“Why are so many people using weapons?” Elach asked, gesturing at a group of four people going through spear forms, almost clear Issi rising off of them in a pattern like coin-sized snowflakes. “Can they even compete with Issi?”

Arvay raised an eyebrow at Elach. “Most of those weapons are enchanted. They work with your Issi, not beside it. Shouldn’t you know this?”

“I’m new to all this, and I don’t have my master here to help.” Elach said, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. “So I don’t know as much as I should.”

“Well, think of your Issi as a fist.” Hugil said, raising his hand and balling it up. “A weapon is like a gauntlet; you can’t punch the exact same way, and maybe not as quick, but it makes everything you could do hurt a whole lot more. Or you could grab a roll of coins and hold it in your fist, barely changing anything but making your punch a little heavier. Some people’s Issi works better with a gauntlet, some with their bare fists, and some with a roll of coins.”

Hugil paused, then added; “Obviously it’s not that simple, though. There are a lot of different weapons, and a lot of enchantments to put on those weapons. Some people will even change their entire Issi base if they somehow get a sacred arm tier weapon.”

“Aren’t the weapons that manifest called mythical weapons?” Elach asked, thinking back on what he’d learned in school. When that came back with nothing, he thought of all the storybooks he’d read. He was pretty sure he was right, and that none of the heroes ever carried weapons they didn’t make with their own Issi.

Arvay nodded. “Sacred arms are one tier below those mythical weapons, super powerful but with no manifestations of their own. The actual weapon might be a little stronger than a mythical one, since it doesn’t have an entire body to support. Though the name doesn’t really make sense to me. Sacred sounds higher tier than mythical.”

“And then there’s legendary one step below sacred.” Hugil said, shaking his head. “I would love to meet whoever came up with those names and ask them what in the hells they were thinking.”

“It could be that the first weapon to manifest was named Myth.” Brynn offhandedly theorized. “It could be a name in memoriam, rather than how significant the word itself is.”

“Could be.” Hugil shrugged. “But that’s a debate for the historians. Who do you want to fight first, El?”

Elach blinked, then noticed Hugil was looking expectantly at him. “Please don’t call me that. And I’ll spar with Arvay first.”

“Works for me.” Arvay said, patting a visibly disappointed Hugil on the back. Though if it was from not being chosen first or Elach disliking the nickname Hugil had given him, he didn’t know. “Let’s set some ground rules first; obviously no killing or crippling injuries is number one.”

Elach nodded seriously. “Obviously.”

“And… that’s all I really care about.” Arvay said after a moment of thought. “Anything you’d like to add?”

“I’m not really used to fighting, so maybe go a little easy on me?” Elach said, and Arvay nodded.

“I’ll decide the winner, so keep the final blows held back, alright?” Hugil offered, walking to a large square of grass and putting his hand on a metal circle in the exact middle of it.

Blue light glowed from within the circle before shooting out to create a square of light that shone about two feet into the air before dispersing. Elach tentatively reached down to touch the light, feeling nothing but a very slight warmth that he might have been imagining as he ran his hand through it. The area pulsed once, twice, then three times, the light changing colour from blue to red to orange to yellow, then Hugil stood up and shook his hand as if he’d touched a hot stove.

“Idiots forgot to reset the thing again.” Hugil muttered. “They’ll get someone killed at this rate.”

“You want near or far?” Arvay asked, stepping through the now yellow light onto the combat field.

“Does it make a difference?” Elach asked, stepping over the light to join her.

“Nope.”

“Then I’ll take far.” Elach said, walking to the other side of the square as his heart raced in his chest. Why was he so nervous?

“I forgot to tell you,” Arvay called from the other side, “But if you go through that light, you instantly lose.”

“What if I just step on it?” Elach called back, and Arvay exaggeratedly shook her head.

“Only if you completely leave it.”

“Gotcha!” Elach called, giving Arvay a thumbs up.

“When you’re both ready, place your right hand on the ground!” Hugil called out. “Attacking before I give the signal is an instant loss, as is attacking after I call the match! At your ready!”

Hugil seemed to be enjoying this a little too much, and Elach chuckled despite his constantly fraying nerves as he placed his hand on the ground. He locked eyes with Arvay from across the field, a cold wind already spiraling around her. It seemed she could prepare an attack all she wanted, as long as she didn’t launch it before Hugil started the match, so Elach set his one anchor just behind her. And, feeling that he had a little more Issi to throw around, he tried to make a second. The wave of vertigo that washed over him let him know that that still wasn’t on the table, so he’d have to make do with one.

