We arrived in the field to find Warrick sitting cross-legged, he rose to his feet and began to speak.

  " Good afternoon, everyone! Usually, we would all jump right into single sparring sessions, but now, with all these people, it would be inefficient. So, to prepare for different styles and to have you all improve on your own fighting styles, you will also spar each other with Martial Arts and Magic!"

  We all simply nodded to Warrick as he spoke, waiting to hear the next part of his planning. In time, he began to speak more.

  " To begin, I will spar John, then Cynthia in one-on-one spars, as they are the least experienced of the group. Sarah, Asha, Sharon and Anna, you may all pick a partner and spar each other. In time, you will also begin to spar as duos against each other as well as trios. I expect every day, for you all to pair with different people to work on your teamwork with everyone. This will also be the case while sparring against me. To end our classes, you all will fight me as a team to work on your teamwork. Do you have any questions?"

  Everyone remained silent. Seeing that no real questions needed to be asked. we all started our rounds. The training was awkward. However, out of it all, the team that had the most success was the trio of Sarah, Anna and me. After finishing for the day, I decided to ask Anna why she was so in sync with us.

  " I've been watching you since you began training, Master! That includes all of the classes you've had with Sarah as well. I simply matched your movements! Also, our Jobs have a high level of Affinity with each other! It's almost like Fate brought us together!"

  " You continue to amaze me, Anna. I do wonder at some points, just how talented of a person you are."

  Anna smiled and responded to me.

  " I'm simply following in my Master's footsteps! You've saved the members of the Royal Family 3 times and stopped a kidnapping while doing so. You also helped some of our Nation's most important minds from being looked down upon, I plan to continue to grow to match you, Master! So, please watch over me!"

  All the earnest praise she gave me began to embarrass me. I simply nodded to her, when we finished speaking, Sarah came up to me after speaking to Warrick for a good while. She began to speak.

  " John, Anna! I just found out the next rest day for us is going to be a week from now! If I remember correctly, John, you promised Anna a date, did you not?"

  I was surprised to know that Sarah knew about that. It seemed Sarah noticed the look on my face, and she hurriedly began to speak.

  " John, it's okay! Anna told me about her request after you agreed to it. As I stated before, as long as you always remember that I am to always be first, everything will be fine! So, have fun on your date when the time comes. But I'll have you know that I will expect you to pay me back with another date, in time, of course.""

  Sarah began to exert a strange pressure again. Is this some new Skill she's learned? I simply nodded to her statement, she flashed me a smile and kissed me on my cheek before approaching the other girls. When she left, Anna began to speak to me.

  " Will the next rest day be an appropriate day for our date, Master?"

  Anna started to fidget as she spoke. Seeing her like this, there was no way I could refuse her. I began to respond to her.

  " Yes, Anna, our rest day fits me fine. Do you have any ideas for our date? To be honest, Sarah and I only visited one place that was a bit date-like."

  Anna looked at me in excitement as I gave my agreement to her, Anna began to speak in an excited tone.

  " Yes! I have a few ideas! Please leave it up to me, Master! I'll show you around the town as well and show you a few places you may have not seen the other day!"

  " Thank you, Anna. I'm sorry I don't have the ability to take the lead on the date. I'll find a way to make this up to you."

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  At my words, Anna seemed to be lost in thought. She looked at me and her cheeks started to go bright red. I thought she would say something, but instead, she just continued to look at me. Before long, Asha came up behind Anna and placed her delicate hand on Anna's shoulder. It shook Anna out of her state of deep thought for a moment and Asha began to speak.

  " Anna, come with me! We all want to speak to you about how you fought today. Sharon, Cynthia and I all want to hear about how you so seamlessly blended into Sarah and John's team."

  And like that, Anna was dragged away while still in a bit of a daze. After she got dragged away, Warrick came to me to speak.

  " John! How do you feel after getting back in the saddle today?"

