“When faced with a move like this, you need to take a step back and correct your position.”

The burly blonde-haired man punched out with his fist towards her exposed side. She narrowly dodged it, stepping back with one foot to twist her body to the side.

“And avoid getting caught in the follow-up move.”

She ducked as the man’s other fist shifted to try to punch her again. But the scarred man’s leg swung out and swept her off her feet. She dived into a roll to get back up.

“Don’t forget to counterattack either. That can make your opponent pause and fail to do a follow-up move, giving you time.”

She punched forward with her fist as he came closer, but the man blocked it with a large hand. Expecting that, she kicked a leg up, aiming for his jaw, but he blocked that with his other hand as well.

He grabbed her ankle with two hands and pulled in an attempt to slam her onto the ground on the opposite side, but she foiled his attempt by wrapping her arms around his neck partway, trying to choke him as she essentially sat on his shoulder.

“I… feel… like… this… is… a little… unfair…” she said through gritted teeth, the strength of her limbs unable to cut off any air at all.

The battle-scarred man just laughed. “Sorry, but you won’t be able to overcome the difference in our CON, Riftmire.”

His pull on her leg grew stronger, and she slipped off his shoulder, slamming onto the ground. She gazed wearily at him as he stepped forward with a toothy grin.

“You’ve been quite the interesting sparring partner this month, Riftmire,” Commander Arkenast said.

“Glad to know one of us has enjoyed this,” she muttered.

He chuckled, leaning forward to offer her a hand. She took it, getting back onto her feet. The Commander gestured to someone standing off to the side with his hand. “I’m not the only one, Riftmire. I’m sure Wharifin here has been watching our sparring sessions with great interest, considering how often he comes here.”

Standing a distance away, looking at Adrianna and the Commander with a hesitant and slightly awkward expression, was Caspian. “Uh… sure… if that’s how you put it…”

Commander Arkenast smirked, planting his hands on his hips. “I have to say though, Riftmire…” he said, looking at her. “I almost find it a shame that you chose to be a mage instead of a warrior. The possibilities of a warrior who releases no killing intent…” He shook his head. “And imagine if you had become an assassin!”

“The only reason I have put up even a slight bit of resistance facing you is because of the analytical abilities I gained from being a mage,” she replied, stretching her arms. “And I wouldn’t be able to use mana-arts anyway.”

“Oh? Have you tested this?” he asked curiously.

She nodded. “I once tried to learn a prerequisite skill for a weaker mana-art just to see how it worked.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t understand the mana usage. It seems mana creates specific effects when killing intent is used, but I could only get the theoretical aspect.”

“Interesting. I don’t usually think about how my mana acts when I use killing intent,” the Commander mused, “But it seems to play a bigger part than I thought, considering our spars.”

Then he grinned at her. “Although, Riftmire, you have more physical combat experience than I expected.”

In her sparring with Commander Arkenast, she hadn’t been completely hopeless. She did know some martial arts, such as taekwondo, jujutsu, kickboxing, wrestling, Krav Maga…

…as the only heir of a multibillionaire, she had gotten bored.

“The martial arts I learnt were used for sport mostly,” she responded, walking over to the side to get a drink of water from a flask. “They don’t have any lethal moves.”

“For sport? On your home plane?” Commander Arkenast asked.

Adrianna nodded. “We didn’t have much mana there.”

Both the Commander and Caspian looked very interested, but she didn’t say anything more on the topic. Commander Arkenast held his chin as he watched her, but eventually shrugged. Then a broad grin appeared on his face as he gestured to her to come closer.

“Well, considering this is our last day for sparring, I say we go another few rounds,” he said cheerfully.

Gazing at him with a mixture of exasperation and weariness, she suppressed a sigh and stepped forward, then got into a combat-ready stance. Caspian gave her a look of pity as the Commander charged forward.

He began by punching towards her face with his right hand, to which she tilted her head to dodge and followed up with a kick from her left leg, aiming for his side.

Commander Arkenast twisted his body and raised a knee to block it, then kicked out with the leg to knock away hers.

The move destabilised her, but she had expected that, and when his follow-up move came to take advantage of her weakness, she avoided the fist headed for her stomach by stepping to the side and running forward to punch the Commander.

He caught her fist with his hand and twisted her around so it was behind her back. She slipped her foot behind one of his and tried to make him fall over backwards.

He shifted his foot just slightly to remove hers, so she spun around to the other side, making her arm no longer behind her back, and aimed for his jaw with her other free hand.

The Commander smirked as he grabbed that fist, making her locked in place as she couldn’t remove his grip from either hand.

