17 Dodge

Luka was confused. It was taking a while for Luka to process what was happening when Weiss spoke again.

"Dodge."

Weiss rushed towards Luka once more. Luka knew that the old butler was going to attack him again, so he did what Weiss said—dodge.

Luka channeled Aura throughout his entire body as he kicked off the ground as hard as he could to leap away and avoid Weiss' incoming attack. However, he was too slow, no, Weiss was too fast. Weiss sent a fist towards Luka's flank. The impact made Luka puke again, but nothing came out, the contents were already regurgitated after the initial punch.

Luka was sent flying again and his back crashed into a tree. He fell on the ground, holding himself up on all fours. Weiss loomed over the ragged Luka, the former shadow covering the latter.

Luka looked at the old butler. He was sure that Weiss was using Aura as it was impossible to move that fast without using something to boost physical capabilities—but he wasn't. Luka didn't see the energy that would normally appear and cover the body of an Aura user.

Weiss moved his lips again and spoke, "Dod–", but he was interrupted by Luka throwing a fistful of dirt at his face. The dirt didn't reach his face as Weiss swiftly swiped it away.

Taking advantage of Weiss's slight distraction Luka lunged towards Weiss and punched towards the crotch area with his right. Weiss easily avoided Luka's wicked punch by shifting to the side.

"Instead of dodging you tried to distract me and aimed towards the weakness of all males.... heh," Weiss smirked.

"Well yeah?... fuck you." Luka couldn't think of anything to say and could only curse at Weiss.

"Dodge,"

The one-sided beatdown continued for the entire day. Every time Weiss says 'dodge', he attacks and Luka almost always fails to evade. He successfully manages to dodge sometimes, however, Weiss quickly follows up with another attack while saying 'dodge'.

Weiss also occasionally attacks without saying 'dodge', because of that, Luka—who has been getting used to anticipate the attacks from Weiss's warning—always gets caught off guard and receives a painful punch.

Luka tries to counterattack every so often, but it always fails. His body was already covered in bruises and some parts of his skin were torn open, causing blood to spill out. He was truly beaten black and blue.

Soon, Luka ran out of Aura to boost his body, but that didn't stop Weiss from relentlessly attacking him.

Weiss stopped his attacks and straightened his back with his arms behind his back, giving off an air of dignity.

"This is enough, let's stop here."

Luka was still vigilant and focused; his hands curled into fists and held them up to guard his face. He didn't listen to Weiss and was still anticipating an attack, wanting to attempt a counterattack this time around.

"Boy, we're done. You can relax now." Weiss reassured Luka, feeling a little guilty when looking at Luka's bruised face.

Luka heeded Weiss's words this time and lowered his hands, but with the adrenaline rushing in his blood, he couldn't relax and lower his guard.

Weiss tossed a vial. It rolled and stopped before Luka's feet

"Drink it, it's a high-quality healing potion. It will heal your injuries quickly."

Luka picked up the vial and inspected it. Inside was a green liquid that had a dim glow.

'Potion huh... another fantasy-esque thing. Healing potion... come to think of it, that gray wolf back then bit hard on my arm, but after I woke up there was no wound. Did that Cole guy used a potion on me?'

Luka popped open the cork cap and drank the contents. Luka tasted a strong herbal flavor, too strong that Luka thought it was disgusting and made him grimace.

"Yes, it tastes bad. Get used to it." Weiss smirked, remembering the first time that he tasted a healing potion.

"You said this as high-quality? Shouldn't that be expensive? Why waste something like that on me?"

"His Grace has big hopes for you, he isn't afraid of investing in you. Besides, for a great and rich man like His Grace, a mere high-quality potion is nothing."

The potion did its work quite fast. All the injuries that Luka had were healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. The swelled up bruises shrunk and healed, the torn skip closed up, the fractured bones returned to their former state. Everything was healed, as if time reversed in Luka's body.

"This is... amazing... I–guh!!" Luka fell to his knees, suddenly feeling incredible fatigue.

"The potion may heal physical injuries, but it doesn't restore stamina." Weiss explained as he helped Luka stand on his feet.

"Now then, this is my assessment. You know how to use Aura but your usage is too unrefined. You don't evenly distribute the energy through your muscles, blood vessels, and organs. You simply channel the energy throughout your body haphazardly, it's too inefficient. Your Aura training method is severely unrefined and outdated. I can tell from the way you breathe, the speed at which you generate Aura is far too slow."

"Gee, thanks for the compliments. I get it, I'm a bad fighter."

"But..."

"'But'?"

"..."

"'But' what?"

"..."

"Hey, don't keep me in suspense."

Weiss didn't continue what he was going to say, which made Luka very annoyed. He kept trying to ask what Weiss was going to say, but Weiss was quite tight-lipped even when Luka tried to annoy him by attacking him, but Weiss just easily dodged every single punch and kick from Luka.

In the end, Luka just gave up and grumbled when they reached the manor. Weiss smirked at Luka's defeat, which the latter saw for a split second before the former turned back to his dignified poker face.

It was evening, all the servants were served a simple vegetable soup. Luka quickly devoured the food; trying to dodge Weiss's punches drained him and made him very hungry. After supper, the servants—whether they be maids, servants, or gardeners—all went back to their work until the sun goes down. Luka however immediately went back to the room assigned to him. The room was pretty much the same as the room he slept him back in the capital.

Luka laid down on his bed, thinking about everything that's happened so far. He just living peacefully in the village. He thought it was going to be like that for the rest of his new life, and he was fine with that. He didn't have any ambitions, he just wanted a peaceful life with his parents, parents that actually loved him and cared for him unlike the ones in his previous life. He felt it was perfect...

Luka shook his head and dispelled those thoughts. Nothing was going to happen if one just kept wallowing in the past. He covered himself with the blanket and buried his head in the pillow.

Just as he was about to enter into a deep sleep, he heard a loud scream.