Chapter 25 - Training

At dawn Hawkwood could be seen standing over Ango and Little snow inside their cave.

Seeing the due in each other's embrace Hawkwood smiled and muttered "looks like these two are quite attached to each other"

Little snow was lying on top of Ango and he was drooling while in deep sleep. Suddenly he heard a stern voice saying "Get up kid, you have rested long enough. We have a lot to do".

Ango suddenly got up to his feet, scaring the hell out of little snow.

"Yes, teacher" said Ango while yawning but sparks of excitement could be seen in his eyes.

"We have a lot to do but first … wash your face" said Hawkwood, throwing a waterskin towards him while looking at the still dripping drool on Ango's face.

"huh?!! Ah…. Yes teacher" said Ango with a little confusion.

After a while

…

…

Hawkwood had decided to use the orcs' method of body enhancement on Ango, without the usage of magic of course, but with some adjustment. He first taught him how the moves were done and told him what they were called.

"So??! Only twenty fucking pushups and you're dead ??! you want to learn how to fight with a body like that? You can't even fight a cat like this. Get up you worthless worm … I said GET UP…"

Hawkwood's scolding could be heard from miles away he was constantly shouting at Ango, riling him up and making him push himself further, while Hawkwood himself was sitting cross-legged … on Ango's back …

Ango was sweating profoundly and cursing "Who sits on someone and makes them do pushups"

A while later

"You can't even swing a tree branch, how the hell are you going to swing a steel sword? Move that blasted hand of yours"

"Branch? A BRANCH??? You call a tree trunk a fucking BRANCH ??" Ango cursed in his head with sweat streaming down his face like he was a fountain.

…

Sometime later

"Run you dumb dog, you are not fit to be called a wolf. Run little maggot, … RUN" said Hawkwood while looking at little snow with disdain.

"Wof Woof"

"Did you jus-"

…

At Noon

"Now you're going to hunt for our food, intense training requires nutritious food for improvement. Now go" said Hawkwood with a lecturing tone.

'Hunting?? I can't even move my legs and you want me to hunt?!?' Ango was complaining none stop in his head but nonetheless, he went to catch something. Two hours later he returned empty-handed; he was too tired to be subtle and he couldn't set a trap without his rope that he had forgotten to take with himself.

While he had gone to hunt rabbits, Hawkwood had hunted a beast and was roasting it on the fire.

"I thought this might happen so I got us some meat, come. Eating is an important part of the training."

After they had eaten, Hawkwood told him to nap for an hour so that he wouldn't be tired for Mckenzie's lessons.

When Ango woke up, he felt sore, so much so that his legs were shaking with each step but he did not mind the pain, this was not an unpleasant pain, this one meant progress.

Piere's teachings took 4 hours and he taught him the basics of science, magic and common knowledge. He introduced and explained the different elements, the different races and their specialties with many examples so he could learn them.

'So according to Piere, the elemental energies are, air, fire, water, earth, metal, life, light and dark'. He also said that gnomes' are naturally attuned to air but a rare mutation causes some to instead use lightning, like him but that it uses much more mana than air'

"So lad, metal is.."

…

After the theoretical lessons, it was time for Ango to practice magic.

"Now Ango" said Piere "Mana is like an additional limb inside your body, you'll have to will it to move or to cast magic"

"Try to pour some of your mana outside of your body"

"Alright" Ango responded, ready to do as he was told

'Move outside, move outside'

'Hm.. it's not moving, maybe I should continue doing it'

Half an hour later

'Move, move, move, move'

"Why the fuck doesn't it move. MOVE DAMN IT" Ango had been trying to 'will' his mana but to no success, it was still mindlessly beating like a heart.

Piere had been watching him with interest all this time, he wanted to find out everything he could about pure magic but he was disappointed, Ango couldn't even move the mana outside of his body, it was the easiest part for others. He thought that maybe he was looking at it from the wrong perspective, He scratched his right cheek and voiced out

"Hm.. your case is unique, maybe we're doing something wrong. Your mana is constantly moving without your interference so let's first try to stop it"

"I'll try to do that professor"

Ango took a deep breath to calm himself and then tried to will his mana to stop beating.

Instantly the beating mana inside his body stopped its action, Ango could feel it move toward the back of his neck and stay there.

"Aghhh"

A sudden weakness filled his body and he fell to his knees. He was breathing raggedly and the pain in his body from the physical training was amplified.

