"If I mess up here, I really might die this time," Tara thought to herself as she sneaked through the long corridors of her home. Tara, who was now 18 years old, made it a habit to sneak out of her home and spend her days in the forest near by. There, she hunted the local wildlife and fought orcs and gnolls. After a successful hunt, she would dig out the calcified mana wells from each monster she defeated. These mana wells, better known as mana essence, were used in magic training due to being more mana dense than the concentrations of mana found in the air.
With hopes of another successful hunt in mind, Tara made her way to the front door. Before she made it out of the door, the voice of her mother boomed behind her. "Tara Bouvardia! Where do you think you're going?!" Tara stopped dead in her tracks. She stood completely still, as if her mother's vision was based off of movement. "You better not tell me that you were heading to that forest again," Ava asked of Tara. Tara turned to face her mother, "Well, I was just thinking of getting some exercise in for the day. My body gets stiff if I don't move around."
Ava was clearly frustrated from her daughter's response. "Haven't you trained enough? When will it end?" This wasn't this first time that Ava expressed her displeasure towards Tara's hobbies. Time and time again, Ava asked her daughter to act a little more ladylike. Time and time again, Tara ignored her mother's wishes and continued her training. While Tara had aspired to become the strongest person in the Empire, both physically and magically, her mother had different plans for her. Ava intended for Tara to serve as Lord of the Bouvardia Earldom with a nice husband from another noble household. The two often fought, but it seemed that there was no resolution in sight.
"Mother, I'm never in any real danger. You and I both know how strong I am. I don't see what the problem is." Tara said these words although she knew full well what truly ailed her mother. Before her mother could protest, Christoph, who had just entered into the room, interjected, "Ava, I know how you feel, but you must calm down." Christoph then turned to his daughter, "Tara, I think you need to understand your mother's feelings on the matter. Our family has a duty to this land as well as a duty to the Empire. Your mother only wants what's best for everyone." Christoph turned to Ava and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "With that said, Tara, your mother and I have talked about what to do with you. As you know, in a week's time, you will be sent off to the academy to study for the next 3 years. We have decided, that if you are able to graduate at the top of your class, we will allow you to live however you want to."
Tara's eyes brightened. The news of her potential freedom was music to her ears.
"Alternatively, " Christoph continued. "If you are unable to do so, we will find you a potential husband that you must marry and settle down with. Are we understood?" Tara felt like she was just stabbed in the chest. The idea of getting married never even crossed her mind, let alone to someone she didn't know. Tara refused to show any weakness, so she decided to agree. "Is that all I have to do? Easy. Do you two know of anyone better at magic or fighting than me?" Tara was under the misconception that the academy did nothing more than train in magic and physical combat. Little did she know, the course work included many subjects such as arithmetic, literature, and history. She also didn't know of another fact. The coming freshman class, that she was apart of, was known as a generation of geniuses. A generation that only comes around once every thousand or so years.
"Your mother and I are happy that you agree. Now, just for today, can you do something your mother asks of you?" Tara nodded in agreement. She placed down her battle axe and bow near the front door. Ava spoke up for the first time since Christoph entered the room, "Tara, for today, I would like for you to join me during my rounds in town. As the lord of this land, its my duty to maintain a positive relationship with the people who live here. I would like it if you accompany me and see how to do it first hand." Tara looked at her mother and responded, "Yes mother."
Together, Ava and Tara boarded a carriage and left to go meet the people in town. Tara felt awkward in the carriage with her mother after they had just fought, so she tried to break the silence by asking her mother a question. "Mother, when you were my age, weren't you already apart of the military?"
Ava sighed, "I can see what you are trying to say, but all I did was perform my duty. It was necessary for me then, but it isn't necessary for you now." Tara visibly winced from her answer. "That being said, I can understand your feelings of excitement in getting stronger. I just wish that you wouldn't spend all of your time on training." Tara felt a bit guilty after hearing her mother's words. She knew that she was being unnecessarily stubborn, but her memories of her past life urged her to be as free as possible. Nevertheless, she knew that she had to compromise with her mother eventually.
"Mother, I will try my best to help you with your work for the next week until I leave for the academy. I'm sorry about being so stubborn."
Ava took a deep breath and exhaled. A soft smile spread on her face. "I will hold you to your promise," Ava said as she looked out of the carriage window. A moment later she turned to her daughter. Ava looked at her daughter for a bit before saying, "Fine, you can go to the forest today. Just make sure you keep your promise in assisting me for the rest of the week."
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"Thank you mother!" Tara yelled in excitement. She proceeded to jump from the carriage and rushed home. Tara burst through the front door and grabbed her armaments that she had left there. She placed her axe in the sheathe on her back and ran to the forest with her bow in hand. Wanting to get to the forest as quickly as possible, Tara activated a physical enchantment spell on her body to increase her speed and agility. Her stride became unbelievably long. Each step was over 20 feet long, but she was able to take each one within half a second of each other. It was like a whirlwind had passed through the area leaving a path of small footprints in it's wake.
