“Roaring flames and violent gale! Surge as one!”

An explosion echoed across the side of the mountain in Nara. The birds resting in the afternoon shades amongst the trees flew out in reaction to the spell’s impact against a shielded Robert. Facing him with a wooden staff pointed in his direction, was Leona. After recovering from a harrowing experience in her inner world, she wasted no time in training her magic.

“Weak.” Robert sighed as he put the light blue hexagonal barrier down. “I’m even giving you time to chant, surely you can do better than this.”

Somewhat annoyed, Leona lowered the staff and asked him.

“How exactly am I supposed to make this spell stronger without blowing up half of the forest along with it?”

“Surely you can come up with something?” He waved his hand side to side as if being tired of wasting time. “Magic barriers are not unlike armor that knights wear. Rummage through that brain of yours and you’ll come up with a solution. You already learned how to use the staff on your own, you don’t need someone else’s advice, Princess Tactician.”

Leona’s grip on the staff tightened but she managed to take a deep breath and calm her nerves as she racked her brain for an answer as wasting time trying to spite the otherworldly mentor was a waste of energy.

She closed her eyes as she started to piece together what information she had.

‘A mage’s barrier is not unlike a knight’s armor, which means it should also have the same weaknesses as their armor does.’ She opened her eyes and looked at Robert with an almost trance-like gaze as she imagined in her mind how her spell reacted upon hitting the barrier. ‘Then if I focus all the mana into a singular point…’

Robert noticed her intense gaze as he remained unsurprised but deep inside her couldn’t help but smirk at how much effort she was putting in learning magic.

‘Let’s see what she’ll come up with… if nothing else it’ll serve as a warmup for myself.’

However, his thoughts were interrupted as he noticed Leona raise her staff and point at him. She had a familiar light blue glint in her eyes as mana started to gather around her.

‘A combination of Flame Spear and Windshot should do the trick then.’

Light blue mana particles began to hone in the staff’s tip as she chanted.

“Wind’s embrace! Grant power to this spear to pierce my foes!”

A spearpoint formed about half a meter in front of the staff before igniting itself in flames before being launched at full speed at a seemingly unprepared Robert. Only after firing the spell did Leona notice she didn’t even warn him.

“Robert! Are you alright?!”

The flaming projectile hit the ground and kicked a good amount of dirt and dust into the air while also setting fire to a nearby tree, however the flames were quickly snuffed out by water magic. Robert was standing in place while he used his mana to drown the fire which surprised Leona. After putting the fire out, he turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

“Why are you so concerned?”

“I didn’t even tell you I was ready.”

“Well.” He pointed at the withered part of the tree. “You did manage to pierce through a normal barrier which resulted in hitting my secondary barrier I left in place.”

She tilted her head to the side while raising an eyebrow.

“Then…?”

“Your spell ricocheted against that barrier which caused the spell to hit the underside of this poor tree.” He turned to her and clapped twice. “You can call yourself Princess Slayer of Trees now.”

That made Leona tilt her head back and frown her brows.

“You don’t need to be a cow’s arse you know.”

“You flatter me. Now go take a break, you’ve done enough for now.”

“Tsk.”

She turned around while stomping the ground as she made her way to where Krieg was training. Meanwhile Robert looked at the ground beneath the tree and noticed just how deep the spear had gone.

‘She could’ve killed a mage with that one.’ He thought while scratching under his chin. ‘Maybe I could test that method instead…’

On her way down to where Krieg was training, Leona looked at the staff in her hand with somewhat of a grin on her face.

After experiencing her inner world more intimately herself, it felt like her mind was able to perceive the flow of mana more clearly throughout her body—or at least she thought that was the case. In truth, thanks to Robert’s testing, some of the aether that comprised his soul managed to fuse with hers which resulted in her acute sense of mana. Not that any of the two would have known that for the time being.

‘As long as I’m able to channel my mana through it, I’m sure I can cast much more powerful spells than what I used to.’ Her grip tightened around the wooden shaft. ‘Problem is though, how much is too much mana for it?’

Before she could extrapolate on an answer, an explosion of dust erupted in front of her as Krieg landed with his back on the ground.

“Pffft! Argh!”

He coughed as he used the whole weight of his body to flip backwards and stumble while quickly standing up. On the other side, Miyamoto was holding a straight wooden blade with a certain green aura swirling around it as if mana had taken physical shape to aid his swordsmanship.

“You need to attack while defending with your shield! Do you want to lose an arm?”

“Knock it off! You have Lady Setsuna helping you!”

“As if the enemy will care about your chivalric code!”

At that point he was ready to charge at Krieg, but Leona had other things in mind as she raised her staff forward and quickly chanted.

“Fireball!”

Mana rushed to the tip of the crook and coiled in a violent swarm of energy as it was lit ablaze before being released in front of Miyamoto. The orb the size of a basketball razed the ground in a sea of azure flames as it landed on the dirt in front of him.

As all eyes locked onto Leona, she stepped beside Krieg and smiled.

“Mind if I join?”

“Are you sure?” Setsuna, who was behind Miyamoto all that time, asked. “You just finished training with Father, did you not?”

“Yes, but I haven’t had time to test fighting alongside someone.” She looked at Krieg with a warm smile which he answered with a reassured nod. “Besides, this is to train us for actual battle, I see no better way to do it than this.”

“Hmm… very well. If you’re sure about it.” Setsuna gave Miyamoto a nod as he turned back to both Krieg and Leona before preparing himself in a stance with his sword pointing at them. “Let’s just not take it too seriously, lest someone injure themselves.”

Krieg slightly bent his legs with the wooden shield in front of his body while the wooden sword paired alongside it closely.

“Are you alright, Leona?”

Krieg asked without taking his eyes off the foe in front of him.

“Yes. This time, I’ll fight together by your side.”

As both of them readied themselves for battle—Setsuna raised her staff and tapped on the ground with it and suddenly the air around them became colder. In the blink of an eye, the smoldering azure flames were extinguished and Miyamoto charged forward without a moment’s hesitation.

Krieg matched his opponent and advanced with his shield up. While keeping his guard up, the knight unleashed a flurry of stabs with the wooden sword, but the attack was easily dodged by the swordmaster—who rotated around his left side.

“Hmph!”

He followed up with a downward slash aiming at the side of Krieg’s head. Leona raised her staff and quickly chanted.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Ice Wall!”

Suddenly a barrier of ice appeared between them and stopped the blade from hitting the knight, but the impact made it shatter. The moment the barrier went down, Krieg was already waiting to follow up with a shield bash which missed Miyamoto’s face by a hair’s breadth before he used his body’s momentum to launch another diagonal slash.

Setsuna pointed her staff at the swordmaster and shouted.

“Stone Shield!”

Mana surged near Miyamoto’s feet and the very earth took the shape of a half cocoon made of an assortment of rock and stone—rendering Krieg’s attack ineffective. However, that did little to stop the knight, who flipped his sword down and winded up his arm.

“Hah!”

He stepped in and brought his clenched fist with full force against the stone barrier—destroying it in one punch.

“What the-”

Setsuna wasn’t really expecting him to do that since it left him exposed for her to unleash a counter-attack. However, before she could take advantage of it, she noticed Leona in the corner of her vision.

The tactician had already charged her spell with magic before shouting.

“Wind Bullet!”

The mana took a verdant tint as it was shot out from her staff at high speed. The spell ended up being cut in half by Miyamoto—who had just narrowly escaped from being punched in the face by Krieg.

“Hmm…” The swordmaster’s expression didn’t change but he did look over his shoulder to Setsuna. “Should we raise the pace?”

She glanced at him before focusing back on Leona who seemed focused sharp on whatever movement she did.

“Just don’t get carried away.”

Krieg took advantage of the fact that he was looking away to dash forward and go for an overhead swing. Leona noticed the shrine maiden move before shouting.

“Krieg wait!”

