Chapter 5: New Training Partners

Just like Luna stated, receiving the wooden sword marked the beginning of Neo's combat training and to make sure he got the message, she started his lesson on how to properly hold and swing the sword.

She promised to be his instructor just like she had been for his other training but that was only true for mostly the first five days.

She let him figure out things on his own most of the time and only dropped by to show him a few tricks or correct some of his mistakes.

For the first year of his sword training, Neo didn't really have anyone to spar with, there was a huge log of wood stuck vertically in the ground behind the house, and that served as his training partner for practicing his swings and slashes.

Practicing that along with his movement when engaging someone with his sword was mostly what he did for his first year of training and when he finally turned six, his mother decided to kick things up a notch.

He made his way to his usual training spot behind the house on a bright morning to find out that his training partner, the log of wood had been replaced with something else.

Three metal pipes stuck into the ground with some sort of black circular disk at their tips.

"Um…mom." He called, pointing at the strange objects with his sword. "What are those?"

"Your new training partners," Luna responded.

That response just left him with a confused expression on his face and just to make sure he wasn't making any mistake, he carefully scanned them one more time before turning his gaze back to his mother.

"I can't exactly see how I'm supposed to train with those."

"Don't worry, you'll be finding out soon." She replied, nodding toward the pipe objects.

Neo quickly turned his gaze back to them to see that the discs were spinning now and were slowly getting faster.

Right at that moment, he felt the mana surrounding him slowly began to disperse like they were pulling on it.

"What's going on?"

"Keep looking forward, Neo or you're going to get knocked out."

"Huh?"

He quickly turned to the discs at that moment to see a red ball the size of a tennis ball heading straight toward him faster than anything he had seen before.

He wasn't fast enough to dodge something moving that fast most especially because of how late he was to realize that it was heading toward him, but that was the point.

Just before the ball could hit him, he raised his sword back and knocked it back with a quick slash.

The ball slowly evaporated mid-air as two more balls were fired from the spinning discs.

He quickly leaned back to avoid both balls unaware of their true nature.

The balls zoomed past him just like he wanted as three more balls were fired from the discs.

He was able to successfully block all three balls with his sword and just after doing that, he felt something heavy hit him on the back of his head.

"Huh?"

He quickly turned around at that moment to see one of the balls he thought he had succeeded in avoiding heading straight toward him at full speed.

He wasn't able to react to that on time as the ball slammed right into his stomach, pushing him back a few steps before he slowly fell on one knee, scrunching his face in pain.

The ball slowly evaporated right after that as the discs behind him slowly stopped spinning.

'What the heck was that?'

"But I dodged those ones." He grunted before turning to his mother who was laughing with her hand covering her mouth.

"Yeah, that's the point." She chuckled. "You're supposed to block them with your sword not avoid them, they'll just run coming back to hit you if you do that."

"You knew that was going to happen and you didn't tell me." He grumbled.

"Well, I thought you would be able to handle it but it looks like your senses and reflexes are not sharp enough yet." She said before squatting down in front of him.

She slowly helped him up his feet before cleaning the dirt on his knee with her hand.

"Sorry you had to get hit like that, are you okay?"

"Mm." He responded with a nod.

"You should always deal with things head-on as you go to make sure they don't come back to bite you and if you're going to let them be then you have to make sure you have eyes behind you at all times." She remarked.

"Another lesson?"

"Maybe." She shrugged before getting up on her feet. "Anyway, those are going to be your new training partners from now on."

"What exactly are those?" Neo asked as he turned his gaze to the pipe discs.

"Oh, just a little thing your father has been working on for a while now." She replied.

"He made those?"

"Mhm." She nodded. "I'm sure you're curious to find out how they work."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Then, it will be an honor to explain it to you." She said with a little bow.

"Seriously?" Neo sighed, but what followed after that was a soft smile.

"Anyway, those things over there work by gathering as much mana as they can from the atmosphere and then turning them into the balls of mana that were used to attack you. Once they lock onto a target they will keep chasing it until they hit it or are blocked by something." She explained. "That's why they came rushing back when you."

"He can really make something like that?" Neo asked with a shocked expression on his face.

"Of course, he can. I guess you don't know this but your father studied magical technology engineering and he worked in the Magitech department of Flemero for a couple of years after graduating." She disclosed, a proud smirk pasted on her face.

"Oh."

"So making something like this isn't that big of a deal for him."

'I guess this world might actually be more technologically advanced than I thought and they even know how to incorporate magic into the things they make but there doesn't seem to be any cool magic device in the house despite Father supposedly being a magic technology graduate.'

"You really like tooting your husband's horn, huh."

"More than that, I love it." She responded as her face curled up in a smile.

"You're not even going to deny it?" Neo uttered, a bit surprised.

"Why would I? He's my husband after all and when you grow up you better give me reasons to praise you and brag about you." She remarked with an assertive tone.

"Um….yes, ma'am."

'Why do I feel like a mountain has just been dropped on my shoulders?'

"Good boy." She smiled before rubbing his head.

'Father's a very lucky man.'

"Anyway, I have to get going now, you can keep training with those, the one in the middle has three buttons on its body used for adjusting the speed. It will start firing ten seconds after choosing a speed level so keep that in mind." She disclosed as she slowly began to hear toward the house. "Don't forget to come inside after a while and get ready for Mrs. Eleanor."

"I won't."

"See you later then, Pookie Bear." She waved at him before walking into the house and closing the door behind her.

Neo stood there for a while with his gaze on the door she just walked into the house through before suddenly muttering something.

"Pookie bear." He muttered with a little chuckle.

He tried to control it but before he knew it, he was wheezing with his left hand on his stomach.

'She calls me that all the time so I don't get why it's so funny this time.'

*****

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