Chương 76: Chapter 13

The tall, thin professor flowed like water, dodging Shaya's blows with easy, languid motions and counter-attacking with fluid grace. Shaya couldn't read her movements and kept misjudging her attacks entirely, the young mage rewarded with a score of shallow cuts across her body—cuts that could easily have been lethal if Rea so desired given the surgical precision she showed with her blade work.

Even Shaya's spells couldn't limit her movement; she never panicked when a wall cut off her escape route or a chain lashed for her feet. Shaya had never felt so out of her league. The frustration grew in her mind, fuelled by the insulting nicks Rea's wickedly sharp blade left on her.

"I expected more from you, to be honest," Rea said with a disappointed sigh.

"The others made you out to be something special."

"You'll have to try harder than that if you want to offend me," Shaya said with a snort, but a voice in the back of her head believed Rea's words. Maybe she wasn't gifted, or special. Maybe she wouldn't amount to anything, let alone be the hero she wanted to be. Rea smiled, letting Shaya close on her and lock their blades together. Despite her thin frame, Rea resisted Shaya's raw strength and held her in check.

Their eyes met and Shaya watched the Azurite and Ruby aether vanish from the professor's eyes as a spell slammed into her mind. Magic punched through Shaya's best defences, her will cracking under the sudden force of energy pouring into her mind. Rea's spell incited her anger, like throwing oil onto a raging fire. With her blood boiling, she barely managed to maintain control over her actions. Shaya strained against Rea and started to push her blade back, bearing down on the lighter woman with her strength.

With a growl, Shaya pushed as hard as she could to break through the professor's guard and land a blow. Rea was forced to break the lock, flowing away from the strike, and they resumed their dance. Minutes flew by as they fought, Shaya growing more and more frustrated as she failed to land any blows through the professor's canny defence. Her magic dwindled as time went on, the Amber refusing to flow into her.

Rea's continued nicks and verbal barbs incited more and more rage in Shaya, who began to slip into a total loss of control. Terror filled her as she neared the precipice and she desperately tried to scramble away from it.

"Don't shy away from your anger," Rea said.

"Be aware of yourself." Another of Rea's spells hit her. More Ruby and Azurite energy left the professor's eyes as even more oil was thrown into Shaya's mind to fuel her rage. An enraged roar signalled the end of her control, and Shaya immediately cut herself off from what was going on. She watched as her body attacked Rea with reckless abandon, knowing the professor could have punished any number of openings she left.

Rea accepted another blade lock, but was forced to flow away from the engagement in moments as she was overpowered. The ceaseless, ferocious attacks put her on the back foot, and her ripostes stalled as she was forced to focus on fighting defensively. Rea's eyes twinkled with delight.

"Are you paying attention?" Are you crazy?! Shaya screamed internally. Why did I even think this was a good idea!?

"Watch," Rea said. Shaya watched as instructed, watched as her body pursued Rea across the small room. Forcing the woman to give ground and circle as she ran out of ground to give. The madness unfolded before her… then she understood. Even in her rage, Shaya parried one of Rea's thrusts. Just as Krebo trained her to do. Her slashes were powerful and sloppy, but her attack patterns were the same ones Krebo drilled her on again and again.

The way she guarded herself and charged in with her shield was the same way she fought against Una. She knew well enough to stay close to Rea, to limit thrusts from her absurdly long blade. It wasn't a monster in her body. It was just her. She didn't have to scream at her body to do what she wanted, she just had to tell it what to do—like normal. Her attacks grew a bit tighter, a bit less wasteful.

This put more pressure on Rea, as Shaya recovered faster and could throw more attacks at her—ones that actually mattered. Her defence grew a bit stronger, keeping her shield closer to her and angling it to deflect blows instead of block them. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. … Well, almost like normal.

Shaya was still far from being able to direct the rage entirely, and her soul soared with the knowledge that it was possible to direct it—even just a little. Tentatively, she even tried to draw in Amber again. She felt a trickle get through her rage, barely enough to hold onto. She tried to draw in Jade next, but it shied away from her entirely. But it was a start. With a nuance of control over her actions, Shaya came closer and closer to landing a hit on Rea.

The professor's movements grew less languid as she was forced to put more energy into parrying and dodging the incoming attacks. The mercurial flow she displayed earlier was replaced with violent surges of energy that Shaya found even more graceful for their honesty. Without realizing it, Shaya drew in Ruby and shaped it into a simple flameblast without giving voice to an invocation. The next time Rea danced away from her, she unleashed a massive blast of fire at the woman at point-blank range.

Before panic could set in at murdering her professor, she caught a glimpse of movement. Rea had used a jet of fire to dodge the blast radius, then directed that momentum into a whirling slash at Shaya. Leaning into the strength her rage brought her, Shaya went to block the small woman's blow. The flat of Rea's crystalline blade smacked into Shaya's shield. Knees braced and outweighing her attacker by at least double, Shaya prepared to counter-attack after the strike rebounded off her.

