Chapter 55: Wolf in the headlights.

Once they were both clean and dressed, Edward gave her a kiss and left first, worried about Minx since he left her alone through the last night.

Left alone in her room, Violet bit her lower lip as she fixed her gaze on the door that just closed, her eyes flashing violet for a moment.

Edward walked down the stairs and ignored the looks he was receiving from all the demi-humans in the main hall as he stepped out of the inn. Once outside, he quickly made his way towards the southern gate before heading for Minx’s hiding spot. Once he reached there, he found Minx sleeping peacefully at the base of a tree.

Minx felt him approach and opened her eyes for a brief moment before closing them again. Edward put on a wry smile, and took a seat next to her.

Moving his hand through her soft fur, he said: “Sorry for not spending the last night here…”

Minx didn’t say a single word but Edward was sure she heard him so he just rested his back against a tree as he started practicing his water curtain once again. He spend all his time until noon practicing and at noon, he stood up and said to Minx: “Minx I’m going back to the city. I’ll come back later.”

Minx looked at him and her voice drifted in his ears once more: “Can’t Minx come as well? Minx doesn’t want to remain here alone.”

Edward sighed and pat her head while saying: “I still haven’t managed to do anything about it. I’ll try to come up with something, but you’ll have to wait a bit more.”

Seeing Minx nod, Edward played with her a little more before heading towards the city. He wanted to see if Echo returned to the city and go by Circe’s library to check something.

After passing by Ingvar’s house and finding out Echo was not back from her mission, Edward headed straight towards Circe’s magic tower. Passing through the magician guild’s gates with ease, he walked in front of the tower and used his mana to open it.

Since he wanted to look through some books first, he didn’t notify Circe of his visit and headed for the library. He spent all the day until evening looking through all kind of basic and intermediate magic books, trying to suck on all the information he was missing and counting on Fenrir and Azure to remember everything for him.

As he didn’t want to let Minx alone once again, he planned on just passing by the inn to say hi to Violet before heading out of the city.

With this thought in mind, Edward walked out of the library and, as he was heading towards the tower’s exit, he stumbled upon Circe and another woman he has never met before. She had a fiery red hair and a quite gruesome black scar from the side of her lips to her right eyes.

The woman looked inquisitively at Edward for a moment before turning towards Circe with a smile and saying: “Looks like one of them escaped your dungeon Circe. I didn’t know you like them so young.”

It was not the first time Edward has heard about this so called dungeon and was starting to think there must be some truth behind it, but since he didn’t want Circe to get mad, he ignored the woman’s ramblings and bowed towards Circe: “Master.”

Circe nodded back and was about to say something when the woman interrupted: “So this is your so called prodigy, Circe? Do you mind if I test him a little?”

Circe sighed in exasperation and wanted to deny her before remembering Edward has been slacking and a small beating wouldn’t hurt him. Smiling slightly, she turned her eyes on Edward and said: “Why not?”

Edward and the woman were both surprised by Circe so readily agreeing. Edward wanted to tell her he had to return to Minx, only to be interrupted as the woman stretched her hand towards him and said: “Let’s go kid. I’ll go easy on you.”

Edward sighed and knew it would be a pain in getting out of this, thus nodding and heading with the two towards the magic practice floor. Once inside, the woman took some distance from Edward and said: “Eddena Winterhope, Circe’s sister, intermediate air mage.”

Edward raised an eyebrow and fixed his eyes on her chest before looking at Circe’s with a weird look, but before he could even open his mouth, he felt his goosebumps all over his body and decided it would be better not to mention any of the differences between the two: “Edward Black, beginner water mage.”

Eddena smiled and said: “It looks you don’t really have any experience in mage fights. Since your are the weaker one, you need to tell me your max mana so that I can adjust mine to match yours.”

Edward nodded and said: “Sorry, around 800 mana. Also, can I make use of any other class skill?”

“Circe, you let your disciple pick other classes? That’s new.” Asked Eddena as she looked at Circe, prompting Circe to shrug and say: “I tried to convince him otherwise, but it’s not like I can beat him into it.”

Eddena nodded and said: “Alright, you can use whatever skills you want.”. She really didn’t put the fight to hearth, but she was curious what kind of disciple her sister, that always refused picking one, would choose.

Edward nodded and, to Eddena’s surprise, started undressing his top. She didn’t say anything, curious what he was planning and, once hit top was gone, Edward got down on all fours and started turning.

Seeing a man turned into a wolf in front of her eyes, Eddena turned towards Circe, wanting to ask what it was all about only to notice Edward has already started running towards her, prompting her to immediately go on guard and leave her questions for later.

Edward didn’t really know what Eddena was capable of so he decided to just launch a direct attack. As he reached close to Eddena, he leaped towards her and swiped horizontally using one of his claws.

