POV Aron Brightcloud
Sidestepping, I led the earth-bear fly past me. Naturally my sword was ready. I cut into its side as it came into my range. Differently to the wolf, its hide took most of the damage before it gave, leaving only a shallow wound. As its name stated the beast had developed along the principles of earth, sturdiness and a high life-force had become its strength. That was okay, I had included that in my plan. Incensed by the pain, the beast reared its head back towards my direction while coming to a stop.
During the past week I had fought several bears, I knew the beast’s tendencies. My sword already on its way, the bear had sealed its inevitable demise by throwing its head back in my direction, trying to take a piece of me. The weapon smoothly entered through its left eye-socket, directly into the brain. The pile of muscle and fur crumbled instantly, coming to lie next to my feet.
The now familiar rush of energy flowed through my body until it had reached my core. Sephiroth had been right. After the first time, the orgasm like feeling had substantially lessened. I was happy with that. Getting addicted to this feeling wasn’t high on my priority list. With practiced ease, I checked the surroundings a second time and quickly distributed the energy through my body. Although I had killed many beasts during this week I still needed more to improve my entire body once.
It would come, I was on the right track. Nodding to myself, I talked to the thin air. “It is already midday, should we go back?”
With an annoyed huff, my teacher stepped into view from behind a nearby tree. She didn’t like me discovering her so easily. I would have felt better if I wasn’t so sure that she didn’t try her best. On surface value, I seemed to be holding my own just fine. But in truth she had never shown her real skill since I had come to know her.
It couldn’t be helped, I had simply to work harder. At some point, I would best her.
“Yes, Aron, lets go back. You did well today. You have a very strategic mind and an instinctual affinity for fighting, aiding you in battles. I will show you more techniques to supplement your arsenal of attacks.”
I nodded. Sephiroth was right, my combat instincts allowed me to incorporate all I learned efficiently and quick. New techniques would improve my fighting-power manifold. Finished with the conversation, we jogged home.
Back at the mansion, I came face to face with my mother. We exchanged some pleasantries before she excused herself. My mother had gotten more distant. It had started before we went to the Northclouds and had since not stopped. Had it been after, I would have thought it was due to my shown calculatedness and deception during my fight with Balus, but she seemed to have believed my excuses.
As if feeling my slightly disturbed mood, Sephiroth chose that moment to make one of her playful attacks.
This time she was very forceful, leaving me to try fending her off for quite some time. At the end, I lay breathing hard on the ground with Sephiroth on top of me.
“Get off of me, Sephiroth.”
“No, don’t want to” Came her standard reply.
“Sephiroth, you know what we have agreed on, should I switch you with Richard?”
“You can’t do that, this is training. I am checking on your ground-fighting skills. For this special occasion you will not be allowed to use kicks and punches.”
Before I found a way out she snuggled even closer, smiling provocatively at me.
“Fearing you won’t get out if you can’t hit and kick a weak woman? It is okay, Aron, I will hold back for you.”
I rolled my eyes and attacked. Always provoking me.
Not long later I had reversed the situation, pinning her to the ground. My whole body lay on top of hers. We both were now breathing heavily.
“So… any other topics you wanted me to train in?”
“No, that was everything. You did well.”
She looked up at me with a content smile on her lips. Her hands had somehow found their way around my neck, keeping me in a loose embrace. She enjoyed it much too much for my taste.
I shook my head. “For the report, next time you pull something similar I will switch you with Richard. It won’t matter how you are going to sell it. We both know what your aim had been here. This is the last time you did this.”
Pouting, Sephiroth nodded and opened her arms to let me go. She was really one big bundle of beauty, cuddles, intrigues, schemes and fun. One part of my brain told me to leave my fingers from her, but compared to her, all the others were so colorless and boring. I had to pay more attention to not fall for her machinations. With my old subroutines coming back, I would hold my own.
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Today I studied the strength of beasts and men in more depth. They were divided into different tiers to highlight the danger levels a certain experience possessed. The Tiers 0-5 existed. Tier 0 were normal animals. Tier 0.5 were beasts that had started to fused with elemental energies. That Included the forest wolfs and earth bears I had fought so far.
The first real divide happened at Tier 1. The beast had fused enough energy to become closer to their chosen element, enhancing its strength and speed dramatically. A normal human had normally no chance to defeat it.
Tier 2 were elite magical-beasts. Their attributes were once more enhanced compared to tier 1. To kill a Tier 2 at least a group of tier 1 humans were needed.
The next divide was Tier 3. These beasts had integrated so much elemental energy that they developed elemental attacks. Their cunningness rose even more, giving them a real consciousness. Albite still primitive, they could build actual thought processes now. Tier 3 possessed sublevels because of the massive change the beast went through. A beginner Tier 3 could still be slain by a Tier 3 human, but a mid-Tier 3 would poss a real problem and a late state Tier 3 beast ate Tier 3 humans for breakfast.
