Villainess and Grimoire - Chapter 117 – Training arc

Year 5009 after the system day 4 of the flowering season at Tonne village inside Ray house next to the dojo, a day after they arrived from the annual tournament.

Sitting at a table with Iris, Ray speaks in a cold and serious tone,” I’m proud of you, didn’t expect a fourth place on the first try, though it feels like you haven’t been completely honest with me, since the amount of mana you used during the entire tournament was abnormally high, and during our training sessions it would end a lot earlier, so have you been lying to me?”

With a nervous expression I reply,” I haven’t lied to you, my maximum mana is the one I showed, but I suppose there’s a way for it to recover faster which I got to learn about it during the tournament, swear that’s the truth.”

“A way? As far as I know, there are only four ways, rest, meditate, mana potions, and mana recovery passive skill, which way was it? Did you cheat the tournament with mana potions? Even if you did I don’t really care, but if your mana is greater than what you’re supposed to have then instead of 3 years perhaps more, it could shorten by a lot.”

“It is the fifth way, but sadly it’s the only thing I’m not allowed to talk about, since it’s something that belongs to my sister Aurora.”

“An item that helps with mana recovery… yes, that’s truly something worth being a secret, but does it mean that you can use it during our training, so you get to learn faster?”

“Sadly I can only use it when sister around me…”

“Oh… A rare skill, no, a unique skill shared by twins, meaning she’s able to help you recover mana, or perhaps she simply injected some of it before every round… Then at the end both of you were mana exhausted, so you didn’t have enough to beat Isabella, daughter,” I smile kindly at him making him nod in agreement,’ I would love to tell you about whatever the other side of the mirror is, but I promised Aurora I wouldn’t tell anyone about it, please forgive me, Ray, in exchange I’ll do my best to master everything you teach me no matter how long it takes.’

“In that case, nevermind what I said earlier, let’s resume our training, so far I’ve been making you learn death dance which you executed nicely, but that was just the first step which involves rotating your body striking the enemy from his blind spot, that technique only works if you can pin the weapon with one of the hands before you execute the skill.”

“Yes, it was thanks to Raphael’s weapon being a long spear that I was allowed to try it, and even then he had time to dodge a fatal blow which he ended up healing.”

“Correct, however, with just that step in your case it won’t be enough as you have an element different than mine, when I use death dance, my sword injects thunder into the enemy weapon which is then conducted to the opponent’s hand, eventually paralyzing them momentarily, allowing me to deliver a death blow, but it depends on the quantity since it can have different effects.”

“Teacher element sounds amazing for a swordsman, every time you hit someone with a sword you can do that!” I said with a happy expression as I’m enjoying reviewing the fights.

“Exactly! Even though it took me a while to figure it out when I was younger, and of course, it was not necessarily a good thing, as by some reason it also conducted to my body, eventually I maxed the resistance to it, something you should do too with yours, but in the future, for now, I want you to understand the basic concepts, since you’re done eating let’s go to the dojo, nothing like talking and demonstrating, especially for a dumb kid like you that learns faster that way.”

“Hey! I’m not dumb, I’ve been doing my best learning all your theories, they’re just hard concepts, or the teacher is just bad at explaining them,” I avert my eyes from his and then runs at me, in order to, smack me as I bad mouthed him which I run for my life all the way to the dojo.

Moments later we arrive inside it, and then he stops chasing me, giving me one of the hundred wooden swords he bought, which I take with a smile.

“Pesky student.”

“Perverted teacher.”

“Blondie.”

“Oldie.”

As we stop trading insults our training swords start clashing,” aim for my right waist,” as I hear the teacher words my sword thrust in that direction, and then he death dances rotating his body aiming for my hip as I did to Raphael which I jump to the left side and block it.

“That’s horrible, was that the best counterattack you could think of blondie? You truly need to improve your fighting sense.”

‘It was a lot easier when I had the voices of the other witches telling me what to do… hum?’