“Quite fast.” Mumbled Eddena as a small wind drifted around her and she retreated backward promptly, dodging the claw swipe with ease. Edward was undaunted and, after landing back on the ground, he attacked again. The little game of cat and mouse continued for around a minute or so, until Eddena got bored and said: “If you are going to keep repeating the same thing, I’m going to attack next.”

Edward stopped his charge and got ready for whatever she was going to throw at him. As Eddena’s words ended, Edward just saw a red blur running at him and every single one of his sense was telling him he was in danger.

Jumping backward, he summoned a water barrier in Eddena’s direction while focusing on her speed, only to suddenly feel a horrible pain from his right side and his entire body was propelled into one of the side walls of the room. After kicking his side hard, Eddena retreated backward and said: “Your speed is not bad, but you rely on your eyes too much. You know you can use your other senses as well don’t you?”

Edward got up from the ground, growling softly as he tried to ignore the pain and looked back at Eddena. He didn’t understand what she wanted to say, but he knew the fight was not over.

Eddena once more started running and Edward tried to take a step back, only to remember he was backed against a wall. ‘This might not be a bad thing.’ Thought Edward as he summoned three barriers this time with his back against the wall, one in front of him and other two at the sides.

As he was getting focused not to fall for any other trick, a jolt of pain came from the back of his neck and his head plunged hard into the floor of the room. Letting out a small whimper, Edward looked forward only to see Eddena smiling towards him from her starting position. Her smile wouldn’t be so bad if not for the gruesome scar across her face, making her look like an evil demon, at least to Edward.

“As long as that small shield doesn’t cover your entire body you’re not going to be able to block my attacks like this. Head’s up, I’m coming again.”

Edward got pissed and got up, but the same story as last time happened once again. A minute of constant ponding later, Eddena bent down after just delivering another kick and massaged her leg as she said: “At least your skin is quite hard. You might win this by breaking my leg with your face. Haha”

Edward really wanted to cry when he heard her making fun of him, but she was right. Whatever he tried, her attacks seemed too fast for him. He couldn’t land a single hit on her her and couldn’t defend against a single attack. He’s lost completely. Seeing him not even let out a single growl, even Eddena felt bad for him and said: “Kid, you still don’t understand what I’m trying to teach you. Try closing your eyes next.”

Edward turned his head to his side, not sure what closing his eyes would do for him. Seeing his doubtful expression, Eddena said: “I have no need to lie to you. As you can see, beating you up is quite easy. Try it.”

‘She’s right…’ though Edward as he summoned another water barrier and closed his eyes. Waiting for an attack with his eyes closed was quite unnerving and he couldn’t really understand how this would help, but soon he heard a small whistle at his right side. Before he could move his water barrier, another kick landed to his right abdomen side, pushing him halfway across the floor.

‘I see it now.’ Thought Edward as he got up with his eyes still closed, wishing to go once more despite the pain he was feeling all over his body. He didn’t have to wait long and the same whistling sound came once more from above him.

Since her speed was still too fast for him, he crouched down at the same time as he rotated the barrier upwards. It went better but he was still a bit slower, ending up getting hit again.

One minute of trial and many errors later, a water splashing sound was heard in the training room and Edward opened his eyes with an excited look in them. Looking forward, he saw Eddena nodding towards him with her pants slightly wet at the ankle area.

“Finally got it. Good job. Now let me show you something else. Again.”

Edward wanted to complain, feeling he got beaten up quite enough, but before he could, he saw the red blur that announced another attack in front of him. Closing his eyes, he got ready to defend.

As the now familiar whistle sounded in the air, he froze in place, realizing the sound was now coming from all sides. Before he could make head or tails of the situation, another kick landed on his posterior, propelling him head first into the room’s wall.

As he struggled to get up again, this time getting hit a lot harder than before, Eddena’s voice sounded in the air: “Hearing is also not an always reliable sense. You need to use all of them at the same time to get an accurate reading of the situation. You must learn to see, hear and even smell the opponent’s attacks. Your problem is not having enough battle experience and by that I don’t mean mindless dungeon monsters. I mean humans and other intelligent beings.”

Seeing Edward was just laying there with his wolf head lowered slightly, she said: “I think I beat you enough for one day. You can turn back.”

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Edward undid his transformation and sighed before bowing towards Eddina: “Thank you for the lesson.”. He felt quite bad about the beating he received, but he also knew she kind of did it for him so he was grateful.”

Eddena smiled with a nod before turning towards Circe: “Not a bad kid, but it’s clear he hasn’t received any decent combat training.”

Circe shrugged and said: “His style of combat is not going to be compatible with mine. If he was going the pure mage route, I was going to teach him field control after he learned a few more spells, but now control might not suite him anymore…”

Edward listened to their conversation and interrupted Circe by saying: “Can I leave now? I left Minx alone and I want to go check up on her.”

Circe nodded and said: “Go. I won’t walk you out.”

Edward nodded and took his leave, letting the two sisters in the training room. Once he was gone, Eddena turned towards Circe and said: “How about you giving him to me to train him for a bit? My style of combat is more suited for him.”

