Chapter Forty Nine

"Not what I expected from the Siege," she said disappointment clearly laced in her voice.

"Well then, sorry to disappoint you. What are we doing anyway?" I asked her.

"I thought I knew when I brought you here, but now that I have seen you get sick from a simple teleportation," she said stopping mid-sentence. She didn't have to finish her sentence. I knew exactly what she was trying to say, "How do you even have so much magic with no experience at all?"

"I didn't come here to be insulted you know," I raised my point of information. I repositioned myself such that I was leaning against the tree facing her, now that the effects of the teleportation had worn off.

"I know that, let's see. How about you tell me what you are good at?" she asked.

"I can stop time," I said making it sound simple.

"I doubt it," was her reply and this got on my nerves. I had remained unaffected by her attitude for these last four minutes and fifty three seconds. My mental clock was counting surprisingly. I wonder why I had expected her to be less cocky than she had demonstrated in the cave.

"So what did you have in mind before you found out I couldn't stomach teleportation?" I asked trying to dismiss her past behaviour.

"I was going to teach you how to control the elements and the different ways magic can be manipulated. But I don't think…"

"Proceed with that. If I'm not ready for it, then I'll back down and take a few steps back," I said.

"Am afraid I don't have that much time to waste on you," she said firmly.

"Fine, how about this, if I prove to be a waste of your time, then you don't have to do this again," I said and waited for her to weigh her options.

"What makes you think I will quit teaching you if you are indeed a waste of time?"

I brought my hands to my face and held the urge of screaming into them. This woman was more frustrating than I thought possible. 'This is impossible.' "I don't want to waste your time okay," I said.

"You're quite impulsive. You won't get far with an attitude like that," she said in the same mocking tone that she had kept up this whole time.

I had just about had enough of the insults. If this elf was anything like the mages that Bergstrom had me fight in the training room,

"Don't even think of attacking me. Your anger is pouring out of you in waves. I can even tell what your next actions are going to be," she said. 'What's this all about? I don't want to go back to Bergstrom and tell him that we had failed to work together after he had got us to work together which reminds me.

"Why can't Bergstrom teach me magic himself?" I asked. I turned back to annoying Kalifa when I didn't get an answer. She was fidgeting like she was hoping I would forget what I had just asked her. "Hello, can I get my answer?" I asked.

"That may be because he can't use magic as well as I can and was just trying to get you the best teacher you can ever have in Armensia," she said while she couldn't keep a straight eye with me. 'Oh, just perfect,' I turned my back on her and began walking back to the castle to find Bergstrom so I could have the answer for the reason I was being subjected to these never ending insults. "Wait, fine, I'll tell you. I'm the one who asked him to allow me train you."

This revelation stopped me in my tracks. I turned back to her infuriated, "Then explain what it is you are doing exactly."

"Okay, so you probably haven't noticed yet, but your lesson already started," she said simply.

"Pardon."

"Magic can many times be affected by the emotions of the caster, so I was trying to see how you would fare when you are angry," she said, "unfortunately for me, you are extremely hard to infuriate the way I had thought."

"What exactly is the meaning of this lesson?" I asked.

"You will soon realise that mages who have mastered magic don't easily get shaken by events because they have to stay focused on keeping their emotions in check. Let me use an example of fire magic. If you use a fire spell and something scares or shakes your resolve, no matter how hard you try, the flames will burn out," she said. It made sense although it seemed obvious to me that it would be the case. "You haven't noticed have you?"

"Noticed what?" I asked.

"I was serious about reading your next actions. What stopped you from attacking me? Was it the fact that I had said I could read your actions?" she asked.

"Probably, what's your point?"

"Why don't you attack me then? I brought your combat suit for this," she said tossing me a bag that she materialised from her void.

I sped to the dressing room and changed before getting back. "Come at me any time," she said as though I was not a threat. I let magic fill my body before I charged at a very high speed towards her. She remained still while I came towards her, frozen with her cocky smile as I approached her, my intention being knocking the wind out of her with a strike to the gut. This normally would have been hard for me to pull off since I knew this was not some simulation, but she asked for it anyway.

At the moment my fist was meant to connect with her stomach I was met with so much resistance that I could compare it to a brick wall. I quickly backed away clutching my hand as to soothe the constant throbbing that was a constant reminder of just how bad it felt. Pain radiated through my hand from the contact I had just made with the brick wall of a stomach that Kalifa had. "You know, being fast doesn't make you invincible," she said while circling around me, "my advice to you is to pay more attention."

That being said, I was still stunned by the resistance I got from her stomach, but I could tell it was not cloth or flesh that my fist connected with. I tried the same trick again, but with something else in mind. As my fist got closer to her gut, I saw a force field form right at the spot that I aimed to hit just in time to halt my advance and back away from the elf. She wasn't moving, but she was still able to evade me using well timed force fields.

"I may not be able to move as fast as you when you are moving that fast, but I can follow your movements with my eyes and magic evading you perfectly. Besides, if brute force is the only thing you plan to use in this duel then you are not going to get close to winning this no matter how hard you try."

I wanted so much to try and fight but to be honest, close combat is all I was capable of achieving at this moment with my current abilities. 'Wait, what if?' an idea sparked in my mind and I quickly sat cross-legged. One thing was for sure, I wasn't winning in a close fight unless I employed magic. The people of Armensia were fond of placing protective wards upon themselves to protect themselves from physical attacks.

"That would be all for the physical part now," she said the moment I closed my eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The technique you want to employ right now is hard to initiate. In a real fight you would be pulverized before you even released your magic," she explained and took a seat directly in front of me.

"The theoretical part of your lesson shall now begin. As you have noticed, when you meditate, you are able to connect with your surroundings up to the point that you can control them. The only problem with that is that you need time to unleash a spell of that magnitude," she explained.

"Then what is the use of learning it," I asked.

"Oh you have no idea. The only reason it is useless now is because your magic output is still slow and you are not even familiar with it. The most effective way to use this technique is to keep the magic constantly flowing out of you until you get used to the feeling. For many people who have mastered this technique, it is said that you could feel their presence a mile before they got to you. I don't doubt the fact that this technique is powerful and that if you indeed master it, you would be fairly advantaged, it's just that to use it, you must be constantly releasing magic for the sole purpose of keeping your connection with your surroundings. What's more is that you have to learn to do it with your eyes open which is really advanced magic," she explained. This was finally starting to feel like a lecture.