The world slowed once more for a single moment, showing another one of Deitre’s minuscule openings. Derb knew they were there to be used but he still didn’t have a clear moment of attack. He let the swing miss on purpose, instead using this spinning momentum to add to his kick. It was a new move he’d been learning lately but it was caught with a hand. Deitre looked disappointed. “Don’t use anything that flashy again or you’ll die in a real battle.” He pushed on his foot slightly and made him fall, placing his sword on Derb’s neck.

“Take a breather, I’m thinking of increasing the training so you’ll need to be at your peak.” Derb nodded, he wondered why the training had been so lenient today, guess he found his answer. He stretched his tired arms, not really in need of any healing. Tiffany had been in the background for an hour now probably bored out of her mind, though. So he decided to accompany her. She was sitting while reading a book, probably something about healing but he wouldn’t ask.

It’d been about a month since teacher Gerald had gone missing. He told them almost nothing about his departure and it had started to worry Derb. Everyone else seemed fine with it but it just didn’t sit well with him. He was the man that gave him this huge opportunity and he’d hate if anything happened to him. He lied down while subconsciously asking Connor to refill him. It had become a habit lately to have him overfill him while meditating, the rush of mana feeling like an incredible high. At least, that’s what he assumed a high would feel like.

He meditated for a bit more before Deitre called him over once more. He wasn’t holding the sword any longer, instead of using the mighty Warhammer he’d seen in the beginning. Derb wasn’t scared, instead, he felt excited. He was finally able to see Deitre’s true fighting form. He could only imagine the things he’d learn from it. Deitre himself was glad to see the wild grin on his student’s face. Finally, the little runt was growing a taste for the sword.

“Get ready, this is an experience of a lifetime. Child.” Derb nodded, gathering every bit of strength to send a full attack. He couldn’t afford to be on the backend this time, he knew too well this aggressive style favored the aggressor. He ran first, not waiting for his instructor to start. With a spinning leap, he aimed at the brunt of his teacher’s head, who himself spun the hummer in place and met the sword in a huge crash. With that deafening noise, the battle had begun.

With a small movement, he leashed the rest of his pack together. Gerald wiped the sweat from his forehead. Not using strengthening magic with his frail body was tiring but it provided a sense of satisfaction that he didn’t have normally. The trip had been resourceful, and he met plenty of friends and discussed their lives. He’d finish what he set out to do since the first week but complications arose and he decided to set things up for the future.

He sighed, being powerful sure had its tiresome quirks. He didn’t think things would turn out like this. The strength spell was set again, the backpack much too heavy to carry alone. The ritual covered in gold and blood glowed and crackled. Whirring with the energy needed to cross thousands of miles. He wondered how much his student had grown, how many powerful spells had he’d learned in the time he was gone? With the library at his disposal, he could have at least learned 6 new spells, even without his help.

He stepped through, landing directly in front of his wonderful home. It looked just like he left it, and for that, he felt relieved. He couldn’t expect anything good from leaving that kid alone. He breathed in the clean air, finally free from that smoggy city, and reached for the door. That’s when he heard the crash. The earth rumbled along with it, shaking him to the point where he had to float. Was the village being attacked? He flew over to the noise, he had to make sure nobody was getting hurt in the crossfire. Deitre could deal with the enemies, only he had the versatility to save others, however.

He finally made it to the commotion only to find something even more shocking. Deitre looked as if he was trying to kill his student! He was about to step in until he saw his precious student Tiffany healing him as he went. It was amazing how the boy held his own against the barrage, even though they obviously weren’t full strength. The pride shifted to Tiffany as he saw a wound close up almost as fast as it opened. What had happened in the last month to have that kind of explosive growth!?

He didn’t want to disturb, merely watching intently at both his students as they fought. If they were good enough he might have had to give them better gifts. “These children… their growth is astounding.” He muttered, his eyes glued to the fight, it looked as if it was about to get interesting.

“Ah! Whoah!” Derb barely dodged the massive strikes aimed at his body. He lurched forward and used that one moment to jump off the back of Deitre’s arm, using the rabbit spell in the process. The sword was brought back just in time to block a mighty hit aimed right at his abdomen. The rush of adrenaline allowed him to pierce the sword into the ground, stopping the club barely. He activated snake eyes just in time to dodge a fist, bringing one back.

He realized he was just copying Deitre word for word, but his skinny stature had proven useful. He gripped his sword with one hand and used it to stab one of Deitre’s feet, a slight shift in stance causing the attempt to be useless. The attempt had proven fatal as he caught a backhanded fist from Deitre. Luckily the rabbit was turned on just in time for him to roll with the hit, landing gracefully a few feet away.

He realized underhanded tactics were proving fruitless, Deitre was much more experienced in dirty fighting than him. If he wanted to win he’d have to pull out all his skill. With a deep breath he prepared himself, crouching low and tight. Deitre saw this and frowned, he knew what the kid was going to attempt, but he didn’t expect him to have the balls to do it. With an exhale, Derb rushed forward, the sword hidden behind him.

Deitre had no choice but to follow along. He swung the Warhammer horizontally, thinking he’d dodge to the side. He didn’t, instead choosing to almost hit the ground with a kneeling crouch, spinning backward with the sword on his back. The sword flew outwards with great force and almost hit Deitre, but he was ready. The man swung his hammer at the kid, knowing this was going to be the most important moment for Derb.

