Damien jerked awake gasping for air. He took a moment to gather his surroundings. His thundering heartbeat slowed as he reminded his body that he was back in his room. With a curse, he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Melodramatic bastard,” Damien muttered, sliding out of bed and pulling his coat on. Sylph stepped out from within the training rooms and raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t look happy.”

“Companion troubles,” Damien said simply. “Any plans now that we’re done with finals?”

“We could get a celebratory dinner or something,” Sylph offered. She and Damien paused for a moment, then both chuckled.

“No, that doesn’t fit at all, does it?” Sylph asked. “Do you want to go find something and punch it?”

“That sounds like fun. You figured out a new spell recently, didn’t you?”

Sylph nodded. “I’m honestly not sure if it’s a spell as much as control over my body, but I figured something out alright.”

“Care to spar?” Damien asked. “I need to blow off some steam, and it’ll be nice to go all out without worrying about accidentally seriously injuring someone.”

“I was about to suggest the same thing,” Sylph said. “I’m curious to see how we stack up. Let’s go before anyone wakes up.”

Damien nodded. They slipped out of the room and headed down the mountain. The sun was still just barely starting to rise over the mountains. Hues of grey and orange danced across the school, giving it a melancholy tone.

They made their way through the streets and away from campus, heading towards the forest. It didn’t take long for them to arrive beside the large lake of healing water nestled within the trees.

Damien stretched out his legs, trying to limber them up after the tense dreams. “Are you planning anything this summer?”

“You know me,” Sylph said, smirking. “Always going home to hang out with my extensive family and friends.”

“Ha ha. I was just being polite,” Damien said with a small laugh. “I’ve been informed by Herald that I need to go hunting over summer. I was wondering if you wanted to join me.”

“Hunting? What, you’re going after the…” Sylph trailed off. “Can I talk openly?”

Henry?

“On it,” Henry said, already sliding into Damien’s shadow. A dark pulse went out around them, enveloping the clearing before fading away.

“You’re good to talk now,” Damien said.

“Thanks. You’re going after the Corruption Seeds, then?”

“Maybe,” Damien said. “I’ll be honest, Sylph. I don’t know who the good guys are. Henry and Herald seem to think they are, and the Corruption Seed did try to kill us. That being said, Herald has actually killed me, so he’s not winning in that regard. The Corruption could be sent to keep the Void from destroying the Mortal Plane. I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Probably by seeking both out and seeing which one tries harder to kill me,” Damien admitted. “Interested in coming along?”

“Sounds fun. Better than sitting around and training in the woods for a few months,” Sylph said, rolling her shoulders and dropping into a fighting stance. “But let’s find out if you’re even strong enough to go out. If you can’t hold your own against me, you aren’t going to stand a chance against the Void or the Corruption.”

“I was about to say the same to you,” Damien said, drawing Ether into his core. “I’m eager to see that new spell of yours.”

“We’ll see if you’re good enough to make me use it,” Sylph said, giving him a cocky smirk. She dashed forward, a dark blade forming in her hand.

Damien Warp Stepped forward, appearing behind her. He formed two gravity spheres in the air and tossed them at her back. She twisted out of the way, avoiding the brunt of the magic and easily regaining her balance after the spells detonated.

He slapped his palm against the dirt, enlarging a grain into a pillar as Sylph dashed towards him again. Her blade flashed and Damien’s eyes widened slightly. He leapt back as she cut clean through the pillar, dispersing the Ether and turning it back into a single grain.

Wind from the strike passed by Damien’s nose. He Warp Stepped again, appearing on the other side of the clearing.

“Careful with that thing! Are you trying to kill me?”

“Do you think the Corruption is going to play nice?” Sylph asked, forming a dagger in her off hand. “You aren’t going all out yet – I hope. If you can’t do better than that, I’m going to be pretty disappointed.”

Damien grunted. He traced a rune in the air and cast Devour. The dark circle sprang to life just as Sylph threw the dagger. His spell swallowed hers and vanished as Damien dismissed it.

“I don’t see you trying that hard either,” Damien pointed out. He could feel the blood pumping through his body. “Let’s step it up.”

