Kaiser decided to take his bath at the barracks. After the day's training, he had no desire to head straight back to his quarters. His muscles were still aching, and the day had drained him. He just wanted to relax for a moment.
As he entered the corridor leading to the baths, he spotted a silhouette he knew all too well. Adriana. The moment her eyes landed on him, she was already raising her voice.
"You again…" she snapped acidly. "Come to strut around as usual."
Kaiser sighed. He had almost expected her to pop up out of nowhere. For days now she had been looking for any excuse to accuse him of something.
"Still so worked up…" he replied calmly.
Adriana crossed her arms. Her face wore a permanent scowl. Ever since she had learned that Kethra had taken him as her disciple, she no longer hid her bitterness. She had begged three times for that spot. As a mage, Kethra's close-combat training would have been perfect for her, and above all she craved recognition. Three flat refusals. And now Kaiser had gotten what she wanted on his very first meeting with the captain. To her, it was an insult.
"You think you deserve that place?" she said. "You? You really think that's normal?"
'What place? As if she were some kind of supreme master? Well, maybe for a commoner it's a big deal.'
"I'm not the one who decides."
She clicked her tongue. "Easy answer. Typical."
Her attitude was really starting to get on Kaiser's nerves. He had been patient the first few days. He had even tried to ignore her. But Adriana kept coming back. She shot him dark looks whenever he passed. She commented on everything he did. She accused him of favoritism, outrageous luck, arrogance. And today he had had enough.
"If you really want to know why she chose me," Kaiser said, stepping closer, "I can show you."
Adriana raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? And how exactly were you planning to do that?"
"Meet me on the training ground."
She opened her mouth, surprised. Then a thin smile spread across her face.
"Perfect. That's all I wanted."
Kaiser turned and walked toward the courtyard. Adriana followed without another word. Word spread fast. By the time they reached the grounds, soldiers were already gathering. Some called their comrades over, others placed small bets. The mood rose like an impromptu festival.
"Hey, Kaiser's fighting Adriana!"
"Finally, shit's about to go down!"
"I'm betting on Adriana. She's a mage for sure, but with her experience she'll crush him!"
"You kidding? The young master may have just started, but he holds a sword like he was born with it."
One might think the fight was unfair. Adriana was a mage; in other words, her physical constitution was far weaker than Kaiser's, who was a warrior. In exchange, she could store mana and cast spells that could be extremely dangerous even to a warrior.
In the end, both classes had their strengths and weaknesses. Everything depended on mastery, combat experience, and external factors like the environment or the opponent's condition.
Soon a circle formed around them. Adriana seemed to see the scene as the perfect chance to restore her honor.
Kaiser, unlike the growing excitement in the crowd, remained perfectly calm. His gaze swept over the rack of training weapons before settling on a wooden sword. He took it; the blade was heavy, plain, its edges scarred from countless clashes. It would do perfectly.
On the other side, Adriana hadn't waited. She raised one hand, palm facing the ground, and a faint breeze, almost imperceptible, began to dance around her fingers before coiling up her arms. The very air in the courtyard grew sharp, charged with rising energy. Kaiser felt the shift in pressure against his skin. She was in combat stance long before the formalities were over.
"You'll regret daring to challenge me," she declared, her voice clear and cutting. Her smile was tinged with contempt. "I'm going to give you a practical lesson on the difference between a brute swinging a stick and a real magician."
Kaiser rolled the sword in his hand, testing its weight one last time. His gaze lifted to meet hers, unmoved.
"In that case, don't make me wait. Show me."
An officer standing at a safe distance raised his hand and brought it down sharply. "Begin!"
The fight started the instant after. Adriana burst into action. She thrust both arms forward, and the wind she had gathered unleashed itself in a cone of razor-sharp air blades that shot straight at Kaiser with a high-pitched whistle. Around them, soldiers and trainees stepped back as one, followed by murmurs of admiration.
"By the gods, she's going all out from the start!" exclaimed a wide-eyed young recruit.
"Of course," replied a veteran beside him, arms crossed. "That's Adriana's strategy: shatter the opponent's defense with the first volley. She wants to show him the full extent of the gap between them."
And indeed, everything about Adriana's posture screamed superiority. She advanced with firm, elegant steps, convinced that any swordsman would only fold under the power and range of her attacks. To her, a man with a wooden weapon was a target, not an opponent.
Yet after ten seconds of continuous assault that should have reduced Kaiser to helplessness, an odd detail caught her attention and quickly turned into a disturbing certainty.
Kaiser was not retreating. He wasn't parrying the blows with his weapon or attempting frantic dodges. He was walking. Simply walking. He moved with disconcerting slowness, sometimes tilting his torso or head a few centimeters as an invisible air blade grazed past him to shatter against the wall behind. His eyes, intensely focused, never left her. They studied every motion of her hands, the position of her feet, the shift of her shoulders, and even, it seemed, the tiniest fluctuations in the air current she commanded. He wasn't enduring the assault; he was analyzing it.
Adriana frowned.
"Why aren't you moving?" she shouted, her voice strained with effort and a hint of frustration. So far, her attacks had only struck empty air.