“Begin!”

A whirl of icy air blew out from Arvay, covering her half of the arena in a storm of thin shards of ice carried by gale force winds. If Elach ran headfirst into that, he’d either be frozen alive or flayed alive. Neither of which he wanted to experience. Again. But Arvay couldn’t have infinite Issi, so Elach stood his ground to wait out the storm. He adjusted the location of his anchor just in case Arvay threw an attack from her snowblind, and mere moments later his preparation bore fruit.

A lance of spiraling wind carrying shards of ice careened out from the storm, and Elach pulled himself towards his anchor in the nick of time to avoid getting skewered. The lance burst apart into a miniature storm when it struck the back wall, leaving Elach with just a little less space to work with. If that was how Arvay wanted to fight, Elach stood no real chance. He had no long range attacks, no way to protect himself from the storm if he closed the distance, and no way to get Arvay out of the storm. The only thing that gave him confidence was the fact that Arvay probably only had two, maybe three foci, that when combined with her base Issi effects meant Elach had seen at least half of what she could do. Unless all of this was her base effect, and he was underestimating her.

Almost too late Elach noticed frozen fractals spawning in the air around his legs, a reminder that Arvay had shown him one more of her techniques when they’d apprehended him earlier that day. He shifted his anchor to get out of the quickly forming prison of frost, noticing that Arvay’s storm had slowed down ever so slightly while she tried to catch Elach in her icy grasp. He would have to make use of that opening to attack.

Elach pulled himself into the middle of the storm as Arvay tried to immobilize him again, lashing out with his leg at Arvay’s shin to try and bring her off balance. He collided with a barrier of frost that cracked like thin ice on a lake, ripping itself off of Arvay and clamping onto Elach’s calf. Arvay then grabbed him by the leg she was keeping up, and Elach tried to wrench himself free, feeling his muscles argue with him as he attempted to move in a way his flexibility would not allow. Arvay traced her hand up his thigh and then his side, encasing him in a thin layer of ice that was more than strong enough to keep Elach from moving. And then his hands were sealed, and he couldn’t have pulled himself away even if he wanted to.

“Can you move, Elach?” Hugil shouted through the roar of the storm.

It had all happened so fast. He hadn’t stood a chance. It was about what he’d expected, but it still stung. “I think I’m done for.”

“Then the winner is Arvay!” Hugil shouted triumphantly, and the storm died out instantly. The ice encasing Elach melted away to nothing, and he hopped on one leg a few times before balancing out. Now that he could hear clearly, there was a strange song playing in the back of his mind. He couldn’t quite make out the melody, and it sounded so far away.

“You really have no experience fighting other people, do you?” Arvay asked.

“Nope.” Elach confirmed.

“But you have fought things like Issi beasts before, right? The way you instantly noticed the weakness in my Issi and went straight for it. It honestly surprised me a little.” Arvay said with a hint of respect in her voice. “It was a bait, but with how viciously you attacked it almost got through to me.”

“How do you know I fought Issi beasts before?” Elach asked. He didn’t think anything he’d done had given that away.

“You zeroed in on the weakest point in my Issi. That’s how you kill Issi beasts.” Arvay said. “But fighting people isn’t anything like that. Not normally, anyways. You need to remember that even though Issi beasts are intelligent, they aren’t capable of higher thought like we are. You can tell when an Issi beast is luring you into something because that’s how their species does it. Even in their unpredictability they are predictable.”

Elach stood there dumbfounded. He hadn’t expected Arvay to start lecturing him right after their match. But she made a lot of good points, so he stopped her to ask for something to write with. Hugil offered a pen and paper, and Elach asked Arvay to repeat the important points he needed to learn from.

“Don’t fight a person like they’re an Issi beast. It’ll lead to you getting hurt, or you going overboard and hurting them. Try to figure out all the other person’s techniques before you overcommit, but also know when to go in blind.” Arvay counted off on her fingers, tapping them one by one with her other hand. “You fight like someone who’s trained their body, but not their skills. Try to learn the proper way to throw a punch, take a punch, and parry a punch. You aren’t flexible. At all. Go do yoga or something.”

Arvay switched hands, and for the first time Elach noted that she was missing her right ring finger. “You said you don’t have a focus, right? Change that. We can help you shop for one later if you don’t already have something in mind. And finally, learn how to better use the base Issi you have. The rime storm is what I can do with my base Issi, lances included, to give you an idea of how far it can stretch.”

“You got anything to add?” Arvay yelled over to Hugil.

He rolled his shoulder and grinned. “Gotta fight him first to find out.”