The Unbidden: A New World (1) (Short Parts)

Part 28

***

Almost two months had passed since we first arrived at the city. During the weekdays, I practiced my swordsmanship with Raugr and Jayde, and the weekends I would practice different abilities and spells at Vel'Nysa's. My sword handling skills greatly improved during that time.

I went from simply swinging a sword around and practicing different stances to actual sparring. I was pitted against other new mercenaries, adventurers and soldiers from the end of the first month on.

I felt skillful. During my first few sparing matches, I was evenly matched with my partner. After I familiarized myself with the different defensive and offensive stances, I was able to quickly get the upper hand against most of my opponents.

At a certain point, however, Raugr insisted more experienced swordsmen spar me, to which I got my rear handed to me. I felt myself reach a sort of plateau at that point. The only skill I felt kept developing was my ability to swing the sword faster and more interestingly.

I ended up buying a gilded steel short sword from a foreign land for an entire gold and carried it around sheathed in a dark brown leather with the pattern of a wolf burned into it. The sword was my main physical weapon in-case I needed it. I also nabbed about fifty-five silver worth of cheaper swords to bring to Vel'Nysa's.

Over the past several weekends, I continued testing the limits of my abilities and refining the current ones. After practicing enough, I was able to make a rock bolt launch at such insane speeds that I had trouble seeing it as it moved. When it impacted the wall of the room, it left a crater almost two feet wide and half a foot deep.

Thankfully the room seemed to repair itself every day, so there weren't dozens of craters pock-marking the room. I thought Vel'Nysa would have a fit were that the case.

Additionally, I was successful in attempts to add elemental effects to my swords. There was an inherent excitement when it first happened, but then I came to the realization that the effects didn't work as I thought they would.

When trying to create a fire sword, I ended up heating the blade itself to white-hot temperatures. It was good for cutting soft things, but when I tried using it against other metal, the results were lackluster, to say the least.

As for water, I was easily able to have water coat the blade in either a tight or loose form. The problem I encountered was that it didn't really do anything besides cover the blade. I figured it'd be useful to keep blood off, but not much utility otherwise.

I did have significant success with using the air. At first, I was at a bit of a loss. When I initially created a tight, fast current around the blade and tried swinging, the sword nearly ripped from my hand and just floated in the air while the tunnel acted like a giant fan.

I found out that I was thinking too much about physics and how it can affect things. Thankfully, Thea made this universe at least a little forgiving toward me.

When I just envisioned the gale-force wind being attached to the blade and casted the spell, I was able to successfully swing it and not have a powerful wind blasting me in the room.

I did feel a bit cheated though. If I just ignored how things normally interact with one another, then I could realistically do anything it seemed. I didn't bother trying to do anything extremely crazy as a result, not unless I needed to.

I also managed to create a sword in likeness to mine made purely of water. I made certain to bring a bucket of water so my lips didn't chap as I sucked the moisture from the room and used it to make the weapon.

Barring how water normally worked, I made the water blade so sharp that it was making clean cuts through the wall. I ended up doing the same thing with air. I enjoyed the air blade the most because it was almost invisible if there wasn't any dirt caught in it.

"Your existence is almost unheard of," Vel'Nysa commented one day.

The excitement on my face was as bright as a child upon discovering something new and wild.

"I get that a lot," I spoke swinging one of the crappy swords with an air spell cast upon it.

"'Tis almost every time you come in, you find something new to experiment with and create."

"I'm just a curious person, I guess. Speaking of new things," I trailed off.

"Wind Strike," the spinning air around my blade pulsed vaguely at my chant.

After taking a couple steps back, I swung my sword in the direction of the wall. A somewhat transparent line of air cut through air around it, carving through the stone floor before slamming into and cutting deeply into the wall.