He was playing with me. The wooden sword never met the edge of my blade. It hit the side, imparting enough force to shift it off target. Not that it would have hit him even if I had been able to hit where I had been aiming. By the time my blade reached the spot he had been, even with its new trajectory, he was gone.

Throwing magic did nothing either. That sword of his blocked it just as easily as it did everything else. Getting a bit irked at the futility of this fight, I gave up trying to win and just focused on hitting him once.

Feet kicking out, I went for a knee in an effort to slow him down. As usual, his sword met and deflected the blow. Not that I expected any different. Using the shift in trajectory, in addition to flooding my arms with mana, I lifted and dropped my sword as fast as I could. Aiming for his exposed and vulnerable head.

Between one moment and the next his sword blurred. My eyes saw it as a black streak of paint across the world. With jarring force and the sound of metal ringing after being struck, my sword flew from my hand. From how fast and how forceful his hit had been, I expected the next strike to take me out of the fight, maybe even send me back to respawn.

To my shock, he stepped back, lowering his sword as he gave me a single nod. “Not bad. I was wondering how long it would take before you tried something like that.”

“What do you mean?” I said as I collapsed to the ground. My arm muscles felt like mush while the rest just felt exhausted.

“You used hand-to-hand in a combination attack with your weapon.” He said, his voice saying that he thought it was obvious. “As I said before, there are no rules when it comes to combat. Use everything you can to win. It was you that kept limiting your attacks to weapons only.”

“What about the spells I threw at you?” I shot back, irked that he seemed to have already forgotten them.

“You attacked with them but not in combination with anything else. If you were going to use magic, you should have used it as a distraction or to attack me from behind while I defended against a frontal attack.” I hung my head at his statement. The idea to attack from multiple sides had never occurred to me. “Ah, it never occurred to you.” He was reading me like a book. “But I think that won't be a problem from now on. Now, collect your blade so that we can go again.”

I groaned at that. We had already been going for at least an hour and my muscles were letting me know their opinion of the situation. It would be one thing if he attacked, but he just sat there, letting me come to him. Eventually, though, I grabbed my Chisa Katana and turned to face him.

Relaxing, I moved my limbs into position and simply watched him, wondering if he would attack or wait for me. If he attacked, I would defend as well as I could, but if not, I would be a fool to not take advantage of the time.

Mana oozed off me, slowly expanding in every direction. To him it would look like I was simply watching for magical attacks but I already knew he wasn’t going to use magic here. Well, at least not yet. Not until I forced him to do so to block my attack, if it worked.

Closing my eyes, I focused on nothing but my mana. On creating the runes I would need. On holding them in place as I created a few spells at the edge of my control. The moment my eyes opened, I felt my control waver. I had hoped to hold the spells back until after I started my attack but I could already tell that they wouldn’t stay under control for much longer, let alone if I go to move.

As one, I released the three fireballs aimed at his back. They were fired from the other side of him. Outside my typical range if not for that lovely rune I had learned out of nowhere. The moment the spells went off, I charged. Mana flooded my body as my legs pumped. My enhanced speed covered the twenty feet in less than five seconds. Just in time for the fireballs to hit their target.

While that might not seem like a long time, it was long enough for me to see one of his eyebrows lift. His sword blurring as he did so. I didn’t see what the sword hit, but given that I could no longer feel the fireballs, he must have used it to disrupt the magic.

I should have turned around and gotten some distance, but I was already committed. Already too close to him. My sword already stabbing at his chest with as much force as I could generate in such a short amount of time. Not that I expected it to hit. I could already see his sword moving to block mine.

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It was swinging in from the right. As soon as it made contact with the side of my blade, I allowed the additional force to spin my body. He moved to my left, right into the new path of my blade. Just as I thought I was going to actually hit the bastard, he disappeared. I don’t mean he blurred or anything like that. I mean, he disappeared from my sight.

My sword sliced through the suddenly empty spot with no resistance. Given that I had expected some resistance to stop, or at least redirect, my motion, I was left scrambling to stay on my feet. Not that there was much I could do. Not against the amount of force I had managed to generate as well as what I could steal from his block.

