*Fly*

As I fly through the wind at incredible speed comparable to modern day aircraft, the woman in my arms is speechless at my performance, she stopped panicking quickly but even then her amazement and bewilderment are clear on her face, she’s certainly faring way better than most people would I’d say.

Now I just have to spot a mountain, probably a big ominous and way too significant looking to be ignored by anyone… There!

*Break*

I quickly lowered the speed as I was going to take a good look at this strangely massive mountain with the summit out of my line of sight. This must be what she’s talking about, but to be certain for sure.

“This is what you’re talking about right?” I asked, which she responded by slowly opening her eyes and her body stiffened as she noticed the altitude we’re at, way above the ground, probably like a hundred meters at least. Her eyes wander about above ground still, let’s not mention the fact that technically I could run out of mana if she looked around for too long, as in about ten minutes, I could maintain this for about ten minutes, and therefore both of us plummet to our death, maybe I would survive but with her it’s hard to be sure, the tier of hundred is about eight times stronger than regular humans… it might be possible? Let’s not think too hard about that and just failsafe the whole thing immediately.

*Land*

Slowly but surely land gracefully back down to the ground that lives stem from. I let her out of my arms and stand on her own two feet. I without words handed her her two sabers, which she silently took. She then looks at the massive mountain in front of us, with trees around us making the path on foot slightly complicated.

…Wind blew as both of us stayed silent, her deep blue overcoat and my blue cloak fluttered by the wind…

“Did you seriously just fly?” She asked, sounding composed. It’s clear she’s still bewildered but it’s good she keeps calm at least, it would be hard to explain if she isn’t.

“Yeah, magic is quite something isn’t it? Anyway since we’re here now it’s time to begin training… and killing a dragon, how the hell can you do it anyway?” I asked and snarked at the absurdity still. Shouldn’t dragons that can be out in the wild at least 300 in levels? No way a level hundred can do it, I can do it, but not her. I walked past her and then turned to face her.

“Admittedly I only did so with a wyvern, but I’d imagine with you around it would be possible. Me being able to use magic would also help” She answered truthfully. A wyvern is still a bit much isn’t it? It’s in the 200s at the very minimum, and she’s nowhere near that level, are draconic beings really weak in this world or something? Food for thoughts but for now let’s focus on something else.

“We’ll deal with that later, for now let’s get you accustomed to mana shall we? I think you probably heard this more times than you can count, but tapping into mana you can’t use the five physical senses, you need to think, feel it with something else. With the mana system in your body now all fine and dandy I think it’s best to get you using some basic spells at least… also improving your swordsmanship still a bit, it’s easy to tell you don’t have any proper training” I instructed her on my plan, and she is taken aback by my accurate analysis of her skill in combat, which is actually not a lot. I summoned my twin blades and-

*Flutter*

Stretched my arms outward as a sign of strength, letting my cloak fluttered backward as I ready my stance.

“We need to work on that now as well” I said, taking my stance with a vague smile. She does the same, looking rather cautious as she ready her stance as well. In these woods there doesn’t seem to be anyone around and this is a good enough clearing, might as well get to the point.

“Let’s see if you can keep up with me!” I said as a way to start the match.

*Dash*

Immediately I sprinted to her side in less than a second, taking her by surprise no doubt. I didn’t strike immediately as it would be unfair, this is training not a real battle after all.

*Swing* *Parry*

I swung my swords and she parried it with her own, both of us pushed back and let the distance between us increase. We both stand there with roughly eight meters between us.

“Get on the offensive will you? Able to block attacks is one thing but you can’t win without getting a hit in as well” I taunted with a defensive of my own, it’s convenient that both of our fighting styles involved two swords, otherwise it might take a long time for her to pick up on technique and such.

*Dash* *Parry* *Parry* *Block* *Parry*

She immediately rushed toward me and wildly attacked me at the front all the time, using pure strength and speed with frighteningly good sense of trajectory as well, of course there’s one problem with this whole thing, as seen with how many times I effortlessly parried or blocked her attacks… it’s essentially button mashing!

*Parry* *Crash*

I put a larger amount of force into that counter than it sends her flying into a nearby tree, almost breaking the tree itself in half, but soon enough the tree will fall.

“Damn…” She muttered as she stood back up, her clothes slightly torned and clearly hurting.

“Try a different approach for crying out loud! We won’t go anywhere with this, come on, I’ll heal you and you better try something different” I instructed as I began weaving a spell.

“[Undo]” A single word chant with great significance behind it. Her clothes are restored and her body went back to how it was, before she was crashed into the tree. It’s a spell that can be messed up so I’m glad it worked. After she realized her body ‘recovered’ she immediately went back into an aggressive stance, while not rushing toward me immediately unlike last time.

