Page 10

She knew what came next: dodging the trees.

She bounded through the path, watching for any movement around her.

Time seemed to slow as she spotted a tree ahead shooting its branches towards her.

With supernatural agility, Lilith quickly darted to the side.

Another tree tried to grab onto her ankles.

But its thin fingerlike branches skimmed the air she just inhabited.

The pads of her toes dug into the earth driving her forward.

She felt a tree behind her slam to the ground, causing her to launch herself into an oncoming trunk.

Using her momentum, she sprung off of it and flew forward, gracefully landing on the forest floor.

How much time has passed? She wondered as she shot down the path, reaching the open field.

The fire sprites wasted no time raining fireballs in her direction.

They seemed to sharpen their sights on her and another student who was using their mana.

She made out Silver who was quickly dodging attacks.

“How many are ahead of us?” she asked him as she moved like fluid to catch up to him.

He rolled behind a nearby tree. “I think there’s a group not too far ahead. I can’t really say. Do you know how much time we have left?” Silver responded.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” She smirked.

“I’ll race you.” She didn’t wait for him before leaping ahead and making her way up between the mountain peaks.

The cold pierced her soul and she started to violently shiver.

Felicia was up ahead with a man Lilith hadn’t met before.

Both of them had stopped and were in the middle of a conversation.

“Hey. Good to see you made it this far,” Felicia welcomed her.

“I’m Ruven,” Shivered the golden haired man next to her. “We were discussing how to split our mana energy for both running and also charging our bodies with heat energy. Any ideas?”

“My mana is running pretty low, but I could try.” Lilith conjured warm energy to flow through her body.

Her muscles shook from overuse. She clenched her jaw and pushed through the screaming pain to muster more mana and directed it to her muscles to prepare for her run.

The cold bite of the air no longer affected her as she propelled forward.

She slowed and waited for the group to catch up.

“This comes so naturally for you. It’s a struggle to divide my attention between both tasks,” Felicia complained. Like Lilith, Ruven was successful in short spurts .

“As much as I want to be of help, I really don’t want to do this run twice.

I suggest if you can’t maintain a steady hold on your body temperature, to just focus solely on speed,” Lilith advised as she took off without diverting her mana.

The sting from the cold distracted her from the pain and nausea.

Felicia nodded and kept pace with Lilith.

Ruven was on their tails. The three of them passed the look out point and turned downwards to head for the stairs.

“We may want to slow down as we descend. Just so we don’t slide off the edge,” Ruven called after them.

Lilith and Felicia slowed down to a stride that was still faster than a jog.

It was convenient timing for Lilith as she used the last dregs of her mana.

She would have to do the rest the normal way.

Mistress Rhodes was waiting for them again at the last marker with a couple men. She gave them a solid look of approval.

“Your time is just shy of one hour and fifteen minutes. Good. Orin arrived slightly under an hour,” she said as she pointed to a tall muscular black haired student with vibrant yellow eyes.

He looked at Felicia and blushed. “Storm finished a few minutes later.” Storm, another muscular, beautiful, blue eyed man, looked bored.

Felicia raised her hand to ask,“What is the record?”

“We’ve had a few students complete the course in half an hour.

The current record stands at twenty-six minutes.

” Lilith wasn’t paying too close attention to what the teacher was saying.

Loud ringing pulsed through her ears as she stumbled to a nearby bush and threw up.

Her head was spinning so she hinged forward and braced her hands on her knees.

She knew this was her fastest. She gave everything, just to fall under the category of acceptable.

Wiping her mouth, she saw her classmates chuckle at her misery.

Felicia was the only one to show concern.

Friends to your face, competitors behind your back, thought Lilith.

Mistress Rhodes walked them into the courtyard and up to a wooden structure holding various weapons. “While we wait for the others, I want you to select a weapon and find a partner. Try extending your control of your mana to your weapon as you strike.”

Felicia smiled at Lilith, forming a partnership.

Storm, Ruven and Orin formed another group.

They walked over to the selection of weapons.

It wasn’t unheard of, imbuing weapons with magic.

