“Here comes another one! Stella, it's all yours! Kid, watch how she does it!” Luca instructed.
Urie's act of burning down the earlier Nifyr acted as a beacon, attracting more of them to their location. Luca and Simone were currently holding off three of them while Stella unsheathed her blade to confront the newcomer.
“Little Urie, not everyone can be lenient with their usage of mana like you were. This is how most make do, especially when handling the Nifyr!” Stella emanated a glow and channeled the mana to her weapon—coating its blade in a red hue.
The newly arrived Nifyr laid its eyes on Stella's figure moved murkily towards her. Every step it took appeared like black mud splashing onto the pavement. Before it could lay its hands on her, Stella dodged to its right side and swung her glowing blade to lop off the monster's arms. Without a sound, two limbs had separated from its body.
Stella continued with the same actions, quickly and with precision, as the Nifyr struggled to land a blow on her—its left leg, right, and finally the head—the black murk that splattered onto the ground were still moving, but didn't have the ability to come back together.
Stella pinched her fingers together in the same way Luca had done, forming a ball of fire but throwing it at the dismembered magic creature. Leaving the slowly burning pieces of the Nifyr behind, she returned to the boy watching with a shimmer in his eyes.
“Physical attacks don't work on the Nifyr but if you use a weapon coated with flame-infused mana, it'll slice through them easily. How was that? Do you want to try it? “ Stella asked, and raised the bladed weapon she was holding in front of Urie, offering him a chance to use it. “It'll be a bit different from a normal sword...”
“What kind of sword is this?” Urie received the weapon from Stella and eagerly tried to wield it. Holding the grip of the weapon with two hands, he felt the weight of it tipping from its handle towards the end of the blade.
—Aunt Stella's been using this heavy thing!?
“Aunt Stella—“
“Ma-ma,” Stella interrupted, stressing her intonation. She continued, “Try and imitate what I just did. That method of using mana conserves your energy and won't tire you out as much. “
“Ma-ma Stella—It's too heavy,” Urie groaned, as he could barely lift the point of the blade off the ground.
“You don't have to wave it around. I have a smaller one in storage but for now, we'll practice with mine.” Stella came closer and hovered her hand over Urie's. “Now, channel the mana into your arms then through your fingers and towards the blade.”
Urie did as she instructed and allowed the mana to flow through his mana roots and towards the weapon. But instead of simply glowing red like what Stella had demonstrated, thin flames engulfed the blade, making it appear as if it were a block of wood set on fire.
“That is one way of doing it, I guess. At least this won't drain you as fast as when you use raw fire to bring down the Nifyr. That might work when dealing with one of the big ones or a whole pack at once, but if they come at you one by one, you're done for.”
—This skill might also be useful when fighting against mana beasts!
Urie recalled his exhaustion after dealing with the shadow wolf back in Erden's Tower. The rest of the pack wasn't maddened by mana, but if they had all attacked, then he wouldn't have been able to fight back.
Stella continued to speak, “Although this is easy to learn, mastery is another thing. Especially so with using a weapon, you'll have to build up physique as well as skill.”
“We...” mumbling the latter half of his sentence, Urie said, “We were going to learn swordsmanship at the academy this year but... I wonder if I'll be able to get back.” He was worried, they still had no idea of how to return him to the other side.
Noticing that he was getting dispirited, Stella gave him a cheerful pat, “Little Urie, I'll teach you how to handle a blade. You won't have to worry about that while you're here.”
“Alright, aunt—ma Stella.” Reassured, Urie resumed practice while Stella watched. A few minutes later, Luca and Simone returned after dispatching a few Nifyr.
Clang! Urie dropped the blade and fell onto the hard pavement on his rear—sweating, panting, and tired from exerting a lot of control over mana.
“I think that's enough for a morning exercise, don't you think?” Simone smiled. The boy's eagerness was unusually charming.
Stella replied, “Right. Let's all head back inside, shall we? You two look like you could use a bit of rest as well.”
Luca and Simone had been out on patrol all night, and they had yet get some proper sleep. Stella wasn't aware, however, that the two had initially come here for a reason other than Urie.
From one side of the road, an approaching carriage drew their attention. Now, carriages did frequent the road they were on, but what was unusual about this one was that the sound of the horses' hooves clopping had halted in front of them.
“Ah!” It was at this point that Simone uttered a gasp. Luca hurriedly used his hands to cover Simone's mouth but was still caught as Stella turned around and shot them a glare.
“Why is he here!?” Stella exclaimed. Indeed, they had forgotten to mention to her the tall man—with long pointed ears, pale skin, and lengthy light brown hair—that emerged from within the carriage. Stella was livid—her expression becoming as ferocious as that of the maddened shadow wolf that Urie had faced before.
“You knew he was coming?” She snapped.
“Simone, Stella.” The man approached with a strong gait. He walked past Stella and the others and bent down in front of Urie. He quietly observed, from the peculiar color of the boy's hair to the shimmer of curiosity in his icy blue eyes.
“So this is the child?” He asked while rubbing his chin.” Now, what would a child from the other side be doing in our dark city?”
Stella only found out about Urie's origins after asking him about it in this morning's conversation, yet the man could tell that Urie wasn't a resident of their city at first glance! Right as she was about to get him to leave, she exclaimed, “Wait! What do you know, old man!?”
