“Ready!’

Maiz whirled his staff above his head. The motion felt slightly awkward, but he was careful to keep the weapon covering his body even as he prepared to strike. That, Lila had explained to him, was the key to using the staff. Offense and defense were virtually the same thing. He snapped the weapon down in a tight arc, controlled but quick. His opponent dodged with ease, but he’d been expecting that. He sidestepped as well, creating some space, but not enough to stop him from pressing the attack.

But his move prompted an almost instant reaction, a step and jab from his opponent. His head jerked to the side, and his balance was momentarily thrown off as his skill dodged the blow. He wasted no time though, retreating to create space and getting his weapon between him and his opponent. He began spinning the staff faster and faster to mount a defense. He considered using an Illusion Strike but discarded the idea. Not a good idea against this particular opponent. Instead he waited.

His opponent considered a moment, then simply stood, content to wait along with him. Hells. He kept up the spinning, but began to advance. He couldn’t continue indefinitely; he had to end this.

The attack he chose was somewhat plausible, even if it seemed rather suspicious. Flicker Strike. He ended his twirling the moment he was in range, instead delivering a wide, sweeping blow as he stepped forward again. His opponent moved backwards and out of the staff’s arc even as Maiz took another step. Then his weapon changed its momentum at an improbable speed, snapping into an upward blow aimed at his opponent’s chin. The staff barely grazed the opponent’s skin as she leaned backwards with ridiculous grace. But the move overbalanced her, and she fell to the ground. Perfect.

Maiz pounced, feet actually leaving the air as he prepared to deliver the final blow. His staff descended before he even landed, aimed at his opponent’s head. Maiz saw a flash of movement, and his body instantly tried to twist away. In the air, it did nothing. His opponent, already well clear of his staff, scissored her legs, entangling them with his own. Off-balance at the moment of landing, he fell and she rose at the same time. Maiz attempted his own twisting maneuver at the same time, but she sidestepped it easily, then lashed with a foot on a seemingly random spot on his thigh. His entire leg went instantly numb, and he stopped struggling in resignation.

“Yield.”

“Nice one Maiz!”

Maiz pushed himself to a sitting position awkwardly, leg still immobile, and flashed a slightly-tired smile at the speaker.

“Thanks,” he said between heavy breaths. He always seemed his most exhausted right after a match. And after he ran out of stamina, of course. “So you and Lila next?”

Hugan smiled at him, then at his erstwhile opponent. Lila stood over Maiz, looking slightly annoyed.

“Are you going to get sand all over my tunic as well?” She attempting to brush away said sand, but as most of it was on the back of her garment, she was having little success.

“Here, let me help you.” Ziya stepped forward, then began brushing away the sand to Lila’s thanks.

“Um, Ziya?” Maiz looked up at the Cleric, though it was difficult to twist all the way around. His leg remained limp and weighed him down like an anchor.

“Yes?” Ziya spoke in her soft voice as she intently rubbed away the sand.

“Could you, uh, Heal me?”

“Wait a moment.”

Maiz sighed, allowing himself to fall back to the ground and simply breathing. The light of the torches played across his closed eyelids, breaking up the blackness with intermittent shades of deep red. He replayed the fight in his head, thinking about what he could have done better. It’s Massahn-touched difficult to get a hit in. Still, he’d nearly caught her with the Flicker Strike, even if he hadn’t managed to deliver the final blow.

Lila chuckled, prompting Maiz to open his eyes. He decided against attempting to sit up again, instead just staring up at the starry sky.

“What?” He tried hard to keep his voice from being bitter, though it still rankled that he’d never managed to even touch Lila once in the past two weeks of daily sparring.

“It’s like fighting the bug-monsters with you. Fix one problem and new one shows up the next minute.” She laughed again. “Nice job on your aim, and you did well on not overcommitting up until the end. Then you decided to… hop attack.” She snorted out another laugh.

Maiz felt his cheeks heat up slightly. ‘Uh, thanks? What’s the problem with the last attack?”

At this, Hugan spoke up. “I wouldn’t jump in a fight, Maiz. It’s bad for your base. Your, uh, balance I guess.”

“Right. Unless you have a really specific skill, it just leaves you open to a counterattack.” Lila’s mirth faded from her tone as she settled in to her instructor role. “You did a great job defending yourself at the beginning, but when you jump, you lose control of your movement. It doesn’t even cover ground that much faster. Why would you do it?”

Maiz didn’t answer, ‘because I read it in stories.’ There was something intoxicating about having the attributes of a combatant, even if he was only a Novice. He had an almost irresistible urge to copy the battles he’d imagined throughout his childhood now, releasing flurries of blows like the Quicksilver Slasher Dane, or shout his spells into the night like Juris the Illuminator. Or, well, leap at his enemies like Garthen the Beast-Hearted. Every day he spent in this place, and especially with Ziya and Lila, the more of his childhood dreams he lost to the harsh light of reality. Of course, he was also improving at an enormous rate, but it was a little sad to say goodbye to those daydreams just when he thought they’d come to fruition.

