"I am satisfied with the outcome of the pounding session...I meant this fighting session."Harris coughed a bit.
With a dead face filled with tiredness, Lucas stared at Harris's evil grin.
Harris's blood-red hair swaying in the air made him look like a cruel demon.
"What's next?"
"As I said, I am gonna teach you my techniques, however before that, I need to curb your wild habits," Harris said, rubbing his chin.
If left alone, this guy fights wildly trading wounds with wounds. If the enemy wasn't an experienced person, he would be shocked to death and Lucas would use this opportunity to deal with a fatal strike.
Though Harris didn't approve of such methods, this was quite useful when one didn't have any way out.
"So, what are you going to teach me?"
"First, you need to stabilise your chances. We will begin with a repetitive set of strikes. You will attack me with a thousand slashes, then a thousand cuts, parry and this will move on until we get rid of all your wasted movements."
"After that, you will punch, kick and practise martial arts that will make your body more flexible."
"Until you master all the basic moves to perfection, we will not move further."
"But, isn't this too boring," Lucas grumbled with a deadpan expression.
Harris's expression turned cold.
"Lucas, you are underestimating things too much. A simple slash practised millions of times is more fatal than a Grade 5 sword art. On advancing further, a swordsman doesn't practise complicated sword art, rather a swordsman tries to use all his comprehension to encompass everything into a simple art."
Lucas closed his eyes hearing Harris's sword.
The way of the swords was quite mystical and profound. Every time he hears Harris word's, he feels like a tiny leaf carried away by the tide of the ocean.
"Sir Harris, what level are you?"Lucas asked curiously.
"I am a Sword Master."
Lucas frowned hearing his words.
'Isn't he at 6-Star? How did he reach the swordmaster?'
According to the information, Cyprus had one person who had reached the Perfection stage of Swordsmanship.
The Chief Imperial Instructor. He is the leader of the Imperial Knights and stays behind the scenes.
Aside from him, Ralph had two while Silver Knight had one.
All of them are called Sword Sage.
As Lucas stood up, Harris pulled out something from his storage ring.
"What is this?"
"These are weight cuffs."
"You want me to practice wearing weight bracelets," Lucas asked with surprise.
"Yeah, any problem," Harris asked, tilting his head.
"No problem. It's good."Lucas just nodded his head trying to control the tears leaking from his eyes.
.......
"I am so bored."
"There are no friends, no girls, no chicks, no woman, no girlfriend, no wi.."
BANG!
"Ouch!"
"Now, what kind of shit are you spouting? Just say you want to hang out with girls."Frederick shouted while punching Parth's head.
"You don't understand. All of these are different forms of the breed called woman. Just like males can be alpha, beta, sigma, and giga.Girls can also be..."
Frederick, unable to handle it anymore, stuffed a paper into Parth's mouth, shutting his lips.
Roan sighed and whispered into Frederick's ears.
"Frederick, although this guy speaks like this, I had hardly seen him flirting with any girl."
Frederick gave Roan a deep stare with a surprised look.
"Now that you said this, I also feel this is quite weird."
Roan rubbing his chin, muttered, "Maybe he had a problem down there, that's why he always indulges in the fantasy of girls to satisfy his inner desire."
"Really?"Frederick's eyes widened with shock.
"Shut up!"
"I don't have that problem, "Parth screamed, spitting the paper.
"By the way, where is Lucas? He had been absent for 8 days. Where did he go?"
Frederick and Roan shrugged their shoulders.
They were also trying to contact Lucas but they weren't able to.
"He didn't even leave a message behind. Is he in trouble?"Roan mumbled with a panicked expression.
Knowing Lucas's meticulousness, he couldn't disappear without informing them.
"Yesterday, I asked Senior Julian about it. Since he works there, his disappearance might have caused trouble so the President might look into it."Frederick concluded.
"Let's wait a bit and then ask her about him, "Roan spoke.
"Yes, we will do that. By the way, I am going to take leave for a few days."Frederick said, startling Parth and Roan.
"What!"
"Why?"
Parth and Roan screamed.
"I have some work outside," Frederick spoke with a cold expression.
.......
In The President's Office.
The temperature inside the place was quite cold as if a storm was blowing.
Ami frowned seeing blizzards blowing around the place. The workload of the Student Council was quite high so Ami decided to assist Julian.
"Julian, your emotional fluctuation is affecting the room."Ami retorted.
Julian keeping mum gave her a deep stare.
"Did you miss him too much?"
"I don't understand your question, Miss Ami."
"I am talking about Lucas."
"He is a good workforce. He works efficiently and solves budget-related issues quite efficiently. So not having him here is quite unfortunate so naturally, I feel burdened."
"Are you missing this because he is quite useful too or because of you.."
"Miss Ami!"
Julian's sharp voice cut Ami's words.
"First thing, he isn't my tool. Secondly, I know what you are implying but please don't. I don't know about all those things but this is my problem to solve. I want to think about this slowly."
Though Ami was reprimanded, a wide grin appeared across her lips as she saw Julian's inner turmoil.
'Things like feelings aren't easy to solve but this is a good thing for Your Highness.'
"By the way did you know where he went?"Julian asked sharply.
Although she didn't show it, she was too worried about this. Except for the information that Harris had taken Lucas somewhere, she didn't know anything about his absence
Ami just shook her head thinking about the scene a few days ago.
The Vice-Principal called her in panic and informed her about Harris's letter, in which he wrote that Lucas had been kidnapped and he was going to get him back.
'Damn, I want to kill this guy. Just who is he kidding? I am sure that he is the one who kidnapped Lucas and came up with such an absurd reason.'
Ami suppressed her anger and spoke calmly, "He is alright Julian."
