Ebony's Fable

Umar did not understand why he got so scared of his new classmates all of a sudden. Getting walked home after changing out of his pee-stained pants had to be the most embarrassing day of his life.

‘No. I can’t be afraid! Dad and mom told me that it's normal to find someone that scares me but I can’t stay afraid.’ Umar recalled telling his parents that he sometimes heard or felt things that weren’t said.

They told him he was lucky and might have gotten a portion and weakened version of their long-time skills of sensing minuscule lightning mana escaping from a person’s brains. A physique or something, he didn’t know what they were talking about.

Being walked home by his instructor meant a world of explaining to do on his part and he wasn’t good at lying. His parents could catch every lie and he spilled the beans of his embarrassing day to them.

“Who’s this man who scared my dear boy!? I have to go find him.” Umar’s father stood up and rolled his sleeves up. He dashed up to stop his father but he only exposed his back injury that he didn’t have to hide since he usually lived in the Academy dorm.

“Why are you injured dear?” His mom quickly caught him and rubbed his back.

‘I need to explain quickly…’ Umar didn’t want to bring Ebony any trouble and told them everything, about the bullying from the opponent Academy. That allowed his parents to calm down.

“I see a friendly competition. That’s good. If you think this old classmate of yours is so scary, then go learn from him. If you feel it is a good opportunity and outweighs the risk, then take it, son.” His dad apparently used to be a lot more hot-blooded but his mom told him that he changed greatly after Umar was born.

“I think so…I think he is very strong but scary.”

“Very strong huh, well not as strong as your dad here!” Umar’s father flexed his unnaturally large biceps. He was a close to mid-range lightning mage with a close combat Sub-Class.

‘I don’t think so.’ Umar shivered, but he couldn’t stop thinking that this was a turning point for him.

Hence, he woke up early and met up with his classmates who were worried about him instead of laughing at what happened to him. Well, except Bilal who had laughed out loud the moment they met. His back healed a lot more thanks to Her Majesty the Life Queen.

Ebony didn’t take long to show up. Umar breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t sense the same degree of fear and wariness for the man.

Until they started running. His father made him run so he knew that basic physical stamina was important even for a mage. Faelk was doing the best and almost outran the blue sculpture of Cerise. Bilal was even more physically fit than him as he rode and ran with his bear partner daily. He was also taking personal lessons on tamer skills so he was physically fit for a mage trainee.

The fittest of them all was Atticus. Atticus was a first-generation lightning mage in his family of warriors, hence his poor practical results but good control over his body.

It felt like hours had passed and Umar had never run so fast before. Having the bully who tried to break his spine run after him was a great motivator.

“Alright, it’s been thirty minutes. Let’s move on.” Ebony broke the bad news to him.

‘Only thirty minutes!?’

Most of them couldn’t even get off the ground after being forcefully pinned time after time. The moment they slowed down in their dash, they would get caught and pushed to the ground with their arms locked tightly.

Esme and Tia were on the verge of puking as they didn’t even know how to control their breaths but Ebony gave them a breathing rhythm to follow after the first minute of observing them. Slowly but surely throughout the run, Umar was beginning to sense…intensity from their big bro again.

The next thing on his mind was not going to be as easy as a simple stamina-building exercise.

“Since the goal is to beat a certain type of opponent, you just need to spar. Nothing complicated, just repetition and building on your mistakes.”

“Will we be sparring against your spell big bro?” Yusqly, the only girl who wasn’t so exhausted she couldn’t talk was questioned.

“Yes, I can’t expect you to be beating adults in less than a month. I didn’t bring any other opponents for you either.”

Umar shivered again, ‘Why does it sound like he can make us do that if he had more time.’

The kids knew how well their big bro’s spell could move. It was no different from a real person.

“But it’s not fair big bro, your spell is so cold it numbs us when we’re in contact,” Fabian complained.

“...Thanks for letting me know. I’ll make them the same temperature as a human with a runic formula.” Umar saw Ebony scratch his cheeks.

‘Is he embarrassed for not noticing? I don’t understand big bro. Also, runic? Making ice the same temperature as a human? That’s possible?’ Umar watched closely but the life-sized sculpture’s skin changed too fast and they gained scars in a blink of an eye.