But in that split second Setsuna pointed her staff at the ground and unleashed a faint spell that didn’t even register as an offensive magic in her eyes.

The spell in question was to create a small patch of ice beneath Krieg’s right foot which was enough to make him slip and fall forward right into Miyamoto’s spinning swing. With a loud whack against his forehead, the towering knight was thrown on the ground on his back.

“Argh!”

That made Leona snap out and switch targets to the swordmaster who was now running towards her.

‘He’s too fast!’

She buried the staff’s end in the ground in front of her and chanted while focusing all her mana through it.

“Maelstrom!”

The dirt around her began to quiver and liquefy into quicksand—which started to swallow even the small patches of grass around it. She looked up in order to think of what she should do next, but the quicksand did little to stop Miyamoto from crossing it with Setsuna’s well timed earth spells.

As the shrine maiden lifted her staff in conjunction with her left hand and small rocks began to levitate above the swallowing dirt just enough for the swordmaster to skip on them. His steps were light as the wind as each rock fell just after his foot left it behind.

“Tch!” Seeing that, Leona jumped backwards to create some space as she pointed the staff at him. “Wind Blast!”

Seeing mana quickly gather around Leona prompted Setsuna to also raise her own cudgel.

“Ice Wall!”

The shrine maiden countered her attempt to knock the swordmaster away by creating a concave ice wall that was thick enough to sustain the wind blast while also reflecting the high pressure wind back at Leona.

“Ugh!”

The backlash was so strong she had to close her eyes and cover her face with her forearm—the moment she recovered, Miyamoto already had the sheathed sword right against her throat.

Deep down Leona knew the battle was over before it started. The amount of synergy Miyamoto and Setsuna had was astonishing to the point she could believe they had been comrade in arms for years.

In stark contrast however, the lack of coordination between herself and Krieg was somewhat frustrating. Granted, she was new to fighting alongside someone else, but she thought that a plethora of tactical maneuvers memorized in her head would have been enough to push them towards victory, which clearly wasn’t.

She raised her staff as she conceded.

“It is my loss.”

Miyamoto lowered his blade and rested the long curved blade against his right shoulder as he walked back towards Setsuna who was kneeling beside Krieg with her staff supporting her weight as she asked.

“Are you alright?”

He grunted with a streak of blood coming out the middle of his forehead.

“Physically or emotionally?”

The shrine maiden chuckled.

“You are more than alright if you’re making jokes like these.” She stood up and offered her hand. “Come on, stand up.”

He tilted his head before grabbing on her hand which felt different somehow. Although she was half his size, she had enough strength to effortlessly lift him from the ground.

After cleaning some of the blood with his thumb, the knight turned to Setsuna and asked.

“How are you so strong? I thought all mages were feeble. No offense.”

“Haha, none taken. My strength doesn’t come from muscles, but from mana reinforcement.” She extended her right hand towards him for a handshake. “Come, give me your best shot.”

He reeled back a bit.

“Are you sure?” He was pointing at his arm with his open left hand which was thrice of hers. “You may be strong but I-”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Hmm… very well.” He grabbed her hand for a handshake before slowly going all out clenching his hand, but to his surprise, her petite hand didn’t even budge. “What the-”

It was as if some sort of force was keeping her from being squished by his palm.

“It was thanks to Lady Frostleaf that I was able to learn this.” She spoke casually while he was still trying his best to overcome the strange force that kept her hand firm like steel. “It’s something that comes naturally for dragons.”

He finally let go of her hand—thoroughly defeated.

“I must say…” He was taking a few quick deep breaths, showing just how much strength he used. “It’s quite a fearsome ability to go up against.”

“It does drain one’s mana quickly though so it’s not like I can keep using it indefinitely.”

“What was that spell that you used?” Leona approached them already asking Setsuna with burning curiosity. “I’ve been able to see mana more clearly now when it’s being used for spellcasting but yours was just barely visible.”

“It’s not really a spell, I just made the surface of the ground become ice.”

“Yes, but I want to know how.”

