Chapter 1: The Blade That breaks
The clang of steel echoed in the air like a heartbeat, rhythmic and unforgiving.
Thalen staggered back, sweat slick across his brow, his chest rising and falling in uneven bursts. His opponent stood tall and calm Kern, his longtime friend and now his better in every way. Kern’s aura shimmered visibly around him, a warm gold that danced like sunlight on the edge of his twin daggers. It pulsed with confidence.
"Again?" Kern asked, not mockingly, but not gently either.
Thalen nodded, though his arms trembled. His sword a simple, mass-forged thing barely attuned to his aura felt heavier with each swing. The Blade Aura coursed within him, but it was raw, faint, dull. No sharp edges, no burning crescents of power like the others. Just a flicker. A whisper.
They were five in their group. Friends since the earliest days of training at the Ironbranch School. But only Thalen remained weak. Lira had awakened the Storm Aura. She could leap and twist with the wind. Vonn carried the brute Stone Aura, his every strike like a hammer. Kern, Golden Edge Aura, graceful and fast. Nara, distant but brilliant, possessed the rare Mirage Aura, a spectral force that blurred vision and tricked minds.
And then there was Thalen, born with Blade Aura, perhaps the most common and underwhelming of them all.
"You’re too rigid," Kern said, stepping back and sheathing his daggers. "Blade Aura needs fluidity. Grace. You’re fighting like you’re dragging chains."
"I know," Thalen muttered, gripping the hilt of his chipped sword. "I’m trying."
"Try less. Feel more."
Kern walked off to join the others by the training circle’s edge. Lira tossed him a water flask. Nara said something that made them laugh. Vonn stretched his arms with a yawn and sat down.
Thalen stood alone in the center of the circle, the dirt beneath him churned with footprints his most of all.