A/N - So, I was looking at what I have planned out, and I really want to get to the third volume... or even just halfway through the 2nd volume. So... I kept writing tonight (did over 8k words tonight) Expect another chapter in a few hours after I proofread it a couple of times. Anyway, enjoy!

Volume One - Chapter Nine: Training

Nearly six months has passed since Great-Granny Kingsly started to train me. It’s even worse than I’d imagined… I get up at the break of dawn every day, then immediately have a breakfast comprised of dragon steak, dragon sausage, dragon breast, dragon… As soon as I finish breakfast that giant guy with green wings drags me into the training hall. His name is Gunther, and he’s a sadist. At least, he certainly enjoys hurting me! Over the months, I was able to figure out that he is an earth element faerie, one who specializes in unarmed combat of any and all types. For the next 5 to 6 hours, or however long it takes for me to exhaust the energy reserves that eating dragon meat gives me, he pummels me mercilessly. First, we started with bare-handed fighting techniques. Everything from aikido to taekwondo, to boxing, he’s a master of it all. A couple of months into the training he pronounced me, “Barely proficient.” I jumped up and down in excitement, thinking I wouldn’t need to spend so long getting beat up every morning. Then, another faerie entered the room.

She looked at me and sniffed disdainfully then said, “As a favor to the Mistress, I will be training you in the art of using a blade. From now on, you will call me Mistress.” Then, she gave me a sword and pointed to some training dummies. From then on, I spent the first two hours of training every morning getting beat to hell by Gunther, then my new Mistress would come and force me to hit very specific area’s on the dummy. Every day it’d be a different blade, sometimes a normal sword, sometimes a dagger, sometimes a humongous two-hander that weighed more than me. The first 4 months of training with her I only fought the dummy while she yelled out stance names.

She taught me 8 stances, all were supposedly created to enhance the attributes of one of the elements. Water stance was flowing, excellent at parrying and absorbing blows. Earth was stable and solid, the perfect defensive stance. Fire was explosively powerful, but somewhat slow. Lightning stance was fast, incredibly fast and also powerful. However, if you missed a swing you’d be off balance and easy to attack. Air stance was elusive, allowing you to dodge with incredible ease, but the attacks were light. My teacher preferred air stance for daggers because it allowed you to move quickly and lightly, while slowly bleeding your opponent to death. Light stance focused on speed, nothing is faster than a master practitioner of light. Dark stance focuses on surprise, and instantly killing your foes. Yet, has no defensive moves at all. Psionic stance is a neutral stance; good at everything, but not great at anything. Of course, this is only until you refine enough psionic elemental energy to use it properly. At which point, it becomes a true menace, creating illusions and affecting your opponent's mental state.

All of these stances, when combined with refined elemental energy become extremely powerful. My Mistress is an electric element faerie, and she demonstrated some of the lightning stance’s power to me. She was able to shoot bolts of lightning through the air and into the dummy from nearly a hundred feet away. I’m pretty sure that she was holding back. I couldn’t wait to start refining elemental energy, and start using the stances properly. But, Granny Kingsly refused to teach me how to refine, forcing me to focus on elemental affinities.

The weirdest part of training was always the meditation. Great-Granny Kingsly had told me that my meditation would be different than others, but I had no idea how different. The technique involved absorbing a tiny amount of mana, and then differentiating between the elements composing the mana without refining it. In order to perform it properly, you had to withdraw into yourself, focusing wholly on the various elements in the mana already inside of you. Eventually, your conscious mind actually joins with the subconscious and the identification speed increases exponentially at that point.

The first time I successfully meditated I was instantly shocked, unable to hold the mental state. I quickly ran to Great-Granny Kingsly to ask what the hell was going on, and she only replied that I’d know when the time came. Damned woman, why does everything have to be a puzzle with you! Left with no other choice, I went back to my room and began meditating again. It took a while, but I could feel my mind withdrawing, entering into my subconscious. Standing there, as if they were waiting for me, was hundreds of versions of me. They all smiled happily, and ran over to hug me, congratulating me. This was so messed up! I asked what the hell was going on, why are there hundreds of versions of me in this place! Hell, why was there a female version of me hugging me and crying? If I didn’t know better I’d have thought she was my mother!

Of course, they just had to be cryptic too. They wouldn’t confirm it, but I’m pretty sure that Great-Granny Kingsly put them up to it. After spending some time chatting with them, I asked what I was supposed to do in here since it seemed that I was increasing my affinities at an astonishing pace while we were talking. They just smiled and all said altogether, “Train!” I groaned, I only have a few free hours in the afternoon. The rest of my life was taken up by training, and now I was going to be forced to train in my sleep. FUCK! One of them walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder, then he said, “Do you want to beat the shit out of Gunther some day? You better, because the rest of us really want to kill that fucker. So, come to the coliseum with me and let me train you in hand to hand combat!”