“Phew, at least we can take a break while each of us spar.” Another one of his classmates, Sebas wiped his sweat off his forehead.

“Hmm..No, why waste time? You’re all sparing at the same time.”

“How can fifteen of us attack one target at the same time, are we allowed to use mana?”

“No, only physical. Don’t worry, you’ll all have one target each.” Ebony replied and he conjured another fourteen duplicates of Cerise, all of which looked exactly the same.

It was eerie. The ice-cold facial expression put Cerise’s actual expression to shame.

“Relax, I made sure to copy the softness of flesh so it shouldn’t feel as different as hitting or getting hit by her.”

They were stunned and Umar sensed the tiny trickle of lightning mana from the corner of the underground training room. It was a familiar one. There was someone here but they couldn’t see anyone else.

‘Is it Mr Targot or Miss Raika?’ Umar got punched in the face by a warm, hard fist and he felt his whole body lift off the ground.

“Don’t get distracted.”

‘It feels the same. Her frame is the same. Her moves are the same… wait, how does Ebony know what Cerise looks like? Or how she fought?’ Umar raised his arms to block the turning kick to his lower ribs. He was a little too slow but it hit his elbow instead.

Only Faelk and Atticus fared better than him but Umar couldn’t spare them a second look. His face still hurt a lot but it wasn’t the first time he was punched in the face. He did his best not to follow his female classmates' footsteps of falling and crying on the spot.

Those who never fought a day in their lives couldn’t stop crying and Ebony did not let up.

For Faelk, Yusqly, Bilal, Atticus and Umar, this was normal. This was training.

But not for everyone.

Esme for example was also a first generation mage but even worse, neither of her parents were combatants. The closest combatants in her family were distant aunts and uncles.

Duelling was the fastest way to get used to a specific opponent or fighting style. Of course, Atticus might be the only one who has actually been in a proper duel before and Faelk could rely on his natural physical abilities with his born talents in battle.

Not all of them here had been directly bullied by Cerise before and it was their first time getting physically hurt.

They’ve already taken theory lessons for a year. Practicals just started and all they do is gather lightning mana before directing it at a target or for the slightly advanced like him, they hold a stream of lightning stable with a conductor for as long as they could. A metal ball that attracted lightning mana.

A few others that came just wanted to come for fun or ‘avenge’ their friends but Umar didn’t know them well. He just thought they were a little too sheltered or naive. But he wasn’t one to say that.

Umar accidentally stepped back and ducked but he stepped onto someone’s foot and his aggressor’s punch ended up hitting the person who he stepped the foot off.

“HEY!” The boy with the nosebleed yelled at Umar only to get a kick in his torso and be sent sprawling on the ground.

“Get up.” Ebony’s voice shouldn’t have reached Umar but he sensed the same words.

After all, he noticed that Ebony was giving each of them advice personally. ‘Sound magic or directed voice control.’

Umar had heard the phrase ‘get up,’ four times already and the phrase seemed to echo in his ears when he saw his classmates fall.

He never knew encouraging words could sound so cold.

However, Umar couldn’t help but imagine that he got a better hang of dodging blows after getting hit tens of times. He didn’t think a single session was enough for him to notice that he was getting better. Wouldn’t he be able to win with a few more training sessions?

This might be addicting.

❅❅❅

‘It’s just the first day, this is to be expected.’ When it was an hour before their lessons would start, he stopped their bea-, sparring.

Quite a few of them fell asleep on the spot. Other than Yusqly, all the other girls cried so much they ran out of tears and their voices were barely audible. However, he was hopeful that all of them stood up and tried their best at some point in time in the two-hour session.

He nodded at his amazing encouraging tips, following his mother’s method was definitely the right way. After all, it made him strong.

He spread his mana with the Will that it would calm them down and cast Frostweave Vital Constriction on all their untouched body parts and some vitals. The injured parts were left untouched so that they weren’t sealed. With his control, he easily made it such that even the bruises were rather light and could heal faster with the help of the city-wide healing.

‘Atticus is okay.’ Ebony had no other internal comments for everyone else.

He remembered Mr Targot who started screaming that he was going too far when the sparring started. Fortunately, he helped the instructor stay undetected by silencing the scream fast enough. He gave himself a pat on the back for being alert and considerate.

