Late dinner in the square in front of the communal kitchen was coming to an end. Empty cauldrons were cooling on the tables, and the air still smelled of stewed meat and burnt-out coals. The residents of Dornheim, exhausted from work, unhurriedly finished their portions, chatting quietly among themselves.
The first groups of people had already begun to rise from the tables. A few girls, having gathered the dishes, headed toward the residential buildings. Clara, spotting them, called out:
"Are you all done?"
"Yeah, we ate, thanks," one of them replied, adjusting her apron on the go. "Time for bed, gotta be up early again tomorrow. And it's getting late anyway."
The men, too, were getting up from the benches one by one, puffing heavily, and ambling toward their homes.
Only a little time passed, and just a small group remained by the dying fire: Clara, Darwin, Marek, and Albert. They sat in silence, watching the fire and enjoying the night coolness after a hard day.
A little further away sat Noah. Suddenly, Elyria materialized right in front of his face.
"Noah, listen, can we go already?" she whispered quietly but insistently. "I just can't wait anymore."
Without saying a word, Noah stood up and moved toward the forest. Elyria instantly glided after him.
Clara, turning her head in their direction, shouted after them:
"If you're going to train again, go far away from the camp!"
Noah froze for a second and gave a short nod without turning around. Elyria, on the other hand, cheerfully spun in the air and called back brightly:
"Yep!"
As soon as they completely disappeared into the forest, Albert, who had been silent up to this point, said:
"Village."
Clara turned to the doctor in surprise:
"What?"
"Village," Albert repeated. "Not camp."
Clara frowned for a moment, processing his words, and then gave a tired but soft smile:
"Ah, right... Sorry."
Noah and Elyria walked in silence.
The spirit flew slightly ahead, looking back every now and then.
"Did you bring your sword?" she asked.
Noah briefly slid his palm over his belt, lifting the scabbard for a second and showing the hilt of his blade.
Finally, they stepped out onto a spacious, secluded forest clearing surrounded by oaks. Elyria braked sharply in the air and smoothly descended a little closer to the ground.
"I think we can stop here," she said, and her tone instantly lost its former flippancy. "Well then, shall we begin?"
The space around her trembled almost imperceptibly. Thick, knotty roots instantly burst from the ground. They darted toward Noah's legs, trying to bind his movements and pin him in place.
He reacted without a second's hesitation. The blade left its scabbard with a sharp ring. Noah rushed forward, closing the distance on the run, and hacked through the offshoots with precise strikes. Finding himself a couple of steps from Elyria, he made a sharp swing, ready to cleave through her body, but the spirit simply vanished, instantly materializing a dozen meters higher up.
In that same second, the treetops above the clearing bent inwards. Massive branches crashed down, folding together like a giant trap aimed directly at Noah.
The guy dove to the side, dodging the falling masses of wood. His momentum carried him high up in a jump, over the breaking branches. Finding himself at the same height as Elyria, Noah thrust his blade out for a strike again, but the spirit vanished without a trace once more.
Right in mid-air, having lost his footing, Noah began to fall back down to the clearing. Right beneath the falling Noah, the ground exploded with clods of dirt, and a colossal tree trunk shot out of it at terrifying speed. A powerful blow landed right beneath Noah's feet, carrying him along and launching him high into the night sky.
Noah struggled to keep his balance on top of this growing tree. He had just prepared to tuck in for a new lunge when, in that same second, the colossal trunk instantly evaporated, turning into a cloud of green sparks. Noah was once again left without support, plummeting back toward the earth from a massive height.
In mid-flight, Noah saw the trees at the edges of the clearing lengthen. Their branches turned into living, razor-sharp spears that darted straight for him, cutting off all paths of his fall.
Noah reacted instantly. Tucking in mid-air, he dodged the first wooden spike, pushed off it with the sole of his shoe, using it as a temporary foothold, and flew downwards. He flew past the rushing trunks, dodging dozens of incoming strikes, until he finally landed on the ground.
New roots immediately crept out from under the dirt, trying to grab him by the ankles, but Noah sliced through them with lightning speed. Wasting no time, he dashed forward. Space blurred. In a fraction of a second, he was right behind Elyria.
