At the next training session, I was once again assigned a partner.
When the na was announced, I looked at my opponent—Tara.
And was surprised.
Usually, when she stood across from , she was calm, almost relaxed.
Today, her face was focused, her eyes sharp.
She had clearly prepared.
1. Fight with Tara — Copying the Princess
Tara chose a completely different fighting style.
She copied Elinia’s movents:
short jumps left and right,
sharp leaps up and down,
air dashes that created temporary footing,
and—at mid-range—series of icy icicles.
I dodged the first two attacks without difficulty.
On the third lunge, she put all her speed and strength into the strike—
thinking she could break through.
I t her attack with my sword.
At the mont of contact, the tal shimred—
and my blade began to coat her sword in ice.
Tara cried out and jumped back sharply, tearing free from the grasping frost.
But I continued the process:
crystallization around the blade, small growths increasing its weight and ruining its balance.
She hesitated for a fraction of a second.
That was all I needed.
I created an icy floor—a thin layer, almost transparent.
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Tara jumped upward to escape.
That was exactly what I was waiting for.
I hurled a massive snowball at her, created by rapidly compressing moist air.
She lost her balance and fell onto her back.
I said calmly:
“You’re too easy to read.”
She pressed her lips together—then nodded respectfully.
2. Astra — “The Do Defender”
Astra handled magic well, but had little real combat experience.
Still, she ford a thick do of water when I attacked her with a hail of icicles.
The technique was correct.
The power—sufficient.
But the approach—too static.
I accelerated with wind bursts and closed the distance while she maintained the do.
“House,” I muttered quietly.
She didn’t hear.
I placed my palm on the do’s surface—
and instantly began freezing it from the inside, forming an icy shell directly around her.
The water seized into ice, the do’s structure becoming heavy—and brittle.
Astra shuddered as everything locked around her, and under the weight of the ice she dropped to her knees.
“I didn’t expect that…” she breathed.
“Because you don’t change position,” I replied. “Water is flexibility, not a house.”
She listened carefully.
3. Edgar — The Calculating Observer
Edgar had been watching all the fights from the very beginning.
He attacked from a distance—
with heavy ice spears, transford from water compressed by wind.
The tactic was clear:
keep the distance.
I accelerated—
movent, dash, another dash—and I was already close.
He reacted instantly.
Iron gauntlets began forming around his hands,
he fed an amplifying wind current into them—
and struck with trendous speed.
The blow was excellent.
Not weak.
Well calculated.
But—
one wrong movent—
and he lost his footing, throwing himself off balance with his own force.
I stepped aside.
He flew past —and crashed to the ground.
I leaned down.
“They just need more training.”
He nodded, embarrassed—but grateful.
4. Evening — A New Chapter of the Textbook
That evening, back in my room, I sat down to write.
Today—geography.
I wrote about what I knew:
the structure of the earth’s crust,
caves,
layers of rock,
minerals,
and, of course, tals—the field I understood best.
Every line—precise.
Every diagram—neat, transferred through magical projection.
And, as always,
exactly twenty minutes later, the door opened quietly.
Elinia entered without knocking, as if it were her room.
Her footsteps had beco familiar.
She read everything I wrote.
Every evening.
I had already… gotten used to it.
She didn’t interfere.
She simply sat nearby, flipped through the pages, sotis asked questions, sotis just watched.
And this quiet ritual beca part of my day.
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