Feet tangled, arms moving out to catch me, I braced for the inevitable impact with the ground. It never came. Instead, a pair of firm hands grabbed my waist. Stopping my motion and keeping me steady. That gesture was enough to make me grateful to whoever it was. That damn elf managed to pull something off that made no sense.

It looked like he vanished so, unless he moved faster than I could even perceive, he must have teleported. Add to that the fact that he wasn’t tapping me with his sword or telling me what I did wrong, he likely teleported to somewhere outside the room. While I got my feet untangled, I tried to catch my breath. The moment I got my feet back under me, I turned to look at my savior. It took everything I had to keep from socking him.

Standing there, as if he had been there all along, was Barti. The color of his sword out of the corner of my eye told me he was unarmed. It was leaning against a wall on the far side of the room. Not that it would mean much for him when facing me, but still. Something inside me squirmed a bit as he looked down at me. At first, a bit of curiosity peaked through his eyes, only to get replaced by a frown as we both stayed where we were. Neither of us spoke as we kept eye contact.

After a few seconds of standing there, I realized just how close we were. There was less than six inches between our faces and his hands were still holding onto my waist. Something squirmed in my stomach. I didn’t want to know what it was nor why it was doing this now of all times. Not that I didn’t find the elf attractive. I mean, it wasn’t like I hadn’t had fantasies or dreamt of such things.

Hell, when the bullying at school was at its worst, I had wondered what it would have been like if I had been born female. Not that it had ever done me any good, nor had I ever acted on any of that. On top of that, those wishes and dreams had never, ever, been told to anyone. Not even my parents or in any of my prayers to any god. Those were between me and my subconscious.

Realizing that neither of us were going to do anything, I shrugged. Returning my sword to my inventory and heading for the door. Managing to make it over halfway to the door before he finally broke. “Where are you going?”

“Shower and then bed. I need to get up early to buy a few things before tomorrow's training.” I said while looking over my shoulder.

He looked lost in thought before simply saying, “Yeah, good night. Sleep well.”

Taking that as my queue to leave, I didn’t hesitate. Taking my time to leave the room and head to bed. “Hey, AI,” I muttered, though I was pretty sure no one could hear me given how loud the noise filling the hall from the main room. “Did you finish making that shopping list for various foods for me?”

“Yes,” it said as a new screen popped up. It looked to be a simple note page built into the interface. It was filled with various ingredients. There were even images next to each item that could be expanded to help me locate them in case the names were different. Worn out from training, I made my way through the building and into my room where I passed out.

Barti:

The little guy was fast. Faster than he should be given his stats. Then again, it wasn’t like he was ever going to be strong. Not with that skeleton and musculature of his. It just wasn’t possible. But maybe that could be his strength. Maybe the girls and I could focus on training him in speed over everything else. After all, who needs strength if you cannot be hit?

Speaking of hits. That last strike was perfect. Something that would take most years to even pull off on accident, yet he pulled it off after only holding the weapon for a few days. It had been so perfect that I was forced to use some magic of my own.

Nothing much, just a spell to increase my speed by orders of magnitude for moments. While not useful for day-to-day use, one moment of such speed was known to end fights. But the fact that he had forced me to use magic at all was a testament to his growing skills. Of course, there was no way for him to have seen or anticipated such a move, so he was thrown off balance by the lack of response.

Making a decision, I put the training sword my wife had gifted me many many years ago, and moved to steady him. It took more time than I thought he needed for him to stand on his own but eventually, he did. For some reason, I held on. Needing to be sure that he wouldn’t suddenly fall to the ground. Even doing so as he turned around to face me.

As soon as he saw my face, emotions filled it, though none that I could make out as I tried to sift through my own. I was filled with pride and joy at his growth. Grief and loss at the fact that he has to learn such things. On and on the emotional rollercoaster went. All of them stemming from an area I thought was long dead and buried. Killed by the humans when they sent the herd of monsters into the forest to rampage. The day my wife, and the majority of my village, had been killed. That of fatherly pride.