Chapter 9

Training

The moment the energy was drained from Lykan’s body, he felt it as if an intense weight of pressure had been suddenly removed. That feeling alone was intense, but he knew he only had seconds to act if he was going to be able to take advantage of the situation. He focused on the breathing and moving techniques as he walked toward the training areas.

As he walked, he focused on the first task he had been given, the one to circulate energy and have it shine in your hands. He had spent hours on this and believed the Head Healer when she told him that the reason he couldn’t do this was that he had too much energy in his body. He knew that he had a Power Attribute of 11, meaning that he had more than the human limit would normally allow. Added to that was the fact that every time he increased his Power Attribute, getting the mana to circulate properly would only be tougher as his body would be naturally better at producing mana. So he focused. He wanted to cheat, to get the process over with. This was why he tried to kick start his mana circulation while walking toward the training fields.

The only problem he had not expected was that the start of such a process would have a kick. There had been the explanation that it would feel like he was able to breathe with his soul. This was true in a way. What the Head Healer failed to mention was that the breathing would only come after what felt like he had been mule kicked first, knocked to the ground, then finally able to breathe for the first time.

Painful was an understatement, which was why he quickly dropped to the ground. Despite the pain, he felt pure joy take him as he looked at his hands that were lying flat against the ground and saw the light they were producing. Supposedly the color your hands glowed was indicative of the field of magic you would most excel at. Red for fire. Brown for the earth. Green for healing and life.

There were a lot of colors, which was why Lykan was so surprised that he had recalled the meaning behind each of the colors after just the one reading. He knew this was an aspect of his increased Intelligence Attribute but found the retention to be amazing. He could see the pages of text clearly in his mind’s eye and recall the different shades and details. This was why when he looked down and saw that his hands were glowing with a near-white glow, he was confused. Gold was the color of light magic. Black was void magic. But clear or near white meant no affinity. This was the color that infants had before their personalities began to take shape. The fact that he had such an affinity was both exciting, as it theoretically meant he could walk down any path of magic. But it meant that the magic didn’t think that his personality had formed enough to form an opinion of him.

In a way, this made sense. He was, after all, classless, meaning his body had not matured enough according to the eyes of the Gods to force his life down any set path. Realizing this for the potential that it was, he got up from the ground and decided to guide his own path.

All these thoughts flooded through Lykan’s mind, but first, he wanted to practice. He wanted to see this Realm that required a hefty tax of mana to use. He was curious about how this whole structure worked. It wasn’t until he got through his personal barrier that he found the reason for such an exorbitant cost of mana. He entered a whole new dimension of space. He could still tell where the wall he used to enter was located. It was the field right behind him. Yet, what lay before him was a desert wasteland.

Wind blew up golden-brown swirls of sand up into his face. Instinctively he raised a hand to try to protect his eyes. That was when he noticed the first of hundreds of desert warriors. They were tall and lean, many wearing layers upon layers of cloth on their faces. Their clothes were loose-fitting and windswept. Judging by the golden dirt baked into their clothes, they had spent months if not longer traveling these very deserts. So it came that a band, a full army of soldiers, stood en mass against one warrior with a spear.

Looking down at the weapon, his fingers told him the weapon was the same wooden one he had been given. But his eyes could tell the mana had changed the form to resemble his trusty blue-tipped Mythril spear. The spear he had gotten as a spoil of war from being lucky enough to provide minimal damage to a creature that was dying from its own hubris. These thoughts and more filled Lykan’s mind, but they all stopped the minute the first warrior raised his scimitar above his head, screamed, and charged forward.

The minute he saw the first opponent advance, Lykan’s mind focused, and it felt as if he could slow downtime. The world went from having hundreds of inputs and stimuli around him to having one, the warrior charging before him. Lykan’s hands tightened their grip on the spear. The wind that had been gusting moments ago seemed to slow down. Everything extra was removed so that Lykan could focus on this moment.

The charging warrior was loud and obnoxious, with no true form to his movements, just a sword held up high. As he got within range of Lykan, he swung his sword at the shaft of Lykan’s spear. With a twist of his wrists, the sword was knocked aside, then it was a quick shift of his hips, and the tip of the spear was embedded into the assailant’s torso.

