A few hours later, we returned from the village. A blue-haired-merfolk boy sat listlessly in the shade of a tree not too far from the entrance, his spear planted in the earth next to him. With one leg atop the other, he whistled quietly into the breeze while his long fin-like tail rested upon the grass.

Upon hearing our footsteps, he jumped up and practically bounced towards me.

“Hey, you’re finally back.”

“Hey Timothy. Nice for you to show up.” I said, while giving him a placid stare.

He smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to explain where he had been the past few weeks. 

“Yeah, I’ve been quite busy lately. Oh, let me help with that.”

He took some things we bought at the village and followed us towards the kitchen. Once we were done, we returned to the main grounds. There, I made a beeline for the path that led to my room.

“Hey where are you going?” he said as he called out to me. “Aren’t you training today?”

“No, I’ll be in my room. The other shrine attendants will deal with breakfast.”

He held his hand over his mouth, pretending to be shocked, even making an exaggerated “Ahh” sound.

“The diligent Atsumi taking the day off. I must be dreaming.” 

“And the normally lazy timothy who usually sits around all day stuffing his face with dumplings is asking me about training?”

Timothy visibly flinched at this. “I’m sorry ms.cranky pants. I was just surprised.”

The interaction with Shino was still fresh on my mind, so Timothy was the last person I wanted to see. Especially since he vanished without even saying a word.

“I’m sorry, but still it’s weird for you of all people to come to me about training, even if you are planning to take the entrance test.” 

“I know, I know,” the boy said, waving his hands. “But I want to test my limits right now and Shino is currently busy, so I came to the next best option.”

“So you want to spar?” I asked.

Timothy clasped his hands while putting on his best puppy dog face. “Please.”

I shook my head, wanting more than ever to lock myself in my room for the day, but knowing Tim, he was probably going to pester more for that same duration. I would also feel bad if he really ended up failing.

“Fine, just let me gear up.”

“Awesome, I’ll be at the sparing grounds,” the boy said, sprinting outside.

I took a little walk on my way to the training grounds. It had been a while since I walked through that part of the temple, and my day hadn’t exactly started on a pleasant note.

Sunlight streamed through the many colored leaves, leaving a noticeable pink hue as I walked down the collection of steps leading to the grounds. I closed my eyes and took in the surrounding atmosphere. The air was sweet and the feeling of the ambient mana that blew through my hair was refreshing. I took another breath before the sound of cheering pulled me back into reality.

Why are there people here?

As I approached the field area, some people turned their attention to me. “Yo Atsumi’s here,” a young yokai boy said.

“Why are there so many people here? Didn't master shino put up a notice that there will be no practice today?” I asked.

“We got it after everyone arrived. Some of us did a little sparing before we headed out, and guess what, a professor from Procyon academy showed up” he said, pointing to the stands.

Surprised I look around to see who the boy was pointing at, it was a tall man who seemed to be of the Fae race, more accurately he was an elf about 6 feet in height, with pointy ears and short emerald green hair, he seemed quite invested in the fights going on. I could tell from the mana that leaked from his body that he was quite strong, but nothing compared to Shino.

“He said he was here to meet the candidate selected for the test, but he would love to see the abilities of the other youth present,” another student explained.

I looked at Timothy and back at the man.

“Wow, all the way here just for this blockhead. You must be pretty famous in Atlantis,” I said.

Is this the person Shino mentioned would help Timothy prepare to set out to Atlantis? It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Maybe he knows my dad?” Timothy said, scratching the back of his head.

“I wonder,”. I said with a chuckle.

“Anyway, how about we get this started?” I said to the blue-haired boy.

I walked forward with my hand resting on the hilt of my Katana. Looking up, I saw the professor from the academy looking intently as if excited for the fight ahead. I ignored him and turned around to face Timothy.

“Today we go all out, no holding back,” he said.

“You sure?” I replied, returning his smug expression.

His smirk faded. He was more serious than usual, and his expression gave me all the confirmation I needed. We’ve known each other for as long as I can remember. Even though he has only ever bested me when we were younger, we have formed something of a friendly rivalry. He usually never takes it seriously, but today felt different. His aura was more pronounced, more refined, and his current level of confidence was suspicious.

While lost in thought, Timothy took this as an opportunity and rushed forward, thrusting his spear towards my torso. I jumped to the side, using my Katana to parry the blow and guide it away from my chest. He then held his spear horizontally and delivered a flurry of stabs, each strike speeding past my ears while I dodged. 

Finding an opening in his spear stance, I let it pass over my shoulders and attempted to slash his chest. Realizing this, he backed away to gain some distance.

Giving him no chance to react, I agitated my mana and with my will, guided the wind to coalesce around my blade. With two slashing motions, I sent wind blades in his direction.

He quickly used his spear to create his own slashes of water. The two attacks collided and canceled each other out, leaving behind a whirl of mist.

