The moon was casting a nice glow over the city when Ravenna tugged me by the wrist, and brought me to the open training grounds.

  “Come on,” she said. “You’re good at defense. But if someone gets too close, you’ll need something fast. Something that hits. I like to call it, "Fming Punch.”

  She stopped near a row of wooden dummies, half-burnt and splintered from past training sessions.

  “I’m going to teach you something simple, but brutal. Useful when you don’t have time to cast or think.”

  She raised her fist, and I could see the familiar swirl of mana coiling around it and then suddenly, fme bloomed around her knuckles, consuming her closed fist. Her entire fist glowed like a forge, but the fire didn’t seem to burn her.

  “Channel your mana into your hand,” she said, stepping closer. “Not outward. Keep it close. Then shift it into the fire.”

  I nodded, holding out my hand, focusing. My mana came easily now, practice with Evie had made it second nature, and I willed it to gather, warm and bright, tingling through my palm. I pushed it to the surface, then pictured it catching fire. The energy pulsed once... then fred into a sudden ball of heat and fme. It covered my first but didn’t burn me.

  Ravenna blinked. “Damn. First try?”

  “I’ve been practicing,” I said with a grin. “Thanks to you. And Evie.”

  She ughed. “Well, alright then. Let’s see what you can do with it.”

  I turned toward the wooden dummies that were pced in the training ground, and let the heat build. The fire didn’t hurt, yet it made my skin hum. With a sharp breath, I stepped forward and smmed my fist into the nearest dummy. “Fming Punch.” I shouted as I hit it.

  Crack.

  The fmes exploded across its chest, bckening the wood instantly. Splinters flew. A second punch shattered the arm. By the third, I was breathing hard, not from exhaustion, but excitement.

  Evie and Vae had wandered outside at some point, and I could hear their voices behind me.

  “Look at her go,” Vae called out, a smirk on her lips.

  “She’s gotten stronger very quickly,” Evie added, and I turned just enough to see the pride in her smile. “Way stronger.”

  Then Ravenna stepped in front of me, hands already alight, grinning.

  “Let’s spar. Use whatever essence you want.”

  I nodded.

  She sent a fireball, small, fast. I channel my mana, transforming it into water, shaping it into the whip like Evie had taught me, I snapped the whip forward, hitting her fireball and it hissed against her fmes, snuffing them out midair. It all happened in a few seconds. Ravenna arched an eyebrow at my swiftness but soon started fighting again.

  We moved quickly, trading strikes, her fme against my water. I ducked one bzing kick and caught her ankle with my whip, dragging her briefly off-bance. She ughed as she recovered.

  She rose swiftly, already charging again. Two more fireballs, unched in rapid succession. I dodged the first, the heat brushing past my shoulder. The second I caught mid-air with a water sh that coiled and burst in a misty explosion.

  Then I pressed forward.

  The whip struck toward her shoulder, she ducked.

  It shed again, lower, she deflected with a fire-coated forearm.

  But then I changed tactics. I could control its movement, the water wasn’t just something I could form, it was a part of me, I could move it just like my hand. I flicked the whip wide, and at the st second, angled it around her side, catching her arm from behind. Before she could react, I yanked.

  Her bance tilted, and I used that moment to close the distance. She braced for a strike, but I wasn’t aiming to hit. Instead, I circled behind her, the whip sliding low along the ground, coiling like a serpent. It wrapped around both her legs, and with a firm pull, I swept her off her feet completely and pulled her in my arms before she could fall.

  For a heartbeat, she watched me. Then she ughed.

  “Okay,” she said, grinning up at me as I released. “You’re officially annoying.”

  I smirked and offered her a hand. “That’s the goal.”

  The sound of cpping broke our convo. Zari had appeared.

  “That’s good,” She said, walking over. “Earlier You said you only started magic recently.”

  “I did,” I said, cheeks flushed with heat and adrenaline. “It hasn’t even been 2 weeks yet.”

  “Well,” she said, nodding approvingly, “you’ve already made it look like you’ve been doing this for years.”

  Ravenna reached over and ruffled my hair. “She’s a natural. Just needed the right push.”

  After my spar with Ravenna, we took a short break to cool down and drink some water.

  “Ravenna,” Zari said, “you’re good with fire magic, but you don’t really fight with a bde, do you?”

  Ravenna shrugged, brushing ash from her tunic. “Not really. I can handle myself in close quarters, but swords were never my focus.”

  Zari nodded. “Figured. That’s fine. Just means I’ll show her,” she said, nodding toward me.

  She stepped closer and unclipped one of the two curved swords from her back. She handed it to me.

  “Try this. Good for a beginner,” she said. “Now I’m going to show you something useful if you end up fighting someone before they get too close, fme sshes.”

  I stood and took the sword, testing the weight with a few light swings. It felt comfortable in my hand.

  “It’s like what you did with your fists,” Zari continued. “You’re channeling your mana into something, but instead of keeping it close, like coating your fists in fire, this time, you push it out through the bde. You hold the mana longer, guide it through the metal.”