"Julian, I wanted to ask you this before but I refrained till now."
"Your complexion looks better. When you were checked last time by Imperial Physicians, they said it was going to get worse but something had changed, hasn't it."
Julian just gave a brief nod and pondered about sometimes deciding to speak everything starting from Luna's words to the battle she fought supported by Lucas.
The more Ami heard the more Ami's expression became worse. By the end, beads of sweat formed over the forehead.
This matter was more complicated than she thought.
'How did this guy know this much and he even knew how to treat and alleviate her pain?' Ami's eyes shone in disbelief.
The number of people who know about Julian's health is less than 10 so it didn't make sense. This much was enough to get that boy killed.
"Did Saintess Luna do something about this or did she say something?"
Julian closed her, imagining the scene and spoke what Luna said to her.
In aeons of time, existed a twisted couple that healed each other's wounds.
A promise that was made once had been kept without any regret.
Flowers will die, and the sun will set.
But even if there is life after another life, the heart will never forget.
"Isn't this too cringe?"Ami spoke with a confused expression.
'Why are these lines giving me romantic drama vibes?'
"Now, that I think. Everything about Senior Luna is cringe."Julian mumbled rubbing her chin.
"She would be offended if she heard your words."Ami chuckled.
........
Day 16th on the southern mountain range.
CLANG!CLANG!CLANG!CLANG!
"Stop jumping back like a coward."
"Be a man. Grow some balls."
BANG!BANG!BANGBANG!
Lucas suppressed the inner demon that was whispering in him to show his middle finger to Harris.
When Harris said he would practise blocking and parrying, Lucas assumed that Harris would attack him with his sword and Lucas would block him.
But, Harris's attack went way above his expectations.
He wasn't blocking the sword but the bullets spewed upon him by his own gun that he stole from the rings before coming here.
At first, Lucas's body reacted out of his will and he made a run as soon as the sound of bullets firing erupted. This was a subconscious reaction.
Although his body was capable enough to deflect it from a distance, the notion of bullets being deadly had been etched deep inside his heart from his previous world.
Only a sick psychopath would be daring enough to stand still when someone is firing a bullet. Since it had been engraved in his heart from childhood it was difficult for him to change the habit.
Lucas had hardly managed to step up when Harris reduced the firing distance of 50 metres to 25 metres and now he was firing from 10 metres away.
"This is some great stuff to play," Harris said with a devilish smile and started instructing Lucas.
"Your right foot is a bit off. Press your right calf harder. Raise your shoulders higher."
"Tsk, your balance is awkward. At least, dodge like a man. Stop dancing like a girl."
"The footwork is a man's pride but you made it look like a woman's banquet dance."
"Tsk! I am ashamed of being your teacher."
Unlike others, he wouldn't yell while giving instructions however his subtle words stab sharper than scolding.
"Hey, you are being too defensive. When you block, you should try to immobilise the enemy weapon."
Training like this wasn't hard once you get used to it but what made it worse was a thousand sets of pushups, squats, punching and kicking at night after training.
......
Day 22nd...
Tak! Tak!Tak!
Today, he practised parrying.
Lucas's swordsmanship had become sharper and sharper.
Durability, a warrior should have durability and an unyielding mind to fight for a long time without a potion.
Potions aren't something that you can use as you please. Sometimes you may be trapped in place and run out of potions. Though Lucas was an exception, Harris didn't know that.
If you rug and tear your body, again and again, your recovery ability will naturally increase.
With the presence of a blessing, it was the best time for Lucas's body to adapt to this as simple scratches and cuts as they were healed in a minute and his body can recover half of his stamina with an hour's rest Harris abused this condition to point that Lucas thought he should have to make a breakthrough instead for asking to this maniac to train him.
Harris also taught Lucas a power nap technique, in which with a sleep of 15 min, you can fill 10-20% of your exhausted mana from zero even though you are injured or on the verge of death.
Parrying consecutively was quite harder. Sometimes, the opponent hits you with great strength, throwing you into disarray.
The weight of the clash takes a toll on the wrist and if your wrist isn't strong enough, it may break or the ligaments may be stretched.
So, the wrist should be highly flexible enough for swordsmanship along with the body.
"Trace the flow. Anyone, who can go along the flow of nature, is quite hard to deal with."
"Don't just force mindlessly, go along the flow."
"I don't understand a shit," Lucas complained.
"When your weapon is deflected by a clash don't stop it forcefully. Let it go and use the momentum to spin your body or rotate the direction of force and strike it back. Use the opponent's momentum to generate a greater momentum."
......
Day 24th was the worst day of training.
Not only was he not given food, but Lucas had sparred with Harris for almost half a day continuously without a moment of rest
Getting beaten one-sided was extremely frustrating as no matter what he did, all of this we're child's play in Harris's eyes.
Amidst the spar, Harris failed to control his strength and hit Lucas hard, throwing him down the mountain.
Fortunately, Lucas was able to pick himself up but he suffered some grave injury.
3 broken ribs, torn shoulder, a cracked head and a broken leg that almost made him disabled.
Fortunately, this time Harris shows mercy and allows him to use a healing potion.
"Huh!"
"Where am I?"
"Who am I?"
Lucas muttered as the world around him spun.
SLAP!
A slap woke Lucas from his stupor.
As Lucas's fuzzy vision became clear, he saw Harris squatting before him with a sinister expression that gave him a chill.
"Stop daydreaming. Don't think I will have mercy on you just because I injured you. Did you think you can use this opportunity to laze?"
"Hmph!"
'Damn, so that's why he gave me a potion. It would take an hour to heal naturally but this guy couldn't tolerate seeing me rest.'
"Get up, I am going to teach something important."
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om