1.10 A demon
It has been 9 months
since I came to this world and my days here have been quite fun. They
used to say, "time passes quickly when you are having fun" and I now
know it really is true. In my previous life, everything was a
competition and I didn't even have time to take care of myself, let
alone having fun with friends.
Like when I was in
school, I had to study a lot to get a good job in the future. And when I
finished school and time to get a job came, everywhere I went for a job
they said that they were looking for experienced people. Nobody even
had time to look at the fresh starters like me.
Compared to my previous
life, I have friends in this one who work together with me. There are
plenty of opportunities in this world and the most incredible thing is,
this world has magic which makes lives here a lot easier. Maybe the
problem with my previous life wasn't lack of magic, I think it's just
that people had forgotten to care for each other. Well, who even had
time for that, they were all busy in their rat race.
For now, we were all
having breakfast together. Nina and I usually cook in the morning since
Miss Rose also has to work at the temple and we thought this will ease
her burden. Miss Rose was here with us having breakfast too.
"Nara, I am going to
train in the forest today since you have learned all the basics of
swordsmanship, will you join me?" Ronald who was done with his breakfast
turned towards me and asked.
I think it's a good idea
since I have mastered almost all the arts Ronald taught me. And it's
about time I learn to combine my sword art with magic. According to
Ronald, training such arts in the forest is a much better idea than
doing it in the usual training ground.
Arica couldn't train in
the forest because she used fire magic and it may cause the forest fire
if anything accidentally went out of hand. But since I can use water
magic, I think using basic fire magic is not a problem for me.
"Yeah, that's a good idea. I can't wait to learns the things you are going to teach me." I said eagerly.
I turned towards girls who were almost done with breakfast and asked: "What will you guys be doing?"
"Since Arica still has
some preparations to do for the written test for Magic knight academy
entrance exam. I will be helping her with that in the library" said Nina
while looking towards Arica.
Arica was good with
practical skills but she was not good at answering written questions.
That was not a big problem though since writing only covered around 10
percent of the total marking system for knights. The rest of the marks
were given based on a practical test which differed every year. For
magicians it was different, writing covered 30 percent of the total
marks for magicians.
"And what about you guys Marina?" I turned towards Marina and asked her.
She still has difficulty
talking confidently but she has gotten a lot better since the start.
She is still not comfortable describing things in detail. But she has
learned a few fire and water attack spells from Arica and Nina which
will help her a lot during the test.
"Am... Sistina and I will help Miss Rose today" She said while looking towards Sistina.
Sistina understood so
she followed after her and said, "since Miss Rose's childhood friend
Miss Lily will be arriving this afternoon, we have decided to help Miss
Rose in finishing the work before that."
"Thank you Sistina and Marina. You all are very good kids" Miss Rose said getting emotional.
After having dinner
Ronald and I were the first ones to leave so we said everyone our byes
and left for the forest. The forest was a bit far so we had to walk for
at least one hour to reach there. Since this world doesn't have any
specific time measuring system, this is just approximation.
It was far and took a
long time to get there so he started explaining how to combine mana with
the sword on the way. We both had wooden swords since metal swords were
expensive.
"It doesn't matter if
you only have just a wooden sword because when you learn how to pass
mana through it becomes harder and sharper than normal steel sword. You
can even use magic attacks with your sword." He said holding the wooden
sword with both his hand.
He filled the wooden
sword he had with mana and swung it towards the tree. A cut mark
appeared on the tree. This magic looks very dangerous since it's so hard
to see it coming. I am more interested in learning how to defend
against it than how to use this attack.
"Since wind magicians can be tricky, you should be prepared for this. You can enhance your physical body by using mana cloak. You have to make a thick layer of raw mana like a cloak around you."
Since raw mana couldn't
be seen and only be sensed, I couldn't see what he did but tried doing
it as he described. I am not sure if it worked or not but I am not
planning to tell him to attack me with that magic to see if it worked.
Since I was good with magic control, I think I will be able to maintain
it for a while.
We reached inside the
forest which had trees with cuts mark all over them. I realized this may
be the place where he usually trains.
This place looks cool, like a training ground from some ninja movie.
"Now let's train how to
focus your nana into your sword. For this one, you need to treat your
sword like a part of your body, you need to remember your sword is both
your shield and weapon. Then pass the mana absorbed in your body from
your hands to your sword and convert it into magical energy right before
release."
He demonstrated the cool attack he did earlier for which I was eager to learn the defense than the actual technique.
"This is called air slash.
It's hard to master since you need to synchronize the mana conversion
with the swing but the way you learn things, I think you will pick up
quickly."
I tried doing that but when I was trying to absorb mana from the environment, I sense something else, something dark.
As soon as I sensed that, I turned towards Ronald and said, "I sense something, it feels as if it's polluting the mana."
As soon as I said that
Ronald closed his eyes and tried to sense that too. Wind magic users are
good at sensing things so he picked it up too, he said, "It feels like a
demon, but there shouldn't be any around this part."
As soon as he said that I reflexively jumped towards Ronald. An attack that looked similar to air slash but was a lot bigger and dark in color passed right above us and chopped the tree behind us.
"CURSE THOSE KNIGHTS!!! UHAAAAAA"
A gorilla-like being
from whose body a dark smoke-like thing was coming out came in front of
us. It definitely wasn't mana that was covering his body because it felt
evil and natural mana was always invisible.
"DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT"
He started attacking us
with the attack he used earlier. His aim was off but his range was large
so we barely managed to dodge it. We ran away from there and hid in the
bushes.
"It looks like a lesser
demon and it's strange that one has appeared in this area. Usually, they
appear in the forest on the other side of the town. This is my first
time seeing one here in all these years" Ronald said looking more
worried than surprised.
"Can we fight it?" I asked since we had no way of scaping with the way it was chopping down the trees with every attack.
"I don't think we can
fight it. Even trained knights can only fight lesser demons when they
are being supported by a magician. Our best option is to distract the
demon and make a run for it" He said looking at his wooden sword.
It was true, there was no way two kids with wooden swords could beat a demon. But our options were limited at this point.
"Okay, I have an idea. I
am not sure if it will work but let's give it a try" I said while
peaking towards the demon from the bush.
"Okay, what is it?" He asked looking towards me.
"I will sneak towards
the other side and when I give the signal you will attack the demon with
air slash. It may not harm it but it will definitely distract it and at
that moment I will attack the demon with fire javelin from behind. As
soon as I do that we will make a run for it before the demon has time to
recover." I told Ronald the plan to which he agreed.
As planned I sneaked
behind the demon and signaled to attack. Ronald came out of the bush and
attacked the demon with air slash and ran towards the tree on the other
side before the demon had an opportunity to attack towards that
direction. As soon as the demon started attacking in the direction from
where Ronald made an attack earlier. I stroked on demon using three fire
javelin at the same time.
I couldn't use my full
power because that would cause a forest fire but I was ready to use it
as a last resort. The demon started blindly attacking everywhere when he
was stabbed with the fire javelins. We made a run for it but I wasn't
very lucky, I was hit by one of the dark slashes and got thrown towards the tree.
I was sure I was going to die if one of those hit me but I survived thanks to the Mana cloak Ronald
taught me on the way here. I looked towards the demon which had stopped
attacking. The fire javelins were still stabbed on it. After a few
seconds, the demon disappeared leaving behind only the black mist.
We breathed a sigh of
relief. It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had since I
came to this world. Right after we were able to breathe properly we
decided to head back towards the village.
Next Chapter: Back Home Alive
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