My arms are burning as I try to keep the sword pointed up. I’ve still not managed to talk to Akira since this morning. After a couple of days, we were making slow progress at just doing nothing but healing dad’s arms. This morning I actually made Akira angry, he actually yelled at me for my stupidity for the stunt I pulled. Thinking back, I know I was at fault. The first night, I had to dispel those three soul parasites that I found in my soul space. Then due to Jessica and I only spending our mana slowly, we were not able to increase [Mana Depth]. Jessica had at least been smart about it and managed to still try and continue to work at [Mana Ripple]. I only found out about it after she had gotten ahead of me and it hurt.

My ego was hurt. I know I’m competitive and unfortunately was not thinking when I had the stupid idea this morning to try and use dump all of my mana at once to try and increase my [Mana Depth] and then hold it at the bottom to increase [Mana Ripple].

My hubris ended up with dad having a giant lump hanging off his elbow. Akira had been watching and then started to yell at me, he actually took a knife to get rid of the growth and then used what few mana embers he had collected to close that wound.

‘You could have killed him! I told you about this but why didn’t you listen!? He has dozens of smaller Dha’ror going through his body.’

It finally hit me that I could have just now accidentally added my father as a soul parasite. Akira had spent his mana embers mostly on finding and getting rid of those smaller growths. Something about magic can be additive or subtractive. To subtract is extremely expensive and if possible you should remove or cut away what you can or heal around the issue to stop the bleeding before pulling it out.

Now I’m here, facing off with Akira in the burned-down remnants of the forge. My segmented sword is pointing at him, but the tip is slowly sliding down, pointing more toward his feet while my arms burn. The weight after the intense drills makes them feel like dough. The apothecary was feeling too cramped with everyone inside and so we had gotten into the habit of practicing with the sword every time my mana was empty and as we waited for it to regenerate. We were forced from the back garden of the apothecary after a small mishap had me release the segment sword and trim all the plants on the right side of the little garden down to ankle height.

Mrs. Perdu was livid and had ordered us out, and now we were in the burned-down remnants of the forge. Akira was looking at me emotionlessly while holding two metal rods that were used to block and guide me through the exercises.

“That’s enough for now, rest and we’ll resume once you can hold the sword properly.”

I ended up just dropping the tip all the way into the ground and dragging it with me as I stepped back to sit down on what remained of the shin-high outer stone wall. Looking down and anywhere but at Akira as I try to catch my breath. I don’t look up as he comes over and sits down beside me before he leans back and lets out a sigh.

“I’m... Look... This was easier when I was thinking about it. I’m sorry if I went too far this morning in reprimanding you.” He starts off, struggling to find the right words.

“No. It was my fault and I could have killed my own father while doing something immature like trying to compete with Jess on healing. I was just growing frustrated with how slow the process was, despite what my grimoire has been telling me of late.”

“You’ve only started on this journey and I’ll be there to help you every step of the way. Despite what your grimoire might say, there is still a foundation that you need to work on. It is more to do with your understanding, wisdom, experience, and imagination or how you see the world or see the world that you don’t see. The closer you can perceive, the stronger things get. In time you’d be able to regrow a limb almost instantly, but right now, you don’t even know how many bones are in the wrist, and intent, visualization, and experience are everything when it comes to magic.”

“I’ll do better. I’m sorry and won’t make that mistake again. This is the second time in only a few days that things blew up in my face.” I say with a small chuckle, remembering the giant explosion that literally blew up in my face.

We just kind of stayed there, resting and looking up at the odd passing cloud in silence. I was enjoying the cool sensation of the breeze pulling at my ponytail before I finally pushed myself up and went back to my spot in the middle of the ruins.

“Okay, one last round before I should go back in to do some more healing.” I say as I steady my breathing and take what I hope is the proper pose. Akira gets up as well and approaches before he starts to poke at my feet with the rods he’s wielding and makes several tiny adjustments.

“Begin, from the top.” He says before he does a pair of slow but heavy blows that I’m not to stop but simply redirect. I redirect the left one with a backstep making sure to not trip over the rubble we are mock fighting in. I then proceed to redirect the second heavy blow, backing up a half step before I cut in with a thrust.

