First Session

/Clang!/

The sun's heat pressed down on the training yard and dust was thrown up. The area seemed trampled with numerous footsteps and impacts.

/Clang!/

Two men were in the middle of the makeshift arena, both shirtless and their bodies glistening with sweat. Both exerted tremendous effort as their swords clashed numerous times.

They have been at it for hours already and the sun had risen to the center of the sky, making the heat even more prevalent.

But neither seemed bothered by it as their swords continued clashing against each other.

Cassian jumped back to create distance and break the flow, as he was starting to be overwhelmed. Not resting for a moment, he immediately dashed back at Takemikazuchi, his sword flashing as it sailed toward the opponent's midsection.

Takemikazuchi moved like water, fluid and smooth. He sidestepped the strike with ease, his hand lashing out to hit the flat of Cassian's blade, sending it off balance. Before Cassian could recover, he felt a knee connect to his diaphragm, knocking the wind out of him and making him wheeze for breath.

He immediately felt the edge of a sword at his throat, pressing just enough to exert pressure but not draw blood.

The round ended with Cassian's loss again.

"Your swordsmanship is… decent, but your movements are rigid," Takemikazuchi observed. "You're treating each attack like a separate action. Your strikes, your defense, your positioning—they must flow together."

It was frustrating. He was stronger and faster than his opponent and yet he was being toyed with. It looked like Takemikazuchi was completely unbothered by being outmatched physically, instead used his vastly superior skills to completely dominate his opponent.

'Ugh, is this how Killer Croc feels when getting his ass beat by Batman?'

"There must be no pause or hesitation in your techniques. Every motion must be followed by another, each strike connected to the last, each defense part of the flow. If your moves don't flow into the next, then you're not fighting, you're just blindly throwing out attacks in hopes of one sticking. If there are breaks between each of your moves, then they become openings for your opponent to exploit."

Takemikazuchi continued explaining, his face serious and stern, but not unkind. "In battle, you can't afford to treat each strike as an isolated event. You're thinking too much about your next move instead of flowing with the one you just made. Your attacks and defenses must be continuous, part of a single stream of action. Watch closely."

Takemikazuchi assumed a battle stance, his sword standing ready. He struck downward, but instead of stopping or resetting after the strike, his body twisted smoothly, transitioning the downward motion into a low sweep, as if dodging an incoming attack. From the sweep, his body coiled again, springing upward into an upward thrust, the entire sequence fluid and unbroken. There was no pause, no awkward resetting of stance—each motion seamlessly transitioned into the next.

"You see?" Takemikazuchi asked, pausing in his final position. "There's no stopping, no breaks in the flow. In a real fight, hesitation—no matter how small—gives your opponent an opening. If you finish a strike and have to reset, that's a moment where you're vulnerable. Against monsters with primitive minds, it is not a problem, but as soon as you face someone experienced, they will be able to easily take advantage of that vulnerability."

Cassian raptly listened to every word and committed them to memory. As frustrating as it was to be shown just how deficient he was, it was also a euphoric feeling to feel himself improving each round. Every time Takemikazuchi gave him guidance, he absorbed it and tried implementing it into the next round. Every time his mistakes were pointed out, he worked on correcting them.

He was enjoying this. He was enjoying this as much as he enjoyed his battle with the Infant Dragon. While that battle gave him the excitement of a life-and-death battle. This was giving him a different sense of enjoyment, one of fulfillment and improvement, but just as intense.

And judging by the way Takemikazuchi's serious expression morphed into a grin every time they fought, Cassian guessed, he was too.

Although, if there was one thing he could do away with, it would be the eyes of a certain perverted voyeur roaming across his body.

At first, he could not discern the intention behind the gaze, only the intensity. But after so many cases of it happening, Cassian began to somehow feel and make out the emotions and intentions in that gaze.

And good goddess was that a lot of lust being thrown at him.

It made him so self-conscious that he had the desire to put his shirt back on, but prevailed in favor of not wanting to ruin it.

'No, just ignore it, pay it no mind, and concentrate on the training.' Shaking his head, he shrugged it off and got into a fighting stance to continue his lesson.

"Try it," Takemikazuchi urged, stepping back to give Cassian room.

Cassian hesitated at first, gripping his sword with the same focus he had always used. He positioned himself in a traditional stance, preparing to strike. He slashed downward, but when he completed the motion, he instinctively started to pull back to reset his stance.

"Stop!" Takemikazuchi said sharply, holding up a hand. "You're already breaking the flow. Don't stop after the strike. Think of it as a single, continuous action. Your body moves as one. Each strike is connected to the next, and each defense is part of the same sequence."

Cassian nodded, trying again. He took a breath, raised his sword, and swung downward. This time, instead of pulling back or resetting, he let the momentum of the strike carry him into a sidestep, imagining a counterattack coming at him from the left. He swung again, but as he finished the second strike, his feet were too far apart, causing him to lose balance.

Takemikazuchi stepped in immediately, guiding Cassian's feet with gentle but firm motions. "You're still thinking of each strike separately. Stop thinking about individual actions. Imagine you're water, moving in one smooth current. Don't fight your momentum—use it."

