Morgana watched him stand without a word.
Her expression hadn’t changed, but there was sothing in her eyes.
A faint, attentive quality, like she was asuring sothing she hadn’t expected to need to asure.
They went again.
And then again.
Students gaze at them but didn’t comnt. Bit they were surprised to see Noah getting trainer by instructor Morgana.
She struck him cleanly on the shoulder.
"Arghh!"
He went down. He got up.
’Not yet!’
She swept his legs out from under him in the middle of a swing. He hit the floor. He got up.
She caught his wrist mid-attack, redirected his montum against himself, and sent him stumbling into few steps.
He steadied himself. He ca back.
Each ti he rose, sothing small had shifted.
His stance was slightly lower. His transitions between strikes were slightly tighter.
The tells in his footwork were becoming less obvious. The grip stayed firm through the follow-through.
It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t a sudden leap in ability. But it was consistent, and it was real, and Morgana could see it clearly with every exchange.
The corner of her mouth curved. Barely into sothing that could generously be called a smile.
Not one of warmth exactly. More the expression of soone who had found sothing that was interesting enough to enjoy. Watching him reset his footing after another fall.
’It’s working faster than I expected.’ Noah thought.
After a while.
On the floor of the training hall, Noah planted the base of the axe against the ground and caught his breath, sweat already soaking through the back of his collar.
He breath heavily. ’Damn...she’s standing tall without a drop of sweat...while I am all soak.’
His ribs ached from the earlier elbow. His shoulder had a bruise forming that he could already feel tightening.
He looked up at Morgana, who stood a few ters away with that sa composed, unreadable expression.
’This isn’t enough,’ he thought. The thought was clear and simple and completely without self-pity. ’I’m still too slow. My transitions still have gaps. My lower body still betrays my swings before I complete them.’
He straightened up, rolled his shoulder once to shake out the stiffness, and readjusted his grip on the axe.
’I need to work harder than this.’
He t Morgana’s eyes.
"Again," he said.
She looked at him for just a mont.
Then she raised her hand in that sa lazy, unhurried gesture as before.
"Co."
---
A few hours had passed since the morning session.
Lunch break had co and gone, and the academy had settled into that quieter rhythm that followed midday als.
Noah walked back into the training hall.
His ribs were still hurting from Morgana’s strikes. His shoulder carried a bruise that had fully ford by now and made itself known with every arm movent.
The muscles along his back and legs ached.
It was the good kind of pain. Which told him that he had work hard.
But that session had been purely physical.
He didn’t use any mana. Just his body, a weapon, and an instructor who had absolutely no interest in going easy on him.
Which ant his mana hadn’t been touched at all.
He stepped out of the training hall and crossed toward the academy’s open training ground instead. Noah moved away from them, found a large tree near the edge of the grounds. It had good shade and enough open space in front of it, and sat down beneath it.
Cross-legged. Back relatively straight.
He closed his eyes.
He turned his focus inward, away from the sounds of the training ground and the ache in his body. And found the familiar pull of his mana core sitting deep in his chest.
He guided mana outward slowly.
The temperature around his hands dropped by a few degrees. Thin threads of pale blue light gathered at his fingertips, then rose into the air in front of him.
It started to curling and thickening as the mana shaped itself into sothing solid.
Then he created three swords cleanly. Pale ice, semi-transparent, catching the afternoon light along its edges like glass.
The he created two spears.
Noah opened his eyes and looked at them.
Then he pushed further.
’Let’s try axe. ’ He thought.
A sixth weapon.
He felt the resistance imdiately.
The mana flow stuttered. His brow furrowed. A mild, insistent throb started behind his eyes. A thin bead of sweat traced down his temple. Then another.
It was first ti creating axe. So it was little harder.
The shape in the air flickered, half-ford, unstable, the blade uneven.
Noah’s jaw tightened.
’Co on.’
The throbbing behind his eyes sharpened briefly into sothing more pointed. The veins along his forehead rose slightly against his skin.
Sweat had now soaked through his hairline and was running freely down the side of his neck.
The shape in the air trembled.
The axe solidified.
Noah exhaled slowly and looked up.
Six weapons. Three swords, two spears, one axe. Floating in a quiet row above him, rotating gently, catching the light.
A smile crossed his face. "This his great."
He sat with them for a mont, just looking. Then he raised one hand and gave a single ntal command.
They moved.
All six shot upward simultaneously– fast, clean, like arrows loosed from a bow.
They shot upward in sky. Then they stopped.
And ca back down.
Together. All six, descending in perfect formation, building speed as they fell. And then driving into the open ground in front of the tree with a single unified impact that sent a sharp. Heavy crack ford across the training ground.
The ice shattered on contact.
Fragnts burst outward across the grass in a wide spray of glittering blue-white shards.
A few students at the far end of the ground looked over briefly, then looked away.
Noah lowered his hand.
The throbbing behind his eyes was already fading. The mana in his core had dipped, but wasn’t anywhere near empty.
But he looked at the scattered fragnts of ice lting.
.
’Now I can use six,’ he noted. ’The axe form is still unstable at formation. Needs more practice before I try seven.’
He leaned his head back against the tree trunk and stared up through the branches at the strips of blue sky visible between the leaves.
’The field trip to Oakhaven is next week.’
Real forest terrain. Real monsters. Open environnt with no controlled variables.
He needed to be better than he was today before that trip arrived.
’I need to get stronger for the upcoming danger in this trip.’
"Alright...let’s go and practive my blade art now."
Well his training was far from over.
---
Sun dipped lower.
Evening ca in blink of an eye. Orange light cover the Academy.
"Haah....damn..I think I train too much.."
Noah was walking back to dormitory room tiredly. Sohow dragging his body.
He wa swalking slow and careful. Each steps of his were heavy.
Just then his blue eyes caught sothing amusing.
On the path that leads to dormitory room. There at edge of road was soone kneeling.
Her long violet hair were loose. Her whole focus was on a cute black cat in front of her.
’Arisha?’ Noah was surprised to see her...playing with a cat.
’Now that’s new.’ He thought with small smile. And dragged himself toward her.
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