Thinking of his childhood brought Maiz thoughts of his father, who had read to him every night when he was young. In the years before everything changed, he would occasionally save a book for Maiz if he thought Maiz would like it. He’d never been wrong. After all, each one had been the story of a hero, whether the clever trickster, the virtuous farmboy, or… the God-Chosen. It was strange, the little ironies that Hudith sent your way.

“Heal.”

After the power suffusing Maiz had dissipated, he hopped to his feet, feeling rejuvenated. He’d tried figuring out the Heal spell several times, but it seemed insanely complicated, so much so that Maiz wondered how Ziya was even able to cast it. Not only was the mana a strange white-gold he’d never seen anywhere else, it interacted with the body in what seemed like dozens of locations at once, forming different types of patterns which had some sort of effect that Maiz couldn’t discern. Even more importantly, when Maiz had looked at the spell again, it was completely different, the only constant being the color of the mana. None of the patterns, locations, or results seemed the same at all. Maiz doubted any human’s ability to cast such a spell, much less his own.

A bit of casual conversation with Ziya had revealed the answer. It was simple, really. Ziya didn’t truly cast the spell. She simply allowed the gods to channel it through her. The explanation had seemed esoteric to Maiz at first--which didn’t escape him as rather funny considering the subject matter--but then he had remembered the description of The Mask. He had concluded that this must have been the divine guidance the ability spoke of. Apparently, Holy Magic worked through the gods, not the people who actually used its spells. Unfortunately, that meant that Maiz wouldn’t be adding ‘Cleric’ to his list of titles any time soon.

Maiz steeped the side, glorying a little in the ease of his movements. He still hadn’t quite acclimatized to his unnatural speed, grace, and strength, though he was certainly better than he had been two weeks ago. He settled in to watch as Hugan and Lila faced each other.

They began almost immediately, though Lila seemed slightly tired from her earlier fight. Neither of them considered that much of an issue, considering the large difference in experience and rank between them. That was offset a little by Hugan’s natural talent, which he showcased as he almost immediately as he feinted a bash with his shield, then immediately flanked Lila, trapping her with his wooden sword and bearing her to the ground.

How did he do that? Maiz didn’t think Hugan should have been able to outmaneuver Lila so easily, or at all. He was slower than even Maiz, much less the Warrior-Monk. Yet his question was answered in part, as Lila immediately hit Hugan’s sword arm in the shoulder, taking advantage of the close distance to use her attacks. Maiz saw Hugan’s grip on the sword weaken, but he didn’t let go. And he was on top of Lila, which certainly meant he had the upper hand. He raised his sword lethargically, Lila’s attack clearly having had some sort of effect. But Lila wriggled out from under his shield even as he did so, swiftly getting her legs between the Warden and herself and pushing. The effect was simply to drive Lila away from Hugan, the young man either too heavy or the sand too loose to allow Lila purchase. Still, she used the move to return to her feet easily enough, with a rueful grin on her face. Apparently her plan, whatever it had been, had failed.

Once Hugan got back to his own feet, the fight drew to a close relatively quickly. Lila kept dancing around his occasional strike, either Fast Feet or her own ability making the moves trivial. She would attack intermittently as well, each time aiming for one of her ‘weak points’ as she called them. Used on Maiz, they often paralyzed him completely. Against Hugan, perhaps due to his Shield Stance or some other skill, they only slowed him down at first. Still, that meant it was only a matter of time before he went down.

How does she do that? Maiz watched Lila fight with apparent ease. She trained longer than either he or Hugan each night, despite being unable to advance due to her lack of a feat. Her dedication was admirable, but it also meant she must have been getting only a few hours of rest each night. And when she’d sat with him, Hugan, and Ziya for dinner, she hadn’t eaten a bite. It must be a skill. But if it was, it wasn’t something his Mana Sense could see. Lila looked the same as she always did, the pale glow of her diffuse mana illuminating her body. Hugan looked similar, though his glow seemed… solid somehow, compared with Lila’s. And of course, Ziya had a pool of white mana flaring brightly at the base of her skull like every other mage Maiz had seen.

Whatever her method, Maiz envied Lila her ability to train for so long. He was confident he could get at least close to rank 15 in the next run, considering all the training he’d been doing. But there was no way he could go further, considering his own feat that he had yet to accomplish. Completing the Scholar feat had been a step, but he had a good deal of work ahead before he could get to Apprentice. And Maiz had a strange feeling. Somehow, it seemed like what Lord Viselys had said at their first meeting, that war would break out around Caelos, was more pressing than before. As if, whatever houses or cities or countries were preparing to fight, they were on the precipice of dealing the first blow.

Whatever lay ahead, Maiz knew what he had to do. He had to get stronger, Not just for Viselys’s task, but in order to survive. After all, he knew from experience what happened to the weak when the strong and the powerful took an interest in them. He wouldn’t let that happen to him again.