Panting, Vin staggered over to a nearby tree as he was finally allowed to rest, leaning against it while his entire body shook from exertion. He’d never really been one for physical conditioning before, and he had a hunch Alka’s methods would make most drill sergeants back on Earth shudder and ask if they needed them to call someone.

  While contemplating how to best run away from someone that was physically bound to him, he was startled by an unexpected voice beneath him.

  “I guess we won’t have to worry about the divine warrior killing us if she manages it first.”

  Glancing down, Vin spotted Scule reclining back on a particularly spongy mushroom like it was a beanbag chair. The petian looked just as winded and haggard as he felt, and he was nursing a fancy wine bottle twice the size he was. Seeing Vin’s surprised look, Scule nodded toward the bottle leaning next to him.

  “Want one? Figured if I’m going to die sooner than later from all this training, no sense letting these drinks go to waste.”

  “I’m good…” Vin said, shaking his head. He was so tired that even the thought of alcohol made him want to hurl. Doing a double take, he looked more closely at the bottle, squinting at the image on the label. If he didn’t know better, he’d say that was a pretty spot on image of Italy stamped on the bottle there.

  “Where’d you get that wine?”

  “Found it. What are you, the guards?”

  Rolling his eyes, Vin turned to watch the current torture session being conducted only a few dozen feet away. It was Shia’s turn in the rotation again, and despite her holding up far better than him or Scule, the elf was still being put through the wringer just like they had been.

  Alka came at her like a warrior possessed, swinging and slashing her sword as though she had every intention of beheading the elf the moment she let down her guard. If Vin hadn’t witnessed Alka’s incredible skill in person so many times before, he would have honestly thought the Slayer was trying to kill her.

  For her part, Shia was actually holding rather strong. Despite being forced entirely on the defensive, Shia had managed to use Blossom’s staff form to block or deflect most of the attacks, and had twisted just barely out of the way of the ones she couldn’t. Naturally, seeing as she didn’t actually want to hurt them, Alka was using the blunt side of her sword during their spars. But based on the number of painful welts and bruises covering his body, Vin knew getting hit by the ghost was still a less than pleasant experience.

  Nodding her approval, Alka finally kicked it up a notch, suddenly going from a warrior possessed to her far more terrifying graceful style of killing. Within seconds she slipped past Shia’s guard, smacking the elf on the head with her sword and eliciting a pained curse from the Druid.

  “Rotate!” Alka shouted, signaling for her next victim to approach. Scule gave Vin one last longing glance before begrudgingly shoving his entire wine bottle back into his cape and jumping down. As he made his way over, Alka looked over at a nearby bush.

  “This one’s a duo practice,” she ordered.

  After a few seconds, Vin heard a sad, defeated squeak as Reginald emerged from his hiding place, trudging over and waiting for Scule to jump on. As soon as they were ready, Alka nodded toward Shia.

  “Go!”

  Directing her mana with her staff, the Druid began casting. “Entangle!”

  Vin watched as the grass came to life under Reginald’s feet, shooting up and doing its best to ensnare the rat. But before it could get the chance, Reginald took off, leaping and twisting his body around the seeking grass blades, barely managing to keep his little limbs from getting grabbed.

  At the same time, while being jostled and jerked around by a desperate Reginald, Scule was busy with his own challenge. Using her sword, Alka flicked nut after nut up into the air in different arcs, and Scule had to shoot each one mid flight with his new blowgun before they hit the ground. For every one he missed, he’d be forced to scamper up and down the largest tree Alka had found as punishment.

  And if that wasn’t bad enough, amongst all the soaring nuts, Alka occasionally flicked a small rock that was almost the same size and color of the nuts that was supposed to represent a friendly target. If Scule did hit the soaring rock, Alka added ten more climbs to his punishment.

  Vin could only wince in sympathy as Scule did just that, one of his poison free stingers knocking a hidden rock out of the air and eliciting a string of curses from the petian. By the time Reginald finally got snagged by the magic grass, Scule owed Alka fourteen trips up and down the tree.

