164 Disguised Devil (1/2)
Completely unaware of the soldier's worries, Greyson felt like there were wings on his feet that helped him move faster than usual. It had been so long since the last time he trained with Teacher Vivian in swordsmandship and he had never learned hand-to-hand combat before. Everything was going to feel brand new. The thought of getting stronger gave him infinitely more energy to get through the training.
”Your Grace, Duke of Winterbridge, I hope I have not kept you waiting long.” Saluting politely, Greyson caught his breath and greeted.
”No, you came even faster than I expected. I only just sent out a soldier to bring you a moment ago.” A tranquil smile graced the Duke's lips as he responded.
”I was too eager to begin, so I asked him to walk a little faster.” Technically, he was not completely lying when he said that.
”Well, I like your spirit. I hope you are ready for hard work. I always have high expectations of any recruits that I train. My expectations for you will be no lower; actually, they may even be higher.” His expression turning stern, Zaire did not sugarcoat.
Although he was told this, Greyson still had confidence to endure most anything, so he easily nodded his head in affirmation.
”Alright.” A nasty gleam glowed in Zaire's eyes under the surface. ”I know this is slightly personal, but do you think you could explain your abilities to me a bit more clearly? Every magician understands keeping some power under wraps, however, for me to teach efficiently, I need to have a better grasp of your strength.”
”There's no issue. Hm... I guess the most important thing you should know is that I am part dragon. Therefore, I may look more lean, but I am much sturdier physically than you would expect. I can also control 7 elements. Most of the spells I can use are mostly the popular basic spells that everyone in the country can learn at school.” As long as he did not go too specific, Greyson did not see any issues with informing the Duke about most things. Especially since it was not like he would be able to hide things for long. Also, the Duke was in charge of setting up the team strategies for the representatives, so if he did not understand enough then he would not pick a suitable role for Greyson. There were a couple things Greyson left out because he did not think it was too important like his space element and elf bloodline. One can only be used in his dragon form, while the other is sealed away currently and cannot be accessed.
”Part dragon and 7 elements, huh?” Zaire frowned for a moment before nodding to himself. He answered rather nonchalantly, but he was incomparably shocked on the inside.
”Okay, I understand. Put these on.” Turning around, he pointed towards a metal vest, a pair of arm guards, and a pair of leg guards. Greyson quickly followed orders and picked up the vest first but was shocked to see that there was a lot more resistance than he expected. Frowning, he exerted more strength to pick it up and slide it on over his head. Suddenly, he felt around significantly heavier than before. When he glanced over at the arm and leg guards, his stomach dropped as he had a sinking feeling they would be the same. As he expected, once he strapped them on, he felt like his weight doubled.
”Cinogen?” He questioned. Cinogen was a rare extremely dense metal resource that occasionally can be found in underwater mines. Usually, humans buy this material from the Sea Beastmen. They were a hard-to-find bunch since aquatic magic beasts loath coming onto land, so they almost never mate with humans. But only the scarce Sea Beastmen will interact with the land races for things like trade.
”Oh, I'm surprised you know. Yes, these pieces are made from Cinogen and are extremely dense despite their size. I was going to give you the child sized ones, but it seems these will fit your strength better. Now, I want you to go run up the mountain behind me with those weights on. You can use mana, I would actually encourage it. With your new weight, it would be good training at adjusting the finer control of mana flow. I will continue our training at the top. I will be waiting for you there!” Leaving these parting words, the wind picked up around the Duke before he disappeared from his original spot.
This training ground was already near the outside of the city. Once one leaves from the nearest gate, it leads to the mountainous region. The Duke pointed to the closest mountain instead of the tallest, so Greyson was slightly relieved. Using his wind element, he took a large leap to start. However, his body did not get far and dropped down quickly. Embarrassed, he was glad that nobody was around at this time. He understood that he needed a larger output of wind magic to carry his body. The second step he overcompensated and ended up jumping high up into the air. Realizing this was the control that the Duke mentioned, Greyson focused in more on the mana. This time, he started travelling normally. The guards were warned beforehand, so they did not try to stop him as he passed through the gate quickly.
”Looks like the Duke is torturing a new target...”
”Ah, the Cinogen weights, right? I thought I recognized the gear.”
The guards chatted after Greyson blew by.
...
At first, the only problem was that Greyson was heavier and that threw off his control. After a little while, he adapted the new weight and could smoothly use his wind element to speed up his process up the mountain. However, halfway through, he noticed the sweat already dripping from him and soaking through his clothes while his breathing grew heavier. His stamina and mana were draining at much faster paces than before. Each step was heavy and strained his physical endurance, while keeping this speed at the new weight required more mana. A low growl broke out from him as white scales grew out from under his skin. Activating his dragon bloodline renewed his vigor, and his body felt light again. Letting out a sigh of relief, his body increased in speed once again. With this boost, Greyson made it to the top of the mountain rather quickly. There he met up with the Duke once again.
Unable to say a word in greeting, Greyson collapsed onto the ground catching his breath. Lying on the ground brought great relief since it felt like his legs were starting to shake.
”Get up. We will start sword training right away.” The Duke's apathetic voice commanded. ”Take this!” He tossed a beaten up sword towards Greyson. Not able to get up in time, Greyson was going to catch it on the ground. The sword landed in his hands, but dropped down and slammed into his chest. Coughing in pain, Greyson cursed under his breath. This sword was also Cinogen! It seemed even denser than the armor, too.
”Did you not hear me say to get up?”
Hearing the chill in his mentor's tone, Greyson took a deep breath before pulling himself off the ground.
”Show me the basics that you learned.” He ordered.
Greyson lifted up the sword with a bit of effort before getting into the basic ready stance taught across the Snow Country. Each country's swordsmanship could vary depending on the shape and styling of their common weapon. Slowly, he went through slashing at the eight basic angles[1] along with the correct footwork. He also included a straightforward thrust. Each move made his arms shake and his body shake from imbalance due to the weight of the sword. Since the Duke did nothing but frown while watching him, Greyson grit his teeth and continued through the motions so that he could do them perfectly. Eventually, his muscles started adapting to the new dense sword and he no longer looked like he would fall over from swinging.
”That's good enough.” Zaire finally spoke again after what felt like hours. As if he had been lifted from a spell, Greyson immediately let the tip of the sword drop mid-swing and stab into the ground. His arms hung limply as he kept his grasp on the hilt. Catching his breath at this moment, he looked up at the Duke to await further instruction. Although he wished this was the end of training, he knew that would be too naive. It seemed that the quiet and reserved Duke pushed his students and trainees much harder than Greyson's previous teachers.