Power in the Air

Alice's form blurred, quickly appearing underneath me, fists cladded in shimmering brown gauntlets. I quickly reacted, parrying her attacks, then pivoting to the right, quickly cladding my arms in jagged flames, jabbing at her side. She threw her body to the side, successfully dodging my counterattack. Not giving her any time to recover, I launched forward, my flames weaving wildly.

A wall of rock-hard dirt formed and was quickly demolished by my fist. A dirt screen sprouted, causing me to lose sight of her. I felt an overwhelming sensation of a wall bashing into my side as a pillar of rock and dirt crashed into me, sending me sliding across the ground. I quickly recovered, blowing all of the dirt aside with my wind element. My core thrummed with life as cyclones of winds were sent flying all around me. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Alice trying to escape my line of sight.

Alice prepared a spell, and by the murky dark brown color, it was another earth spell, but in her other hand, it was sprouting blue. I quickly channeled more mana towards my legs, sending me at her with alarming speeds. The distance closed in almost an instant, but before I could reach her, a spell went off. Dirt fell to the ground as water quickly took its place. A mudslide. My legs jerked as I fought for control over them. I sent flames down to my feet, trying to turn it into a clay-like substance, before I slammed into her.

I felt friction's resistance start to play its role, but it was too late. I got ready to defend the incoming gauntlet aimed at my stomach. Using my wind element, I tried to create air pressure between us, but it was a complete failure. I was soon hit with a rock-hard gauntlet, which caused my body to jerk back violently. She grabbed my left arm, attempting to hold me in place.

My core bursted with life as flames roared around my arms, threatening to melt her gauntlets. I could feel my core sucking in the ambient fire mana as the mana within me quickly listened to my commands.

Alice's grip only tightened, and in response, I sent an eruption of flames up my arms, reaching the palm of my hand, coalescing into an unstable ball of inferno. Her grip softened as her body pivoted to the side, sending an abundance of dirt walls in her wake. My hand exploded with power, tearing apart the walls in a matter of seconds. My body recoiled back from the pressure. Placing a hand behind me, I sent wind flying out, drastically decreasing my speed, pivoting my form blurred as I reached for Alice, her hazelnut eyes not losing sight of me for a second. 

Her gauntlet shot forward, inches away from my face. Using my right hand, I shot a sphere of wind upward, sending her arm off course and leaving her wide open. I threw my body into hers, tackling her to the floor, but in a last effort, she created a curving wall holding us at bay. My face crashed into the rock-hard dirt wall. Preparing a devastating kick, I channeled a lot of mana into my right leg, crashing into the wall and completely causing us to fall.

"I'm the victor; I tackled you again!" I teased, expecting a grumpy response, but what I got in return was her laughing in utter joy, "Look at your forehead. I think I'm the real winner here." Alice's laughter plastered emotions over my face: embarrassment and confusion. And lastly, her joyful laughter caused a weird feeling to flutter within my chest.

Reaching for my forehead, I felt a lump, and then I could feel the throbbing pain start to play its role, and I could only assume it would get bigger with time. It didn't hurt too bad though. I helped Alice to the floor, looking over her shoulder, not wanting to make eye contact. My eyes drifted about noticing how dirty we had gotten from this fall. "That was fun." Alice expressed with a smile, "Yeah, I didn't expect such spells, especially the mud." I thought back, rubbing the side where I was hit, "You're a good fighter. I'm surprised to know this was your first actual spare, and your stance was amazing!" 

"I was surprised myself." I admitted, my body just seemed to act from extensive training, but it was rusty; it felt like something I could always do but needed to get the hang of again; my movements were good, but they felt sluggish, like I was holding myself back; and the thing that surprises me the most was the control on the mana around me. With there being a little resistance, I seemed to be using mana quite well. With that said, I could also feel the delay in the mana being sent throughout my body, but without a doubt, my manipulation of mana had never been better.

It's like, over the span of the night, I learned how to use mana to such a degree, but I still have a long way to go. I can only do simple spells like wind cyclones and cladding my hands and arms in flames, which are the bare minimum a mage should be doing, but when I think about that dream, using mana had taken quite a toll on me, but I hadn't even reached the first stage of my core yet. From this fight, I could still feel the drainage of mana from within my core. If I had kept fighting and using spells like those, I would have probably begun to strain my core in no time. 

My mother came running out of the glass door, and I could see she was proud. She only stopped for a moment to heal my wound before heading back inside, telling me she's going to prepare breakfast soon and I should wash up before then.

My father and Ryan came out shortly after, "Since when could you use flames?" My father asked, nudging his friend over to Alice, who was right beside me. Expectedly, she moved a little, putting a little distance between us. "I figured it out last night," I replied, simply flickering some of the dirt from my fingernails. "Well, that was an amazing fight. I didn't expect you to have such battle prowess." His voice filled with excitement. "Yeah, a man has to have his own secrets, you know?" I ask jokingly, "So you're a man now? I'll keep that in mind. Igris, can you tell me about the dream you had last night?" Nearing the end of his sentence, his voice had changed tremendously, taking only a more serious demeanor.