It didn't take long for both of them to arrive but only Darin was in the arena, which led Elias to ask about Arin,"he is on a mission and will be away for a few days".
"What took you so long? You stopped our training to go check on Elias, but how did you spend almost an hour in just checking on him?"Darin said, not happy being kept waiting for so long with nothing to do but that didn't stop Gravon from taking advantage of the opportunity to taunt Darin," Aww was someone missing meee" Gravon said with a cheeky expression but before he could even blink, Darin punch like missile locked on target headed straight for his face but he narrowly dodged but that didn't stop him. "You know, if it wasn't true, you won't be this defensive." But this time Darin didn't miss landing a solid kick to his chest sending him across the arena.
After their little skirmish, Darin turned to Elias his face as stern as ever "so how did your first day go and what weapon did you select, Darin fired questions at Elias, seeming especially curious about the second one for reasons best known to him. "It was mostly about just mana and stuff about affinities but I don't really have enough mana to learn more. And.... it's this", Elias said as he brought the axe from the ring,"isn't that ....." Gravon and Darin said at the same time but was cut off by Elias, "trust me I had no idea about Gilgamesh until a while ago, I didn't know he also uses the axe too ".
Darin and Gravon exchanged glances before Darin turned to Elias, "well let's see what you got attack me and i will give you some pointers to start with so you won't be completely clueless" Darin said as he stepped back putting some space between him and Elias who looked at Darin with a confused look " I thought you used a giant sword?", hearing this Darin just gave a small smile before giving a short response "perks of being the heritage holder of war", Elias just nodded as he gripped the axe with both hands, he was determined to become stronger and he was going to every opportunity he could to grow.
Elias blasted forward with all the strength he could bring out ,as he approached Darin he twisted his body to bring out more power from the axe but Darin did not move even as Elias swung the axe which riled up the winds as it headed for Darin but he held the blade with one hand halting it completely, Elias wasn't shocked he already knew Darin was stronger than him so he already expected his attack would not do much but instead of ending it, Darin pushed the axe Elias backward as he said "again", leaving himself wide open.
Elias quickly stabilised himself and relaunched himself forward kicking up dust as he leapt into an attack aimed from jumping and swinging the axe from the left the idea being that with the wide blade he could at least graze Darin which was his mission but Darin show cased immense speed and reaction time moving outside the reach of the blade and with nothing to hit or stop him,he flung himself rolling on the ground but he quickly recovered and with quick thinking,still determined to at least hit Darin immediately he got his footing he threw the axe at Darin, the weapon spun extremely fast as it sliced through the air, Darin was a bit surprised by this move but he remained unmoved as he caught the axe once again, it might have been going fast but to him it was like a snail on the run .
"What are you doing Elias, your supposed to learn from every previous encounter not attack blindly again and again and stop making all your attacks just about gathering momentum and swinging, not only does it slow you down it makes your attack pattern very readable, the runes on that axe make it light for you mske use of it try again "
Darin said as he threw the axe to Elias, he picked it up as he took a deep breath remembering what Darin said as he took stance and running towards Darin he jumped up bringing the axe all the way back as he got ready to swing it down, seeing this Darin sighed as he thought Elias didn't get anything he said as he raised his hand to catch the blade once more, but just then Elias switched the position of the axe now slashing it from the side now that he had successfully mislead him, but Darin was able to notice that his previous attack had been a fake out and he was able to narrowly dodge as he looked with Elias with an amused expression.
But Elias was relentless he landed on the ground but quickly grabbed the axe again, swinging for Darin's legs this time, he was forcing him to take that step backwards which he did but expecting this, Elias changed the direction of his axe mid swing to upwards and seeing the incoming blade Darin did a backflip putting some space between him and Elias but as he looked up he saw the axe flying towards him, Elias had already expected Darin to avoid the upward slash so instead seeing Darin flipping he flung the axe and now just inches away from hitting him and he couldn't react in time,he lifted one of his arm as the axe made contact with his metal skin, sparks flew until the axe finally fell down .
Darin who was finally able to see Elias saw him panting heavily as he sat on the ground, "sorry about that i felt my mana was almost out so that's why I already decided to flung it ", Elias said still trying to catch his breath.
"What are you saying sorry for, you did great and you even landed a hit on Darin that was so cool", Gravon said as he helped Elias up "indeed that was quite something Elias, seems like you might actually have some talent for the weapon ", Darin said as he handed the axe over to Elias "but I see what you meant when you said you couldn't learn anything because of lack of mana, it's a real problem" Gravon said as he rubbed his chin,"thanks guys and yeah now you see why I have to enter the Ember stage as soon as possible" Elias said as he was slowly getting frustrated at his own limits.
Gravon and Darin looked at each other as they both nodded as Gravon said "why don't we help you break through", hearing this Elias just stared at them with a dumbstruck expression "....what ?".