-- Aster --

I was feeling like shit, after the previous day, and I didn't know-how. Ever since we all became integrated and received our screens, I've never felt any lingering soreness from training. But today I woke up with all my muscles sore and stiff, not to mention the massive headache behind my eyes. I just wanted to lay in bed the rest of the day, but Kerria had other plans, as he threw open my door and dragged me down to the training yard.

After tossing me to the ground, he acted like nothing was wrong, "Today we are going to revisit the sword."

"Seriously?" My head was still pounding and I wasn't sure if I was in disbelief at what he wanted to train or what he just did to me. Probably a bit of both.

"And I suggest you get a good night's sleep before training." Kerria said condescendingly before sneering, "I don't know what you're doing but you look like shit."

"Are you fucking serious?" I snarled. How could he blame me for this? Whatever this was was his doing. How could he blame me, for his actions?

"Yes. Taking care of your body is important." He answered with all seriousness, before pulling his massive zweihander, "Now draw your sword."

I was feeling obstinate so I began to trace the image of a sword on the sandy ground. "Here?"

Looking down at my childish display, "If that's how you want it." Kerria lunges forward with his weapon swinging towards my head. How rude he didn't even laugh. I stepped out of the way of the swing, as it barely misses my shoulder, as Kerria brings his sword to follow up, the high-pitched noise that has following me for the last day reappeared to mess up my performance. But, this time I was expecting it. I smiled and flared a font of power around my brain stopping whatever signals the sound was sent to my brain. I had figured out last night what Kerria was doing when I remembered the sirens, and how she had used a song to mess with my mind. The instructor must be doing something similar. Though my method was not perfect, as it required me to hear the sound before, being able to defend against it, so there was still a small misstep, but I was easily able to correct myself, and for the first time since starting this entire farce I was able to counterattack drawing my sword and striking. I was immensely satisfied to see the small trickle of red down the side of Kerria's arm.

Kerria, strangely looked just as happy as he smiled, in a way I did not like, "Good. Seems your not completely incompetent, but you still stumbling."

I narrowed my eyes, my adrenaline pumping, "Like, you're don't know."

Kerria didn't deign to respond he only attacked, and throughout the day the sound came more and more frequently. The side effect of this constant barrage was I was most definitely getting better at freeing myself from such attacks to the point I could almost feel the sound before it began to enter my mind and begin my defense before it could even take effect.

To the outside world it must, appear that my skill with the sword was rapidly improving when I still wasn't even at the low skill level I had with the weapon. The fight with metal effects took too much of my concentration.

"Keep your feet moving, don't stop, keep yourself as small as possible." The man spouted, what I could only assume was what he thought was good advice, for someone new to the sword. It was, but I wasn't really knew. I was just dealing with his invisible attacks, which made me seem new.

I must have been improving too quickly or he realized his trick to trip me up wasn't working as well anymore as he began to send strong bursts of power into my mind. These had the added benefit of making me go deaf for a second, and that alone would make me stumble. I was having trouble dealing with both of these attacks simultaneously, and my attacks began to regress, as every other burst would plow right through my quickly constructed shield, causing me to lose control. Sometimes instead of big bursts of power he would do something that would happen at speeds, I couldn't anticipate and by the time I noticed my body was already out of my control.

After one such assault, I found myself losing control of my power, and I opened a channel absorbing all the power around me. Oddly this was a very effective defense from the manipulation, as I just absorbed it before it could do anything. The problem was I would grow hot and begin to move like I was drunk. Slowly, losing any sense of coordination. We trained while I was in that state just kind of falling all over the place and swinging my sword like an idiot until the man actually stopped to slap me, knocking me to the ground.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"I don't know why you're flailing around like your addled in the head, but sort yourself out. You look like a fool." His voice filled with disappointment.

I couldn't help but laugh at what he had called me, as that was my position in the quest. So I told him, "But I am the fool"

"Doesn't mean you need to follow stereotypes." He snapped back at me.