“Do you even have the time? You’re leaving in two days…” said Circe with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ll take him with me. I can have him carry my stuff and beat him up whenever I got free time.”

Circe shook her head and said: “I have no problem but he probably won’t agree. He’s formed a party with Faelyn’s kids and will probably go leveling up soon.”

“With that Ingvar brat? That’s even better. I’ll take both of them. Haaha.”

Circe sighed and said: “Do whatever you want, but he must agree first. I know you have a habit of not caring about other’s opinion on stuff.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to him. I’ll have Ingvar convince him. I’m going now since I don’t have a lot of time to set it up.”

Seeing Circe nod with a resigned expression, Eddena disappeared right in front of her, only two words resounding throughout the room, seemingly coming out of nowhere: “Bye sis.”.

“Sorry kid but her style is indeed more suited for you than mine…” murmured Circe as she also started heading out of the room.

A few minutes later in Ingvar’s room.

Ingvar was sitting cross-legged on his bed with his twin-swords at the side and eyes closed. All of sudden, he felt a small gust of wind blow from the window, prompting him to quickly grab his swords from the side and block backwards as his eyes snapped open.

*Clang*

The sound of metal hitting metal resounded through the room and Ingvar said without turning: “Master, what brings you here so late?”

“Hehe, not bad. You got a bit stronger.” Replied Eddena as she appeared like a mirage behind Ignvar, a black dagger in hand and trapped between his twin-swords.

Ingvar retreated his swords and turned around as he sighed and said: “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”

“Can’t I just come and pay a visit to my dear student? Maybe I missed you.”

Ingvar sighed and said: “Not in a million years. Not tell me, why are you here?”

“You’re no fun.” Said Eddena as the dagger she was holding just before disappeared into thin air and she said: “I heard your party got quite an interesting addition.”

“Edward?” asked Ingvar with a raised eyebrow, not really knowing what Edward had to do with her visit.

Eddena nodded and said: “Quite an interesting kid. I want you to bring your party and help me with a mission.”

“Impossible.” Replied Ingvar straight away. Not even mentioning her line of work was questionable to say the least, if he brought Edward, Eddena was for sure bound to find out about his curse.

His quick denial made Eddena raise an eyebrow and she said in a fake hurt tone: “Don’t you like your master anymore? I only asked for a small favor…”

Ingvar sighed and, already used to her antics, said: “It’s not that I don’t want to, the situation is a bit complicated. There’s also the fact that Edward had some trouble with the dark guild so…”

“Trouble? With whom?” asked Eddena, intrigued with how a low level kid will end up in trouble with any of the dark guilds.

“The Swarm. They beat up his girlfriend or something and… sigh.” Ingvar stopped here, but Eddena caught up on what he was saying.

“The recent assassination incident? He was behind it?”

“Not alone. He also got Kara involved.”

“Hmm.. Kahu was quite pissed by that, but as far as I know he didn’t manage to find any clue about the one behind it so I don’t see the problem.”

“That is true, but I don’t think he should get more involved with the dark guilds, at least until he gets stronger..”

Eddena sighed and said in a saddened tone: “Too bad, I’ve really taken a liking to that kid.”

Ingvar raised and eyebrow and asked: “Did you meet him already?”

“Yeah, I had a small spar with him at Circe’s tower. He’s her disciple.”

Ingvar realized he has forgotten about that and nodded in understanding. “I forgot he was Circe’s disciple…”

Eddena laid down on the bed with her feet dangling down and asked: “I didn’t get the chance to ask Circe or him. Do you know what classes he picked?”

Ingvar looked quite exasperated with Eddena behaving like she owned the place but knew that was just how she was and pondered for a moment before saying: “His main class is water mage and his secondaries are: Shadow walked, night hunter, swordsman and shape-shifter.”

“Five classes?” asked Eddena with an amazed expression as she turned to look at Ingvar, “That’s ambitious to say the least, but now I want to take him under me even more. Once he advances in his main class he’ll become a monster. By the way, what do you know about that shape-shifter class?”

Ingvar made a hesitant expression, not wishing to say more about it. Eddena saw this and reassured him: “Oh come on. It’s not like I’ll do something to my sister’s disciple. I’m just curious since I fought him before and it looked like quite a strong class.”

“Sigh.. For the moment it only gave him a single skill that lets him turn into a wolf at one stamina cost per second. As a wolf, his strength and agility are doubled and he’s also able to cast spells. That’s all I know…”

“Not bad indeed…” mumbled Eddena as she fell in deep thought. Ingvar remained silent to the side, hoping for the best, but his hopes were about to be crushed as Eddena disappeared from the bed and appeared on the windows sill before saying: “We’re leaving in two days at dawn. Get ready.”. As her words ended, she disappeared once again.

Ingvar sighed and mumbled: “How did you end up attracting the attention of such an unlucky omen Edward?…”

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