  " Honestly, it's been a bit tiring. Not from the work, but from the extra complications the new teammates besides Anna have brought on. But it will only make me better as a fighter in time, right?"

  " Yeah, I think so. More experiences while learning and growing will always help. Speaking of which, how went the Holy Magic experiments today?"

  I place my hand on my head, as I was reminded of my failure of not producing anything of note today. Warrick saw my expression and seemed to think he shouldn't have mentioned it, so I began to speak.

  " So far nothing. I feel like I figured something out regarding the Magic today, but something still feels a bit off."

  " I see... What exactly did you try doing, if I can ask?"

  " Well, I tried to channel a few different emotions and channel Magic around and in front of me, but nothing formed. It felt like trying to catch a gust of wind. I could feel it, but when I tried to grab it, it disappeared."

  " Were you thinking of your own state while experimenting?

  " Yes. What are you thinking about, Warrick?"

  Warrick placed his hand on his chin and began to speak.

  " Well, I'm just thinking that because you gained an Attacking Spell while thinking about destroying that mob of undead, it may have narrowed your vision. I mean, John, what was the underlying thought. Why did you want that mob to disappear?"

  " I wanted to save Sarah. So, I guess instead of thinking of myself, I need to think of other people?"

  Warrick looked to the sky with his hand still on his chin. He began to speak again.

  " I'm not sure? Why not try that in your next class? It might work. Actually... Do you want to try it right now?"

  I looked puzzled at Warrick. I started to speak.

  " You mean like, try to buff you?"

  " Yeah! Since it seems you really respond to feelings of "protecting". Why don't you try thinking of protecting me while channeling your mana?"

  " Well, it's worth a try, I guess? If anything goes wrong, I can heal you."

  Warrick and I got into position. I explained to everyone what we were doing. Asha and Cynthia thought it was a bad idea. Warrick simply said if anything happened, I was the best healer around anyways. And like that, we began this experiment. I began to focus on feelings of protection. I thought of Sarah, Anna and even Warrick. I started to channel my mana towards Warrick. I felt the mana starting to shift and change. It started to absorb into Warrick. I panicked and asked Warrick if he was ok. He responded.

  " Yeah, I feel fine! Keep going!"

  I kept going until my mana stopped entering Warrick.

  /Ding!/

  Once it was finished, I asked Warrick if he felt any different. He responded.

  " I feel like something is wrapped around me, it's not unpleasant though."

  Warrick asked for a guard to get an Appraisal Orb, before long he got it and handed it to me. I used the orb and was surprised to find something new had showed up. It was called Armor of Angels. The text box read as followed.

  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  Armor of Angels

  During the ancient times. When Angels fought against great odds. The Gods graced and blessed them with many Boons. This Spell is a reminder of one of those Blessings.

  Defense up 300% to any target you choose for 2 minutes.

  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  I informed everyone about the new Spell. I thanked Warrick, because now I really feel like I know how to move forward with my Magic. Sarah, seeing how happy I was, immediately ran to me and hugged me. It was warm and felt so comfortable. After celebrating, we went to dinner and told Aqua the news, she was a bit upset that Warrick was the one who gave me the breakthrough of how to experiment with my Magic. But she got over it after I mentioned it was going to be me and her from now on and how I couldn't wait to start practicing new Spells. The idea that she would get to see Rare Magic made her forget about her bad mood from a few moments ago.

  After dinner, Asha joined Anna and I as I went through my homework. When I asked why she showed up, she answered me apprehensively with a bit of an embarrassed look in her yellow eyes.

  " Well... I'm more of a beginner than you are. So, I thought practicing with you would be a faster way to gain some confidence in my Sword Techniques. Is it bad if I'm here, John?"

  She looked at me with her soft yellow eyes, looking uneven and like she would cry if rejected. I gave her my permission. And then, I saw her do a guts pose... I think I was played, but it was too late to go back. For the rest of the night, Anna was in a bad mood. She really does value our time alone, but there's no I in team after all. And with improvement on everybody's mind, a week had passed.