61st of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd imperial era

Lady Alabaster shrugged and said the only logical thing. "Sure."

Newt could tell she expected Crystal would beat him into the ground. He looked at Crystal, and the young woman had a gentle face, but her eyes were stern and focused at the moment. Newt had bested one senior, and she had no intention of being the second.

Unlike her soft features, Crystal's body was bulky, looking like a square block hewn out of rock, extremely strange for a mage, making Newt think she was also a mageknight.

"Hello, I'm Quartzcrystal, nice to meet you." Her voice was too deep for a woman's, but it matched her body well.

"Greetings, Quartzcrystal, I'm Newstar."

She smiled. "Everyone calls me Crystal."

"I'm Newt."

"Enough with the introductions already," Crystal's master said. "Start the duel."

Based on physique, one would expect Quartzcrystal to possess earth-attributed mana, but Newt saw bluish motes dancing and flowing throughout her body. So, he was unsurprised when fist-sized chunks of ice materialized and flew towards him the moment the spar had started.

Granite Crust covered his skin, and Salamandra's Skin exploded with flames, assaulting the icicles as soon as they struck him. Ice sizzled and harmlessly exploded against his defenses, but even more cone-shaped ice blocks pelted him.

Newt ran towards Crystal, the summoned earthen glaive in his hand, when the size of ice chunks increased from fist-sized to head-sized. He shattered the first with his weapon, but the second struck his chest, stopping his momentum. The third smashed straight into his face, and Newt spun, hitting the ground with his back.

The volley of ice immediately stopped, and Crystal loomed over Newt. Instead of the final blow, she offered him her hand.

"You all right?" She asked, and Newt nodded, dropping his defense.

"He's really tough," the unnamed mageknight commented. "Those ice blocks would've broken someone's nose if not their neck, and you just let him take the hit?"

The last question was directed at Newt's master. Lady Alabaster shrugged. "I told him how to strengthen his defenses. And I wanted to see how durable his defenses are, but his earthen shield is impressive for his realm. Did you see how it bent a bit to distribute the shock in a wider area before bouncing back into place? I guess it's the advantage of the scaley design — greater flexibility and resilience against small-surface impacts, but it should be weaker against massive, wide-surface blows."

Newt had no idea what his master was talking about, but the unnamed mageknight nodded, and Lady Alabaster looked Newt in the eye.

"What are you staring at? Thank your elder sister for the pointers."

"Thank you for the pointers, Elder Sister." Newt gave a light bow, and Crystal blushed, her gaze drifting down.

"No need to be so formal. If you ever need a sparring partner, just give me a shout. I'm in room three-sixteen."

What did I do wrong, and what can I do better? Newt considered as he waved surprisingly friendly Crystal goodbye. His flames were weaker, and less tangible than Crystal's ice. Even if he tried to intercept her missiles with his own, the ice would fly through them, losing only a part of its force. Fire was the element best known for its offensive ability, while its defense was the weakest of the lot.

I need to be more proactive about attacking. But how?

"Lady Alabaster, I see you have a new ward." This time, an elderly man with a long white beard and bushy brows approached.

"Lord Vibrantzephyr, does your prized pupil wish to exchange pointers with Newstar?"

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Lord Vibrantzephyr's disciple was another young woman, a petite blonde whose short hair danced on the wind which didn't blow.

"Gale, greet your new brother." The old man said to his disciple before focusing on Lady Alabaster. "We block any lethal and crippling blows for our wards. The one who blocks loses. Do you wish to make a bet?"

Newt focused on the discussion between the elders as Gale introduced herself, and he offered a polite greeting in turn. He caught his master's surprised look and the twitch of her lips.

"Something small to make things interesting," Lady Alabaster said before the other party got to scam her into wasting valuable resources. "My disciple needs a weapon. He has a fourth realm short-sword, and a matching glaive would be an excellent gift."

Lord Vibrantzephyr frowned, but nodded. "Gale could use a higher quality flexible armor."

He glanced at Newt and Gale. "Are you young'uns ready? Start."

Gale burst into movement, flying straight at Newt, a pair of daggers with leaf-shaped thin blades in her hands.

