I said that I will help Sya train but truthfully I have no idea how to help her. Since dark magic is used mostly for silent running I was taught how to be an impatient ninja. Nature Magic is something only elves are capable of using so I can’t help her there. The other thing I could help her with is archery, and this is where my train of thought stopped.

She is complaining about exhaustion. Using magic for long periods of time or using too much magic at once leads to mental exhaustion and sometimes even to physical exhaustion. While the two of them are connected they are not the same. I saw many students here with the same problem; they don’t know whether their exhaustion is physical or mental and if they can’t figure it out they won’t be able to get better.

Ellen told me that meditation is the key to a strong mind and I’ve read in a book that the great mages of Sonne would meditate before an important meeting or battle allowing them to go with a clear mind. I don’t think that Sya meditates so that’s another thing I have to teach her.

Now that I figured some things out I just need to see which type of fatigue affects her the most and I’ve got a plan for that. Well, I will get to work first thing in the morning, for now I will let my body absorb some magic and sleep.

The next morning I and Sya were staying on the opposite sides of the courtyard. The plan was for her to hit me with some empowered arrows. I will just block them with my watch or if I’m fast enough maybe I will try catching them. The goal was to see how many arrows she can fire before running out of juice.

“Are you ready?”

“Are you sure about this?”

Sya was overly cautious for nothing. The watch has been through war, literally, and it’s still unscratched, a few arrows can’t do anything to it.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Just remember to go easy.”

“Yes!”

I tightened my grip on the watch, extended my arm and took a defensive stance. I don’t want to underestimate her magic and end up losing my arm…or worse.

Sya starting powering up the arrow; the magic was forming faster than before but it was still slow; talk about casing time. After ten seconds Sya finally fired the arrow at me. The arrow was slower than the ones she usually fires and I can dodge it but I have to take it head-on.

When the arrow hit the watch the blast knocked me back, the watch flew a few meters in the air and my arm received damage. I wasn’t able to see exactly what happened but the moment the arrow hit the watch the magic from the arrow must have erupted blasting me away. The watch isn’t made of vibranium or anything but the enchantments made it possible for it to do such things.

So, what I learnt from this experience is that if I were a normal student I would have died from the blast or become right-handed for life. If it wasn’t for my enhanced body and Black Blood I would have died…and they actually think she is inferior, damn idiots.

“Are you all right?”

Sya, shocked by what she saw came running.

“No, my arm hurts like hell.”

“That’s what you get for trying to take a blow like that head-on.”

When I turned around I saw Maria in some unusual clothes. A pair of black leather boots, brown leather pants, a white shirt, a brown leather jacket and brown leather gauntlets. The leather seemed good enough to block some hits but I really question its durability. She looked different wearing these clothes, especially because it’s the first time I’ve seen her wearing only leather armor.

Her arsenal consisted in a simple wooden bow, some wooden arrows and a…short sword? I don’t have that much experience with hunting but a short sword is usually used for small prey like rabbits and other small animals, at least it was a steel sword so she stood a chance if stronger opponents attacked.

“I wasn’t expecting such power.”

“It’s not only about power, that wasn’t nature magic she used against you, it was pure magical power.”

Oh shit, I can’t believe that she could use something like that. If I take this into consideration then it’s not strange that I actually felt that.

It was something Maria taught us in class. Magic has different colors for each element: Red for fire, blue for water…and so on. When a magician is experimented enough he or she can empower weapons or projectiles with pure magic, increasing their effectiveness. I haven’t seen a pure magic attack before so I assumed that that’s how Nature Magic looked like and defended myself accordingly.

“I didn’t know that she was using pure magic.”

There is only one way to block such a projectile: you don’t! If a person manages to stop the projectile the burst of magic will surely finish the job. If there is a clash between magic attacks the stronger element usually wins but that’s not always the case. The deciding factors in a magic battle are quantity and quality. A powerful fire attack can destroy a water barrier and here’s the nice thing: Pure magic doesn’t have any weakness.

