Michael

The sound of wood clashing on wood echoed in the room. Furniture had been pushed to the walls opening up a space in the middle of the large room. It was a luxurious estate that Michael and Mira were using to spar.

They had come here after Michael had asked where they could train without being seen. It was disconcertingly easy to get here without being seen, Mira had led him through a hidden passage that brought them beyond the palace walls, and after that they had simply walked over to the royal estate. Michael had asked if such a tunnel should be brought to the palace guards’ attention, but Mira deflected by pointing at Sir Antreos who was following them.

The building they were currently training in was one of the many houses that the royal family possessed, they were usually used to house guests when the palace got too full but most of the time it stood empty and forgotten.

It was a good place for training even if a softer ground would probably benefit Mira as hit the ground again.

“You are too indecisive. Either commit or don’t if you doubt your every move then you can only fail,” Michael critiqued while leaning on his staff. Mira was doing well in his opinion, considering that she only started training a little over a month ago.

“Does it even matter? I can’t fight for real anyway,” she grumbled as she pushed herself back on her feet with a depressed expression.

Michael had been basically dropping her to the ground continually for an hour now. He didn’t want to do it that long initially but she just kept getting back up and demanding another turn so he had been curious how long she could take it. It was understandable that at one point she would get frustrated.

“Because of your low mana reserves, you mean,” Michael asked.

She made a funny expression that Michael interpreted as a yes.

“Alright, answer me a question. Why does anyone use normal soldiers with small mana wells?”

“What do you mean,” she asked confused.

“Sir Antreos,” Michael turned to the knight. “How many not augmenting trained soldiers could you take alone?”

The knight pondered for a moment and then carefully answered, “Depending on the arms and armament, the tactics and situation.”

“No ranged weapons, same length weapons as you, a basic formation, and an open field with solid ground,” Michael clarified.

“Fifty to a hundred would be my estimation. I never tried,” the knight guessed.

“Good, let’s go with the low estimate of fifty. With fifty normal not-augmenting soldiers being defeated by one augmenter you can defeat an army of one thousand with only twenty augmenters. House Rowan can field twenty trained augmenters, not on Sir Antreos level but with the low estimate it will middle out, but House Rowan can’t field one thousand trained soldiers. So, why does anyone bother to spend the time and resources on normal soldiers at all,” Michael turned back to Mira who seemed to put serious thought into the question.

“To tire out the augmenters,” she suggested.

“That is quite a bloody suggestion but not too far from the truth,” Michael said but let her ponder a little bit more.

“One thousand men can be in more places at the same time than twenty?”

Michael nodded; he was impressed that she actually gave good answers even if she never had any education in military matters. “Also, true but not the main point I am trying to make.”

“The answer is in the question that I asked Sir Antreos. ‘How many not-augmenting soldiers?’ The thing is there are no not-augmenting soldiers, every human being has mana and the basic ability to augment, augmenters just have much more and are better trained in it, which is also why the names augmenter and non-augmenter are a little bit misleading but still mostly true. Now we come to the most important technique for someone like you who has barely any mana, it is called the Desperate Riposte. It is not always a riposte, to be honest, but the name just stuck.”

Mira listened intently while Sir Antreos looked a little bit uncomfortable, but Michael ignored it.

“A little bit of context first. When an augmenter fights a large group of non-augmenters, he has to be aggressive. If he tires out and his mana runs low then he will be in danger so to fight one versus fifty he will run in and throw all caution to the wind, relying on his greater speed or durability to react to any attack thrown at him, and that works well as long as no one augments.”

“This is where the Desperate Riposte comes in. The technique is quite simple, when facing an augmenter you pick one moment, maybe when he does a reckless attack or is focused on someone else. You then burn as much mana as possible to reduce the gap between you and the augmenter for just one attack and strengthen yourself to overcome their durability.”

“But if the augmenter knows that that is the only chance, won’t he be more careful,” Mira asked unconvinced.

Michael grinned at her. “Exactly! Now he has to be careful with every single soldier he fights which slows him down and tires him out.”

Mira nodded, slowly understanding what the point was.

“Sir Antreos, how many augmenting and trained soldiers could you take in a fight alone?”

“Twenty at maximum if they know what they are doing, and that can go wrong if I am unlucky or reckless,” he answered instantly.

