Gambit Of The Living Weapon

"Oh... It"s Chloe!" She said as she noticed the name of her therapist showing up on her screen. Evlin was so focused on the whole thing with Mia that she completely forgot about their appointment today.

"Hey, Chloe... Sorry I didn"t give you any answers sooner... I"ve been... Kinda busy lately..."

"Oh my G.o.d, the art cla.s.ses!!" Evlin screamed as she remembered the lessons she was supposed to give tomorrow to her students.

"Ah, sorry... No, it"s not that... I"ve had... Some family problems that I need to attend to... I probably won"t be able to come to our meetings for a while... Sorry!"

"Yeah... They"ve been helping a lot... Especially now..."

"Thanks, Chloe! Bye, bye." Said Evlin as she ended the call and placed her phone back in her pocket. "Ugh... I need to let my boss know that I won"t be able to teach for a while... This sucks so much... I was so excited about tomorrow"s cla.s.s."

As Evlin crossed her arms and began to picture the disappointed faces of her students, as well as realizing she also was making her niece skip her own cla.s.ses as well and was beginning to wonder if she might be a bad influence on Ellie, she felt a finger poking her on the cheek coming out of nowhere.

She noticed that Lilith was right in front of her pointing her finger, which led Evlin to grab and use her whistle. "That"s the sixth time now, Ellie, minus ten points!"

"G.o.ddammit!!!" Said Ellie in frustration.

"Hey!! Language, little miss!" Evlin said with a harsh tone.

"Sorry."

Evlin looked at her surroundings. Several small pillars of blue diamond emerging from the ground surrounding her slowly sinking into the gra.s.s while Lilith started to back away to make some distance between Evlin and her.

On the other side was Ellie breathing heavily trying to focus and watching Lilith like a hawk.

"Ok, everyone ready? One more time!" Evlin said as she clapped her hands and blew her whistle.

Lilith then began to run towards Evlin. Upon seeing that, Ellie started to wave her hands up and down, left and right, desperately trying to stop her movements and keeping her away from her aunt by making several diamonds block her path.

Thanks to Lilith"s incredible agility and reflexes, she was able to dodge all of it with ease and continued her sprint towards the woman dressed as a gym teacher.

The three ladies were playing keep-away right now. Lilith was supposed to pretend to be a monster trying to attack Evlin, which in turn would trigger Ellie"s desire to protect her family and help her release her diamonds. The goal right now was to make the girl get used to the feeling of releasing magic so that she could find a way to do it on her own, as well as trying to develop the skills to use it in combat in case it became necessary.

Every time Lilith managed to dodge all of the diamonds and poked Evlin"s face, the girl would lose ten of her one-hundred points. If she lost it all, it was game over.

"Aaaaarghhh!!" Ellie screamed in frustration at the sight of her aunt blowing the whistle one more time after Lilith touched Evlin"s nose. "I had it this time!!!"

"You already lost seventy points Ellie, you need to up your game." Evlin said as she signaled for the two to restart their positions. "Ready? Go!"

Just like before, Lilith dodged all of the diamonds Ellie created to stop her progress. Lilith was so used to dodging enemies thanks to her constant use of future sight and her superior speed using her silver armor that Ellie"s diamonds basically looked like they were moving in slow motion right now.

The girl tried her best, but before she noticed, Lilith had her hand on Evlin"s forehead.

"Careful, Ellie... You"re down to twenty points left." Her aunt said while approaching the whistle to her lips.

"Aunt Evie, this isn"t working!! I can"t stop her no matter how hard I try!"

"That"s because you"re still not connecting with your power. You keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping it will work."

"But... But..." The girl sat on the gra.s.s to take a small break.

"Every time Lilith runs, you try to block her by making diamonds show up in front of her, but she is just too agile for you to capture her. Instead of trying to follow her, make her follow you!"

"Make her follow me?" Ellie said while catching her breath a little.

"Think, Ellie! What does Lilith wants? What is she trying to do?"

"What does she wants...? She wants... She wants..." Ellie said as she stared at Lilith returning to her position.

Ellie then stood up to try one more time. She needed to make Lilith follow her. And to do that, she needed to know what Lilith wanted. Right now, Lilith"s goal was to reach her aunt, so to lead her somewhere else, she needed to...

"Ah!! I think I got it!"

"Good, now let"s begin!" Evlin blew her whistle again, and just like before, Lilith started to run at her.

Usually, Ellie would try to block Lilith"s path by making pillars appear in front of her. But now she was down to her last couple of points and needed to change her strategy. Instead of focusing on Lillith, she needed to focus on her target, Evlin.

As the woman started to approach her aunt, Ellie created a large diamond beneath Evlin"s feet and raised her a little towards the air on top of a blue tower of diamonds.

"Oh... That"s different..." Said Evlin while looking at Lilith a few feet below her.

Lilith realized Ellie"s expression and saw that she was smiling a bit full of pride in her idea. "Not bad..."

"Hihi... Thanks!" Ellie answered with a wide grin.

"But still not enough!"

"Eh!?"

And before Ellie noticed, Lilith began to climb the tower while using the small edges she could spot to propel herself up.

"Hey!!" Ellie screamed while trying to stop her, but she used so much magic that she had no more stamina left to do any more diamonds.

Lilith finally reached the top of the tower and found Evlin laying with her back facing the sky and her hands holding her chin just enjoying the view. She then poked Evlin on the middle of her forehead. "If this was Mia, you would have died nine times by now..."

"I love you too Lilith, now help me down... You know I don"t like heights..." Said Evlin.

"As you wish, fearless leader..."

The two women finally reached the ground while Evlin was being carried in a princess position and saw Ellie pulling the gra.s.s beneath her feet in frustration.

