The Witcher: Elder Blood

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***

After waking up in the morning and warming up, Heralt and I went out into the courtyard and stood opposite each other in the sparring area. Our swords replaced the unsharpened training swords.

Vesemir stood next to me, also determined to test my current skills and at the same time look at his other apprentice. Of course, Geralt is a young witch with no experience, but his physical parameters are enough to resist me, and the use of foresight will probably not overpower the difference between the two of us in pure swordsmanship.

- Come on, Eren, show me your Blink. Young witches should experience surprise early on,' the master witch was aware of my personal spell based on the Elder Blood, though he'd previously thought the spell belonged to the Origins. However, one does not prevent the other.

The white-haired boy immediately prepared himself, tensed his muscles and stood in a protective stance. His hands were in such a position that he could jump back without hindering himself with the position of the sword, and he could raise his palm to form the Marks of Quen and Aard.

The original plan had been to practice rather than spar, but since Vesemir had insisted on a full clash, except for the sharpened swords and my other magic besides the witch sigils, not counting Blink. I'll leave the foresight for later, if it's clear that no chance to match Blink alone, I'll use it - Vesemir approved of this approach, saying then: 'When you learn to fight without any magic, you'll be many times stronger with it. And so, if something happens and you can't anticipate the attack? What then, to get wounded?'

- Then let's get started,' I'll get into a stance myself. - Quen, Aard, sword and my Blink, come on, Geralt, - I'm not in a hurry to attack yet, just moving around the 'arena'.

Vesemir first wanted to offer another Sign - Irden. A kind of trap that creates an area under the caster. It prevents normal movement, can slow down those who step into it, helps when fighting otherworldly beings such as a ghost, and unlocks invisibility. This Mark has another property - interrupting the signatures of portals. But, as it turned out in testing during the warm-up, my portals and Blink, based on my internal magic, are still barely able to bypass such a trap. So decided to remove Irden from sparring. Just two signs, one each for defence and attack, one sword each, and my Blink to even us out.

It's time. After thinking over the plan, I decide to teleport behind Geralt's back at once. The faint bluish flash from my previous position put the witch in a stupor for a second, allowing me to make a sweep towards his right shoulder.

- 'Quen,' Geralt whispered quietly, managing to make the right sign with the fingers of his left hand.

Poof.

An instant before it hit my shoulder, my sword was flung away by a yellowish flash, and the next second I had to jump back to avoid being hit by the return circular swing into my blind spot.

- Tsk, so you were going to defend yourself from the start,' I broke the distance between us.

- Yes,' Geralt was now starting to close in.

Without tricks in close combat I can't cope with him, the only thing left is to exhaust him: two or three more uses of Kven, and he'll have to rely only on his sword for the near future.

Two steps later, I teleport behind him, giving him time to turn around, and immediately move back with Blink. Heralt once again has to use Quen, as once again he doesn't have time to turn around and fend off the attack.

- Can you do that without stopping? - I nod at his question.

It only takes me a second to Blink again, and it doesn't take much energy, about two out of five on the spell cost scale.

After four more sword clashes, I find a good moment to use the Blink again, this time shifting slightly to the side instead of the third consecutive move behind me.

I'm about to pull off a stabbing blow. The sword slams into the witch's left side as he begins to turn, and at exactly the same moment I notice the hand with the folded Sigil of Aard pointing in my direction. My training with quick use of witcher's Sigils paid off, I learnt to use them purely on willpower, or should I say 'with the help of the mind'? The main thing is that I can use them without certain movements and words of activators.

The telekinetic wave hits my exposed magical shield, breaking it in an instant with an answering repulsive effect. We were thrown back a couple of metres, but everyone managed to stay on their feet.

Geralt rushed forward, and came at me with a swing before I could even get into a defensive stance - I had to teleport away. To my dismay, I didn't move far enough, and apparently I was on the edge of his field of vision. The witcher turned to the right with a new swing, instead of checking his back as usual.

The first blow was deflected with a dull block, the second was dodged to the side, and the third was again taken on the sword. Parrying was out of the question, it was more about not being parried by the witch doctor himself. As the fourth blow to my left forearm approached, there was no time to block or dodge, so I used Blink again, this time a little further than before, and still managed to get out of Geralt's sight.