“Aren’t you using too much strength?” she hissed.

Commander Arkenast chuckled. “I said I’d keep it to a warrior-manipulator of your level, and I still haven’t changed it. Don’t blame me for your mistakes.”

He roughly shoved her back as he let go, letting her get back into position before they fought again.

As they dashed towards each other to clash with their limbs once more, a few Officers walked by, some of whom were off duty on the ship, and paused when they saw them sparring. They came up to Caspian, who heard their footsteps and turned around. He gave them a nod when he saw who they were.

“Hello Lisent, Paroch and Mawelsteff.” He turned back to look at the Commander and Adrianna. “As you can see, they’re doing it again.”

“How long until he leaves her alone?” one of the Officers asked, a blonde-haired man in his late twenties.

“Well… he did say today was the last day they would be sparring…” Caspian replied, watching Adrianna get flipped onto her back again by the Commander. “Whenever he gets bored, I guess. Or there’s work to be done.”

“I’m sure Stanhope would say there’s work the Commander needs to do right now,” Another Officer said, a man with brown hair in his mid-thirties.

Caspian huffed a laugh. “We all know what he has to say about work and the Commander.”

“Although, this new Officer that’s caught the Commander’s attention…” the brown-haired Officer muttered. “I think I heard something about her being on combat duty later today?”

Caspian raised an eyebrow. “But Riftmire’s an illusion mage.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard though…” the Officer turned to the third black-haired Officer beside them. “Mawelsteff, wasn’t it you who told me this?”

The man nodded. “Yep. She’ll be placed with the lot clearing out the low-ranked monsters today until the end of the month. The Commander will be there to supervise her as he’s stepping back from fighting the greater monsters to give the newer Rank-5s a chance to increase their levels.”

“Ah, I remember hearing something from Stanhope about her,” the blonde-haired Officer spoke up. “Her magic is pretty unique, according to him.”

“But if she’s a mage, why is she sparring with the Commander?” the brown-haired one asked.

The three of them and Caspian paused to watch Adrianna fight with the Commander for a few moves.

The Commander threw out a punch which she used a forearm to deflect, then attempted to kick him.

Commander Arkenast dodged it, but she ran forward and… kneed his crotch. Of course, it didn’t actually hurt the man, as his CON was too high, but it made Caspian wince, the expressions of the three Officers beside him twitch, and the Commander gaze at her with a strange expression.

“That’s dirty…” the blonde-haired Officer muttered.

“Riftmire, don’t you think you’re being a little bit too underhanded?” Commander Arkenast said.

“You’ve told me to attack if there’s a weakness. I saw a weakness, so I attacked,” she stated calmly. She looked down at the wooden deck of the ship. “If we were back at the fortress and had dirt on the ground, I would’ve tried to throw some at your eyes.”

They all stared at her, taken aback by her words. The three Officers beside Caspian turned to look at him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Wharifin, what kind of person is this new colleague of yours?” the brown-haired Officer asked, feeling bemused.

“Here’s the thing, Paroch…” Caspian watched the figure of the Commander charge forward and then grab Adrianna in a headlock. “I’m still not entirely sure.”

Freed from the headlock a few seconds later, Adrianna attempted to kick Commander Arkenast’s stomach, but he used his forearms to block it and then retaliated by grabbing her leg and pulling on it. She was yanked off her feet and laid there on the ground again, just breathing heavily.

“Again, with your inability to sense killing intent, I feel like it’s such a shame you didn’t become a warrior.” The Commander sighed, crossing his arms. “You’d be the Tower’s most unpredictable fighter.”

“I would be killed by the first sneak attack I came across,” she replied after her breathing was back to normal.

“Possibly…” Then Commander Arkenast grinned at her. “But wouldn’t your pseudo-domain help you detect it?”

A few metres away Caspian blinked in surprise, the three other Officers giving Adrianna another appraising look.

“A pseudo-domain at Rank-1?” Paroch commented. “Normally only early Rank-2s start forming one of them. It’s not until around late Rank-2 that you can form a domain, after all.”

“Do you know why the Commander put her next to you?” the black-haired Mawelsteff asked Caspian.

“Erm… no, not really,” he replied with a strange expression.

“My pseudo-domain doesn’t cover my inability to dodge an attack quick enough,” Adrianna said to the Commander, getting up off the ground.

“That’s true… however, on the topic of dodging-”

“Commander! I’ve been looking- why are you fighting her again?!”

The six of them all turned to look at the newcomer. Ross Stanhope was marching forward with a dark look on his face, holding a clipboard in one hand. He frowned when he saw Caspian and the three Officers.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re off duty, sir,” the brown-haired Paroch replied with a smile.