There was a moment’s pause as everyone stopped. The wind fell silent, and a hundred warriors looked on in horror as their warrior was held impaled by a child bearing a spear. The sight was surreal. What Lykan didn’t know was that he had provided so much energy that what he was viewing appeared to the High Wood Elf warriors that were waiting for their turns. He and Octavia had come right when the last two warriors were nearing their exhaustion point with mana and were no longer able to present their training to the crowd. He had no idea that others could see his movements. The purpose of showing the scene was simple, how could one correct an error if they didn’t know why it was created. The viewing screen allowed the trainers to see where a student needed more training and could offer ways to improve.

No one had expected the boy to be a Master of Spear Mastery and evolved combat Skill. So seeing the effects were impressive. His moves were quick and efficient, no wasted movements. No opening in his attacks to exploit, just pure power and precision.

“YAHH!!” This time two warriors charged forward.

This was a training simulation. Had this been a real battle, many of the warriors present would have been angered or acted irrationally. But under control of the simulation, the difficulty could slowly be increased until if found a point where Lykan could be fully tested.

Seeing the two, Lykan waited until the two were a dozen meters away. Then with a mighty swing of his spear, he hurled the impaled body directly toward the nearest attacker. The two collided with a thud.

Blood sprayed the desert sands in a wide arc from around the swing.

“No way.” Many gasped from the audience as they saw a boy swing a fully grown man off of a spear and into a charging assailant.

Both bodies went down, allowing Lykan to have a one-on-one battle with a charging warrior. A roll of the wrist and a quick thrust later, and this warrior too was impaled, though this one was hit in the gut.

A slight roll of his wrists later caused the spear to be removed, with the man using both hands to desperately hold in his intestines. With that, Lykan strode forward toward the assailant, who was now trying to remove the body that had rolled on top of him. He charged forward, then thrust his spear forward.

Slink.

There was a sickening slicing sound as his spear pierced wide open neck. Thick sprays of red blood sprayed forth, covering the sand and making a pool of dark sand appear almost instantly before the second assailant. His hands clasped his neck.

Both bodies were bleeding out, trying desperately to survive for a few seconds longer. With his work done, Lykan moved back to his original starting position, marked by his footprints in the sand. Once there, he turned and waited.

The two assailants died slowly. Lykan used this time to figure out the extent of the training. He wondered if the training would only continue once the two died, or would they attack once these two were no longer a threat? He watched and waited, letting his body relax as he prepared for the next wave of attacks.

True to form, the next wave was three warriors, and they only moved forward once the two assailants collapsed from their wounds.

“YAHH!!” The third wave began. Three charged forward, but their advance was slowed as they now had to move around the bodies of their friends that were blocking a direct path toward Lykan. Realizing this, Lykan began making moves. The first warrior to approach came from the front while the others two decided to try and flank Lykan. This was perfect as the two flankers were slow to arrive, leaving it a one-on-one fight with the charging warrior.

Lykan moved to roll away the blade as he had done the last three times, but this warrior was prepared and cut under the roll. The only problem for the attacker, his moves were slow. Well slower than Lykan’s, he telegraphed his actions, the shifting his hips, the tightening of his muscles, the way his body began to lean away from the roll. His body was prepared to move before he did. This was why when he made his counter, Lykan already adjusted and reacted to the horizontal counter with a quick horizontal slash and a downward thrust.

The horizontal thrust cut through the attacker’s arm, then the follow-through strike knocked the sword away from the weakened attacker’s grip. From there, it was a quick piercing slash.

Lykan already turned to his left before his first opponent even began falling to the ground. Lykan had calculated the depth of each cut. The bones and muscles split apart like a burning blade through ice. The speed of his reactions was so fast that many who were watching from the stands failed to see just how he had countered. Instead, they just watched on in amazement as Lykan once again struck down the two guards handily.

Octavia, for her part, had long since run out of being able to channel enough energy to both power her field and display the images she saw. Instead, the crowd witnessed her slashing with half-hearted faints, only to shrivel into herself as she was struck by imaginary opponents. She was well past the point of exhaustion. It was well known that endurance was the key. It was a well-known fact that endurance in a battle was the difference between life and death.

Seeing the way Octavia flailed around made it clear she was not doing well. She, like Lykan, had managed to take down her first opponent. Then when she was faced with two, the second one managed to strike her from behind. She recovered, but the damage one sustained in these was cumulative. Meaning that the strain would continually be applied by the field, causing an increased mana drain depending on how badly you were injured. The wound had proved costly.

