“Draco.. How did you know that was a wind element footwork??” I asked.

“Because I felt the grace and smoothness of the wind that typically light based techniques won’t emit.” He replied.

“You are a first year just like me. How come your experiences with all the elements and your warrior techniques are of such a high level?!” I asked.

“Because… I am someone from the Maximillion family.” Draco admitted with a sheepish look on his face.

WHAT??!

The Maximillion family was a very influential family in Zeta. Their family consists of only elites. Most of them were also Legionnaires. The ones who weren’t serving in the LoP was because they chose not to. They passed the QE but chose to take up a ministerial position to govern the country towards a better future.

“No wonder! You had training since you were a kid?” I asked.

“Ever since I could remember. The first thing I remembered was learning martial arts…” He said, with a forlorn look in his eyes.

“That’s… Kinda sad.” I muttered as I looked at him.

He looked at me and nodded.

“I did not enjoy being forced to train everyday even though I knew it was for my own good.”

“I don’t know how that feels but I’m sure it must not have been easy.. Very well. Since you told me such a big secret about yourself, I’ll tell you one of my secrets too. Currently, only Chippy knows this but I’m willing to trust you. Please keep it to yourself.” I said in advanced.

Draco just looked at me and nodded unblinkingly.

It’s okay. I’ve watched him for five days already. He is a very serious, upright, and dependable person. He even told me his background. I can trust him.

“I have seven elemental affinities. All 7 of them.”

Draco’s mouth opened. As wide as it could. And the eyes, by some type of magic widened themselves into the same shape as the mouth as well. It was a priceless expression because Draco was usually so composed.

“You.. WHAT?!” He said.

“Shhhh quiet. Don’t let anyone hear us. Yes I have 7 elemental affinities. It isn’t something I had a choice in you know!” I said.

He slowly regained his composure.

“It might be a lot of work to gain insights into all 7 elements but if you have the talent and determination to do it.. You will become very strong in future Jinx.” He said to me seriously.

“I just want to make sure I get my foundations right first. You are my role model in terms of that. Look at how you just took on 19 people in a row today!” I said.

“Well, look at Chippy. He took all 19 in one go. Not even one by one. Even I’m not sure I could do that.” He replied humbly.

I looked at him and imagined what would happen if Draco took on all 19 of us at once.

He would still probably win who the hell am I kidding. And so, we went back to hall in Medial and had dinner. The five of us, reunited again.

-During dinner-

“Hey guys! I heard there’s a nice place to hang out just outside of school, about a 15 minute walk. Want to go over there and have a look after dinner?” Chippy chirped.

“I would love to, but I have class early in the morning tomorrow.” I groaned.

“How about we go tomorrow then? We’ll all be in school anyway!” Jenny suggested.

Angellllllll~

The five of us agreed that tomorrow after my lessons, we would go to what everyone called The Marketplace to have dinner and walk around. I have never been there but even I have heard of the largest and most happening marketplace in Zeta before even coming to this school.

I finished dinner and immediately went back to my room to train again. Today, I had more time on my plate so I tried to reach elemental recomposition level 2 for both my ki and mana sword. After trying yet for another 3 gruelling hours, I did not manage to do it. I could feel myself getting closer and closer to be able to reach it though so I did not despair. I just did what I did yesterday but today, I used a ki sword of lightning and a mana sword of earth.

Once the two swords touched, it was an entirely different feeling from when I used fire and wind the other day. This time, lightning was literally attacking the earth sword rapidly. The electric aura around the ki sword was becoming stronger and the earth aura around the mana sword was becoming weaker. It was the opposite of what happened the other day. Now, I had to quickly channel my mana to the earth sword in order to keep up with the lightning’s fervent attack.

I could sense the ability of lightning, to penetrate through the earth aura’s solid aura. In terms of defense capabilities, earth aura was definitely the top of it’s class with water in second place. However, lightning was able to easily pierce through the earth aura. This made me think though.

Why is this so?

