Chapter 17

"Thank you, Ryan! Thank you for training us!"

"Yes. Thank you for training us, Ryan."

I smile at the two people in front of me and say.

"Don't worry about it, Karin, Yuki. Take care out there."

The two of them wave their hands as they walk away from my home. We start our training at four PM and are done just before dinner time. Most of the training is about me teaching them how to absorb the Natural Energy, clean it, and release it, just like how Naruto did in his training on Mount Myoboku.

With the help of those two, I can feel the natural energy around my home get purer, and it slowly spreads around me. The Anger of the World no longer presses into me as if I'm trying to hurt it. It looks like the world already accepts me and knows that I'm not hurting it but rather helping it clean the negativity in the natural energy in the world.

Besides training my Senjutsu, I also train my Sky Dragon Slayer magic. The three of us decide to spar every time Yuki and Karin manage to absorb a good amount of Natural Energy into them.

Because of their new strength after the meditation, they get stronger, and I also need to play rough. Healing them is an easy matter for me. Sadly, I cannot use my Take Over form because we are focused on Senjutsu today.

In the next lecture, I can ask Instructor Kaneyoshi to train me harder in transformation spells and ask for a spar. He is a master of it, after all.

==||==

"Come on! Is that all you've got?!"

I grin and say.

"Take Over: Weretiger!"

I change from my lizardman form into my tiger form and dash toward him. I throw my hand and see him easily blocking it, but I do not stop there. I throw a flurry of attacks and use the enchantment from my take-over form to increase the attack speed to an inhuman level.

"This is more like it! Partial Form: Mantis"

"Urgh!"

Before I could even blink, the instructor hit me right in the stomach and threw me to the sparring wall. I rub my stomach and see him in his partial form.

"What kind of mantis is that?! Mantis have sharp arms! You have one that looks like a boxing glove!

He smiles at me and says,

"Have you heard of Mantis Shrimp? Its punch is said to have the same acceleration as a 22-caliber bullet."

"Then why do you say it is a mantis instead of Mantis Shrimp?"

"And let the enemy know? A battle is not all about strength, Ryan. It is also about deception. Tricking your opponent to expect one thing but you do another is one of the basic strategies to win a fight. There is a reason why a high-ranking magic user's magic spell has the wrong color."

"What do you mean?"

"When they want to use a fire spell, they will use a blue magic circle; if they want to use a water spell, they will use a yellow magic circle."

"Ah, I get it now."

"Good! Then we can continue."

He smirks at me, and suddenly, his legs change into rabbit feet. He jumps at me and kicks me right in the head. Luckily, I managed to change my head into Lizardman. I look at him and say.

"That's cheating! I'm not ready!"

"Another basic rule, Ryan! Never let your opponent be ready for you!"

"Raaah!"

I changed into a new form and created a massive sand circle around the sparring arena. My body grows as I absorb the sand around me.

"Oh?! A new form?! What kind of form is that?! Are you absorbing the sand to be stronger? Fascinating."

After I reached three meters tall, I condensed all the sand and shrunk my body.

"Oh? Is that your limit?"

I nod and appear in front of him. I throw my punch at him with all my might and see him widen his eyes. His arm changes into a crab and receives my attack. However, in this form, the more I absorb the sand, the more powerful and faster I become.

I can see a crack on his crab hand and see the instructor smirk at me. However, I did not let him talk. I dash in front of him and attack his chest, but he blocks it easily. I duck when he does a round kick, and I do an uppercut.

However, to my surprise, he blocked my attack with his tail.

"Did you forget that I'm a monkey youkai?"

He unfurls his tail after blocking my attack and coils it around my hand. I did not let him do anything to me and grab the tail. I click my tongue when the tail changes into a slug's tail. I look up and see him grinning at me. He changes his body into a bunny. He is now a one-meter-tall brown bunny and does a jump kick at me.

I block his kick, and suddenly, he changes into a snake that coils around my arms. He changes his upper body into a weretiger while still keeping his lower body as a snake to keep me in place.

He grins at me and pokes my nose.

"Boop, you are dead."

I release a sigh and smile a little. He releases me and changes back into his real form.

"That is a little unfair, no?"

"Unfair?"

"Yeah. Yeah. There is nothing such as unfairness in battle. I know."

"Good. Anyway, you are asking for it. You want to see me going all out gradually, and you get it."

"And you decide to go all out after twenty minutes of sparring?"

"All out?"

I look at him in shock when he says that.

"You are not?"

"No. Unlike in the underworld, where a noble-born is already put into a high-ranking being, I claw my way into this rank. There are many things that make me high-ranking. I might not have the biggest chakra reserve for a high-ranking being, but I compensate for it through technique and versatility. From changing one form to another, I can be an unpredictable fighter and defeat someone who relies too much on their firepower."

I nod in understanding. Instructor Kaneyoshi puts his hand on my head and says,

"You have the firepower but need to practice adapting in battle."

"Not my versatility?"

"Versatility will come when you can adapt to anything. Your transformation magic is great and full of potential. You only need to keep practicing, and you will be a great fighter in the future."

He gives me a bright smile and says,

"Keep practicing! I believe in you."

I look at him for a second and smile. For some reason, a warm feeling appeared in my chest. Is this the feeling of someone believing in you? It feels good.

"Thank you, Instructor Kaneyoshi. I will keep practicing."

"Great! Anyway, that is all for today because there is someone you need to meet."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He steps to the side, and I can see Kunou running toward me. She threw her body into mine, and I quickly caught her.

"Big brother!"

I spin her around and let her sit on my shoulder. I look at Instructor Kaneyoshi and see him grinning at me.

"Enjoy your day, Ryan. You deserve it after a hard day's training."

"Thank you, Instructor Kaneyoshi."

After saying that, I looked at Kunou and said,

"Where do you want to go, Kunou?"

"Ice cream!"

I laugh a little and take the little fox to the nearby ice cream parlor.