Chapter 38: Training Time
(Your POV)
Some time after the meeting, I was back at the Gremory estate along with everyone else. I had on a black t-shirt, gym pants, and no shoes. I watched that show Koneko recommended on our way back from the meeting, and a blind girl was able to sense things around her through the ground and her feet, so I'm trying to do the same thing. I had Mule behind me, carrying most of my weaponment, except for my Gae Bulg and clown mask, the latter of which hung at my side. Everyone else was wearing their uniforms for whatever reason, and Issei was here, so yay.
"Alright guys, I've got everyone's personalized training regimine." Azazel held a piece of paper, most likely a list. "First off, Rias, your natural talent, blood, and magic aptitude leads me to believe you'll become an exceptional devil in the future, but something tells me you want to get stronger now."
"Correct, I don't want to keep relying on (Y/N)'s strength." Rias sounded determined as Azazel handed her a piece of paper. "Huh, don't you think this is a little too much?"
"To be honest, that's only a fraction of the training (Y/N) usually goes through." Azazel commented, and I wondered what was on the list, so I looked at it, and all of it involved focusing on becoming a better tactician. "Normal training is more than enough to boost your magic power thanks to your stats, but the problem is your ability to lead. A king's job is to draw out the full potential of their pieces and utilize their abilities the best they could to get past any obstacle."
"Yes sir." Rias examined the list and looked annoyed just looking at it, and Azazel moved onto the next person, Akeno.
"Akeno, you need to accept the blood flowing through your veins." Azazel pointed out as he handed her a piece of paper, and Akeno looked distressed. "I saw a tape of your battle against the Phenex family. If you had used your affinity with holy magic and combined it with your lightning, you could have one shot the enemy queen."
"I don't want to rely on that disgusting power." Akeno actually looked livid, so I awkwardly placed my head on her shoulder, catching her off guard, but certainly improving her mood.
"Don't deny your heritage, if you do, you'll only end up becoming a hindrance in the upcoming battle." Azazel didn't look up from his lists as he said this. "You really think you can win without giving it your all?"
"I'll be right by your side the whole way." I offered my help to Akeno, getting a smile from her in return.
"Next up, Kiba and Xenovia." Azazel moved onto the two swordsmen. "Kiba, you'll be focusing on your stamina so you can use your balance breaker for longer. Say, you'll be working with a professional sword instructor right?"
"Correct, I will be starting from step one." Kiba sounded ready for this, and given how he accepted his past, he must have been, and I'm super proud of him in that sense.
"Good, as for you Xenovia." Azazel handed Kiba a paper before moving onto the blue haired girl. "You're gonna have to learn to better control Durandal, since you seem to have a habit of destroying the surrounding areas. Once you master Durandal, we'll move onto another holy sword."
"Another holy sword?" Xenovia asked, and I imagined it was something like Freed's sword that he used before I killed him.
"Gasper, your only real weakness is that you're scared of everything." Azazel was blunt, and Gasper was now inside a box he got from somewhere. "Other than that, your sacred gear and lineage puts you at a great advantage. Once we make you brave enough to fight an enemy head on, you could become quite dangerous."
"I'll do my best!" Gasper shouted from within his box, and I felt as though Gasper contradicted himself.
"Next up is Asia, you need to work on your healing abilities." Azazel moved onto the second blonde bishop, who looked nervous. "Your healing abilities are top notch, but they leave both you and the person you're healing vulnerable to attack. I have a theory that we could expand the effects of Asia's twilight healing to heal more targets at once and increase the range of healing."
"A wide ranged support would be beneficial to us, and if your theory is true, then Asia would be invaluable." Rias began thinking of the possibility.
"However there's one problem." Azazel held up a single finger. "This AOE twilight healing could end up healing enemies as well, and combined with Asia's overly kind personality could be a bad thing. So I decided that instead of AOE, that Asia should focus more on pinpointing a singular target to heal them from a distance. It'll be weaker, but it should be useful and allows Rias to use more complex strategies."
"I see, if Asia learns ranged healing, then she is able to stay in the backlines with Gasper while allowing pieces more suited for the front lines like (Y/N) to stay in the front." Rias theorized, and I think I should start taking notes from her if I'm going to be going up against the Khaos Brigade.
"Next up is Koneko..." Azazel looked over his notes for Koneko. "In terms of offense and defense, there's not much to complain about, but almost everyone in this peerage exceeds your ability when it comes to offense. So you're in the same boat as Akeno, you need to accept your blood, or you'll just become a hindrance. Last is (Y/N) and Issei..."
"Awaiting orders."
"Issei is the farthest behind out of everyone here, and I'm honestly scared shitless of (Y/N), so I called up some people to train both of you." Azazel pointed out, and a massive figure could be seen flying towards us as high speeds, and I was about to use Gae Bulg to strike it down, but Azazel stopped me. "Issei, you will be trained under Tannin here."