  “Rotate!” Alka shouted, ignoring a grumbling Scule as he made his way over to the dreaded tree and began scrambling up its side. Vin shared an understanding look of pain with Reginald as the two traded places. He never would have thought he’d be able to recognize a look of pity on a rat’s face, but here he was.

  “You planning on defending without a weapon?” Alka asked, raising her sword. Knowing she would absolutely come at him regardless, Vin could only sigh and snatch up his new quarterstaff Shia had crafted him. Thanks to a combination of Rapid Growth and the Whittling skill, Shia had made him a surprisingly nice staff that could function both as a walking stick and weapon when needed.

  Like now.

  Vin’s Threat Detection flared, and he barely managed to bring his staff up in time to block a sudden lunge from Alka. Relying on a combination of his reflexes and his passive, he stumbled backwards, doing everything he could to keep the hard sword from smacking into him and leaving any more bruises.

  “You’re relying too much on your passive,” Alka said calmly, as though she wasn’t currently in the middle of trying to bash his brains in. “Threat Detection only triggers on attacks you already suspect are coming, and it doesn’t do you any good if the attack is too fast for you to handle.”

  Driving home her point, Alka’s movement suddenly increased in speed, and her sword shot out too fast for him to block, smacking him painfully in the ribs despite the warning that flashed in his head. Vin cursed as he rubbed his newest bruise, wishing not for the first time since they’d started training that the ghost had lost her dexterity along with her strength.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Alka watched him carefully, as though waiting for something. She’d been doing that ever since she’d started training them earlier that morning. The only problem was, Vin had absolutely no idea what it was she seemed to be waiting for, and any attempt at asking resulted in her launching into another attack.

  “If I can’t rely on my passive… What should I be focusing on then?”

  “You need to watch your opponent. Regardless of if they’re a person or a monster, almost every opponent will have tells. A change in stance. An adjustment in how they angle their weapon. Unless your attributes eclipse theirs, you need to be reacting before they launch their attack. That’s how you survive.”

  Alka paused, seeming to debate just how much she wanted to say. After a few seconds, she relented, gesturing toward him with her sword.

  “Also… You need to stop trying to fight like someone you’re not.”

  “What do y-” Vin’s question was cut off as his passive flared and he deflected a wide swing from the ghost. Scowling, Vin quickly found himself on the back foot once again, struggling just to react to the Slayer’s purposefully projected attacks. It wasn’t even thirty seconds before she slipped under his guard again, smacking him in the leg with her sword and sending him limping back to his tree.

  Wishing once again that Alka would let them heal their bruises, Vin could only rub his tender leg and watch as Shia stepped back up to the plate. At the very least, Alka’s training didn’t consist entirely of getting beaten black and blue by her magic sword. While he struggled to figure out what she meant about his fighting style, Vin watched as Shia went on the offence with her magic.

  The Druid’s staff erupted in spiky branches, each one firing out and slamming into the ground where the ghost had been moments before. Vin watched in awe as Alka gracefully evaded every attack, turning and slipping in between each branch strike as though she were, well, a ghost.

  Vin thought Shia was done, but the Druid surprised him. As soon as their small battlefield was littered with enough growth from her staff, Shia cast again.

  “Entangling Thorns!”

  New spell witnessed! Tier two Nature spell (Entangling Thorns). 2,000 exp gained.

  Immediately, the branches came to life, converging toward Alka in an attempt to physically bind her. However, unlike a regular Entangle spell, at the same time barbed vines erupted from the branches, shooting out like feelers and making the mess of nature trying to snatch Alka many times thicker.

  Vin looked on in awe, impressed that Shia had actually managed to pull one over on their monster of an instructor.

  At least… he did right up until Alka got serious.

  Alka didn’t even flinch at the hundreds of thorny vines suddenly grasping at her from every direction. Instead, she got to work. Her sword became a blur as the Slayer became a human blender, and Vin struggled to even keep up with what was happening as bits and pieces of wood and vine were thrown around the clearing. As everything enveloped her all at once, he even lost sight of the ghost for a moment, only the sound of wood and vine still getting hacked apart indicating she was still fighting.