Tara sprinted straight through the entrance to the forest and continued running until she was surrounded by trees that blot out the sky. She had made it into the center of the forest in record time.
Her immediate surroundings were quiet, but Tara felt the gaze of numerous entities around her. Usually, by this time, those gazes would turn hostile and a gang of gnolls would rush at her. This time was different. They stayed in their respective hiding places, as if they expected something to happen soon. Tara quickly pulled her axe out and sheathed her bow. She felt that if something were to happen, a melee weapon gave her more options in the dense forest.
Tara felt vibrations in the forest floor. They were faint at first, as if a large herd of animals were running from a large distance away. The shaking quickly became more apparent. The entire forest shook violently. The gazes that she felt when she first entered the center forest had long disappeared. Something large was approaching her and it was powerful enough to scare off every other living creature there. "Finally! I get to have a real fight!" Tara thought to herself. She couldn't contain her excitement over the prospect of fighting some large mysterious creature for the first time.
The violent shaking came to an abrupt stop. Tara felt the presence of some massive creature in front of her, covered by the trees ahead. A massive boulder sized head rolled out from the tree line. It stopped a few feet in front of the spot that Tara was standing. It looked to be the head of some massive species of ape, kind of like the ones she saw at zoos in her past life. The head had 4 massive fangs protruding from it's jaw, 2 from the bottom and 2 from the top. The disembodied head opened it's eyes and glanced at Tara. It opened it's mouth and let out an ear splitting roar.
As Tara wrapped her ears in mana to stop her eardrums from bursting, a massive furry hand broke through the tree line and struck at Tara. Tara jumped to her left and rolled back into her guard. She looked up to see the hulking figure of a beheaded silver ape picking up it's head from the ground. Tara wanted to analyze the situation, but was given no chance to. The large ape swung the head like a mace and attacked Tara again. Tara reacted quickly. She slid under that creature's attack and made a dash at it's legs. It's legs alone were twice the height of Tara, but she felt no fear at it's massive size. She swung her axe at the monster's left shin. Upon contact, a deeply guttural crunching noise was produced. The sound of a bone being shattered into thousands of pieces pierced the air.
"That was a solid hit!"
Tara didn't stop there, she continued her onslaught on the creature's leg, slicing away pieces of meat and fur. The creature lifted it's leg into the air and tried to stomp on Tara. Tara jumped away from the attack, but was hit by the aftershock of the stomp. Her body flew and slammed into a tree. She slid down the side of the tree, face first into the dirt. Tara gasped for air. She felt the pain of broken ribs stabbing her lungs. "That hurt like hell!" she yelled at the ape. She pushed herself off of the ground and stood back up. Tara looked back at the ape and saw something peculiar. The wound she had inflicted on it's leg had started to bubble. What looked like large worms began wriggling across the area where her axe had hit. After a moment, the leg of the creature had healed. "You aren't going to make this easy for me, are you?" Tara spoke through gritted teeth.
"Well, if you're just gonna heal from physical attacks, I'll have to try something different!" Tara screamed at the monstrosity. She changed her stance and started drawing mana from her mana wells. She visualized the mana turning into a giant roaring fire. As she started to activate her spell, the headless ape charged at her. Closer and closer it got. Tara raised her axe at the monster and poured the spell into the tip of the weapon. A large spherical ember grew in the spot where the mana was moving. The size of the ember grew to the size of a large man as the ape had finally closed the distance. It swept it's massive hand at Tara.
Tara jumped back with all of her might and yelled, "Eat this!" As she jumped, the giant ball of fire shot out. It flew out at a dizzying speed before it met the center of the ape's body. On contact, a giant explosion of flames engulfed the creature. It flailed around as it tried to free itself from the inferno. The flames ate away at it's body and revealed a massive dark crystal where it's chest once was. Tara made a split second decision and rushed at the melting figure. She readied her axe and slammed it into the crystal with all of her might. The crystal shattered into a brilliant array of light. The ape had been defeated.
The pieces of the crystal disintegrated into the air along with the ape's body.
Tara rocked backwards and fell to the ground. She sprawled out in victory. That was the first time she truly gave her all in a fight. She couldn't think of anything else that could make her feel the happiness she felt in that moment.
As her excitement began to die down, she started to feel aches and pain in her body. All of the adrenaline that had coursed through her had now dissipated. Her body felt heavy and sore. She lifted her head and took a look at herself. Her clothes had visible rips and tears. She also had visible bruising in the areas where her skin was exposed. "My parent's are going to kill me when I get home," Tara said, as she resigned herself to whatever her future had in store for her. After one more look at herself, Tara picked herself off of the floor and ran home.