The first to receive a gift was Umara. A butler came up and presented a small box, a ring sitting inside.

It was a plain silver band with a stripe of White Crystal going around its center.

“That ring stores charges of the Blink spell, capable of instantly transporting you 20 feet in any direction at will. There are 3 charges and one charge is naturally accumulated every 12 hours. Use it wisely and it’ll save your life in disadvantageous situations.”

“Thank you very much, Chief. I will use it so.”

She smiled and slipped the ring on, prompting the next gift.

This time, one long box was presented to Faey. She opened it with barely-restrained excitement, and found a sword inside.

“A longsword crafted by our family’s best Whitesmith with a concealed Authority 9 Crystal in the base of the blade. Your father wanted us to make you a sword that would last you through your years as a knight. For potentially the rest of your life, this may be your personal weapon. As you grow, it will as well. It stows into a ring. Use it well.”

“Ooh!”

Faey’s eyes sparkled as she stroked the longsword.

It was a mastercraft with a long silver blade and a black and gold hilt. The several enchantment runes along the flat of the blade were the only implication of the embedded White Crystal.

This was a massive gift for a future Knight like Faey. She was so enamored with it, running her hands repeatedly along the flat and hilt of the blade, that Duchess Talexia had to remind her to give thanks.

“Thank you, Chief!”

“Haha, of course. Now, I open the floor to all those who wish to make their exchanges. Please, take the rest of this evening to enjoy yourselves and your gifts. And Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas!”

Everyone cheered before moving to socialize. Hundreds of gifts were exchanged between friends and family all around us.

“Umara.”

At that time, Umara and I turned to find Shadowbane approaching us. In her hands was a medium-length wooden box.

“Here.”

She held it out, letting Umara take it and open the lid.

Sitting on the fine felt was a subtle dagger, its surface covered in so many runes very little of the original sheen remained. An undeniably deadly weapon.

“You’ll be facing some dangerous enemies through the rest of your year, and especially when you enter the military. I won’t be able to see you, so I want you to have this now. It was just recently finished.”

“Oh my. Thank you.”

Umara held up the dagger, the intricately crafted hilt and dangerously sharp blade catching flashes of light.

“It’s not meant to be used for anything except for a last resort defensive measure. It’s a Bonding Weapon, and it has various magical functions capable of killing up to an Authority 9 beast. But only once. If its power is used, it needs to be replenished by someone like your mother. Its Crystal can only sustain the more basic functions, not the high-end killing power. So like the ring, use it wisely.”

“Wow.”

My eyes widened along with Umara’s. Being able to kill an Authority 9 beast was no small matter. For someone like us, that was some serious firepower to be wielding, even if only once.

Not to mention how the killing charge could be replenished. That alone made it several times more valuable than if it were only consumable.

Umara looked up at her friend with a gentle smile.

“Thank you again, Shadowbane. Unfortunately my gift to you is still being made. I’ll be able to deliver it to you not long after Christmas. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. You know I don’t expect gifts from you.”

“Sometimes I’m not sure if you’re complimenting me or insulting me.”

Umara muttered, thinking, "You could learn how to reword things, no?”

With a smirk, Shadowbane turned to me and nodded.

“Shall we go?”

“Oh, right. Sure.”

“Wait, what’s going on?”

Umara asked, confused as to how we were talking as if we already knew each other.

I shrugged.

“Shadowbane wants me to spar with her. I told her I’d help her out.”

“Oh. Can I watch?”

“Fine with me.”

“Sure.”

Both of us nodded, prompting Umara to follow as we left the dining room.

From there we entered the empty arena, disregarding the blood splattered across the floor.

“You saw my duel with Tindereye, so you should have an idea as to how fast my bullets are.”

“Those projectiles? Yes, I do. Though they weren’t as fast as I expected. I’ve seen bows that can shoot arrows not much slower.”

“Well, I’ve never seen a bow like that.”

“It’s no matter. It’s still faster than anything I’ve ever gone up against. This will be a valuable experience.”

She walked until she stood 20 yards away, squaring off with me.

