A Change of Pace

The days spent at the Spear Goddess' palace were never boring for Azemo, even though he did nearly the same thing every day. It was hard to get bored when his routine involved getting the heck beaten out of him.

While he was improving, Azemo was still unable to block most of the Spear Goddess' attacks. However, Kaede had to focus a little bit more when the two of them sparred in the morning. Instead of using both eyes to read or draw she could now only used one.

As for the painting part of his training, Azemo saw no improvement. Well, no improvement was a little harsh. Azemo had gained much better control over his brush, but even with that control everything he painted was a mess.

In fact his best piece was a painting of the Spear Goddess that Kaede had thought was supposed to be an apple tree.

While Azemo was still learning the basics in the art of the spear and painting, Bella and Ima had been training as well.

Since they had grown their capabilities had as well and the two of them spent a lot of time hunting in a nearby forest. In fact they had even grown a second time and now were about the size of a large dog, in monster form.

As for skills both of them had learned some sort of bloodline technique.

Imagine could make her entire body disperse into shadows leaving only her eyes. She was as surprised as Azemo when they woke up one morning to find she was just a pair of eyes. It took a couple of days but now Ima was able to control this ability and loved to use it to frighten Azemo.

Bellania had inherited a different bloodline ability from her mother, making Azemo wonder how the mother had ever been defeated. She was probably ambushed or maybe her cubs were used against her. But whatever the case Bella could now grow her claws and move extremely fast for short periods of time.

While Bella could not keep it up for long when she was in this state Azemo had seen her take down monsters three times her strength level.

When Azemo had learned that both of the twins were able to unlock such powerful abilities he tried to hurry his training. He still had to get revenge. However, Azemo was not born into the world to wield a spear so his training was not progressing as quickly as he had hoped. He was close to mastering the basics but had yet to learn a single technique.

However Azemo was still happy through his slow progress and hardships because his relationship with his master was quickly creating a deep bond.

Azemo could tell how much Kaede gave up for him and did whatever he could to help her and get her approval. The two had grown quite fond of each other but that didn't slow Kaede's fists at all.

Still, Kaede was very satisfied with her first student and for Azemo, Kaede had almost become a Zaebos like figure.

So when Kaede stopped practice early one day to discuss something with Azemo, he was all ears.

"Okay that is enough for today. Your master needs to talk to you. In a couple of weeks we are going to be heading towards Zenath for you to compete in a tournament. Apparently it is tradition for all disciples of influential figures to fight for their masters honor. At first I didn't care but then I remembered that you can humiliate the Supreme General for me, so you better do your best."

"Maybe talk a little bit more, master." Azemo knew what was coming but was unable to avoid the fist that sunk deep into his stomach. Even with that joke Azemo was a little excited because he wanted to make his master proud and Zenath was a step closer to the capital.

"I think it is time for me to teach you some spear techniques and you can practice them for the tournament."

"Thank you, venerable master."

"You could at least try and act like you mean it. First I will teach you my favorite move, Starfall. Allow me to demonstrate it." Kaede grinned and Azemo had long learned that when she smiled like that he was going to be in pain soon.

Kaede then proceeded to show off the attack. She leapt into the air thrusting her spear. It looked to Azemo like Kaede was using the spear to fly when she suddenly charged at him, still in mid air. Somehow after jumping straight up Kaede had launched herself at Azemo.

Needless to say Azemo got a large bruise on his stomach but even the pain was not enough to dampen his excitement. Not only was the attack extremely powerful, it had left a huge bruise on his tough demon body using only a wooden spear, it also was fast and could be used for mobility.

"That should be the only move you will need to win the tournament and it is the skill that first made me stand out in this country."

"Thank you master." Azemo was beyond grateful to learn this skill from his master. After all he was only the second person of that era to learn it.

"To start off, for this skill you will need to be able to control your body perfectly in mid air so your master has thought of the perfect training."

The perfect training turned out to be tying Azemo to a tree branch with a rope and violently swinging him. The goal was for Azemo to be able to stop the momentum of the swing just by using his body control.

Even the first step to learning the skill was not easy and it took Azemo six days, but with relentless training Azemo was able to gain near perfect control over his body.

The speed at which Azemo was able to learn this part of the skill surprised Kaede because it had taken her much longer in her youth.

The reason that Azemo was able to learn at this speed was because he was very in tune with his body. Since he had first shown up in this world, his demonic body had fascinated him. Also his mind was already somewhat mature because he still had memories from his past life so could learn better than simply putting things in his mouth.

After gaining some mastery over his body mid air, perfect control was expected to take years, Kaede showed Azemo the second part of his training. It was the starting jump.

The jump was not as simple as it seemed because it was the base of the entire attack. Still it only took Azemo two days before he had gotten it to an acceptable level.

The last part of the attack was not so simple and even after an entire week Azemo was still stumped. Kaede had shown him the basics before saying the rest was up to him. The last part was not something that could be taught through words and Azemo needed to experience it himself if he wanted to have any hope in learning it.

Azemo only stopped to eat and sleep and spent the entirety of the day studying the technique. Kaede had given him leave to stop his other activities seeing how motivated he was.

This was not the usual Azemo. This was motivated Azemo who used all the sadness of his two lives to force himself to improve and by the time it was time to leave for the tournament Azemo was on the verge of learning the technique.

"You can finish learning it on the road. Let's go." Kaede was in a carriage snuggled between Bella and Ima. If Azemo did not know how ferocious she was he might have even mistaken her for a child relaxing before a long trip but as soon as that thought crossed his mind a wooden spear knocked him into the carriage.

And with that his days at the Spear Goddess' palace were over.