The novice attacked at once, but the blow he struck was so slow and clumsy that even with Arran's diminished strength, he easily deflected it. A moment later, Arran's blade came to a stop against the novice's throat.
Arran was stunned. He had defeated his opponent in a single attack, and with such ease that it almost seemed impossible.
The novice looked no less stunned than Arran. "How did you…"
"Pathetic," Tuya said. Then, she extended her hand toward the novice. "Pay up. One Essence Crystal."
"Pay up? But I thought…"
As the novice fruitlessly tried to escape Tuya's extortion, Arran found himself bewildered at what just happened. By all rights, he should have been defeated easily — even if the novice was slow and clumsy, he was still far stronger than Arran.
Yet somehow, Arran's every movement had been frighteningly accurate, with a level of control that was completely new to him.
"Who's next?" Tuya said, her loud voice putting a stop to Arran's musings. She pointed at one of the novices, a young woman with short hair. "You! You'll be the next volunteer."
The young woman paled, but she stepped forward nonetheless, doubtless understanding that Tuya would not let her off the hook.
As she drew her sword and faced Arran, she clenched her jaw in determination — it was clear that she did not intend to grant him an easy victory.
"Fight!" Tuya's voice sounded again.
Unlike the first novice, this one fought cautiously, using measured strikes and blows as she tried to get past Arran's defenses. Yet for all her caution, Arran found that compared to him, she was as clumsy as a toddler swinging a stick.
They exchanged blows for several minutes. Although Arran could have finished the fight sooner, he was anxious to find out just what had changed. The answer quickly became apparent: his control over his body had increased dramatically, giving him staggering speed and precision.
He finally ended the fight with a quick thrust to the young woman's chest that struck before she had a chance to parry. The novice acknowledged her defeat with a nod at Arran, then regretfully handed Tuya an Essence Crystal.
"Next!"
This time, Tuya picked a tall man with broad shoulders and a scarred face as Arran's opponent. The man seemed to understand that skill and speed would not help him, and instead, he attacked forcefully, attempting to overpower Arran in much the same way that Arran had attempted with Snowcloud when they sparred.
Yet for all his strength, the man's attacks were crude and imprecise, and while Arran lacked the strength to block them, dodging and deflecting them was easy enough. He easily scored a number of blows on the novice that would have crippled him in a real fight, and after some moments, the man lowered his sword.
"You win," he said, then handed Tuya an Essence Crystal.
Another half dozen fights followed, and Arran won each of them. Although some of his opponents proved more challenging than the first three, as he got more used to his newfound control over his body, each fight left him stronger, if only slightly.
The tenth fight, however, was different.
Here, his opponent was a young, gaunt man with a hateful expression, and unlike the previous novices, this one fought as if the fight was to the death — using vicious and dangerous attacks that could have injured or even killed if they struck true, and combining ferocity with practiced skill as he attacked.
Still, it wasn't enough. While the novice was Arran's better in both skill and strength, he lacked the precision and speed to make good on the threat.
After several minutes of fierce combat, Arran sidestepped a rushed attack, then hit the novice across the back with the flat of his blade, sending him sprawling to the ground.
As the novice struggled to get back on his feet, Arran could feel it. Essence. The novice was gathering a mass of Fire Essence in his hand, preparing an attack powerful enough to kill him.
Immediately, he prepared to strike before the novice could attack, but there was no need — Tuya instantly appeared in between them, hitting the novice with a backhanded slap across the face so hard it sent him flying a dozen paces.
"What the hell are you thinking?! Using magic against a recruit, in a sparring match?! Are you out of your mind?!" Tuya's voice thundered across the courtyard, such fury in her voice that even Arran could not help but step back.
The novice got back to his feet, grasping his bloodied face. "You can't—"
"Get out of here!" Tuya raged. "Back to the camp, now! You're banned from the castle! If I see you here again, it won't just be your nose I break!"
The young man looked toward the other novices for support, but he was met with a wall of disgusted looks. He gave Arran a final hateful stare, then ran toward the gate.
Tuya turned toward the other novices, and to Arran's surprise, the fury in her eyes had disappeared as quickly as it had come. "Our practice is over," she said, her voice calm. "Tomorrow, Ghostblade here will join your training. For now, remember that no matter how talented you are, there are still mere recruits who can best you. If you train hard, that might change."
With that, she walked off, gesturing for Arran to follow her.
"I think I could have taken him," Arran said after they had left the novices behind.
"Perhaps," Tuya said, though she sounded unconvinced. "But my goal today was to show you your power, not to bury novices — or overconfident recruits."
"I don't understand it, though," Arran said. "Elder Naran — your father — he said the Tempering would make me weaker."
"And it did," Tuya said. "From what I can tell, you lost quite a bit of strength."
"But I thought…"
"You thought adepts went through the Tempering just for the fun of it?" She made an ugly face. "Worst pain I ever felt, and I've wrestled a Fire Demon. We do it because it's worth it."
"Why didn't you just tell me?" he asked.
"I did," Tuya replied. "Several times. But you were too busy trying to regain your strength to listen."
Arran sighed when he realized it was probably true. He'd been so focused on training that he had mostly ignored both Tuya and Snowcloud when they visited him, only listening with half an ear when they spoke.
"But I didn't notice it before," Arran said. "It's been weeks, and until now, I had no idea something had changed."
As he thought about it, however, he realized that wasn't actually true. Ever since the Tempering, he had felt more aware of his body, but all that had done was make it even more painfully obvious how much strength he had lost.
"You were sitting in your room, mourning the pebble you lost while ignoring the diamond in your hands." Tuya shrugged. "You can't understand your abilities if you don't try to use them."
"I suppose not," Arran admitted, now beginning to feel somewhat foolish. "So the Tempering actually made me stronger?"
"Not exactly," Tuya replied. "Your body is still weaker, and until you recover your strength, you will be injured more easily." With a soft laugh, she added, "But avoiding injury should be a great deal easier now."
"So, me training with the novices… were you serious about that?"
Tuya looked at him, eyebrow raised. "Do you think I'd have said it otherwise?"
"But my strength…" Arran began. Even with this newfound control, he found it difficult to let go of the idea that he must restore his strength no matter what.
"Right now, getting used to the effects of your Tempering will be more useful," Tuya said, her tone confident. "You will regain your strength eventually."
"You're right," Arran said, though not before taking a moment's pause to think it over. Yet there was no getting around it — no matter how much he wanted to regain what he lost, right now, he would benefit more from training what he had.
"Of course I'm right," she replied. "So get some rest, then practice tomorrow."
"I will."
But first, he knew, he would have to pay Snowcloud a visit. There were things they had to discuss — things he had ignored while he had obsessed over his training.
