Training

Bang!

"Ack!"

Flying through the air, Sebastian was struck directly into the chest. Currently, he was fighting against one of the shadow figures.

It had been four months since arriving in the Dark Guild and he trained everyday to get closer to mastering the Flawless style but he couldn't. His progress may have increased but it hasn't increased by an extreme amount.

"Sebastian! How's training going?" Bastian asked, walking inside the black veil.

"It's going great! The Flawless style is hard as you say but Blitzkrieg wasn't that hard to master." Sebastian responded.

"What do you mean? You haven't even started making progress on it."

"What?! I copied your hand movement and power."

"Blitzkrieg is meant to be fast so the eye can't see it. Your version of blitzkrieg is focused on power and not equilibrium of speed and power."

A shadow figure came rushing toward Bastian and seconds later, the shadow figure had three huge holes. He then repeated it four more times to help Sebastian get a broader understanding of the technique.

"When an enemy rushes, a fast and powerful attack is needed to take them by surprise and a quick strike will be enough to kill them."

"When will I be assigned a mission? It's been four months since coming here and I want to get out." Sebastian said, annoyed and bored.

Nothing fun had happened since he underwent training. His battles against Bastian were no longer fun since he's always been losing them. To add onto his boredom, he hasn't seen the outside at all.

"When Ragnar deems you strongest enough, then you will receive a mission. Until then, I'll be teaching you another technique."

Groaning, Sebastian walked toward a house made out of broken brick and went inside. The interior of the house wasn't in good condition but it was habitable.

"Cataclysm!" Bastian shouted.

Sebastian sensed a presence inside the ground and dodged out of the house's window. The ground began to rumble as Bastian was infusing energy into the ground. The entire zone inside the veil was destroyed and looked like broken ruins.

"My house!" Sebastian exclaimed.

"Cataclysm is an easier technique to manage as all it requires you to do is infuse the ground with your energy and let it run amok."

"How about I do this!"

Sebastian flash-stepped in front of Bastian and slammed his fist into his abdomen. He expected Bastian to flinch or slide back but he stood there, unfazed.

'Run amok? Fine, I'll let it run amok inside your body!' Sebastian thought.

"Blah! What are you do-" Bastian tried to speak.

Blood started to seep out of Bastian's mouth as Sebastian's energy began to invade his body, running amok. He was under constant assault from Sebastian's energy, which made it impossible to remove his fist from his abdomen.

Before Bastian could pass out, Ragnar appeared out of thin air and placed his hand on Sebastian's shoulder. Using a small fraction of his power, Ragnar broke Sebastian's shoulder with his vibration magic.

"Ha! He got the upper hand on you." Ragnar laughed.

"He only got the upper hand since the restrictions placed on my body are making me weaker. Besides, his energy overpowered mine since we just got back from the hunt." Bastian refuted while holding his abdomen.

"Hunt?" Sebastian asked, confused.

"We were hunting an exiled Elder Dragon. He may have been old but he was a royal dragon before his exile. The fight lasted longer than we expected hence why it took a four months. I have to admit, that damn dragon had very massive mana reserves though." Ragnar revealed.

Looking at Ragnar, he had a massive slash across his chest and two massive teeth markings. Although it looked like his injuries were healed, it still looked like it was healing and hurting Ragnar at the same time. 

"Those injuries from the fight?" Sebastian asked Ragnar.

"Yes. I may be powerful but dragons get stronger as they age and closer to mana. "

Before Sebastian could ask Ragnar and Bastian more questions, a portal opened up beneath him and sucked him inside. After he was sucked inside, he noticed he was high up in the sky and couldn't brace for impact.

"Ahhh!" Sebastian screamed.

Bang!

"Alright, time to break you down and build you up. If you can pass this training, then you'll be ready to undertake a mission by the old man." Bastian said.

"My strength… It's disappearing!" Sebastian noticed.

"This training will be fifteen months and it will build your mental fortitude, strength, and overall capabilities."

"Fifteen months!? What kind of training is that?!" Sebastian replied, surprised.

Bang!

"You will run around this entire field until I say stop and if you stop, I will increase the difficulty. Go!" Bastian said before the portal closed.

'This should be easy.'

Running, Sebastian noticed how slow his movements were and how sloppy his flash-stepping was. He then realized the field was never ending as he ran for the next twenty minutes and noticed he didn't have enough stamina for the whole field.

"Did it hit you now? Everything you built up until now is gone and you'll be starting from scratch. This field extends fifty miles and I should remind you about something… This is required daily so be quick so you can move onto the next exercise." A random shadowy figure said, appearing out of nowhere.

Sebastian's heart skipped a beat. "F-Fifty miles!?"

Sprinting at full force, Sebastian was determined to finish the exercise but the run proved harder than it seemed. Along the course, there were obstacles blocking his path and dangerous paths to tread across. The course run even featured an entire mountains to climb over and down.

…

Fifteen hours later…

"I-I finished it!" Sebastian spoke, out of breath.

"Great! Do you see that axe and huge tree? I want you to chop that tree down and drag it all the way to the other side of the field.

Thump!

Hearing those words, Sebastian fell to the ground and stared into the night sky, which never changed since his arrival. His thoughts were running rampant in his mind as he thought about what what wrong in his life.

"I might suggest you be quick as if you don't finish it… You'll be punished." The shadowy man said in a menacing tone.

Swing!

Sebastian then swung his fist toward the man in hopes that it will knock him out but it went through his head instead.

"Did you think I was actually here? I'm nothing but an illusion to keep you from going insane and to check your progress." The man smiled.

"F*ck it!" 

Sebastian stood up and quickly ran toward the axe. Picking the axe, Sebastian swung hard at the tree but it ricochet off. He repeated this process for the next five minutes and gave up.

"Oh, I forgot to say but this tree is insanely durable so you got to hit it extremely hard."

Thump!

Hearing his words again, Sebastian fell to the ground and started to contemplate his life. If hadn't accepted Bastian's offer four months ago, he wouldn't have been here but now it was too late.

"It isn't as hard as you think but just know, Ragnar went through this training and he was five-years-old at the time. Strength isn't given, rather it's earned throughout countless hardships and battles."

Bang!

Sebastian then slammed his knuckles into the tree and kept swinging for the next few minutes. After he was done swinging, his knuckles were bloody as hell and looked disfigured.

Bang!

Bang!

Soon, a small chunk of the tree's barks fell off and revealed another layer of bark. Immediately, Sebastian was able to tell the difference between this layer and the last layer.

Picking up the axe, Sebastian slammed the axe hard into the tree and managed to cut through two additional layers of bark. He kept hacking at it and earned the man's respect for his willpower and resilience. 

'That tree has fifty-five layers and it gets harder to chop through as you go deeper… I'll be back in a week and check on his progress.' The man thought and disappeared.

Bang!

…

One Week Later…

Bang!

Sebastian made significant progress since cutting the tree but he only managed to go through twenty layers. After a while of cutting the tree, Sebastian would run the field again and cut the other tree on the opposite side.

Since this was the hardest part of the training, the man decided not to give Sebastian a punishment in fear for what Bastian would do to him, if he found out. Both of the trees had twenty layers chopped.

Thump!

Clap! Clap! Clap!

"You've made great progress on cutting the tree and you ran the field daily. I'll be adding another exercise to increase your strengthening." The man spoke, surprised.

The realm began to shake violently until a lake appeared beside the running field. The waves in the lake were moving rapidly and made loud noises.

"Once you get half through the running field, you will swim across the lake and run the rest of the running field, then you'll chop the tree again"

"Are you kidding me!? I've been chipping away at the twenty-first layer for the past three days and I never even broke it! Now you want me to swim through those fast waves!?"

Looking toward the man, Sebastian realized he disappeared. He then looked at the waves of water and noticed how fast they were compared to other waves from the oceans around the world.

Cursing internally, Sebastian jumped into the rapid waves of water and began to swim. The rapid waves made it hard for him to swim through as they constantly knocked him around.

The lake extended fifty-five miles like the field but only the lake would be the hardest challenge Sebastian would face. The rapid waves were going at a speed of ten miles-per-hour in every direction.

"Ack!"

'It's impossible… How can one swim through these waves…' Sebastian thought before losing consciousness.

…

"He lost consciousness." The shadow man spoke.

"Retrieve him and repair the tree for his punishment." Ragnar replied, staring through a mirror.

…

Splash!

"Who's there!?" Sebastian asked, waking up.

Looking around, Sebastian realized he had passed out from swimming and had been dragged back onto land. One thing Sebastian realized was the tree was repaired.

"Fifteen months… I don't think I'll even live that long…"

Sebastian walked toward the tree and began to chop at the tree again. After awhile he reached the twenty-first layer and groaned before running on the field again.

…

"We received intel about another Primordial werewolf and possibly more becoming one. We must infiltrate the enemy lines and kill them, otherwise we'll lose this war. Call upon our ally, the dwarves, and tell them to mass produce their weapons." A man said.

Resting on a throne, the man watched as his men besieged a large castle. From a glance, it looked like the defenders were losing but in reality they were winning.

"General Alaric, we have successfully negotiated with the neutral academy in the west and they allowed us to send our young vampires there but they can't cause a disturbance." A soldier said, kneeling before the man.

"Inform the king and send our best vampires to the academy. We'll see if they're as great as everyone says." Alaric's eyes flashed red.

"One last thing…" The soldier whispered into Alaric's ear.

"What!? How did it happen!?"

"The damages are from the Dark Guild."

"Those damn pests! Once we rid the world of Werewolves, the Dark Guild is next!" Alaric declared.

In anger, the general stood up and flash-stepped forward. The defender, noticing a single vampire was approaching them, grinned and ran forward with their intent to kill.

"You wolves always believed in your strength, but that will be your downfall!"

Before the defenders could react, a swipe of blood was launched forth and cut through their armor without much resistance. As the general slowly walked forward, he noticed a powerful individual donned in a black suit of armor. 

"General Alaric! I knew you would be here!" An old man said.

"Impossible! You should be dead!" Alaric said in disbelief.

The vampires around Alaric looked in his direction to see who he was talking about and immediately realized who is was. In the past, this old man was a nuisance for the vampire so they sent out a kill squad consisting of multiple primordial vampires to dispose of him.

Once news reached that the old man was dead, they celebrated and decided to attack the werewolves. But now the old man was alive again and his presence alone would be enough to change the tide of the ongoing war.

"Hilston Shadowflare..." Alaric said with great fear.