Chapter 33: The Waiting Game
33 0 1
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

Suddenly, Reika's eyes widened and paused for a moment.

Out of all the weapons that exist on this continent, why a spear? I really thought she'd teach me how to wield a sword or something...

"Is there a reason why you chose to learn that instead of a sword?"

Hearing such a sensible question made Veylir sigh.

"I have no other choice. It is a strict protocol for us, the dragons, that we should learn some weapon arts as a display of our excellence. At that time, only the two of us entered that training, plus our instructor was kind of a slacker, so it's a haven for me."

"Yeah, it must be a haven for you, since you're lazy as hell."

"Hmph. Why would I even want to delve into the path of weapons anyway if I could just burn them all to smithereens?"

"That makes sense, since you're just a simpleton who does nothing but burn and generate some random-ass air as an offense..."

"Hey! How dare you mock my abilities! If I were in my peak state now, I'd—"

"Alright, alright~ Our topic's getting off-course."

"Hmph!" Veylir exclaimed and looked away.

"...But still, the fact that I am severely lacking in combat experience means that I should learn weapon art. It might be useless to you, but I need it if I want to protect those I treasure the most..."

Veylir took a glance at her.

Humans... They'd try desperate measures just to realize their ambitions...

Hmm... Her persuasiveness just now kind of reminds me of "that" human. But unlike her, Reika is bearable and easy to talk to...

"Alright. After your dinner, we'll start our training. Sounds good?"

Knowing that she'd finally learned how to wield a weapon, Reika's eyes are filled with excitement. She smiled widely.

"Thanks, Veylir!"

Veylir stared at her and looked away once again.

"...Just think of it as repayment for your help back then."

And just like that, the evening came like a fleeting wind. All those who worked on the construction task and the participants in the sword training gathered together for a dinner.

After they ate their fill, they went to their respective houses to take a rest. But Reika and Veylir remained outside and went to a secluded area, several meters away from the settlement.

"A-Anyways, since it's just the beginning of our training, shouldn't we use sticks instead of an actual weapon?" Reika asked Veylir.

"N-No. You should... familiarize yourself with the structure... of the weapon first... before we begin the training... Ghk!"

"But it seems like you're struggling to get it out from your... What did you call it, spatial storage?"

"It's because this ability is beyond my current capabilities to access! Now... if you would just shut up and... let me concentrate—"

Suddenly, a white mask popped out of the small spatial rift that Veylir opened earlier.

"See? Now I pulled out the wrong object because of your incessant chatter!"

"I told you before, you shouldn't force yourself if it's hard..."

"Would you just shut up and let me do it?"

Knowing that no one could stop Veylir from doing it, Reika gave up persuading her and sighed.

Veylir took a deep breath and tried to use the ability once more.

<Spatial Storage!>

A weak vibration disturbed the space in front of her, and a tiny spatial rift opened. The size of the rift was similar to a one-yen coin.

Reika noticed the white mask and picked it up. She was surprised that the mask contained no holes for the eyes to see or the nose to breathe through.

"What's the deal with this weird-looking mask?"

"Uh, Master Reika? I think you should help me with this..."

Reika noticed that Veylir was struggling to maintain the spatial rift. She saw the other end of the rift emerging from it.

"Help me pull the spear out of this damned spatial storage!"

Without hesitation, Reika immediately grabbed the shaft and tugged it with all her strength.

"Nggghhh...!"

Both of them noticed the shaft getting pulled out slowly.

"That's it. Keep going!"

Finally, Reika managed to pull the spear. She fell to the ground while holding the spear.

"Ow!"

"Hahh... Finally!" Veylir exclaimed.

Reika stood up with the spear in her hand. She held on to the other end, inspecting the weapon thoroughly.

"Hmmm... Why is it that this spear is exactly as tall as mine?"

"That's because I am young when I wield it, obviously..."

Veylir looked at her from head to toe.

"...It's not the spear's fault that your height was barely qualified as a teen. In fact, you look like a borderline midget—"

"Do you want me to choke you to death?!" Reika exclaimed while clenching her fist.

Hearing her threat, Veylir immediately backed off and held her neck.

"C-Come on, I was just joking!"

"Humph! Consider yourself lucky..."

"Okay, enough chitchat."

Veylir flew towards her with a serious look on her face. Knowing that the training was about to start, she fixed herself and listened at the instructions.

"Since you've familiarized yourself with the weapon already, let's begin with the fundamentals, which are the basic positions of Spear Arts."

Reika looked at the spear she's holding with her hands.

"Uhh... Shouldn't we use a long training stick first before using this?"

Veylir sighed upon hearing her question.

"Hahh? Do you think I used meager methods such as training sticks while training? As a dragon, we use real weapons right away!"

"And how could you compare me to the likes of you? We're not even from the race!"

