Supreme Magus

Chapter 3762: Old Wounds (Part 1)

Much to the Hekate’s dismay, the Horseman had no way to replicate the bloodline abilities of those she mimicked, yet Tista had never won once. The skill gap was so wide that Dawn overpowered her by using the Divine Beasts’ raw strength and tactics.

"Not to be a sore loser, but isn’t that cheating?" Tista asked.

"What’s cheating?" Dawn replied in confusion, Acala’s voice just below hers.

"The density switch thing." Tista panted. "That’s something a construct can do, but Awakened can’t."

"No?" The Horseman snorted. "What about the Shadow Dragon? The Dark Phoenixes? Titanias? Dryads? Draugr? Abominations? Eldritches? Hordes? And the list goes on. They can all do it and inflict much more damage than hard-light while they are at it."

"Fine, it’s not cheating." Tista raised her hands in surrender. "I guess I just showed off my ignorance. That said, the double voice keeps throwing me off. Are you and Acala fused?"

"We occupy one body, yes, but we are not fused, if you mean what Solus and Lith do." Dawn replied. "We are simply using my body as a base, and Zepho is on the passenger seat.

"This way, he can feel every one of my movements and the way I weave runes better than I could ever explain it to him. Even a mind link can’t compare to this. It’s a perfect training that Horsemen are supposed to use to teach their partners.

"Zepho learns by imitating me at first and slowly makes my techniques his until he adapts them to his combat style. I’m training you and him at the same time. Two birds with one stone."

"What about the spear?" Tista pointed at the huge weapon the construct wielded. "I thought you were a sword master."

"I am." Dawn nodded. "But when you live as long as I have, you pick up all sorts of skills along the way. On top of that, I sparred a lot with Night and Dusk back in the day. I learned spear arts from her and ax arts from him.

"Then, just like Zepho is doing now, I developed their techniques into my own and polished them whenever I reached a magical or swordsmanship plateau."

"Still, you are damn good with a spear for someone who’s been imprisoned for so long." Tista replied, hoping not to offend her mentor. "No offence."

"None taken." Dawn shook her head. "Also, I kept training my martial arts even while imprisoned."

She conjured holograms of herself and Night as she remembered her sister and had them battle.

"Holograms don’t consume much mana and, unlike my siblings, I can always conjure myself a sparring partner. Sure, I gained mostly theoretical knowledge during the past four hundred years, but once I got freed, it didn’t take long to put it to the test on the battlefield.

"Nigh-immortal, remember? I can make all the mistakes I want and live to learn from them."

"Damn if you are good." Tista extended her hand, asking Dawn for help to get up, which the Horseman provided.

"Damn if she’s good." Friya snarled while spectating the fight from a safe distance.

Her eyes often moved to Dawn’s steed, Sunrise, and envy filled Friya with every glance she stole.

"Yes, she is." Nalrond sighed. "I hate to admit it, but I’ve learned more in the past few days from Dawn than in the rest of my life. Light Masters fight in a unique way, and we Rezars never so much as suspected Dawn had fooled us.

"What’s even worse is that Faluel, the Fastarrows, and your parents are going to kill me!"

"Wait, what?" Friya turned to him, envy abandoned her eyes and was replaced by confusion. "Why would they do that?"

"Because I did like Dawn and taught them only the wrong things." Nalrond clenched his head between his hands. "I’ve wasted their time for nothing. If they learned something, it’s a bad habit they have to discard."

"What about Lith?" She asked.

"We are not idiots." Lith replied. "After seeing how clumsy and ineffective Nalrond’s battle techniques are, Solus and I only asked him to teach us spells, not how to use them.

"We created our own Light Mastery battle style by discarding what was ineffective in a real fight, keeping what worked, and adding something of ours."

"If you noticed it was so bad, why didn’t you ever tell me anything?" Nalrond stared at the Tiamat in annoyance.

"Are you kidding me?" Solus asked. "Have you ever listened to yourself while you talked? The Rezar legacy this, the Rezar legacy that. You never stopped yapping about how proud you are of your clan and upholding its traditions.

"Once we realized you took every critique as a personal attack, we dropped the matter."

"How was I supposed to know that the problem wasn’t you being incapable of grasping the subtlety of our techniques, but our prized bloodline legacy being terrible on purpose?" Nalrond whined.

"With humbleness and good sense." Faluel replied. "Why do you think I never asked you for lessons either? Your methods just didn’t work. And when you can’t make them work with seven heads, you know something is wrong."

"Did your people really eat Dawn’s lies up without asking themselves questions?" Jirni asked. "I noticed the flaws in your techniques on the first try and stopped practicing them."

"You too?" Nalrond was flabbergasted.

"Yes, and I turned to a much better teacher." Jirni pointed at Orion.

"On Queen Sylpha’s command, I spent months training with Manohar and helping him get a feel for Blade Spells." He said. "I’ve seen a true genius Light Master at work so often that I can still see Manohar in my dreams.

"With that experience, I couldn’t mistake your battle techniques for good even if I had a concussion, son. I used your teachings to learn Light Mastery, but Jirni and I apply them to recreate Manohar’s techniques.

"He never explained anything to me, but my body still remembers the bite of his spells."

"I guess Dawn is right." Nalrond looked at the growing crowd of Light Masters who had come to witness Dawn’s spells and tactics. "We Rezars really are a bunch of conceited idiots."

***

As the days passed and the training continued, the relationship between Dawn and Nalrond didn’t improve, let alone his resentment at Acala. The Agni came to develop a begrudging respect for the Horseman’s skills, but only because he couldn’t deny them more than he could deny the sun rising every day.

"Man, being pregnant is awesome. Look at this!" Kamila lifted Abominus the Pyrmir as if he were a plushie instead of a war machine comprised of hundreds of kilos of bones and muscles.

"I’m strong, magically talented, and I can talk with my babies instead of talking at them." She opened a Warp Steps and communicated with Valeron the Second via the Dragon Scales to underline the concept.

Her demonstration of prowess earned her several glares from the female side of her guests and family. They all had fond memories of their own pregnancies, but they also remembered all the problems and discomforts that came with them.

"Once I’m done here, I’m going to kill you!" Quylla yelled from the bathroom.

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