Chapter 48: Instinct

Chapter 48:

"___" - Speech

(___) - Thoughts

(___) - Internal Voice(s)

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One week had passed since Jin had started mentoring Issei. Like usual, their day had started with Jin's definition of a "jog" towards the upper course with Raon accompanying them. 

BZZT! 

The hatchling himself sent a jolt of lightning into the flowing current, causing the hearts of the fish within it to come to an abrupt stop as they lifessly floated towards the surface. "Hehe." And into Raon's mouth, of course. 

"I suppose that's one way to do it," Jin shrugged. Walking over towards the stream as he dipped his hand in the water. "Can't let myself get shown up so easily though," In the span of only a few seconds, spheres of ice formed around a couple of the fish simply trying to get by. Solidifying around them as Jin reached in and lifted a few of them out from the water. 

The spheres cracked open shortly after, leaving the bodies of the cold fish perfectly intact in his hands. "Not bad," He commented to himself, throwing one of the fish up and catching it in his mouth as he walked towards Issei. 

"Don't tell me we're sparring already?" Issei jolted upright as Jin inched nearer, a bead of sweat dripping down his face as he remembered what had happened the day before. 

Though Jin ended up declaring him the winner of the spar, the injuries he sustained from it didn't make him seem like it. Especially considering the fact Jin wasn't using any of his abilities. 

"Well, not exactly." 

"Then?" 

"I wasn't sure at first, but I think I've finally managed to pinpoint your most crucial flaw when it comes to your fighting ability." Issei quirked his brow, awaiting Jin's explanation. "It's nothing awfully complex or especially hard to fix, your reaction time is simply too slow. Nothing more nothing less." 

"That's it?" Issei conjectured in disbelief. 

"Mhm, you have power, speed, and endurance but you lack the reflexes to glue them all together. The amount of lag you show in between predicting, blocking, and countering an attack is too slow. Which is why you can't capitalize on the small openings you've picked up on during our fights. You're basically a missile with no guidance system, destructive yet inaccurate." 

Issei dipped his head as he scratched his chin, slowly letting his explanation sink in. "I think I understand what you're getting at, but how should I go about fixing that?" The corners of Jin's mouth twisted into a foreboding smile as he waved his hand. Summoning around a dozen small arrow-shaped icicles around him. 

"Simple, I'm going to continue to throw attacks at you, and you're going to continue to either block or dodge them. Easy enough?" 

"Yeah," As time went on, Issei had become more and more acclimated to Jin's bone shattering training methods. As of now he didn't mind it as much as he did during their initial sessions, which was primarily a result of the almost never-ending feeling of growth he experienced day by day. 

It was nothing less than a surreal experience, every time he awoke it was like he had left behind an inferior version of himself. 

Did he miss Rias? Yes.

Did he miss his impossibly perverted friends? Of course. 

Did he miss the human world? Absolutely. 

But even with all that looming over him, he couldn't deny how pleased the Dragon in him was as his power soared continuously. Jin was in essence finding every part inside Issei that he chose to hold back, and forcing him to face it head on. 

Showing him that the things he thought would be naught more than chains, were the greatest allies he could ever hope for. 

"Good, unfortunately since you're a Devil I won't be able to heal any injuries you might sustain. So try not to get hit too much alright?" Unsurprisingly, Issei was given no heads up. 

SLICE!

The surface of his skin was quickly cut open by three blades of ice, which thanks to their velocity looked like blurs to him. 

"Don't think, just do." 

Right as the words left his mouth, a barrage of four more spikes assaulted Issei. With his dangersense now being on fullblast, he managed to successfully evade two of them, but was unable to account for the other two aimed at his shins. 

"Kuh!" He grunted, gritting his teeth together as he refused to allow the pain to cloud his senses any further. 

"Fluidity over form," Jin continued. 

For some reason, despite Issei's current struggle Jin decided to increase the speed of his attacks. Doing whatever he could to force Issei into the tightest corner possible, making him feel as if Jin had contracted a set of walls that were slowly closing in on him. Threatening to crush him like a hydraulic press if he didn't catch himself in time. 

"Don't like the pain? Don't get hit." Jin mocked, cruelly allowing Issei to endure an endless tsunami of cuts, pretty much sending his skin through a shredder. 

There were no pauses, second after second Issei was put through the torment. Even though his body was never in mortal danger, his mind was almost fully convinced that he would soon be on the brink of death. Every time he tried to get a word out, another unforgiving blade of ice would punish him for letting his focus wander, even for the span of a mere blink. 

