Chapter 11: Rock On

His extraordinary speed surprised them as they watched Desmend accelerate and leap off the edge of the roof. The large arc of his jump stunned them yet again.

All while carrying them as if their weight meant nothing to him.

"... Amazing, really amazing! What is that? That looks fun!"

"Wah, he is really running! Incredible, he flew off from the edge of the roof!?"

A few minutes later, Desmend made sure that he wasn't, followed, set down the kids, and thanked them for his escape from the dreaded paperwork.

"Wa... wait, you're just trying to get out of a job?" Thaldal was baffled by such reasoning.

"Don't you think that is strange?" Lassras asked.

"Nah..." Desmend said with a wave of his arm. Not looking at them because his eyes would give away his blatant lie. He could never really lie to women that he trusts or to children.

Lying to Tangerine would be impossible for him at this point. But Desmend could tell they were taken aback by their tone. Even Desmend would have been suspicious if he was in their shoes.

"I'm also on special training. That's why I chose a place where it is difficult to run," the South African explained while not mentioning the rooftops would be the only reason he could even lose the perky brunette.

She fast for a short stack.

"Eh... Do you really need to run on the roof? That's weird."

A simple matter to Desmend, but it was unthinkably strange to them. They looked at each other with skepticism faces and asked while tilting their heads.

"Please don't mind me. Well, I should be..."

"Hey, hey, wait! You said this is special training, so you run around this place every day?"

"I just got here. I'm on business, maybe even getting a Javelin armour." Desmend almost no, the south African boy went full giddy on the thought.

Giant. Robot. Honest to God. Mech suit.

How could Desmend not be geeking out?

An armour slash weapon built to fight against anything this world can offer. It was estimated that a strong person by itself carried enough artillery to wipe-out the demon beasts on Mount Piller twenty times over, strong enough to fight off the largest Leviathans on record, and somehow light enough for humanlike capabilities.

There were three reasons Desmend wanted a Javelin.

For starters, who doesn't want to pilot an iron man suit? It's Iron Man! What's not to love?

The second, the sensation.

As a little boy, he wanted nothing more than the ability to like Iron Man. Heroes can blow up stuff, so why couldn't he? He wondered what it felt like, the sensation of feeling weightless, the wind pushing about as one drills right through it...it felt so energizing just by thinking about it.

Thirdly chicks dig robotic suits.

He needed one now!

"Wait!" the twins explained in a hurry when they noticed Desmend was about to leave in a trance.

"Huh?" Desmend said, getting out of his trance andlooking at the children. "What is it, children?"

"Right, just now, didn't you jump really high from the roof? How did you do that?" Thaldal asked.

"Ah, that..."

"Also, please teach us the technique!" Lassras begged with puppy dogs eyes.

Where did their wariness from earlier go? Thaldal was chatting with him like they were old friends. Desmend didn't understand why he and his sister were so excited.

"I can show you, but it will take a long time, okay?"

"No worries. If we train with you, we can fly like you one day, right?" said Thaldal determined.

"But you might be stuck at a bottleneck before that happens too..."

Desmend warned and started to explain his training in simple terms... the content about magic, or was it, Vespa? Thaldal and Lassras were quite clever, picking up the difficult content at a good pace. Because they understood the content, they frowned at the task ahead.

"Isn't that gruelling!"

"Desmend, sir, is so amazing..."

Desmend, of course, doesn't let this go to his head. "But of course! I'm such a humble and amazing guy! But I'm still adding more to this training, you know?"

The stunned duo groaned, then lifted their heads as if they had just thought of something.

"By the way, why is your magic so powerful?"

"No, sis. I'm pretty sure it's Vespa."

Desmend ended their argument with a statement, "... That is because of compatibility, and I have been training for some years."

Hailing from South African with a half-French mother and having friends who hailed from the Caribbean, Desmend trained for years in Le Parkour, which is based on general principles of survival: Should one ever need to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, the shortest distance is always a straight line. The goal, therefore, is to get past, over, under, or through various obstacles without wasting any time.

Capoeira is a martial art that naturally teaches practitioners to use acrobatics to avoid attacks.

Savate, also known as boxe française, savate boxing, French boxing or French foot fighting, is a French kickboxing combat sport that uses the hands and feet as weapons combining elements of English boxing with graceful kicking techniques.

He doubted these kids trained a day in their lives. Nah, not worth the trouble.

"I don't even know Vespa yet... Hell, I don't even know much of anything about magic... I might have an idea, though," he mumbled to himself, thinking about if certain anime would work here.

This world has multiplesuns and moons, so anything is possible at this point.

"Wow!"

Thaldal was impressed. Compared to the explanation earlier, this was more stunning. Thaldal and Lassras seemed to be twins, both of them was eight years. The male was in high spirits after hearing this, dismissing all of his worries. He had a face that said, 'alright, we have to do this' and was fired up. Desmend warned Thaldal, who was rearing to go:

"Physical boost is a high spell; you can't use it without starting from the basics."

"Then just teach us the basics."

"...I don't know the basics. I just did it."

"You are strong, right? You know a lot of advanced spells!"

"You might be cute, but you are also dependable!"

Desmend's face began to cramp. This development was beyond his expectations and had nothing to do with cuteness. This is why he needs a responsible and strict wife. He needs someone to punish them because Desmend knows that he will spoil them forever.

Their request was troubling; he wanted to escape if it was at all possible. But when he saw the dwarven twins talking enthusiastically about the training regimen, his conscience could not allow him to ignore them.

"Ah... sure why not... Do you know where I can get a Javelin?"

"Yes, we do," they said immediately.

"Rock-on!" Desmend exclaimed and asked them to lead the way.