After the meal was over, my father called me out to the backyard. Though I was wary at first – considering it was nighttime – I figured that my father wouldn’t ask me to go outside without reason, so I followed him outside.

Walking to the empty space, surrounded by beautiful flowers, the sunflowers I planted a few years ago watching us from a distance. My father spun on his heel, turning around to face me. “Let’s start training.”

I paused, staring at my father’s face to see if he was joking or not.

“…”

“Father, you realize what time it is right?” I questioned, pointing at the full moon.

“Yes, what about it?”

“It’s nighttime. People go to sleep at this time.”

“Ok?” My father prodded. “Do you think that there are people out there that simply sleep because it’s nighttime?”

“Yes, that’s usually what people do at night.”

My father became flustered, visibly frustrated at my continuous retorts. “Who is going to protect your soon to be sibling when Me or Tadashi aren’t here? Your mother has basic training over her element but was never a mage. So, if someone skilled were to attack this village, who is going to protect it?”

‘Honestly, my father is an open book asking leading questions like this, but I suppose ill egg him on.’

“The men of the village.” I answered.

“The men are focused entirely on protecting their families, as they are supposed to. Who else is going to protect the entirety of the village, is what im asking?”

“That’s the job of the lord of the village, but, if for some reason they aren’t here, Then who else but me?”

“Exactly. Not only will you have to protect the village and the citizens within it; you also have to be able to protect your mother and your sibling. In order to do that you need strength.”

“I’d say im quite strong myself already though, father. I could beat most men in the village even though some are them are retired adventurers.”

Most men in the villagers are extremely loyal to my father. They’re the same men who’ve decided to follow my father after the war, willingly settling down in his village.

“That’s true. That’s true but what happens if someone of the same caliber as I were to attack the village. Unlike them I hold back against you. They won’t do the same.”

“Then I’d still fight so the people can evacuate. Then more than likely ill-”

“You’ll die son.” He cut me off. “You’ll leave behind not only the village, but your family as well. No one wants that. Although it’s seen as an honor to die protecting what’s important to you. It is also a fools ideal. That’s why, in order to prevent you’re death, you get stronger. Not to beat opponents, but to protect the ones you love.”

I was taken aback by my fathers’ simple ideology. It’s not as though I negligent of my father’s words and meaning. I was aware. Perhaps even painfully aware. I don’t want to die. No one that has a reason to live wants to die.

But.

I also don’t want the people I care about to die either. If it means putting my life at risk, then I’ll do it. Not for the honor of it, but out of selfishness. I don’t want to experience someone else’s death. I know it’s a foolish and selfish dream, but I want everyone to outlive me.

Death awaits all, that’s apparent for everyone. That’s, out of the incredible differences within all, the only thing we’re equal in.

I’m young, and those older are destined to die sooner than the young, but even so I wish to die before them.  I don’t think I can handle the death of my family. Truly. It frightens me.

My father, reaching in his azure coat, unsheathed a double-edged sword, the grip a bright white. I noticed a faint white aura surround the blade, but I ignored it, assuming the moons light mirrored off the blade.

“If you don’t want to experience the loss of loves ones, then get stronger and fight for them. Continue to get stronger till no one can defeat you. Only then will you be able to truly protect your family.” My father blurred towards me, body becoming distorted, as his swords tip aligned with my heart.

“Enhance your blade with mana like I just did and defend yourself… if you don’t wish to die of course.”

What? You’re joking right? They’ve stubbornly refused to teach me anything about mana and now suddenly expect me to know how to utilize it? Even if I attempted to learn any small thing about mana, my father and Tadashi would find out in an instant and scold me for hours!

‘Is he on special herbs or something?’

I barely managed to parry his heavy stab, pushing his sword towards my right. But immediately, in a consecutive combination, giving no time for me to gain distance, my father dug his feet into the ground, repivoting them as he slashed his sword towards my chest.

Continuing to dodge his combo of attacks, I realized, that even though the blade itself wasn’t cutting me, the air that was pushed by the force of the sword was.

What pains me even more than the sharp wind cutting against my entire body, was the fact that my father had been barely putting any effort in his moves at all!

His slashes are slow, so much that even I can see them clearly.  It wouldn’t be an overstatement if I said that my father was on par, if not, faster than light itself. Even the strength of his sword was decreased significantly. Indeed, the wind pushed by his sword is something only strong swordsmen can accomplish, but my father, with no doubt in my mind, can decimate a village with a single slash alone.

I’m not saying this to boost my father’s ego. The last thing I want, the last thing this world needs is my father’s ego getting inflated.

“If you continue to dodge and not block, then you’ll continue to get hurt.” My father said, continuing his barrage of relentless slashes. “What kind of man is supposed to defend a village if he can’t even pour mana into his blade to block?”

‘Father you jerk! Idiot! you could’ve at least given me a hint at how to do it! You, who refused to teach me magic, now all of a sudden expects me to become a master of it?’

