Learning To Fight: Part 1

"Hey Leonna, I have a question." I said to Leonna.

"Yeah, what is it?" she asked.

"It's about the monster blood," I said. "Are you able to keep drinking one drip of it at a time?"

"Unfortunately not," she said. "A member of someone's squad had that thought and tried to drink a lot of it one drip at a time, but after doing that for while he became corrupted."

"So how much can you drink?"

"To be on the safe side, we consume one drop every three hours and it seems to work perfectly fine without the risk of corruption."

A couple of days have passed since the wolf incident, and my leg has finally recovered the blood it lost. While doctors can easily heal a leg with healing magic, they can't recover the blood lost.

"Can you walk ok?" Leonna asked me as I stepped off the bed.

I took a few steps to see if I had any trouble walking, but I seemed perfectly fine.

"I think I'm good." I said with a thumbs up.

"Thank goodness. I though you were going to fall over."

"Hey, I'm not that weak," I said a little insulted. "Besides, it's not like I was laying on that bed for two years!"

"Sorry."

I started to walk out the door of the hospital, but then I immediately stopped when I looked outside. The hospital that I was staying in, was on a huge branch in the middle of the forest!

I quickly ran outside to get a better view.

"Holy crap," I said with excitement. "We're so high up!"

The hospital wasn't the only thing that was in the trees. There were houses everywhere in the trees. The houses looked like they were built with smaller branches, leaves, and large rocks that were carved. They all had a unique look and the different colored leaves on the houses made each one stand out from the other. There were leaves with a red color, a blue color, a green color, and even a black color! Most of the people of the village were those therianthrope people. Some had claws. Some had fangs, Some had stripes. Some had tails. Some even had wings!

"This is amazing," I said incredibly stunned. "I can't believe we got lucky enough to stumble across a place like this."

"It sure is a sight to see," Leonna said. "Now come on, let's go!"

"Go where?" I asked.

"It's time for your training."

Leonna then grabbed onto a vine that had a unique red color and jumped off the platform. She was swinging to different houses!"

"What's wrong Hiro," Leonna shouted from a different platform. "Afraid of heights?"

I'm think anyone would be afraid of falling to their death.

"Don't rush me, I'll be there in a sec!" I shouted to her.

I grabbed onto the vine and backed up a little bit. I then took a few deep breaths, tightened my grip, and charges full speed toward the edge.

"HERE...I...GOOO!!"

I leapt off the edge and went flying to the nearest platform. I set my feat on the platform but immediately tumbled flat on my face when I landed on the platform. Leonna bursted with laughter.

"A-Are you o-ok Hiro...hahahaha!"

I gritted my teeth and went to grab the next vine. Once I backed up far enough, I jumped off the edge and went flying off once again. This time, I aimed my direction at the platform Leonna was on. I wanted get back at her somehow for laughing at me, but I suddenly lost control of my direction. Instead of landing on the platform...I went swinging straight at Leonna.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!" I shouted from the vine. "I CAN'T CONTROL IT!!"

The warning was too late. I swung right into Leonna and we both ended up tumbling on the platform.

"Ouch...t-that...hurt..." I said grabbing at my forehead.

I found myself on top of Leonna. I wanted to quickly get up because I thought she was hurt, but she suddenly grabbed at my hand and stopped me. She then placed my right hand that she grabbed on her cheek.

"It's...so warm," Leonna gasped. "So this is what it feels like...to be caressed by someone."

She had a huge smile on her face and she looked really happy. I wanted to move my hand, but I didn't want her to be upset; so I just decided to leave my hand on her cheek for as long as she wanted.

"You ready for your training to begin." Leonna said.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." I said a little scared.

The training area was on the ground where quite a lot of people train their skills so they can get into the Army of Light. We had to climb down hundreds-maybe thousands-of stairs to get here.

"Alright, first get in a stance that you find most comfortable." Leonna said.

"I didn't really know what kind of stance I needed to be in, so I just got into a stance that I saw in an anime. Leonna almost lost it again when she saw my stance.

"Ummm...what kind of stance is that?" she asked.

"Umm...the...Kirito Stance?" I said questioning my own decision.

