Elara and Seraphina faced off in the training grounds, the two of them glanced at each other, both thinking different things as they continued with their staring contest.
Seraphina was trying to understand what her 'master' was trying to do.
Was it all because of petty revenge? Was this Vaan's way of making up to his fiancée? Was he trying to give Elara a chance to take out all her anger on her? Honestly, Seraphina didn't feel that was the case.
She may not have known this 'new' Vaan for a long time, however, one thing she did understand was that Vaan was guilty of his past actions.
This man genuinely cared for his fiancée and blamed himself for his foolish actions, yes, Seraphina was wrong for manipulating him, however, from what she could understand, in Vaan's mind, ever since she had signed the contract, everything was over and now it was all his responsibility.
Vaan wasn't the type of man to blame everything on Seraphina and make Elara feel better by taking her anger out on her 'enemy' and neither was Elara the type of woman who would do something like this.
She was too pure-hearted for that.
Not to mention that if Vaan and Elara had truly wished to take their anger out on her, they wouldn't be having a fist fight right now, it would have been a magic duel.
A duel where she stood no chance, however, they didn't choose it, this made it clear that this was not for just some revenge and at the same time, this also piqued Seraphina's curiosity. 'What is he trying to achieve?' She wondered in her head.
While Seraphina was thinking all this, Elara's worries were on a much smaller level, in front of her stood a woman who ruined her life. There were many things Elara wanted to do, however, the best option in her head was to simply ignore this woman.
She was enjoying her life, she was enjoying the attention Vaan was giving her and she had no plans of taking revenge, rather, she wanted to stay away from Seraphina as much as possible and she wanted Vaan to do the same as well.
After all, who knew what this woman was capable of? The last thing she wanted was for things to revert back to how they usually were. Elara didn't think she could take that blow head-on.
"Start"
As the two women thought different things, they suddenly heard Vaan's voice.
They looked at him, the man glanced back at them and, "Do not hold back, give everything you have."
"As you say, Young Master Vaan."
Seraphina nodded as she rushed towards Elara.
She couldn't understand why she was forced into this situation, however, right now, her goal was to serve Vaan and do what he said. After all, she needed to impress him and show her usefulness.
As she closed the distance and the fight began, Seraphina wasted no time, throwing a flurry of punches at Elara. By no means was Seraphina a fighter. Heck, this was the first time she was ever participating in a fist fight.
Her movements were awkward, unbearably slow and her punches carried close to zero strength. Heck, Vaan wasn't even sure if those could be called punches.
Elara, on the other hand, had been training with Vaan for the last few days, of course, she wasn't much of an expert either, her stance, however, was countless times better than her opponent.
As they say, it is the newbies who improve at the most drastic rates. While there may not be much difference in skill between two middle-level fighters if one of them practiced for a few more days than the other.
The difference between Elara's and Seraphina's skill level was enormous.
Elara deftly dodged Seraphina's attacks, her footwork graceful and evasive.
Seeing this, Seraphina seemed surprised. She knew her skill wasn't the best, however, considering that her opponent was the usually timid Elara, she didn't think she would have so much hard time.
'Do the Vestas teach fist fighting along with Magic Training?' Seraphina wondered in her head.
Her eyes fell on Vaan, another mage who liked to punch his opponents more than using spells to defeat them.
Suddenly, Seraphina's eyes met Vaan's, then, she saw Vaan's mouth moved,
'Don't hold back.'
He spoke.
Seraphina's mouth twitched.
'You think I am holding back?' She wanted to question, however, since she wanted to show her usefulness, she couldn't show her weakness here.
She nodded, then, glaring at Elara, she increased her speed and started attacking even more recklessly, not caring about the openings she was creating in her stance at all.
This time, Elara panicked, no matter what, she was still new to this, she wasn't skilled enough to block all of Seraphina's attacks, she missed one of her punches that landed on her shoulder, and from that, Seraphina started gaining the upper hand.
"Ugghh!"
Elara groaned in pain. She tried to dodge her attacks and create distance, however, Seraphina wasn't giving her any chance to do that. Since her strategy of attacking relentlessly seemed to be working, Seraphina stuck to it.
