CHAPTER 34: VICTORIA'S DETERMINATION

The next stage of Gideon's training was difficult to say the least.

*BANG*

Gideon was sent flying and took down a couple trees in the process. He coughed up some blood and cursed as he looked around for Draven, but he was nowhere to be seen.

This was his training. He was supposed to successfully block or dodge one of Draven's sneak attacks without using any magic while Draven would suppress his power to his level. Sounds easy enough, right?

*BANG*

Wrong.

As Gideon continued to smash through trees, he couldn't help but think that Victoria had it better. Currently she was still trying to successfully sneak up on the dummy and kill it while hiding her killing intent. Her progress was slow initially but she was starting to get the hang of it.

Gideon stood up once again and rubbed his bruised rib. Even though Draven was technically holding back, he still easily gave Gideon a beating, reminding him that if these guys wanted to kill him and Victoria, they would not be able to do anything about it.

*BANG*

"Sense me with your instincts, your 4 senses won't help you." Draven's voice sounded all over the place making it impossible for Gideon to pinpoint him.

*BANG*

He was sent flying again.

*BANG*

And again.

*BANG*

And again.

...

"Haa~ haa~" Gideon panted heavily as he struggled to get on his feet while Draven appeared.

"Let's call it a day." To him, Gideon was too exhausted and so the training would be pointless.

"No, I can still go on." Despite his body aching, Gideon still squeezed the words out. These caused Gideon to raise a brow, but he decided to agree.

Despite him suppressing his strength, Gideon was still outclassed with ease despite it only being training.

It was getting on his nerves because first of all, Draven's attack patterns were random. Sometimes he aimed for his neck while other times it would be his kidney. So Gideon had no idea as to where he would strike. Secondly, he would always attack at different intervals. Sometimes he would attack after a few minutes, other times it would be up to half an hour causing Gideon to drop his guard which was a fatal mistake each time.

However this time, Gideon was feeling confident. This was because after attack, he would get the sensation of heat. At first, he didn't notice it, but as time went on, he started to realize that the part of his body that was about to get hit would get hot.

'You know what to do, now it's just for you to react accordingly.' Gideon reminded himself as he closed his eyes and completely shut off the outside world and gripped his daggers tightly. He was as still as a statue.

Minutes passed by and no attack cane, but he didn't drop his guard and waited patiently for the attack to come. And after fifteen minutes, it did.

Gideon suddenly swung one of his daggers at the area slightly above his right hip, and sure enough.

*CLANG*

The sound of metal clashing rung loudly as Draven slowly appeared with a saber in his hand.

"Impressive, not only were you are to sense me in time, you were also able to force me to draw my saber." Draven genuinely praised Gideon, he expected him to grasp this in a few more days at the very least, but he was pleasantly surprised.

'I'm starting to see why this guy and his sister were chosen to kill this threat.' His impression of Gideon and Victoria grew.

Coincidentally, Victoria was able to defeat the dummy roughly at the same time.

Meanwhile, Gideon collapsed on the floor as he was hit with a wave of exhaustion. Although he could technically last for a while, he was constantly pushing his brain to max capacity and his aching body didn't help. So the lethargy was normal.

You may be wondering, if Gideon's instincts were unsharpened until now, then how was he able to constantly respond to sneak attacks? The truth is, after surviving in the wilderness, he had subconsciously learnt how to sense killing intent, he himself only figured this out shortly after he defeated the dummy.

"You did good, now rest, your next stage of training is gonna be worse." Draven said, but his words fell on deaf ears as Gideon had already fallen asleep.

Meanwhile, Victoria was beginning to have another breakthrough after she ended the dummy. She was currently in a meditative position as purple particles silently floated around her.

'This is it! Sensing my killing intent gave me insight on how to properly sense and integrate the aquafire with me fully.' Just as she thought, after she learnt how to reign in her killing intent, she suddenly Gaines insight on how to let her body match her magic's level.

The purple particles suddenly shook and flew towards Victoria rapidly like excited children. As they entered her body, she used them to cover every part of her interior. Bones, blood veins, nerves, nothing was left out. She then took a deep breath as she realized that the next part was going to be very painful.

*POP*

A muffled popping sound came from her body causing her to shiver in pain. If one could see her interior, they would see that the purple particles of aquafire were actually destroy the different parts of her body before quickly repairing it. One could imagine how much pain she was feeling currently.

What she was doing was as simple as destroying and repairing her body,she was actually making it so that her body was built for her new magic!

If you're confused at this point, then it's like this. While a child is forming in the womb, their bodies are made to be compatible with their elements. This is why you would see that fire mages are typically wild and open while ice mages are more reserved or quiet.

So Victoria was quite literally changing her own body structure so that it would be able to properly handle the aquafire. Something she was only ably to control briefly because she had the two elements that made it up.

"ARGH." Victoria screamed through gritted teeth as she felt her whole body slowly destroy itself before repairing once again, truly a horrible cycle of pain.

The pain only got more intense and she could feel her consciousness fading, but something told her that if she were to stop now, then there would be horrible consequences.

'Come on! If you fail then you'll never be able to catch up to Gideon and help him. You'll become a burden. What is a little bit of pain compared to what he would feel when he realizes that he will be the only one to fight strong opponents.' Victoria used her own insecurities to fuel her determination. Even when her skin cracked and bled, even when her seven orfices spewed out blood, even when the sound of her body destroying itself sounded. She ignored all this with only one thought in mind.

'I must be by his side no matter what.'

An unknown amount of time passed and finally, Victoria felt that she had succeeded, but then she started to loose consciousness, and this time, she wasn't able to stop it.

But just before her vision darkened, she felt a pair of arms catch her from falling to the ground. Then, all went black.

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For some STUPID reason, this chapter disappeared TWICE! But I was finally able to finish it. Please share with a others and give power stones, it means a lot.