TBATE - Strings of Fate

10 - To Train a Soldier

--TESSIA--

"Alright, Tess. Show me what you've learned."

I complied, first showing the exercises that I had mastered, and then showing where I was having problems with the ones I hadn't mastered yet.

"I must say, I took more time than expected to finish my work, but you have progressed much further than I expected you to. Well done."

"Speaking of that, what could have possibly kept you away for 2 entire months?"

"The beginning of the year is always the busiest, and this was made doubly so by your changes to the curriculum, the punishments given for delinquent behavior, and the fact that your elven friends are magnets for racist behavior.

Moreover, there were a couple... problems... that popped up around Sapin that needed to be investigated by me personally."

I nodded my understanding while wondering what kind of problems those could be.

"Now, chat time is over. What we will focus on now is combat experience. You will be engaging in combat against a diverse set of enemies I have picked out for you. For today, your enemy is me. Let's try sparring again like we did during your first lesson and see how much you have improved."

I nodded and prepared myself. She started the spar with a loud, high-pitched sound that would have knocked a regular person unconscious. I was prepared for this, however. I had used plant magic to plug my ears, deafening myself. I could still barely hear the world around me, but the sound was dampened enough for my assimilated body to withstand it without taking damage.

As she did this, she simultaneously sent a blade of wind towards me. This blade had less power behind it than the one she used at the beginning of our last fight, but there was something strange about it. It seemed like it was... Vibrating...

I realized something was wrong and quickly dodged. I watched as the vibrating blade of wind barely missed me, slicing easily through the tip of my shield of wind. It continued to travel past me, destroying everything in its path for a long time before stopping.

Seeing that the sound attack wasn't working, she waved her hand, stopping the attack. I left the plugs in, however, knowing that she might try the same trick again. She stood there and complimented me over the roaring of both of our shields of wind.

"Good response to sound magic, and good sense in dodging that attack. Now, let's see if you can hit me."

I grinned and took off sprinting towards her. My body, the grass under it, and the air around them worked together to propel me forward. I conjured a spear of wood and infused it with a twister that would cause it to pierce farther and do more damage. After taking careful aim, I threw it like a javelin, using more wind to propel it forward.

It shot forward, quickly closing the gap between us. She conjured a twister that countered the one on the javelin, before using a gust of wind to deflect it. Soon after, I caught up to her. I swung at her with my sword, trying to land a hit on her.

She dodged and deflected my swings with surprising agility for her age, conjuring tornados and blades of wind that constantly got in my way. I created patches of vines on the ground around her that would try to grab or pierce her, but I never seemed to be able to land a single hit on her.

I cast 'Vine Guard', a continuous spell that generated a multitude of plants under me, firmly rooting me against the strong winds that were being caused by the multitude of twisters ravaging the area around us. This spell also created several vines that would follow me and continually attack while in melee range, saving me from having to continually cast new vine spells.