  Just when Vin started to suspect she’d come cutting her way out of there any moment, he heard her call out from within the mass of nature.

  “I yield!”

  Panting, Shia pulled back on her magic, the numerous branches decaying back into her staff and the vines slowly withering away to reveal a grinning ghost surrounded by enough salad to feed a small army.

  “Impressive spell!” Alka said, flicking at a piece of barbed vine with her sword. “How long have you had that one?”

  “A few minutes now,” Shia chuckled, wiping her brow. “After watching you and Reginald dodge Entangle all morning, I realized I needed something with a bit more sticking power. Thankfully, I was able to merge the two spells together fairly easily, as they have remarkably similar runic formations.”

  “Well I’d consider it a success,” Alka nodded. “In an actual fight I would have run back and come at you from a different angle, but seeing as I was just playing defense, the sheer mass of vines and branches managed to overwhelm even me. Good work!”

  “Thanks,” Shia grinned, clearly pleased with herself.

  “Scule! How many you got left?!” Alka called out as Shia went to go sit down.

  “Why don’t you ask your mother?!” Vin heard Scule’s voice call back from somewhere far up the tree’s canopy.

  Snorting, Alka turned toward him. “Guess that means you’re up again!”

  Groaning, Vin left his new staff leaning against the tree and trudged back over to the clearing, happy that at least it was magic time again instead of ‘getting hit repeatedly with a blunt object’ time.

  Similar to Scule’s training, Alka began flicking progressively smaller objects into the air for him with her sword, and Vin shot them out of the sky one at a time with well-placed Stone Shots. Unlike Scule’s training however, Alka would occasionally flick something directly at him, and Vin had to use Stone Wall to block the projectile.

  Vin couldn’t help but grin as he cast spell after spell, the sensation of mana flowing through his runic structures and transforming the world in impossible ways never growing old to him. Magic just came to him far easier than physical combat, and he quickly found himself getting into the groove of things, alternating between spells and even practicing the occasional silent, manual cast of his magic.

  He got so distracted in fact, that he was startled when he suddenly spotted his newfound staff flying through the air at him. It seemed Alka had slowly made her way over to his resting tree without him realizing it, and Vin snatched the staff out of the air, confused.

  Right up until he spotted Alka flying toward him right behind it.

  Still partially in his magic groove, Vin yelped and cast by reflex as her sword came at him from the side.

  “Stone Wall!”

  A stone barrier erupted from the ground, blocking the strike and saving Vin’s ribs from yet another unpleasant bruise. But before he could even celebrate, Alka pivoted, using the momentum of her sword bouncing off the stone to spin and attack from the other side.

  Instinctively, Vin raised his staff and deflected the sword, breathing heavily as the ghost continued her relentless attack. Just like before, it wasn’t long before Vin made a mistake with his staff and Alka went to capitalize on it. But this time, rather than slipping under his guard and smacking him, the sword clanged off a small pillar of solid stone that hadn’t been there moments before.

  The two of them continued their dance around the clearing, Alka continuing to try and find an opening and Vin desperately shoring up his weak combat skills with his far more impressive magic. As they fought, and Vin realized it had been over a minute without Alka actually landing an attack on him, his desperation slowly began to fade as he realized what he was doing.

  The longer the two of them fought, the less frantic his blocking became, and the more confident he began to feel in his movements. After another minute of keeping the ghost at bay, he made his move.

  Letting Alka think he was going to block with Stone Wall, Vin twisted the bottom of his staff at the very last second, barely deflecting her strike and practically feeling the wind from the blow brush past his side. At the same time, he focused his magic, aiming his spell with what remained of his left arm as he manually cast.

  The two of them froze as a chunk of solid rock manifested in front of him and blasted through Alka’s ghostly form, shattering a branch off in the distance from all the mana he’d supercharged into it. Watching the splintered branch fall to the ground, Alka turned to him, finally giving him a proud grin.

  “That’s how you should be fighting.”

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