Ross nodded. “Ah. That’s fine then… but you, Commander, are not!” he exclaimed, jabbing a finger at the battle-scarred man.

“Well, there wasn’t really much that needed doing currently, so I-”

“Not much?! I still have half a dozen battle reports to go over with you, a logistics check-up to occur, and a meeting with the senior magic engineers scheduled in only an hour!” Ross interrupted, gesturing angrily to his clipboard. “At least tell me where you’re going before ditching work!”

Then he turned to Adrianna and pointed at her. “You should’ve rejected his request for a spar.”

Adrianna’s expression was flat as she glanced between Ross and the grinning Commander Arkenast. “Reject…” She gestured to the tall man next to her. “…him.”

Ross ignored her dubiousness to point at Caspian. “And I’m disappointed in you, Wharifin, for not preventing this foolhardiness.”

Caspian stared at him in disbelief. “Why am I getting brought into this?”

The three Officers next to him chuckled and gave him a few pats on his shoulders, amused at his situation.

The Commander spread his arms, smirking. “Come now, Stanhope, you can’t blame those two for this. None of this is their fault.”

“Yes, I know.” Ross glared at him. “I’m aware that this is your fault.” He sighed and put a hand on his hip. “Are you done? Is this sparring session over? Can you please return to your study on the warship so we can discuss these battle reports?”

“Hmm…” Commander Arkenast considered it. “Okay. We’re done….”

Ross sighed in relief until the Commander said his next words.

“….after one more spar.”

Ross rubbed his temples with a scowl, then threw up his hands. “Argh! Fine! Fine! Have your little spar, and then please come back with me!”

The battle-scarred man grinned and turned back to Adrianna. “Continuing on from what I was saying about your dodging ability…” He readied himself to attack her. “Let’s have our final spar with you only dodging my attacks, as we’ve done a few times before.”

She nodded. “Yes sir.” She prepared herself for the Commander’s attack, going fully expressionless to devote all her mental abilities to focusing on the spar.

The Commander dashed forward, ready to punch her, as she sped up her thoughts and sent more spiritual energy into the construct responsible for controlling her movements. She switched off the function responsible for lowering the precision of her actions.

A sidestep to the left will give him 13 possible ways to make a secondary attack. A sidestep to the right, based on his current posture, will give him 23 ways to make a secondary attack.

She sidestepped to the left. The Commander reached out with his other hand to grab her.

Calculating the correct angle, she ducked just low enough for him to miss when he tried to move his arm down.

He swept out with a kick. She rolled out of the way and got back up, then took several steps back to leave space between them. Her analytical mental constructs worked to determine his potential courses of action.

He dashed forward again, this time to try to tackle her to the ground. She leaned to the side and let him slip past him. He turned around to face her again.

He sprinted forward to kick her stomach. She twisted her body so he just missed her side.

He turned and attempted to knee her side. She took several steps backwards to avoid it.

He raced towards her to elbow her neck. She leaned back in one fluid movement and the attack went over her head.

Their exchange repeated several times like this, the Commander coming after her, and her just barely avoiding his attacks.

Then Commander Arkenast smirked. His steps quickened up and his movements became faster as he attempted to grab her.

She analysed his movements in greater depth, adjusting her thoughts to match his new speed.

My energy consumption is going to increase. I need to be careful with my actions so I don’t tire too soon.

She ducked under his arm, then took a few quick steps forward. The Commander’s increased speed meant if she hesitated his follow-up attack would hit her.

Commander Arkenast sent a punch towards her head as her back was turned. She tilted her head to avoid it, then hastily turned her body so he couldn’t use that same arm to elbow her.

He used his other hand to try to grab her arm. She evaded his grasp by taking another step back, but he had already come closer, ready for his next attack.

He sent a kick towards her, where she narrowly dodged it by ducking into a roll. She sprang back up but instantly had to dive again as the Commander’s arm reached for her neck.

Unfortunately, that was a feint. His other hand was already positioned to strike her stomach when she avoided the attack.

But she had estimated the possibility of that happening. Her own ‘dive’ was also fake, where she instead slipped past the arm and twisted around him.

His leg moved to get her to stumble, but she could change the pattern of her steps quickly enough to avoid it. Then something changed.

With a wicked grin on the Commander’s face, the muscles in his right arm tensed for one brief moment, and then he sent out a powerful punch that sent the wind whistling past it.

She focused intently on his moves as she felt inwardly irritated.

Didn’t he say he’d keep his strength to only a warrior-manipulator of my level? This is at the level of a late Rank-1 warrior at the very least.