*Lunge*

After a few seconds she lunged towards me, or rather to my side where I can’t block as well. The weakness of dual wielding, due to having to balance out both side of the body that both hold a blade in their hands, balancing and attacking became harder, especially when the enemy is positioned in a way that only one sword can be used in the first place, that’s one impracticality of it. There’s a lot more but I’d rather not get into it.

*Parry*

The vast difference in strength more than makes up for that weakness, as she’s parried and sprinted backwards, creating distance between us again, I turn to meet her face to face. Might take a while for her to try out some tricks. 

“Until you get a clean hit in I won’t teach you magic, is that clear?” I announced, pointing my sword at her. She lifted her head up to look me straight in the eyes.

“Clear” She answered with firmness.

*Dash*

 

#####

 

*Parry* *Parry* *Dash* *Leap* *Parry* *Swing* *Roll* *Parry* *Crash*

Barrages after barrages of sword swinging, she certainly got close to hitting me as time went on, coming up with new approaches more often as time went on, she’s certainly improving from the brute force she used in the beginning. Her attack and behavior is way less wild, but really can she keep up such an approach even after this training is over. It’s been about three minutes since we started training and not saying a word.

“[Undo]” I chanted and her injuries reverted. It’s certainly interesting how time magic worked as a ‘healing’ spell.

*Dash* *Parry* *Parry* *Spin*

After a few more rounds of parrying she spun and rotated her body to an unorthodox angle.

*Evade* *Crash*

While such an approach would be hard to avoid if one doesn’t expect it, the fact still stands that one would immediately lose their balance if they missed or stay in that position for even a fraction of a second too long. She just fell down embarrassingly because of that.

“Let’s… try a different approach?” I asked walking away awkwardly and creating distance between us both. Floria stood back up trying to look at me with a straight face and tighten her grip on her swords.

*Dash*

 

#####

 

*Block* *Parry* *Parry* *Block*

Switching stances, changing directions, constant and dexterous movements.

*Swing*

Certainly there is a room of improvement, but…

*Slash*

This is good enough, there’s something else she must master.

“You certainly learned well in such a short time” I said with a smile. Despite receiving a direct hit from her, I’m still completely fine, so no need to heal there. She snarled at me in response.

“You literally let me get a hit in, it’s easy to tell” She said putting her sabers away. It’s clear she’s not completely satisfied.

“Now now. You show clear signs of improvement so let’s leave it at that, we have to train your magic, as well as getting dragon’s organs… people here sure are sick aren’t they?” I commented, then picked something from [Item Box]. A potion that is heavily condensed with mana, usually such a thing cause severe reaction in any living beings since excessive intake of mana either more than one could handle or at an overly unnatural rate would cause a severe backlash, this potion however works despite of that, I think there’s some sort of substance in here outside of pure mana that alleviate that… What was it again? Well I can worry about that later, I’m not expert at potion-making anyway.

*Throw* *Catch*

“This is a…” She muttered then trail off, not revealing her speculation. In her hand is the potion I chug at her.

“A mana potion, I don’t know if you know of it or not, just drink it” I answered. Since despite her magic circuits just recently activated it wouldn’t have enough mana to do anything just yet. People naturally draw or generate mana, but it’s extremely negligible for the most part to not be impactful mid-combat.

She drinks it not questioning a thing. She gagged in response, it has to be expected somewhat even if it shouldn’t be harmful, this is her first exposure to internal mana so it would most likely sting since it’s her first time… that was a weird way to phrase it, good thing I didn’t say that out loud. 

“Haaaah...” She let out a sigh as she finished drinking the entire thing. She should rest for a bit before actually continuing her training, and I wonder what could be done in that time.

“You need to rest a bit before we can continue… By the way do you seriously want to challenge a dragon or was it because you have no idea what other request you should take?” I instructed and asked. Because if she doesn’t have personal vendetta or something I don’t see a need for her to fight it, sounds way too risky.

“It’s just the first thing that took my notice, not really interested in whatever the requester wants, or the experience of fighting it” She answered as she sat down on the tree fallen by our training earlier.

“Good answer, now just rest for a bit while I take care of that” I said, turning to face the ominous mountain we were meant to go.

“Are you going to…” She asked, trailing off due to the boldness of my supposed claim.

“Yeah, I‘ll take care of it” I answered with bravado. I’m not certain how strong the dragons are if this place is supposedly where they live. Dragons aren’t the most social of creatures so the fact that there’s a mountain where they can be reliably found seems a bit absurd to me. The fact that they don’t have a natural habitat but extremely territorial doesn’t help either, there shouldn’t be any reason for a place with enough of them to warrant considering the place a habitat for it to exist… something is going on and I don’t want to deal with it.