I sat there staring at the man wondering what he was talking about when I noticed a funnel of power streaming into my body. "Oh."

I cut the flow, or tried to, only able to turn it from a river into a leaky faucet. I really needed to learn to control that. Especially, in this place. It was like my body craved the energy in the air. Maybe Violet could give me some tips, she was able to forcibly stop the flow.

With the power no longer flooding through me, my body quickly adapted and I came back to myself, no longer feeling like I was floating. Through all of this, I did wonder if he was actually training me to defend against this type of attack during a battle, but with the way, he adamantly refuted any such attacks. I could only conclude he was just trying to look good for the show, and in a day or two I would suddenly be a lot better with the weapon, and he would be a miracle worker.

I was tired of this man pretending to train me, and attacking all along the way with an untraceable assault, and now that I could think I realized there was a simple way for me to see what he was doing. Whether or not I would be able to prove he was doing this was another matter. For now, it would be enough to confirm, his deceit.

I stood calmly with my sword raised, as we took positions. He only attacks when I have the upper hand so let's make sure I get it. I moved first lunging forward with a diagonal cut up toward his shoulder. He easily parried it, but I was able to twist in the perfect angle to bring the sword down in a new arc heading towards his side. There was no way for Kerria to bring up his weapon in time to defend, and just like I expected the noise came, and I flared my cat's eyes to see. Only to find nothing coming from the man. Did I miss it? How could he be so precise that he could attack and remove any lingering energy?

I was in disbelief, at the man's skill but still determined to see this through. So instead of flaring my eyes, I kept them empowered despite the growing burning sensation. The fight continued and almost every strike, his or mine, a loud noise came. I was improving in defense of it, but he was matching my progress, and the truly frustrating thing was I couldn't see any signs of the noise even coming from him.

I was tired of the man denying he was doing this and frustrated I couldn't see anything, "You're using some kind of skill, to make me fall around and I'm going to prove it." I shouted at him.

He shouted right back, indignant, "There is nothing to prove. Only your reluctance to try. See you're improving already, and if you keep this up you can use a sword to truly fight."

I said nothing just glaring daggers at the man. He's a siren I bet. My eyes were burning but I was determined to see, pushing more power into my eyes to the point they began to glow under the bright lights of the training hall.

Kerria's nostrils flared angry, "No skills, only swordsmanship."

I ignored him and attacked the man, waiting for the inevitable sound. My blade was on a direct trajectory towards Kerria's head. I could see him stepping out of the way of the strike when it happened. A massive blast of sound hit me, and I was finally able to trace it back to the source, but that only confused me more. As a string of power didn't come from Kerria but it came from somewhere completely different, I only barely caught it out of the corner of my eye, from the direction of the window behind me. Is this guy using a proxy?

I had to be sure it wasn't coming from him so I repeated the attack as his annoyance with me increased. I think it was because I was plainly ignoring every word he was saying to fully assault him. Even when he cut into my flesh, I completely ignored him. Looking for the source of the sound.

"What is going on? You were improving now your not even trying to fight. Is this some sort of self sadist protest?" Kerria asked in concern

There. Out the window on a rooftop, I caught the hair of someone, looking through binoculars. I guess this guy really has no idea what's going on. I stared at Kerria, shaking my head. "I don't know if that makes this worse or not." Since it never even occurred to him that something might be interfering with his education.

"Pay attention. This is training."

I let out a long tired sigh, "Sure. But seriously. I prefer a dagger." I said for what felt like the thousandth time.

"All rogues do, but you need to have something with reach, sometimes and you need to be able to at least hold the thing." He explained, for the first time.

I stared at him in disbelief, "Why didn't you say that at the beginning?"

Kerria gave a hard glare, "You fought like an idiot, that didn't think of the sword more than a sharp stick."

I was in complete disbelief, feeling like I had been an ass for accusing him, but then realized he never even listened to a word of what I had to say. Maybe he could have puzzled together what was going on if he was even remotely willing to listen. I still didn't like the man but would at least try. Though the person fucking with me would pay.