I closed the distance between us and brought my blade down towards his shoulders. He blocked my attack with his spear, and using his weight, pushed me away.

He then raised his spear and gathered water to its tip to form a ball. He compressed it from the size of his body to that of a small fruit.

“Let’s see how you handle this, water cannon.”

Again, using the same thrusting motions, he launches a high-speed ball of water in my direction.

Instinctively, I run to the side. The attack hits the ground where I stood a few seconds ago, exploding on impact and sending a shock wave through my body while also lifting me off the ground.

I wasn’t quite expecting this, but I still got out with minimal damage. But upon recovering my balance, I could see him preparing multiple of the same attacks.

“Hey, are you trying to kill me?” I barked.

“I told you to go all out,” he said condescendingly.

I ran around the arena, trying to avoid the exploding masses of water. I couldn’t slash due to them being under pressure and possibly heated.

“Fine then,” I said under my breath.

I channeled mana from my core, causing the wind to swirl around me. I then stomped hard as I went into a low stance, unsheathing my sword and releasing all the gathered energy.

*Sacred sky blossom magical art, Petal strike*

A wind blade that glowed with a pink hue flew across the arena, demolishing the approaching water cannon balls. This resulted in an explosion of steam.

With my vision being obscured from all the steam, I heard a loud crashing sound as the attack impacted a hard surface.

A few moments later, the steam combined into icicles and surrounded me. Using my Katana I swung around, causing a powerful whirlwind to surround me, blocking the incoming ice shards.

*Sacred sky blossom Scarlet whirlwind*

After the dust had settled, I could now see that he had brought up a wall of ice to block my first attack.

Tim had never shown this level of mastery with his magic. It was obvious why he was gone for so long, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“I didn’t know you could use ice magic,” I said to him.

“Well, I almost never use it since it rattles my body quite a bit, not to mention the high mana cost, but today is a special occasion.”

For the first time in a long time, I thought he looked extremely cool and felt some sense of admiration towards him.

“Hey don’t space out on me. Let’s finish this,” he said as he pointed his spear toward me.

“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” I replied, taking a stance.

We both stood opposite each other. I could sense the pressure of his mana ever increasing. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the small particles that floated through the air.

Some were blue and others were red. I honed my focus even more and with my mana as the medium, I willed these particles to separate. Around me, little blinking lights formed and flickered, they then turned into sparks and then large arks of electricity. I felt the tingling sensation as the bolts that caressed my skin while I channeled all the built up mana into my sword.

Timothy’s face grew serious at the sight of this. He then held his spear upright and started chanting.

“Sprites of the deep, born of the great blue void harken to me, enlighten me with thy wisdom so my foes shall know the wrath of the seas,”

A serpentine figure appears behind him, its mouth agape as it gathers water to its open mouth. Then, with a snap of his fingers, it unleashes its attack.

*Riptide. *

But it was not enough to stop what I was about to unleash.

*Hakkun esoteric magical art, Single strike of the thunder god*

Unsheathing my katana, a brilliant white arc of lightning illuminated the training area. It had sliced through and completely evaporated the oncoming attack. The peal of thunder shook the ground and I could faintly hear the panicked screams of the onlookers.

A searing pain shot up my elbow, causing me to drop my katana in response. 

I think I overdid it. 

This was the only Magical art outside of the Sacred sky blossom I had learnt and honestly, I didn’t expect it to come out this strong.

Timothy had possibly taken the full brunt of the attack. I got up and ran towards where I last remembered seeing him, only to be met by the disapproving face of my master.

“Are the two of you trying to kill each other?” she said as she held up her hand. “You two should know by now, no sparing with magic unless under supervision.”

She had blocked my attack with her bare hands and not a scratch was visible on it. Timothy was crouched behind her, holding his head.

“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I asked.

“All good, no need to worry,” he said as he dusted himself off

“Atsumi, honestly, that was too reckless,” Shino said.

She then looked at my right arm. I could tell by her eyes that she was concerned about my use of that magical art.

“Master, I thought you had important meetings to attend to today,” Timothy said.

“I Did, but my last guest decided he would prefer to be here,” she said, visibly frustrated as she looked at the elven man sitting in the stands.

“Everyone, the show is over. Please return home,” she said as she shooed away the onlookers.

The elven man walked up to us and held out his hand, gesturing a handshake.

“Greetings little ones, my name is Alan Florin, that was quite the display,” 

Upon hearing this, Shino turned around and stood between us. “You speak to me right now and not my students. Explain to me why you are here and not in the hall?”

“My apologies for the lack of awareness. I saw the little ones and cou – “

“Never mind,” Shino said, cutting him off.

She then looked at us. “The two of you return to the temple. Please let me speak to Mr Florin. Atsumi, go to the infirmary and get your right arm treated.”

We did as we were told and headed towards the main temple.