Hidden Magic "Tools"

Kies examined the sword one more time. He saw that parts of it were damaged and there was a tiny bit of rust on it. It seemed that it had been left in the storage room to wear and hasn't been used in years. It wouldn't last very long.

"That sword belonged to someone in my team," Nell told him, noticing his interest in it.

"What happened to them?"

"Killed by demons. His body was blown into so many pieces that we couldn't even bury him."

"That sounds... awful."

"We wanted to return the sword to his family but he had none. We then thought about burying it with his grave in place of his body but we decided not to since a weapon is better off in someone's hands than under a layer of sand."

"And since no one can use it, it was left in the storage to collect dust?"

"Yeah, until now that is."

"Huh, I never expected for this weapon to have such a story... Interesting."

"Anyway, that's enough talk. Let's get started." Nell didn't wait for Kies to respond and charged at him. Kies swung his sword at her before she could get close enough to attack him, causing her to jump back.

"Close! Almost chopped my head off there!"

Oh yeah. Kies almost forgot but they were fighting with real weapons this time and both of them needed to be careful. They could accidentally injure or even kill each other. Nell tried to get close to Kies again but he pushed her back a second time with his sword. Since his weapon had a longer range, he could use it to his advantage to keep Nell from ever reaching him.

Nell circled around Kies to find an opening. Kies also turned his body to follow her as she did so. The winds blew sand across the field, making it hard for both of them to keep their eyes open. Nell took advantage of this and angled herself so that the sand would get into Kies' eyes but it wouldn't get into hers. She stood there for a moment and waited for Kies to blink before making a move.

Nell closed the distance between them in an instant and thrust the sword at his stomach. Kies deflected the attack by shielding himself with the flat of his blade. Nell shook the jolt off her arm from the impact and did five quick slashes at Kies. He moved his sword from side to side to block all the attacks before swinging his sword upwards, sending sand all over the place. Nell threw up one of her arms to shield her eyes from the sand, leaving her exposed for an attack.

"Winds, to me," Kies whispered. The winds surround him, making his body as light as a feather. He started to swing his sword at unimaginable speeds, almost turning himself into a whirlwind. Nell parried the first few attacks but the fourth blow knocked her sword out of her hand, leaving her defenseless. She tried to get away from Kies to retrieve her weapon but Kies chased after her.

"Woah!" Nell nimbly dodged Kies' attacks and rolled away. She grabbed her weapon which was lying on the ground and turned just in time to see Kies jump up into the air with his sword held up high.

"Winds." A layer of wind coated his sword. Kies looked down at Nell and brought his blade down on her as he fell back to the ground. Nell waited for Kies to also reach her before rolling away at the last second to dodge the attack. The winds coating Kies' sword exploded, causing sand to fly up high into the air. The sand landed on Nell, almost burying her in it.

"What in the world!?" Kies saw that Nell was distracted by the sand and didn't let the opportunity go to waste. He charged through the falling sand and swung his blade at her. Nell in turn swung her sword too and the two blades bounced off each other with a clang.

Kies raised her sword and got ready to attack again when Nell suddenly raised her hand and yelled, "Stop!"

Kies stopped his attack and put his sword down. "What?"

"You're a mage!?"

Sh*t. Did he make it a little bit too obvious? Kies thought back to all the attacks he used on her. He swung his sword at inhuman speeds earlier but that shouldn't have tipped her off. The only thing he could think of is the attack he used just now where he jumped into the air and slammed it into the ground at full force.

Even Wompa was looking at him with her eyes wide open in shock. He needed to come up with something fast or else his little secret would get revealed.

"No, I'm not a mage."

"Then what was that!? How did you send sand flying everywhere? You literally have to have the strength of a titan to do that!"

"Titan?"

"They're man-eating giants that roam the desert. Only they can do what you just did with a punch, and you don't look like one."

"Oh. Anyway, like I said, I'm not a mage. That was... my magic artifact," Kies pulled back his sleeve to reveal a black bracelet made out of a material darker than anything they have ever seen.

"A magic artifact!? Where did you get your hands on something like that?"

"I found it." Kies quickly pulled his sleeve back to conceal the bracelet. Of course, it had no magical properties, or, at least it didn't anymore. It was the bracelet that Arc gave him so that they could communicate with each other. Kies still hasn't figured out where Arc vanished to but he kept the bracelet just in case the day came when it would light up again.

"I see... Well, it makes sense you don't want to say."

Kies glanced over at Wompa and saw that her surprised look was gone and she was back to her usual neutral look. She knew that Kies had a bunch of magical items on him (due to Iris' frequent searches of his belongings), and so she wasn't surprised about it. Thanks to the bracelet, he managed to divert their suspicion.

Phew. That was a close one. Kies held up the sword to his face and examined it. Hopefully, he didn't damage it too badly with those attacks. The last thing he wanted was to break it and have to pay for the damages. Luckily, the sword looked the exact same as when he received it. There were a few small cracks here and there, but those had already been there when he received it. There were no new ones created by him.

"Well, I guess that concludes our fight," Nell sighed.

"Do you not want to continue? We didn't decide who won."

"No need. You won. If that fight went on then I would've lost ultimately." To prove her point, Nell held up her sword and Kies saw that it had pieces missing from the blade. There were dents and cracks all over the weapon."

"Did I do that?"

"Yes. If I took one more hit with it, I'm pretty sure I would've shattered."

"Is that so?"

"Well, I guess that means that I need to keep my promise..." Nell sighed again. She put her sword back in her sheath. "Who would've guessed that you had something like that up your sleeves? Quite literally too. I take it that the artifact enchanted your strength or something?" she asked.

"Something like that."

"Okay." Nell clapped her cheeks a few times to get the sand out of her ears. She also shook her head to get rid of the sand in her hair next. "That sucked for me, but having a secret weapon or an ace in your pocket isn't cheating so the victory is yours. Welcome to the team," Nell stuck her hand out with a smile. Kies hesitated for a second and reached and shook it.

"By the way, is there a reason why you have only one glove?" she asked, noticing how Kies was missing one of his gloves.

"This is my dominant hand." Kies waved his right hand where he had the glove. He fought with a sword on his right hand and magic on his left hand and sometimes, he would switch it up if the situation called for it. Either way, he was fine with both but he preferred to fight like this since the glove was for the right hand and the sword appeared where the glove was. It was annoying to have to switch the sword to the other hand every single time if he wanted to be left-handed instead.

"Huh. Maybe I should get a glove as well. My hand is always sore from blisters and cuts," Nell said while looking at her own hand.

Wompa walked over to them and made some weird gestures with her hands which neither of them could understand.

"Aw, you adorable creature. Are you asking for a hug?" Wompa shook her head and tried to back off but it was too late. Nell grabbed Wompa, pulled her close, and embraced her.

"..."

Kies saw that Wompa was pointing at something behind them while still being hugged by the clueless captain. He turned around and saw that one of the guards in her squad that they met earlier was running to them with a panicked look on his face.

"Hey sergeant, I think something is wrong."

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