We all learnt in magic theory class about the relationship between the elements. Fire is strong against wind, wind is strong against lightning, lightning is strong against earth, earth is strong against water, water is strong against fire. It was a cyclical relationship. However, why was lightning strong against earth?? When there is a storm, and lightning strikes the ground, it doesn’t pierce through the ground but merely gets dispersed around the area of the ground the lightning strike hit. Why then should lightning be strong against earth? Shouldn’t it be strong against water since water conducts electricity??

I sat there, brows furrowed in concentration as I had to maintain the heaven and earth technique. I tried sensing more into what was actually happening between the two swords. To my amazement, I managed to find what I think was a glimpse of an answer.

When the lightning aura strikes against the earth aura, it does not just strike it once. The moment there is contact, the lightning aura sends shockwaves into the earth aura, causing the surrounding aura to be shaken and less solid. This makes it easier for the lightning aura to penetrate through. It is not just a one time thrust into the earth’s solid defences, it was a strike which also resonates through the defences, shaking it’s stability around the attacked area. I could only tell because my mana was being steadily replenished towards not just the area of contact between the two swords but also other areas of the mana sword in close proximity to the lightning aura.

After holding it for about 3 minutes and 20 seconds now, I had expended all my energy. Mentally exhausted, I could only for the fifth time in a row, crash onto my bed, my brain begging me for rest.

-The next day-

I had to eat breakfast alone and rush to East Spine because our first ever spellblade lesson was here! This made me extremely excited because I am after all a spellblade. Not a warrior or mage. The rest were sleeping in so I would only see them later tonight.

I reached the magic training grounds and saw Professor Oak waiting there with about 10 other students already.

“Good Morning Prof Oak.” I greeted.

“Good Morning Jinx.” He reciprocated.

We waited for everyone to arrive which only took another 5 minutes and sure enough, Professor Oak would be the one conducting our first spellblade lesson personally.

“Alright everyone. I’m sure you all need no introduction to who I am already. I am just going to start class formally because time in this class is precious. In the past week, all of you here have taken 2 sessions of warrior trainings and 2 sessions of magician trainings. All of you here are quite balanced in terms of ki and mana so you should’ve been able to understand and cope with what is going on in class. However, learning about both of them separately will not help you become a better spellblade. Learning how to utilise both of them together, simultaneously in order to benefit the most from any given situation. This is the core of being a spellblade.” He began.

“Today, all of you will be learning how to use ki and mana simultaneously. This is the basics to becoming a better spellblade. You must be able to channel either energy freely within your own body before you are able to flexibly dictate what kind of attacks and defences you will be utilising. Now, I want all of you to try to channel some mana to your left hand and some ki to your right leg.” Professor Oak instructed.

I was used to channeling my two energies to two different parts of my body since I was familiar with the heaven and earth technique already so this step was rather simple for me. Even though it was not the two hands but one hand and one leg, it was still quite similar. I finished it instantly.

Professor Oak clearly looked at me in surprise and smiled. As expected, the other 19 students were having difficulty channeling their energy flows in completely different directions. Ki and mana were not compatible as well so you had to try to not merge them at all in order for high quality ki and mana to form in the respective body parts.

“Jinx, I think they’ll take awhile so I will give you the second step of the training first.” He said.

“Try to shape your ki into a circle in your right hand and shape your mana into a square on your left.” He said, smiling because he knew how difficult it was.

Since I had the heaven and earth technique, and I had already demonstrated my ability to cast 2 different spells at once in my magic class, I just did it again. Instantly.

Professor Oak’s jaw dropped. It was the exact same expression Draco had.

“The rest of you! Don’t slack off and continue practicing! I need to take Jinx somewhere.” Professor Oak said.

I could see jealous eyes staring at me, wondering how did I make it look so easy when it was probably insanely difficult for them.

“How can you do this so easily?” Professor Oak asked me.

Seiryu, can I tell Professor Oak about the training technique you taught me?

“Jinx, I think it’s better not to let him know. You cannot trust him 100% yet. This training technique is very rare and he might take down the notes needed to practice this technique and sell it which will be bad. I don’t want this legendary training technique to be widely practiced.” He said.

Understood.

“I tried multitasking and casting different spells and I was able to do it in magic class. As for channelling Ki and Mana, I experimented with it for a bit during my past 5 days because I thought it would be effective if I could use both physical and magical attacks at the same time.” I lied.