"A DRAGON?!" Issei shouted in shock, and I was surprised too, I have never seen a dragon before.
"Remember Fallen Angel, I am here because Sirzechs ordered me to be here." Tannin sounded like myself, being fiercely loyal, I watched as Tannin leaned his head downwards to look face to face with Issei. "It has been too long Ddraig."
"I never understood dragons." A familiar elderly woman wearing a cloak walked towards me holding a crimson spear while Issei's sacred gear appeared on his arm. "Miss me Kid?"
"It's nice to see you again Scathach." I greeted the elderly woman, who smiled in response to seeing me. "Everyone, this is Scathach, she offered to train me while I was in Ireland."
"So these are your friends...they certainly are an odd bunch." Scathach pointed out the obvious while Tannin stood to his full height. "Who's the poor bastard getting trained by the dragon? I hope it's not the wimpy kid with the glove."
"That's the current Red Dragon Emperor..." I pointed out, and Scathach began laughing like I just told her the best joke in the world.
"Man that kid is dead!" Scathach stated, and now my worry for Issei's well being is getting the better of me. "Dragons don't really have a proper way of training, instead, they just try to kill each other."
"WHAT?!" Issei shouted while Tannin grabbed Issei by his shirt collar. "I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS!"
"Try not to die Issei!" Azazel shouted as Tannin flew off to the nearby mountains, and Rias didn't even try to hide the fact she despised him.
"Great, now it will be peaceful here." Rias seemed to be in an even better mood than she was with Issei here. "Now I get to spend time with (Y/N) without Issei peeping~"
"Nah, (Y/N)'s training with me, sorry Red." Scathach grabbed me by the collar and began dragging me away from the Gremory estate. "Keep in mind it won't be fun."
(Timeskip, brought to you by Scathach and (Y/N) clashing Spears)
So this was my life now.
I was standing on hot coals while flames erupted beneath my feet, engulfing my entire lower body with flames. As if that wasn't enough, I was also supporting several full sized logs with ropes on either end that were connected to boulders. I was supporting all of this weight on my back plus my Create the Depths all around me. My hands were in a prayer form, holding a rosary while reciting the prayers each bead of the rosary represented. To be honest, I wanted to work on poisons and machinery, but this will have to do. We were also quite a ways from the Gremory Estate, being in a kind of plateau area with boulders around us.
"So why am I doing this?" I wasn't entirely opposed to this training regimine, since I've been doing it for a couple hours. "It doesn't really feel like I'm training, I'm just doing squats."
"As a Devil, your only real weakness is holy damage, so by reciting the rosary, I'm making you immune to holy damage thanks to your Adaptive Immunity." Scathach didn't seem too bothered about the increase in pressure caused by my Create the Depths spell. "I'm also having you increase your proficiency with magic. Speaking of magic, you seem to be trying to copy Akeno's fighting style, well mimicry ain't gonna work pal. Also, you've got a lot to work on."
"I understand that now, and I would love to find a style of magic that works with me." I explained before Scathach let me get out of the fire pit, take off the rosary, and remove the logs. "Why are you having me remove the logs?"
"I want you to work on your elemancy now." Scathach pushed me off the coals and onto the ground. "So far, you've been able to combine elements with bullets, so it's most likely that you use conduit based magic, where you need to put your magic energy into something. Now I wonder what will happen if you put your magic energy into yourself."
I decided to try taking this advice and began focusing my magic energy into myself, like I normally do with my bullets. I always imagined my magic power as a lake in the middle of the forest, and evaporating that water whenever I used a spell. Yet for some reason, rain always seemed to fill the lake back up. Though my natural magic is more of the alteration type, so it's natural my magic will be a bit different from Rias'. I focused my earth magic into my skin to grant them durability, my water magic into my bones to grant flexibility, wind in my feet to grant me speed, and life in my heart to grant me vitality. Focusing my magic for me was easy, I just imagined each of those parts as containers, and moved water from the lake into these containers. How can I tell which magic is which? Well my lake is full of many different kinds of water mixed together. Earth magic is the mud, wind magic is the morning dew on the cattails, water was the lake water, and life was the water growing the plants. Rias suggested I imaged my magic as such, so I decided to paint a pretty picture using my magic. I opened my eyes and looked at Scathach, who was watching me intently.
I decided to try out my magically enhanced body by standing up and tapping my bare foot on the ground. Like a sonar, the vibrations I would normally ignore became a new set of eyes. The vibrations allowed me to detect everything around me, so long as it was connected to the ground of course. I could probably use this kind of ability with the air, but it's too wild and playful for me to control. I stomped my foot onto the ground with the intention of using ice magic and created a small skating rink around me. Scathach noticed this and smiled before using her Gae Bulg to pole vault away from the ice.