“Ah… well…” She pointed her staff to the ground between them. “If the spell in question comes from your body, it’ll signal to your opponent that you are indeed using mana. However, if you were to prepare the spell in advance and put it in place…”

It was very subtle but Leona noticed a streak of mana come out from the tip of her cudgel before the ground itself became inscribed with a small circle the size of her palm filled with countless other circles and words written alongside their edges.

Leona scratched the underside of her chin with the splintered tip of her staff. Her eyes were focusing on the rune-like mana formation on the ground but nevertheless her brows raised and her mouth curled with perplexion.

“What is this?”

“Runic magic. You can inscribe certain instructions and fuel it with mana in order to activate it. Just now I inscribed water condensation and wind adjustment into rapid cooling. This causes the humidity in the air to turn into water while quickly lowering its temperature in order to freeze it while the wind component was so the frozen portion was actually flat so Sir Krieg would slip on it easily.”

“Huh… I never heard of this before.”

“You probably wouldn’t have. The original art of runic magic was lost during the Dragon War, but Father was able to reproduce part of it. I am personally not entirely sure how it works either, but the fact that we are able to use it here and now means there must be a set of rules for it to work.”

Leona glanced up with a fascinated smile.

“That is a very scholarly approach.”

“Haha. It is just as Father said: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ And I personally believe this is one of such cases, not that I have accomplished any significant progress in comprehending it mind you.”

“Still, it is quite the feat to be able to use something so sophisticated.” She looked back at the rune. “How do you activate it though?”

“Just give a bit of mana. Here, let me show you.”

She pointed her staff at it and with a faint bit of mana which resulted in the rune emitting a faint light blue glow before executing all the spells in quick succession. The water in the air coalesced into a puddle of water that was made flat with wind and finally frozen into a disk against the ground.

“Woah…!” Leona’s eyes lit up with sparks of curiosity as she observed the final result. “Is it alright to touch it?”

“Yeah, it’s just ice at this point.”

She tapped it twice with her index finger. The surface was smooth and cold to the touch as one would expect ice to be.

“Interesting… what happens to the runes after they are activated?”

“Usually they disappear, but you can make them last longer if you engrave them in a mana conductive material.”

“So not unlike enchanting an item?”

“Uh… it’s more complicated than that, if we…”

They continued on while Krieg stood a few meters away from them with a faint smile on his face.

‘It has been a while since I’ve seen her this enthusiastic.’

He thought as he put away his training sword.

“Wipe that smug look off your face will you?” Miyamoto approached him while holding the curved sword against his right shoulder. “What were you thinking when trying to attack me from behind?”

“Wasn’t it you that said that I should cast chivalry notions aside and fight to win?”

“I said to win, not to walk right into a foe’s trap.” He walked beside him and tapped his wooden slippers against Krieg’s legs. “These dictate a lot about a swordsman. I’m sure Eleonora must have taught you footwork during your time as an Arcadian knight.”

“Yes, but we fought demonic beasts, not humans.”

“Still, with a short sword and a shield, you can’t expect to outrange me wielding a considerably lengthier blade.” He pointed with his chin towards Leona who was too engrossed in talking to Setsuna to notice him motioning to her. “Instead, you could have waited for Leona’s support or advanced with your shield at the ready, even if you slipped, you could have still blocked my attack. Remember, your advantage is extremely close quarters. You have the upper hand the moment you get within an opponent’s personal space.”

“And if I can’t get there?”

“You die. And probably the people behind you as well.” He moved his head to each side and with an audible crack coming off his neck, he started to walk away. “But that is what we’re trying to avoid. Take a break for now, we’ll get back to it after lunch.” As he was walking away, he noticed something before sighing and mumbling on his own. “That fool’s attitude is starting to rub off on me.”

Robert was beginning to work on a campfire on the upper forest clearing before he frowned his brows and sneezed. Yuna, who was carrying ceramic bows to a wooden table prepared by the campfire, looked at him and asked.

“Dad, are you sick?”

“No, I don’t think I can get sick, sweetie. Must be someone bad mouthing me.”