"Woah!" A short-snapped surprise yelped from my father, my wooden blade gliding past his top lip, smudging it across.

"Good, good! Keep going!" He encouraged me, retracting his steps and thrusting forwards with his mana enhanced weapon. I swiftly move my torso, the splinters from the wooden sword digging into my side leaving behind me a powerful hurl of wind.

Damn, my body is still not comparable, even with mana, to my fathers well built body but mediocre usage of magic to enhance his movements. I'm still trailing behind in certain aspects.

From my crouched position, my palm flatly dug into the ground, a tremor building in pressure below my fathers feet, whilst in my other hand, a different earth spell began brewing as I aimed below my father, dispelling the forceful blow from my grasp and melding the ground into a sloppy, viscid mess. His balance swayed beneath his hips, that were unable to gain stability from his wavering legs, and I used this opportunity to dive ahead, sliding my sword down my back and charring it with a great flame before dragging the torch at his chest in one swift motion that should have been a guaranteed hit.

Smack!

My sword struck a rigid and inflexible surface, his navy blue eyes roaring away at the despair before my eyes. My brows squinted upon being launched backwards by the sword that magically manifested to protect him and I scurried across the lands, my feet gouging the land to stop as soon as possible. Yet, it took me too long and my opponent capitalised on this opportunity. Ice thawed in the path of his movement, his feet remaining in a neutral position with his body crouched and slightly tilted forward gaining momentum even across a flat terrain with the use of wind magic accelerating his approach. His blade, gripped in his right hand, slung over his left shoulder and his posture repositioned itself by twisting in the opposite direction to his dominant side, building strength for the awaited impact he hoped to connect.

The distance between us grew minimal and my position finally secured as I came to a halt. A confident snicker embedded deeply in his smile. "Don't get so confident now, father." I whispered and his face hardened. This was a move I had developed in my previous life and had yet to test it out since my arrival back here. It took a lot of concentration and mana to perform, yet my mind seemed set on this decision. The mana vigorously pumped from my crux around my established mana veins, sparking an internal reaction that I had deeply ingrained into my psyche to the point that practicing it no longer became a necessity. A zapping numbed my body before my senses refocused like a lens on a telescope, grasping more information then previously. My strength, reactions and my thought process all more than doubled as the tips of my argent hair swayed before my scarlet eyes charged with a ring of blue lightning circling at incredible speed gaining the appearance of a constant electric blue on the outside of my iris.

"What th-!" A confused reaction emerged from my father who's momentum remained the same and was only half a meter from making impact with me. Yet that distance would now certainly mean he would miss.

My arms hung to the floor as the balls of my feet catapulted my weight over my father, flipping in the air and arriving directly behind my unexpecting victim, who had yet to catch on that I vanished from his view and swiping his feet from underneath him before securing his dominant arm in an armbar hold, my feet planting themselves across his chest as I pulled back on his arm, leveraging it across my hips whilst I arched my back.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Aghhhhhhh, ok I give, I give!" He tapped, desperately screaming for forgiveness. I chuckled for a bit in the same position and eventually let go. His face appeared to be rather dejected, a solemn smile directed at me. "I guess you win this time." He continued, his eyes deeply buried beneath his hands that he rubbed them with. I guess it would be embarrassing for any adult to lose to a five year old, no matter their natural ability.

"Here," I placed a cup of water at his side and downed mine in the process. "That was a good spar. I think we should focus more on physical training though, as I seem to be lacking in that area." I finished.

Aldir remained silent, not touching his cup and staring at the ground. After a while he finally hoisted himself up, grabbing the water I gave him and throwing it over himself. "Yeah, we should. Anyway get ready. Your mum told me to take you hunting today and I'd also like to get to fishing before the end of the day so we're going to have to speed run this." He spoke hastily, throwing the wooden cup in my direction which I let bounce of my head purposefully.

My father looked at me apologetically and at my mother who stood behind him with a killing glare, armed with a kitchen knife as I barely kept in my laughter, walking away.

Half a decade had past and its been a couple months since my 5th birthday had passed. Things sailed smoothly for the most part and my life began retracing itself into a similar routine in my past life. Aldir and I had finally began sparring not to long ago, alongside hunting. My mother has been keen to see me progress and is reluctant to listen to my fathers hesitant approach which seems to be deeply rooted in some sort of hatred. I have no real thoughts about his matter and neither do I particularly care, but I do sometimes wonder if this man who is my father hates the thing his son is becoming. I can attest to me straying completely away from what a normal child would be like and instead decided to do what I pleased, but a lingering sense of guilt may be growing large in my conscience from taking away such a special thing as parenting away from this couple, or at least my father.

"You got all your stuff?" My fathers voice grumbled across the room from me, his actions concentrated on the bow he was preparing and then slid on an unusual leather bag. His footsteps thudded and creaked against the wooden floor, clashing with the noise of the ponderous rain lashing down outside.

"I'm more than ready. I have a feeling this will be one of our bigger hunts." I added.

"The rain, huh?" My father muttered, grasping my implication. "Alright, we're heading out dear. We should be back before dawn but that could change. Sleep well." My mother made no effort to verbally reply and simply nodded her head affirmatively, giving an affectionate hug to me and my father, before trudging up the stair to their bedroom.

"C'mon on then, Eli." He gestured with his hand and stepped out.

"It's unfortunate dad, but seemingly we won't be able to get the fishing done today nor tomorrow."

"That's your fault for continuously dragging our spar on." He countered to my point.

"Let me remind you, that was your fault. You're the one who constantly wanted a rematch to prove something." I slipped a devious smile to him as my feet firmly planted into the sinking mud. A sloppy noise retained through our walk and filled the silence that my father left after being unable to respond to my comment.

"You really are an awful son. Not even letting your dad win an argument." He laughed mockingly after a while, his gaze catching mine in an intense trance. "Let's move." He ordered and the two of us engaged into a high speed jog moving around the obstacles such as fallen trees, stones and other annoyances. The wind pushed against us tyrannically, lightning blessed the ground below with powerful tremors as the sinkhole in the sky grew larger.