Ancient War - TBATE

Welcome back

It's been three weeks since I absorbed the elixir, I was unconscious most of the time since I broke through 2 stages, I'm currently in my room experimenting with my new core, Gramps left as soon as he made sure I was okay, Tess and Ellie stayed for a couple of hours before Ellie went with Sylvie to practice their pure mana manipulation, Tess Left afterward to visit her parents after she gave me a kiss saying see you soon.

Sitting up I began to focus on more core instead of the brilliant silver light it was now pitch black with purple and blood-red runes around it, holding my hand out with my palm open I began to shape the mana as I willed it without casting, from fireballs to wind blades the mana obeyed me, satisfied I began to stand up to try using realmheart.

Before I could even open the door it swung open and a figure I never would've expected was standing before me.

Waving his hand he nonchalantly greets me "Hello, Grey." His usual smile was even wider as if he was holding back a laugh.

"Zedd, What are you doing here ?" I asked surprised that he was let into the castle as Virion was in a meeting,

"I'm here to start your training with me" He answered.

"You're going to spar with me ?" I asked as Zedd was able to conjure a sword made by an asura with no effort I would never dream of being able to fight him at my level.

"Is that too far-fetched?" He asked tilting his head.

"Don't worry I'm going to hold back a lot and besides, you're going to spar mainly against your little elf princess." He smirked while teasing me.

Feeling my face heat up "What? Tess is with the trailblazer unit, I doubt she would even stop fighting in the war so I can train with her when I can train with white core mages." I quickly retorted waving my hands in front of me.

"Do you feel the need to question everything I say?" he quizzed while I sighed and shook my head.

"Good, Now get ready I'll talk with Virion to get your girlfriend to come back to the castle." He Teased as he left for the council room.

"That damn brat..." I Sighed. When a voice cut me off from my thoughts, a voice I haven't heard in a long time, yet one I could never forget.

******

Tessia Earlith -PoV-

The fight with the dungeon boss was tough, to say the least, its healing speed was faster than any other mana beast I've seen, not to mention its defenses if we didn't have this many ice plant and earth mages it would've been able to keep regenerating, but luckily we managed to restrain it and focus on attacking its heart.

Poking my head out of the tent and looking around I could see Stannard fixing his Crossbow device, Darvus Attempting to flirt with some female adventurers, Caria watching her childhood friend with a sour look, I wonder when she is going to confess to him.

Caria Turns her head to look at me with a smirk "Tessia? You know you look pretty silly with just your head out of the tent" She stated.

"Ah, no, I was about to get out. I'm going to take a shower." I replied somewhat flustered.

"Don't be too long, Princess. The longer you wash, the more tempted I get to peek," Darvus called out lazily, walking back to the fire.

"Then I'll make sure to have you locked up every night with those old, pot-bellied men you love so much," I threatened, carrying my clothes and towel over my shoulder.

Before I could even reach the stalls a voice called out to me, a voice I knew all too well, how could I forget him when he was able to scare Arthur to that degree.

"Hello, Princess Tessia." Zedd greeted as he approached me, turning around and letting out a sigh I could see Caria with a teasing smirk as she next to me and elbowed me.

"Looks like someone is into young boys." She whispered.

Jabbing her in the stomach I faced Zedd as he approached me "Hello, Zedd." I responded.

"Hello, Caria." Zedd nodded while greeting my petite friend.

"You know me ?" Asked Caria as she tilted her head confused about how Zedd knows her.

"What are you doing here Zedd?" I Questioned.

"Your boyfriend needs help with his training so I came to escort you." He teased with a serious expression.

I could feel my face heating up and Caria Elbowing me while whispering "Boyfriend".

"Wouldn't having him train with a white core mage be better ?" I asked curiously.

"While you're training with him, you'll also be recovering from your beast will." He answered

"Recovering from my beast will? There isn't anything wrong with it though." I replied confused as to what is wrong with it.

"I Would advise you to help Grey in his training while recovering from your beast will, I will not say more than I have to and you do not need to question all my actions, inactions, and advice." He replied with a somewhat annoyed tone, Letting some of his pressure out.

Even with me at the mid silver stage and Caria at the solid yellow, we couldn't handle the childish amount of pressure Zedd let out, Both I and Caria couldn't handle the pressure and neither could the other adventurers in the vicinity.

Strong mages such as Arthur and the other lances are able to render someone unconscious just by releasing their bloodlust, However, unlike them Zedd made everyone kneel and look down at the ground unlike my pressure, both Arthur's and Zedd's pressure is purely strengthened by their bloodlust and meager amounts of mana.

For Arthur, his bloodlust mainly came from his time as Grey, as he killed thousands if not hundreds of thousands of humans, I had no idea what Zedd did to make his blood lust this strong.

As Zedd retracted his pressure we all could breathe much easier but were still feeling uneasy,
"Now, we'll try this again, come train with Grey and do not question my decision," Zedd Spoke up breaking the silence of the dungeon's camp.

Nodding and standing up to follow Zedd "Good." He muttered, turning around with a swipe of his hand a teleportation gate was conjured, and we walked through it I could see we were in a massive room filled with training dummies, in the middle of the room a pool of crystal blue water in the middle of it was Arthur meditating.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sylvie playing around with pure mana and some silver mist, Zedd turned to look at Arthur and shot a small black lightning bolt, the lightning bolt was too weak to do any damage to Arthur but it stopped his concentration.

"Ouch, did you have to do that?" Asked Arthur grumbling in pain.

Arthur stepped out of the pond and stretched for a bit, I couldn't help but notice that Arthur's features were slightly sharper and his skin slightly paler, it wasn't something a normal person would notice, but it's Arthur whenever I'm looking at him I couldn't help but feel special.

"You'll spar with your little elf princess for 3 hours a day, 2 hours against me, and 5 hours in an outnumbered situation."  Yelled out Zedd as turned to look south with a smirk on his face.

I turned to look south and felt my jaw hang agape, and Arthur looking at me with a smirk as he approached me "Hey, Tess." Greeted Art, but I was too focused on the massive battlefield built with dozens of environments to train in.

If I had to say this "Training Ground" if you could even call it that, was built by Zedd, I couldn't help but admire his control over creation magic, the training ground had an underground, desert, and even snowy environment to train in, it was at least 500 meters long and 700 meters wide, and only god knows how high it is.

A/N: End of chapter see you guys next week. \o/

Arthur's mana core is going to be Arthur basically starting over in his mana core in terms of the color at least.