For a while, the training field stuck with two opponents for Olivia from that point on. She continued to get more and more injured. Now she was only facing one opponent at a time, but the field had registered a number of critical wounds, forcing her mana consumption to be nearly all of her pool every second.

Octavia could feel her breath getting shallow both from mana fatigue and from the constant drain on her body to produce such wounds. Finally, a fresh warrior strode forward and performed a killing blow that finally ended the scenario. She collapsed to the ground, her lips puffing like a fish out of water. Now that the strain of the training fields was gone, she could breathe, as her mana was finally able to return to her.

After a few seconds, she felt her bond of mana that tied her to another by the Great Spirit grow tight. She looked and saw the boy she was now bound to going off against five warriors. He had minor cuts and strikes on his body. Still, he managed to move at a fluid pace that seemed to deceptively hide his speed.

Quick movements, the rolling of his hands. A quick step back and thrust of his hips. These were the crisp motions he made. Each step he took was highlighted by the sand.

“Whoa,” some of the expert boys called out from the stands.

Octavia turned to see that all the warriors were now watching the eleven-year-old human turn, thrust, strike, then turn his attention toward the next assailant. The sad part was for Olivia. She failed to initially understand what everyone else was looking at.

“His feet, they hit the same spot every time.”

Octavia looked down at the footprints in the sand and was amazed to see the boy was correct. Even when he reacted quickly, Lykan’s footsteps moved in a fluid pattern that was clearly defined. Forward right, thrust left. Back right center strike. Back right again, strike left.

The movements were so mechanical in nature and the focus on Lykan’s face so intense that he almost looked bored with the exchange. It was clear the system had been slowly testing him. Bodies piled high around Lykan, helping him to direct the flow of battle. When he killed or injured a body, they would often be struck a final time to fall into one of the giant piles that now littered the ground.

Lykan had just killed the final opponent in what had to be his third set of five attackers, at least as far as Octavia had counted. That’s when it changed.

The ground began to rumble, the sky shone brighter.

“He achieved the next tier?”

“Oh, his first run?”

The warriors spoke excitedly to themselves as they watched the ground around Lykan change. Great bolts of lightning struck down, burning and incinerating the bodies that lay in piles. The ground began to rumble as the slight hill that the hundred warriors were on rose ten feet into the air. The sky began to crackle as darkness descended.

Lykan, for his part, just stood still, spear held in the ready position. Finally, once the ground stopped rumbling, the sky that was now lit with ethereal energy crackled once more and fired at the crowd of warriors. This time, rather than incinerating the warriors, all the warriors took on an intense glow as energy filled their bodies.

The first warrior walked forward, eyes glowing white with power that shone like a beacon highlighting the land that led to Lykan.

Octavia took in a gasp as she realized these were to represent the Azani warriors, the ancient enemies to the South. Her heart began to tremble with fear, for the Azani were stories told to keep the High Wood Elves from venturing too far in the forests as children.

Octavia wasn’t the only one who took in a reflexive gasp. Even the instructors who were watching the progress of the warriors were taken aback. The Azani were warriors to be feared, often appearing far later in training. Yet for the Gods to judge Lykan to be ready to face such an opponent now either spoke to his prowess or spoke to how much the Gods disliked an outsider in their training arena. The boy had been good, but no one was at the level of the Azani.

“GHAH!” the glowing Azani warrior called out to the heavens. With his scream, a torrent of lightning was called down and began filling the Azani warrior with energy. The crowd watched as the warrior’s body began to physically grow in size from the lightning strike.

Filled by the energy, the warrior took two and a half running steps forward before he got to the ledge and jumped. As he jumped forward, he pulled back his now glowing left hand. Then in an instant, the glowing left hand shot forward, a stream of energy pulsing from the core in his stomach, up his arm, and out of his hand.

“Death strike,” Octavia found herself muttering. She had heard of it, had read vivid details of the strike, but had never seen one. Shaking her head Octavia was on her feet. Even in a training scenario like this, such a strike could be lethal. The mind and body would react to the pain and draw of energy. If a person suffered a violent hit, especially a fully powered death strike from an Azani warrior, they could die. Even experts were not immune to such attacks. She had seen how experts who pushed themselves too hard in these training sessions went one trial too far and critically injured their minds and bodies before they were truly ready. Yet here was Lykan, new to this and already being thrown into such a state.