"There's no use in looking for a pattern, unless you're some super-genius who can figure out their opponents rhythm at a glance," Truth be told, Jin was being forced to exert a significant amount of his concentration in order to make sure that the trajectory of every single blade differed attack after attack. Having Issei get used to only one form of attacking would defeat the entire purpose of the training after all. 

Furthermore, prediction was not something that suited Issei nor Jin as the latter had deciphered during their sparring sessions. Reason being, they were both complete and utter power idiots. The only difference between the two was that Jin wore it like a badge of honor, loving the sensation of destroying an opponent's carefully planned tactics with nothing but raw might. 

In short, it suited him. 

"Still not getting it?" Jin inquired as he watched Issei continue to struggle as the attacks became gradually more relentless. "Guess I'll have to push you even further until you do," Issei watched the indifference plague Jin's expression, being forced to experience the chilling sensation of having his skin torn time and time again. 

He hated it, how could this be called training? All Jin was doing was nagging him, his comments served no other purpose but to taunt him. 

This couldn't be just another scenario of Jin using "tough love" to educate him, he was just being toyed with. 

Even if that wasn't the case, whatever Jin was doing — infuriated him! 

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

"Oh-hoh, looks like you could do it after all." Jin halted his attacks, performing a clenching motion with his first as the blades of ice shattered into tiny pieces. 

"...What did I just do?" Issei muttered under his breath in disbelief. 

He had just blocked seven out of ten of Jin's icicles, all of which were at least five times faster than the one's he had used initially. And if that in of itself wasn't bizarre enough he didn't even know how he had pulled it off! 

It was like his body had just moved on autopilot. 

"You did just as I instructed," Jin smiled. "You stopped thinking, and just moved." 

"I still don't get it," Issei looked down at his now summoned [Boosted Gear], of which he had no recollection of activating. 

"That my fellow host is what we call instinct, the natural fighting ability that every Dragon is born with." He explained whilst tapping his head. "It's not something that you use consciously which is why you struggled so much whilst you were tryna use that noggin of yours to calculate a solution to my attacks." 

(But with only an arm worth of blood in you, isn't activating it in only a week a bit too fast? Don't tell me he's also one of those genius-types.) He brooded as an image of Oron flashed in his mind. (Whatever, progress is progress so I shouldn't be complaining. Just try not to surpass me before the month is over Hyoudou, Azazel wouldn't let me hear the end of it.) 

"Instinct? Is it really that simple?" Understandably so, Issei struggled to comprehend how he was able to deflect such seemingly lightning-fast attacks through a concept that sounded unbelievably lofty. 

"It's biology, that's all. But don't let it get to your head, the attacks you deflected were slow as hell, not to mention the fact that you didn't even get all of them." The time they had from here on out would be crucial for Issei's growth, the last thing any half-decent mentor would do was let him get complacent. "I didn't even double my strength." He added. 

"Oh c'mon can't you at least let me—" Before he could finish his sentence, he flopped onto the floor back first. His body was exhausted from the amount of damage he had sustained in a short span of time, furthered by the fact that it would need to start healing the wounds on his skin. 

"Guess you've earned it," Right as Jin was about to walk towards Raon who was still gulping down an endless stream of fish in the river, he came to a halt. "That's not right," His reptilian pupils contracted, his body shifting around as he eerily stared into the distance. "Three of them, all adults," He murmured aloud. 

"Raon." 

"What?" He replied whilst still chewing his food. 

"Don't leave this area, no matter what." Having Dragon's nearby wasn't unusual nor alarming to him at this point, however they tended to keep a distance of around 50 meters from Jin at all times. Never showing any intent to get up close and personal with him. 

Yet the Dragon's he had picked up on, were just about to hit the 40 meter mark. 

"Do I look like I want to leave?" He quipped sarcastically, ignoring Jin as he continued to gobble down on his food. 

EHHHHHNAAAAAAAAAANOOOWA!

Out of the blue, an ear-rupturing roar echoed across almost the entirety of the region. Wiping the sarcasm clean of Raon's face as he stared in the sounds direction with worry. 

Jin on the other hand, simply donned a deep scowl on his face as he started to approach its origin. "Ordering me to come to you lot huh?" His aura started to flare up as he let the incomers feel his intent. "Alright then."