I let out a breath of smoke, adjusting the cigar in my mouth before pulling out a loaded Springfield.

I casually pointed my barrel at her, throwing out some preemptive advice.

“These things only shoot straight. No twists or turns. So try to predict the path of the shot based on my aim.”

“Alright.”

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She nodded and drew her sword. It was slightly curved, a bit over 2 feet long, and probably meant to complement her high-speed fighting style.

She took her stance, her eyes sharpening. It wasn’t like I was trying to hurt her, so I steadied my gun and aimed at her leg, firing only after I knew she understood where I was shooting.

I saw the bullet kick up a plume of dust behind her. It had sailed right past her thigh, attesting to her incredible agility. Her movement, despite having anticipated the shot, was still unbelievably fast. It was uncanny seeing a human moving with such speed.

She kicked off, approaching me from an oblique angle. I shifted my aim to compensate, adjusting for a few seconds so my bullet would hit her abdomen, and pulled the trigger.

This time, she was unable to dodge, the bullet hitting just off center. She was barely able to move in time, let alone dodge it completely.

She clicked her tongue, pulling the flattened bullet off her steel abs. Since it wasn’t empowered, it didn’t deal any damage to her.

“Tsk. That’s difficult. Fast and small. I can barely catch a glimpse with my eye.”

“The fact that you can at this range says enough about your speed. It’s insane. There’s something I want you to keep in mind though. Just on the off chance you have to dodge something as fast or even faster than these bullets.”

I explained while stowing the Springfield, bringing out two 1911’s.

“Don’t react to the sound. Sound travels at a certain speed. That speed is surpassed by my bullets. That means the bullets will hit you before you even hear the sound.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Keep that in mind for the future. Also, you have to take into account your own body and how fast it processes things like your sight and hearing.”

“You’re talking about reaction speed?”

“Something like that. When sound hits your ear, your ear sends the sound to the brain, and your brain has to make sense of the sound. That all takes time. It’s only mere fractions of a second, but with speeds like this, that amount of time is crucial. This bullet will hit you not only before the sound reaches you, but before your brain could even process the sound itself once it hits your ears.”

“...You’re saying that senses can be a weakness. And the best way to surpass that weakness would be to use something like Aura, which has none of those weaknesses.”

She looked at me with a glint in her eye, making me smile a bit.

“You catch on quick. Yes, Aura will tell you far more about the world around you, about the people around you, and at far faster speeds than your body. It’s an amazing thing every time I think about it. It’s also the only reason I’m alive today; it was able to give me life saving information when I needed it most. I can sense most threats before I see them, and react to attacks before they’re even let off.”

“I’ve gotten a glimpse of such things as well. But the complexities of Aura continue to confound me. It doesn’t make sense when all the instructors and the Martial League explain it to me. All the techniques they teach to wield Aura feel worthless.”

“Well it’s a good thing I don’t have any techniques to teach you. All I have are my most important impressions about what Aura is. Take Umara for example.”

“Hm?”

Umara perked up when I pointed at her.

“Her magic. She can cast spells in the air. How is that made possible?”

“Her Aura. She casts spells with her Aura instead of her body.”

“Exactly. Now knights. They can launch attacks with Vigor beyond their body. That takes Aura as well. They are basically doing the same thing as warlocks.”

“That’s true.”

“So are you following the pattern? What is Aura in regard to those examples?”

“...”

Shadowbane stood still, staring off into space in thought.

I waited for her, letting her figure it out.

Eventually, she cocked her head.

“It’s a way to extend Vigor and Mana beyond the body.”

“You’re halfway there. Rather than it being some random tool, what is Aura itself?”

“Well, that question can’t be answered. Nobody knows what Aura comes from. The best guess is the soul.”

“Okay, you’ve missed my point. I’ll just spell it out.”

I chuckled a bit and took out my cigar.

“Aura is an extension of the body. Not metaphorically, not figuratively, and not theoretically. You can treat it quite literally as the body itself. It acts no different from an arm or a leg. Now normally, Vigor, Mana, and Psyka can only travel through the body. But if you use Aura, extending the range of your body with another limb…”

“You can use that magic beyond yourself!”

