Individual training

7. Individual training

-Melissa-

“Get up, you have some training to do.”

I feel the force of someone kicking me in the stomach and I open my eyes immediately, I can feel my broken bones move inside of me and the taste of blood in my mouth is increased.

“Finish this potion as I explain your training routine.” Cyril says as he hands me an open potion vial.

I drink the rest of the potion and the pain lessens rapidly.

“The rest are already gone to do their own training and you will all do this alone for a while. This will help you stop compensating your weaknesses with your teamwork, teamwork should come after all members are strong enough on their own. You can leave your shield there, you will only need your sword for this training.

Your routine will start with a quick duel with me, then you will go run in the forest and at the end of the run you will kill one orc by yourself. If you´re still alive after that you will run to the pond while healing yourself and swim it back to back. Then just run back while healing yourself, come down here and I will teach you fire magic and after that we will have a quick magic duel.”

I stand up leaving my shield behind and take a stance to ready myself to the duel. Cyril takes a sword from a scabbard behind his back and the pressure he emits increases by a great deal. He swings his sword from left to right and I put up my sword to block the swing. Force of his sword is so great that I can’t even soften the blow with my sword, I quickly jump up and brace for the impact. The blade of the sword pierces through my armor and skin on my right shoulder and hits the bone but it stops there and makes me fly in to the wall.

I scream in pain as I hold my right arm with my left to try to stop the bleeding and heal it, I look up and see something fly towards me and I grab it with my left hand. It is another potion and I quickly open it and drink it, pain starts disappearing and the wound in my right arm is healing rapidly. I look up to see if Cyril was coming back to attack me but all I see is an empty room. Well that was at least quick I’ll give him that.

I stand up and walk out of the magic training room, I walk up the stairs into the empty cabin and go outside. I put my sword in the scabbard and start running into the forest, as soon as I pass the first tree I hear someone talking.

“Run a bit more to the right and you will be on the right path.”

“Alphonse is that you?”

“Yes, I will guide you during your run again and lead you to the orc. I can also answer some questions while you run.”

I should ask him now before I am too tired to talk while running.

“How old is Cyril?”

“Older than me and I’ve lived here for two hundred years.”

“What made him live that long and what enabled him to use magic?”

“He doesn’t talk about his past that much so I do not know but I can assume that it is not very ordinary.”

“Have you lived here your entire life?”

“Yes.”

“Wouldn’t you want to travel around the world and see unusual places and maybe meet someone from your own race?”

“All I want is to stay with Cyril, there have been many times that I have been in danger and he has saved my life every time.”

“What kind of a person Cyril is?”

“Though exterior and doesn’t show how he feels inside but he does feel and a lot more than any of us, only reason he is putting you through this hellish training is because he doesn’t want you guys to get hurt. That is also the reason he is living alone in the woods, the world outside is messed up and when he tried to make it better he just messed it more up so he decided it was better if he didn’t try anymore.”

“Didn’t know he was such a sweet guy.”

“Well he still can kill people without batting an eye so I wouldn’t say he is sweet.”

“But I’m sure he feels bad for killing anything and the fact that he can do it without batting an eye is incredible. He can be strong when he needs to even though he is sympathetic to everyone, even his enemies.”

“Don’t say anything to him, he won’t admit it no matter what. He will only increase the difficulty of the training.”

“I won’t tell a soul, I’ve already been close to dying so many times, I couldn’t handle anything more.”

After that I was so out of breath that I couldn’t ask him questions anymore. I kept running for hours until Alphonse warned that we were getting close to the orc.

“In about ten trees the orc is sitting down resting after patrolling.”

I stop running to catch my breath and take out my sword out of the scabbard. How the hell am I supposed to kill that orc alone, this is madness.

“Alphonse, you wouldn’t know any orc weak points, would you?”

“Yes, I do know one.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure if I should be telling you this but I guess you need some help, it’s the armpit.”

“Really? It’s not its neck or something?”

“No, they have developed quite a thick skin in the neck area.”

“I will take your word for it. Well wish me luck.”

“You don’t need luck, you have my advice.”

I smiled a bit and then started walking toward the orc quietly, I avoid the roots and the fallen leaves on the ground as I move until I can see the orc.

The orc is sitting next to a tree with his back toward me, I move to its right side and grab a stick from the ground and throw it in the air so it drops somewhere in front of the orc.

The orc stands up and tries to take his club from the ground but I run at him and stab his armpit with my sword, I pull my sword free quickly and retreat a bit. The orc screams in pain and it seems like he can’t move his right arm at all anymore.

I waste no time as I jump on his back and slice downwards at his head, the blade doesn’t go deep but it pierces the skin and the blood come out from its head like a fountain.

I push with my feet and fly away from the orc and tumble down on the ground, I stand up and start running toward the orc that has turned towards me. The orc yells angrily at me as it just stands there waiting for me to come. I run at it and I feint as I would swing my sword at his neck but I stab his left hand as he tries to smack me away.

The sword goes through his hand and it tries to kick me away but I push my sword even deeper and slice the hand open and dodge the kick with a sidestep and a spin.

As I get to its side I push it with my body and it falls on the ground screaming. I start to run away from it and it stands up quickly and starts chasing me, I run for a long time until I finally see it weakening.

I stop running and face the orc as it comes toward me while swaying from side to side, the green orc is now almost totally red as it is covered in its own blood.

The orc starts running again as if it regained some energy as it sees I am not running anymore. as it is about to trample me I easily evade to the side and slice at its arm and turn around instantly to stab its back, the orc screams loudly and I put all my strength into pushing my sword deeper into its back.

Orc falls to the ground dead and I collapse on the ground from the exhaustion.

“Well done, you killed that orc without taking any damage from it.”

“It was a lot slower than I remembered it being.”

“You have just gotten faster.”

“That’s great, I guess his devilish training is paying off.”

“Yes, and it is time to resume that devilish training, stand up and start running.”

Alphonse guided me to the pond where we were earlier and I swam it back to back, I tried healing myself while I swam but I couldn’t concentrate on doing both at the same time. On the way, back I had to cut myself so I could heal something on the way and it hurt more than I expected.

When I reached the cabin, I could not see anyone else there and when I went to the magic training room there was only Cyril there.

“The others are all right, right?”

“Yes, I made them a training routine that would enable me to teach you individually one by one. You won’t see them until the end of the individual training.”

“Are they doing fine?”

“They are mostly fine, well there was this one incident and because of that we are a bit behind schedule but they are all alive at least.”

“Should we start the training then if we are behind schedule?”

“I will just teach you quickly and then duel you to sleep, it won’t take long.”

I felt the sense of dread from what he said but I had to focus on the training so it passed quickly.

“When you take in the mana do not transform it into what you normally do because it will make it healing magic. Imagine it transforming into a substance that would burn just from touching air.”

I take in mana and reflexively turn it into healing magic, I try again and focus hard to make me stop transforming it. Then I start imagining a substance that I cannot see and feel but it would burn as it touches air. I try changing the mana and feel something warm go through my body, as I push the warm feeling out of my body through my hands, I see a small fire appears in my hand and it feels nice and warm.

“Congratulations, you can use fire magic now.” Cyril says as he smacks me with the rock hand into the wall and I pass out.

Chapter six. Chapter eight.