Sword and Mana

Every morning, Blaze would wait for Leus in the garden at dawn.

At first, Blaze needed to wake him up, but now, Leus got up on his own ...

As usual, Leus freshened up and went to the yard. As soon as Blaze saw him, he threw the sword at him, and Leus caught it with flexibility

"Now that you can stand your ground, I will focus on teaching you how to fight properly"

Leus nodded and fixed his posture

"Watch this" Said Blaze while taking a stance ...

He firmly held the sword with both his hands and aimed forward, so the tip of his sword pointed slightly upward ...

Then, Blaze's red eyes gleamed for just a second, and flames engulfed the sword whole ...

"You have to think of your sword as a part of your body; not a separated entity, but an extension of your very hand"

After Blaze was done talking, the fire calmed down a bit, but the sword was still enflamed ...

Leus looked at the sword with furrowed brows

"I have a question ..."

"Yes?"

"How is the wood not ... I don't know - burning?"

After Leus said that he deeply inspected his sword

'No matter how I look at it, it is just an average wooden sword'

'How is it not turning into ashes?'

Leus wanted to ask about this the first time too, but he was too upset to ask about it ...

Blaze spoke, interrupting Leus' train of thought

"That's because these are not normal swords"

He tapped on his burning sword as he continued

"These swords are actually designed for Knights' mock battles, they are not normal swords, they are enchanted ones. Inside them, there are Mana Stones."

Leus kept looking at the sword but he couldn't see anything of that sort

'Must be hidden inside or something, I can't see or feel anything'

Blaze waited until Leus was done inspecting his sword then he continued

"Now focus on the important thing.

To cover your sword with Mana like I just did, you must transform the mana inside you into the Mana of the element you want, then slowly push it out of your body into your sword."

" ... I see" Leus said with a nod

"Try to do it. Take your time"

Leus started following Blaze's instructions ...

He concentrated on the mana inside him, transformed it into fire mana, and slowly started to push it out of his body and into his sword

'Heh, this is nothing compared to transforming the Neutral Mana around me to Elemental Mana'

' ... This feels so easy'

In just a matter of seconds, Leus' sword was engulfed in flames ...

However, the flames weren't stable; sometimes they'd not extend to the end of the sword, other times they'd cover only half of the sword.

But regardless of the imperfections, the sword was on fire.

Blaze, on the other side, was staring at Leus in a daze

'What the ~'

'... How in the world could he do it already????!!!!'

It took him a bit of time to get over the initial shock, then he started scratching the back of his neck

"That should've been harder" He murmured

Nevertheless, he controlled his expression so as not to make Leus feel like he achieved something amazing

'I don't want to praise him too much or spoil him'

He quickly fixed his expression and tone and started giving Leus instructions

"Good job. The imperfections are because you're not feeling your sword.

Think of it like this: if you extend your arm forward, even with your eyes closed, you'll intrinsically know how far your arm is extended.

Now think of your sword in the same way; instead of thinking about how much mana to put into it, stop thinking and focus on your senses"

Leus didn't understand exactly what Blaze meant, but he had a rough idea ...

'I probably need to close my eyes and focus on my senses'

And he did just that ...

Surprisingly, it wasn't all that difficult; he quickly was able to adjust the amount of the Mana he needed to put into the sword. Though, Leus wasn't really impressed by himself

'After thousands of slashes, I should be able to achieve this much'

Regardless, there was something else on Leus' mind

'I want to try something'

He put his sword down and summoned his daggers ...

Blaze just looked at what Leus was trying to do with narrowed eyes and didn't say anything ...

Leus held two daggers in his hands and tried to push Fire Mana into them, but the daggers didn't get enflamed ...

'Maybe they need more Mana?'

He pushed even more mana out ...

Still, it didn't work

'Why is it not working'

As Leus was pondering over that, Blaze asked him

"What are you trying to do?"

Leus explained

"I'm trying to do the same thing with my daggers"

Blaze thought about it for a couple of seconds and then answered

"For something like that to work on summoned weapons, it requires more complex Abstracts"

Leus stopped and looked at him for further explanation, but sadly, Blaze only shrugged

"I don't know the details, I'm not a magician.

I only know that combining two different types of Mana is a complex process."

With a sigh, Leus nodded

"Thanks anyway"

But before he stopped, he tried something else ...

Instead of putting Fire Mana into the daggers, Leus tried to directly create flames on them ...

And easily, that worked

'Sadly, it is just useless ...'

'I'm putting a fire spell on top of the dagger. If that's what I want, then it'd be better to put a dagger inside a fireball'

'I want the dagger itself to be burning'

Which wasn't happening ....

Unfortunately, Leus had to give up on his (Super Dagger Theory); he canceled his daggers and picked up his sword again

While swinging his burning sword around, Leus nonchalantly asked

"Dad, do I have to use only fire?"

Blaze was perplexed by Leus' question

"Hmm? What? You can use other elements?"

Leus looked at Blaze with an expression that said

"Duh?! Obviously ..."

Wordlessly, Leus started trying different types of mana on his sword ...

He started with Earth Mana

'That's just useless ...'

'Why would I want to cover my sword with rocks?'

He tried to add more Earth Mana thinking that he might be able to sharpen the sword or do something useful with it ...

'Well, if the mana is properly controlled and big enough, I can create a sharp edge ...'

'That's cool here with a wooden sword, but there's no use for it on a real sword ...'

'Maybe I can elongate my sword with it?'

'But ... I don't need more range with my sword, that's what Magic is for'

He sighed ...

In conclusion, Earth wasn't all that useful, so he tried a different element

'Water'

Instantly, the sword became coated in a thick liquid substance ...

Leus looked at it with interest

'What's the use of this?'

He slashed his sword a few times

'There's hardly any difference in weight, but I don't know what's the use of this ...'

'Maybe it can extinguish Fire Mana or something?'

The more Mana Leus added, the thicker the liquid became, but he still couldn't think of a specific use for it, so he just moved on to the next element ...

'Ice'

' ... '

'How boring ...'

'It is just a cold version of earth mana'

Honestly, Leus really hated Ice, so he quickly moved on to the next element

'Wind'

That caught his interest

'Intriguing'

The wind gathered around the sword and Leus felt control over it

'Hmm, I think I know what this would do'

He started slashing

WHOOSH

'As expected ...'

'It is like Boost, but smaller and weaker'

When Leus willed it, the wind around the sword would just shoot forward, increasing the speed of the slash

'It's subtle but very effective'

'I'll need some training to master it, but I should be able to do it ...'

'It should be easier than learning Boost'

Leus was satisfied with his findings and tried the next element

'Light'

As soon as Leus added Light Mana, the sword started shining, and the more mana he put, the shinier the sword became, but that wasn't what mattered

'Impressive ...'

'It's reducing the weight'

Enchanted, Leus kept putting mana into the sword until it became as light as a feather

'That's just fascinating'

Leus was quite impressed; he didn't expect light to do much, but it had a really cool effect ...

'It negates all the weight of the sword, it's like I'm not carrying anything'

'I wonder what would Darkness do? Would it make the sword heavier?'

Sadly, Leus had no idea how to transform his Mana into Darkness Mana

'Once again, I need Darkness spells'

'That's the first thing I'll ask for when I go to Arno'

Leus was done trying all the elements, so he fixed his posture, took a stance, and looked at Blaze ...

However, Blaze was looking at him in a very strange way ...

" ... Dad?"