I was happily testing my abilities. I appear to be on an intermediate magical level. I’m past the basics but nowhere near mastering the stuff. As for the mace well it’s a mace although technique is required it is nowhere near as complex as sword play. Anyway I was practicing my magic chants and mace techniques when I heard a noise of rustling leaves.

From a nearby bush two dots were looking my way. A monster how exciting! A chance to test my skills on a live opponent appears before me. Wait I just woke up wouldn’t jumping straight into a fight be reckless not to say stupid?

Nobody ever accused me of being smart so here goes nothing. I move towards the rustling bush; if I were smart I would have used magic to flush the creature out, but I’m not so I didn’t. Remind me to do that next time.

“So you are the one we found.” {xxx}

A feminine voice came from the bush. Haha now who is laughing if I had used magic I would have killed one of my saviors; jokes on you imaginary me telling me I’m a stupid. Mmm… maybe something did break in my brain, well no use crying over spilt milk.

“Could you come out I feel weird if my conversation partner is a bush.” {Pr}

I told what I assumed to be a girl to show herself. What’s with stalking me like I’m some defenseless elk. I’m not prey well at least I would like to get to know you better before deciding anything. Invite me to dinner first or at least buy me a coffee.

“Oh, sure… yeah…” {xxx}

“A great first impression.” {xxx}

She said awkwardly; she also muttered something but I could not hear it maybe she was captivated by my beautiful personality. And dashing appearance but who am I to blame someone for following their instincts. Ok I’ll stop now before I inflict more damage on my dignity.

Out came a person; she is taller than me by about 5 cm, appears to be around my age on the younger side, has black hair and because she seems to be shy I cannot see her eyes. She has a well-proportioned but tough looking body it may be the consequence of all those years hunting with her father the bear. She has the curves a woman should have but not enough that she would stand out for her beauty. She has a sword hanging by her waist, maybe she practices martial arts.

“Umm….” {xxx}

She’s looking here and there, looks at me then the ground after that the trees. Now I know why she was hiding in the bush. I’m not a monster; I don’t bite unless whatever I’m biting smells like a chicken croquet. Well I’ll better take the initiative or this will go nowhere.

“Hello, my name is Prudan well at least I believe it is anyway nice to meet you I heard from you father that I owe you half of my life” {Pr}

“….” {xxx}

“So what might your name be? I could come up with one and I promise it will be silly.” {Pr}

When I threatened to give her a silly name she tensed up. Speaking to her is like speaking to a deer you never know when she’ll make a run for it. She should be handled sensibly but going back to my previous statement no one ever accused me of being smart.

“Ofni…” {xxx}

“…my name is Ofni….” {xxx}

Would you look at that I got a name out of her. It’s just a hunch but I think if I spar with her she might open up a little. This is in no way a justification for my desire to test myself. The mere idea of it would be a stain upon my honor. Besides I doubt a conversation would get very far.

“Say Ofni I can’t help but notice the sword hanging from you waist would you care to have a friendly spar with me?” {Pr}

As if switching gears she looked at me square in the eyes. Fire burning deep in her eyes; maybe I am her prey indeed. I think I might have ended up washed up on a river bed because of my way with words. Maybe I picked a fight and got utterly crushed.

“Are you sure?” {Ofni}

Sure about what it’s not like I asked her hand in marriage, wait it’s not one of those local customs that goes a man might only marry a woman after he defeated in a fair fight kind of deal right?

“Is there something wrong?” {Pr}

“No.” {Of}

“Well then let’s have a fair fight, should we fight with or without magic?” {Pr}

“With.” {Of}

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After agreeing on the terms with lady I’m-charged-per-word; we put some distance between each other. I create a water mace, although it is as solid as palma solaris upon contact with the body it should dissolve. It is lighter though because well it’s made of water not metal. She fashions an earth sword, so she specialized in earth magic that’s uncommon for a fighter. I guess its properties are the same as my mace.

As an element earth magic’s offensive power consisted of launching bigger boulders and not much else. It is useful to build things and for defensive purposes. I’m attuned to water magic according to my earlier experiments. It’s a jack of all trades master of none, it has flexible offensive and defensive power but it suffers in comparison to fire and earth respectably. To use magic efficiently people usually chose an element and used the chanting formulas to attune the mana to the desired element this in turn made using other elements more wasteful, not impossible but less effective. The chants, which worked like meditation, also served to increase the mana pool.

As soon as the fight started her expression changed. I could see in her eyes a determination that told me defeat was impossible for her; if I were fighting her with my life on the line I would be terrified as it is now I’m just scared. I launched a blunt ice spear aimed at center mass; she shifted her pose a little to the left evading the missile as if dancing. She rushed me and unleashed a diagonal downwards cut, I deflected the blow, which had considerable strength, and closed the distance. Her sword is longer than my mace distancing myself would be my defeat. I aimed at her shoulder again she shifted left and I was elbowed on the stomach. While I took the blow she distanced herself. I launched a water ball at her while closing the distance once more.

As I was preparing my attack she reached for her back. She pulled a stone dagger as she threw her sword at me. She is not trying to kill me is she? I created a water wall to deflect the flying sword. Quickly rushing behind the sword was Ofni with her dagger in hand. She is way too fast. Because the water wall impeded her vision I used the chance so side step out of way. She dashed past me.

I widened the distance between us and started creating an ice buckler. The hexagonal buckler had a snowflake in the center which reached the rim of the shield. With my current speed I will not be able to maintain the distance. That said she doesn’t seem to rely on magic too much. She picked her sword back up and took her stance back. I prepared an ice lance; she tends to prefer dodging left for what I’ve seen so here goes nothing. I launched the lance towards her while preparing another as soon as possible and launching that one to the left where her body would be if my prediction was right. She shifted left and once she saw the second lance it was too late. She got hit on her right shoulder. Oops it seems I estimated that she was wider if I’m lucky she won’t notice.

The hit staggered her I took the opening and landed a nice clean hit to her ribs.

“I… got… you.” {Pr}

I said while panting, man she is tough. Way too tough! I got lucky I noticed she tends to dodge left.

While pointing at my stomach and smiling brightly as if the fidgeting figure before was a lie she says.

“We killed each other.” {Of}

Looking at my stomach was a dagger held by a hand which connected to her body. When did she stab me?

“You fight well Prudan, I’ve never seen magic and martial arts so closely woven together almost like the magical corps of old.” {Of}

“Although I have no memory of what I used to do. It looks like the previous me trained properly. I see you don’t use magic while in combat.” {Pr}

“No, as I live out here I don’t have the money to learn magic.” {Of}

So if you want to learn magic you have to pay for the chanting formula. Well that makes sense I would guess magicians that dedicate to research and teaching have to live somehow.

“Well looks like you can talk. I look forward to training with you, if you don’t mind.”{Pr}

When I said that she returned to her newborn fawn ways. Why are you getting shy all of a sudden after going berserk in our fight?

“So… you don’t remember… anything… before you woke up?” {Of}

“Nope, nothing” {Pr}

“What… will you… do now?”{Of}

“I plan on taking it easy and live as an adventurer” {Pr}

I smiled at Ofni who turned her gaze to the ground. After that we started making our way back to her house.