Almost ten years have passed since I was suddenly reincarnated into this magical world. And also, since I've met my new family.
My parents are kind and gentle and don't really argue a lot. Aria, on the other hand, is still as chaotic as ever.
She was now 16 and a genius among geniuses. She had already unlocked her second spell and had recently picked up Spearmanship, and could almost best her tutor in a magicless duel.
I, on the other hand, began learning to wield a sword from our grandpa and I was getting pretty good at it; I could even imbue my sword with my flames to scorch my enemies.
Learning that I could do this cost my parents a pretty hefty sum, considering that I melted my first few swords learning how to control the temperature of my flames and then boosting its output when going to land a strike.
He was a little old, but he was a special case; he was a lightning mage and originally, I thought that people could only be a mage of one of the four key elements of the world. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind.
But after meeting him for the first time, I realized that people could be of elements derived from the key four. his teachings were strict, but I could feel my understanding of runes and of this world deepening with every training session.
Leaving my room, I bumped into Aria, who had just finished her training.
Her clothes were dirt-stained, and her training spear had lots of markings and looked beat up.
Aria adjusted the spear on her shoulder and grinned when she saw him.
"Perfect timing," she said.
"I was just looking for someone to beat up"
Silas rolled his eyes.
"You say that every time"
"And every time you still show up"
I followed Aria back to the training hall and picked up a wooden sword and then positioned myself opposite from her and that's when she spoke
"No, using spells in this duel, Silas only your innate element, okay?"
Instead of answering, I calmly circulated my mana and imagined a raging fireball in my palm. I felt the mana in my body heed my command and began conjuring the fireball then I launched it at Aria
but not before she summoned the wind and launched a vortex of uncompressed air, aiming to make me lose control of my mana and make the fireball dissipate.
and some how it worked, a grin appeared on aria's face
"not so tuff anymore huh" aria brandished her spear before rushing forward and jabbing her spear towards my abdomen.
I shifted slightly and used the blunt edge of my sword to deflect the attack before returning an attack of my own.
Sadly aria expected that and blocked it with the shaft of her spear.
Aria had more reach with her spear but up close was my domain.
Or so I thought, aria began circulating the mana from her spellheart towards her legs using wind magic to give herself a sudden burst of speed.
aria was upon me her spear raised slighty. ready to be swung in a complete arc. I lowered my stance in preparation of the hit so i could absorb her momentum and send it back to her but instead she threw her spear, causing me to dodge my focus was shattered for a split second.
But that second was all she needed. aria didnt bother grabbing her spear and instead chose to fight me with her hands. she landed a clean punch to my gut before disengaging and picking up her spear.
"little brother, how many times do i have to tell you stop over committing and expect the unexpected in battle mistakes like this can cost you your life or worse your companions"
aria lowered her spear. The butt of it pointing towards me "here let me help you up"
grimacing from the pain in my gut I grabbed her spear and slowly stood up.
"Ah I'm beat, can we go get some lunch aria?"
"yeah sure silas I'll pay" she responded as we put our weapons on the training rack and left the area.