training was awful. But with time, I got used to it, unlike Therius, who always meditates, trains with his weapon and magic. He was just weeks away from having to take his entrance exam for the academy.
Mom was helping him control his lightning magic as much as she could, as he had to develop his own method of implementing his magic. But as always, he already had the basics and was able to do it in no time. Sometimes he overdoes it with the amount of mana he puts into it. I understand him, though, as I do it myself sometimes and end up getting scolded by my mother for destroying the field.
After finishing my sword training, I started meditating again when my peaceful meditation was interrupted by an explosion in the direction of the open field. I could imagine it was Therius since my parents forbade him from using attacks in the training area, so they sent him to the open field whenever he did.
"Hahahaha, that was good," I heard Therius's shout from afar. "Aetherius!!" I heard my mother's shout. That idiot is going to give my mother a heart attack one day. I watched as he headed towards the training field. In such a short time, he had reached the brown stage, which should have been a challenge for him, but he never seemed discouraged, so he didn't care about the effort he would make.
"Brother, I know you're excited and all, but try to avoid making too much noise," I said, placing my fingers on my forehead. "Sorry, Wen, I couldn't help it. After all, I have the exam in a few weeks, and according to Trevor, the exam has leveled up, and well, you know how I am," he trotted home after his lame excuse.
"I'm going to miss him a little," I shook my head while laughing and went home to wash up and eat a bit. "Kid, for God's sake, no matter how excited you are, try to tone it down a bit. Besides, Layra sent a letter," my mom said as she sat at the dining table.
"And what does it say, Mom?" I asked her. "Just apologizing, as she was in the library investigating your brother's case," she explained, taking a deep sigh.
Therius got up from the table and approached Mom, touching her shoulder. "It's okay, Mom, that's been resolved, and we haven't had any problems with it," that reassured her, as that topic had always been tough for her, and I could see that it affected her.
Looking at my father, who was in the kitchen serving himself another plate of food, "By the way, I've trained a lot with the wooden sword, Dad, can I use the real sword now?" I looked at my father with puppy eyes, while he looked at me as if evaluating me. He closed his eyes and agreed, "Alright, it's about time this happened, just let me finish eating this," he replied as he sat down at the dining table.
A few minutes later, Mom, Dad, Therius, and I headed back to the training area. "We're here, can you give it to me?" I asked my Dad as he put the ring on my index finger, which fit perfectly. I closed my eyes and did as I had been instructed when they gave it to me. In my mind, I said, "manifest," and the long sword came out of the ring directly into my hand.
Since I hadn't imbued mana in my body to keep the sword aloft, it fell to the ground with the tip embedded in the rocks where we stood. "Are you okay?" I heard my Mom, and I just nodded in response, this time putting mana in my body, I lifted the heavy sword.
I watched Therius approach with a real but ordinary sword that he occasionally used with my father when they trained. "Let's have a duel to see your handling with a real sword," he said as he approached, and I saw my parents move away so that my brother and I could fight.
"Alright. Are you ready, brother?" I said as I positioned myself for the fight, lowering my body slightly as I turned my waist to the left while also extending my right leg forward a bit and the left one turning it a few degrees back. My arms rose to chest level with the sword between both hands upwards, while Therius held a common swordsman's posture.
It annoyed me a bit that he would come to me with a sword instead of his scythe. "Brother," I looked into his eyes while still maintaining my position, "please use your scythe, so I'll feel that you're not underestimating me just because I don't have enough strength to fight against you." I kept looking at him, luckily I didn't hear my parents complain, and he just nodded as he placed the sword on a nearby shelf and turned to face me but this time summoning his weapon.
Seeing his weapon made me nervous since I rarely looked at it, but this time it would be used against me. Therius assumed a new stance, lowering his body a bit by opening his legs so they bend, while he stretched his right arm, and his weapon was placed behind him with the blade's tip almost touching the ground and the staff diagonally with his free arm halfway extended.
When we finished positioning ourselves, my mother shouted, "Fight."
It took us a few seconds to start as I was waiting for Therius to make the first move, but it never came, so I took the initiative. I imbued mana into my body and quickly lunged towards him. As I approached, Therius tensed, expecting my attack, which came from bottom to top towards the right side of his abdomen. He obviously dodged it by moving backward, and when my sword gained height, my body couldn't bear the weight of the blade, causing me to lean forward a bit and lose my balance.