“Good insight. Good insight.” Professor Oak praised.

“Alright. I will now bring you to the lab I created just for spellblades to train. The prerequisite to entering this room is to complete the two steps I have just tasked the spellblades to do so you have earned your right. I will now take you to the room.”

Professor Oak led me through the familiar halls of the East spine and we went up to the 11th floor. On the 11th floor, there was a door that read “Spellblades only.”

“We’re here.” He said.

We entered the room together and I saw quite a normal classroom. However, it was something like the warrior’s classroom instead of a magician’s. It was just a circular room with no desks and chairs. There was a lone robot, sitting in the middle of the room.

“Jinx, meet Gears. Gears, meet Jinx.”

“Hello Jinx. My name is Gears. I am the guardian and tutor of this room.” Gears spoke to me in the most robotic voice you could ever imagine.

“Hello Gears, nice to meet you.” I said while smiling. I had a thing for robots and Gears looked like a very advanced one. He was about 1.5 meters tall which was quite short for human height but he had a very cubic head and body which made him look kinda cute. He also had squarish legs which had wheels embedded at the bottom of it.

“What training would you like to do today??” Gears asked.

“Give him ‘Assorted dishes’.” Professor Oak commanded.

“Yes sir.” Gears replied.

He immediately wheeled himself to a corner of the room with a hole in it and stuck his arm into the hole.

“Jinx, please stand in the centre of the room.”

I followed his instructions.

“Assorted Dishes is a training course which may result in injury. Please be careful. The objective of this training is to defend yourself. This magic room will shoot at you disc shaped plates which are either made up of ki or made up of mana. You need to discern which is it and protect yourself accordingly. The power behind each disc is put at an average level of 100. Dodging is not allowed for the purposes of this training. The rationale is for you to be able to put up either a ki-enhanced body or mana shield to protect yourself instantly, to enhance your battle reflexes and ability to shift ki and mana smoothly around.” He explained.

I nodded my head, slowly understanding what was expected of me.

“Please shout ‘Stop!’ whenever you wish to stop with the training. This training will automatically stop when you have blocked 100 dishes. We will begin in 3, 2,…”

WAIT WHAT WE’RE STARTING ALREADY?

I kept my eyes on high alert and immediately got ready to channel my ki and mana.

“1.” Gears finished.

5 dishes suddenly shot from different areas of the room straight towards me. They were either blue in colour or utterly transparent. I did not realise the ki dishes were utterly transparent until they hit me. Out of the 5 discs shot at me, I could only block two because I only saw two mana discs rushing towards me. I was hurt. One struck me on my leg, the other at my torso and I had one hit my shoulder blade.

“STOP STOP STOP!” I shouted.

Professor Oak just laughed.

Gears immediately wheeled himself to me.

“Commencing first aid.” He said in his ever-so-robotic voice.

Light mana was gathering on his hand and he immediately touched the places where my wounds were. I could feel myself recovering fast.

“Alright Jinx, you are to clear this training first before coming to me for more. I don’t expect you to clear this by today don’t worry. But here’s a small tip. You can’t rely on your eyes in a real battle. Find me at the training grounds where the rest are if you finish by today. If not, you can leave the room at 12pm because that is where lessons end.” He told me before he left the room.

I looked back at what just happened. Ki is something usually transparent so it had to be sensed. I was a moron for not turning on my ki aura to sense any incoming attacks. I realised that this room was 360 degrees as well so I was bound to have blind spots. In order to clear this challenge, I needed to be able to do two things.

1. Be able to sense where the attacks are coming from.

2. Cast the appropriate defences at the appropriate places instantly.

Okay, I think I know what to do.

First, I experimented with my sensory aura. Remember from the first day of magician training, I learnt how to sense using my mana my surroundings. It could sense any presence of mana within the boundary. I cast a ki sword in my right hand and tried to use mana in my left hand to sense the presence of the ki sword. When the mana touched ki, it definitely sensed something. Furthermore, I was able to immediately discern the nature of the energy. Mana has a very distinct feeling to it that is very different from Ki because they are completely different energies.