“Ebony! That’s too much! Do you not have any heart, how can you beat a crying child!” Targot rammed his lightning-imbued fists into the ice screen he left for the instructor.

“You underestimated your students, didn’t they all stand up and fight back for themselves soon enough.”

“They’re too young! They’ll be scarred.”

“No such thing as too young to know that one should have the strength to protect themselves. My control’s not that terrible, none of them would have so much as a cut much less a scar.”

“I mean mentally!”

“...How does one get mentally scarred?” Ebony asked in honest curiosity. This was just day one, an introductory day. Nothing intense was going on.

He didn’t throw them in a forest without any sign of human life.

He didn’t call them weak. He just put more independent ideas of standing up for themselves and depending on themselves to protect themselves rather than asking their opponents to stop hitting them.

And what happened? Maybe not all of them landed a hit on the Cerise Model but at least they started evading and blocking where it hurt most when hit.

That was a success in his books.

“Don’t play with me!”

Ebony listened to Umar’s question about what the ice on their bodies was for when listening to Targot yell at the same time. “This is a sealing spell meant to expedite healing. I made it a little numb with lightning mana so that you don’t feel the cold or pain.”

“I’m not playing. Okay, how about this, when they go to class later you can ask them what they did in the morning or what plans they have in the afternoon.” Ebony had been rather glad that the mindset of children on Elcra was different from children on Earth.

Even if they’ve never fought a day in their lives or weren't from a family of combatants, all of them were exposed to a certain level of knowledge about the dangers in their daily lives where even crossing the road could get them killed.

As someone who doesn’t know what ‘normal’ was, Ebony wasn’t lying to Muse when he said he had enough data about people's interactions and emotions.

Sure, maybe Muse was right in terms of him not understanding emotions well enough but in terms of a person’s fighting spirit? There was no way he couldn’t detect that, no matter how deep it was hidden.

Every single one of his classmates had it. In fact, it was far harder to find a person without it in this world.

When he hit every single one of their sore spots long enough, it would ignite their fighting spirit. As for what their sore spots were, he wasn’t listening to their daily conversations for nothing and few of them kept things to themselves. Those who didn't talk or share much already had decent fighting spirits like Faelk, Atticus and Umar.

“How strong is this Cerise compared to the real one?” Atticus asked in a serious tone.

“I used about 60% of her real strength on impact, but her speed is about 80% of the actual person for you, Atticus.” Ebony knew that some of them might have noticed that he knew what Cerise looked like and how she fought at some point in time. Changing the strength of the Model’s blows right before impact despite moving at different speeds was as easy as breathing for him

He then told every one of them the percentage of strength and speed he used for each of them. He needed to push them past their limits, not senselessly beat them up. Understanding every one of their physical limits was easier than taking candy from Muse for him.

Yusqly was disappointed she had been up against a Cerise that was using 30% strength and 40% speed but she already did the best amongst the girls. The other girls were taking 10%/10% at best but just because it was 10% strength of a girl under ten doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Ebony was confident he understood pain better than most.

Fighting spirit was best developed when he gave them a glimpse of hope that they could overcome an ordeal. In sight, out of reach. Having the Model ‘slip up’ occasionally near the end to let them taste a tiny bit of victory was something he would only do for the first lesson. He just needed them to feel as if they’d progressed, even if it was a lie.

Umar had been against a 40% strength and 85% speed Cerise which put him at the second fastest, behind Faelk who fought against a 90/90% but was still the least injured. But the wolf boy was a few years older at the age of thirteen. He was the most ashamed one as Cerise was not even ten years old.

He didn’t even qualify for the same tournament bracket so he was just here to train. His own bracket was for all unclassed above ten and under fifteen. Those unclassed above fifteen years of age had their own bracket as they began gaining skills and skill levels.

The format for the competition was just a straight-up duel so there was no need for specialised training like using their environment or situational awareness for the moment.

‘But I can start implementing alertness in them…alright, I got an idea.’ Ebony decided to give the recorders that he’ll leave in class the ability to turn into their bully during free periods. He would do it during lesson times if he was serious but that would be disruptive on his part.