The Platinum Divine Book 1 (Ongoing)

The Young Girl's Success

Mara II, Day 7, Year 502

As noon arrived, Serina and Turk arrived at Leo's home just as he instructed them to. Upon entering, Leo sat down the cup of coffee he was drinking and stood up.

                "Both of you, come with me."

                Leo directed the two to the training area, where Geuche was already training with Layna to help her master her blessing of Agnis, being careful as to not trigger the same phenomenon that happened a month prior.

                "Good Layna, now when controlling flames, you must remember that the most important thing is that your concentration must never falter. The gift of Agnis is quite volatile, one slip of the mind can be the difference between burning your target or blasting away your own allies."

                "Right!"

                Seeing Layna working so hard was almost too much for Leo to handle, but he managed to hold back his desire to praise her as to not break her focus. These lessons were too important for that, after all. Still, Leo was quite surprised at the progress Layna was making already. It was not unusual for beginners to take up to half a year, many times longer, to master develop their first divine technique. With Layna, she had already developed an acceptable range attack that somewhat resembled Geuche's "Wind Flame"

                "Now then, let us begin too." Leo said, turning around to face Turk and Serina. "Now Serina, before I cut you loose to go and train my precious little Layna, I need to see just how much you've grown"

                "Hmm? Alright then, but I'm not sure Turk will be able to handle me as he is now, I'll wipe the floor with him" Serina said without a hint of doubt in her voice

                Turk was getting ready to engage her when Leo stuck out his arm to silence him. Then, he set his gaze straight on Serina

                "You're not fighting Turk, you're fighting me"

                Clearly taken off guard, Serina's expression was one of pure shock

                "You want me...to fight you?"

                "Yes. Of course, I'll handicap myself by only using my gift of Salacin, but I want to be sure that I am truly placing my daughter within trustworthy hands"

                Leo was already aware of Serina's strength, as he could sense just how much her divine energy has grown over the past few years. This mock battle was more to put Layna more at ease, who wanted Leo to keep being her instructor. Seeing Serina put up a fight against him while using the gift of Amunis would likely gather interest from Layna, and showing Turk a few Salacin pointers in a live battle wouldn't hurt either. Of course, if he defeated Serina a little too easily, he would have to whip her back into shape before he trusted her with Layna. Knowing about the plan ahead of time, Geuche paused his lessons with Layna and instructed her to take note of Serina's strength and weaknesses, but she was more interested in seeing her precious guardian's divine prowess in battle for the first time. She could barely contain her excitement

                "Layna, please stop jumping around" Geuche sighed

                As Leo and Serina entered the combat area, Leo began explaining the rules of the fight

                "You can use your divine powers and your rapier to your heart's content, I will only use my blessing of Salacin and blades. If you force me to use my blessing of Mara, you win. If either of us forces the other out of the ring, they win. Understood?