The young boy with white hair was running laps around the track as instructed by the black haired man watching.
Jega was standing straight unbothered by anything it was as if he was a statue.
When Arius-who was now a boy-got to his third lap he took a stop. Breathing heavily he immediately went to the ground clenching his chest.
Jega dropped to one knee and put his right hand on Arius's chest "Do you feel that? That's good it means you're improving"
I feel like passing out
Arius thought to himself as he got up with the help of Jega's hand. "Run slowly this time while I explain something" Jega instructed.
They both walked to the track and started. It took a minute before Jega started to speak. He was wording what he was going to say in his mind.
"Listen little one, when training your body there's more than just workouts. Do you know which well works with the physical body?" Jega asked Arius.
It took a second for the answer to find its way into Arius's mind "The Martial Well?".
"Yes, but it is also called the Physical Well. It's used to make your body a true weapon, to push it beyond its limits. You use your willpower to do things you normally can't do." Jega explained.
"I don't get it" Arius stopped and looked at Jega with a blank expression.
Jega stopped running and gestured for Arius to follow him toward a practice dummy. "Watch" Jega said.
He placed a fist on the practice dummy, took a deep breath, and punched the practice dummy. A small gust of wind rushed out from the impact. What was left was a small mark of his fist.
Arius was startled and amazed. His jaw was agape and his body frozen.
Jega moved to the practice dummy beside the first one "use the previous target as an example".
Arius's body woke up and moved closer to Jega "An example of what?" He asked.
"An example of a punch without using the Martial well. Step back" Jega answered.
What
Arius thought to himself as he took 2 steps back and gave his full attention to the practice dummy.
The spirits flying around ran behind trees and others far away from the open field in fear of what Jega was going to do.
Jega reassured them "I'm not going to do anything to put any of you in harm I just need an example".
Jega put his fist to the practice dummy same as last time and took a deep breath. But Arius could feel that something was different.
Like something is being drawn from deep inside the man in front of him. Of course, Arius didn't exactly know what.
Jega looked unbothered and warm during this. Before Arius could even see him move, gusts of wind covered Arius and the surroundings.
Coughs came out of Arius's mouth and he was down on one knee. The spirits hiding behind the trees watching all ran in the opposite direction.
Arius couldn't see as the wind covered his eyes. But when he opened them after 3 long seconds what he saw was someone unshaken, powerful, and steadfast.
When he turned his eyes towards the practice dummy what he saw was a miracle, something he believed couldn't happen.
The upper part of the dummy had disappeared as if it had never been there. Spikes of wood were left on the top of what was left.
This wasn't even the most surprising part for the young boy. When he turned a little more left he could see that the ground behind the practice dummy was rubble.
"Luckily nothing else broke" Jega moved his hand to his hair to push it back as it was covering his eyes after the impact.
Arius was speechless after this. It was as if the words from his mouth were blown off with the dummy.
"Whoo hoo!, Something I have to clean up" Words from behind them were heard. It was from a young woman of ash-brown hair in a steampunk layered casual dress, with puffed sleeves, leather straps, belts, and a brown asymmetrical skirt.
"And here I thought you would never get with the times" Jega teased.
"I wanted to just try it out, I'll never understand clothes from this era. It's better to just wear what we had back then when everything was comfortable" Elantra replied with an uncomfortable look.
Arius stared blankly at both of them not knowing the language they were currently speaking. He spoke up "Mommy why are you wearing those weird clothes?".
Elantra turned and bent down to Arius "If I knew I would say" She moved his hair around because after the impact his hair went all around his head. "There" she said finishing what she was doing.
She stood up and walked towards the rubble behind the dummy then scolded Jega "Really Jega, could you hold back more next time?" She mumbled something else under her breath before she stared daggers into his eyes.
"I tried but it's better than everything else getting destroyed" he tried to find an excuse.
Elantra lifted her right hand above the rubble and a spirit flew towards her. After a second of silence noises of rocks forming and moving against each other were heard.
The rubble was repairing itself as if it had a mind of its own. "Guess I didn't need magic" Elantra said before walking back into the house "I'm changing clothes".
You could've fixed the practice dummy… Jega thought to himself.
Both he and Arius turned towards each other in silence for 10 long seconds. Jega realizing Arius didn't know what to do next ordered "Try punching it".
Arius now excited ran towards a third unaffected practice dummy, moved his left hand towards it, and took a deep breath. After a second he punched it at full force.
"Owwww" he groaned hard before kneeling to the floor in pain.
Jega slowly took a step forward and brought out ice from seemingly out of nowhere "This is why I had your mother bring ice".
Arius would be curious about how and when they even passed each other ice but his mind was on the pain in his knuckles.
Jega gave Arius the ice and asked "Better?."
Arius shook his head yes and grabbed Jega's hand to get up. Jega moved towards the table with the chessboard and recently brought drinks.
Were those even there earlier?… Arius asked himself. Before sitting down with the ice still on his left knuckles.
"Now listen little one, I know your mother doesn't like me talking about the outside world but I need to talk about it for a second just don't tell her." Jega looked at Arius with a straight and serious face.
Arius nodded and took a large sip of his water.
"You're probably wondering why the chess game is here. You see back then and even now fighting wasn't just about who's the stronger man. It's also about who's the smarter one. Back then we trained our minds with chess, I don't know if they still do this now" Jega explained.
Arius nodded without saying a word.
"Then let's begin" Jega grabbed a pawn.
——
"Checkmate" Jega said with a pleased expression.
"Wait how" Arius looked around the chessboard.
"You sacrificed too many pieces little one you should only sacrifice when necessary" Jega replied.
"Sacrificed too many" Arius mumbled underneath his breath. "But shouldn't the objective matter? I thought as long as I take out the king nothing else mattered."
Jega looked up towards Arius's eyes "How do you expect to complete your mission when you've sacrificed everyone?"
Arius paused thinking about the question just asked.
Jega gave Arius a minute to think about it "See those rocks over there."
Arius looked in the direction Jega was taking about "yeah, the small and big rocks."
"Carry each around the track until you burn out" Jega commanded.
——
On the table in front of Arius were multiple plates of roasted chicken, sweet buttered corn, garlic bread, fish, fine white bread, and wine for the adults and water for the child.
"Wow, thank you mommy" Arius looked in delight like he wasn't in pain not too long ago.
"Yes, thank you Lady Elantra" Jega bowed.
Elantra looked at both of them in happiness "We haven't eaten like this in a while so I thought it would be a good idea"
Jega turned towards Arius and whispered "Don't believe her she cooks when she's annoyed.
"Hey, I heard that!" Elantra yelled.
"Can I start now?" Arius asked then immediately started eating.
We didn't even give a reply… both Elantra and Jega thought the same thing.
"So did you two talk about anything interesting while out there" Elantra tried to start a conversation.
Jega tuned his eyes towards Arius as if saying "Don't say anything"
"I see that" Elantra got suspicious "What did you two talk about?"
Elantra straightened her back and leaned left towards Arius and probed "What did you talk about?"
Arius started sweating, scrambling his mind trying to think of a false answer until he heard from in front of him "Fine, we talked about how terrible you looked in those clothes earlier" it came from Jega.
Elantra immediately snapped to her right towards Jega "That's exactly why I don't wear those clothes they're ugly."
I thought it was because they're uncomfortable… Jega thought to himself.
"Well you shouldn't wear those anymore" Jega said.
Elantra looked back at her food "Let's eat"
Jega pointed to the other side of the table and Elantra's head followed. It was Arius stuffing his mouth and dirtying himself without regard for how he looked.