164 Disguised Devil

Completely unaware of the soldier's worries, Greyson felt like there were wings on his feet that helped him move faster than usual. It had been so long since the last time he trained with Teacher Vivian in swordsmandship and he had never learned hand-to-hand combat before. Everything was going to feel brand new. The thought of getting stronger gave him infinitely more energy to get through the training.

"Your Grace, Duke of Winterbridge, I hope I have not kept you waiting long." Saluting politely, Greyson caught his breath and greeted.

"No, you came even faster than I expected. I only just sent out a soldier to bring you a moment ago." A tranquil smile graced the Duke's lips as he responded.

"I was too eager to begin, so I asked him to walk a little faster." Technically, he was not completely lying when he said that.

"Well, I like your spirit. I hope you are ready for hard work. I always have high expectations of any recruits that I train. My expectations for you will be no lower; actually, they may even be higher." His expression turning stern, Zaire did not sugarcoat.

Although he was told this, Greyson still had confidence to endure most anything, so he easily nodded his head in affirmation.

"Alright." A nasty gleam glowed in Zaire's eyes under the surface. "I know this is slightly personal, but do you think you could explain your abilities to me a bit more clearly? Every magician understands keeping some power under wraps, however, for me to teach efficiently, I need to have a better grasp of your strength."

"There's no issue. Hm... I guess the most important thing you should know is that I am part dragon. Therefore, I may look more lean, but I am much sturdier physically than you would expect. I can also control 7 elements. Most of the spells I can use are mostly the popular basic spells that everyone in the country can learn at school." As long as he did not go too specific, Greyson did not see any issues with informing the Duke about most things. Especially since it was not like he would be able to hide things for long. Also, the Duke was in charge of setting up the team strategies for the representatives, so if he did not understand enough then he would not pick a suitable role for Greyson. There were a couple things Greyson left out because he did not think it was too important like his space element and elf bloodline. One can only be used in his dragon form, while the other is sealed away currently and cannot be accessed.

"Part dragon and 7 elements, huh?" Zaire frowned for a moment before nodding to himself. He answered rather nonchalantly, but he was incomparably shocked on the inside.

"Okay, I understand. Put these on." Turning around, he pointed towards a metal vest, a pair of arm guards, and a pair of leg guards. Greyson quickly followed orders and picked up the vest first but was shocked to see that there was a lot more resistance than he expected. Frowning, he exerted more strength to pick it up and slide it on over his head. Suddenly, he felt around significantly heavier than before. When he glanced over at the arm and leg guards, his stomach dropped as he had a sinking feeling they would be the same. As he expected, once he strapped them on, he felt like his weight doubled.

"Cinogen?" He questioned. Cinogen was a rare extremely dense metal resource that occasionally can be found in underwater mines. Usually, humans buy this material from the Sea Beastmen. They were a hard-to-find bunch since aquatic magic beasts loath coming onto land, so they almost never mate with humans. But only the scarce Sea Beastmen will interact with the land races for things like trade.

"Oh, I'm surprised you know. Yes, these pieces are made from Cinogen and are extremely dense despite their size. I was going to give you the child sized ones, but it seems these will fit your strength better. Now, I want you to go run up the mountain behind me with those weights on. You can use mana, I would actually encourage it. With your new weight, it would be good training at adjusting the finer control of mana flow. I will continue our training at the top. I will be waiting for you there!" Leaving these parting words, the wind picked up around the Duke before he disappeared from his original spot.

This training ground was already near the outside of the city. Once one leaves from the nearest gate, it leads to the mountainous region. The Duke pointed to the closest mountain instead of the tallest, so Greyson was slightly relieved. Using his wind element, he took a large leap to start. However, his body did not get far and dropped down quickly. Embarrassed, he was glad that nobody was around at this time. He understood that he needed a larger output of wind magic to carry his body. The second step he overcompensated and ended up jumping high up into the air. Realizing this was the control that the Duke mentioned, Greyson focused in more on the mana. This time, he started travelling normally. The guards were warned beforehand, so they did not try to stop him as he passed through the gate quickly.

"Looks like the Duke is torturing a new target..."

"Ah, the Cinogen weights, right? I thought I recognized the gear."

The guards chatted after Greyson blew by.

