Our second world- Book two: War is coming

Chapter 14

~Haren~

After spending an entire day with Artemis, Mary, Grace, and Elise, he was glad to have some time to himself. After taking a quick shower, he headed back to his room and flopped down on his bed. Utterly exhausted from the days activities.

Leaning back on his pillow, he reached up to feel his tattoo. It was still there, but he still hadn't heard from or seen August since the incident. There was always the option of summoning him, but Haren wasn't sure what would happen if August didn't have enough mana to be summoned. For that reason, he chose to wait even though it hurt him to be apart for so long. They were almost always together, and now, he felt like half of himself was missing and he hated it.

He didn't realize he'd been crying until he woke up the next morning with a wet pillow. The other thing he noticed while he was getting dressed was that the room was empty. Which was weird since he shared the room with Artemis and Mary usually came to sleep with one of them almost every night since her room was across the hall.

"Weird," He muttered as he pulled on his uniform," Guess they're already down for breakfast or something."

Pushing the thought away, he threw on his coat and headed out to the hall.

Not feeling hungry enough for breakfast, he headed down to one of the sparing fields on the south side of the base. It was a longer distance to walk than the other three fields so it was rarely used by anyone. That was why he chose to use it now. He wanted to blow off some steam and the probability of the field being in use already was low.

As he expected, there was no one around when he got there. Throwing his coat and the over shirt of his uniform on a bench that wasn't covered in snow, he pulled a wooden long sword from one of the racks.

Walking over to a nearby ring, he started going through basic motions to warm up. There was a little stiffness in his shoulders, but he ignored it and started a mock battle.

The battle scenario he came up with was a three on one battle against two short sword users and a twin dagger user. To better envision it, he fought with his eyes closed. Something he would never do if there were others around, but he was alone now. Or so he thought.

Unexpectedly, as he swung down on one of the fake enemies, instead of cutting through air, his sword hit something solid.

"What the?"

"Hey Haren. Mind if I join you?" He opened his eyes at the familiar voice.

"Elise what are you doing?" He sighed, pulling his sword away," That was dangerous, I could've hurt you."

"Well, you seemed pretty focused so I figured I could sneak in," She replied," Guess you noticed he though."

"Of course I noticed you," He sighed again," It's fine if you want to spar with me, but ask first next time."

"Sure," She grinned, clearly excited by the promise of a fight.

He threw down his sword since she didn't have one and prepared his stance.

"Ready? Go!"

She jumped forward with a wide left swing, but instead of following through with the attack, she used her momentum to pivot around behind him and attempted a kick to his side. He saw it coming and caught her foot mid-air.

"Really? You tried that same thing last time," He said, throwing her backwards out of the ring.

"Eh, I figured it was still worth a try," She shrugged, blocking his punch," It's so different when I have someone strong against me. My old partners were usually just normal guards, or Rose. She's more of a sword person, so it's not very challenging hand to hand with her. That's why I like sparring with you. You're just as good, if not better, than I am." She grinned, clearly enjoying herself. She may be a princess, but she was pretty battle crazy. Enough to say she was obsessed, and she enjoyed a good fight if it was for fun.