He takes a small hop backward and from my forward foot from the thrust I push hard to get back as far as I can, getting into a mid to long-range. I switch to a single hand and do a longer sweep and activate the segmented blade that extends out and whips a dozen razor-sharp blades at Akira. I focus on properly flicking my wrist as he’s been instructing with a slight pull. I also stop the trickle of mana that was allowing me some control over it, as that slows down the speed of the blade’s end considerably.

‘CRACK’

I flinch again at what sounds like thunder, losing sight of a third of the blades and simply trying to rely on the ‘feel’ of where they should or ought to be. Despite flinching, I consider it a huge success considering I had been letting go of the sword the first few times.

Akira somehow seemed to still know where the hidden blades were and redirected it up and over himself before he steps forward, removing the distance. I pull the end of the swing back and bring the bladed whip back into a sword and support it with my other hand to then receive Akira’s slow assault, each redirection becoming more difficult and the burn in my arms rising.

We manage another three repetitions before I’m too spent to continue and I can see a livid Zoe stomping down the street toward us.

“Let’s go get Jessica.” I say to Akira while waving at Zoe and motioning toward the apothecary.

When Zoe comes in from an obviously unsuccessful run at the guild she simply throws herself back into a rocking chair and almost falls out backward.

“You won’t believe what the guild is saying about our rewards!” She starts to lament.

“I think I can guess based off of your mood.” I manage to get in before the dam breaks.

“They refused to give us the finders fee for the Ursa den! Their reasoning!? ‘Because you technically did not find it, just got word of mouth of the general location.’” She starts to make a face and funny voice while trying to mock whomever it was that had delivered her the bad news.

“AND! Get this! They already gave the rewards to the silvers who used ‘OUR’ information to find everything! UGH!!!” she yelled while pouting and rocking herself in the chair and crossing her arms in a huff to tinkling laughter of Jessica at her antics.

“Well, not much we can do and we were trying to lay low based on what happened.” I try to get in before she continues.

“That’s just it, but now mage Flow wants to see us and strip us of our bronze rankings!”

“Wait!? What now!?”

“That’s what I said! I even pulled out my plate to show the extra stamps on the back about the Guars. That made him look like he ate something sour and just dismissed me as he said he’d need to discuss with the guild master about intra-guild politics.”

There was not much more that she knew about our pending status. So we went about doing my father’s next treatment and once our mana was depleted, we started to make our way over to the guild to see if we needed to defend our honor or any such thing.

The walk still had us getting odd looks from the townsfolk. However, we got to the guild without issue and despite the place being a ghost town, we did find someone who managed to point us to the back of the building outside where we had done our summoning ceremonies.

It looks like they had dug out a small arena with tiered steps where a couple of hundred people were currently gathering to watch some fight that was going on. We shuffled our way down some of the steps finding that it was between bouts and were able to find mage Flow and the guild master in a slightly nicer dug-out area with actual seats brought over instead of hardened earth.

“Excuse me! Mage Flow?” I called out trying to get his attention and despite the crowd, he was obviously ignoring us. Not talking to anyone, just simply looking off to the side, maybe pretending to be muttering to the guild master.

“Mage Flow? I heard you were thinking of undoing credits for requisitions from other guilds!?” I called out loud enough that our section quieted down and I got a lot of attention. Everyone around us was most likely guilders, and what I just said could impact many of their likelihoods.

With a suffering sigh from mage Flow and a slight chuckle from the guild master, who was making it obvious that this was not his problem. He turned to us with an impassive face, though his eyes did show significant hostility as soon as he laid eyes on Akira. His arm was in a sling and I could easily figure out why he might be making things more difficult for us.

“We are presently busy with the ranking tournament for leads and bronzes. So please, leave us to our job in grading and ranking the current performances.”

“And what about us finding the Ursa den? What about how you managed to have my father a requisitioner kidnapped? What about our home being torched in retribution? What about…” I started to list a bunch of dirty laundries, trying to see what would stick, which just had him snap at us.

“Shut up girl!” He yelled but quickly recoiled at the sound of Akira breaking the seal on his sword and moving it an inch or so out of its scabbard.