A pure magic attack is something that you keep as a trump card, last resort or even worse because it takes some time to charge and if you miss it’s all over; that’s why you try to evade an attack like that.

I never understood how a burst of magic can hurt a person but now it’s pretty clear. The sudden burst of magic fucks with your own magic flow and makes it go out of control. The technique is a nightmare and Sya is capable of using it more than once without getting tired…and I’m not even able to empower a weapon without causing it to explode.

“Leaving the pure magic aside, do you want to come hunting with me?”

“Hunting, what for?”

“Wild monsters attack the school. It didn’t happen for the past year because the vampire was somehow scarring the monsters.”

“Count me in. How about you Sya, care to put those skills of yours to the test?”

“Yes.”

There we go; an enthusiastic answer. Now that Maria found a hunting ground it’s time Sya sees how a battle for life and death really is fought.

“Here, you can use this.”

Maria threw me the bow and the quiver. I wasn’t planning on using it now to fight but I don’t want to waste time arguing with Maria.

“So, where are we going?”

“Some monsters have appeared in the place I found you.”

The clearing…Well, it’s an open space so we can ambush the monsters easily.

“So, what should I expect?”

“Mostly demon wolves, black demon wolves.”

When Maria mentioned the black demon wolves I froze for a second. Hearing that name might have triggered something like a PTSD attack or something. The first and last time I saw a black demon wolf I was almost killed and despite the things I’ve been through I still feel uneasy.

“Oh sorry, I forgot what happened the last time you met a black wolf, I’m sorry.”

Maria remembered the story I told her a while ago and apologized. It looks like she saw that I felt uneasy but it’s not her fault. If I am to survive in this world I can’t get scared by those weaker than me.

“It’s all right. Well then, let’s see how this will turn out.”

“Come on Sya, we going hunting.”

“Ah, yes. Um, before we leave can you tell me what the head teacher apologized for?”

“Oh that, I got my arm bitten off by a demon wolf, that’s all?”

“W…What?”

Sya froze in place. She was staring at my arms in shock. I guess that it’s something not many people live through.

“Come on.”

“Y…Yes.”

After Sya stopped daydreaming the three of us went to the clearing in the forest. We didn’t encounter any wolves on the way but I saw things like rabbits, birds and other small animals. I noticed that the wildlife wasn’t that visible before but I didn’t look into it. Well, seeing normal animals it’s nice in its own way especially if I think about that red furred rabbit I saw when we entered the forest.

The clearing was empty, there weren’t any monsters here…or maybe I was wrong? I picked up a presence in the area in front of us. Whatever they are they are staying too close to each other so I don’t know how many of them are there.

“There really are demon wolves, nice.”

“Indeed there are.”

“Huh? What?”

As expected Sya can’t even feel the wolves. It’s not very hard to feel a demon or a monster. Well, I can’t expecet so much from Sya who is a beginner.

“Alex, Sya, we will go back and wait for them go come out in the open.”

“OK.”

“Y…Yes.”

We retreated back into the woods. I was looking forward to climbing a tree and shooting from there but I guess that I’m not that lucky. There aren’t any branches strong enough for me to use and even if they were the forest is too dense.

“There they are, get them.” whispered Maria

There were twelve arrows in the quiver and at least ten wolves. Now that I look at them I see that I was overestimating them, they were gray wolves. A gray wolf is not even half as strong as a black one so it should be fine.

There were ten of them. I took an arrow and aimed at a gray wolf that seemed to be their leader.

The arrow I fired hit the wolf’s neck. It looks like my aim was a little off. Well, the other wolves got distracted and one of them failed to notice the arrow that Sya fired.

The three of us split up presumably to distract and confuse the wolves. Maria went ahead to agro the wolves giving me and Sya some time to pick our targets. I was on the right side, Sya was on the left and Maria was in the middle fighting the wolves. I found it curious that the wolves don’t try to surround Maria, instead the just go one at a time.

