58 A Friendly Sparring (2/2)
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For the first time since a very long time, the daughter of the Sword Saint was exhausted and fell on her knees. In her entire existence, no one ever forced her to do something against her will and therefore, she hadn't received very harsh treatment. Her sister, Muirnë, and her brother, Amdir, often appeared in front of her filled with bruises and their breaths short. But she wasn't the same, and the worst she did was fall from a tree. Later, Muirnë showed her how to climb it easily, and she enjoyed the sensation of climbing. But because she rarely left her manor, she didn't experience any dangers or trials.
But even as she was gasping for just another mouth of oxygen, she saw Leilade harboring the same smile she conserved from the beginning of the battle. Looking around, Istuienn realized that she didn't even land a single fireball at less than 2 meters from her opponent. She even began to cry a little, while shame was creeping inside her mind. But that stopped instantly when she saw what appeared in the hand of the silent girl.
It was the mirror image of her own fireball. The exact same size, or at least, that what she was seeing. But it was impossible, besides Leodagan and his group, no one else could create something that big and that stable. Even the totally awakened magician was a little bit baffled and wondering if Leilade was not the genius. He only heard something like 2nd Circle, can't reach the 3rd one. Not trusting his eyes, he himself casted a fireball and saw the same stability in both spells.
”Guess it's my turn?” The cold voice resonated, and even before anyone reacted, the projectile was already heading toward the girl on the ground. An array of flames englobed her, and if she didn't have the magical shield casted previously, she would have been badly burned. But even with that, the very intense heat was still propagated, provoking a squeal and a hasty retreat from the princess. But it didn't end here, and another fireball was targeting the exact location she reached.
”STOP! [Wind]!” A violent squall swept the hot ball away, protecting the terrified kid from any additional damage. The magician was ruining as fast as he could while praying every god he knew to not have his head presented in a silver plate to the Sword Saint. If someone heard that his dear daughter nearly died under his supervision, he would be in a lot of problems. But he truly didn't expect the first fireball to hit, and certainly not the second one to be carefully aimed at the retreat path.
”Oh god, I am so dead. Princess, princess, HEY!” Snap Snap. He snapped his fingers to make the child in front of him broke of her numbness. Only after a few seconds did Istuienn regained her mind and she immediately broke in tears. She had seen the second fireball heading at her head and felt the grip of death on herself. Even when she knew she had a magical shield protecting her and knew that the fireball couldn't hurt her, deep inside her, she had the feeling that she would die soon. The stressful event took a toll on the sanity of the pampered girl, and the poor man had a hard time with that.
If it had been an issue with magic, it would have been fine. But while he is in an age where he could already have children, he rarely interacted with them, especially such a young one. So besides, patting lightly the terrified head and letting Istuienn hug him, he was helpless. He still had a hard time figuring out what went wrong, but from afar, he was the impassive state of Leilade. Like what she did was totally normal and nothing like trying to murder her peer and friend. As much as he wanted some explanations, he knew that the princess was more important, and he stayed near her until she ran out of tears.
The cries turned into sobs, and then, the sobs turned into murmurs. They stayed like that a few minutes, and it could have stayed in a weird standoff a long time if no one suddenly arrived. A group of women were happily chatting and heading toward the training grounds when they saw the situation and inquired about it. Because it was a very large are without anything, multiple duels could be conducted at the same time. But to see a grown man hugging a girl was already weird enough to provoke some questions, not even talking about the standing boy nearby.
Only after approaching did the magicians realized it was also a girl, just in boy's clothes. Because she was visibly unharmed and fine, from the looks of her, they decided to get closer of the man. The latter was horrified of his bad luck, just when he hoped no one saw the accident, a group of women suddenly appeared. Removing carefully the hands of Istuienn, he got up and tried his best to make the incoming duellists go away. However, the sight of the princess slowly curling up had the complete opposite, and only after threatening the women with the name of Arthar did he escaped the ordeal.
”I know him, he is Leon and he truly works directly with Magus Arthar. So maybe we should just let him take care of that girl, it should be fine?” One of the magicians knew the man and it eased his efforts of covering up what happened. Thanking profusely the one that helped him, he managed to push aside the group before they realized it was the princess Gwendhir on the ground. Finally breathing alas, he turned his sight on the only one responsible for this cumbersome problem.