"Don't just be on defensive, start attacking if you want to win."
Suddenly, Elara heard Vaan's voice.
"You have been training with me for the past few days, show me the result of that. You may not know, however, this is Seraphina's first fight, she has never done this before.
You are fighting a complete newbie.
So if you lose here, you will not only embarrass yourself but also me, who trained you."
Elara's expression changed.
She wasn't shocked by what Vaan said, actually, she could already guess with how Seraphina carried herself that she was new to this, however, the problem was,
She couldn't find any openings.
Seraphina's attacks were relentless, Elara had no way to break through her barrage of attacks and fight back.
And as if Vaan knew what his fiancée was thinking, he spoke, "Don't think there are no openings, there are countless of them you can use. You just have to repeat what you did against me and this will be as easy as walking in a park. The only thing you need to do is to prepare your mind."
Elara nodded, her fists poised to strike and just as Vaan said, the moment she put her mind into it, she found an opening, her body moved on its own as her hand quickly found her way towards Seraphina's face, however, the moment she was about to hit her.
Elara hesitated.
Seraphina used this chance to push her away. Elara fell on the ground.
There was a big difference between sparring with Seraphina and sparring with Vaan. In the latter case, she knew that no matter what she did, he would be able to dodge or block her attack, Seraphina, however, was different.
With how shocked she looked when her punch reached her, Elara could tell that Seraphina was not prepared for her punch at all. If she hit her, she would actually get hurt and the moment she realized that, Elara hesitated.
Her problem of being unable to hurt others, even if her enemy is a woman who nearly ruined her life, even if the 'hurting' part here was a simple bruise that could be healed within a few days even without taking any medicine, Elara still hesitated.
That was just how pure hearted she was.
Of course, Seraphina didn't know what was going on, seeing that her opponent had fallen and how Vaan still hadn't intervened, she dashed towards Elara, not wanting to give her time to stabilize herself, however,
Before Seraphina could press her advantage, Vaan's voice cut through the tension like a thunderclap. "That's enough!" he commanded as he stepped between the two girls.
Both girls froze, their attention turning to Vaan. He approached Elara, offering her a hand to help her up. She accepted it, her cheeks flushed with a mixture of embarrassment, relief and guilt.
"Are you alright?" He questioned with a worried look on his face.
"I apologize…" Elara lowered her head.
She knew she hesitated. This was a fight she could win, however, just like before, she hesitated again. "Maybe I am not fit for this…" She muttered with a dejected look on her face.
Vaan momentarily turned silent.
Seeing him like that, Elara seemed even more disappointed and started blaming herself inwardly.
"Alright, I guess we can give up."
Suddenly, Vaan spoke up.
"Hmm?" Elara tilted her head in confusion.
"The Elemental Clash, if Elara doesn't wish to fight, then we will take out your name from it." Vaan spoke as he gently held Elara's right cheek.
"It may harm mother's image a little if her disciple didn't participate and I would lose some Elemental Stones, but it doesn't really matter, we will figure something ou-"
"No."
Elara spoke.
Her eyes were different than before.
"I-I want to try again."
She spoke, hearing those words, a small smile appeared on Vaan's face.
Yes, he was manipulating her emotionally, however, he had no choice. Elara's talent was too strong for her to remain passive.
Astra was not a fool, she knew her disciple couldn't fight, she didn't like fighting, ideally, she should have just taken her name out of the competition and should have allowed Elara to deal with things at her own pace,
However, Elara's talent was too strong for that.
With her talent, it was only a matter of time before she became a 7th Circle Advance Mage.
A 7th Circle Mage who couldn't fight, just how scary is that?
If Elara stayed like this, then Astra feared that she would turn into an open target.
This was the reason she wanted Elara to change, even a little and this was the reason why Vaan was going this far. His Elara, he would make sure that she does not come off as an easy target.
"G-Give me that."
Suddenly, Elara demanded.
"What?" Vaan tilted his head in confusion, but then, Elara's answer made him widen his eyes,
"Alcohol,
Give me alcohol."
Elara demanded.
