I dodged a kick, then a punch, dodged another kick, and then rolled away from the rehabbing Aya. "Better." I said as the Lance stopped five yards from me. "You feel back to normal? Or are you still having trouble manipulating mana?"
"I think I just need to get back into it, I'm still getting tired faster than usual, it probably is my mana core readjusting back to normal." Aya said as she cracked her back and stared at me. "Thanks for helping me, Veer."
"No problem, you helped me, and this gives me a reason to come in here, so it's nice." I admitted, staring at the elf. "But you should take it easy, my blood healing can help your core get back to normal."
"I am, I'm not like you, I listen to my doctors." She said jokingly. "Where's your brother? I saw him before we showed up, he said he wanted to train as well." That was when we were walking out of the medical wing.
"He is with Sylvie, it seems like they are walking this way actually, maybe they plan to train. I mean, with Sylvie having a human form now, she probably has to get used to it." I could sense them, I think they came from the council room, I didn't feel like going to the meeting, it was nothing important.
"I heard about that, I haven't seen her yet, I'm kind of curious though." Aya smiled, and then added. "She's around your age, isn't she? Maybe you should take her to the party, I did hear that one Retainer say that she had feelings for you."
I just stared at the Lance, annoyed, but she was still smiling as I spoke. "Aya, stop with this, I am not going to a party with a bunch of nobles, with a date, that can wait until we end the war."
"Then why is your face red?" Aya asked, and I held my hand up onto my cheeks, they were warm.
"Haha." I laughed a little thinking about it. "We just sparred, my face is red from that, what else could it be?" I asked her, and an image from yesterday popped in my mind, it was the first time seeing Sylvie in her human form. I shook my head, knowing that I shouldn't think about that.
"You say that, but we both know you did not get worked up from that little sparring session." Aya glared at me, and I waved her off. "Veer, you have to man up, even with the war, you still need to have a life afterwards."
"Can't that wait until afterwards?" I summoned an ice blade in my hand. "No, we are here to spar, not talk about my potential love life." I surrounded myself with mana, reinforcing my body. "Now, pull your sword out, and let's continue."
"Oh, did I push your buttons the wrong way?" Aya laughed. "Haha, I did, wait, do you actually have some sort of feeling for the girl?" I didn't respond as her sword appeared in her hand. "Oh my god, my little Veer has feelings for someone."
"Aya, no I don't, stop talking." I said as I charged at her, not at full speed, knowing she was injured. I swung my blade at her chest, and she deflected the blow, then drove her blade toward my core, but I conjured an ice shield that blocked her attack.
I swung my blade at her head, the Lance dropped to the ground, and went for my legs, but I shot wind mana out of them, and launched myself over her. I kicked her back, knocking her forward as I landed on the ground.
Aya spun around, she was smiling for some reason, well, probably still thinking about before, and drove her sword toward me. I parried the attack, and backed away from her, not wanting to attack. I was going to let her attack, this was her rehab after all, so I won't show off.
The Lance swung for my head, so I back stepped, she swung at my ribs, I deflected the attack, she formed a wind blade, and shot it at me, so I brought up an ice wall, and watched it shatter upon impact.
Aya continued to attack me, swinging her sword at me, over and over, but did not manage to hit me once. I parried her last attack, and held my blade against her throat, calling it quits as I could tell she was getting tired, and didn't want her to hurt herself more.
"That's enough." I said, throwing my sword to the side. "You should get some rest, Aya."
"Yeah, I am getting tired." She answered, putting her sword away. "Oh, look who it is." She pointed at the entrance of the training hall, and walking towards us was Arthur and Sylvie. "Here is your chance, the party is coming up, might as well do it here while I am listening."
"What is wrong with you?" I shook my head, and the two of us walked toward them. "Don't even say a word." I knew Aya would try something, but I didn't know what, so I had to prepare myself.
"Lance Aya, Veer." Arthur said, stopping five yards away from each other. "I see you are going through rehab, how is that going?"
"With Veer's help, pretty good." Aya answered, smirking at me. "And this must be Lady Sylvie in her human form." Aya bowed to her, showing respect. "I have to say, you are quite beautiful as a human."
"Thanks!" Sylvie exclaimed; I was about to slap Aya.
"Are you two training?" I asked, changing the subject before Aya could say another word, and get me into a bad situation.
"We are." Arthur nodded his head. "I am helping Sylvie get used to her human form, so she can fight with it, if she had too." I don't think she does, every fight, she ends up using her dragon form, which totally makes sense with her powers.
"You should stay." Sylvie spoke up, looking at me.
I could feel Aya exerting excitement, huh. "I will, if it is okay with you, Arthur?" I didn't have anything to do, so I did not mind.
"It's fine with me."
I watched as Aya took one step forward and spoke. "Lady Sylvie, do you plan on attending this party, or ball celebrating the defeat of the three Retainers?" I was about to knock her out, but I didn't.