Octavia wanted to stop the challenge now, but there was no way she could do anything but watch. Once a session had started, the combatant was effectively in their own parallel plane of existence. Nothing one could do could interact with a person in the alternate plane. Only once the mana of the participant began to run low, and their combat experience was no longer displayed, could one be removed early. But even doing that before the warrior was ready was considered to be taboo. To end one’s training early was tantamount to purposefully holding someone back from achieving their true potential.

So Octavia stood and watched. Her legs were like rubber. She had been in her own session for a little over three minutes, but in a combat situation, such times seem like an eternity. Now all she could do was stare and watch as Lykan continued forward.

The beam of energy exploded forward from the Azani Warrior’s hand. The beam shot straight and true right toward Lykan, who just stood there.

“Run!” Octavia screamed. But her words would not reach Lykan, not in his parallel dimension.

The beam struck Lykan’s spear. Well, the bolt would have gone directly for Lykan had he not moved his metal spear in the direct path of the strike. Even at the speed of lightning, Lykan had been able to react. The only problem was that the beam was made up primarily of lightning energy, and Lykan, for his part, was holding a now metal replica of his Mythril weapon. The energy went halfway down the shaft of the spear and then disappeared.

“What?”

Everyone asked in unison. Ghane, who had been watching angrily, had his eyes grow wide at the sight. He knew the space was capable of having special weapons mimic their real-life counterparts. So he was surprised to see that some of the effects of the magic spear had been copied so readily into the training session. Ghane watched in shock as the spear seemed to eat the energy of the death strike. After seeing this, Ghane knew he must have that weapon. To be able to strike down Azani attacks so easily would make him a Captain in no time. From there, he could steadily work his way up until Octavia had no other option than to choose him as a life partner.

What Ghane didn’t know, what no one watching could know, was that the energy wasn’t absorbed by the spear. Rather the spear was just a medium Lykan used to first get a feel for the energy. The energy used by the Azani warrior flowed through the spear and would have struck him with full force had his own fate changed Magical Abilities not kicked in. His Maximum Level Energy Absorption was the primary reason he was able to take on such a blow. This power was why the Azani warriors were chosen as Lykan’s second-tier challenge, as the system knew he would have no trouble adapting to the change of opponents. However, compared to someone without a fate blessed Ability like Magic Immunity, or a deviation thereof, the Azani are instant death to most they encounter.

Yet to one such as Lykan, they were little more than practice.

The Azani warrior let a torrent of energy fly as he made his way forward.

Shuffle, shuffle, run.

Lykan was a blur of movement as he was nearly full speed after two and a half steps. All the while, the arc of energy that had been fired at him began to curl and bend as it tried to follow his new path straight for the Azani warrior. The warrior looked confused for a second. His body was beginning to descend as the energy he had been using to help slow his descent was being pulled out of his body. Realizing that the death strike had no effect, the Azani began to panic. He kicked his legs, trying to get some extra height but felt the inevitable pull of gravity upon his body.

Shunk!

The Azani barely had a chance to notice the attack that came. His last sight was of a young boy jumping high in the air and piercing his chest with a spear. Then the pull of gravity increased dramatically as the world went dark and his energy-infused eyes went dim.

“Ohh.” A hushed silence fell over the audience as everyone tried to process what they had just seen.

The boy, Lykan, had just jumped over five feet in the air and managed to impale a floating Azani warrior. Then they watched as his body fell to the ground. He landed with a thud, somehow still managing to remain standing even after landing on top of the dying warrior. The crowd watched as the power in the body and eyes of the warrior slowly faded. No one looked away from the body. What they had just seen was something unheard of. An Azani warrior being taken straight on in single combat and losing?

By the time everyone was convinced the session had considered the Azani warrior to be deceased, the next warrior was charging forward. They turned their attention to see that Lykan had gone back to his original starting position and waited.

This one went much like the first one. Though this time, the Azani warrior shot out twin torrents of energy from both hands. This time only one hit the spear, while the other hit his left shoulder.

Lykan, for his part, stood still watching his opponent, who began to fall far faster than his predecessor. Seeing this, Lykan ran forward three and a half steps before making his plunging leap.

The boy had unnatural speed and strength. That much was readily apparent, especially for one so young. For a boy to be able to jump his entire height straight up with minimum speed was impressive. To do so while lunging with a spear and striking a falling opponent was impossible. At least, that is what Octavia would have thought before seeing that very event happen with her own eyes.

