Nikita and I left the Guild about an hour ago, and the whole time I’ve been so hyped that it’s hard to keep myself in control.

I’m finally gonna get to do some training. Some ACTUAL training! Not meditation and not reading books, no. But swinging my sword kind of training!

Hard to believe it, but after that humiliating profile thingy that the Goddess wrote, I’m happy to work on my fighting skills. I haven’t been letting it eat at me or anything, but it still kinda stung. Even if I proved it right by assaulting Zuzu like an hour later... still! That was to make Boss happy, not because I’m a slut!

Ugh.

Who cares what some stupid Goddess thinks, anyway. All she does is fuck shit up and make our lives worse. I don’t need to dwell on her judgmental view of me, of all people. On our way to the west gate, I told Niki what happened, and she shrugged it off, too.

“Live your life the way you want to, Sam. No use getting hung up on the bitchy words of an incompetent bimbo sitting on a cloud.” Niki says.

She always speaks like she has so much personal experience with Gods. It has me curious. “Was your God the only one you ever met? Ares, was it?”

“Nah. I’ve met a decent chunk of the Grekkan pantheon at one point or another. Hard not to when you live there. They’re all over the place waging war or making new demi-gods.” She laughs, but it’s an insincere laugh.

Niki’s been acting fucking weird lately. You bet you’re ass I’m gonna grill her about it when it’s time to take a break from training. For now, though, I don’t wanna bring down her mood any more than I can help.

We end up leaving the west gate and heading out into the rocky wasteland alone. I asked her why we needed to do it out here, and she told me, “Rocky areas are a staple fixture when it comes to training. There’s not a lot of people around to both you, the outcroppings and boulders all serve as good targets and tests, and for one, it’s just badass to workout in places like this!”

“Makes sense to me.” I’ve gotten a lil’ bit further in one of those action novels I bought, and there was a scene where the master took the hero out into a rocky wasteland for training, too. Guess it just comes with the territory.

I’ll remember this when I’m a mighty warrior and Boss asks me to help train some cute girls for him!

“Where do you wanna get started?” I scan the landscape, seeing it’s mostly free of monsters except for some of their weird penis-nosed moles Boss warned us about. “Won’t the monsters get in the way?”

“No worries about this. Check this out,” Niki smiles and starts approaching the monsters. At first, they look at her as a potential victim. But then Niki flares up a threatening aura around her body, and it intimidates the little shits into fucking right off. The screech and start burying away into the earth, causing Niki to laugh. “When you’re super strong, lower leveled monsters won’t even fuck with you.”

“Bitchin’! Is that what you’re gonna teach me today?”

“Nope. Today I’m gonna hammer in a few super basic Arts into you. You should be more than ready, I think.”

“No shit.” I smile and draw my sword, plunging it into the ground for easier access. “Are you sure? I’m only able to concentrate for like... forty seconds, now.”

“Close your eyes.” Niki’s face becomes stern.

“Huh?” I tilt my head. Not sure what this is gonna accomplish, but...

“Do it.” She emphasizes her words by stomping on the dusty ground with her foot.

“...Alright.” I don’t see any point in being disobedient here, so I do what she teaches me.

Everything becomes still, silent, and tranquil.

In this perfect moment, there’s no fucked up daddy issues... no fear of disappointing everyone who expects so much from me... no burning desire to prove myself... it’s just quiet. It won’t last, but I’m starting to get used to this calm.

A presence intrudes upon my brief moment of clarity, and I duck to the left. My eyes shoot open reflexively. I see that Niki just tried to punch me, and I look up at her in awe. “Holy shit.”

“Not bad! See? You’re already improving at the fundamentals. You got a good grasp of sensing someone else’s aura now, and you can even sense when it turns hostile. It’ll take a long-ass time to get it where you can move entirely on instinct, but-”

“Can you show me?” I stand up and tighten my hands into fists. I need to see this shit first hand.

Niki smirks like she’s impressed with my guts, and I smirk back. “Heh. You got it. Try your best, kid.” The Grekkan mercenary closes her eyes. I take a step forward and attack with a right jab, putting a fair amount of power behind it.

Niki effortlessly weaves away from it, but I don’t let up. I throw a left hook aimed at her side, and she backsteps. Right uppercut, a dodge to the right. Left, right, side, upper, hook, jab... It devolves into a rapid series of punches aimed at every spot I can possibly think of, and not a single one hits.

“No fuckin’ way...” I gasp for air and smile.

“Didn’t even have to think about it, either. Your body isn’t just a weapon. It’s your partner. You gotta trust your instincts because, at the end of the day, both of you got the same agenda; kicking ass and taking names.” Niki eases her guard and wipes off a single bead of sweat from her forehead.

I don’t think I’ve seen her sweat before while training Meri... I really wanna brag and boast about how I made her put in an effort, but... that’d just devalue my progress, I think. But DAMN, do I wanna celebrate! Why does being humble take so much effort...?

“Don’t get in over your head, Sam. It’s time to go over the Arts I’ll be passing along.”

“Dope! Let’s get started!”

“There are two general Arts I’ll be teaching today, as long as one Great Blader specific Art.”

“Three in one day? Am I really gonna be able to learn them all...?” My confidence lowers for a split second, and I swallow nervously, but Niki has my back.

“Probably. These Arts are super easy ones, and you’ve already got a good handle of the basic skills. You can slow down and feel other’s aura now, so you should be able to control your own stamina to a limited degree.”

“Is that really all it takes?”

“Think about it for a sec. I mean like, picture all your energy going into your- OK, NO.” She stops herself and laughs awkwardly. “Not all of it. I don’t want you to get carried away. Uh. A picture like... five percent of your energy going into your fist. Visualize it.”

“Um... sure.” I raise my hand and grasp it into a tight fist and close my eyes. I think about what Niki’s aggressive aura looked like when she was about to punch me, and I try and overlay that same feeling onto my hand.

“See? You always had a knack for it. Just had to teach you to chill.”

I open my eyes and see that my fist is shining softly, almost like a Mage or some shit! “Fuck yeah! I’m the fucking BES-...” Er. I look at Niki, and she smirks.

“You can gloat just a bit, Sam. This level of progress so fast isn’t normal, so I’ll allow it.” 

I pump my fists into the air, “Oh YEAH!”

“So you can control the flow of energy throughout your body. That’s great, but it’s only the beginning. These first couple of skills will take those fundamentals and then put them to work.”

“I’m ready, Niki. Let’s do this.”

My mentor summons a long great blade with her Auto Loader, and she looks me dead on. “First off, you’re gonna learn two ‘passive’ Arts. These are the quickest type to learn since you can basically just turn them off and when you need to. We’ll go over Steel Soul, which will teach you how to manipulate the Stamina in your body better. After that, I’ll teach you Blunt Edge. That one will show you the basics on how to channel your Stamina into other things, namely your sword.”

“And what’s the third one?” I ask while my blood starts pumping even harder from excitement.

“Third one is called Biding Blade. That’s the Art that’s exclusive to Great Blades, and it’s an ‘active’ Art, too... meaning you’ll have to actually maintain focus to use it.”

“Shit.” I cringe at the thought of having to actively concentrate mid-battle. Not my strong suit still. “But I can only focus for like...”

“Sam.” Niki interrupts me and leans in to put her fist on my shoulder, comfortingly. “Forty seconds passes by in battle a lot slower than you’d think. You’ll get better, so just trust me. Alright?”

“...Alright.” Her words perk me up, and I smile up at her excitedly. “No more fucking around, let’s do this!”