Sylvie looked up at Arthur, and he shrugged, then she turned back to Aya. "I don't know yet, why?"
"No particular reason." Aya shot me a look, then sent Arthur a smile. "Lance Arthur, would you please come with me? I would like to chat in private if that is fine with you, if you don't have the time right now, I can find you later."
This was a dirty trick. "It's fine, Veer can help Sylvie, we can chat out in the hall if that works?" Arthur told her, motioning for the doors.
"I was thinking more of a walk back to the medical wing, I have a lot to discuss." Aya winked at me, and then walked up to Arthur, and placed her arm through his. "Let's go."
Arthur was pulled away, but he slipped his arm out, and shot over his shoulder. "Don't go too hard, Sylv, you don't want to injure yourself."
"I won't." Sylvie said, and they left the training hall, leaving Sylvie and me in here alone. I would say that Aya's little scheme she concocted worked, I was going to have to get her back at some point.
"Alright, so what are we doing?" I asked her, not knowing exactly what she wanted to do. "Are we sparring or am I testing something for you?"
"Could you just shoot spells at my mana barriers?" The dragon asked me as her yellow eyes stared at me.
"Yeah, I can do that." I told her as we made our way to the center of the room. "How are you today?" I asked, trying to be nice.
"It's been good, eating in this form is weird though." She said with a giggle, then added. "How about you?"
I smiled as I looked forward. "Pretty boring, knowing I want to be out in the field, but now it's a little better."
She didn't respond right away but did as we stood still in the middle of the room. "You shouldn't want to be out there all the time."
"I know, Sylvie." I responded as a mana barrier formed, and I shot an ice shard at it. "It is just boring in here, and I want to help the people out there."
"Do you really?" She asked me as two more barriers formed, and I shot fire balls at them. "Or is it your Beast Will speaking?"
"Both." I admitted, I did want to help people, but I also wanted to fight. "Don't worry about me, you know I can handle myself."
"I'll worry about you if I want to." She smiled, forming a mana barrier, I shot a wind blade at it. "I don't want you to lose yourself, I want you to stay yourself."
"I appreciate that." I shot a fire ball at another barrier, then shot an ice shard at another. "I won't lose myself; you have my word."
"Can you promise me that? We both know what events are to come." Sylvie did know about my past life.
"I promise." I sent her a smile, then shot another ice shard at a barrier. "How are you feeling with your magic? Nothing?"
"Yeah, it just feels natural." Sylvie formed eight barriers, and I shot eight spells, they all bounced off, doing nothing. "Don't try and change the conversation, I know Arthur told you that you can talk to him, but that goes for me as well, I'll be there for you if needed."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." I shot a blade of wind at a barrier. "Is there something else you want to do?"
"You can form shields and allow me to shoot spells at them." Sylvie said, and I nodded, forming an ice shield in the air, and an arrow of mana shattered it. "I never got to talk to you like this, it's nice."
"Yeah, it is." Kind of weird though, but I won't say that.
"Veer, you know that novel you speak of?" Sylvie said, and I stopped and looked at her. "What happens to Arthur after, you know, I â"
I interrupted her off, knowing what she was talking about. "He reverts back to Grey, goes cold, emotionless, ruthless, but our Arthur stays in him."
"I don't want that to happen." She said softly. "He deserves better."
""Let's just hope we win the war." I told her, going back to forming shields in the air, and allowing her to shoot them down.
"What if we do lose? What if it's worse than the novel? What would happen? Would one of you die?" Sylvie said with a worried tone, overthinking the current situation.
"Don't think about that." I didn't know what would happen, it could very well be worse. "Just focus on what is right in front of us."
"Like the party?" Sylvie said. "Why was Lance Aya even asking me about that? She's never spoken to me before, I found it kind of weird."
"I don't know." I shrugged at her, pretending to be oblivious to what Aya meant. "Just ignore Aya, she can be a little weird sometimes." Ice fell from the sky as Sylvie destroyed the shields I formed. "You should go to the party though, you were there, you helped take the Retainers down."
"Tch, I wasn't strong enough to take one down." Sylvie told me. "Unlike Arthur and you, he killed one, and you killed the other two."
"Sylvie, you did your best, and if you didn't do what you did, Aya would probably be dead right now." I sent her a smile, that seemed to make her feel better. "Come to the party, you can help me deal with the nobles, you know how I can be sometimes."
"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer." Sylvie said, looking up into the sky. "Sometimes you are bad with people, especially the ones who make you angry." I noticed that Sylvie's cheeks were a little red.
That is when Arthur came back into the room, Aya must have ran out of ways to stall him. "Oh, look, it's Arthur." I spoke up, and the two of us turned to him.
"Sylvie? I got a sudden surge of happiness from you moments ago, what was that?" Arthur asked as he got closer, and I could see her face get a little more red. What did I do? I merely offered that we should spend time together during the party, that is all.