I tried to regain my posture by putting a little more mana into my arms, making my sword spin through my wrists with the blade down near my shoulder to block Therius's attack, causing the attack to push me back, but I kept mana in my legs to stay standing.
Another attack came from Therius; I could feel it aiming at my right side towards my chest. Even with mana in my legs, I jumped to the left to avoid the incoming blade, and Therius's sword buried into the ground. Repositioning myself, I swung my sword towards his legs, but he only moved his right leg where my attack was aimed, managing to evade it.
Pulling the sword towards me, I placed my right hand on the pommel of the hilt to push it upwards and the left hand to the guard pushing it downwards to make it spin to deliver another attack, this time from above, and Therius blocked it with the staff of his weapon. I looked at him smiling, and I could see he was excited, and so was I.
Using my entire body, I stepped back and moved my left leg backward, twisting my hips to deliver another attack diagonally from bottom to top. This time, the weight of the sword didn't overpower me, and I kept spinning the sword consecutively, making Therius defend himself.
After following the same pattern of attacks, we were fighting for several minutes until I felt my body starting to tire due to the real fight that was unfolding.
Therius stepped back, repositioning himself. "Good moves, Elowen. I can see your effort in this, so this time I'll attack differently, so..." he looked at me seriously and charged towards me. "Try to defend yourself." Therius spun his scythe in his arms and then passed them over his neck, back, and waist, confusing me so I couldn't see where his attack was coming from.
The attack came from behind me due to its long curved blade. I placed my sword behind me to defend myself, causing the blow to push me forward and lose my balance.
I tried to position myself again, but I couldn't. The contact of both blades made my back tremble, causing pain, and I fell to my knees, sticking my sword into the ground to support myself. "I'm coming to you, dear, stay there," I heard my mother shout as she came to me.
"Are you okay, Wen? That collision was tough," Therius approached me, grabbing my arm and putting it around his neck to help me stand up. "I'm fine, it's just that the collision made me shake, and my back hurts a little," I replied with a laugh as I rubbed my back.
My parents arrived with us, and my father took Therius's place, carrying me to put me on a bench so my mother could heal me, or rather, alleviate the pain since I didn't have any real injuries. "Your body is still immature, daughter, so any blow, whether you have mana in your body to defend yourself or not, will hurt you," my father explained.
"Besides, you're barely turning 10 years old, so you can't do much except endure until you can bear it," Therius said as he smiled at me, and I just looked at him. "Let's go inside so you can rest your body for a while, and then you can resume training," my father said as he carried me, with Mom and Therius following behind us.
*****
Several weeks passed, and I continued training. Therius helped me with my mana manipulation, while my father helped me with the sword, and occasionally Mom helped me learn healing magic since I had abandoned that skill when my element manifested.
Today, I'm turning 10 years old, so as usual, everyone in the village knows each other, and we always celebrated everything together. They were preparing things to celebrate my birthday. I received gifts from my friends and my parents' friends. Two days ago, I received gifts from my older siblings, and they sent letters apologizing as they couldn't come since Trevor's graduation was approaching, and Layra would move on to the next semester.
I didn't feel bad since I understood what they were going through. After all, we would return to the capital for Therius's exam and to be there for Trevor's graduation.
My mother had been anxious because she was afraid that another tragedy could happen again. By a twist of fate, several familiar faces came from the capital to the village. It was the guild master, Altea, and the others, Otto, Valentina, Sara, and Fredic.
"Hello, Emwind family, I hope we haven't arrived too late for Elowen's birthday," Atheria greeted my parents and the others who came with her.
"Hi guys, it's been a while. Come on in; I'll give you a room to rest, and we haven't finished preparing things yet," my mother invited them into the house to stay.
"What brings you here?" my mother asked them. "For your daughter's birthday, of course, and to escort you to the capital for your son's exam," Atheria replied.
An explosion made their heads turn. I looked at my mother, and she just shook her head, her reaction telling me who and where that sound came from. "What was that?" Valentina asked as everyone exited the house. "Aetherius again," my mother said with slight annoyance. The constant explosions had been bothering her because he always destroyed something.
"Oh well, I've been wanting to see him," Otto exclaimed as he headed towards the site of the explosion, with Fredic following him.