“Get off me.” Emily pushed and thrashed beneath Kai but was unable to get anywhere or break his hold on her. “I said get off!” Fire began to spark in her hand but fizzled and Emily paled again as mana drain hit her from her attempted cast.

“I asked if you yield. You said the fight isn’t over until it’s over. So is it over and you yield? Or do I actually need to finish it by knocking you out?” Kai fumed.

Emily bucked against him one last time and the fight went out of her. “Fine. I yield and you win,” Kai climbed off from on top of her and offered his hand to help her up again, “but you can’t have your bokken back. It’s mine now. Finders keepers, losers weepers.” She smacked his hand away and climbed to her feet on her own.

“Excellent first fight. Good things learned on both sides. Now take your potions and begin again.” Alric demanded their best at all times.

Kai walked to his side of the ring and took a mana potion from his ring. He downed it in one gulp and saw that Emily drank both a health and a mana potion. He looked over at Alric. “Is she getting the same individual training that I am? I haven’t seen her on the obstacle course.”

Alric nodded, “She has been-”

“My training is none of your concern Kai. I’m here to grow stronger and get an upgraded class just like you. Now, let’s go again.”

The two squared off again. Emily jumped forward this time she held her firebolts in reserve and came at him with the bokken. He laughed and fired off a Mana Bolt toward her right hip. The bolt pulled her focus and though she dodged it had done its job and allowed Kai to close with her and strike the wrist of her left hand that held the bokken. As the bokken fell from her hand Kai performed a dive roll forward and snatched the bokken from the air. He stood with his wooden practice sword in his right hand and the bokken in his left. He tossed the wooden sword to her. “I really like my old bokken and wanted it back. Thanks for being kind enough to let me have it. I did find it unattended on the ground there. What was it you said?” Kai paused in his monologue. “Ah, yes. Finders keepers.” He smirked and after she caught the wooden sword he charged her again. The bokken was an old friend that he knew every nuance of and his hand gripped it like an old lover. He stopped trying to strike Emily directly and began to redirect her own sword into her.

Frustration mounted and Emily began to make more blunders as Kai danced around her dodging and blocking every strike sometimes even redirecting her own sword to strike her. She stepped back in a classic disengage and launched five firebolts at him. The most she could launch as it drained her to two mana remaining.

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Kai saw the barrage of firebolts and did the only thing that came to mind. He dodged two swatted a third away and fired a Mana Bolt at the fourth. The explosion from the firebolt and Mana Bolt colliding was enough to take out the fifth and final firebolt. Kai came through the remnants of the explosion and swept Emily’s feet from beneath her. He once again was on top of her but this time his bokken was across her throat. “Do you yield?”

Alric clapped. “Excellent. I’m not certain I’ve ever seen a newbie that was able to intercept one magic bolt with another. Emily, what did you do wrong in that fight?”

Since Alric had begun to instruct them Kai climbed off of Emily and again offered his hand which Emily ignored. “I did not go all out from the beginning. I tried to use just sword skills to fight him when I should have used everything at my disposal, like my magic.” Alric nodded.

“Yes. Kai is the better swordsman as he has trained at it longer than you. Knowing your opponent is one of the primary rules in fighting. Regardless if that opponent is another person or a monster. Knowledge will allow you to survive against overwhelming odds. Now begin again.” Alric allowed no breaks. They continued to spar until the sky darkened and the light from the stars was all there was to see by.

“Alric, we can’t continue like this. I can barely see Em across the ring. I’m also getting tired of beating her over and over. Maybe I should learn a crafting skill and take a month or three off combat practice so she can catch up to me.” Kai lowered his guard and turned to face Alric.

The moment that Kai turned away from her Emily launched forward with an attack. She shot three quick firebolts from one hand while she swung the wooden practice sword with her main hand. Kai was blindsided; all three firebolts landed and the sword came down on his head.

“I told you the fights aren’t over until their over.” Emily dropped the wooden practice sword next to Kai and took the bokken from his hand. She turned and looked at Alric. “When he wakes tell him finders keepers.” With those words Emily walked away because she agreed that the light had become too low for proper sparring.

Kai woke as Emily walked away and he heard her final words of “finders keepers.”

“Damn it. I can’t believe I let my guard down with her again.” Kai turned his head to Alric and began to climb to his feet. “What the hell Alric? You just let her leave with my bokken? Not cool at all.” Kai grabbed the wooden practice sword from the ground and stored it in his ring. “Maybe I should take a break from fighting practice and learn a craft? Maybe I can make my own bokken or something.”

“I will have a bokken made for you. I’m certain there is a capable enough crafter and it will be a system made one so it will be better than what she is using. As for you learning a craft, not yet. Though perhaps with time. You have not checked your skill progression or done anything with your Path Points correct?” Alric waited on his nod. “Excellent. Within the week we will have you check your progress and proceed from that point. Perhaps a goal to look forward to. Now, do you have any ability at sneaking, stealth, stalking, or tracking?” At Kai’s head shake that conveyed a negative to those skills Alric grinned. “Then we shall get you them and teach you to be more aware of your surroundings.”

Kai found a dagger placed across his throat and he froze, even holding his breath.