Saint

After their meal, Oliver initiated the second stage of the training. It was simply to hear the pressure of the eight hours in a horse stance while holding a heavy great sword over your head.

Now Ezra would have a hard time lifting this sword on any day, but now he had to do so with the pressure on as well, it was sure to be a painful task.

This was to last eight hours and they would call it a day. Ezra began the training, but unfortunately, he couldn't go past the fourth hour and his body collapsed, even with the boos of extra vitality, it was still too hard for him.

He gave it two tries, and in the second one, he got to the fifth hour. It was dark out already, and so Oliver decided to take the kid home, Ezra still wanted to try again, but his body rejected that.

As Oliver carried him in a piggyback style, Oliver fell deep in thought.

'I didn't get another vitality, I thought I would be able to get two today.'

Oliver reached the house and delivered the boy to them, and asked that he rested tonight and return tomorrow.

Ezra's father took him upstairs and placed him in his room, he sat beside his bed and spoke. "You have tasted the pain and struggle that come with wanting to get strong, do you want to continue?" He asked.

"There is no other option than for me to get strong, no matter the pain and struggle, I'll get there," Ezra said.

That night, he forced himself off his bed to the ground and began a painful round of push-ups, he felt like he would die after the next one as the pain spread across his entire body.

Still, he pushed on, determined to keep going, and when he hit the hundredth push-up, the sweet sound of a notification came along with a burst of strength and energy.

[You have gained one vitality]

His hard work had paid off and managed to get his second vitality. He felt the increase in his body's strength and ability, it was by a lot.

The next day came, and Ezra was up. He got ready and was about to leave when he saw his sister standing at his door.

"What's up, Lisa?" He asked with a smile.

She stared at him for a moment, then spoke, "Is something wrong? Did I make you angry?" She asked.

"Huh? Why did you ask that? You did nothing to me." He spoke.

"You just seem detached, like you don't want to talk to me again." She said.

Ezra still could not replicate the character of his predecessor, so things like this were bound to happen.

"It is nothing, sis, I have just been obsessed with getting stronger. I don't want to be left behind, you are great at magic and soon you will go off to the world, I just want to be able to keep up."

This was a hot plate of bullshit that he just cooked up to tame her heart and throw her off track, and it worked. She hugged him tightly and then let go of him and went away.

___ ___

In the dojo, Ezra was currently undertaking stage two training, and this time, he didn't break a sweat.

He easily beat the training after eight hours and shocked the living hell out of Oliver. He couldn't believe that Ezra who was unable to get through yesterday just made it through today.

'This kid may be a prodigy in martial arts.' Oliver thought.

After he concluded the second stage. Oliver decided that it was time that they started the real combat training.

"Okay kid, I will teach you two types of combat and that is weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

Each one is useful in its own way and it will take your decision to know which you will follow till the end.

I am a master of the sword, I was a sword saint in my time. " Oliver said.

"Sword saint?" Ezra asked. His memory told him of certain fighters that reached great levels and were called saints, but he didn't know more. "What are they?" He asked.

"Hmm, well son, they are people that stand in the pinnacle of martial arts. Sword saints, spear saints, axe saints, and more.

Martial arts are graded so that we can understand it and know where we stand.

It starts from the Martial apprentice which you are in as of now, and then you step into the Martial adept, from there you enter the Martial Master.

From there you step into the Martial Grandmaster, then to the Martial Warrior. After that is the Martial King, then Emperor, and then Saint.

There is a realm above the saint, the martial god. But there has not been one in centuries."

Ezra absorbed all the information like a sponge, listening carefully, and then he asked a question.

"Why does you a peak being live here?"