She blinked stars from her vision a moment later, confused at the change of scenery. She was several feet away from Rea, feeling a wall at her back. Rage pushed her, demanding she get back on the offensive despite the lithe woman closing the distance. Shaya managed to still her anger long enough to raise her shield, finding the wood cracked and splintered. Rea's blade punched through the shattered shield without slowing and Shaya just managed to turn her body aside to dodge the thrust.

She was attacking before she realized it, throwing elbows and knees while at close quarters. None of them came close to Rea, who easily flowed away from the clumsy blows and out of reach again, Shaya pursuing with two hands on her sword. The two-handed swings forced Rea to dodge, the smaller woman no longer keen to meet Shaya's blade head on, though she still managed to deflect sloppier blows.

Controlling the tempo of the battle, the young woman maneuvered her teacher back towards a wall with powerful swings and more blasts of destructive magic. Shaya was cornering the professor again, and anticipation grew alongside her rage as she knew it was only a matter of moments before she landed even just a single glancing blow. Rea smiled, then pure Azurite aether pierced Shaya's mind and cold water flooded in, snuffing out the raging fire within her.

The sudden loss of anger left Shaya stunned and feeling numb, then exhaustion slammed into her. Rea caught her as she fell, supporting Shaya's weight and helping her stay upright.

"It'll pass in a moment," she said, still smiling. Shaya tried to surreptitiously stab her in the gut, but her waist shifted out of the way.

"Nice try," Rea said, awarding Shaya a grin for her cheeky manoeuvre, "but you're going to have to work harder to hit me."

"I'll get you next time," Shaya promised, sagging.

"Mmm," Rea sounded unsure of that, "maybe don't make promises you can't keep, kiddo." Shaya snorted a laugh, which was all she had energy for.

"Gods," she murmured, "why am I so exhausted?"

"Well," Rea replied, "you were attacking me without pause, physically and magically, for the better part of an hour."

"That would do it." Shaya nodded.

"Any ideas then?"

"Of course." Rea smiled.

"I don't want to distract you from your studies, but I'll give you a bit of a teaser: as your rage builds, you currently trade finesse and skill for greater strength and endurance, both physical and spiritual. I'll get you a report after your mid-terms—and I will absolutely withhold it if your grades slip. You owe me controlled fire spells and three different summoned creatures, and I haven't seen you master a third—""Don't worry, I will," Shaya sighed, "but I want you to know…you're pure evil." Rea laughed.

"You don't know the half of it. Now let's get your injuries seen to, I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm an abusive mentor…" But Shaya's mind was already whirling, knowing that if she could learn to control even the lesser portions of her rage she'd be able to push herself more every single day. She would measure just how much stronger the rage let her become in the gym and how much further it let her push herself. And she was definitely going to leverage it to exercise her circuits and channels too.

+++++"The Lord Zaal, here to see you, Lord Solarix," the servant said, introducing the Lord Inquisitor's next appointment. Chancellor Zaal walked into the room, giving his friend a nod as the busy man finished signing yet another form on his desk. The Lord Inquisitor's office was massive, a far cry from what Zaal's used to be, with a space designated for office work with an opulent desk, shelves, and more gold-illuminated books than he suspected the Lord Inquisitor had read in his entire life.

A separate section of the room was occupied by a couch, armchairs, and a low table for less formal meetings.

"Thank the gods," the Lord Inquisitor said, rising from his enormous, mahogany desk and walking around it to greet his friend.

"Nivil, it's good to see you." The Lord Inquisitor was Nivil's opposite in many ways: built like a stout warrior rather than Nivil's lanky academic build; a pure-blood of Astorian descent rather than Nivil's mixed heritage; scarred where Nivil had nary a callus on his hands; and dressed in a practical—if fashionable—suit while Nivil favoured layered robes.

"And you, Vycal," Nivil replied, shaking his friend's offered hand.

"Thank you for making the time to see me earlier than our usual meeting."

"Don't thank me," Vycal laughed.

"Thank Orda, I'd be lost without her managing my schedule."

"Of course." A thin smile crossed Nivil's face.

"I well remember."

"Speaking of," Vycal said, gesturing for Nivil to be seated in an armchair and turning to his servant, "Orda, please ensure refreshments are delivered at once."

"They'll be here shortly, Lord Inquisitor," she replied with a bow.

"The usual."

"You're a gods-send, dear," he said, giving her a fatherly smile. Nivil caught the twinge of displeasure in Orda's eyes at the nickname, knowing that his friend had caught the same. Vycal shook his head as he joined Nivil at the couch, falling into it like an exhausted warrior after a battle.