Chapter 13: A passionate swordsman
"Seems like you barely managed to escape alive," Clara spoke to a bot emotionally and physically exhausted Fishy resting on her shoulders, who still had a clear image of the battle replaying in his head, unable to explain how he survived.
"I see that this world isn't friendly." He whispered to himself.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A voice called out from behind as the two of them were walking down a random street. They turned around to see whoever was behind them hoping it wasn't another challenge. Stood awkwardly in the middle of the street, standing out as everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him, was someone who seemed about the same age as Fishy. His rough-looking face made him seem older than he was, but his spiky hair that danced with the colour scheme of a cloud on fire made him look like a teenage delinquent.
"Who are you?" Clara asked hoping to understand.
The man stood tall and slowly walked closer, pulling a small sword off of his back and pointing it towards Fishy.
"FIGHT ME!" The man exclaimed. "I WATCHED YOU FIGHT AND YOU WERE SLOPPY!"
Fishy still didn't understand what was going on. He stood looking at Clara who looked at Fishy as if saying "go along with it…".
"Listen…" Fishy spoke. "I don't want to have a battle."
Fishy casually flicked his hand as he spoke. Perhaps it was a coincidence but at the moment he did, a large gust of wind blew down the street. The wind spun around and focused on the man that challenged him to a duel and took him into the sky. Only to drop him seconds later.
Fishy and Clara stared at the man that ended up in the air. Adding more and more questions to their list.
Fishy didn't waste time trying to analyse the problem. If whatever he witnessed was an attack from someone else he needed to figure out a battle plan. He recalled whatever he could, and quickly stumbled upon reading about a spell to create small wind magic. Except, the spell in the book was nothing like what he had witnessed.
The man in the sky didn't hesitate. He quickly oriented himself to land on the ground. As if he was someone who mastered parkour, he didn't shy away from the height and successfully showed off by rolling on impact.
"A-are you ok?" Fishy asked, pushing himself off Clara's shoulder to limp over to the man.
"Amazing!" The man said. "Forgive me for what I said earlier. You deserved to win that battle. Someone of your power is truly a force to be reckoned with. I serve you now, master."
"Master?" Fishy was still shocked about all the weird people he was meeting whilst Clara stood behind him trying not to laugh.
"N-No… I'm not that strong-"
"Hey," Clara interrupted. "Can you teach people the sword?"
"Of course!" The man exclaimed triumphantly. "I shall teach whoever you want."
"See, that was easy. Who knew it was this easy?" Clara said dropping more on Fishy's plate, even if he was happy to find a trainer, he was upset about how weird they were.
"Nice to meet you, lord Fishy. My name is Ziu, I was once a knight but kicked out of the academy for arguing with their teaching methods."
Although Fishy was still against this, after hearing the reason he was quick to accept the situation under the assumption that anyone who questioned a teacher's methods was true to their heart, just like he claims he is.
"Can you come to our village?" Fishy asked. "We need someone to train some people, I'll also take these lessons as well."
"YES MY LORD!" Ziu said bowing on the spot, oozing in passion. "I SHALL TEACH YOU THE WAY OF THE SWORD! IT'LL BE MY HONOUR!"
"R-right…" Fishy said whilst Clara was still holding back her laughter.
The three of them continued to walk around in the blazing heat. As Fishy complained about his bones aching from the fight, he was quickly treated to a potion that Ziu had taken with him after being kicked out. The potion was red as Fishy would expect. He opened the tiny glass vial that it was kept in and swigged it back without caring about the taste. He had no idea how it should taste and that is probably why he enjoyed it.
"Tastes good!" He said to Ziu's shock.
"Really?" Clara asked. "I've always wondered what potions taste like."
"Um… My lord…" Ziu said hoping not to upset Fishy. "That was only a basic potion, it's the worst of the lot… I'm sorry I couldn't get you something that tastes better."
"Don't worry," Fishy said already feeling the effects as he could move just like before. "I've had worse."
"Do you know where to go?" Clara asked as they turned onto the same street for the 6th time today.
"Not really… I don't know who I'm looking for."
"Excuse me, my lord?" Ziu said, never failing to show respect and admiration towards Fishy.
"What's up?"
"What are we doing?"
"Oh, that's right!" Fishy suddenly realised he was walking around with a citizen. "We can ask you! Do you know any mages that will come to our village?"
Ziu would do anything to help Fishy. If he couldn't he would have committed a sin that would be punishable by death.
"I do not… I'm sorry, I have failed you." Ziu said pulling out his sword only for Fishy and Clara to stop him already aware of what was going to happen.
"Jeez…" Fishy said. "Stop worrying so much about pleasing me. I'm not royalty so you don't have to act this way. You can call me lord if you want but I'd prefer if you treated me like a friend instead of some king."
"A friend?" Ziu said as tears almost came to his eyes. "I've never had a friend before."
"Well, you've got two now." Clara jumped in before she missed her opportunity.
"I see…" Ziu wanted to ask a ton of questions having acquired his new friends. There was one question that typical friends would often ask which he had to find the answer to. "Are you two dating?" He asked as if his character changed.
"Nope!" Clara said before even the air could move. "I'm just the secretary… nothing more…"
Fishy stood unable to answer the question. His emotions were out of whack from not only it being the first time someone has asked such a question, but also because of how quickly he was shot down.
"I see. My lord's secretary." Ziu said bowing again. "I shall do whatever it is you wish."
"Right…" Clara said. "Getting back on track…"
"Oh, right," Ziu said remembering what he was talking about before his mind melted from his newly formed friendship. "I don't know any mages but I do know someone who can use magic."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone