The circular wall was divided into six sections within itself. These sections were, respectively: sword, mana, magic, martial arts, aura, and assassination mana. I had already received sword training, but my brother and sister wanted to test me. My brother said:
"You don't have to train in all six sections of the circle, but if you wish, you can extend your training and learn martial arts and poison mana."
My sister quickly interrupted:
"You absolutely must learn martial arts! If I ask Kuon, he can teach you!" she said. She was probably trying to improve my relationship with Kuon.
"That's Andre's decision, Kaera. For now, we need to test him. You watched his training, didn't you? Go on ahead."
Upon that, my sister grabbed two wooden swords and tossed one to me.
"Are we really going to do this with these? By the second year of my training, I had already switched to a real sword," I said.
My brother replied, "That was just training, Andre. This is a test. We won't hesitate to hurt you."
Fine—if they wouldn't hesitate to injure me, a wooden sword was probably more appropriate. Dying early wouldn't be very pleasant, would it?
I gripped my sword. My sister stood thirty steps away, directly in front of me. The moment my brother signaled to begin, she lunged at me. I managed to dodge her first strike, but the second came much faster. I had no choice but to block it with my sword, and as I expected, I couldn't match her strength. I tried to reinforce my sword with mana, but this wooden blade wasn't mana-absorbing. As a last resort, I attempted a direct attack, but she parried everything effortlessly. My brother looked disappointed.
Seeing him so disappointed weighed heavily on me, and I began thinking about how I could grow stronger. In the end, I came up with a new spell: Sword Sheath. In my mind, I pictured forming a sheath of mana around my sword. My mana spirit wasn't actually flowing inside the blade; instead, it was tracing the shape of a sword around it without touching it. By shaping pure mana, I had created a new spell without adapting it to any element.
I felt as though the blade's sharpness had increased. And because I was using my mana, my senses were heightened. I directed a portion of my mana into my eyes, and the world seemed to slow. My eyes were glowing with the brightest shade of red, able to see everything around me. I could understand which rotational arc my sister's attacks would follow. With every strike, eight possible rotations appeared, and she would pick one of them to attack me: the four cardinal directions and the four intermediates—North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, and Northwest. I could read her every move, but she wasn't using her full speed; if she had, I wouldn't have survived long enough to even read her movements.
My brother must have realized what I was doing, as he drew his sword, but my sister told him:
"Stop, Cadeon. I'll test the child in my own way."
"I hope you're not talking about a real sword fight, sister."
"You've hit the mark exactly, Cadeon. Only a real sword battle can prove he has completed his training. Come on, Andre, let's get rid of these sticks already, shall we?"
"You took the words right out of my mouth, sister. I never liked these wooden swords anyway. Because they can't absorb mana, I had to manage my mana and sword in perfect synchrony."
"Managing mana in synchrony with your sword? What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Didn't you draw your sword because I used mana to attack?"
My brother looked at me in disbelief.
"N-no, I drew my sword because you were channeling mana into your eyes. I thought you were cheating… Wait a minute—are you saying you were simultaneously moving your mana with your sword and focusing it in your eyes?"
"Yes. So what? Everyone can focus mana into their eyes, right? Or use it with their sword."
"Yes—but to use mana with a non-absorbing sword, you'd have to be more than a genius—and on top of that, doing both at once?"
"Is that really so surprising?"
"I'm telling you, the chance of one person in a thousand being able to do this is less than the chance the entire Itah continent could vanish!" He sighed and said, "If you keep exceeding my expectations like this, I'll have no choice but to send you to the Ster Estrella family…"
"If you and sister aren't there, then I won't be either. All or nothing, together."
They both laughed, but my brother's face soon turned serious.
"Listen, Andre. Just like that time at the church, sometimes you'll have to stand alone. You'll have companions, of course, but there will be times you must handle things by yourself. If you are a Verblade, you must handle your own business."
"Alone? But I don't want that! I'm always happier when you're both with me!" I shouted at them, half-angry, half-pleading, in my own childish way.
They both chuckled, but then my sister's smile turned into something twisted as her face hardened.
"Let's continue our test, shall we, Andre?"
She handed me my mana-absorbing sword and stepped thirty paces away again. My brother reluctantly signaled for the test to begin. The moment it started, I poured mana into both my sword and my eyes. My blade ignited with energy, and my eyes could see everything. I recognized a strike coming from the east. I adapted the mana in my sword to earth element; only then could I block her attack.
When I parried, she was so shocked that she stared at me for a few seconds. I seized the moment, switching the mana in my blade to fire, and with a single motion, I managed to cut a small line on her cheek.
I learned I had made the greatest mistake of my life when she released her aura.
My brother was still talking to the other instructors and wouldn't see what was happening for at least five minutes—which meant I'd be alone against my sister in a battle state for that long.
I had no choice but to defend. Because she was holding a training sword, she couldn't channel much mana, so I took that chance to go purely defensive—but her raw power alone overwhelmed everything I had.
I pleaded with my sword spirit for help, but it refused me so that I wouldn't experience another near-death encounter. My mana spirit seemed so terrified of my sister it couldn't even speak.
I accepted that I could no longer defend myself. With no other option, I simply started to run. I bought myself maybe one or two minutes by fleeing.
Then I saw my brother stepping out of the doorway—but this wasn't my brother. His aura, usually a burning red, was now blacker than emptiness itself. Aura is normally a little transparent—you can see through it. But this? You couldn't see anything behind it, or even my brother himself.
It was the first time I'd seen him this serious.
Before I could even make a sound, he sliced my sister's sword in two and kicked her clear through the outer wall. His growling voice shook with rage:
"To enter a battle state… against a child… You're finished…"
He must have sprinted here with all his might the instant he felt her aura. And as he ran, he must have done more than merely release his own aura—he was preparing some powerful technique.
From the hole in the wall where my sister had landed, I sensed an aura even more terrifying than before. She climbed back out, charging straight at me.
My brother stepped in front of me and swung his sword only once.
A single slash—yet it split her sword and armor clean in half.
Strangely, there wasn't a single scratch on her body.
I've lost count of how many times my brother's sword mastery has saved my life.