“Suddenly twenty augmenters can only fight off four hundred soldiers and that doesn’t take into account ranged weapons and spears. There will also be situations where an augmenter dies by some well-timed attack from behind, so I don’t think that twenty augmenters could actually take four hundred men.”

Sir Antreos nodded in agreement and Michael kept going.

“Now both sides have augmenters and soldiers. When the augmenters clash then they can’t always pay attention to a random soldier that suddenly decides to speed up and end the fight.”

“Why do we use augmenters then,” Mira asked seemingly a little bit confused.

“Because they are still more effective. You only have to arm one man even if it is better quality and have effectively twenty armed soldiers. Augmenters get more valuable with lower numbers too as the importance of individual strength rises.”

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“This is complicated, but I think I get it.”

Michael laughed and said, “It would be great for the people and the treasury if we just fought with augmenters but the army with both is simply stronger, not to mention that you can’t siege a castle with twenty men. Sure, you can try to sneak in and take it like that but apart from that you can’t do much.”

Mira looked like her head was starting to smoke so Michael smirked and admitted, “Sorry, I got carried away a little bit here. So, let’s just try it out. I will attack you a little bit while burning mana and you will pick your moment for a Desperate Riposte.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sir Antreos stepped in with a concerned expression.

“Don’t worry, I will be careful and mana depletion is not serious for people with small mana wells,” Michael brushed him off, but the knight insisted.

“It is alright,” Mira interrupted them after a while with visible anxiety.

“Milady,” Sir Antreos started but she waved him off. “I will be careful, don’t worry.”

Michael nodded and opened the floodgates to his immense mana reserves; his skin began glowing in an eerie light and the light sources around them got just a little bit brighter.

“Are you ready,” he asked, and Mira confirmed it after getting into a combat position.

The whole exchange was barely a moment. Michael dashed at her with wild abandon and shot his staff right at her throat, a quick killing blow in a normal fight. A moment before he reached, Mira suddenly sped up as well and raised her staff to block his attack. In a normal fight this situation would have left him wide open to a counterattack.

Michael knew that he could easily avoid her block and win the exchange nonetheless but chose to give her the win. It was a hard thing to train anyway because the Desperate Riposte relied on surprise.

His staff connected with Mira’s and when she followed it up with an attack, he jumped back to avoid it. Being hit would make it too obvious that he let her win this once, she did the right thing after all so Michael didn’t feel bad.

“Good job! Blocking an attack of an augmenter is the first step. You need to do the riposte in a situation where they are completely committed and can’t turn back anymore.”

Mira had a talent for fighting in Michael’s opinion, even if she had started training only something like one month ago, she was making great progress. Her talent was definitely not for the rigid knight’s style or even the savage style of someone like Eydis. Mira was more of a flowing person, her talent as a dancer combined with her natural sense of the flow of combat.

Solon had told him about fighting styles which were very close to dancing and if Mira would learn one of those then she could become a great fighter. It was sad that her potential would forever be limited by her miserable mana well.

“Thank you,” Mira said and blushed at the compliment.

“Let’s take a short break for your mana to replenish and go again. Fifteen minutes should be enough, right?”

The advantage of a small mana well, if you can even call it an advantage, is that it is full faster. While Michael would need hours to refill his mana reserves to its maximum someone like Mira only needed minutes. Of course, it also depended on the mana density in the area and the skill of the person but generally speaking, it is true that people with smaller wells refill their reserves faster.

They continued their training for a while longer until a young woman entered the house, she was breathing a little labored and came straight to them. It was Mira’s handmaiden Julie, the third daughter of some count. She was beautiful with long golden hair, a sweet smile, and radiant blue eyes.

“Milady, the queen-mother is looking for you,” she said after catching her breath. She must have run all the way here which couldn’t have been fun in her dress.

“Ups,” Mira replied with an awkward expression.

“Mira, did you have some other appointment,” Michael asked her, instantly catching up to her deception.

“I might have had embroidery lessons planned right about now,” she admitted shamelessly.

“By Idas, Mira,” Michael groaned and started walking but Mira stayed where she was. He then turned back to her with an expectant look and said, “Let’s go.”

“Do we really have to? I am gonna get yelled at anyway so there is no problem with just skipping the entire lesson.” Mira crossed her arms in front of her chest and Michael had to remind himself again that she was a somewhat normal child.

