Chapter 13: Defense Training!

Chapter 13: Defense Training!

One month had gone by since Ryan and Victor returned to the Kingdom from their training. The motivation to rule the continent after learning the truth of the terrorist event worked in favor of Ryan and the mindlessness attribute of the Fastiareporen virus had become negligible.

During the past month, Ryan had been learning how to defend since his defenses were terrible while battling. The first week of the training simply went with Ryan using a wooden shield to defend against a wooden sword.

The second week saw changes as the sword turned into metal, increasing the intensity of the battle. If not for the valuable ointments at his disposal every time, Ryan's body would have given up from all the injuries he had received.

The first and early parts of the second week were nothing but painful torture for him as the number of hits exceeded the number of misses. As the second week progressed, Ryan started to show improvement. It was still swelling all over his body at the end of the day after the training, but the numbers had reduced by a good number.

Two days into the third week, Ryan was able to dodge more than half of the strikes coming at him. Victor then replaced the wooden shield with a metallic shield.

It was like the difference between day and night, as the metallic shield weighed almost three times as much as the wooden shield. The familiar routine of beatings returned, but it didn't take him weeks to be better. At the end of the fifth day, Ryan had gotten himself accustomed to the metallic shield.

After the third week ended, Ryan's attacking posture had entirely changed. Earlier, he was like a wild animal that pounced on whatever was in front of them without caring for its defenses, but after three weeks of training, he looked like a cautious animal.

Victor frowned when he noticed that change. Ryan was like the water that was turning into the shape of its container. Victor wanted Ryan to become an all-around warrior who knew how to attack while not keeping their defenses open, but what had happened with Ryan was that he knew how to defend, but it seemed that he had forgotten how to attack.

Victor could only blame the virus for that since before getting infected by it, he was a good fighter and knew how to battle.

Since Victor didn't want Ryan to become a wall, he decided it was time for him to get his sword back.

During the entire fourth week, Ryan returned to the beating as he now had the sword to defend, and Victor was himself the attacker and not the guard.

But Ryan surpassed Victor's expectations when he was with the sword. It was as if Ryan was made for the sword. His improvement with it was several folds greater when compared with what he gained with the shield. But the training with the shield wasn't useless, as that helped Ryan get better at defending.

After the month of training, it was time to see just how much Ryan had improved.

There were around one hundred High Knights in the Vechnos Kingdom, and for Ryan's opponent, Victor decided on the strongest High Knight in the Kingdom.

"How can you let our son go through such a horrible routine?" Loraine complained to Henry, sitting in the chair, while below there was the arena where Ryan and Carlos would fight.

Henry's expression seemed calm as he didn't reply to his wife and focused on the arena. Loraine scoffed when she saw her husband's reaction.

For the past month, Henry had been answering with silence whenever she asked about Ryan's painful training.

She knew that training was required for Ryan to grow strong and achieve what he proclaimed to her, but he had only returned to the palace after eight years of living in the jungle. She wanted him to spend at least a month or two without worrying about anything. Henry also agreed with her at first, as he had accepted her proposal to send Ryan on a tour of the Kingdom. But for some reason, Henry refused and instead allowed Victor to train her son in that way.

What was even more cruel was the fact that she wasn't allowed to meet Ryan during that time.

"Show me what you've learned during the past month," Victor commented as he was also in the arena as the judge.

Ryan nodded toward Victor with a calm expression, while Carlos's face was dignified since he was fighting the future King of the Vechnos Kingdom. If anything went wrong, he would be in a terrible situation.

Victor knew what was going through Carlos's head, so he went to him and whispered something in his ears.

"No matter the result of the battle, your position is safe."

Carlos nodded and bowed toward Victor. Victor then returned to the center of the arena.

"Your majesty, should we start the battle?" Victor looked up and asked Henry.

Victor also caught Loraine's glare. He didn't dare look at her, as she blamed Victor for whatever was happening with Ryan and was like a wounded lioness who would tear him apart for trying to snatch her cub.

"Let it begin!" Henry commanded.

The next moment, both Ryan and Carlos bowed toward the throne and then nodded toward each other.

Carlos was a broadsword user like the majority of the Knights, while the same was the case for Ryan, but his sword looked like a knife in comparison to Carlos'.

"Start!" Victor announced, signaling the start of the battle.

Ryan took a deep breath and attacked, taking the initiative. Carlos's knight method was the Great Bear Knight Method, so he was known for his strength and durability.

Out of respect for Ryan, Carlos decided against attacking back and simply defended against the slash coming his way.

The next moment, Carlos's expression turned ugly, as he seemed to have underestimated Ryan's strength. Carlos succeeded in defending, but he was knocked an inch back.

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