...

At first, the only problem was that Greyson was heavier and that threw off his control. After a little while, he adapted the new weight and could smoothly use his wind element to speed up his process up the mountain. However, halfway through, he noticed the sweat already dripping from him and soaking through his clothes while his breathing grew heavier. His stamina and mana were draining at much faster paces than before. Each step was heavy and strained his physical endurance, while keeping this speed at the new weight required more mana. A low growl broke out from him as white scales grew out from under his skin. Activating his dragon bloodline renewed his vigor, and his body felt light again. Letting out a sigh of relief, his body increased in speed once again. With this boost, Greyson made it to the top of the mountain rather quickly. There he met up with the Duke once again.

Unable to say a word in greeting, Greyson collapsed onto the ground catching his breath. Lying on the ground brought great relief since it felt like his legs were starting to shake.

"Get up. We will start sword training right away." The Duke's apathetic voice commanded. "Take this!" He tossed a beaten up sword towards Greyson. Not able to get up in time, Greyson was going to catch it on the ground. The sword landed in his hands, but dropped down and slammed into his chest. Coughing in pain, Greyson cursed under his breath. This sword was also Cinogen! It seemed even denser than the armor, too.

"Did you not hear me say to get up?"

Hearing the chill in his mentor's tone, Greyson took a deep breath before pulling himself off the ground.

"Show me the basics that you learned." He ordered.

Greyson lifted up the sword with a bit of effort before getting into the basic ready stance taught across the Snow Country. Each country's swordsmanship could vary depending on the shape and styling of their common weapon. Slowly, he went through slashing at the eight basic angles[1] along with the correct footwork. He also included a straightforward thrust. Each move made his arms shake and his body shake from imbalance due to the weight of the sword. Since the Duke did nothing but frown while watching him, Greyson grit his teeth and continued through the motions so that he could do them perfectly. Eventually, his muscles started adapting to the new dense sword and he no longer looked like he would fall over from swinging.

"That's good enough." Zaire finally spoke again after what felt like hours. As if he had been lifted from a spell, Greyson immediately let the tip of the sword drop mid-swing and stab into the ground. His arms hung limply as he kept his grasp on the hilt. Catching his breath at this moment, he looked up at the Duke to await further instruction. Although he wished this was the end of training, he knew that would be too naive. It seemed that the quiet and reserved Duke pushed his students and trainees much harder than Greyson's previous teachers.

"It seemed that whoever taught you the basic was a far-seeing individual. Too many of the kids I get will try to start fighting right away so each sword move is a complete mess. They can fight, but not in an efficient manner. Sometimes, it is the constant drilling of the basics that will save your life in battle. In the moment where your brain cannot follow, your body will respond for you based off instinct."

Smiling, Greyson thought back to Teacher Vivian and felt that she would have felt proud to hear her methods praised.

"Since your basic are strong, I wish to help your reaction time and defensive swordsmanship first. Offensive swordsmanship is usually a bit more difficult to teach. It's a lot of the same, until you find an opening. A lot the time, experts will use that opening for a killing move that they have perfected and are confident in. I could always teach you one of mine, but I do not think that would help you in the long run. Plus, you have many more options than I do when it comes to elements, so what is best for me is not necessarily best for you."

"I will have you stand in the spot I have marked with a red circle." Pointing towards the center of the mountaintop, there was a painted red circle that seemed to be prepared beforehand. Greyson followed direction and obediently stood within the circle. It was at this point that he heard rustling from the trees in his surroundings. Preparing himself for an attack, he noticed 10 individuals dressed in white and blue robes coming out from hiding. Giving their bodies a once over, Greyson noticed the rainbow snowflake crest on each of their robes and the matching wooden staves. Feeling awkward, he wondered if they had been waiting there and watching his training this entire time.

"Imperial magicians..." He mumbled to himself.

Just as there were ordinary soldiers or magic warriors in the military, there were also "pure" magicians. These people were normally the commoners born with magic or the noble children from weaker families who were not in-line to inherit their father's property and title. They usually did not have enough funds to buy the required resources or magic items they needed to advance. This was where the imperial family comes in and provides them that much needed money and a well-paying, respectable, and relatively safe job. Most of them specialized in long-distance attacks, support magic, and healing. The best of both worlds meets in this position where they can benefit being in the military but avoid the frontlines. Obviously, this does not mean certainly avoiding death, but it reduces those chances by a lot compared to normal soldiers. By working in the military, they could build up merits in wars and receive spells, equipment, magic herbs, and other resources they require. Eventually, they could possibly receive a title of their own depending on their contributions.

