Zephyr’s POV

Sip

What’s better than relaxing in your yard with a nice cup of coffee in the morning?

“Huff... huff...”

Ah!

Watching your student working her butt off while doing so, haha!

Settled comfortably in my rocking chair, swaying gently to the cool morning breeze, I had Nali to entertain me. I mean, I was training Nali diligently, observing her every move, making sure she ran properly.

“Oi, what are you laughing at, Gramps?” Nali asked.

A vein bulged the moment I heard the word ‘Gramps’.

‘I’m not even fifty! Sigh, this new generation...’

I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of ruining my morning coffee. Instead, I waved my hand lightly. “Nothing, nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, come on Gramps, tell me.” She emphasized the word this time.

‘This brat, that does it!’

“No talking while training, two extra rounds. No, scratch that, keep running until I say otherwise. And no augmentation.”

“Ar-“ She opened her mouth ready to snap, but didn’t. She pouted and grumbled under her breath, knowing full well that if she continued this, she would be running till tomorrow, hehehe.

While Nali ran, I took my sweet time to enjoy my coffee.

“Alright, that’s enough,” I said, putting my cup down.

“Finally!” She said in exaggeration.

It was more out of boredom than anything else. Running a few rounds around my house, no matter how big my house was, or how many laps it was, wouldn’t make her sweat, with or without augmentation. The years of training her were showing their results, and I couldn’t lie to myself anymore, I was proud.

“Come on,” I said, unsheathing my sword, prompting her to do the same. She smiled brightly and followed behind me.

“We’ll go with the usual, only augmentation.” She nodded and unsheathed her rapier. Her clean blade gleamed the dappling sunlight, returning it to the sky as we both took our fighting stances.

Still like statues, we read each other off, ready to react to the first change in posture, the breeze rustling faintly over the leaves. As if on cue, when a leaf hit the ground, I shifted a mere half-inch, the metallic sounds of two blades clashing reverberated. Nali had closed the distance in half a second, thrusting with control and precision only few could match.

“Not bad,” I chuckled, swaying her away.

“Hmph, I’m only getting started.” She said and jumped back in action, fiercer, more precise than before.

I couldn’t help but smile.

For each attack she performed, the corresponding memory of her studying, trying to replicate, failing, and repeating again and again flashed in my mind until reaching today’s performance. The small, frail girl crying over the tree had grown into a young, strong woman full of dreams and ambitions.

With every strike I dodged and every slash I parried, another followed. She had gained momentum and wouldn’t leave room for a counterattack. She knew that with the tiniest of slip-ups, the smallest miscalculation was all I needed to turn this battle in my favor, so she kept increasing the pace, using her superior speed and flexibility to her advantage to land a successful blow.

Heh, I called it ‘the usual’, however, it was anything but. To the untrained eye, it looked like she was trying to kill me.

Well, that wasn’t far off...

We both knew she was more than qualified to be a Ranger. Hell, even a Master tier Ranger would have a hard time against her.

She was just that good, and I couldn’t be prouder of my pupil, however, it’s important to humble them once or twice. She was a great challenge for the average Master, but not me.

Dodging an upward slash, I exploited an opening and kicked her away, giving us distance. “It was about time I fought back, don’t you think?”

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A frown formed beneath her disheveled strands. “Do whatever you want old man, I’m gonna beat you today!” She snarled and charged in again.

This time, I lunched in, cutting her in her tracks. Surprised by my sudden movement, she lingered for a fraction of a second, but that momentary pause was all I needed. Executing the same move she began the duel with, I aimed for her head.

Her eyes instinctively widened, but in the span of a heartbeat, she found her composure and swiftly ducked down.

A strand of her hair was grazed by the edge of my blade, narrowly escaping. Her motion was carried by her momentum, and she utilized it to put some distance between us. With a deft maneuver, she dug her sword into the ground and spun back around to face me.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Come on, Nali, you can do better than that.” I gave her the smile she always hated.

“You were lucky, you old geezer!” She spat back, her frown deepening to my smirk.

The vein returned to my forehead. “You brat, who are you calling a geezer? I’m still very young thank you very much. Sigh, we’ll have to work on your reflexes... Alright, that’s enough of a warm-up, time to kick it up a notch.”

She snorted angrily but quickly collected herself. Closing her eyes, she concentrated.

The next moment, she let herself loose, and the augmentation extended outwards, taking form. A surge of quint erupted and a wave of wind burst forward. Similarly to every attack she performed today, I still remember her first attempt at this technique, unable to control it and hurting herself in the process.