Leonna chuckled a little.

"That sounds ridiculous." she said.

"HEY," I shouted. "Never...make fun...of Kirito."

"Eep!"

Leonna had a terrifying look on her face. Oh crap! My otaku self took full control of me there.

"I'm sorry," I quickly said getting on my knees and bowing down. "I guess I'm still not completely over my original world."

"Original world?"

Leonna looked a little puzzled.

"Oh yeah. I was summoned to this world about two years ago by the Great Goddess Gleam."

Leonna had a shocked look on her face and looked like she was about to faint.

"Wait...y-you're a...s-s-summoned one...?" she managed to ask.

I chuckled awkwardly.

Leonna quickly took out her sword and struck it into the ground. I jumped about a couple of feet back.

"I-It i-is...nice t-to be of y-your...a-acquaintance Mr. S-Summoned One!"

"Hey hey," I said waving my arms. "There's no need for the sudden for the formality! Just call me Hiro like normal."

Leonna stood up and cleared her throat.

"Very well, Mr. Summ- I mean...Hiro."

I let out a sigh and scratched the back of my head.

"Sooo...can we train now?" I asked

"Oh right," she quickly responded. "Anyways, try holding the sword out in front of you."

I held the sword out in front of me. I held it with one hand because I wanted to try and use magic with the other.

"Use both hands." Leonna said.

"But if I do that, how will I use magic?" I asked her.

"You need to pour your magic energy into the sword."

That's right. I remember that this was a technique the members of the Army of Light use. I then remembered the way Leonna killed the wolves with her sword magic.

"Have you ever done that before?" Leonna asked me.

I remembered the night that the village burned down. My body and sword were engulfed by dark flames and I killed one of the members of that group. It felt like my mind was being torn apart and smashed into pieces.

"Umm...no...no I never have before." I said.

I couldn't tell Leonna about what happened to me. I have no idea how she would react to that. What if it was some kind of dark magic that no normal person had? If that was the case, then I might be discriminated by society. I don't want that to happen. I can't do this alone. I needed to leave that whole incident behind me.

"Well don't worry," Leonna said. "It's pretty easy to learn the basics. What you have to do is put your will into the blade."

"My will?"

"Yeah. The more willpower you put into your blade, the more powerful your strike will become."

Leonna took a few steps back and tightened her grip on her sword. After few seconds, the sword suddenly started to glow a bright golden light.

"Woah..."

"Now since I'm not in any danger, I don't have a will to fight; therefore, the blade isn't that powerful."

She swung ate a tree nearby and it left a pretty deep mark on it.

"Since my magic affinity is very high, even a little bit of willpower can kill the weakest monster in one small strike."

I felt a little depressed after hearing that because that meant that she was a million times more superior to me.

"Now you give it a try." Leonna said.

"Alright."

I tried to think of how to pour my will into the sword, but then I had an idea. "Maybe if I have the will to strike at the tree, I can activate it. I took a few steps back and tried to pour my magic and willpower into the sword. After a few moments passed, I felt something warm in my hands that held the sword. I opened my eyes to see the sword engulfed in a dark flame. The same flame that engulfed me in that village.

"Woah," Leonna said a little stunned. "I've never seen that kind of magic before."

"Y-Yeah uhh...me neither..." I said.

I wanted to play dumb in case Leonna figured something out about this black flame.

"Alright," I shouted with my cocky smirk. "Now I can strike the tree!"

I held my sword tightly on my hands and ran full speed towards the nearest tree. I them swung the sword with all my might in an attempt to hit the tree.

'CRACK'!

The blade connected, but...

"WHAAAAAT?!!"

The blade struck halfway through a tree...and it was stuck.

"Come ooooon...let...go you...BASTARD!!"

After straining for a long time in an attempt to pull out the sword, it finally came lose. I jolted backwards and fell down to the ground. I looked up at Leonna who had a look of pity on her face.

"That sucked huh?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well...the important thing is is that you activated...whatever that was, but you still need a lot of training if you want to kill any C-Class monsters"

I sighed a long, pitiful sigh.

"This is gonna suck..."