Mortal Decoy

Chapter 9 - Samara

Deciding that avoidance was my best bet at the moment I retreated back to the town slowly, my stomach swirling with anxiety.

On my way back toward town I noticed a squat building and a sandy clearing located about a quarter mile outside of town. Pairs of men seemed to be sparring and a few others looked like they were working on archery, shooting arrows into colorful targets. The border of the sandy fighting arena also seemed to be equipped with elements for people to practice their magic with. Pools of water, mounds of rocks and dirt, and large braizures burning with fire.

Needing a distraction from my spiraling thoughts I decided to check it out. As I approached I noticed some of the Clunaics I'd seen on the day of the demon breach. But there were also other men that seemed to be training there as well. Of course there were no women present, which at this point didn't surprise me anymore.

I walked up to the building. That must be where they stored weapons and equipment. I leaned against the brick wall surveying the training area. The Clunaics seemed to have decent fighting skills with one pair fighting with wooden practice swords and another pair fighting with wind and ice magic. Another one of the Clunaics was shooting targets with a bow with scary accuracy despite the targets being so far away. The Clunaics aside, the rest of the men's skills were dismal at best. I could have easily beaten like ten of them at once with nothing but my sword. When I was like eleven.

I was so distracted by the training bouts that I didn't notice Kivani until he spoke.

"Enjoying the show?" He asked, leaning against the building beside me. He gave me a gauging stare as if wondering if he should bring up the events of that morning. Fortunately, he made the right choice and avoided the subject. Though in light of the recent events regarding Cifer, the kitchen fire this morning seemed significantly less important.

"No, I'm just waiting for a sparring partner. You don't seem to be doing anything useful. Care to have a bout?"

"Are you sure about that?"

"You the one who was curious if I was a warrior? What? Are you too afraid to fight a girl?" I asked in a mocking tone.

"No, I'd be happy to spar with you if you really want." Kivani still looked hesitant. Almost like he thought I was just being reckless. Something I'm sure he thought was a character flaw for me after the incident with the demon breach as well as the kitchen fiasco. And well, I'm self aware enough to know that recklessness may be a slight problem for me. Only a slight problem. But in this situation there was nothing reckless about it. I knew I was skilled and could fight so I had no reason to gamble with the odds of my success.

Kivani disappeared briefly into the brick building and returned with two wooden practice swords. He handed one to me and I tested the balance of it. It was definitely nothing compared to my trusty angelite blade, Lamentation, but it wasn't terrible. I guess it was probably for the best that we were using wooden swords. That way I'd be less likely to accidentally kill him.

"How about we stick with no magic for this bout." Kivani suggested as we walked out to an open space in the sandy clearing.

"Works for me." If magic was allowed I'd be at a severe disadvantage since I could only use fire magic in order to keep up my ruse. As we'd seen in previous instances, I was a little lacking when it came to my mastery of fire magic. And also as previously seen, Kivani seemed to be significantly skilled with his fire affinity. Though I wouldn't think too highly of him since I could easily pulverize him with magic if I could use my natural affinity. It wouldn't even take ten seconds, even if I was still stuck in this human body. And it seemed like I would be stuck like this for the foreseeable future if I wanted to avoid Cifer.