“Your fighting style really is fascinating. It’s so different from mine or any I’m familiar with. Did you take after your mother? I admit I’m a little curious at who my father ended up having me marry.” Azura grit his teeth. The projection of his father fought a little differently than he expected, to say nothing of the fact the projection wouldn’t stop talking. Was this really his father? Unfortunately the different style got rid of his one advantage, and left him on the back foot as his father rushed him with aggressive melee combat with spells occasionally plummeting at him from random direction.
“Grandfather died slightly after you graduated. You chose to marry your familiar.” These projections couldn’t really retain information, so there was no issue telling them about what happened. A part of him had hoped that such big events might throw the projection off, but he should have known better. A projection it may be, but it was one of his father. Despite the many differences from the man of then and now, it seemed their razor sharp focus was a constant.
“Hmm I see, well not how I would have expected it to go, but I can’t say I’m all that displeased either. Faleria and I do get along fairly well, and she even had me give her a human name recently. I chose Allison, though I’m sure you already knew that given that she was your mother.” It had been a long time since he had used her name in his head, even hearing it nearly brought tears to his eyes. He knew objectively that Faleria was her real name, and he had talked with Reign about her often enough, but it just felt impersonal when it wasn’t the name she had always gone by when he was around.
“So when are you going to start taking this fight seriously?” He needed to prepare for the fight with his current father, and fighting a younger version of him won't help if that version was holding back like this. Not to mention how disconcerting it was to see his father actually hold back to avoid injuring him. Stopping the fight when he was at risk of death was the furthest he had ever seen his father go for his safety.
“Sorry you’re right. I don’t want to cripple my future son, but if I hold back I’m doing you a disservice. Just tell me to stop if you can’t keep up anymore.” The projection was genuinely trying to be nice, but all it did was make him angry. Even as a 2nd year his father was looking down on him. He and the projection weren’t even a full year apart. He could handle this. No sooner had he thought that then 2 blazing dragons erupted out of the ground beneath him forcing him to move quickly. Hoping to catch his father off guard he jumped towards the projection to avoid the attack instead of away.
He drew his yggdrasil blade and swung the blade as if to sever the projections head. Of course even back then his father was no amateur so the projection quickly ducked, and made for a punch to his stomach. He blinked behind his father just as the punch would have made contact and made for a downwards stab. His father rolled aside, and he once again had to move to avoid the lightning dragons that rained on him from above.
“Not bad, but I’m not the only one who was holding back was I? Show me what you can really do. As you’re fighting right now you aren’t even as strong as I was last year.” He grit his teeth, he hadn’t exactly wanted to rely on his body enchantments. If he couldn’t keep up with the younger version at his base level than even with enchantments he’d be no match for his father. Still it was less of a boost than unleashing the full power of his draconic half, so perhaps that much would be fine.
“Fine I’ll show you what I’ve got, but don’t complain to me if it’s too much to handle.” The symbols across his skin formed far more quickly than they used to. He had nearly perfected his ability to reform the enchantments at will now, and given that he could get rid of them far easier the enchantments were far better than they were when they were essentially permanent. He rushed at his father with renewed vigor. The projection barely managed to react in time, not expecting his speed to have gone up several fold.
Still even being surprised by the speed wasn’t enough to throw off the projection. A dragon maw of solid metal opened up in front of him ready to bite down on him if he continued his charge. He blinked behind his father, but unsurprisingly the same trick wouldn’t work twice. His father was already aiming a flaming punch at him when he had appeared. Thankfully he had appeared a little bit further back than he had the first time so his father had slightly misjudged the timing and he was able to dodge under the punch and swing his sword.
Unfortunately the dodge left him off-balance enough that his swing didn’t have enough force to pierce through his fathers reinforced skin, and they both jumped back to gain some distance. “Much better, you’re definitely stronger than I was as a first year. However a few months training can make a big difference, and lets just say the academy leaves you with plenty of homework for the break.” He didn’t have a chance to respond as 30 shadow dragons formed around his father.