After that, I spent every morning getting the shit beat out of my body, and every evening fighting to the death with other versions of me in my mind. The worst part was they didn’t worry about injuring me at all, it was no-holds barred, to the death fighting that scared the shit out of me at first. However, I noticed immediate results. If anything, I learned faster in that world especially about the blade. Apparently, these other me’s were all skilled at the blade but only mediocre at hand to hand combat. When I asked them if I really had to keep fighting Gunther, or training with my sword Mistress they just laughed and said, “In here, you train your mind and learn new techniques. Out there, you train your body and gain muscle memory. They are both indispensable to your future. Now stop bitching and work.” It’s amazing how similar these versions of me where to my actual fighting instructors.

Today, a new face appeared in the practice hall. It was the tiny, two-inch tall faerie who seemed to act as Great-Granny Kingsly’s secretary. My Mistress thanked her for coming. Then, we proceeded to spar for the first time. As she came at me, I used the earth stance in order to block her first attack. I instantly switched over to lightning stance and my blade shot forward striking at her left side. My Mistress just snorted and used air stance, easily dodging my strike. She then used light stance and before I even knew what had happened my left arm was flying across the room. “AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I started screaming and crying as blood shot out of my arm and pain wracked my body. Suddenly, my body was covered in a white light. My arm flew across the room and reattached itself, the muscles, nerves, and bones reconnecting in less than a minute. I had a very bad premonition that I would be spending my practice sessions from now on like this. I was right, my mistress said, “Pain teaches better than anything else, so until you learn how to not be a fucking idiot, I will chop you to bits over and over again. How many times have I told you only to use lightning stance when your opponent is off balance!! Just be happy that Ali is willing to put you back together. Now, AGAIN!”

To make matters worse, Gunther was watching as my limbs flew around the place. I managed to hear him talking to himself with his usual subterranean rumble as he left the training room, “Why didn’t I think of that earlier? He needs to learn what dislocated joints and broken bones feel like. Going to have to see if Ali is willing to show up a bit earlier.” I started crying, wishing that I could be sent back to the forest. At least I could hide!

One good thing about this kind of training, due to the need to regenerate blood constantly, the energy the dragon meat gave me was exhausted much faster. So, instead of my normal Six hours of training. I got away with only 4 and a half. Of course, this was a mixed blessing. Apparently, they’d planned for this ahead of time. I had a new assignment, every day I had to go down into the forest and hunt for my lunch. To make matters worse, the forest is nearly 20 miles away! I know that after awakening my physical body has become incredibly strong, but still! Twenty miles took me nearly an hour and a half of full out sprinting to reach. By which time, I was so starved that I could barely move. Much less hunt!

Thank god for my experiences playing hide and seek with my family in my younger years! I was able to noiselessly stalk through the woods, looking for prey. After about an hour, I spotted a small group of three wolves eating a deer. I slowly climbed a tree after checking for snakes, I learned my lesson about those thank you very much, and approached the group. A few minutes later, I dropped down, flipping and using the centrifugal force and gravity to build up momentum. Smashing both of my closed fists into the skull of the closest wolf, its head exploded like a bloody watermelon with brain matter mixed in. I couldn’t believe it, such a move wouldn’t even budge Gunther. Maybe, I’m stronger than I thought? I quickly acted, using a tiger claw strike to rip the throat out of the next wolf. The final wolf yelped in terror and started running, but it seemed so slow. Compared to the Mistress this thing could barely move. In less than ten seconds I’d killed them all. Feeling too hungry to bring the wolves back to the mansion to be cooked, I started a fire. After my previous experiences in the woods, one of the first things I did during my minimal free time was learn survival techniques. I was pretty sure that at some point Great-Granny Kingsly was going to throw me in the woods again. This time, I was going to be prepared.

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While I was eating, Great-Granny Kingsly was watching from a short distance away, along with Gunther and my sword teacher. “He has improved rather quickly.” said Granny Kingsly.

Gunther replied, “I’ve told you time and time again, he improves faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. It’s as if he has done this hundreds, maybe thousands of times before. I know you said that he is talented, but this is just insane. We should have started teaching him how to refine elemental energy a month ago.”

“Do you agree, Elin?”

“Yes, mistress.” My sword teacher bowed respectfully. “His improvement is truly incredible. He never gives up, even after I cut off his arms more than ten times today, he kept going. He has already reached the intermediate level in all of the stances except for psionic, and it is impossible to reach the intermediate level in psionic without refined elemental energy and a bond.”

“Good, I’m glad you both understand just how special he is. Do not teach him how to refine elemental energy. Yes, he is technically capable of it, but it will not hurt him to wait until he is sixteen. Remember, he may seem older because he has already awakened, but he is still six! I won’t ruin him by allowing him to think he is special. He will not become an arrogant brat! Anyway, by having him spend ten years focusing solely on his affinities and techniques, he will be a monster when he finally beings refining energy.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Both Gunther and Elin replied.

“What is it Elin? I can see you want to say something.”

“Mistress, I just wanted to ask if it was possible for me to bond him when he turns sixteen. I never thought that there’d be someone with the potential to bond with me.”

“If he accepts you, who he bonds is up to him I will not make that choice for him. Now, I need to go get ready to deal with his soul.”

“Yes, Mistress.” They both bowed, then all of them disappeared.