He saw the kid’s eyes flash with excitement and he smiled, knowing this was gonna hurt. Derb launched outwards the world moving perfectly still, he stood on the giant hammer, aiming the sword directly at his instructor’s head. The man tried to shift but Derb had that covered with his weight, using the boar to make himself heavier. The thrill of the fight had coated his sword in a purple aura. He wanted to win, and instinct told him to slather his sword in that power. Even as his teacher dropped the mace and raised his arm to block the shot he didn’t falter.

This was victory! This was exciting! This was to fight! All those thoughts went through his mind as the sword cut through the forearm, sinking only an inch deep before stopping... “What?” He was so surprised he forgot the mace was falling, tumbling down with a gratifying noise of flesh, sword, and hammer hitting each other. “What was that!? You didn’t tell me you were made of steel, man...”

His arm had snapped under the weight of the great hammer and his leg was eviscerated by his sword but he stood up as if nothing had happened to him. For the past week this had been casual for him, especially since Deitre had a smaller weapon. He sometimes felt like the 7 foot 600-pound man instead of Deitre, considering how nimble that damn blacksmith was. The tear in his thigh was already healing as Tiffany was working overtime, gasping at the effort required.

The blacksmith looked at him and patted his head with too much force. “If I wasn’t so sturdy then my head would have been on the floor.” He looked at the gushing wound on his arm, the same one he’d used on Derb, unfortunately for him. “Gah! I’m covered in your blood now… that sounds so gross out loud.” The blacksmith just laughed at the complaint. The kid was covered in mud, blood, and even some other fluids that should have never left the body.

“I’m very proud of you, kid.” The blacksmith went forward and gave Deitre a hug, which would have crushed him if he didn’t activate the boar spell in time. “Guh… thank you for teaching me Deitre. Please let go now, I'm almost out of mana.” The blacksmith kept going even as the spell turned off. He’d have been crushed was it not for the familiar voice coming from above. “HAHA! Good job, boy! I thought for sure I'd have to put you back together.”

He saw his teacher fall from the sky, gently landing beside a weary Tiffany. A single tap on her shoulders and she looked back to normal. “Both of you have grown a lot in the time I’ve been gone. Though… I'm worried one of you has been slacking off in the magic department.” He stared at Derb, who rushed to hide behind Deitre, hoping he’d back him up on this. “He had no teacher while you were gone, how could he learn?” He said, pushing Derb behind him. “Not his fault he’d train more efficiently while you were gone.

The old man narrowed his eyes at the scene. The blacksmith who spent so much time holed away and cranky was stepping up to him now? “He had a library of books to learn. Besides, I spent all my time away trying to make something for him, you know.” They stared at each other for a few more moments before they laughed. They hugged and promised to talk about the past month before addressing the two. “How did you grow so much in so little time, my precious student.” He put his hand on Tiffany’s shoulder, both sad and happy at how much the child had grown up.

“Derb got into a lot of problems while you were gone. A lot of problems.” Derb pushed himself in front of her before she could slander his name any longer. “It was just training! Just training… Everything was taken care of and I was perfectly safe the whole time.” He explained, trying his best not to feel his teacher’s wrath. All he got was a scoff, however. “If that was true then I wouldn’t have seen that fight just now, if I wasn’t there messing up would have turned you into a fine paste. Haha!”

Tiffany didn’t find this so funny. “What!? Deitre! I can’t heal that!.” He just grinned at the girl’s remark. “Relax lad, I felt your teacher arrive the moment he appeared. I took this moment to teach this brat a lesson. You saw him hit me, right? I think he might be strong enough to not embarrass us too much.” Derb could sense the backhanded comment but let it slide, he did just sink a sword into him. Man, that felt nice to do.

“I saw, and I didn't expect such explosive growth, what have you been doing to him these past few weeks, Deitre...” Deitre just looked away, “Nothing too bad I swear, nothing he didn’t want. I might have gotten carried away a bit thanks to your healer but… I might have gone too far.” He kept digging himself into a bigger hole, Derb forgot how honest Deitre was. He had to step in soon or they’d both be in trouble.

“We were just going a little tougher than usual because the earlier training got too easy. It was nothing that I couldn't handle, or that Tiffany couldn’t just… put back together?” Crap, when did he become so bad at this? “Not that I'd need to be put back together… haha.” Even Tiffany was facepalming at his attempt, though Gerald Didn’t look all that mad. “As long as you weren’t against it, Deitre has a habit of… breaking people. What did they call you back then? The lonely flame? Quite a weird name for a general, don’t you two think?”

Neither was touching that one, Deitre’s glare was reason to leave that well alone. The silence was dispelled when Gerald cleared his throat, “Well, let’s go inside. I have gifts for everyone, something to help with your progression.” Derb and Tiff looked at each other, visibly excited at what they would gain. Derb assumed he’d get robes, hopefully ones that didn’t fall apart as easily as the ones he used. He’d considered fighting clothless until Deitre had stopped aiming for his lower body.

“You’re not the only one with a present for the boy. I'll be back by sundown, get ready for a surprise. Both you and the old man.” With that Deitre went on his way. Leaving the three to get reacquainted. “You don’t think he also got something for me?” Tiffany asked, getting a pitying look from both of them. “Let’s just go inside… I’m sure Hannah is waiting for us.” Derb said, not looking at the girl. Tiffany huffed at the obvious favoritism. “It could happen, you know. I’m a very charming person!” Derb walked faster while his teacher teleported, leaving the poor girl behind.

“I’m very charming...”