My father widely swung his sword downwards, as I, already dashing to the right to dodge, had barely noticed my father’s trap. His left foot rose quickly, catching, with extra momentum garnered from the twist of his hips, my right side.

“Nghhh!”  I shakily jumped back, holding my right side; breath uneven.

“What’s wrong? You’re oddly quiet now, aren’t you, my son? Can’t come up with a retort against your father, can you!”

A genius.

That’s what people called me. But right now, facing my father, I look like a total amateur. A lost child, unaware of the monster in front of me, already dead before I can breathe for help.

My father continued his flurry of attacks as I barely managed to dodge, getting constantly got scratched by the sharp air.

I never considered myself to be much different from anyone else. The only difference I thought existed between me and others was my knack for understanding quickly. Is that what makes a genius, I would ask myself.

Simply understanding?

Pulling my sword out of its sheath as quickly as possible, I began to deflect my father’s sword. Turning the tides, right? Wrong. My blade continuously got chipped by my father’s enhanced attacks.

‘If that’s what makes a genius; understanding alone, then I’m no genius. I’m only a chil- …what’s that?’

A glint of aura flickered around my father’s sword. It couldn’t be mistaken for the moons light any longer. This aura, whatever it really was, was its own being. It moved wavily, continuing its stride even as my father swung his sword. Almost like its waves were breaths, living…

Things continued and my blade was nearly 2/3rds its original size, but in my mind I recalled how my father’s aura moved around the sword.  It started from his hand, traveling up the white grip of his sword, then into the swords blade itself. It reminded me of how blood flows outside of a cut, traveling on whatever surface exists.

‘The blood travels via blood vessels and leaks where there is an injury.’

Imagining my own blood flow in my head, I edited the image in my brain and replaced the blood with what I envisioned mana to be.

‘If my father’s mana gave off a white aura, then mine is probably the same.’

In that moment, my thoughts of the red blood cells that traveled through my blood vessels suddenly turned into an incredible white. Blinding, scintillating, like the moons light flowed within me. Now all I needed to do was pour the mana out of my hand.

My blade was now 1/3^rd its original size.

‘If it goes down anymore then I won’t be able to block my father’s sword.’

Envisioning a wide cut on my wrist, the whiteness began to seep through, traveling down my knuckles to my swords blade, when, suddenly, I felt a sharp pain engulf my body. “Agh!’

It felt as though multiple microscopic blades were flowing throughout my veins, molding the insides.

‘Great, now I have to block my stupid fathers’ attacks while being injure- huh?’

In front of my eyes, elongating from my swords chipped blade, was a dazzling white, taking the shape of how my swords blade once was. However, the blade was far more enchanting, and far more durable than the sword could ever possibly be.

“NICE!” My father said, a grin spread widely across his face. “You truly are my son! No explanation and you are already able to infuse your mana into a sword!”

My body had been subjugated by a sudden desire, rising to the surface of my hands, flowing as beautifully as the wonderful white had leaked from my imaginary cut from my wrist.

‘Aah, how nice it is to target my father’s heart with a deadly blade.’

Left, right, up, down, a kick here and there to support my swords attacks, but, strangely enough, I felt my movements begin to falter; slowing more and more as I moved. But I didn’t let that stop my pursuit of making my father kneel before me.

Continuing my, albeit unpredictable – due to laziness – attacks, I saw that his blade was getting chipped away the more I would strike.

A sadistic grin unconsciously tugged at my lips. “Oh my, how the tables have turned!”

My father’s face, once filled with excitement, was now a face of concentration.

‘Taking me seriously now?’

He suddenly jumped back 15 feet away from me. I studied him, unsure of what he would do next, ignoring the haziness clouding my mind. White mana poured from his hands, trickling down his blade, forming a shape at the tip. Starting out small, no bigger than a pebble, then quickly grew larger; now the size of a heart, condensed into a smooth white ball. He pointed the tip towards me, and a beam of white light shot towards me in an instant.

I couldn’t dodge. I could only block, that much I knew.

Holding the surface of the blade, aligning it with the beam of light, I prepared myself. ‘Too naïve, fath-’

As cliché as it was, I had run out of mana; the white blade dispersed entirely.

The white beam of light came closer. The entire attack only lasted for a second, but, through my eyes, it felt like an eternity. Slowly, slowly, slowly; I even saw the grass blades– though far below the light, begin to sway from the lights force.

Even though I could see the light clearly, my body couldn’t keep up.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, just as all hope seemed to have been lost, I saw a shadow jump from the doorway to where I was now standing, effortlessly slicing the beam of light in half.

Another person spoke from the doorway; the entrance to the backyard. “I think that’s enough training for now, Samuel.”

I flicked my head to the doorway, and there, arms crossed with an unpleased expression, was my mother.

The figure that had cut through the attack was my older brother, Tadashi.