God Mage - D.W. Jackson Page 0,4

the man, and after a moment, he was wondering why he was even trying to. Hayao led them into a small room near the edge of the house in what looked like an older section. It was a bit drafty, and though it was near the end of spring, it was still slightly chilly inside the building. Once they had all settled in the large room, Hayao dismissed himself to go deal with his own problems.

Bren opened the door to the room and looked at the large courtyard in front of the house. “We don’t have anything else to do,” Bren said, looking at Cass while holding up his sword.”

“I don’t think real swords would be a good choice,” Cass said looking at the black blade of Bren’s sword. “Think we could find a couple of straight sticks that are sturdy enough to take a few rounds.”

Bren looked at his sword and remembered what it had done to the Brotherhoods soldier’s swords. “Yes, it might be best if we found something else,” Bren said, looking around the open yard. There were only two trees and both of them were meticulous trimmed so that no spare limbs stuck out, and the ground itself looked as if someone had picked up every stray leaf.

Bren casually walked over to one of the trees and pulled a small bud off it. He knew that he could make the bud grow but that wouldn’t be enough. Bren placed his hand on the trunk of the tree and let his mind drift through a small stream of energy that linked the bud and tree. Unlike a person or animal, the tree didn’t have a conscious stream of thoughts, but it did have memories and though they were simple, they pulled at him and made him feel euphoric.

The bud in his hand twisted as it grew. As the bud spilt off, the small thin limbs began to come together until he held two long swords. Once the swords were finished, Bren turned and handed one to Cass who lifted it in his hand and gave it a few practice swings. “Very nice,” Cass complemented. “If I didn’t know better, I would swear that I held a real sword in my hand.”

Bren and Cass took their positions, standing only four paces from each other. Cass started the attack, coming at Bren with an overhand strike. His hand slipped slightly causing the strike to lose a lot of its power. Stopping the attack, Cass looked at his practice sword. “One second,” Cass said before running back inside and grabbing an assortment of pieces of thin leather that were often used to make temporary repairs for leather armor. Using a small dagger, that normally hung on his hip, he began to cut small strips, and then wrapped them around the wooden handle of the sword. Once he was done wrapping his own sword, Cass cut a few extra strips and tossed them to Bren.

Once both of their swords were wrapped, they once again faced off. The sword felt a little better in his hand with the makeshift leather grip added. Cass made the same move coming in with an overhead strike. Bren shifted his weight slightly and raised his sword. Suddenly, he noticed that Cass’s body flickered slightly, and Bren knew, though he was not sure how, that Cass was about to change the direction of his sword. Bren let his right leg drift back slightly and angled the blade of his sword just a bit. Cass swung his leg behind him and pivoted, turning completely around and coming at Bren with a backswing.

As Cass made his move, Bren stepped forward and came in with a diagonal slice that caught the trained warrior in the collarbone before Cass could complete his strike, forcing him to hit his knees. “How did you do that?” Cass asked as he got back to his feet. “Last time we sparred you could barely block that attack.”

“I knew what you were going to do,” Bren admitted. “I could see the change in your body.”

“Interesting,” Cass said without a hint of anger in his voice. “Let us see how well that new body of yours can really move.”

Cass didn’t give Bren a moment to breath, and while he could see most of what the other man was going to do, he still had a bit of trouble knowing how to react. Though it felt awkward, Bren was able to beat Cass four out of the ten