He chuckled as he began dodging them with an assortment of his newfound speed and some acrobatics he had been working on with Katy. He had seen his father summon hundreds of shadow dragons, hell he had to deal with it regularly when he was still at the castle, so 30 seemed almost negligible. Or at least they had at first. He quickly came to realize just how much pressure his copies had taken off of him. Not to say he was overwhelmed now, but it wasn’t quite as easy to stay ahead of all the shadow dragons as he had expected it to be.
Still his copies were all doing other things, and honestly it was for the best that he’d be training without them for the time being. Nothing would help him improve like trial by fire, and having an easy out button didn’t tend to help with improving. So he continued to slide and flip as he slowly closed the distance between him and his father. No matter the outcome all he wanted was to get just one step closer.
***
“Not too terrible. I’ve fought weaker first year students, but I’m going to guess you aren’t a combat specialist.” Cynthia winced. Not just from shame, but also from the many bruises her mother had inflicted on her. She had been doing her best to avoid taking damage in the fight, but it was undeniable that her mother was faster, stronger, and more skilled. The only reason she had even held up as well as she did was because of the enchanted items Azura had give her.
“Yeah, I mostly focus on healing, and other support abilities. I actually didn’t really have any combat prowess until I got to this school. I got lucky with making some good friends who were willing to help me out.” Azura had insisted that she had to be able to fight at a certain level, even if she was a healer. His insistence had probably saved her more than once already, so she couldn’t say she was mad about it. He didn’t try and make her a fighter like him and the others or anything, just good enough so she could try and stall for time or escape in case of an emergency.
“I see… That makes sense… Any chance you picked that up from your father?” She noticed her mother was blushing. She was confused at first, until she remembered that her mother told stories about meeting her father at the academy all the time. She smiled, it was kind of cool to realize her mom was crushing on her dad even all the way back then.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Yeah his name is Wendill, do you know him?” Her mothers face went from blushing to pale in an instant. Apparently the fact she was blushing about a healer did not in fact mean that her mother liked her father when they were students. Or at least not when they had started their 2nd year.
“I end up with Wendill?! How?! Why?! He’s so… plain and boring.” She didn’t think her father was boring, but she would grant that he was normal. He was a good healer, but not really one of the best, he was from an average family not really rich or poor, and he had fairly average features. Her mother always said she liked how stable he was. That he had helped her through a rough transition period in her life.
“I don’t really know the full story, but if it helps you 2 are really happy together.” Frankly she was too tired to really think too hard, so she was grateful for the respite this dilemma was causing her mother to grant her. Although it was true that she didn’t know the full story so she wasn’t really stalling on purpose, just a happy coincidence.
“Ugh with Wendill of all people.” Her mother continued to rant about her future self being crazy, and she continued to let her freak out without a word. She hoped the others were doing ok.
***
Katy wasn’t too pleased with her opponent. She had 2 major weaknesses in terms of combat. Someone who could do a super powerful barrage from out of range that destroys a large area… and someone who had insane defense. She desperately wished she was fighting the former. At least that would have been quick. Instead she was desperately trying to find a way to pierce this guy’s armor.
They had already been fighting for hours, and she was running out of ideas. It definitely didn’t help that they were fighting in a simulation of a training room, so there wasn’t really any environment to take advantage of. She examined her opponent from the ceiling as he casually waited for her to initiate the next exchange. He was tall, easily a few inches over 6 feet, but how much of that was him and how much was the armor she couldn’t say. The only feature of the person she could really make out were his eyes, everything else was covered in a polished silver metal. It aggravated her that even with all her strength behind it her sword hadn’t even left a smudge on the armor.
The armor itself was fairly fancy. It was full-plate covering the man completely, but it also had a clear motif going. She assumed the griffin was the emblem of his house, because he had a griffin on his shield, and on his chest. Not to mention the feather motif on his gauntlets and the helmet being shaped like a griffin's head with the metal feathers sticking up on either side. She was starting to think a turtle would have been more appropriate. The man hadn’t shown to be especially mobile so far, and his offense was far inferior to his defense. Ugh and her thoughts were starting to sound like Azura. Who says ‘inferior’? Especially in their own head.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and her eyes widened to find her opponent no longer occupying the center of the room. She frantically scanned the room, and it didn’t take long for her to find her opponent. Mostly because he was barreling at her from the side. She reacted a second too slowly and the man slammed into her knocking her from her grip on the ceiling and slamming her into the wall on the side.