This meant that mana can sense the presence of both ki and mana. I tried directing my ki outwards, as a ki aura as well. Not surprisingly, ki was also able to detect both the presence of ki and mana. I visualised what I needed to do. I needed to cover my body with an aura that should spread out ideally 3 meters away from me to sense attacks incoming from every direction. Once I managed to sense the attack and what type it is, I would then be able to react.

This meant that the key aspect of this exercise was not to conjour the protective spells instantly. That was the easy part. The challenge was to maintain a “battle aura” that surrounds your body and expands outwards. This should require quite a substantial amount of mana. I was not sure if I was able to do it but the only way to know is to try.

I used a mixture of ki and mana to envelop my body. Using only one type of energy would deplete that quantity of energy more quickly and in battle, running out of one type of energy is extremely devastating. If I ran out of mana, I could not use magic attacks anymore. If I ran out of ki, I would not be able to use physical attacks anymore. Thus, I came to the conclusion to make my battle aura a mixture of both ki and mana.

I tried pushing it outwards from my body. It was quite easy for the first meter, still manageable for the second meter but once I reached the three meter mark, I was mentally and physically drained and I needed to exert myself quite a lot. I tried conjouring mana shields and ki reinforcing certain parts of my body on top of this. It was quite draining but I still could conjour the necessary shields and move more energy around my body. It seems like being able to move your ki and mana freely was one of the most fundamental aspects of fighting.

“Gears. Start again.” I commanded.

“Yes Jinx.”

Discs started flying out at me again but this time, I was ready for them. I could sense 4 discs which were all made of ki flying straight at me. I moved ki towards the parts of my body that were about to be hit to reinforce that area. The discs struck me but none of them left any damage. It was like a sort of ki armour. We learnt this during the first day of warrior class as well. The discs hit me but left no damage at all. They just vanished the moment they struck my ki armour. Then, more discs started to shoot out. Mana and ki, there was a huge mix of them and they flew around at random timings from random directions. I grit my teeth and tried to sense them all. Because of the mental exercise heaven and earth technique gave me everyday, I was quite good at multitasking and manipulating my energies around. The mental strain it gave me at first was no longer there. Furthermore, I just had to use either mana shield or ki reinforcement. There was no elaborate spatial or elemental recomposition I had to do on top of this. As a result, I managed to complete 100 discs from this attempt. However, my mana and ki were almost entirely drained. It took an insane amount of ki and mana to be able to maintain battle aura. I realised that this was another weakness I had to fix.

“Don’t worry Jinx. As you practice the heaven and earth technique, it will also result in increased quantity of ki and mana so your timing that you can prolong for battle aura will also increase.” Seiryu said as he sensed my worry.

“Thanks my little blue dragon.”

“I’m not little. But you’re welcome.”

The entire training lasted about 3 minutes which was about how long I could hold the heaven and earth technique for. I logically concluded that the quantity of mana I had to constantly exert for heaven and earth aura was similar to this exercise. In this exercise, quality of mana and ki was not needed but I needed to spread it out over a large area. For heaven and earth, it was the complete opposite. I needed to condense as much mana and ki as I could into the swords for the training to be effective and helpful. So both trainings amounted to the same amount of mana and ki constantly being depleted. I took the gains from this training and decided to go back to Professor Oak since it was only 10am.

Still some time before 12 noon hehe

As I went to the training ground, most of the students were already at the second stage of the task which was to conjour mana and ki as two separate shapes in two different body parts.

“Professor, are there any more training methods that Gear can help with?” I asked him as I approached him from the back.

“WHAT?!” Professor Oak jumped up into the air as I sneaked up on him from behind.

“You’ve finished??!” He asked, disbelief in his eyes.

“Yep.” I said, thankful in every sense of the word for the heaven and earth technique, a legendary technique indeed, to be able to help me do so many things while training me. A technique worthy of its name. You don’t know how rare it is for a training to be able to help you in so many aspects and to even simulate real-life combat.

“Well.. Let’s go back to Gears then. I will brief you on all the functions it has. Trust me I have spent months of effort on him and he’ll become your best friend for training.” Professor Oak took me back to Gears.