Noah swung his sword sharply, aiming for the spirit's neck. However, the blade of the sword froze dead a couple of centimeters from her skin, as if hitting an impenetrable, invisible wall.
The guy gritted his teeth at the unexpected resistance.
"What the hell?" escaped him hollowly.
The counterattack followed immediately. A thick vine flew out from the left, tightly wrapped around Noah's leg, and hurled him with force across the entire clearing. The guy slammed back-first into the nearest massive trunk, knocking the air out of his lungs.
He slowly slid down to the ground, catching his breath and not letting go of his sword. Elyria smoothly turned to him, hovering in the air with a calm expression on her face.
"This is my passive defense," she explained in an even voice. "It only activates when the opponent dealing damage is deeply unsure of themselves."
Noah's face contorted with rage. He sprang up abruptly, tearing off from his spot again and building up wild speed.
"And what are you trying to say by that?!" he growled, raising his sword for a new lunge.
Elyria dissolved into thin air right in front of the tip of his blade, leaving behind only the echo of a mocking voice:
"Even Darwin would have figured out what's what by now."
Noah sharply changed his tactics. Instead of blindly charging forward, he leaped up into the branches of the trees. He slashed off boughs and small branches with his blade at breakneck speed, instantly sending them with powerful strikes and throws straight at Elyria. A whole hail of wooden projectiles flew at the spirit with a crackle.
Elyria simply held out one hand. The branches and logs flying at her instantly froze in the air, never touching her body.
Capitalizing on the fact that her attention should be diverted, Noah instantly materialized behind her back. His blade traced a perfect arc, ready to cleave right through the spirit. But the blade stopped again a couple of centimeters from the target.
Elyria slowly lowered her hand, and the branches frozen in front of her fell limply to the ground.
"Convinced yet, Noah?" she asked dryly, not even turning around.
He jumped back sharply, breaking the distance and breathing heavily.
"You seriously think I'm going to believe that?" he gritted through his teeth.
Before Noah could even make a new lunge, Elyria materialized right next to his head. Her palm darted forward with such speed that he didn't even have time to throw up a block. Tough vines shot out from the spirit's hand, wrapping around Noah's head, completely blinding him.
"Think what you want, the truth is on my side," she said into his ear.
In that same second, Elyria sharply swung her hand downward. Noah, bound by the vines, flew face-first into the ground at full speed, slamming into it with a thud.
The green fetters slipped off his head and dissolved immediately. Elyria turned her back, squaring her shoulders and already getting ready to leave.
"Sorry, but I don't want to deal with cowards," she threw coldly over her shoulder.
Noah remained lying in the dirt. He slowly rolled over onto his back and stared blankly at the dark night sky.
"Am I... a coward?" he asked quietly.
He froze for a second, and then covered his face with his palm. A first chuckle escaped his chest, which a moment later grew into loud laughter.
Elyria stopped. She was slightly taken aback by such a reaction and turned around, looking at him with obvious bewilderment. Noah kept laughing, abruptly taking his hand away from his face.
"Me? A coward?" he spat out, breaking into even more furious laughter. "Not a chance!"
Although Noah had just been lying motionless on the ground, in the next moment, he vanished. Elyria frantically started looking around, trying to catch even the slightest movement. Noah was moving between the treetops at an insane speed, consciously forcing the entire flow of blood into his right arm. His muscles pulled taut, but the speed only kept growing.
Realizing she was losing control of the situation, Elyria sharply threw up both hands with clenched fingers, and then forcefully jerked her palms apart.
In that same second, a massively powerful magical impulse pulsed outwards from her. A wave of energy uprooted and tossed aside absolutely every tree in a hundred-meter radius. The earth was laid bare, turning into a naked, churned-up field, but Noah was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, the spirit sensed a sharp fluctuation in the air right in front of her. She barely managed to jerk to the side—a slash sliced across her wing. Before she could process the threat, in a fraction of a second, new invisible blades came flying one after another.
Elyria teleported higher, hoping to break the distance, but the attack caught up to her there too. New slashes completely, cleanly severed her wings. The stumps spun in the air, and Elyria herself was left levitating at that height entirely through magic.
Breathing heavily and keeping her balance, the spirit shifted her gaze to the oozing energy.
This is the Noah we needed, flashed through her mind.
He's lost control. If I don't pull myself together right now, I'm simply going to die.
From the darkness where Noah was hiding, the final strike came. A whole barrage of blades rushed toward Elyria in a fraction of a second. The spirit instantly locked onto the threat with her magical sight, and her eyes widened in amazement.
Twenty... no, thirty of them?! raced through her thoughts.
Elyria activated teleportation once again, materializing right in front of Noah. In that same second, roots, thick trunks, and mounds of earth instantly tore from their places, completely and tightly sealing Noah inside an ultra-durable cocoon.
Damn it, I won't be able to use teleportation again today, Elyria thought, hovering in the air.
But her mental monologue was cut short instantly. A hundredth of a second later, the cocoon blew apart into tiny splinters.
Seeing this, Elyria hurriedly soared higher, trying to hide and get off the line of attack. Watching him from afar through her magical sight, she clearly saw his structure. Noah kept pumping blood into his right arm, but now his limb wasn't exploding from the excess pressure; it was operating absolutely stably, holding the balance perfectly.
Elyria closed her magical eyes, and a tired but satisfied smile appeared on her face.
"So that's what your magic is, Noah..." she said quietly.
The spirit flew out to the very center of the scorched clearing. Elyria's right hand clenched tightly in front of her, as if gripping an invisible scabbard, and her left smoothly ran over it, drawing a materializing blade. The weapon was woven from pure magic—absolutely green, shining with a bright emerald light along the edges.
But still, it's too dangerous for you to use it right now, Elyria thought, looking down at Noah.
Her own body was already at its limit: she looked pale, exhausted, and a dry cough escaped her chest. At that moment, hundreds of Noah's new invisible slashes rushed upward, swirling into a cocoon around the hovering spirit.
Overcoming wild exhaustion, Elyria sharply spun in place, thrusting the emerald weapon out in front of her.
"Cleave!" she shouted.
The tip of her magical sword flared with emerald light. Elyria made one mighty swing.
Space was torn apart by pure energy. Noah's incoming slashes evaporated instantly, unable to withstand the onslaught. An emerald wave washed over the entire area: within a radius of five hundred meters, absolutely every tree was sliced perfectly in half—their upper parts instantly shattered into splinters and vanished, leaving behind only flat, smoking stumps.
This same devastating attack caught up to Noah himself. A split-second flash—and his right arm, still gripping the hilt of the blade, was severed clean off. Following that, the emerald blade lopped off his left leg right at the knee. Drenched in blood, Noah collapsed onto the churned-up earth.
Elyria started breathing heavily, erratically, and began to slowly descend to the ground. Overcoming wild exhaustion, she forced herself to fly a little further. Noah's body lay before her.
However, before she could fly any closer, something happened that made the spirit's face involuntarily contort.
The severed right arm and left leg rapidly began to knit themselves back on. Elyria just winced in annoyance and anger.
As if teleporting, Noah tore off from his spot and in a fraction of a second was one centimeter away from Elyria. His regenerated arm shot forward right on time, driving the sword in a lunge.
At the very last moment, with a sharp maneuver, Elyria dodged the tip. The blade whistled past, barely missing her face, but the spirit managed to thrust her palm forward. Touching the guy's chest, she said quietly but distinctly:
"The slumber of a lazy summer afternoon."
The magic took effect instantly. All of Noah's momentum evaporated right then and there. The guy swayed, his movements becoming jerky and sluggish. He dropped to his knees, opening and closing his eyes in a desperate attempt to hold onto consciousness.
Elyria herself sank completely to the ground, her strength finally depleted, and she almost collapsed into the dirt from exhaustion. Noah, still fighting off sleep, made a final attempt to attack, but a few meters away from her, he finally fell down and fell asleep.
Silence hung over the scorched wasteland, deep in the forest and very far from Dornheim. After some time, Elyria shifted her gaze to the sleeping Noah.
"Your character won't let you use it just yet," she whispered quietly, fighting through the strain. "I hope... you figure this out."
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