"Everyone here, including me, will attack you using the non-lethal spell Water Ball. It will not injured you too severely, but it will definitely hurt. I want you to use your sword to block the attacks." The Duke explained while giving the magicians a signal. Upon seeing that, they all chanted and a bunch of water balls formed in the air.

Seeing that he was now surrounded with no other choice, Greyson could only take his ready stance. Without warning, the first round of attacks shot towards him. Grunting with effort, he managed to swing the heavy sword to block or cut apart the water balls. His arms screamed out in pain as if begging him to stop. Not able to keep up with the onslaught, Greyson could feel the hard slap impact of the water hitting him. After the first wave, he could already feel the bruises forming on his body.

"Greyson."

"Hah, ha, yes... hah, hah, sir." Clearing winded, Greyson could only struggle to answer through his panting.

"Are you a magician?"

Too tired to play any mind games, Greyson just nodded with confusion clearly written on his face.

"Then, even if I say to use the sword to block, why do you not enforce it with spells? If you have mana, then use it. I'm not training you to be some sword master without your magic. Maybe if I could have started training you when you were younger, I would go that route because we have tons of time. However, right now, the fastest way to improve, is to improve your swordsmanship along with your control of magic. Last I saw, you use too much mana. You think about the spell and let your mana flow freely without considering how much is actually needed for the spell to activate. Your reserves are bigger due to the amount of elements your body can contain, but they are far from endless. You need to be smarter."

"I understand."

"Alright, then we will go again."

On cue, the water balls attacked once more. This time, Greyson gripped the sword and sent fire mana coursing through. With every swing, swirls of fire followed that made the water evaporate on contact. However, he soon realized the weight of the sword and the constant mana output was draining him faster than he could recover. So, he began adjusting in the midst of the attacks. Although he got hit more often this way, he also learned much faster.

...

By the last round of Water Balls, he felt that his swings used his whole body more than just his arms and the control of his fire mana was more efficient. Far from perfect, but the improvement was evident to him.

"That's enough." The Duke halted everyone.

"What? Hah, hah, hah, I think I can still go!" Despite his obvious exhaustion, the feeling of improvement dulled his senses. Greyson just felt eager to continue.

"Hm, well, I'm usually not one to turn down an eager student. However, you are clearly running on gas. We have tomorrow as well. After that, the team training will begin so I can't go too rough with you. Otherwise, the teamwork practice will suffer and I'm sure you do not wish to drag the others down. Plus, I don't think my subordinates can handle much more... Tsk, tsk, tsk, I have to say I am a bit disappointed. You obviously did all the work and took the damage, yet they are the ones ready to pass out. It looks like I will have to up their stamina training and mana control." He paused and looked around. Following the Duke's lead, Greyson also took a glance and realized that they were huffing and puffing on the sides. Summoning that many Water Balls for so long was definitely draining in mana. When they heard the Duke's words, however, their originally rosy cheeks lost their color in fear as they tried to stand up straight.

"Yeah, I guess it is time to rest." Now that he had stopped moving for so long, Greyson could feel the fatigue hit him like a ton of bricks as the adrenaline faded. The sword dropped to the ground and his arms and legs began to tremble. Plopping down onto the ground, he began to meditate. He wished to heal himself, but his mana stores were pretty much empty.

"Hm... not bad. It seems this will be worthwhile." The Duke smiled to himself before he gestured for the rest to leave Greyson in peace. If Greyson could feel his improvements, how could someone as experienced as the Duke not also notice his fast pace? Geniuses were nice, but also not as rare as everyone thought. But hardworking geniuses were not a common commodity.

It seems my teaching will be a bit more worthwhile this time. I look forward to our training tomorrow. He took one last look back while thinking.

[1] Pretty much slashing straight down, straight up, diagonally down to the right, diagonally down to the left, diagonally up to the right, diagonally up to the left, and horizontally right and left.