Sherry
And here I was again, facing him like this.
He had a really confident grin on his face too. Marina must have taught him some new magic to defeat me. She’s really clever at that stuff after all, unlike me, who can’t do any magic at all. Hugo had tried a couple of times to teach me, but I couldn’t do even the basic elementary-level spells.
All I could do was to swing my sword hard and fast. Harder and faster than Hugo or Marina could.
In that sense, I was similar to Hugo’s father—a raw and pure swordsman, with no other ability to his belt.
I wish I could use magic though. Just so I could be closer to Hugo.
Everytime he went away to practice his magic, I always secretly wished that I could follow him and train together with him.
Lately, he hadn’t been practicing his swordplay after all, with me and his father. He was completely focused in his own training that I couldn’t quite understand. But I suppose that’s just how a mage was supposed to train. Marina must have taught him his training method.
And all that, just so he could protect me.
That idiot. Doesn’t he get it that I’d rather have him spend more time with me? I don’t care if he’s weaker than me. I’ll be the one to protect him. A mage like him should just sit back while a swordswoman like me keeps him of harm’s way.
I should’ve said that to his face, instead of getting charmed by him and giving him a kiss on the lips.
After that day, he continued his training, until our second match where I won pretty handily. I thought it would be enough, that he would abandon this nonsense about getting stronger than me.
Instead, it only made him train even harder.
A couple more times we had our spar, with me still winning every time. And I only came out feeling bad from it.
And yet, he still worked and trained as hard as ever. I couldn’t understand. Why didn’t he give up or feel any sense of despair from his constant defeat? I would’ve given up if I were in his position.
And then, it came to me. He wasn’t just kind. He was also strong-willed. He would not give up on his goal even after suffering numerous setbacks on the way.
And I admired him for it
His father was right. This was good for him after all. And I was right to hold my tongue and not tell him to give up. I would betray his determination if I had.
At first, I thought it was because of his ego, that he didn’t want a girl to be stronger than him. It made me upset, to the point that I wanted to punch him right on his stupid face.
But with how determined he was, relentlessly training himself for months on end, I knew that was far from the truth. He wasn’t doing it just because of a stupid boyish pride. He was doing it truly because he cared about me.
And that made me happy beyond belief.
For me, who had never been loved this much before, it was truly like a dream come true.
He really is my Prince in Shining Armor…
Even so, as I stared across the field at him, I had no intention of taking it easy on him.
I would just be insulting him if I did.
“Ready?” I heard Hugo’s father starting the countdown.
“Set…” I bent my body forward, gripping my sword tighter. It’s a real sword now, made out of steel. Hugo’s father gave it to me just this month, as he felt I was ready for it.
“Go!”
I launched myself forward, right towards him. Using my leg strength, I could jump far, enough to cross half of the field in a single second.
He responded by conjuring a wall made out of earth to block my path. I believed it was an advanced-level spell that he had trained to be able to cast quickly.
Nothing that I couldn’t handle though.
“Hyaah!”
With a single swing, I split the wall apart.
Only to find that he was no longer behind it.
“Where did he—”
“Air Sunder!”
Above! He was above me all along! He must have jumped there with his wind spell when I was distracted by the wall!
Quickly, I moved my sight upward, raising my sword so I would be able to block his incoming spell.
However, it wasn’t just a normal wind spell. It was an Advanced-level one. Even me, with my strength, couldn’t withstand its sheer power. My feet lost their grip on the ground and I was thrown away by it.
G-gah! He really is getting stronger and stronger everytime we fight!
I was happy, but at the same time, I didn’t want to lose either.
I quickly recovered, standing up on my feet in no time at all. And, just as I predicted, he didn’t let up in the slightest. He now conjured a blast of cold right at my direction, no doubt intending to freeze me with it, thus sealing his victory. From the power, I imagined it was another Advanced-level spell he was throwing at me.
Naive! I’ll show him a new technique I just learned recently!
With a confident grin, I moved my sword backwards near my left hip. I waited patiently for the cold blast to come closer, just like Hugo’s father instructed me. And then, right on the perfect moment, I swung it horizontally, with a power and speed that you couldn’t even see the sword moving.
The cold blast was blown away by my strike—icicles flying on all directions as the spell dissipated entirely.
I took notice of Hugo’s surprised expression. I couldn’t help but smirk.
I immediately jumped again towards him, not wanting to let this opportunity go to waste. This time, he was much closer to me. There would be no time for him to cast another Advanced-level spell.
Only for a giant hand made out of rock to suddenly pop out from the ground and hold me from behind.
“W-what? B-but how—”
My question was immediately answered, as another figure appeared in front of him, forming out of a mud puddle that he had been standing behind.