The third broken Quen and the previously used Aard had depleted the young witch's available magical supply. There was a clear lack of control of his own will/mind in controlling the crumbs of magic available to witches. It will probably improve with time, as will the amount of energy in the Sigil, I too found it difficult at first to draw energy from the world for several spells in a row. If we were fighting next to the Source of Power, then four Sigils would not be enough for a short skirmish.

The next moment, I flipped the witch with Aard, and then moved closer to him, swinging towards his neck, stopping the edge of my blade there.

- Ughhh, that was fast we... Come on,' the witch's blade was against my chest, which I didn't immediately feel. - A draw?

- Exactly, Eren, your skills have risen noticeably, practice with your teleportation is evident. And as for your sparring, well, you would have honoured him with a quick death, and you could have been left lying there with a gutted belly, heh,' he chuckled at the end as I held out my hand to Geralt and helped him up. - Geralt, you're right to rely on your witch senses, train them more often. Our senses are.

- ...one of the main reasons for survival in a monster hunt, I've heard it many times.

- You'll hear more, Vesemir took another training sword from the rack. - So, Eren, let's test your swordsmanship without magic. What you learnt there in your Vengerberg.

The next sparring was more like training: Vesemir mostly defended or parried attacks, he didn't need to dodge. It was like that for fifteen minutes, while my current level of fencing was determined without the use of foresight or any magic.

Fighting witches in close combat, relying only on physical parameters, such as the abilities of his own body and accumulated experience, is not a thankless task, to put it mildly. Simply, to surpass the witch in strength, it is necessary to have a complex noticeably heavier, and at the same time also trained, and about speed and reaction to speak generally meaningless, there is only ahead of the attacks based on their own experience, few people are able to do this. Maybe pure-blooded elves, who lived for two hundred or three hundred years, are able to compete with the witch doctor in swordsmanship, if such an elf will have considerable experience in battle.

- Good, really good, Eren. In my long life, I've met wizards who like to use weapons in addition to their magic. You're definitely going their way.

- That was the plan, and it keeps me in shape,' I put my training sword back on the rack.

It's time to wrap up, the day will start soon, I'll have to return with the horse to Sabrina's family residence and go to Wengerberg myself. The return journey will be much quicker, using teleportation first to Ard Carraig and then to the backyard of my home.

***

A few hours later, when I was back home and had cleaned up after eating a hearty lunch, I had a conversation with Jennyfer in the backyard. The enchantress was watering the plants, simply forming clots of water and running them into the beds and individual pots.

- It seemed I'd managed to find a helper for the shop. Both in alchemy and healing,' she said slowly.

- I wonder who it is. You've been thinking about it for over a month.

- Yes, I wanted a helper who could do things without me. An apprentice to teach... I've got enough to do as it is. Tissaya contacted me last night with a prospective graduate.

- Can you tell me more about her or should I expect a surprise? - I ask the girl with genuine interest. It is useful to get acquainted with different wizards, especially young ones, it is easier to find common ground with them.

- You're not the only one in for a surprise, I don't know much about her. Her name is Litta Nade, she entered Arethusa before I graduated. Tissa told me that Litta is interested in healing, showed average skills in alchemy, and graduated last year. I'll meet her at the ball in a month, her year turned out to have few students, so this is the first ball for her.

Sorcerers and sorceresses graduate in different numbers every time. There is no such thing as each stream of students being packed to the brim or balancing around the same number. Since it is customary in Arethusa to hold a sort of dinner party with a ball during the graduation of new students, they try to hold it for at least five or more students. Sometimes it happens that a newly minted sorceress is not honoured with such an event until the next year or in rare cases two years later, together with a younger group - Litta Nade is just such a case.

- I hope she's a better character than you and Sabrina,' I said with a chuckle in my voice, but I got an indignant snort and a slap on the shoulder. - I'm going to go finish my potions and start tomorrow with exploring the other world. I think I'll start with the ones I've already visited with the rector, we haven't explored much there, it's more of a ticking off point.

- Eren! - Yennifer shouted after me. - You promised to go to the next ball with me. Be ready next month, I have to order your suit from the tailor.

- Oh crap, I'll order it later....