At that time, I still didn’t like the idea of having a student, especially a noble kid. If it weren’t for Seth and the good money I was offered, I would never have taken her in. However, as we spent time together, my attitude changed towards her. She was different.

While she had quite the mouth, other than calling me Gramps or other similar nicknames, she didn’t demonstrate the same levels of disrespect most nobles tend to show to those of humble background. She listened and discarded the pride all these spoiled noble brats have.

Following her path, I augmented myself further. I felt the quint travel from my core to the rest of my body, and then beyond it. With it came the familiar sensation as flames etched themselves over the outlines of my blade and body.

Taking back fighting stances, and preparing for the second round, our paths crossed. While I took the original stance we held at the beginning of the fight, Nali stood straight, her hand stretched, pointing her sword directly at me.

Without warning, she murmured softly, “Wind bullet.”

My eyes shot open in realization of the spell. From the tip of her rapier, a silent compressed blast of wind blew forward, piercing the very air on its path.

If I wasn’t familiar with the attack, I wouldn’t have been able to react in time.

Channeling quint to my feet, a black footprint was left behind, the piercing wind barely scratching my shirt.

‘Damn it, Seth, why did you have to teach her that!? It wasn’t enough that you—’

“Wind bullet.” She fired a second one, already aiming for the third.

Taken aback by the initial wind bullet, there was no time for me to do anything other than dodge. If even one of those hit me, the fight would be over on the spot.

‘Damn her foul mouth, I always forget she’s a noble.’

These lunatics pampered their children with beast cores, elixirs, and artifacts to increase their innate power and potential before they even awakened, all in the name of power and political gains. A commoner wouldn’t stand a chance against a noble, but this... this was just insane!

Then again, this was my insane student, and she was different.

Nali was the last of her family to awaken and, for better or worse, she didn’t have any affinity to fire, a big hit for the Blazeheart family. For that reason, that bastard of a father practically abandoned her. While her brothers and sisters went into the best academies the Asmit kingdom had to offer, she stayed back, like a bird in a cage.

Did he even know what he had created?

All my life, I thought I was a genius. Having an affinity for two elements was rare enough, but being able to reach the Yellow stage by the age of thirty, and now being only two steps before the Silver color was unheard of. For a commoner at least...

I thought that only a few people in the world would be able to achieve such feet, one of them being Seth, but Nali...

She had not only reached the Yellow stage but had managed to reach and even surpass me, standing in the fifth and final stage, one step away from Silver. In a little less than five years of being an Elemancer, she had surpassed more than thirty years of sweat, blood, and effort!

Dodging her wind bullets, she even had time for snappy remarks. “Is this all the almighty Twinlight has to offer? And I thought you were the Master here.”

‘Cheeky brat, I’m the one who taught you how to taunt your opponent, you think it will work on me?’

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I grumbled in a low voice.

A barrage of wind bullets followed, but I had already adjusted to their speed. Calculating the distance and the time it would take me to reach close enough to execute my plan, I threw a fireball high in the air and slowly advanced.

With every attack dodged, I moved one step forward until eventually the fireball came down. Nali, cut off guard having the upper hand throughout the latter part of our duel, paused and gave me the opportunity to throw a blast of water at the fireball, creating a smokescreen big enough to cover my entire yard.

Inside the smoke screen, she couldn’t launch that damned attack. She was quick to react to the situation, and with a deafening clap, a wind blast cleared the smokescreen. Sadly for her, it was too late. I had covered enough distance between us, and Wind bullet was useless in close combat.

Igniting quint, I coated my sword in fire, while she imbued hers in wind. As our blades collided, showers of sparks and flames jumped everywhere. She was quicker and had more quint reserves to spend than me, but I was the better swordsman. Using my superior skills and physical strength, I pushed her back and used her own speed against her in an attempt to make her lose balance.

She managed to defend herself properly, but her eyes betrayed her panic, and the difference in experience showed itself. Amidst the clash of our blades, I seized the moment and swiftly threw water below her feet. Tunnel-visioned in my sword, she missed it, and when she found the moment to deliver a devastating strike, she lost her footing.

I charged forward and in the blink of an eye, I disarmed her, tossed her sword aside and threw her to the groupd pointing my own sowrd at her face before sheathing it back, ending the duel.

“I win,” I smirked at her angry, confused, mud-covered face.