She had the appearance of a small child, wearing a green and brown coat and hat. She had long, brown hair that reached down to her waist, and the coat’s collar was tall enough to cover her mouth, I could immediately tell that she wasn’t a human, from the pointed ears that she had, if the whole forming-from-mud thing wasn’t obvious enough.
Another figure popped up. This time, she stood on top of his head. Ah, I remembered this one. It was his high fairy.
I see it now. This little girl is his new summon. He had brought them up and I didn’t even notice.
The rock hand gripped me even tighter, sending a surge of pain all over my body. I could tell that it was the new summon who was controlling it.
It was not enough to stop me however.
“Aaarghh!”
With all my strength, I pushed away the hand from my body. It shattered, and a flash of surprise was drawn on the girl’s face.
“Hyaah! Take this, you stupid human!”
The high fairy fired off a water spell, which I promptly dodged by just a simple sidestep. Heh, too slow, little one. Too slow.
I quickly pivoted myself, aiming to close my distance with Hugo once again. He smartly had jetted away using his wind spell, putting more gap between us, using his summons to buy time.
Tch, how annoying.
Fine! You want to run away! Then I’ll go after your summons instead!
I turned to face the high fairy, earning an “Eeeekkk!” from her. “G-go away, scary human!” Were all fairies this cowardly?
The other one, however, simply returned my glare with a neutral, almost uncaring expression on her face. Now this one seemed to be the more dependable amongst the two.
Which meant that I had to take care of her first.
“K-kyah!”
I suddenly felt what seemed to be a pair of hands holding my feet in place. I looked down, and there were indeed a pair of hands made up of mud doing so.
It’s her working again!
I quickly tried to shake them off, only to find that my feet were also slowly sinking to the earth!
“Hehe, good job, earth fairy! We got her right where we wanted her!” The high fairy cheered, her fear seemingly had vanished entirely.
Meanwhile, my legs continued to sink into the muddy earth. It was a truly unpleasant feeling as I could feel the mud slowly creep into the crevices of my shoes.
“Alright, you stupid human! Prepare to be humiliated!” The high fairy pointed at me. “This is what you get for bullying my master!”
Bullying? I had no idea what she was talking about.
I was glad that the little fairy was stupid enough to gloat around instead of actually attacking me and finishing me off (Hugo, you really needed better summons). It gave me enough time to free myself from the mud trap, by stabbing my sword to the ground, creating a below ground explosion that sent both me and the mud flying away from each other. It ended up raining mud, dirtying both me and the two summoned Fey with it.
“Aaah, stupid human! Now I’m all sticky!”
The earth fairy seemed to take it well, naturally, but the spring fairy was clearly disgusted by her current condition.
“Ptch.” I spat out some mud that managed to enter my mouth. I too was disgusted, but in a fight, getting dirty was only to be expected.
I didn’t realize that I had let my guard down.
From behind, I felt a wave of searing pain entering my body, causing every nerve in my body to jolt in shock. For a split second, I lost my consciousness, before regaining it back once my face already touched the ground.
And then, I felt it—cold steel being placed on the back of my neck.
I looked up, and saw Hugo’s exhausted yet smiling face.
He had won.
—-
Hugo
I-I can’t believe it!
I-I won! I-I just won against Sherry!
That was tough! Really tough! So many things could’ve gone wrong! I was just lucky that it went that way!
First, my Air Sunder spell didn’t do enough damage to her as I wanted. She was indeed sent flying, but she recovered quickly, jumping back up right after her back touched the ground.
Wow, I couldn’t have done that for sure!
I quickly shifted gear. Using the time I just made for myself, just like Marina had taught me, I cast a Cold Blast spell. Unlike the wind spell from before, I didn’t prioritize speed over power. I wanted it to be as strong as possible, as I wanted it to immobilize her completely.
I underestimated her. Even with a longer charging time, my spell was completely deflected, just by a single swing of her sword.
Amazing! No doubt it’s a new technique Father had taught her!
Guess I have to bring out my summons after all.
Unlike normal spells, you could perform summoning spells in a pretty fast manner. Marina explained how the pact you made with the beings on the other side acted similarly to a pre-casted spell, meaning you pretty much only activated the spell, not weaving the spell itself every time you wanted to use it.
Of course, I had instructed and trained the two beforehand on what to do, especially with Miss Little Earth Fairy, who I believed would be a key to my victory.
—-
As she had promised, Marina helped me obtain another summon, specifically one that might help me in my fight against Sherry. She gave me several options, and at first, I tried getting the cool ones, like the giant wolf or deer or even an eagle. But none of them were willing to make a pact with me. Or, to be more exact, I couldn’t really finish the challenges they gave to me. Marina said that a Fey tend to make the requirements of a pact harder if they didn’t like the summoner, so I hoped it wasn’t me that was bad—it was them who intentionally gave impossible challenges. The wolf demanded that I rode him, but after ten times of being thrown off his back like I was nothing, he left, saying that I bored him. The deer wanted me to chase him through the forest, but after our race started, I ended up losing his tracks completely. The eagle, on the other hand, wanted me to chase him to the skies. I tried doing so with my Wind Step, but he just laughed and sent me flying back down with a mighty gust generated by his wings.