“I wanted to give you a chance to show off your new stuff before I spanked you,” Sylph said, giving him a wicked grin. “But, if you’re so ready to see what I’m capable of, I’ll oblige.”

Her sword vanished. Damien blinked as Sylph’s grin faded. She changed her stance, leaning forward slightly as her skin rippled. Two scythe-like blades pushed free of her forearms. Similar protrusions emerged from her shins.

Before Damien could fully process the change, Sylph exploded forwards. She was upon him within a second. He barely had time to cast Warp Step before her blades carved through the space where he’d been standing.

Sylph was already shooting towards him by the time he reformed. Damien blinked across the clearing again. She’d gotten significantly faster, and judging by how quickly she was reacting to his movements, her brain was working overtime as well.

Henry? This is still Sylph, right? Not the Corruption?

“It’s her,” Henry confirmed. Damien warped across the clearing to avoid another attack, but she still managed to draw a thin line of blood across his cheek. “And she’s toying with you. Do something. You’re embarrassing me.”

Damien rolled his eyes. That nearly cost him a limb as Sylph appeared before him, her twin arm blades slicing towards his side. He hardened his mage armor and the blow thudded harmlessly into his arm.

He shifted, driving a palm into her stomach. Sylph hopped backwards with the strike, landing easily on the tips of her toes a few feet away from him. Damien kicked a gravity sphere towards her, forcing the girl to dance out of the way.

Damien channeled more Ether into his palms, forming twin gravity drills and launching them at Sylph. They were faster than the gravity spheres, but still no match for her speed. She easily dashed to the side, avoiding both attacks before making a beeline towards him once again.

I’m gonna improvise.

“Go ahead,” Henry said as Damien Warp Stepped once more, putting more distance between himself and Sylph. “You’ve gotten enough experience with gravity sphere to toy around with it. Don’t fiddle with the other spells, though.”

Damien drew more Ether into his hands, forming another gravity sphere. However, instead of throwing it, he wrapped it with mental energy and locked it in place. He hopped back as Sylph appeared before him and allowed the spell to go off.

Her eyes widened as the sphere bloomed before her, detonating before she could fully dodge it. Several bones in her arm snapped and she was pulled to the side. She twisted midair, landing on her feet and blurring towards Damien without an ounce of hesitation.

He raised an arm, hardening his armor and blocking a strike from her good hand. Her injured limb cracked again, yanking itself back into place.

Damien blinked to the other side of the clearing as her blades passed through the air where he’d been standing. “Is your arm healed already?”

Sylph paused, turning it over and flexing her fingers. “Yup.”

“I wonder just how much you can heal from at once,” Damien said. He blinked out of the way as Sylph lunged at him.

“And I wonder when you’ll run out of Ether. It’s just not fair.”

Damien smirked. He formed two more gravity spheres and tossed them at her, following them up with a gravity drill for good measure. She dodged all three of the attacks and made a beeline towards him.

He blinked across the arena multiple times, pausing for a moment to leave a gravity sphere behind. It was far harder than he’d expected to keep that much mental energy active at once, and one of his five traps detonated harmlessly.

Sylph shot towards him again. If possible, it almost felt as if she was faster. Damien’s eyes narrowed as he put all his focus into the fight. He blocked a strike with a mage armor protected arm, then shoved Sylph backwards into one of the gravity spheres.

She sprung into the air, flipping backwards to avoid touching the center of the spell and landing safely on the ground behind it. Before she could counterattack, Damien cast expand on the dirt through his feet.

A pillar erupted beneath him at an angle, catapulting him through the air towards Sylph. She smirked and launched herself towards him, her blades flashing in the morning light. Damien Warp Stepped, tumbling onto the ground with a grunt.

He hopped to his feet, staggering out of the way as Sylph’s blades flashed past his side once more. Damien was pretty sure she was avoiding aiming for his head, which he was glad for. He didn’t have any mage armor there, and he was pretty sure that the healing waters of the lake wouldn’t do much for decapitation.

