“Watching the growth of someone you trained yourself was one of the most rewarding experiences in my long life, honestly.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“You’re getting better at this, Kino,” praised Eilonwy as her wooden staff clashed with Kino’s during the sparring session. Six years had passed in the blink of an eye since Kino first arrived in Ptolodecca, and her best friends, Mimia and Èirynn’s three children, had grown into teenagers in that time, well past their early childhood, though for elves they were still considered children either way.

“Thanks, Eilo,” replied Kino as she twisted her staff and tried to throw the elvish girl off-balance with the move. Eilonwy moved her staff along with the attempt, however, and instead used its other end to deliver another blow that Kino avoided only by the barest margin. “None of us are getting anywhere near Miss Aideen’s skill yet, though.”

“No real surprise there!” chortled Áine from the side, where she was sparring with Rhys using similar staves. Their preference for staves was something they got from Aideen, who pointed out that polearms were amongst the deadliest melee weapons used on the battlefields, and that practicing with a staff would provide them with basic skills they could use with most any pole weapons.

While the children were unlikely to go out without a storage artifact large enough to conveniently carry a proper weapon with them, nobody would blink an eye at a traveler carrying a staff with them.

After all, a staff served as both a walking aid as well as a makeshift weapon in case some wild animals came around. If the kids carried staves around with them, it also served as camouflage, as it hinted that they did not have a storage artifact large enough to store items that long. Most people with one would have stored their staves inside when they weren’t actively using them, after all.

“Great-Aunt Aideen got centuries of experience and training on us, Kino,” said Rhys solemnly as he carefully blocked a flurry of blows from his older sister’s staff with his own. “Even if all four of us went against her at once, we wouldn’t stand any chance, unless you just want a chance to survive for a minute or so, then maybe.”

As all four of them chose to learn a type of polearm for their weapon of choice, Aideen was the one who taught them the basics. The ways to use a staff was applicable to just about any weapon with a pole as well, so it was something all four of them could learn at the same time. Their lessons were punctuated with spars against Aideen herself, which was a source of much frustration for the children.

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After all, it had already been years since they started their training, and none of them had so much as landed a hit against Aideen.

Not even Kino could land a hit with no holds barred and her magic allowed. While void magic should have easily cut through most anything, Aideen’s weapon was a staff entirely made of adamant, a material well known for its indestructibility and resistance to magic, one that was further enhanced with anti-magic enchantments.

As a result, Aideen could easily disperse even void workings with blows of her staff, or block a void-clad blow from Kino without any damage whatsoever.

The four mostly used their chosen weapons only when training against Aideen. It was still a bit dangerous for them to spar with actual weapons against each other, as they weren’t that good at holding back yet. Kino didn’t have an issue about getting hit due to her unliving nature, but the three children would, even if Aideen was watching and could likely heal any injury they took in the process.

There was no need to subject the children to such hardship so early, they felt.

As such, the four’s weapons practice was mostly on the light side. Both Aideen and the children’s parents put more emphasis on physical fitness. It was no use to know how to wield a weapon when one didn’t have the capability to properly use it, after all. Even so, the four improved quickly, especially given that they had the chance to spar daily with Aideen, who would routinely point out the mistakes they made after each beatdown she administered.

Shortly after they finished sparring with each other and took a brief rest to recover their energy, the four faced Aideen with their actual weapons in hand.

Rhys chose a pollaxe as his weapon of choice. It was a shorter type of polearm, only around a meter and a half long, with an axe blade on one side and a hammerhead on the other, as well as spikes on both ends of the staff. As he was a Life affinity mage, he naturally learned several ways of boosting his body’s performance from Aideen, as some of her tricks translated well to the Life affinity as well.

Áine wielded a long spear nearly three meters in length, something she did with grace and relative ease regardless. The three children had mostly worked out ways to fight together with each other, so Áine mostly stayed further in the back while Rhys and Eilonwy covered for her. Áine’s longer weapon ensured that she could help them out even from safety.

Eilonwy used a shorter spear, only about as long as she was tall. Behind the weapon’s spearhear, a pair of smaller scythe-like blades pointed at perpendicular angles to the shaft, which allowed her to use them to make vicious draw cuts or to trap an opponent’s weapon between the blades of her weapon. The shorter spear was also nimbler and easier to use up close.

Kino accompanied them with a double-blade glaive around two meters in length. While the weapon wasn’t the most practical for direct use, given that Kino would coat it with her void magic in a real fight, it became a lethal medium to direct the devastation her magic could cause. At the moment, while the girl showed great control over her innate magic, it was still safer for her to focus on cladding her weapon or body with it rather than directly using void workings offensively.

The four of them did their best in the spar, but Aideen still easily beat them without even breaking a sweat.