Master and apprentice

It doesn't feel like my bones are broken, I don't know if it's a matter of luck or my body being enhanced because of my training. One thing I am sure about is that for a long time now I didn't have any dark in my proximity, nothing until now. But when the time came, that power… Rejected me completely. Now… I can't even dream of obtaining it.

"God… It hurts like hell. That thing you threw at me… What was that?" I don't like asking but at this point, in this weird coincidence, I had to. There is no way that it started rejecting me to that point, it launched me into the wall. God… What were you actually?

"It was just a ball of metal!" Estel was panicking and trying to help me stand up from the ground, I was still holding my chest in the place where the heart should be located. Pain surging through my body for some time now, making me crumble down. Somehow, it was more painful than what the old bastard did to me some days ago.

"It wasn't even fast… Are spells twice as effective on me but weapons work the other way around?" This might be the case, this must be the case. I will have to check it once again… And hope that I won't die.

"But why?" Estel asked with big eyes still not believing what actually happened. He was pale and blood was still leaking out from his mouth because of that stick he attacked me with before. Somewhat scary… But it makes me somewhat immune to direct attacks with the dark.

"Maybe because of my training… I actually don't know, it's very weird. If it launched you when you attacked with the stick but it launched me when you attacked me indirectly… I get it, I know how it works! It may sound dumb, but I don't think there is any other way to explain it. When you are directly connected to the dark when you attack me, it repels you, when I get attacked by a spell indirectly, I get repelled." Every word I said caused me to cough and increase the time it took me to explain it. I tried to stand up while feeling and hearing the bones cracking inside of me. One hand on the ground and the other on the knee, even with all of my strength and utmost will to stand up, the pain just made me crumble down. I fell on my chest instead of my hands, the pain once again, like thunder just assimilated any pleasant body feeling I had, Completely changed it by 180 degrees.

"It does make sense… But we need to ensure it don't we?" Estel added but this time he looked down while saying it. Meanwhile, Matthew once again stood up from his bed and looked at me.

"I will do it, stand up Hayden, I can take it," Matthew exclaimed while making a proud face. I then stood up and looked at the dwarf, directly into his eyes, piercing him almost.

"Are you sure?" I wanted to reassure myself that he won't say anything against it but he just shook his head. Well, it won't be my fault then. He created a weapon himself, an axe, a typical dwarven weapon. He started running at me with a large wind up following, the weapon from behind his back swung onto my exposed chest. I closed my eyes before the impact, but it was cut short by the sound of a strong impact and some stones hitting my face lightly. My theory was correct, Matthew was in the wall, lightly inside of it but not as much as I was.

"Hayden, the hell are you made off?" He coughed up blood while saying it, slowly he crawled back out from the hole he was in. The impact wasn't half as loud and half as powerful as the one that happened to me, but somehow still made him cough blood.

"I don't know myself, I am sure about something though, my thesis was correct. It works exactly how I explained." Matthew was able to stand up and not have any major issues with moving anymore. Now I realized one more thing which may be very… Bad, tomorrow we are going to escape and we did this kind of thing today. Three from four are injured, well, we all are injured since Marcus still… Can't get it all together which is very unfortunate.

"It's just as Estel said before, it's like a barrier. Or another layer of skin but only protecting you… Well, not protecting but 'rejecting' the dark." Matthew put it into words I did not think about, I didn't feel him even approaching, only the wind created by his swing could be felt and nothing else besides that.

"What are we going to do now?" Estel asked but we both actually just sat down on our beds not having any idea on what to do or say.

"Well, we can't spar so I think I will go and train some more…" When those words left my mouth the elf seemed to be a little annoyed. But then he approached my bed, a dark sword in his hands.

"You think so?" He asked me and then with the sword made a large windup, I dodged it without any problems. The swing felt a lot slower than before, the fight between the master and his apprentice is about to unfold huh?

"If you put it that way, I don't" This answer made Estel's face a lot brighter, my body also felt better once again. The impact hasn't vanished but it was already a little better. Another swing came from his direction but once again it was very slow. A smile appeared on my face, the frail bones didn't feel frail anymore. I had to fight with my fists, I will do it. To win I have to fight as he did before but weaponless, try to fight with hands just like I would do with a weapon.

He created his second sword but didn't go into his stance, I did though but without a weapon. I used the fool's guard as my premonition to fight with hands, right hand in front almost completely straight and the other closer to my chest. But still next to the hand right in front of me. Now, he looked directly at me and I looked at him. Both of us had smiles on our faces.

"What a shame that you want to fight instead of something else. We should talk about the escape but, well, we can't do that." I pointed quickly at Marcus who was still on the bed but moved it into the corner of the cell. Estel made a swing with both of his swords, I dodged, his swing was once again a lot slower. Really slow, almost slow to the point of stopping in time entirely.

"Well, we can't do anything about it really, our communicator is unable to communicate well." He then stopped talking, I saw it in his eyes, he didn't want to talk at all anymore. Just fight and try to win, even though he knows he has no chance. He finally went into his stance, which pushed me into going to the world of the weapons he followed. Now we both were inside of the sand world with weapons in the sand, I was in my stand, he was in his. Both of us were ready to fight for life and death, but there was no life and death here. Here, it was a win and lose, a rivalry fight. My first real rival, finally, someone… Who feels on my level, rather, I feel on his level.

We both jumped at each other, my golden sword appeared in my hands even though I didn't have the real one, Estel's red sword was also there, two red swords. He smiled even wider. Is it because I reached a certain level? It certainly is that, but there is no way to think about it, there is only a fight.

He leaned down making a spin on the ground with both of his swords making a whirl on the ground level. I jumped and avoided that attack fairly easily, it was slow, once again… Slow. At the moment when I was in the air, the sword, the sword was right above my head prepared to fall like a hammer on the nonbeliever. He looked at me from under my feet and in the instance of seeing my weapon in the air, he waltzed back the same instance. He was slow, it didn't feel the same as at the beginning, nothing like when he was my master.

When he went back to where we both started, the very beginning in the same position. Sweat fell down his forehead, finally… It finally happened! He broke a sweat, I can finally go all out.

I dashed behind him, I was so quick he wasn't able to spot it until two seconds later, the sweat on his forehead started flowing a lot faster. But his moves, got slower. He swung to the back increasing the attack with his waist. I sat down while the attack was approaching around the area of his chest. Estel was still in motion while I was relaxing on the ground, the time was slow, his moves were slow as everything around me. He stumbled on me, he swung too hard trying to attack me and just fell on the ground.

"Well, what do you think of Estel." Before he even answered I caught him midair and corrected him, not corrected, rather put him in a standing position once again.

"..." He didn't answer instantly, his entire body was covered in sweat, the shirt he got from Marcus before was stinking immensely. I sat down on the bed, and so, the rivalry of master and apprentice has finished. Me emerging victorious.