"Nggghhh... That's why you humans are a bunch of wussies! You're afraid that the weapon you're holding might hurt you!"

"...But that's an expected outcome, since you're still an amateur—"

"And that's why you're mistaken!"

Veylir flew closer to her.

"Weapons must be treated like a wild animal, an untamed beast that should be subdued by the likes of you, a practitioner. You're unifying yourself with the weapon you're wielding, not on some random things such as training sticks..."

Hearing such advice from Veylir, Reika fell silent in front of her.

"You are here to train Spear Arts, not a Stick Arts of some sort!"

Suddenly, Reika finally realized what Veylir was trying to convey. She gripped the spear tightly with her hands.

Oneness with your weapon means experiencing pain before the pleasure of succession...

"Your weapon is your companion, a sworn blood... sister, or something."

At least that's what our instructor said to us...

"Alright, alright~ I get it now..."

Veylir squinted her eyes while looking at her.

"Hmph! You should be. Repeating myself further is a tiresome thing to do..."

"Now, follow my actions and do it with a proper posture..."

Veylir began to teach her the fundamentals of spear arts. It was clear that Reika was struggling to catch up due to the spear's length, which made her struggle to move freely, in addition to its weight.

It's heavy! I need to do something with it!

Suddenly, an idea came to her mind. She thought that in order to compensate for the weight of the spear, she must use her ability to mitigate the problem.

<Light Wind>

The ability immediately took effect, reducing the spear's weight. Thanks to it, she was able to move freely compared to the previous attempt.

Veylir noticed it right away, but she ignored it and proceeded without a pause.

Compensating your shortcomings... Master Reika sure is creative...

The two of them continued for hours until midnight, taking short breaks every hour.

...

A month has passed since Reika started her training under Veylir's guidance. Including Soru, who is being trained with Aeden after dinnertime as well. 

Those who've trained swords with the dwarves also showed significant results, with all of them reaching the intermediate level. That level is considered satisfactory in terms of skill, with minor improvements to reach complete mastery.

In addition to their extensive preparations, the first layer of the barricade has long been finished by the combined effort of the settlers, with the second layer, which was further outside the first one, nearing its completion.

Meanwhile, those who've helped with the construction took a short break and sat under the shade of a tree. They were discussing about their progress.

"To think that we'd almost completed erecting those barricades; time surely flies!" one of them muttered proudly.

"It's been a month since we started the construction, and I was glad that it was smooth sailing without complications."

"Now that I think about it, a month has already passed, yet there are no signs of movement regarding the upcoming monster wave," one of them murmured.

"Aiya! It's a good thing they didn't make any movements!"

"He's right! Because of that, we manage to erect these barricades almost completely. Although it isn't finished yet, it could probably withstand the wave. If the monsters would appear suddenly, I bet they couldn't—"

"Shush! Do you want to jinx it!?"

The man immediately covered his mouth.

"...Sorry."

All of them sighed at the same time.

"Hahh... to think that we'd wait instead of running away. And the alarming thing is that we have nowhere else to run!"

One of his companions tapped his shoulder, providing comfort and easing his worries.

"Don't fret about it. We're in this together, no matter how dire the situation entails."

"Yeah, you're right..."

"With our current situation, the best course we should take is to play the waiting game..."

 Their conversation was interrupted upon seeing one of them running in their direction. The man stopped while panting in front of them.

"Calm down, what's the rush?" one of them asked the exhausted man. 

"Guys, have you seen Miss Reika?"

Both of them looked at each other.

"Uh, no. In fact, we haven't seen her today. We only erected those logs that she and her familiar prepared in advance yesterday—"

"So the rumors are true, then!"

All of them were confused upon hearing his words.

"What do you mean, rumors?" one of them asked him.

The man took a deep breath before saying a word.

"One of those sword practitioners leaked that Miss Reika and her friend, Mister Soru, will have a bout on the training grounds, and it will be held today!"

Suddenly, all of their jaws dropped in surprise.

"EHHHHHHHHHH?!"

Without hesitation, all of them immediately ran towards the said place. But before they could proceed, they were stopped by Alguis.

"Oi, what's the rush?"

"Sir Alguis! The thing is..."

They told Alguis about the rumors of Soru and Reika's sudden bout. After hearing the news, Alguis's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Huh?"

Why didn't I have any idea of this?

"We are surprised as well, Sir Alguis! That's why we're eager to witness their match!"

Alguis touched his beard for a moment. Now that he knew the reason why Reika was absent this morning, he decided to followed them.

Upon their arrival, they were welcomed by multiple people in the area. They were regulated by those practitioners.

Alguis looked around and saw Aeden and Völun standing beside Veylir. He immediately went in their direction to ask what was going on. The dwarves quickly noticed his arrival and greeted him.