Shadowbane shivered in revelation, suddenly looking to her side and swinging her sword with all her might.

Light bloomed across the entire length of the blade, a massive razor of light erupting along its path.

It tore a trench into the ground before impacting the wall of the arena, shattering the surface, leaving cracks and one huge slash mark about 12 feet long.

“Haha… Amazing…”

She looked down at her blade, laughing in disbelief.

“It’s so simple that I don’t know how I was ever so stupid to not realize it. It’s not about coating my blade with it. It’s not even about those stupid techniques. Why don’t they teach this? Why don’t they tell us something so basic?”

“Hell if I know. This is just what I’ve learned on my own. I’ve never actually been taught anything.”

“That only makes you greater. Your talent is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And although you’ve already done so much for me, I still have a question.”

“Go for it.”

I tapped my cigar before putting it back in my mouth.

“You sensed the Chief’s Aura. How did you do that?”

“Well, its no different from how you launched that blade just now. Just instead of using your vigor, use your mind. It’s easy to use my Aura as an extension of my mind since I’m a summoner. But you should be able to do it all the same. Think of Aura how you would your eyes or ears. Open its senses to the Aura of others, and take what you find into your mind. Others who don’t actively control their Aura will emanate their thoughts and feelings, or perhaps the power of their own Aura if they have developed it.”

“I see…”

Her eyes sparkled as she focused. I could feel her Aura bloom, all of it focused on me.

And it felt similar to what Umara would do when she reached out to me desiring a telepathic connection. I could sense her, her curiosity and excitement.

I didn’t reach out to her. I simply let her feel around. It would take more time for her to tune in to her surroundings and the psyche of others like I had, but now she had at least opened the door.

However, I did provide some… stimulation.

I suddenly raised my gun and fired straight at her chest.

And without so much as a thought, her body twisted, the bullet soaring past fractions of an inch away from skin.

“...Woah.”

Even she was shocked by her maneuver. Her head snapped back toward me, a smile plastered across her face.

“I could sense it! I knew exactly when you were going to shoot!”

“Bring your Aura to a high enough level and it’ll feel like precognition. I can predict the movements of knights and read their intentions to some extent. It helps a lot when fighting them. Not only that, but I can sense danger before it even comes. I don’t have to see or hear an enemy. I can just use my Aura.”

“I can see that. It’s a whole other world. I was blind compared to back then. You’ve opened up my eyes.”

“Well, I’m glad I was able to help.”

“...”

Shadowbane stared at me intently for a short while before turning to Umara.

Umara tilted her head at her friend.

“What?”

“You lucked out with this one, sister.”

“W-What do you mean?”

Umara turned flustered as I laughed.

“Haha, yea she did! Come here, darling.”

I ran over, bounding to her side and scooping her up before planting a juicy kiss on her mouth. She was too shocked to resist.

After a moment of surprise, Shadowbane shook her head to the side.

“I didn’t need to see that. Anyway, I’d like to prepare a gift for you, John. As thanks for helping me so much.”

“I appreciate it, but I don’t need a gift. I’m just glad I could help.”

“You can’t possibly not understand how valuable what you’ve done for me is. I have a feeling you do this often?”

“He does!”

Umara shouted in agreement.

“He’s got too much pride and can’t accept help or generosity unless its shoved down his throat! I had to force him to accept the guitar from the Chief!”

“You were going to reject that?”

“He was! See John?! You’re the stubborn punk here.”

Umara stabbed my chest with her finger in accusation, causing me to shoot her a look with a raised brow.

“Keep talking like that and I’ll shove my tongue down your throat.”

“Y-Y-You bad guy! Shadow, help me!”

“Do not bring me into this.”

Shadowbane dodged Umara’s beet-red, pleading face, quickly making her way out.

And I gave chase just as the silly girl tried to fly away, barely managing to snatch her and pull her in for a loving embrace.