"Lad what is it? I can't feel your mana anymore"

"It- it stopped beating but- I suddenly feel weak"

"Weak?hm… will your mana to move again"

Ango didn't answer and just willed it. This time he wasn't disappointed and the mana started moving. Wherever the mana passed, he could feel strength return to that part of his body. Less than a second later the mana was beating like it was before he had stopped it; the return of his strength made him inwardly sigh with relief.

'For a second I thought I had turned back to my weak body …'

"Is the weakness gone now?"

"Yes professor"

"Hm… this is highly peculiar" Piere started to stroke his favorite plaything, his beard and exclaimed "Let's stop the practice here, instead tell me how the mana inside your body moves… with detail"

He then grabbed a wooden board and a strange quill that had a bigger tip than regular quills.

Ango was confused and did not see the point of this but he complied. It took Ango an hour to describe the path the mana was taking and the way it moved and Piere had drawn what he had described. The look of shock and enthusiasm on the gnome's face was getting more exaggerated by the second but Ango didn't know what was so fascinating about this.

"By Athirius, this is the nervous system" Piere exclaimed

"A what?"

"NERVOUS SYSTEM, the system of nerves, the things that enable you to move your body"

"You mean my mana moves the way the nervous system looks?"

Piere yelled out loud as a response "NO NO LAD, IT IS THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, your mana moves along your nervous system"

"Um.. I understand that but why does that matter?"

"WHY DOES THAT MATTER? IT'S BECAUSE IT'S DIFFERENT FROM EVERY OTHER RACE" Piere roared surprisingly loudly with his small body

"Ahh professor I get that… but what is the significance of that?" Ango now felt stupid, like there was something obvious he could not understand.

"ahh…" Piere was stunned "I don't know lad to be honest, not yet but I'll find out" he said while scratching his head in embarrassment.

Ango "-_-"

…

Days passed in Training and Ango was still unable to push magic out of him, or absorb magic but he had improved his knowledge. Piere had taught him more about magic, about the gods of the higher races and their titles. He taught him more about science and its applications; He also told him about the two pillars of science and magic, Conservation of mass and Conservation of magic with many examples. But that was not what he was concerned about.

Hawkwood would now make him make his mana static during training, to strengthen his body so it would receive a better boost when he let his mana flow again. His mana, when flowing would aid his recovery and boost his physical capability and he was steadily improving in physical strength thanks to the unique training.

He was still worried though, the inability to use magic meant that he would not be able to protect himself, there was a limit to what he would be able to do with just physical strength but no matter how much he willed it, he couldn't do it.

On the last day of the third week, after Piere was done explaining the principle of lightning that gnomes had reverse engineered, Ango failed once again to push his mana outside and went to bed disappointed. Another thing that had occupied his mind was that in these three weeks he had begun to dream about the forest again, it had improved his mood but also made him wonder about the reason.

But that night was different, that night he would return to the battlefield

….

"THE DRAGONS ARE BURNING THE HOUSES, THE CHILDREN ARE INSIDE"

"HELP THE CHILDREN"

"HELP THE CHILDREN"

"SON I'M COMING FOR YOU"

"NINA WAIT FOR DAD"

A crescendo of screams and yells reached Ango's ears who was standing still, gritting his teeth while the dragons roared pillars of flaming destruction upon the land, drowning the young sparks of life in waves of fire.

Anger surged inside him, he was just a bystander inside someone else's body but he could feel everything happening inside.

The body breathed out and spread its legs, with the left leg in the front. The palm of the left hand rose, aiming at the flying dragon while the right hand came near the right side of the back of his head. The motion was smooth and fast but Ango was feeling this through the man.

The right hand made a sudden grabbing motion and that's when Ango felt it, the flowing mana inside the body poured towards the right hand, gathering in the shape of the spear but not like the mana inside the man's body. Ango could feel it, see it even from the corner of the body's eyes; the mana coming from the man's hand was transforming into golden lightning energy when it came out.

The golden lightning turned into an eight-meter crackling long spear but then it started to shrink as the body's grip tightened around it.

7 meters

6 meters

5 meters

4 meters

3 meters

The Golden lightning spear now had a tinge of white in it, the crackles of lightning were so intense that the battle around the man had stopped temporarily; all eyes focused on him and the spear.

The man's calm visage crumbled, his muscles bulged as he roared and threw the lightning toward the dragon.

And the battlefield fell silent, save for the dying cries of the dragon that was ripped apart by the wrath of the lightning bolt of a man.

"Ango"

"Ango"

"Ango"

"ANGO"

"WOOF"

…..

Ango opened his eyes, to see the worried face of Hawkwood, the excited eyes of Piere and… the crumbling stones of the cave's wall crackling with red lightning.