“There are procedures to these things and nothing can be done right now, in the grounds during a minor tournament!” He was getting agitated, his eyes angry, darting between me, Akira, and the murmuring in the small crowd around us.

“Well, no matter what, we fall into the bracket for this tournament. What are the rewards?” Zoe asked as a small gleam entered her eyes. I’ve seen that look whenever there was money to be made and she’s most likely thought of something.

“The winning fire mages will be promoted directly to the next quasi-level and given the first pick at restricted boards for the previous level.” He said with a thick smug pride that the guild master damped immediately.

“Jeremiah, you cannot be partial, the winners will be promoted, it is not limited to only fire mages.” The guild master stated as some dissatisfied grumblings occurred amongst the group.

“I misspoke, simply due to it always being fire mages who historically end up winning in the end.” The pride that he was exuding and his blatant mocking of other mage types made my teeth itchy.

We were interrupted by some boos and heckles as a group of three went onto the field. Based on the leader’s choice of a red robe and his badge pinned to his chest, he was an obvious fire mage, flanked by two burly boys that if I had to bet I’d bet they were both earth mages. The boos and heckling were coming due to a meek boy and girl pair, I recognize as being the other two plant mages in our initial class, stepping forward to simply forfeit, gaining the crowd’s ire.

I heard one person yell at them to get out of the guild if they are not even willing to try. Someone who more likely wanted to watch a public trouncing or humiliation of someone they thought was their lesser. It is at this time that I saw some people call over some people that were accepting money and handing out quickly scrawled notes. Looking at Zoe, she’s eyeing these people like a ravenous wolf and I think I understand where her mind is at.

“So, are we barred from participating as bronzes in this tournament?” I ask, which has mage Flow do a double take before looking over at Akira, some plan formulating in his head.

“The matter of being a bronze is not for here and now. The tournament allows for people to come together in groups of up to three, though your companion…”

“Familiar” I quickly corrected him.

“...Yes, well your familiar, doesn’t have a guild plate…”

“Not a problem, he’ll cheer us on!” I say, beaming from ear to ear as I’m formulating a plan. There’s a small squeak of protest from Jessica behind me, but for what I have planned this will be good.

“So are we barred from entering the tournament?”

“You’d be late in registering, but we often have some fire mages that often leave it to the last moment so that they can get in just at sundown.”

“GREAT! So who do we see to get registered?” I ask and he starts to grumble a bit before waving us towards a paige near the field where a bunch of people our age are seated in small groups.

I grab hold of Jessica’s hand and start to skip over to the paige while starting to hum a bit of a tune.

“I’ve got to go quickly see my uncle, he’ll disown me if he finds out I left him out of a guaranteed return. He’s also got all my money.” Zoe whispers into my ear before she turns around and starts to madly sprint away. Thinking about what funds I have on hand from our requisition another idea hits me and I yell out after her.

“Zoe! Does your uncle do loans!?” She turns around mid skip to give me a double thumbs up and I see her eyes sparkling as I’ve never seen them before. It then dawns on me that she’s going to first fleece everything she can out of her uncle before letting him know of the ‘sure thing’.

“Loans? Why do you want a loan?” Jessica asks, with clear confusion, not understanding fully what is going on and more preoccupied with us having to fight.

“I’m going to build my dad a new forge from the bets we are going to make on ourselves.” I whisper back to her.

“We’re betting on our group!? But Akira...” She asks with mild surprise.

“Group? No. We’re going to compete as individuals. As weak little ‘plant’ mages against a trio and we’re going to make a killing doing it! I’ll split half of whatever we can take out as a loan.” My grin is obviously not as infectious as I think it is, as Jessica manages to forget how to put her feet one in front of the other and briefly stumbles.

“Wait... Individually?” She asks, going slightly pale.

“Yes as individuals,” as I nod and point to the field where the earlier trio is fighting another similar trio with a single fire mage and a pair of earth mages.

On the field, they are maybe twenty meters apart. They’ve both made small earth walls to hide behind. One earth wall is waist high and the other is maybe a bit more than knee height. Both teams are crouched behind them, one earth mage each, looking completely spent, while the other is punching out and a small brick off the top of the fort is thrown out. The sad thing is that misjudged the distance and each team’s bricks are only managing to make it halfway before they hit the ground and then start to spin wildly out of control.