One after another, the Azani warriors came. One after another, the Azani warriors proved to be unable to cause even minor damage to the boy.

Lykan, for his part, was hardly breathing hard. While he did have to sprint every so often, the times given between each combatant were more than enough time for him to regain his composure. The surge of energy he felt after each attack was amazing. He felt like he could continue on this path forever if the training field was going to keep feeding him free energy to feast off of. Even with the training fields taking their upkeep, his energy reserves were easily refilled after each Azani opponent faced.

Finally, after the seventh warrior, the fields began to change once more. This time the warriors changed from Azani to a weird frog-like creature that stood up on its hind legs and made long loping movements that covered great swaths of land with each jump-bounce.

“Chimera?” Octavia asked, seeing the third-tier opponents placed before Lykan.

“Huh?” Apparently, Octavia wasn’t the only one who was confused about this as the third-tier opponent.

“Aren’t those often the first-tier opponents for children?”

Octavia couldn’t refute that. These were often the first opponent given to children who were just learning to use their energy. The frogs were incorporeal and could only be struck by manifesting some form of elemental strike.

The frogs once ruled this entire area but had long since been hunted into extinction due to how easy of a target they were for the High Wood Elves to use to gain experience and prestige. Yet the training fields kept them as a way to train new generations of High Wood Elves to manifest their elemental energies on command.

Seeing this, after the Azani warriors, Octavia thought this had to be some form of a joke. Yet, she watched as Lykan struck out and swung his might spear into and through the phased Chimera. The Chimera, too, would try to strike back, but their elemental attacks would be quickly absorbed by Lykan’s spear. Or at least that is how it looked to those who were witnessing the exhibition.

Minutes went by, and soon all of the Chimera had spawned. But regardless of how hard he struck or how violently he tried to strike at an opponent, his attacks did nothing. Nor could the monsters strike him. It was a form of stalemate. Finally, after a long time, the field flashed white, and he was released from his training field.

Silence.

Everyone was shocked at what they had just witnessed. The warrior capable of striking down Azani warriors in the sky was no match for children’s practice creatures.

Ghane was the first to break the silence. His laugh was so loud and boisterous that it caught everyone off guard. Then finally, the others who saw him broke out into laughter as well as his laugh was contagious. Soon everyone was laughing at Lykan, though Lykan, for his part, had no clue why anyone was laughing at him.

Lykan walked forward to the training Captain, a confused look on his face.

“What’s so funny?” Lykan asked. He knew he was on the third tier and that logically the monsters he faced would be tougher, so why was everyone laughing. As he asked, the instructor too began to laugh but tried to hold it back. He tried to find the words to explain the absurdity of what they just saw. It was the equivalent of being able to take on the ultimate forces of evil, only to late be taken down by a child’s shadow. The whole concept was so absurd that most had little way of explaining what they had just seen.

Fortunately, Octavia was there, “You went from slaying the greatest monsters this world has ever known. To losing to what are effectively imaginary monsters. The Chimera, at the end, they can be taken down with a minor elemental attack. Didn’t you try that?”

“Try creating an elemental attack? I barely got my mana to circulate before this whole thing began,” Lykan said.

With that, the laughing Captain straightened up and asked, “You just got your mana to circulate?”

“Yes, it was why I was allowed to skip ahead. Apparently, my mana pool was filled near to bursting, and since I had so much mana, I couldn’t circulate any unless a good portion was siphoned off,” Lykan said, his words sounding much more composed than his age would suggest.

“Ah. Well, that explains the issue with the Chimera then,” the Captain said, looking suddenly ashamed. “Sorry for laughing. It just came across as such an odd circumstance.”

Lykan nodded, but he was done.

He could still feel the energy flowing in his body, which was the most important part of this. He figured he would come back here to train, though he would make sure to do so when not as many people were laughing. Lykan looked to the gaggle of spectators, many of whom were still laughing. His eyes were drawn to the one who laughed the loudest. It was the warrior he had disarmed the day before. When their eyes met, Lykan caught a malicious glint in them. Normally he would dismiss such a sight, but his enhanced senses and the fact that he was in a foreign place told him to keep his guard up on everyone, especially him.

Lykan did a quick exchange of his practice spear for the Mythril one he had been carrying around. Then left the training area, his purpose for being there momentarily fulfilled.