“Is that it?” Sylph asked, pausing for a moment. Damien was breathing heavily, but she didn’t look much more than slightly winded. “You’ve actually improved a lot. Good job.”

“We’re still sparring,” Damien said, detonating one of the gravity spheres that he’d left on the field near her. Sylph dodged out of it, only to jump straight into the other one. The second spell caught her foot.

A dozen cracks filled the air, but no scream of pain accompanied them. Sylph lunged towards him with her good leg. He Warp Stepped to the side, a small headache starting to form at the back of his mind.

Sylph’s foot twisted and snapped back into position. She put it on the ground and put a little weight on it. It held. Damien quickly cast enlarge on the ground before him several times, holding it in place with his mental energy once more.

The strain was almost too much for him. If the spell hadn’t been relatively weak, he would have lost control of it almost instantly. Luckily, he didn’t have to hold it long. Sylph appeared before him, bringing both of her blades down towards his chest.

Damien released every single enlarge spell while simultaneously hardening his mage armor. Sylph’s strikes rang harmlessly off him as an earthen dome formed of multiple different pillars sprung up around them, blocking out most of the light.

Sylph kicked at his side, but Damien blinked behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach, a gravity sphere forming in both of them.

“I win,” Damien said through gasps for air. Something cold pressed against his neck. He nearly choked on his saliva.

Sylph’s arm had twisted completely backwards, as if her joints had decided that range of motion was more of a suggestion than a requirement. The blade on her forearm rested on his shoulder, and she was one sharp movement from cutting his head off.

“I think it might be a tie,” Sylph said.

“Since when could you bend your arms like that?”

“Just about five seconds ago, I think,” Sylph said, removing her arm from his neck. The blade sank back into her forearm. Damien let go of her waist and the enlarge spells vanished around them.

He tossed the gravity sphere to the side where it detonated harmlessly, then flopped to the ground to catch his breath. Sylph sat down beside him.

“How can you not be at least a little flustered?” Damien complained. “Don’t you ever get tired?”

“Is the person who has unlimited Ether really complaining right now?” Sylph asked, prodding Damien in the stomach.

“It’s not unlimited. I was getting a bit low there.”

“After you were teleporting around the clearing for a good minute or two. How many people can do that?”

“I don’t want to hear about being unique from the girl that can make her limbs bend in any direction and sprout swords out of her limbs.”

Sylph snorted. “That’s technically Henry’s fault, so the blame passes onto you by association.”

Damien decided he was too out of breath to come up with a good response, so he graciously conceded defeat by grunting and pointedly looking up at the sky and away from Sylph.

“So, what did you think?” Sylph asked after a moment. Her confident tone had weakened just a little, revealing the barest amount of uncertainty underneath it.

“Think? About what?” Damien asked.

“The whole knife-arm thing.”

“Well, it’s more of a full body change, isn’t it?” Damien asked after a moment. “You didn’t just turn pokey. You were thinking and moving way faster than normal too.”

Sylph didn’t respond, clearly waiting for something else.

“It seems really strong,” Damien continued. “I’m pretty sure you were going at least a little easy on me. If you’d aimed for my neck instead of my chest or were just a bit faster, you probably would have gotten me.”

“You could have done one of those huge gravity spheres right in front of yourself,” Sylph said. “That would have seriously injured me, even with the improved healing. We were sparring, not trying to kill each other.”

“True,” Damien said. “But I’m not sure what else to say. It’s honestly awesome, although bending your arms like that looks painful. Why do you ask?”

“No reason. I was just curious,” Sylph said, letting out a small laugh. “And it is a little painful, although it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. My training involved fighting through pain, so I suppose this technique is pretty fitting for me.”

She sat up and rose to her feet, offering a helping hand down to Damien. He accepted it and Sylph pulled him to his feet. A large leaf had attached itself to his shoulder while he had been laying on the ground.

Sylph brushed it off his shoulder with a smirk. “So, did I pass the evaluation?”

“As much as I did,” Damien said. “And I’m sure this was a great representation of how our fights will go against the Corruption or Void. Two Year One students versus ancient entities that have existed for millennia. What could go wrong?”