There was a famous children’s story about a man that found a legendary longsword and with its power became a king.

These weapons, however, were dulled and carried no magical force.

There were swords, dual blades, long spears, knives, and even a bow and a quill of arrows.

Lilth picked up a short sword while Felicia picked up a long spear.

“I’m going to assume we both have experience with basic weapons sparring?

” Felicia asked as she twirled her spear.

She quickly came down on Lilith, who blocked the strike.

Lilith smirked. They danced with their weapons, striking blows down on each other again and again, each of them blocking and countering their own maneuver. They flew apart and circled each other.

“We should try imbuing our weapons with mana,” Felicia suggested and paused as they both looked over to the men's group.

Silver had now joined and was steadily sparring with Ruven using no magic.

Storm and Orin were a different story. They had successfully embedded their swords with mana and were pummelling each other.

With every clash of their swords, a blast of energy would emit, but neither side was overcome by the blast.

“I would like to, but I used what mana I had to fuel my run,” said Lilith. "I need to cool down for a bit before trying."

“Is it okay if I try?” asked Felicia, as she clutched her spear in front of her and stared at it.

Lilith squatted down, still breathless from the run, and watched as the spearhead emitted a cool blue glow.

Felicia beamed and twirled it in front of her, “I’ve tried this a couple times before, with mixed success. ”

Before her magic was bound, Lilith had tried this back at home.

At best, she could imbue a small dagger.

Now she was being asked to do the same to a sword with limited magic.

She closed her fist around the hilt of her sword and fixated on the blade.

For a while nothing happened. The pool of mana was too low.

She kept at it until it also glowed with a faint blue light.

Not as brightly as Felicia’s spear, but it was still a success.

Drops of sweat now pouring down her face, she brought up her sword and faced her opponent.

They circled and each waited for an opening to make the first blow.

The force of their contact rattled their bones.

The women tore apart only to circle each other some more.

“Think of the sword as an extension of yourself,” Mistress Rhodes hollered from the sidelines.

Lilith felt the slight tingling sensation of the mana leaving her and drawing into the sword.

She pulsed more energy into it. Felicia poised to attack.

The shock of the spear hitting the sword caused a small burst of energy to drive them apart.

Lilith landed on her back and laid in the mud, defeated.

Felicia pulled her up to standing and pushed her back into starting position .

“Use the energy burst as a boost. You can learn to absorb it to focus even more mana into your weapons.” Mistress Rhodes coached.

So now she tells us. We can absorb other people’s energy.

Lilith nodded to Felicia and waited for her to strike.

A small burst of energy exploded as they collided.

Felicia didn’t waste time as she tried to pull whatever extra energy the blast gave off through her and into her weapon.

Lilith, on the other hand, struggled to maintain the minimal mana currently surging through her and her sword.

Her head was pounding as she tried to focus on absorbing the energy, but missed her chance.

She knew she couldn’t fend off another blow without taking damage, so she waited and baited.

Lilith created an opening on herself and tracked Felicia as she lunged forward.

Anticipating the move, Lilith quickly rolled to the ground and swiped her dull sword across Felicia’s legs.

Felicia looked shocked as she fell sideways and crashed to the ground.

“There is power, and there is strategy.” Mistress Rhodes murmured in the background. “We must find balance to win.” She turned to watch Silver and Ruven.

“That was amazing. Your mana was so powerful!” Lilith said, offering Felicia a hand.

“You’re a quick thinker. I won’t be so easy to defeat next time,” chucked Felicia. From the corner of her eye Lilith spied the rest of her classmates trickling in.

“That’s class. I want those that came in after the time limit to meet me this evening. Get some water and then meet in Room Three. Your new Theory and Tactics teacher will take over.” Mistress Rhodes disappeared into darkness.

They soberly made their way through the courtyard, stopping at a water spout to take a few gulps of water .

“Have any of you received an update on Tamara?” questioned Juniper as she played with her long white hair.

“I was planning on making a visit to the infirmary after class if anyone cares to join.” A few of the women chimed in that they would come along, Lilith included.

Her motives were not so pure. She mostly wanted to see what the infirmary looked like.