Now then… [Became subservient.. Wind]

*Fly*

I don’t need to chant the full thing or need to say it out loud, with the spell activated I fly high up toward the monstrous mountain in front of me.

*Roar*

Immediately an earth-shaking roar can be heard, when I turn to meet the source of that sound a red dragon is present. It swoops toward me intending to kill me.

...The power of that roar was unexpected...

*Swing*

It swings its claw at me, despite its hulking size and being quadrupedal it’s fast enough to move its front leg to attack me…

*Evade* *Slice*

Like a disappointment that it is!

*Swing* *Clatter* *Slash* *Glide*

I swing one of my swords, releasing it into a chain of blades that hits multiple parts of its massive body. Soon enough I fly away from it, its front left leg dismembered and its belly full of wounds and dripping with its own blood.

*Roar*

It wasn’t enough, even though its might compared to what I’m aware of is but a bootleg, it’s still a dragon, just a sword swing or two isn’t enough.

I draw my arrow. I concentrated my power into the arrow, and ready to shoot it. Even if I’m in the air at the moment I’ll not let my shot falter, I’m an archer, I will do so masterfully and flawlessly.

*Shoot*

A single arrow with power fused into it is shot at an incredible speed toward the dragon’s neck.

*Pierce* *Roar*

It let out one final roar of will, it’s neck almost dislocated from its body with a large hole where the shot is aimed at. The giant falls.

*Crash*

Its body comparable to a size of a two story house crashed landed at the ground below. Hitting the side of the mountain and rolling down to the surface.

The battle was not climatic in the slightest, there was no need for it to be, but still… While I appreciate the fact that it was easier than I thought it would be, the feeling of underwhelming in that battle is still there. 

*Land*

I landed down near the body of the downed dragon. It was a disappointment of a creature it claimed to be but it should suffice. I don’t think they can complain that the materials they get were from a weak dragon that seems like it was an imitation more than anything else.

“Okay then… let’s make sure nothing gets messy here…” I said to no one in particular. I just have to get its organs… which one specifically anyway? From what I read it isn’t specific about which organs… maybe I’m supposed to take as much as possible? Let’s do that to be safe than sorry. I have a plastic bag ready to put these organs in, I have many of them since I didn’t throw any out. There’s most likely a better bag to store flesh in, but again they aren’t specific enough for me to care.

*Slice*

I slice into its surprisingly fragile than expected skin, dragons are known for their nearly invincible body after all, so it being sliced in so easily is certainly odd.

*Drip*

A pool of blood. As I continue to slice into its body to find where the hell its organs are, more blood keeps spilling out. Now that I think about it, maybe I could store these blood for other purposes, maybe as a gift for a vampire or something, imagine that.

*Flow*

I summoned a few bottles to store the blood that was flowing out of the dragon’s body and stored it immediately after the bottles were full. 

*Slice* *Squish*

Through its flesh I observed and put my hand on the fleshing walls around me. There doesn’t seem to be any particular construct of flesh that is its organs, like a heart or other things dragons have… what else do they have aside from heart again?

*Slice*

Ah, here’s something worth collecting. Its intestines. It starts unwrapping and the massive fleshy elastic tube is way too big for my measly plastic bags. This is a problem certainly, I need something big enough to store it… I did loot a few chest and crates in the past and stored it, I need one that is a cube with four meter each side at least.

…

I need to improvise, no one is crazy enough to have a sturdy crate that big.

 

#####

 

After a few minutes of crafting I finally patched a few crates together to make one being enough to hold the massive intestines. I quickly stored it away so I don’t have to look at it again. Now it’s time to continue slicing in.

*Slice*

Ah! There’s an important one, the heart. This I could put in a particularly large plastic bag, it’s thankfully not anywhere near as big or takes up as much space as its intestines, I think I see what should be its lunge as well, I’ll just take all of it.

 

#####

 

*Squish*

“There we go” I said as I pulled out its eye right out its socket. I just ended up collecting a huge amount of its body part, not only its organ like the request wanted. My instinct as a hunter kicked in where I collect and dissect everything that seems usable or valuable, so yeah that just happened, maybe I could sell these somewhere even as low quality dragon parts, not that there’s anyone crazy enough to buy them anyway… Right?...

I stored up everything and I’m covered in blood I just realized, good thing the clothes on me can clean me up whenever, otherwise I need to go find a water source somewhere.

Now with this done it’s time to go back to… Oh?

“Seems you’re quite eager to continue your training” I commented seeing the woman that approached me finished collecting everything.