A young child was standing face to face with a beautiful red haired woman, his legs were shaking, his breathing rough, a wooden sword snapped in half was held in his hand. The ground around him cracked, forming a crater except for the ground just beneath his feet.
'What the hell, why is this happening' Elijah's gaze were filled with bewilderment and fear.
"One more time" Artoria declared, handing Elijah a new wooden sword.
Elijah got in the stance, holding the wooden sword in front of him with both hands, closing the distance with a swift kick to the ground.
Artoria dodged the strike by turning slightly to the left, giving a light jab to the back of his neck, the ring on Elijah's hand glowed forming an invisible barrier around him as he was thrown face first into the ground.
Elijah's body was unharmed but his new found confidence in his physical ability shattered, he layed there with sword still held in his hands.
"You have potential, let's continue this tomorrow" Artoria pulled him up by the collar and he sat on the ground, processing all that had happened.
An hour ago, Elijah was still in the middle of completing his one hundred pushups when Artoria came and started observing him. He felt overjoyed, trying to show off he increased his speed and finished his remaining strength training within fifteen minutes, including extra fifty sit-ups.
Elijah walked towards Sebastian who was standing beside Artoria and gave Artoria an accomplished smile, trying hard to maintain his breathing and not to pant.
Artoria smiled returning his smile, her blue-green eyes shining brightly,
"That was an excellent warmup session" she commented,
'Warm up ? Well whatever it's just the second day, since I started working out' Elijah maintained his poker face, arriving in front of them.
Artoria took out a wooden sword from the air to her right side,
'well, magic is convenient if nothing else' Elijah became a little sad that he couldn't tap into such mystical powers.
Handing him the sword she magically changed her clothes into pristine white training tunics with red leather pants.
' well well well, are you trying to show off here ?' Elijah observed his sparring partner, while maintaining his poker face.
He could guess that she was going to spar with him, he moved to the centre of training ground and got into a stance he learned from his favourite anime.
Placing his feet parallel to each other, he held the wooden sword with both of his hand in front of him, spacing his feet to his shoulder's width. Maintaining, his poker face he stared at his sparring partner.
"Is that your own sword fighting stance ?" Artoria asked, seeing no reaction she glanced towards Sebastian.
"Haaa, we began young master's training just yesterday. He doesn't have any experience with swords or any other weapons" Sebastian sighed and explained to Artoria. A wide grin appeared on Artoria's beautiful face.
"That's better, I'll teach him all about swords" she took out another wooden sword, bigger than the last one and stood in front of Elijah in a casual manner, maintaining a distance of about ten feet's.
"That's a barrier ring, I gave you yesterday, it will activate when a life threatening attack is directed towards you"
"Life threatening?" Elijah mumbled
As if to answer him, Artoria disappeared from where she was standing and appeared behind him, knocking him down with the hilt of her sword.
Elijah fell face down into the ground, but his body was unscathed, and he felt no pain. The runes on the ring were glowing with a faint silver light almost invisible.
" Also, it has limits, it can last up to five times before needing a refill"
"How did you disappear?" Elijah asked getting up from the ground as he again got into his fighting stance. ' wait, the ring just activated, was that a life threatening attack?' Elijah asked himself slowly getting anxious at the realisation.
"I didn't disappear, you just couldn't follow my movements." The kind looking lady was nowhere, anymore. She looked like a ferocious predator in Elijah's eyes as he started getting goosebumps.
Artoria licked her soft pink lips and Elijah started sweating, he glanced toward Sebastian who avoided his gaze.
" Let's get started now that you are all warmed up"
Moving to the present, Elijah was in state of self pity, however, there was also a part in him that was yearning to get stronger.
He was never humiliated like this in his both lives, he had his pride as a high school delinquent on Earth, although he got humbled later in his life.
He decided to get serious, day after day he regained his fighting spirit and sparred against Artoria. Sebastian refilled his Barrier ring after he finished his training.
He increased his pre-sparring warm up from hundred to two hundred pushups, followed by one hundred pull-ups, hundred crunches and a hundred sit-ups.
The ring stopped activating at every small move that Artoria made, which showed that Elijah was growing stronger.
However, the biggest hurdle was the single barrier ring he had, the sparring session would end with him getting just five slightly stronger hits. He decided to collect more barrier rings to extend his sparring time.
After requesting both his father and mother, he now had a ring for all his fingers, which meant he could now take fifty of Artoria's hits.
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Years passed and Elijah turned eight, the age which marked the beginning of magical journey, for most people in this world. He was taller now, having well developed body for an eight year old.
Elijah couldn't awaken his magic, which was a huge setback for him, but, he found something else to fill the gap. No, not sword, it was his personal collection of magical artifacts.
He was wearing, three silver earrings, designed like an elongated pendant having different coloured gemstones embedded in them,in each ear. A Silver pendant in shape of a phoenix with red ruby like stones for eyes was suspended from his neck. A small collection of magical swords and daggers was affixed on his bedroom's wall.
He was unboxing a present from his mother for his eighth birthday, a crimson gown, he had an excited expression on his face as he quickly wore it.
Standing in front the mirror, he observed the crimson gown draped over his shoulders, the gown adjusted its length according to Elijah's body.
He activated the gown,
"Fucking Harry Potter!" Elijah exclaimed as his reflection vanished from the mirror.
The superpower he sought the most, was now at his disposal.
A mischievous grin appeared on his invisible face.