Fractured God

While Elizabeth and Ezekiel were having their scuffle, Tibaut eventually decided to raise his hand.

"Um, excuse me guys" Tibaut meekly let out. The two paused their tomfoolery and looked at him. "What is it?" Elizabeth responded while she held Ezekiel in a Boston Crab.

He responded to Elizabeth by simply asking "What was so funny?".

Elizabeth then slowly got off of Ezekiel and then dusted herself off.

"Oh yeah, I should probably show you how easy it is to counter his magic."

Counter his magic? What was she talking about? If there was a way to counter his magic it'd probably take months of training to even get to the point it'd be of use. However, she said it was easy so was there some secret trick she acquired? He soon got on his knees and watched her intently.

"Oi, old man?" Elizabeth said to the man still lying on the floor. He then turned his face to her. "Try to use your magic to move something near."

The man's face quickly filled with discontent as if a little sibling had eaten the cake he had left in the fridge for a special occasion. He still complied and started to move the rock he had moved earlier. There was nothing out of the ordinary with the movement of the rock until it was about half a metre from Elizabeth.

The rock suddenly stopped moving. It was as if it had encountered an invisible wall.

("Why'd he stop it?") Tibaut thought. However, he did not stop it. Elizabeth did.

"Alright Tibaut, how do you think I stopped it?" Elizabeth suddenly asked.

His surprise quickly turned into curiosity. There was absolutely nothing around her. She was still but she did occasionally look at her clothing and surroundings which made it seem as though whatever she was doing was as simple as breathing.

Tibaut quickly got up and tried to examine her in more detail but it seemed as if he did it for nothing. Eventually, he noticed the rock was being pushed back. Seemingly out of options he decided to put his hand in the area between the rock and Elizabeth.

While there was no obvious change in the area, like say a barrier or the air being 0°C, there was something he couldn't put his finger on, that was off about the air. The more he moved his hand the more his senses told him something was wrong. While the air in the tent was dry, the air around Elizabeth felt like it was more appropriate in a jungle after some rainfall. For some inexplicable reason, the air around her felt thicker.

"Got an answer?" She asked him.

While he wanted to ask her if she had learned to turn herself into a humidifier, he refrained.

"Other than the air around you being thicker I got nothing." He responded tired of thinking about the answer.

"Do you know why it's thick?" She responded. Tibaut simply shook his shoulders. She then sighed and then stated one word "Mana".

Ezekiel's face looked like that of a person who just had their new shoes stepped by iron cleats.

"I might teach you how to do it later but the fact of the matter is, if you fill a space with your own mana it interferes with his magic rendering it pretty much useless," Elizabeth stated.

"And how hard is it?" Tibaut asked, hoping it was some sort of elite skill.

"While magicians may differ in terms of skill, talent and even the magic they use, I think being able to release their mana might be the only commonalities they share." Elizabeth bluntly responded.

Tibaut looked to Ezekiel hoping he'd prove Elizabeth wrong or call her out on an inaccuracy but his face looked as though he had been forced to swallow a bitter medicine.

Tibaut soon placed himself next to Ezekiel and started to pat him on his shoulder trying to somewhat comfort him.

"What are you doing?" asked Elizabeth.

She continued. "You lost to a swordsman with no training, I don't think you're the one supposed to be giving out pity here."

Tibaut then looked at Elizabeth with his head tilted wondering what she meant by that statement. As it looked like Elizabeth was about to continue, she was stopped by Ezekiel.

"Truth is," he said looking down while scratching his head, "there was a time I used something other than a sword but I've long since switched over. But she's right that I essentially just swing it in ways that feel right. I only use this thing for fun, so formal training seems like it'd kinda be a pain in the ass."

Tibaut thought back to the fight. All he seemed to do was swing around his sword. No thrusts, no guarding, just swings.

Tibaut lightly fell to the ground and then lay on it with an annoyed expression.

"Next thing you're gonna tell me is that he was only using 5% of his strength and that he gets 30% percent stronger against people with red hair." He said sarcastically.

"If only." Quipped Ezekiel.

"Unfortunately, I only have more bad news for you." Elizabeth responded.

"Due to how sloppy swordsmanship I'd say it evened out the advantage of his magic, in fact, if you kept taking advantage of countering him you might have won."

"Oh, I give up!" Tibaut shouted before covering his ears and leaving the tent.

"Still," she said to Ezekiel. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd give up your fun sword for the oh-so strictly for business knife." She said while chuckling.

"Shut up! His punches stung and I just wanted to get it over with. Besides it was a spar so wasn't taking it too seriously and.." He then continued to rattle off excuses until Elizabeth grew bored and left.