“Skipping out on lessons just because you don’t like them is not something you should make a habit out of. Let’s go back, you take your lesson and I promise that I will find the time to come training with you again when you don’t have other plans already.” It felt weird talking to her like this, but it worked as her expression lit up.

“Alright, but you have to keep that promise,” she said with a happy expression and bounced past him.

“Only if you keep up your studies,” Michael called after her, but she ignored him.

Behind them, Eydis exchanged amused glances with Mira’s retainers.

- Back in the palace, a few minutes later –

“Miranne Cicilia Merland, where have you been,” the queen-mother asked loudly as Mira and Michael approached her. "I have been worried sick. You don't come to your lessons and no one has the faintest idea where you are!"

Mira fidgeted awkwardly and refused to look her mother in the eyes, so Michael stepped forward. “My deepest apologies, your Majesty. It is my fault that Princess Mira is late, she asked me to remind her when the time to leave for her lesson has come but I forgot. Please do not blame the princess for my failure.” He bowed deeply and the queen mellowed down.

“She should have thought of it herself but apparently you both have been caught up in your games. I assume I can be a little more understanding while you are here that my children want to spend time with you,” she said, and Michael could virtually grasp the pity in her voice. It was one advantage of his miserable situation, most people cut him a lot of slack.

The queen-mother then turned to her daughter with a stern expression. “I expect that you manage your time better in the future, young lady.”

Mira nodded seemingly confused as to why she hadn’t been scolded.

“Good, now get to your lesson.”

After that situation had been handled, Michael wandered the palace a little bit. It was such a grandiose estate that one could wander it for days and still find new and interesting things to see.

One of these things was a grand gallery of ancient paintings. Michael stood in front of one depicting the Betrayal, a group of hooded men standing around magical circles, and over them were the gods shedding tears of blood while being pierced by the weapons of small red creatures.

“Michael,” a questioning voice came from the side and Michael looked over to see Theodore approach him with a curious expression.

“Oh, hello Theodore. What are you doing here?”

“Just wanted to ask you the same,” the teenager said. “I like spending my time here because barely anyone visits the gallery. I was always fascinated by the paintings as well, so it was two birds with one stone.”

Michael noticed the bag that the other boy was carrying, and his gaze shifted to the small easel under his arm.

“Are you a painter, Theodore,” he asked curious about this side of his friend that he didn’t know.

Theodore flinched as if he had hoped that Michael wouldn’t notice the obvious. “Yeah, but please don’t tell anyone. I went to great lengths to bribe the guards to warn me before someone enters, which they obviously failed in seeing you here.”

“I honestly just walked in, the guard was snoozing against the wall,” Michael replied with a cheeky grin at which Theodore shook his head disapprovingly. “Why do you have to keep your painting secret though, seems like a nice hobby to me.”

“You met my father, didn’t you,” Theodore replied dryly, and Michael instantly understood, the man would probably not agree to such a ‘waste of time’ for his son.

“Yeah, your father is ...,” Michael stopped not quite sure how to describe the man without insulting him.

“He is kind of a prick,” the large boy finished Michael’s thought.

“You said that,” Michael clarified and they both chuckled for a while.

Michael turned back to the painting and Theodore followed his gaze. “The Tears of the Betrayed. Made by the artist Geomero Hulien some nine hundred years ago,” Theodore explained.

“I can understand why everyone hates mages if you look at paintings like this.”

Theodore nodded in agreement before adding, “A lot of paintings from that time feature the Betrayal with the public hate against mages being at its height. The mages were weak from the lack of mana and the Idas Church was on the rise, hunting down mages all over the land.”

“The echoes still reverberate today,” Michael said more to himself, and they fell silent.

“So, when are you leaving,” Theodore asked while starting to set up his equipment.

“I am gonna look for some qualified workers that want to move to Reen. My lands weren’t known for their great expertise in metalworks and training new smiths will take too long,” Michael explained. “So probably a few days yet.”

Theodore thought about it for a moment and then tapped his chin while lost in thought. “I might be able to help you with that, can ask some of my father’s contacts.”

“I would appreciate that. Do you mind if I stay and watch you paint a little bit, we can catch up,” Michael asked.

“Sure, nice to have someone appreciate my passion.”