"Why!? Why!? Why!?" The girl kept yelling. "Why can"t I just stop her???"

Evlin and Lilith looked at the girl and began to worry about her. Evlin tried to approach her niece to calm her down. "Ellie, calm down... Lilith is a trained warrior, you won"t be able to just win against her so easily..."

"I"m not talking about her!! I"m talking about Mia!!"

"... Mia...?"

"I need to find a way to stop her!! If I can"t get the hang of these dumb diamonds I"ll never be able to stop her!!!"

Evlin just looked at Lilith wondering is she had missed something. She was unaware that stopping Mia had become Ellie"s new life goal all of sudden. Lilith simply looked at her and tried to make Evlin understand the situation. "She had a dream where you lost to Mia..."

"What...?" Evlin said with wide eyes. "A dream...?"

"Yeah... It was right after you two came out of that burning building. She said she saw a vision in her sleep of you being defeated by Mia and having your power stolen by her, which she used to destroy the whole city."

"That"s... Kind of a big deal... Why am I only hearing about that now??"

"Things kept happening one after another and we simply never found the right time to bring it up. Her dream probably scared her so much that she feels if she doesn"t master this power, her vision will become true."

"I see..." Evlin said while looking at her niece punching the ground.

Evlin was honestly planning on using this exercise to let Ellie understand that sometimes in life, things will just fail. Evlin herself had many failures in her journey. There were many battles she lost and missions she couldn"t complete. Her goal today was to let Ellie understand that just because you fail doesn"t mean it"s over and you cant try it again. But looking at her niece right now, its clear she needed a small victory more than anything right now.

Evlin then approached Ellie and gave her a white absorbing crystal. "Take this, try to get your energy back."

"Huh!?" Ellie looked at her confused.

"You still have ten points left... You haven"t lost everything yet... Try one more time." Evlin said while helping her niece stand up.

"I can"t!! Nothing I do works!!"

"Yes, you can! Being a mage is all about imagination, willpower, and concentration. I know you are able to focus when you try, and I know you can be very creative when you let your mind flow. So all that"s left is will power! How much do you want to keep your family safe? How much do you want to defeat Mia? How much do you want to be a mage??"

Ellie just kept looking at her bewildered.

"Lilith..." Evlin turned towards her friend and made a serious expression. "Grab your sword and try to cut my arm!"

"What!!?" Ellie screamed while panicking. "Aunt Evie, wait!!"

"Understood!" Lilith said as she drew out her sword and a.s.sumed her combat stance.

"Wait, wait, I"m still not ready yet!!" Ellie began to pull her aunt"s s.h.i.+rt begging her to stop.

"Ellie..." Evlin said while looking directly into her niece"s eyes. "This is what being an adventurer is. Danger will not wait for you to be ready. Even now we can be attacked by Mia at any moment when we least expect it."

Evlin signaled to Lilith that she could start her attack. She knew that the only thing that worked on Ellie was the sight of real danger. She needed to make a risky move to help her find her inner strength, even if it meant damaging her arm a bit. She a.s.sumed it wasn"t that big of a cost since she could simply heal it later with magic.

"You saved me from the crystal monster, and you saved me from that falling rock. Now I need your help to save our family from Mia. I saw you doing it before Ellie, now I need you to do it again!"

"Aunt Evie, please!!" Ellie said while constantly s.h.i.+fting her gaze from Evlin to the approaching Lilith.

"You need to let go of your indecision Ellie! It"s now or never!!"

"I don"t know if I can do it!!"

"Of course you don"t!! But that doesn"t matter! You need to risk it! Otherwise, you will never move forward!"

Lilith was coming closer and closer, her sword pointed directly at Evlin"s arm.

"Take the gamble, Ellie!!" Evlin screamed one more time, making her niece panic even more.

Ellie didn"t know what to do. Nothing she tried was working so far. She needed to figure out how to properly use her power or she would lose everything. Her body started to shake, her heart was beating at an absurd speed, and her vision began to s.h.i.+ft towards the future.

"Eh...?" Ellie was in shock with what happened next. She saw Lilith empaling Evlin"s arm with her sword right in front of her, but everything was blurry for some reason. "What!!??" She then saw something else, the image of herself creating more diamonds to stop Lilith"s movements, but the woman simply jumped out of the way and slashed Evlin"s arm. "What"s going on??"

Then, her vision changed one more time. Once again she saw Lilith approaching her aunt, but this time Ellie managed to block it. Not with diamonds thought. She saw that there was something else she could do, something she never imagined being able to do in a million years.

Her vision finally stopped being blurry and she saw Lilith approaching with weapon in hand one more time.

Ellie knew what she had to do. It was risky, and it didn"t make any sense, but she needed to trust her aunt and gamble with her luck. "Aaaaarghhhh!!!" She screamed while doing her desperate move and jumped in front of Evlin to block Lilith"s attack.

"Evlin!!" Said a voice coming from close by. Evlin turned around to look at who had called her, and noticed that it was Marcus on top of Sphinx "I need to talk to you... I need to- Huh...??"

Marcus was about to say something, but his words were stopped by the sight of Evlin"s face. She looked like she had just seen a ghost with her eyes wide open and dripping sweat.

"Evlin what is going- What the...? What is this??"

Marcus then saw what was happening. Him, Lilith, Evlin, and even Ellie, they were all speechless at the scene taking place.

Lilith"s sword had indeed been stopped. By Ellie, who now had her eyes glowing, just like when Lilith uses her future sight, and was blocking Lilith"s attack with her bare arm. An arm that was now taking the shape of a silver blade, just like the ones Marcus would make.

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