"Hey, why come I didn't know of this?"

Alguis noticed that Aeden was also confused by the situation.

"Same as well, Sir Alguis. We were just training earlier, and we're surprised when Miss Reika suddenly asked us to let them borrow the training grounds..."

"Maybe Mister—ahem! Miss Veylir knew something about this." Völun gulped while telling Alguis.

Alguis noticed that Veylir was glaring at Völun. Alguis cleared his throat, which made the dragon notice what she was doing. Veylir sighed as a response.

"Y-Yesterday evening, they coincidentally met each other at the front door. She already knew what he was doing during evenings, spending his time to train Phantom... Combat or something. Out of nowhere, perhaps her curiosity about his progress and her growth over the past few weeks surfaced, so she asked him to have a match with her."

"And Mister Soru... agreed?" Aeden asked her.

"Exactly."

"Hm. I knew that Sir Soru's training with Aeden, but to think that Miss Reika's doing it secretly as well..." Alguis murmured as he scratches his beard.

"And surprisingly, Mister Soru agreed..." Aeden added.

"Hah! I'm the one who trained that lass. Now that she wants to see the fruits of her labor, she decided to test it!" Veylir exclaimed.

"Well..."

"And since I will be the mediator of this bout, I shall go ahead. Now, if you would step aside~"

Veylir immediately flew towards the center, where Reika and Soru were standing meters apart from each other.

"As agreed earlier, the display of armament techniques should be highlighted in this bout. Usage of ability is allowed, but large-scale attacks are forbidden to avoid hurting the audiences."

The crowd gasped upon witnessing Reika extend her hand to open a spatial rift. The spear emerged from that rift and grabbed its handle with confidence.

"Ooooooh~! So cool!"

"You have fifteen minutes to display your skills. The match will end via complete incapacitation or forfeiture."

The two of them took a stance, observing each other's movements. Reika's eyes were fixated on his entire body without blinking twice.

"The match... starts now!"

Upon Veylir's announcement, Reika noticed that Soru raised his leg without thinking twice. Just to their surprise, he suddenly vanished.

"Wha—"

Reike immediately felt a swift breeze passing in her shoulder. She turned around with haste, only to find Soru standing behind her.

He didn't use his ability to teleport behind me...

Soru quickly threw a punch at her, but she managed to block his attack on time using her spear.

...he simply moved too fast for my eyes to see!

In order to avoid him, Reika swung her spear and retreated to maintain a distance. After landing, she looked at her hand and realized that his attack had no significant effect on her.

I thought his punch would make my wrist shiver. I guess his technique mainly focuses on speed rather than power...

Both of them charged at the same time and began to exchange blows. The crowd was amazed by their outstanding performance. The dwarves in particular were shocked at how evenly they fought.

To think that their speeds are evenly matched... Miss Reika has trained diligently over the past few weeks! Aeden thought to herself.

Five minutes had already passed, but none of them could gain an upper hand. Seeing that their combat speeds were equal, there would be no changes if Reika didn't do anything to change the tide. To outpace him, she finally decides to use an ability.

<Light Wind!>

A green aura quickly shrouded her body, making her movements nimble.

"Hyaaah!"

The crowd cheered for her after witnessing how Reika quickly changed the course of their bout. Despite being equally matched in speed earlier, she made Soru turn into a defensive position by helplessly deflecting her techniques.

Unable to gain an upper hand from her, Soru hopped away several times to avoid Reika's barrage if attacks.

I shall use "it" to end this quickly...

When Soru landed on the ground for the third time, Reika saw it as a perfect opportunity and quickly charged towards him.

With this, I will break his momentum!

Just when she was about to hit him, she realized that something was wrong with his action.

Wait! Don't tell me...?!

Reika quickly lessened the force of her swing, making the attack's firepower weaken upon contact. Although it reached on Soru, he was unfazed by the blow he received from her.

"Gahhhk!!"

Reika felt a blow from both of her legs, which made her lose her balance. Luckily, she managed to stand up quickly in order not to lose her sight on him.

"Guhhh!!"

Soru simply watched her get bewildered by his attack. His never-changing expression made Reika lose her composure for a brief moment. In order to regain her focus, Reika closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Hwuuuuhh..." 

<Chains of Imprisonment!>

In a second, several purple chains emerged from the ground and quickly surrounded Soru's body, immobilizing his movements.

"Hey! Mister Soru's movements are now restricted!" One of the spectators shouted.

"Now that he can't move, Miss Reika's victory was set in stone!"

Seeing the opportunity presented in front of her, Reika immediately swung her spear in his direction. But to her surprise, Soru vanished into thin air once again. Adding to her confusion, Reika didn't feel any slight disturbance in the air this time.

He managed to escape from my imprisonment that easily?!

1