He swung again, this time focusing less on the sword and more on his whole body—his feet, his hips, his shoulders, everything. His downward strike flowed naturally into a spinning motion, which led into a horizontal slash. It wasn't perfect, but this time, he didn't stop. He followed the momentum of the spin, letting it carry him into a dodge to the side, then brought the sword around again in an upward arc.

Takemikazuchi watched carefully, his critical eye-catching every small misstep, but he nodded approvingly as he saw Cassian begin to grasp the concept. "Better. Now, you're starting to understand. In battle, you won't have time to think, 'I've made this strike, now what?' You have to trust that your body knows what to do next."

Takemikazuchi found himself to be enjoying this training very much. Cassian was talented. Extremely so. He grasped subjects that took others weeks, within hours, and quickly implemented them into his combat skills. He's never had one of his students follow his teachings so fast and to such a degree. Instead of looking at the training he agreed to give as a chore, he started genuinely looking forward to it.

Takemikazuchi continued, "Think of a fight like a conversation. You don't stop to consider every word before you say it—you let the flow of conversation guide you. Combat is the same. Each move is a response to the last, whether it's yours or your opponent's. You adapt, you flow, you keep moving."

Cassian nodded, feeling a sense of clarity settling over him. "So, it's about staying in the moment. Not thinking too far ahead, but not falling behind either. Keeping a balance between planning and letting instincts take over."

"Exactly," Takemikazuchi said, stepping forward to face Cassian once again. "Now, let's see it in action. I'll come at you, and I want you to respond. Follow your instincts."

"I'm ready, Sensei!" Cassian said as he resumed his stance. It felt a bit weird to call someone 'Sensei', but Takemikazuchi insisted.

"Here I come!" Takemikazuchi lunged.

--- Main Street ---

"Ughh, my everything is sore." Cassian trudged through the main street, after finishing his training session with Takemikazuchi.

They had trained non-stop for so long that the sun started setting. Takemikazuchi's familia stayed for a bit at the beginning, but they left after a while to go to the dungeon. The now swordless Mikoto took Kurogane and dived with it.

She came back gushing about how good the sword was and how it basically cut everything in its path with contemptuous ease. Cassian stayed and made conversation with them for a short while, before deciding to give them the familia privacy and left.

'I know I was planning to go back to the forge and start making the armor, but I'm really not feeling it right now.' So, he decided to put it off to tomorrow and head home for now.

Tomorrow he would dedicate the day to forging and finishing both sets of armor, and the day after tomorrow he would go back into the dungeon.

'I need to see how Leo performs in the dungeon. It's time we start going to the middle floors, so I should know how she can handle herself.'

That brought a new set of concerns to mind. Now that Leo had transitioned into being a full-time adventurer, they needed to get a new supporter, maybe two, to pick up the slack.

Cassian would need to talk to Rose again. About the matter of the supporters as well as getting a lecture about the middle floors.

'Hmm, she shouldn't nag at us as much, about advancing to the middle floors again. After all, we defeated an Infant Dragon and that basically qualifies us to face anything those floors may throw at us. Although the hordes will still be troublesome.'

He distinctly remembered that the monster spawn rate increased drastically once you entered those floors. He recalled Bell and his party being overwhelmed by the numbers.

'Now that I think about it, the pass parade that Takemikazuchi's familia did in the canon shouldn't happen again, right? I mean, their gear has massively improved through me, so they'll have fewer chances of being forced to that point. I wonder how canon will play out once Bell starts his journey…'

Caught in his musings, he slowly made his way back home.

Entering his room, he saw that Nico and Leo had gotten back already with no issue and were currently conversing with Hecate.

"How did it go?" He asked them, curious and slightly worried.

Nico grinned and answered confidently. "Amazing! We plowed through the monsters with ease. We came across a monster pantry with a bunch of them inside. You should've seen Leo, she was killing monsters left and right, and after a while her swings carried so much power, that she was bisecting several monsters with a single swing!"

Leo blushed at the praise, but Cassian noticed how she held her head up high and was proud of herself. It seemed she got a confidence boost from finally being able to fight as wanted.

"That's good to know, I'll be busy tomorrow creating your armors, but after that, we'll dive into the dungeon together again. We'll possibly be going down to the middle floors so be ready." Cassian said with a smile, glad that she was happy with her progress.

"Uh, I should build my stats as much as possible then. Nico, can we go down tomorrow as well?" Leo asked. The middle floors would be a challenge. She did not want to drag them down.

"Of course, I'm free! Oh, by the way, how did it go with you?" Nico answered her and then turned to Cassian.

"Pretty good, Takemikazuchi accepted my deal and started training me. It was a pretty good day."

"Takemikazuchi has always been a softie. He would definitely accept the deal if it would make his children stronger and safer, like I told you." Hecate pitched in. They had planned this together, with Hecate encouraging him, as she vouched for Takemikazuchi.

"Yeah, I already felt myself grow a lot and it was just the first day, I'm looking forward to more lessons. Anyway, I'm completely beat. Gonna hit the bed now, good night!"

"""Good Night!"""