  Ravenna folded her arms, watching me with pride.

  Zari moved a few feet away and took her stance, one foot forward, both hands on the hilt. With a breath, her bde ignited in a steady stream of fme. Then, she stepped forward and swung.

  As the bde cut through the air, a curved wave of fire broke free and flew across the training ground, smming into a wooden dummy and charring its side.

  “Like that,” she said, turning back. “Simple swing. Follow through with the wrist. Don’t jerk it, let the fme carry out.”

  I nodded, took my position, and focused. I pulled the mana up from my core and pushed it into the bde, trying to feel the metal, to imagine the fme running along its edge. The sword glowed at first then fred, catching fire like dry cloth.

  “Good,” Zari said. “Now swing.”

  I did. The bde cut through the air with a clean arc, and fire trailed behind it but instead of releasing, it clung to the sword and fizzled out.

  “Almost,” she said, stepping closer. “You held back a little. You’ve got to let it go at the right moment. Just before your arm stops the motion, release.”

  I tried again. I focused harder this time, shaping the fme, giving it momentum. As I swung again, I pushed it outward, and a shallow burst of fire leapt from the bde, shooting forward a few meters and striking the ground with a spsh of sparks.

  “That’s it,” Zari grinned. “Now just do that again. Over and over until your body remembers how it feels.”

  So I did. For the next thirty minutes, I practiced. I swung. I focused. I released. The first few sshes were uneven, some too weak, some too wide but slowly, they started hitting the mark.

  Each arc of fme nded closer to the dummy. My aim improved. The sshes gradually got stronger. Zari watched carefully, stepping in occasionally to adjust my stance or correct the angle of my wrist. Vae and Evie stood nearby, quietly cheering each time I nded a clean hit. Ravenna eventually sat down beside them, nodding with quiet approval.

  “You’re a fast learner,” Zari said as I hit the dummy dead center with a solid fme ssh. “Maybe it’s the messiah thing. Doesn’t matter. You’re getting it.”

  I grinned, wiping sweat from my brow. “Thanks. This helps. A lot.”

  She nodded and stepped back. “Keep at it. If those mercs come at us tomorrow, we’ll need every edge we can get.”

  After a while, once I’d gotten the hang of the fme sshes, Evie stepped up beside me.

  “Hey,” she said, “why don’t you try water instead of fire for this technique, I’ve seen someone do it before?”

  I blinked, then looked down at the sword in my hand. “Water?”

  “Why not?” she said, shrugging. “You’ve already mastered forming whips and defensive flows. If you can project fire through a bde, maybe you can do the same with water and water’s heavier. Could do more damage.”

  It made sense. I stood up, closed my eyes for a second, focusing inward. I let the fire mana die down, let the heat fade. Then I shifted, drawing on water instead. I funneled it into the bde, the metal glowing faintly blue this time, and then.

  I swung.

  A ripple of water shed outward, arcing through the air like a crescent bde. It hit the wooden dummy hard and gave it a deep cut. A jagged chunk of wood burst free and cttered to the ground.

  Vae let out a whoop and cpped. “Okay, that’s hot.”

  Evie grinned. “I told you. Water’s sharp.”

  I kept going, unching two more sshes in quick succession. Both hit clean and fast, slicing deeper than the fme had.

  Ravenna walked over, her eyes locked on me, she grabbed my face and pressed her lips to mine. “Gosh,” she said, “Watching you fight like that… it turns me on so much. I want to fuck you so bad right now.”

  Before I could reply, we heard a ugh from behind.

  Zari had been standing nearby, leaning against a post, arms folded. She pushed off and stepped closer, clearly amused. “Wait,” she said, grinning, “you two are a thing?”

  Ravenna smirked. “Oh, not just me. These two,” she gestured to Vae and Evie, “have had their pytime with our goddess here too.”

  Evie’s eyes widened slightly, and she raised an eyebrow at Ravenna.

  Ravenna just chuckled and waved her off. “What? You think I wouldn’t notice? Don’t worry Evie, Ayra didn’t tell me anything. I can smell sex in the air. And I definitely smelled Ayra’s cum on both your bodies that night.”

  Vae burst out ughing while Evie turned a bit red, though she didn’t deny it.

  Zari looked between us all, eyes wide, then burst out ughing herself. “Gods. You all are seriously something else.”

  She looked at me, and a pyful smirk tugged at her lips. “So… is that part of the prophecy true too?” Her eyes drifted to my waist. “The whole… being a woman and still having a cock thing?”

  I didn’t say anything. Just gave her a half-smile and tilted my hips slightly forward, letting her see the bulge pressing against my pants.

  Zari whistled, clearly impressed.

  Ravenna leaned in toward her and added with a purr, “She’s hung. Trust me, you wouldn’t regret a night with her.”

  Zari chuckled. “Well… maybe once we’re done with all this business. If we’re still alive, and the city’s still standing…” She let the sentence trail off with a wink at me. “We’ll see.”

  I smiled, a little flushed but amused. “I’ll hold you to that.”