Bonding With Rune Knights

After I left Fulmiur I explored the surrounding area just to familiarize myself with the base. I found the library, training hall, kitchens, and even more.

The library in particular was interesting as it held books on all types of magic that I could learn later in the future. In particular, it held a book on anti-magic.

That was what I wanted most as it would negate most of the weaknesses I had against mages. They would no longer be able to debuff or put some type of curse on me as I would be able to dispel it.

I picked it up immediately and flipped through it memorizing it cover to cover. I would make sure to train it later but right now I had more pressing skills to train.

I contemplated memorizing other books but this one had already taken me a full hour to memorize and the library here was not going away where, so I decided to continue exploring.

Right now my Haki and Wind Dragon Slayer Magic was woefully undertrained and my Renewal Taekwondo was close to a breakthrough.

Soon I would be able to the Recoiless set of moves which would drastically increase my power as well as improve my flexibility allowing me to attack from a lot more unorthodox angles.

So I went to the training hall and there I saw multiple groups of Rune Knights training. They were sparring against each other, hitting each other with pretty hard shots.

Once I entered the room however everyone stopped to look at me. A muscular man the looked to be a leader of one of the groups walked up to me.

He said, "So you're the new recruit everyone's been talking about. It disgusts me, have we gotten so low that we have to resort to recruiting criminals now?"

I smiled and replied, "Code 5 of the Templar's Handbook, Be Kind to All Those Around You. Are you following this rule, sir? I am merely trying to repent for my wrongs why are you trying to stop me?"

He yelled, "Stop using the codes against me, you probably learned it just a few hours ago! Leave this place and go with the other criminals we caught to die in prison as all dark mages should!"

I said, "Now you are also forgetting about Code 4 of the Templar's Handbook, Never Enjoy the Suffering Of Others. You clearly enjoy the idea of me suffering in prison."

His eyes bulged out in anger and he tried to take a swing at me and I let him, not doing anything to block him, only using Tekkai and Armament Haki to blunt the blow.

It didn't hurt at all, he must either be a really weak mage or one more focused on long-range combat. He swung against me again but this time his friends stopped him.

One of yelling, "Calm down Ignatius, he is a Rune Knight now approved by Barat Volslang himself. You need to let go of your anger and relax."

It seemed to finally reach him as he stopped trying to hit and instead said, "I'm so sorry for my behavior, as an apology how about I help you train."

"I heard that you managed to defeat a group of 4 A-rank mages by yourself recently with no injuries. Since they weren't much of a challenge how about the 5 of us?"

"We may not follow the exact rating system of the magic guilds but most of us are around A-rank in strength, how about a simple spar."

I pondered it. If I did win this spar I would definitely show off my power and gain respect but my reputation as a violence-loving, reckless fighter would probably not improve.

I decided that for now, I would start with gaining some respect first and then worry about fixing the rest of my reputation. After all, while I was famous I was not a household name.

I was only someone you heard about if you paid attention to the movements of Dark Guilds, making me only recognizable in the Rune Knight or some Magic Guild circles.

I said, "Ok, let's do that, what do you want the rules to be?"

He smiled and pointed at the circular platform, "Winner is decided by the last person standing on that platform at the end of the fight."

I nodded and got on it and so did Ignatius and his 4 followers. I started to stretch, no reason not to. This seemed to annoy Ignatius more, and he waved another Rune Knight over.

Ignatius said, "Could you please be the officiator for this match?"

He nodded and quickly started to count down, "The fight will begin in 3, 2, 1, Start!"

Then a blast of magic from all 5 men rushed at me, I jumped into the air and dodged. I decided that this would be a great time to train my Haki and Wind Dragon Slayer Magic.

I would try and use my Renewal Taekwondo and Rokushiki as little as possible in this fight. So instead of Geppoing off the air and into their ranks, I instead did something else.

I yelled, "Wind Dragon's Roar!"

And moved the magic in my body instinctively to shoot out massive gout of hurricane-force winds in their direction. One of them raised a stone wall that blocked my blow.

I sighed, my magic really sucked, I wasn't even able to break through a rock wall. So instead once I landed I rushed at them using my Observation Haki to dance through their blows of snaking chains, beams of light, flying swords, hurled rocks and slithering vines.

They were pretty straightforward with how they attacked, controlling their magic to do as little collateral damage as possible.

In general, as law enforcement that's a good idea but when trying to hit a fast slippery target, it made me untouchable.

I reached the first man and he summoned a massive tower shield in front of him, not to be deterred I yelled, "Wind Dragon's Crushing Fist."

Infusing it with my Armament Haki I hit the shield such that even after blocking it the man behind it got launched off the platform.

I then dodged another few attacks, but now that we were so close to each other some did manage to hit. It hurt a bit but my Armament Haki and high vitality warded off the worst of it.

I quickly moved to Ignatius to end him but he yelled, "Chain Cacoon!"

Immediately links of metal chains surrounded him protecting him against my attack but also to try and reach me to lock down my movements.

I jumped back and instead went for another one of the men on the platform. He seemed surprised by my sudden shift in target and only manage to put a thin stone wall in front of him.

It didn't work and my fist easily crashed through and sent him flying. Then both the vines and chains tried to grab me and I simply stomped on the ground and kicked the resulting rubble at the vine controller.

It hit him in the stomach and another one was down. The light magician panicked and yelled, "Fivefold Dancing Beams!"

And 5 beams of light shot towards me, and instead of being static they moved, constantly chasing me. Along with the chains, it made it a great workout.

I was straining my Observation Haki to its fullest dodging all the beams of light and moving chains before finally, the light spell seemed to dissipate.

I rushed at him and kicked him out of the stadium leaving me to only face Ignatius. His chain caccon was thick now around 1 meter across and he had 10 chains moving at his commands.

I moved in and instead of hitting the writhing nest of chains I grabbed the stone tile below him and picked it up to throw him out of the area.

He tried to send chains to hook on the arena so he could bring himself back but I stopped that and he finally hit the ground.

There was dead silence before I heard Fulmiur's voice, "That was incredible Marcus, I didn't know you could take of 5 experienced Rune Knights so easily."

I smiled and said, "It was just a sparring match I'm sure they would be much stronger if we actually faced for real."

I did actually believe that, this was training so nobody sent any of their more deadly abilities or massive area of effect ones.

But I was also holding back a lot, in a real fight even if they were much stronger I would still be able to beat them easily. The thought that they were A-rank mages it was hilarious.

They did seem to have the power and technical know-how to fit that description but their teamwork and experience really needed some work.

That stone mage didn't even try to affect the terrain to make it harder to move only making the most basic rock wall and rock bullets.

And they got in front of each other's way quite a few times, blocking their vision of me and putting a meat shield between me and their attacks.

I said, "They're also still pretty young. They don't know all the tricks of the trade that I do. Maybe in a few years, they will more of a challenge."

Fulmiur said, "That incredible. I would love to learn the so-called tricks of the trade."

I said, "Ok let me teach you ..."

I then went on to talk about some of my experiences fighting against various people. It seemed to not only hook Fulmiur but the other Rune Knights as well.

It was actually pretty nice as the more people heard me talk more about my experiences and complain about the annoying strategies that they used, the more they saw me as a person.

By the end of the training session, I had made friends with some of the Rune Knights improving my reputation.

Ignatius and his crew had wandered off soon after the fight to get treated for their injuries. Overall I would rate this day a success I got respect and a better reputation.

I had Fulmiur to thank for that. He was useful in his excited curiosity to learn about my backstory. It really helped relax the other Rune Knights. Wouldn't want him on my team though.