Commander Arkenast’s speed increased explosively, and it took her to the utmost limit of her current capabilities to keep track of his movements. She had merged her consciousnesses, so her main body’s mental constructs could be used to deal with the Commander, but she couldn’t use too much spiritual energy in case she unsettled her soul.

She narrowly dodged his fist with a tilt of her head, the force of his punch sending her hair moving in the wind, but with reflexes as quick as lightning, he reached out with his other hand to try to grasp her wrist.

She snapped her arm back while dashing back a few steps, but not before he sent a well-positioned leg heading towards her side.

She barely evaded it and tried to create space between them by sprinting back. They were too close.

Unfortunately, he kept up with her movements, the increased speed meaning he took less time to recover from his failed attacks. And her body didn’t have the AGI to react to her high-speed thoughts, even if she could analyse his pattern of attack and wanted to get away from him.

Commander Arkenast pushed forward powerfully on one leg and raised a knee, aimed straight towards her abdomen. From where she was, she couldn’t step backwards or to the side quick enough to avoid it.

However, using the force of his leg, she placed her hands on his thigh and then used her arms to lift her body up. He reached out with both of his own arms, in an act to grab her around the waist, but with the exertion of her core strength, she used her momentum to throw her legs and the rest of her body over his shoulder, essentially doing a flip as she landed on the other side of him to drop into a roll.

She got back up, and turned around, breathing heavily as she gazed at the smirking Commander. Caspian and the others were staring at them, utterly dumbfounded.

“And that, Riftmire, is what truly makes it a shame you never became a physical combatant,” Commander Arkenast said, pointing at her.

“You said you’d keep your strength to a warrior-manipulator of my level,” she replied wearily, not impressed with the newest change to their sparring.

“As the Commander of White Squall Fortress, I make the rules,” he replied with a toothy grin. “And I wanted to know where your limits truly lie.”

Commander Arkenast planted his hands on his hips. “Your ability to control your body is near-perfect, Riftmire. That movement you did just then? It involved such accuracy that if you timed any of your movements wrong by the slightest margin, it would be over for you.” He shook his head in disappointment. “And you chose to become a mage, of all things.”

She walked over near Caspian, where a flask of water sat on a stack of boxes. She uncapped it to take a drink. “My affinity is still illusion. The attack power of illusion mana is normally not very high, so I wouldn’t be able to be a good physical combatant with it.”

“Didn’t you say you gained the affinity one month after the Tutorial?” the battle-scarred man asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, but I didn’t necessarily want it to change my affinity. It wasn’t on purpose.” She placed down the flask.

However, she had already chosen to be an illusion mage before she had bonded Scytale. She just didn’t know that magically bonding with a magical beast affected affinity, especially when you had no other elemental affinity. She might not have wanted a Superior illusion affinity had she known. Especially as the higher the affinity, the harder to change it. With a Superior illusion affinity, it was practically impossible for her to gain any other element.

“Hmm.” He eyed her curiously but eventually shook his head. “Well, that’s our final spar for a long time yet, although I wouldn’t be averse to fighting every once in a while later on,” he said with a grin. “It’s a bit unfortunate you only got experience fighting someone much larger than you, which would normally be rare with your height, but I guess in the end, you’re still a mage.”

That’s actually what made these spars helpful to me instead. When I fight people with my main body, they’ll likely be taller and larger.

Commander Arkenast walked over to the rest of them. He looked at Ross. “That will be all for us.”

Ross gazed at Adrianna with a strange expression, before turning to the Commander. “…right. Then, let’s go back to your study.”

Commander Arkenast nodded, but then paused and glanced at Adrianna again. “Actually… I just want to talk to Riftmire privately for a few minutes first before we go.”

Ross frowned. “What? Why…” He saw the Commander glance at Caspian who happened to be explaining his interactions with her over the last month to the other Officers, and then nodded. “Oh. Okay then. But please be quick, sir.”

She followed after the Commander when he gestured to her, walking a distance far enough that the other Officers couldn’t eavesdrop. He crossed his arms as he turned to her with a serious look on his face.

“You’re going to be using your magic today.”

She nodded, aware of what he probably wanted to say to her.

“I’ll be on the ship, capable of watching you as you do so, but I’ll also be watching to see how he reacts to your magic,” Commander Arkenast explained, sending another glance at Caspian. “If for any reason the effect is worse than expected, or affects him negatively in other ways, then I might change my decision to have him as your second-in-command.”

“But if not…” He continued, “Then he’ll be your right-hand man for a few years at the very least. I’ll also decide for him to stay on this warship over December and January too, so he becomes familiar with your abilities as your second-in-command. And I would prefer that you be the one to explain this to him.”

“After today?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

The battle-scarred man sighed. “No. I’d like you to tell him before he sees your magic.”

“…I’m not sure he’d appreciate his younger colleague revealing this to him.” She knew Caspian wouldn’t actually care, but she needed to keep pretending she was still unfamiliar with him.

Commander Arkenast shook his head with a slight smile. “That boy wouldn’t react like that.” He put a hand on her shoulder to give her a solemn look. “If you decide you don’t want to be the one to tell him this, then I understand. It’s quite a burden I’m placing on you.”

The last time he asked this she had remained silent, but she knew this was important for her to do in this timeline.

“No. I’ll do it,” she stated firmly.

He paused and tilted his head as he removed his hand. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She nodded.

He went silent as he studied her, likely looking to see if she was being truthful, and then nodded with a sigh. “Okay then. And, if you tell him before the third hour….. then I’ll show you both something interesting,” he said with a smile.

With that, Commander Arkenast walked off, he and Ross going back to their work. She glanced at Caspian, who had begun another discussion with the other Officers, and shook her head, going in another direction.

Now wasn’t the time to tell him. She had a time and place in mind, and it would be after the ship finished returning to the fortress.

…

Caspian hummed, heading down a side path behind the main command building of the fortress. The path he was walking took him to the outskirts of the fortress, where the massive walls that bordered it towered above the fewer people there. Then he entered a building, which contained stables of varying sizes, filled with low-ranked magical beasts of different kinds. He nodded to one or two people in there, then took a back entrance, so he found himself in a large garden behind the building. As he stepped out, ten-odd magic beasts ran towards him.

Caspian chuckled as the juvenile wolf-beasts with wings launched themselves at him, bowling him over. “All right, all right, I know you guys are happy to see me. Calm down a little.”

He sat there for a few minutes, playing with the low-ranked magic beasts. He looked content.

Adrianna didn’t necessarily want to interrupt him, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to catch him alone at any other time. And she also wanted to talk to him in this place for… certain reasons. She walked forward from where she had been leaning against the building behind Caspian.

When she came a little closer, Caspian seemed to pause for a second, appearing like he felt something, then looked over his shoulder. When he saw her, he stared at her, stunned.

“Adrianna? What are you doing here?” He frowned slightly as she walked up to him and crossed her arms. “No, how did you even find this place?” He hesitated. “Or me?”

“My spiritual perception helped,” she informed him.

Her answer just made him gaze at her with a strange expression, before he sighed. “I- whatever then. It’s not like you can’t be here, I guess.” He turned back to look at the wolves on his lap. “Even if it’s strange you followed me.”

She didn’t say anything, just watching the wolves, and so Caspian gave her a slightly awkward smile. “So, came to see me play with baby magical beasts? I doubt that’s it, knowing you.” He shook his head as his smile appeared slightly bitter. “I guess the ‘soft-hearted’ demi-Atlantean who came down here to see a few puppies is just an interesting spectacle for you then.”

………………..

She was quiet for a while, as he just watched her, looking curious and a bit confused about why she was hesitating about answering.

“You shouldn’t be in the Navy,” she eventually decided to say.

Caspian Wharifin fell silent as he gazed at her, appearing hurt. Then his expression darkened and he stood up.

“Well, I’m sure you, who has no care for anybody or anything, might think that. I must seem like a burden to the Navy, from your perspective. After all, Adrianna Riftmire is already capable of doing anything anyone asks with no hesitation.”

He turned around and walked off. “Because showing or feeling emotion is a waste for you, isn’t it? Why should you care about other people’s feelings, and bother to say anything other than what you think is fact?”

He opened the door of the building to leave. “But I’ll have you know, even if you don’t seem to think I have value here, the Commander does. So do many others in the Navy. I don’t need to prove myself to you.”

He shut the door and she was left in the garden alone. She looked down at the winged wolves, who were trembling as they looked at her, letting out slight growls as they backed away. She sighed and walked away to leave.

She wasn’t able to tell him, and now he thought she found him useless and weak. That was not her intention.

Maybe it would’ve been better if she hadn’t tried to treat him differently from the others. But she didn’t know what else she should’ve done.

It would probably be best if she said and pretended to Commander Arkenast she hadn’t been able to do as he asked.

………………..

That had been how it had gone in the past. Back then, she had barely interacted with him, and so they weren’t familiar enough that he would’ve listened if she tried to explain herself.

But she was going to go about things differently this time.