Even though she was using a short sword she had no difficulty dodging the wolves. She barely moves when he dodges an attack, I don’t know if she’s avoiding them or just dancing around them.

Five out of the eight remaining wolves were killed by Maria. When a wolf jumps at her she takes a step back then she cuts its head or its stomach. Usually a short sword isn’t strong enough to kill so many wolves but Maria doesn’t care, she fights without doubt and still manages to hold her ground against multiple enemies.

When I fight multiple enemies I tend to kill them fast to avoid getting surrounded and having my movements sealed so I developed a habit of jumping back when I dodge an attack instead of moving to the side or blocking it. Maria on the other hand jumped in the middle of them and has no trouble holding her own…no; it’s more like she is playing with them; I don’t think she even considers that she is in danger.

The three remaining wolves are being more cautious and are waiting for Maria to attack and this is the moment the waiting game began. Since nobody is moving I might as well try firing an empowered arrow at one of the wolves, I want to see if I can hit it.

I changed my location to get a better view of the wolves and to make sure that if something goes wrong I won’t hit Maria. I aimed at the closest wolf and began empowering my arrow with magic. A black mist started forming around the arrow. Little by little the magic is gathering, just a few more seconds before it’s complete. This is the most crucial part, if the magic is not stable I may not be able to control it.

“…no…STAY AWAY!”

Suddenly I heard Sya screaming. When I looked at her I saw a black wolf leaping at her, in that moment Battle Meditation kicked in and the time stopped. I don’t have much time to think about it so I will just have to assume that somehow one black wolf was able to go past me and Maria unnoticed and now it’s attacking Sya.

How the fuck did this happen? This is bad. That wolf is too close to Sya, she will get bitten regardless of what I do. The only thing I can do is to hit the wolf with the empowered arrow and hope that I’m not too late. After I launched the arrow I hurried back to her side.

I fired the arrow at the bloodthirsty wolf… As I thought, it was too late to stop it from attacking; it managed to bite Sya’s lower abdomen.

“AAAAAH!”

In response to the pain Sya cried. The wolf wasn’t going to let go but it was too late for it, the arrow will hit it any second now.

I…I can’t believe what I said…My…My arrow exploded right before hitting the wolf. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? ONCE; THIS ONE TIME I NEEDED SOMETHING TO GO RIGHT AND THAT’S WHAT I GET?

I was running as fast as I can. If…If I can reach her in time I may be able to use Dark Transfer on Sya and save her life. Using Shadow Dash I reached her in a matter of seconds. Apparently the wolf got confused by the explosion and let go of Sya. She was losing blood fast and it looks like she was bitten so hard she fainted.

“You son of a bitch…DIE!”

Instinctively I started punching a 2 meter long wolf with my bare fists. I could have used the weapons I had in my inner world but I couldn’t stop, I just had to punch it and so I did.

I punched it again and again. I’ve been hitting it for some time but it still refuses to go down, this one is a lot tougher than the average black wolf.

“Alex, STOP!”

It seems that while I was busy killing the wolf Maria finished off the rest of them and came here. She looked quite shocked, why is that? I see, it may be the fact that I was punching a corpse; it looks like the wolf died already.

“Stop it; we don’t have time for this.”

“I’m almost done.”

“I DON’T HAVE ANY HEALING POTIONS ON ME!”

The last sentence woke me up. When I looked behind me I realised that Sya was bandaged but even with the bandages on she was still bleeding and neither of us have any healing potions on us.

It’s strange, the last time I was consumed by rage something was different but now everything felt so natural, I was actually at peace… This is not the time to worry about me.

I put my hand on Sya to check the gravity of her injuries. Somehow the wolf was able to break three of her ribs and pierce her left lung. Both the external and internal injuries were grave but she was still alive. The only thing I can do is heal her and hope that she will wake up.