Chapter 2: The Light's Dawn (2)
"Are you seriously tired already?! How are you going to join the academy if you can't even push this boulder!" Edward shouted while slapping the boulder, causing it to crack a bit.
"Since when did mages have to use their physical strength?!"
"Since forever!" Edward replied before kicking Ryan into the boulder, causing the boy and the boulder to comically roll down the mountain.
Edward could only sigh at the sight, he had been training the teen boy for 3 days so far and hadn't been making much progress.
[Guess I'll have to ramp up the training even more.]
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"*Pant* Please….no more," Ryan pleaded as he crawled on away from Edward.
"No more eh? Quit complaining, this is just basic conditioning," Edward said as he held a giant boulder over his head.
Turning back, only one thought went through Ryan's mind.
[Is he trying to kill me?!]
As Edward tossed the boulder, Ryan got all the confirmation he needed.
"Help!?!?" He shrieked as he tried to roll away before getting buried by the boulder.
"Great job catching the boulder, now lift it up and toss it back to me."
Ryan could only cry silently.
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"Come on, come on. 498, 499, 500! Great job kid, now give me 500 more!"
An exhausted Ryan could barely do 5 more pushups before finally collapsing.
"I can't!" He complained.
Edward just stared at the boy and smirked.
"That's fine, you can do 700 hundred extra tomorrow."
Ryan could only shed tears of sorrow.
[End me please.]
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A full week has passed since he had started his rigorous training with Edward. Even with his constant complaining, Ryan had managed to improve a lot. He was able to follow through with most of the training and had been complaining a lot less.
On this day, the two of them would have their first duel of many.
"There are 2 rules. We can't use magic to attack each other, and if you manage to land even a single hit on me, you win."
"I just have to hit you once? That's easy," Ryan arrogantly stated.
Edward just silently stood there, waiting for Ryan to make the first move.
[I'll end this in a second.] Ryan thought as he rushed forward throwing a right hook at Edward who swiftly turned to the side.
Not learning from his mistake, Ryan threw another right hook which was easily dodged again.
"You're too predictable Ryan."
Edward rushed towards Ryan, throwing a punch that caught him off guard. The punch struck him into a nearby tree, knocking all the air out of Ryan's lungs and ending the battle.
Ryan struggling to get back up just was lost in thought, he thought he had gotten a whole lot stronger, but the battle ended up not being in his favor at all.
"They don't teach you this at the academy, but one of the most important things a mage needs besides magic are good close-range fighting skills. The best kind of mages make use of both magic and close-range fighting skills to take out their enemies."
Close-range fighting skills, he had never thought of that before but it made sense to him. When he fought against the demon, it had completely overpowered him with just brute strength alone.
Seeing the bow ponder about what he had said caused Edward to smile. The boy has been improving at a fast rate and is motivated to improve even more. He had reminded Edward of his own determination when he was his age.
"Oh and one other thing I noticed a while ago but forgot to tell you, you don't need to chant every time you use a magic spell. As long as you know how to feel the mana around you, you won't have to use a chant."
Ryan just stared at him confused, "Wait really? I thought you had to."
"Only for non-elemental spells like summoning beasts, healing magic, or enhancement magic."
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2 weeks have passed since Ryan had started training and the progress has been exponential. Seeing A 15-year-old casually lift and toss boulders around after only 2 weeks of training was a little terrifying for Edward, but he got used to it.
Ryan still complained a whole bunch but he always ended up completing whatever task Edward had set for him to do.
1000 weighted pushups, done. 1000 weighted squats, easy. 20-kilometer run, a piece of cake.
But no matter how much Ryan tried, he could never get close to landing a hit on Edward. No matter what strategy he used, Edward had always managed to win.
Ryan laid on the ground, exhausted after losing in a duel against Edward once again. This was his 132nd loss.
"Dammit! Lost again," Ryan said disappointed.
"You're getting there. Maybe after another 100 losses, you'll manage to land a hit on me."
Laying still, Ryan began thinking of more tactics he could try.
[Maybe I should try using a weapon, flailing my fists and legs around hasn't done me any good.]
Why did it take him 132 losses to start thinking about this? No one could tell you.
Standing back up, Ryan decided to ask Edward a question.
"Next duel, let me use a weapon."
Edward looked at him surprised.
"Did it seriously take you 100-something losses to think of that? Hah, you're so dumb," Edward nonchalantly mocked.
"Oh shut up."
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Ryan had given up on dueling Edward today, deciding to mess around in the forest instead, looking for sticks and vines to create his "weapon."
After a long search, he had found the items he needed. A long stick, some vines, and some rocks.
He rubbed the rocks on bigger stones, sharpening them before tying them to each end of the stick, forging a makeshift spear.
[I did it! Now all I gotta do is learn how to use this.]
But there was a problem, he didn't know how to comfortably use a spear yet. After trying out a few different poses, he decided to just ask Edward the right way to hold a spear.
Edward had told him to mainly grip the center of the spear with his dominant hand, and to just "go with the flow." He had no idea what Edward meant but decided to just do that.
Standing in front of a tree, he took a deep breath.
[Go with the flow, just let your body move on its own.]
In a swift motion, he slashed down on the tree, slashing some of the bark off the tree. He continued practicing different slashes and pierces for hours until the tree collapsed.
He had figured out a few ways of handling it, like sliding the dominant hand down while using his non-dominant hand to increase the force of his piercing attack.
He continued slashing throughout the evening and night, by that time Edward had gone to sleep.
"Just a few more tries," He told himself.
As he prepared for another strike, he started feeling the air around him and his spear. Channeling that air unconsciously through the spear, he slashes cleanly through a tree using a magic-coated slash.
Staring at the sight, Ryan was surprised.
[You can coat weapons with magic? That's so cool!]
He continued slashing at trees, trying to fully understand the extent of slashes and stabs coated with magic.
Edward had already woken up due to all the noise, but he decided to just lay still and watch the boy.
[He's growing so fast, Arcane Academy's about to get another genius very soon.]
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