One With Nature

Tree Test: 3

Third POV:

Five months.

Zack's test for Svend has been going on for five whole months and not once did the student manage to land a single strike on his mentor.

Zack, in his wind element, let Svend pass him as he attempted another charge attack. Svend rolled on the ground before landing in a crouch and then jumped away, revealing that the ground he was just on was now filled with Runes.

The ground exploded, while Zack simply flew back, avoiding harm. He turned to look at Svend only to see several large boulders floating in the air above him, each one having a rune keeping it in the air.

The runes on the giant rocks faded and they fell at the Elemental, who simply changed to his rock element and stopped the boulders mid-drop.

Zack tossed the boulders towards Svend, who joined both halves of Astrid in front of him. The runes on the shield lit up and the rocks smashed on Astrid, but neither it nor Svend even budged.

The human looked over his shield and immediately raised up up as he saw Zack swinging down a lightning covered sword. Svend blocked the strike, but Zack grew an extra pair of arms from his waist and blasted him with lightning on the chest.

Svend rolled on the ground, electricity rolled through his body. When he stopped, he weakly raised himself to use the top of his shield's two halves as support.

Getting to a kneeling position, Svend looked at his approaching mentor while breathing heavily before dropping his head. "I... give up."

Zack stopped, his extra arms vanishing and his form returning to his wood element. "Really?"

"I just can't see a way for me to do this," Svend sighed as he looked at the ground. "I have no way to touch you and you can shrug off all I throw at you. How am I possibly supposed to win, Meistari?"

Zack walked up to Svend and crouched down to be at eye level with his student. "Do you want to know why you still didn't win?" He asked.

Svend just gave his mentor a look that practically begged for an answer.

"Because you understood your test wrong. The first half of answering any question is understanding that question. Your test is to 'lay your hand on me'. I never said you had to 'scratch me' or 'hurt me'," Zack said but Svend still looked confused. "Let me put it this way. When you meet someone, what's the first thing you do physically?"

Svend looked down again before he started chuckling. "Heh... Hehe... Hahaha!" The chuckle turned to full blown laughter as he raised his head to the sky. "Is it- Haha! - that simple? Hahaha!" He asked between laughs.

"That's the only thing you haven't tried," Zack commented with a shrug.

Svend groaned as he slowly stood back up. Standing straight, he turned to his mentor... before dropping both halves of Astrid and raising one of his arms.

"Can I shake your hand?" Svend asked.

Zack chucked as he stood up. "Sure," he said, accepting the handshake. "Congratulations, kid. You just passed your first test."

Svend chuckled before looking down in thought. "Meistari... what was the point of this test?"

"It was to teach you two things," Zack quickly replied, raising two fingers. "One, it's meant to show you that, no matter how strong you get, there will always be someone stronger. Two, it's meant to show you that not everything can be solved with a fight. A simple handshake CAN make the difference."

Svend chuckled again as he made sure to always remember these two things.

First POV: Zack

Glad I managed to get the message through.

Ever since Yggdrasil explained that the Norse are battle-centered people, I was worried Svend will have most of his time just mindlessly fighting.

He's definitely gonna challenge people and creatures more times than he should, but at least now he should be wise enough to avoid the stupider ones.

"Now, to celebrate your first test being passed, let's get something special for you to eat tonight. Did you ever try fish?"