She groaned. Apparently his offense was a bit better then she had given him credit for. She picked herself up off the ground despite the pain and debated whether it was worth trying to continue the fight or not. “You need to work on a finisher. You’re fast and tricky, but you lack any real defense if you do get hit. As such what you need to work on most is an attack you can use to end a fight quickly.” The knight's voice was softer than she expected, but still fairly deep.
“Easier said than done. I don’t have enough magic power to do anything too crazy. Lily can blow away hordes of enemies at once, but I just don’t have that kind of power.” It aggravated her a little if she was honest. She had her own skill set for sure, but once people figured out illusions were her game a big area of effect attack would usually be enough to take her out of the fight. Or give her pretty severe injuries at the very least.
“Don’t aim for what works against you, aim for what works against enemies you fight. Rather than trying to attack a wide area aim for a weak spot, and hit it with everything you have. If there isn’t a weak spot, make one. Every armor has its weaknesses, some of them you just have to work a little harder to unveil.” She hummed, that was a good point. The knight hadn’t hit her with some giant explosion or anything. It had just been a shoulder tackle that hit her like a bomb going off. If the knight had used his sword she would have died for sure.
She sighed. “Be a rapier not a greatsword. Why can’t he ever be forthright with advice? Thanks, I think I got the idea now. This will be my loss, but I’ll be ready for you next time. The knight chuckled as he dispersed into light. She idly wondered if Azura gave cryptic advice on purpose, because there were clearly people that could explain it in a way that made sense. She smirked at least she’d get to try out this new strategy on him soon.
***
Roran wasn’t quite sure what to make of his opponent. She was barely taller than him, which meant she was fairly short, and she looked like she really didn’t want to be there. The projection had short black hair cut off at her neck, and bright green eyes that left him a little unsettled. She was wearing the school uniform, but not properly. The jacket was undone, and she was wearing a green undershirt instead of the white one that was supplied, even discounting those the biggest issue was how messy and crumpled it all looked. “Why am I supposed to fight some kid? There's no way you’re a student.” He sighed. His stature was always an annoyance, it was especially aggravating when he was probably older than the real her, yet the projection assumed he was a child.
“Appearances can be deceiving. Don’t you worry, I’ve earned my spot here like everyone else.” Well maybe not exactly like everyone else, but the trials at least were the same. He focused back on his opponent as her eyes narrowed. He wondered what kind of opponent the system had chosen for him. He hadn’t ever really encountered any glaring weaknesses, not to say he was unbeatable, but he had been able to fight at his best against every opponent he’s ever fought. When he thought of weaknesses he figured it would be something that would stop someone from using their best skills.
“If you say so. Just remember, I gave you an out.” Well that was ominous. He quickly got into a fighting stance, but wasn’t quite sure what to do when smoke started emanating off the girl across from him. “One last piece of advice, kid. Don’t let the smoke touch you.” Just like that the smoke she was emanating shot at him far faster than he expected. It was only thanks to the warning that he had managed to dodge in time. Unfortunately after the sideways jump he noticed that a cloud of the smoke took up a good chunk of the training room on his opponent's side, and his opponent was quite skilled at hiding her mana it would seem.
He smirked. He fought Katy all the time, he knew how to deal with people that were hard to find. He dodged another shot of smoke that came at him, and started charging mana for a big explosion spell. His opponent wasn’t idle of course, smoke shooting at him from the big clouds in coordinated bursts.He had to rip off his sleeve when some smoke glanced at it and it started smoking. Right so he definitely didn’t want to let the smoke touch him. He jumped back and to the right when the next lance of smoke shot at him. Gave him extra space to work with and dodged the smoke in one shot. “Let's see how your smoke holds up to this!”
He released his spell creating a powerful explosion that took up most of the smoke field. He briefly saw the empty field before the smoke quickly filled back in as if he hadn’t done anything. Well that was disheartening. He missed a tiny bit of space in the corners, but not enough that her whole body could have been there, which either meant her body turned into the smoke and that’s why there’s a limited amount or she wasn’t in the smoke and was hiding somewhere else on the field somehow. So… he did have a weakness after all. He sighed this fight was going to be a pain.