Tier 4 were legendary beasts and Tier 5 primordial beasts. These Beasts were much stronger and only the most powerful could hope to best them.
The same categorization had been done for humans. They included different titles depending on the chosen route of warrior or mage. They were separated like followed: normal T-0 human, T-0.5 novice, T-1 mage, T-2 battlemage, T-3 highmage, T-4 Archmage.
Tier 5 hasn’t been seen in thousands of years, so it was left out. For warriors: normal human: recruit, T-1 warrior, T-2 elite, T-3 battlemaster, T-4 lord of war, T-5 Invictus.
Due to the higher danger-value of magicians, T-4 Archmages were on the same level as a T-5 Invictus.
Soon I would begin my journey and become a full-fledged magician. I couldn’t wait for my awakening ceremony.
Looking to the left side, I saw Seph sitting on the windowsill, enjoying the sun. A little breather from studying would be exactly the right thing now. I still owed her a little payback for earlier.
Doing my utmost to seem nonchalant, I walked over.
“Isn’t it a nice day? The sun is shining and its warm. By the way, thank you for all the time and energy you invest in training me, Seph. I am very happy with my improvements.” Accompanying my sentence, I put my hand gently on her shoulder.
Standing next to her, I gazed out into our backyard. It had changed since yesterday. My mother decided that a little pond would fit perfectly. So one day later, one stood directly below my window. Magic was something wonderful.
Sephiroth looked lazily up at me, a complete personification of a content and fat house-cat, sunning herself on this comfortable spot.
“My dear master, it has always been a pleasure to teach you, I want only the best for you.”
Yes right, as if I believed that…but going with the flow I nodded calmly.
“You know, I wouldn’t sit so relaxedly on the windowsill. It can be dangerous. What if you lose your balance and fell?”
Seph gazed proudly, and a little offended at me, “Don’t worry master, my body control is much too great for that, so-”
I pushed.
The moment she realized what was going to happen was priceless. The content vanished, her pupils got larger and larger. Her mouth opened. Then she was gone.
Half a second later, I heard a loud splash as she landed in the pond. Yes, windowsills could be dangerous, I hoped she had learned her lesson.
It was time for some food. Happily, I walked out of my quarters. Gazing out through the windows on the left side of the corridor, I took in the beautiful view. I had changed. Even though some of my old habits had reawakened, I still behaved differently. Had my old self been standing here, Seph would never have been pushed out of the window. I would never have joked with her. Having gotten some of my subroutines back, I knew I could completely reverse back to the way I had been before. There at the market, when the subroutines resurfaced, I initially had planned to do exactly that. But I didn’t want to anymore. At least not completely. Sephiroth had shown me another way of life.
How long had it been since I really enjoyed life and was happy with myself?
Sure, I relished fighting and succeeded in any challenge in my old world, but when had I really been content with myself? The harsh truth was, I didn’t know.
This new life was a chance in more ways than one. The boy’s soul had given me something which I hadn’t realized I had lost. Hope and Happiness as well as a certain mindset of freedom and pureness in exchange for a part of my hatred and cynical worldview I had build in the past. Sephiroth was there to keep me on my toes but still showed me the fun side of life. Due to her special circumstances she was maybe the only person on this planet which I could show part of my real self without fear of consequences. Who would believe a none-human? In addition, I knew that she always had my back. Okay, mostly. She was a manipulative temptress who loved to steer me according to her own plans. That was okay, nobody was perfect. I could work with that.
It was funny; I had this spurts of enlightenment often during the last two months when I had started investing time into self-reflection. Every time I had thought I had understood my purpose and how I wanted to life, yet in the end it was a gradual process of growth, not an one step recipe to mental success.
Nodding to myself, I walked further. I would become a better person, enjoy life, joking around and be kind. And everyone that crossed or harmed me or the people near me, I would happily cut into little pieces and cleanly dispose them to never be found again. Like two sides of a coin, the upper side fun and sunny, made to enjoy Life to its fullest. The lower side shrouded in darkness, cold logic, completely attuned to efficient killing and destruction.
I felt pride at having found enlightenment in my beautiful and clean way of life. Nodding a second time to myself, I felt a burden leave my body I hadn’t known had been there.
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POV Sephiroth
Pushing her head through water surface, she took in a big gulp of air. Sephiroth didn’t immediately leave the pond, instead she let her body drift on the water while she replayed the conversation and Aron’s sudden push in her head. Normally she would have had no problems stopping her fall, but she had never ever thought he would do something like that.
Instead of being angry at being thrown out of the window, she felt happy. His action showed their closeness. And even better was that he had started calling her by a short name! Today was a great day. Naturally she would pay him back for the push, but that was only to lead him into more games. Smiling, she enjoyed the cool water on her skin.