"Good job kid, you enhanced your body with magic." Scathach pointed out, and considering this was my progress after a while, I was glad. "Now we have to focus more on your other qualities."
"Other qualities?" I asked to conform, and Scathach nodded and guided me to a folding table with a variety of items on it, to an electric guitar, fiddle, bow, saw, chalk, and more. "What's all of this for?"
"When you fought Vali, you brought an interesting concept to the supernatural world, namely combining human talents with supernatural power." Scathach pointed out. "Devils, Angels, Fallen Angels, and everyone else always considered sciences and magic to be opposites, yet you combined the two to create great effects. In fact, you just did it right now."
"I don't think doing stuff like this is that impressive, and I'm just copying the technique I saw on a show, since it's earth related and I can use earth magic." I explained before Scathach suddenly tossed a ball of sand in my eyes, blinding me and making my eyes sting. "If you wanted me to close my eyes, you could have just said so."
"Where's the fun in that?" Scathach answered as she skated across the ice, and I realized that this was going to be a spar. "Remember kid, try not to get stabbed by my spear, it's quite unbearable."
I stomped my foot on the ice to shatter it and allow myself to use this new earth ability of mine to sense where Scathach was. The vibrations with every step allowed me to find out where she was, charging at me with her spear. Scathach jumped into the air with her spear raised to avoid my sensory ability, so I responded by focusing my lightning and wind magic into my finger tips. In a claw-like motion, and I slashed the area around me, with the intent on creating a small radius of lightning slash marks around me. I couldn't see right now, but I side stepped to avoid Scathach's spear blade, only for her to kick me in the face. Despite the fact I tried planting my feet into the ground, I was sent into a nearby boulder. I finally got sand out of my eyes and looked around, noticing the table beside me.
"You still have that cauldron of plenty with you?" Scathach asked, and I pointed at Mule, which was carrying it on it's back. "Good, I was hoping you could learn some support abilities, since relying on Asia to do most of the healing would be unwise."
"What does the cauldron of plenty have to do with healing?" I looked at the cauldron, which never ran out of food, but didn't have any healing abilities.
"One of the talents your learning is the Ultimate Cook, so combine magic with your dishes, and you'll be able to heal or buff people who eat your dishes." Scathach explained, and I wondered how she knew this. "I'd recommend stuff that can be eaten quickly, like jerky, chips, or those small carrots."
"Thank you." I got out of the boulder and walked to the table, but Scathach threw her spear at me before making it reappear in her hands. "What are you doing?"
"Oh yeah, I'm gonna have you learn all of your underclassmen' talents while being shot at with my Gae Bulg." Scathach explained before throwing another spear at me, which I dodged. "So yeah...have fun learning how to make poisons, machines, meals, songs, tactics, shit out of wood, learning to tell people's fortunes, and other shit while getting shot out by my spear."
"Why are you like this?" I asked my teacher, who cracked open a can of beer to begin drinking.
"Once you're done, we're sparring until someone who actually has authority tells us to stop." Scathach informed me, and I sighed, accepting my fate.
I decided to focus on learning the hardest talents first so I can take on the easier ones later, and in my opinion, the hardest ones were Toxicology, Steampunking, Technician, Mastermind, Spying, and Peacemaking. I had the tools in front of me, a microscope, toolbox, welding tools, metal, computer softwares, books, poisons, all of it was at my disposal. I just had to make sure Scathach didn't damage any of them. To my surprise, Azazel added notes to create light spears and how to remove sacred gears, but I only managed to create daggers made of light, which behaved like a normal knife, but constantly radiated a holy aura. There was also this thing called Senjutsu Azazel wanted me to learn, but I can't learn it even if I wanted to. I've never even heard of senjutsu, much less see it in action. I wasn't bothered much by Scathach's spear after a while, because the alcohol eventually caught up to her and forced her to pass out. It took 30 hours of nonstop drinking, but it eventually happened. Over this time, I decided to focus more on illusion, divination, conjuration based magic for talents like prankster, exorcist, and conductor respectively. At some point, I decided to combine talents to create new effects. Like the combination of the exorcist, medium, conductor, and neurologist lead to me creating a potent AOE illusion that should induce fear into victims. As if that wasn't enough, Dagda also gave me some notes on druidry, or super advanced nature magic.
Now I just need to come up with cool sounding names.
(A/N: You know, I really want to give the MC an artificial sacred gear, but at the same time I don't. Here's the thing, the thing that makes the MC so special is that all his strength is 99.9% his own. The only real blood traits he has now is that he's closer to nature, can turn into a seal, and is just a slightly faster learner. That's what makes him special, he's not the chosen one or anything, he's just some guy and has the help of different people. Sure he's talented in the defense category , but everyone's got something they excel at. If you don't, then chances are it's just super specific, like a stand Ability after part 3. Or is it part 4 when things start to get overly specific?
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro