Gradually arriving near the center of the circular space, his feet still bare, Lutiel touched against the undraped soil. Burying them within the meekly dusty area, he didn’t care for the rocks lingering around the space.

  Standing upright, a breath of fresh air entered his nose, slowly letting it out a second later. Without waiting any moment more, Lutiel stared ahead of himself, yet he didn’t focus on any area. Thinking of his flesh instead, his right foot hovered above the ground, making sure not to graze through the ground.

  Rotating his left hip and moving the leg at the same time, he gracefully swerved the dust off the ground, a whisker away from touching it as he performed an arch.

  A weak stomp pushed him down on the waist slightly, promptly sweeping his other foot above the ground before letting them stand beside each other, though not so close for his thighs to meet.

  As the foot came towards the ground however, he immediately moved, kicking his right leg backwards to the skies, spinning it before harshly plowing through the ground and leaving an imprint inside the hard soil.

  Then, the left leg followed, albeit moving straight towards the dark clouds. Keeping it there for a brief moment, once again, a mellow depression formed in the ground a breath later.

  Simultaneously, as the leg headed for the soil, Lutiel lowered himself on the knees, spreading the legs out whilst clenching his thighs harshly. Swiftly, a quick jab left his right arm, followed by the left.

  Finally, he repeated the soundless motions before standing up on his legs in the same position as before. Once again kicking towards the clouds, he spun around as the right foot arched in the air.

  Repeating the same moves as before in a reverse order, Lutiel eventually came to a halt, finding himself in the same place as where he started.

  Without a need for a prolonged breath, the man started once more. This time though, he hovered the left leg above the ground first. Moving through the same movements as before, within two breaths, he already punched the air again, promptly flowing back to the place whilst imprints of his feet added themselves to the ground.

  Standing underneath the moonlight, steady breaths coursed through his stomach, Lutiel not staring at anything in particular.

  Quickly, he continued, however, not in the same way as before. Spreading his legs out on each side to make them form a straight line, he promptly lowered his bottom. Despite the taut muscles of his legs, Lutiel prevailed, bringing his arms down around his waist and keeping them there for a few breaths.

  Suddenly however, his right arm flew forward, punching through the air with his back straightened out. Flowing down lightly, he let it rest there before attacking the empty space with his other arm a few breaths later.

  One after another, the punches gathered, each having amassed a total of twenty before Lutiel started breathing slightly faster. After a glisten formed around his forehead, he finally moved back into the upright position, swiftly flowing through the space whilst leaving more imprints around the area.

  A step followed another step, only to descend yet again before scattering his taut fists out. All whilst no whistle of the wind came below his actions.

  As the clouds passed slowly, the man’s face staggered completely. Unlike his calm composure, droplets of sweat together with heavy breaths left him briskly, hundreds of steps lingering around the ground as he finally put his fingers around the waist.

  Closing his eyes and looking up whilst catching his breaths incessantly, still, it didn’t take long until he became stable yet again. Within just a few tens of respires, his heart calmed down immensely, letting him breathe through the nose solely.

  Opening his eyes to peer at the moon, he didn’t look at it for long however, something entirely different catching his attention. A rhythmic clapping from the back, quiet yet intensified by the night’s desolate noises.

  “That was great,” the stern voice crawled through the space, swiftly arriving at the man’s turned image. Looking to the side, he finally saw the demonic tongue’s owner.

  Clad in armor all throughout the figure, only the head was revealed. With pinkish red shades, the girl’s face turned into a mellow smirk, her long hair falling down the back while the golden eyes stumbled across the man’s face.

  “Even though I don’t get why you’re following that book. You’ve been doing it for three months already, but I can hardly feel any improvement in your mana flow. Just moving through the day gets you more than enough,” she added briskly, only to raise an eyebrow at his response.

  “Training with my body just isn’t sufficient anymore, but with these movements, I can feel myself improving, both in speed and stability,” he said with a straight face, glancing at her steadily before quickly speaking again. “Was that all you wanted to say?”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Settling within her mind, the voice rattled about, along with his cool face. Slowly abating in her expression however, Folvana focused her eyes onto him. “No, there is something else as well. An important piece of information.”

  “What is it?” He spat out immediately, her face churning badly in response. However, she didn’t speak out on the matter. Instead, calming quickly, her sternness returned before a solemn glance sat across his face.

  “The battles will be changing from now on. I’m sure you’ve noticed it already, right? The humans are still there, however, elves started to incorporate themselves into the battles as well.” She said quickly, crossing her arms in the meanwhile.

  “Do they want to speed up the war?” He asked right away, receiving a succinct nod in response, followed further by her tongue.

  “That’s most likely the case. The number of usable humans is quickly diminishing day by day, and they only have so much time to win these lands over. However, the issue is, if the elves come to the battlefield-” she said, however, there was no need for Lutiel to hear any more.

  With a nippy parting of his lips, the man already spoke away, getting her ears to listen eagerly. “The battles won’t prohibit the use of magic anymore, correct?” He asked, making her nod once more before a stern expression followed on.

  “That’s precisely the case. And once everyone starts to use magic, that would only mean a swift death for a human like you,” her voice reverberated through the calm of night, its severity clearly lingering in the air. Yet, despite hearing her, Lutiel stood with the same expression, promptly making her brows pucker up.

  “It doesn’t matter. I can evade the attacks if there’s a need to,” he brushed over the matter, only for her voice to boil out.

  “You don’t understand it, Lutiel. You won’t have an advantage anymore. If they can use mana, their physical capabilities will increase as well, on top of the magic. Everything that you were so dominant in will crumble apart,” she said quickly, growing stiffer and stiffer around the eyebrows as he kept the straight face up.

  “You were the one that brought me here. Why are you starting to get so worried all of a sudden?” He asked abruptly, making her face falter momentarily before she spat out a mutter.

  “Huh?” The girl gave out, her usual composure nowhere to be seen. Instead, she kept looking at him with a conflicted expression, slowly turning into furrowed, almost angered brows. “Worried? How could I not be when you look like you’re practically on the verge of death every day?” Folvana asked, followed by a shrouding silence.

  Before he could speak anything out, she continued, a faint surge of rage coursing through her eyes. “And yet, you don’t seem to make anything of it. What happened? What happened after you escaped for you to change so suddenly?” She asked again, slowly growing into a fuddled concern.

  However, silence only hammered down upon her, leaving the girl to massage her face with the armored fingers. Watching the figure calmly, he finally replied, albeit not in the way she desired.

  “I can’t tell you,” he said, making her face drop down slightly before her somewhat creaking voice stumbled across the space.

  “Do I even mean anything to you? All the time we spent together, did you ever think twice of it?” She asked quickly, only to raise her face at his still, unresponsive image.

  Clenching her jaw whilst tilting her head to the side, Folvana uttered silently. “Fine, do whatever you want.”

  Without waiting for any response of his, her figure already turned back, slowly heading towards the large, pale red tent designated solely for herself.

  Steadily glancing at her moving back, Lutiel’s eyes fidgeted around the space, uncertain where to look. Through the armor towards the ground and other tents, he couldn’t keep it so straight any longer.

  Yet, he finally looked down at his clenched fists. ‘I can’t tell you. Not yet. Even if you get angry at me,’ wondered Lutiel, slowly settling his glare towards the barracks. Letting loose around the hands, so did his faintly clustered face, returning to the reserved mien before also starting to walk to the tent.

  …

  The rays blazed away into their eyes, crawling up the flesh of their lightly dressed figures. Groans and harsh breaths filled the space out, towering over the faintly fluttering breeze surrounding them.

  Standing in ten lines, each covering fifty bodies, the soldiers kept their lowered stance, the swords raised above the right shoulder. Albeit with varying effects, they kept staring at the elevated figure ahead of them, her pristine, straight posture bringing shivers along their necks.

  Her glares washing over them briskly, one of the soldiers suddenly screamed away, cocking his head backwards before dropping his blade to the ground.

  Right away, another scream reverberated through the space, on the other side of the lines. Nothing slipping away from her impressive grasp, the armored commander punished the lacking aspects, with no exceptions whatsoever.

  Seemingly harsher than usual, she delivered blows at the minute falters of the demonic knights. And, finally, Hagyn himself shook slightly, unable to hold the posture for so long at a single time. Right as his right shoulder dropped a bit and made the blade quiver, the man felt as though her golden eyes suddenly burned themselves into his being.

  Washing over him within a fraction of a breath, he was already down on his knees, clutching onto his pulsating shoulder whilst the sword shined away on the ground before him.

  “Get up,” her imposing tone immediately surrounded all of the ears, something from inside telling them to quickly follow the order.

  Hagyn quickly gathered himself, returning to the position before the commander could once more ravage through his flesh.

  Trying his best not to tremble despite the exhausted muscles of his, he could only quiver internally as he heard the gruesome screams reverberating throughout the massive area, their intensity and frequency increasing as the sun leisurely gathered up through the skies.

  “Damn it, I’d rather get injured in a battle than go through this shit,” uttering whilst hiding his face, the man swiftly wished he hadn’t, however. As the words fell out from his mouth, his nose suddenly radiated with pain, turning pink red before a droplet of blood dripped down towards the lips.

  “Focus instead of moaning,” a voice briskly touched his ears, simmering out before his quacking self stifled down. Clenching his mouth shut, Hagyn kept staring ahead in the position, only to witness the lady finally change her position to a more mellow one.