Fire gathered in Newt's palm. Granite Crust covered his body, eyes and ears included. Then Confuse Senses exploded atop his hand. Even with his ears protected, the boom made his head buzz, and he saw the flash of orange light through Magmin Crust and his closed eyelids.

Newt dropped to the ground, expecting Gale would keep flying straight at him, but his mindcore told him a different story. Shocked, the woman lost control of her technique and crashed onto the ground, not two steps away. Dazed, she flipped and bounced off the ground and over him, landing a step away.

Newt found his chance and with enhanced muscles and Granite Crust, he punched into her kidney, but Gale was gone. His first thought was that she had avoided the blow, and he spun around, searching for her before finding her in her master's arms.

"Newstar!" Lady Alabaster screamed at him. "Fighting dirty in a friendly spar, are you so eager to get that glaive?"

Yes, I am. Newt didn't fool himself; the main reason he used Confuse Senses was to try to win himself the new weapon for free. Newt dismissed Granite Crust, but he couldn't make out Lady Alabaster and Lord Vibrantzephyr clearly, a large orange blot still dancing and flashing before his eyes.

"Now, now, Alabaster." Lord Vibrantzephyr's voice oozed repressed anger as he defended Newt. "He won fair and square. He even demonstrated all his techniques before the spar. Gale should've been prepared for this."

"Sorry, Master." The young woman's voice was miserable as her master placed her back on the ground. "I was careless, rushing in for an easy victory, then lost in one move."

Lord Vibrantzephyr patted her on the shoulder. "As long as you have learned something out of this. Go thank your brother."

Gale wobbled as she approached Newt and gave a polite bow. They could hardly see each other, but Newt clearly caught the note of anger in her voice as she thanked him for the instruction.

The master and student left, and Lady Alabaster covered her mouth again.

"That move won't work twice. Everyone will expect it now and stay on their guard. You won twice in close-range combat, but lost in long-range. Expect long-range adversaries from now on, because none will risk embarrassing themselves after you have a two-o score in melee. Right, don't expect anyone else to try to gamble again. I can't believe that old coot tried to rip me off like this."

The orange-green sun had faded from Newt's eyes, and he could see his master had regretted toning down the bet instead of bleeding Lord Vibrantzephyr for all he was worth.

The remainder of the two-hour-long training session went as Lady Alabaster had predicted. Student after student trounced Newt from afar. But he consoled himself that each defeat had shown him something new, something to explore or improve, something to plan against.

Newt sat on the ground, panting, and thinking what he could have done better, when his master spoke behind his back.

"I'm sorry, Lord Emeralddrop, my disciple is out of mana. Maybe our students can exchange pointers another time."

"Next time then," a male voice said, and then there was silence.

"You have done well," Lady Alabaster said, once Newt's breathing normalized. "You suffered no embarrassing losses, won twice, put an obnoxious geezer down a peg. All in all, a good first impression as far as I'm concerned. From tomorrow on, no more meat grinders like today. Most of the session will pass in my instructions, but I'll leave a quarter of an hour at the end for duels, assuming you have any juice left. Hopefully, some of your beatings will emphasize the points I'm making."

Newt liked that plan. Except for the beatings part, he could do without those, but Lady Alabaster promising him she would set aside two hours for him every day stoked up Newt's morale. And while he was beyond tired, he still had almost half an hour of the training session left.

"Do you have any questions, or anything you would like me to clarify for you?"

Newt considered it, then explained the situation in his dorm room to his master.

"Tough luck," she said with all the empathy of a rock. "Your situation is highly unusual, and I knew you would join a team that has lost a member; only such teams could possibly accept new inner students out of the blue. As for your room, I doubt your predecessor had too many clothes; few do. Just stuff whatever's there in the wardrobe and leave it there. Eventually someone will throw it away, whether it's you, your roommates, or the new tenants after you get kicked out."

Aside from the obvious lack of faith, Lady Alabaster's suggestion sounded like avoiding the problem, and not like a solution, but it was definitely better than sleeping on the beach as he had intended. The thought of escaping problems, naturally brought up another question.

"Master, what can you tell me about soothers? Where are they, and how do I make an appointment?"

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