In the end, I had to settle with a fairy yet again.
She was an Earth Fairy, or to be more exact, an Earth Sprite. Sprites didn’t have wings like their more common fairy sisters. I met her while she was swimming around inside what could only be described as a lake of mud. It was honestly quite the bizarre scene to see, especially since the mud was thick yet she could swim through it like it was water.
Jiiiiiiiii~
She gave me a stare when she took notice of my presence. She didn’t approach me however. Unlike the spring fairy, she seemed to be the reserved, shy type.
Guess I have to be the one to come to her.
I paused, looking at the mud lake again. I didn’t know how deep it was, or even if I could really swim through it. I could end up being sucked in to the bottom, due to how soft yet thick the mud was.
Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I bravely entered the lake, recoiling at the disgusting feeling I felt from the act. It was all sticky and gooey. Urgh, I immediately felt a strong urge to take a bath. Using my Earth magic, I hardened the mud under my boots, helping me to cross faster.
I could’ve just flown above it with Wind Step, of course, but from when my eyes met with the sprite, I knew that if I did that, I would’ve failed her test. Yes, I believed the test was for me to drudge through all this mud to get to where she was. As an Earth Sprite, she would want to make a pact with someone who could like her mud, or so I believed.
It was a grueling hour long process, with me up on my neck in mud. She didn’t just wait for me in the middle. She would actually move around, getting away once I got close to her. I already shouted to her that I wanted to make a pact with her, yet she didn’t seem to listen.
Only when I slipped, drowning my entire body into the mud thanks to the fatigue I was having, she came to my rescue. She brought me out and hardened the mud, so that I could stand on it.
“Me. Pact with you. In exchange, hugs,” she said, as she did the latter.
And thus, I obtained my second summon.
—-
When Sherry charged right towards me, the Earth Sprite was already ready with her trap. Her rock hand would stop her mid-air while the ground around her could be turned into sinking mud at a moment’s notice. Such was the advantage of a fae’s magic. They lived and breathed magic, so they were really flexible with it. Just like a human could move his arms and legs without thinking, so could a fae do magic without needing any deliberations beforehand.
And it worked brilliantly. As the two fairies occupied Sherry’s attention, I was able to cast a fully charged Thunder Strike at her, right while her back was turned.
If she had been fast enough to see it coming, she most likely could have mitigated the damage, to the point that our fight would continue. It would be a messy fight, with her most likely going after the two fairies first, as they didn’t really have the mobility necessary to keep up with her speed. And once they were down, if I hadn’t been able to finish her off, I would most certainly lose once again. I would have nothing else that I could use to distract or buy time against her.
Such was the fighting style of a mage. Marina taught me that nice and clear..
The moment she fell down, paralyzed, I immediately ran towards her and put my sword near her neck, taking my victory. In retrospect, I hadn’t really used the sword at all. I only used my spells. Maybe I should consider just becoming a full time mage like Marina.
And with that, I took my victory over Sherry at last.
——–
Marina immediately congratulated me with a bright smile on her face. She didn’t even try to hide the pride she had of me. She told me what an excellent fight it was, and how I had understood how a mage should fight against a warrior.
Father, on the other hand, consoled Sherry, cheering her up by lifting her up to the air, saying how she had tried her best and that there was nothing to be ashamed of by losing. And it seemed to work, as I saw Sherry laughing as he did.
Afterwards, Mother healed both of our wounds. Sherry especially needed that since thanks to my spell, I had left numerous burn marks all over her body. Ouch, that couldn’t be pleasant.
I wouldn’t apologize though. Sherry was a proud warrior, or at least I felt she had the temperament to become one. She wouldn’t want my pity, especially after I beat her fair and square.
Oh, and of course, I gave the payments for my two spirits before they left, after I praised them for their good work—a headpat for the high fairy and a hug for the earth sprite.
Haah, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, now having two summons that were practically little girls, asking hugs and headpats like this. Those weren’t even costs to me. Who wouldn’t want to give headpats and receive hugs from such adorable little girls?
Still, was it just me or was I getting glares from both Sherry and Marina as I was doing it?
Then, we were sent to the baths to clean up. Sherry was certainly dirty with mud all over her hair and clothes, but I too had been sweating profusely throughout the fight.
Mmm, I certainly deserved a relaxing rest in the tub. Though I had to wait for Sherry to finish up first. She got all those mud on her after all.
Or so I believed, before she pulled my arm with her as she entered the bathroom.
“W-we’re taking a bath together, alright?”
Welp. So much for that relaxing rest.