The fire mages are forming small fireballs and throwing them, but they are even worse, making it only a quarter of the distance before they lose their ability to stick together and fall apart into nothing in the air. The rock ‘throwers’ are quickly running out of strength and in that moment, one of the fire mages jumps over the knee-height wall and starts to run up to the other group, screaming obscenities. I suppose they are trying to frighten their opponents into submission. I see the opposing rock ‘thrower’ who was spent and unable to do anything, dig with his fingers a chunk of earth out of their fortification and hurl it at the mage with just raw strength. The fire mage boy is dumbfounded by the act and takes a chunk of earth to the chest and curls up on the ground wheezing.

I notice captain Davis call the match in favor of the defenders from the sidelines and send some people to help the exhausted mages off the field. In passing they also quickly repair the field by removing the previous fortifications making sure that the next match would not have an obvious advantage, also burying the dozens of bricks that they were weakly throwing between the two forts.

Grinning, I turn to Jessica.

“If they are all like either of those two groups, they are going to be in for a spanking.” I say, getting a small giggle from Jessica as her confidence is increasing after what we just watched. Violet starts to unwind from a small tiara that she had Jessica sporting and I see Akira gesture something to the little plant that causes her to become extremely excited as a dozen vines come up to form a cape and a pair of wicked antlers on Jess.

“What did you tell Violet?” I ask as Jessica goes red all the way up to her ears as she tries to pull her new antlers down and hide from the many inquiring gazes she’s getting from the crowd.

“She just wanted to know what made Jessica’s mood rapidly change. I then had to try and explain what a ‘spanking’ was, which... resulted in her current excitement.” Akira says while motioning to all of Jessica as she is now failing to wrangle a large headdress of horns and just hides her face in my shoulder, almost taking my eyes out in the process.

“Oh, this is going to be amazing.” I say while chuckling and patting a vine cape that Jessica is now forced to wear.

—-----------------

“Jeremiah, you shouldn’t get so worked up about that group.” The guild master says to Jeremiah Flow whose anger is obvious and just simmering below the surface.

“Maybe you forgot about my arm?” He says while shrugging the bad shoulder that is still in a sling.

“I’m reminded of something that Davis once said, ‘just make them someone else’s problem’. I’d recommend you heed those words. If not, then I’m going to let them be your problem as you keep trying to antagonize them.”

“Everything I’ve done is by the book!” He yells in protest.

“Even so, people do not enjoy having the system made to work against them. If I was you, I’d have not stepped in and pulled the requisition out from under them. There’s nothing left of William’s forge.”

“We don’t give out requisition rewards just because we have a bleeding heart for circumstances that others have managed to get themselves into.” Jeremiah counters.

“Even so, I think that interfering with them is a losing proposition, just take it as a hunch this old man has.”

“Bah, you worry too much, they even said that that whoreson of hers won’t participate. They’ll get laughed out and we cannot have bronzes being ridiculed by leads. Under the guild charter, we can revoke their plates for actions that can cause a severe loss of reputation.”

“Jeremiah, that’s used to disband or flag people as dark guilders that nobility have set their ire upon, in order for the entire guild to save face and distance ourselves from them.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll work.”

“I’m washing my hands of this. However, tread carefully my friend, go too far and I’ll be forced to use that exact same section of the charter to take your plate.” The guild master says, turning away and signifying that he’s done with the conversation. Turning to the next group of leads that are at least smart enough to get closer before erecting some paltry defenses. One group has at least included a water mage to make a small quagmire to prevent the other group from sending in another suicidal fire mage. Well, they’ve included them for now.

“Don’t worry, it’ll work.” Jeremiah says under his breath as he can be audibly heard grinding his teeth while staring at the back of Akira’s head. Almost as if knowing he’s been stared at, Akira turns around and fixes his gaze on Jeremiah, before he chuckles and uses a thumb to show slitting of a throat. He laughs and turns around to address his master’s questioning gaze. He tells her something and Jeremiah sees her and the queer girl who likes to show off with elaborate hairstyles look up at him and start to giggle before they return back watching the slow quagmire where nobody is making any progress in making the other party concede, as a vein in Jeremiah’s head threatens to burst.