The next day, early in the morning, I went to the training field where I usually meet Lancelot for our spars. I had some tension I needed to burn off, and an intense spar was what I needed to do that. As I approached the training ground, I saw someone else there.

‘Wei An. He did say he was going to spar with Lancelot when he had the chance.’ They seemed to just be having a conversation with each other.

‘Looks like they haven’t fought yet.’

“Solis! You were able to make it this time, good. Can you spar with Wei An today? I fought him yesterday and I want to see him fight from an outside perspective.” His eyes were shining.

‘There’s that sword sorcery in full effect.’ I sighed.

‘Well doesn’t make a difference to me, a fight is a fight.’ I walked over to the rack and picked up a practice sword before coming front and centre to meet him where he stands. I looked at Wei An for a brief moment before speaking.

“I hope you don't mind, but I’m going to go all out from the beginning to blow off some steam.” I raised my sword and put it in position. He smiled.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m coming.”

He launched at me, disappearing from view and reappearing with his sword already mid swing.

‘Not good enough!’

I caught his blade with my sword and twisted it before directing it to my right. I followed through with the momentum and twisted my whole body before connecting the spinning kick at his abdomen that launched him away from me. I gave him no respite as I immediately flooded my legs with aura in a particular pattern to initiate a technique and flashed to his position. He barely reoriented himself when our blades clashed a second time, his legs pushed back as I leaned forward.

Suddenly, I observed what seemed like a large amount of pink petals emitting from his sword. One of the petals touched my cheek and a gash opened that caused me to start bleeding. I immediately leapt backwards to create some distance between us. I brought up my hand to swipe at my cheek and positioned my palm to look at the blood on my hand.

‘Right, what did he say his sect name is again? The plum blossom sect, so I should have expected this. Well, if that's how you want to play, I’ll match you.’

In the moment I was pondering, he slashed his sword at me from a distance and that caused a large flood of the pink petals to rush at me, no doubt intending to cut me to pieces. I exhaled and allowed my aura to just flow through my body and my sword, treating it just like a part of me. I made a downward swing and the unattributed aura launched from my blade in a crescent shape and parted the sea of plum blossoms down the middle.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

‘You’re wasting energy by making such a wide ranged attack, let me show you how it’s done.’

The aura coating my blade changed to the water element, manifesting like a still pool covering and assuming the shape of my sword. I followed the path my launched aura blade took back to the origin of the plum blossoms.

‘There you are.’ He had just dodged the aura blade and was still drifting to the side when I appeared from the opposing direction of his drift.

He noticed me at the last minute and directed his pink petals to bludgeon me where it was met with the rapidly expanding still water surrounding my blade. Ripples were formed on the surface of the water as all the force of his strike was completely dissipated, then I instantaneously changed the attribute to fire.

A white flame sprung up where water initially was and burnt all the surrounding petals to crisp, before taking the form of a maw about to snap shut as he flashed away from me. He reappeared across from me in the field with a few burn marks on his robe and some light burn scarring on his person, surrounded by a sphere of pink petals lazily rotating with him as its axis. I, on the other hand, stood opposite him holding a sword that seemed to have only one of the edges on fire. We were both tense and preparing to attack again when-

“Awesome! But I don’t think you guys should continue. You look like you’re ready to dish out some serious damage.” We both exhaled.

“Sorry about that, I know etiquette suggests not using extra power unless stated beforehand. I used it on instinct because I felt threatened. I once again apologise.” He performed a right angle bow to me.

‘Way to take the fight right out of a person.’ I waved to him.

“Don’t worry about it, I probably shouldn’t have come at you as hard as I did in a spar. I was working through some things and you were the outlet.”

‘Well, I guess that’s it then.’ I went to the rack to place the sword back when-

“Wait, you’re done for today? I didn’t get to fight you yet and I’m fired up.” Lancelot asked.

“You can spar with Wei An.” I answered.

“But he won’t be at full strength, you injured him too much.” I looked at Wei An and he smiled in an awkward fashion before placing his hand on his rib.

“I’m pretty sure you bruised my ribs and though I may not look it, I’m severely burned.”

‘Shit, maybe I really did take it too far.’ I sighed in exasperation before making my way towards him.

I placed my palm outward facing him before allowing my mana to unruffle and shape the intricate magic circle forming in front of me.

‘Okay, first let's take a look.’ A light green light started to glow out of the magic circle and onto Wei An as I took stock of his injuries.

‘Cracked ribs, bruised organs, severe burns. I really did a number on him didn’t I?’ I winced.

With a mental command, the magic circle started rotating, adding a layer of complexity as it changed into a different spell. The total healing took about five minutes before I withdrew my mana. from him.

“Sorry about that, you should be good as new.”

“Thank you for the healing, but I must ask. Are you a healer who took up fighting, or a fighter who took up healing? You display unusual talent on both ends.” Wei An asked.

“HAHAHAHAHA, he’s a freak like that. You just eventually get used to it.”

‘This blabbermouth. Doesn’t talk regularly but give him a sword in his hand and he won't shut up.’

“See you later in class.” I turned around and left.