“Hey teacher what if we reverse it and you show me how it’s supposed to be done, I’ll learn faster that way!”

Ray light blows at a speed I can’t dodge taking the hit on my right leg causing me pain,” fool! If you don’t develop a fighting sense and how to predict your opponents, then in real combat you’ll be killed mercilessly, you must think with the little time you have left with your survival on the line as I keep telling you to do, you talentless brat!”

I grit my teeth knowing his right and take a normal stance spreading my legs a bit further from each other, while hitting his training sword which results in it being hit back, as we trade a few blows I start sensing a weak spot where he told me to hit earlier, and instinctively I allow my body to thrust, giving space for him to death dance at me, which I realize that he shows me the back of the body as he turns to deliver a hidden blow that goes in front of his waist,’ what if I…’ I try to kick him but end up slipping as I didn’t retract my sword losing balance, tripping to the floor ending up sitting on the butt sitting, and see the slash pass above my head cleanly.

“Why are you on the floor, you stupid student!?” He shouts angrily while noticing my focused expression to what I reply,” I think I figured something, but then when I tried to kick your exposed back, I lost my balance, and also slipped…”

“Seems like your starting to use that bean brain of yours,” he hits my head lightly with the training sword,” up, again.”

He takes two steps back while I stand up and then we resume the blow exchange,” ideally is to fight without saying skill names, just allow your body to feel as you use them, you can even cancel their motion, for example, thrust in the same spot,” as I hear the words I allow my sword to go deep missing while focusing on Ray body to what I see a one-fourth turn and then a reversed attack comes out of it with a sword attack from the left side which I block in front of me,” like this you fake a death dance, which works if you use it a couple of times making your opponent react to it, and then you surprise him, the most important thing about swordsmanship and it applies to any other weapon, is to allow your body and sword to be free of this system, and in exchange, you’ll get an infinite amount of skills whose names you won’t need to memorize since your body will naturally know their every move.”

“Thank you for the lesson,” I then let out a smile filled with excitement while extremely grateful for the knowledge from his words.

I stance myself once more and shout,” one more!” Pulling out a smile from Ray who resumes the striking.

‘This body better last long enough to fully teach this kid, one with a will that doesn’t break no matter how powerless and weak-minded I try to make her be with plenty of insults, certainly will persevere long enough to catch up to me one day, especially since her natural talent is for magic, with the creativity and imagination she’s showed me before if used the same way for swordsmanship and later merging both… I want to see it!’

Once more I thrust into the weak spot slightly grazing Ray clothes, as this time I noticed it earlier and my body allowed me to react faster to it, and then the death dance started, this time I pull my arm backward matching his first step, and then turn my body slightly to the right and attempt a kick at the butt, feeling like I just hit a wall of stone, but still allowing me to break his balance, following it with a strike to the head to repay for the time I was hit, which Ray ducks without looking behind, and then turns to me, and fast strikes my head like using a mere wooden stick, with the most casual expression he starts laughing at me.

‘Despite how much I want to see it, it’ll still take a long while.’

“That… that’s not fair how did you dodge without looking at it?”

“It’s called sense, something that is developed through high intelligence status, it allows you to feel the things around you approaching, especially killing intent which is the most agressive of them all.”

“Is it something everyone can learn?” I question curiously as it would be something super amazing to have.

“Can be, but doesn’t mean everyone will get it, requires a keen sense that is only acquired through a lot of fights to the death, at least, that’s how it worked for me.”

“Sense…” I mutter about it curiously.

“I suppose it’s like a 6th sense in a way, an abnormal one that feels the enemy intention, not too different from the skill killing intent detector. ”

“What else can you sense with it teacher?”

“My beloved swords, I can sense them from far away, possibly due to spending my entire life with them, even sleeping with them.”

‘Just how obsessed with swords is he!?’

“Anyways enough chattering, let’s resume the practise.”

We strike our wooden swords against each other and spend the rest of the day practising.