Chapter 167 Back to the Grind
Van and Luna were back to training with Alv and Lore. it kinda felt good to stretch their muscles and be properly directed on the best course of action to improve their strength. Thea helping out once in a while with her own training sessions that always seem to kick things up a notch.
As they trained, Alv and Thea taught a bit more about blood and shadow weaving. Making sure to beat the forms and techniques into the two of them before they leave for their next journey.
Sheri helped Lore teach magic class, not only to Van now but also to Agnès, who was very thankful for the proper education. Alecto joining in once in a while to try and stay relevant to her baby girl. And sometimes succeeding by impressing Lore and Sheri with her knowledge and perspective on magic from a witch's point of view.
Lyn, Xenith, and Amie mostly did their own things within Van’s soul realm. Mostly mundane paperwork and finishing up some tasks that were left unfinished when most of the workforce left them to go with their previous rulers. From time to time though, they would sit in on lessons with Lore and Sheri about stewardship and managing lands and people.
Luna was finally able to go through all her letters that Leiah sent, and found out that her friend will be visiting for a while before they leave.
Van’s soul realm had quieted down greatly now that most of its inhabitants left. But Anna kept working hard at her temple, making sure that what followers remained had something to do and that they too trained and worked hard to improve themselves. Ruby becoming a sort of youth leader, helping and leading some of her fellow neophytes to improve alongside her.
With everyone working hard, Van inwardly promised himself to do just as much if not more to meet everyone's expectations and to make sure that he was properly prepared for his travels out west.
To that end, he accepted all the hard training he was put through. Such as wearing gear that put weight on all over his body. Being forced to jump over and over again hundreds of times. Lifting and putting down weights, plus doing new stretching exercises that put a lot of strain on his body and muscles. And most importantly, lots and lots of sparring…
“Come on Van, you're the one that wanted to try dual-wielding, if you don’t start putting at least equal weight into your swings as your main arm then there is no point,” Alv said. “We’ll have to go through some more exercise until you become ambidextrous enough that using your left arm becomes as natural as using your right. We’ll start with the basics such as trying to learn how to write, then move on to more complex movements. For now, swing your blade as you would normally do except with your hands reversed.”
Van looked up at his father confused.
“You know how you naturally put your dominant hand at the top of the handle and you're other at the bottom. Do that but in reverse, your non-dominant at the top instead.” Alv explained. “It might seem like a small thing, but as you practice your swinging you will notice a feeling of being slightly off balance. Once you have gotten used to it and practiced your finer motor controls, we will start onto the next phase of trying to properly wield two swords at the same time.”
“It should be noted, that in case of an emergency, you can use aura to help control your body, and by extension your ability and skill to dual wield. But doing so will be very rough, and can cause accidents if you don’t know what you're doing. So… let’s beat the basics down into you shall we?” Alv smiled, enjoying his time with his son and the thought of beating the basics down into him.
Van shivered and took a glance towards Luna who was practicing with Thea.
“That’s it, sweetie, you're doing great!” Thea said cheerfully as Luna did another beautiful side kick into the air. “Just keep doing that for another thousand times and we can be done with the warm-up and get onto the real training session!” she said happily.
Luna paled a little, but kept on kicking as if nothing happened, not wanting to acknowledge what her mother said, but knowing that pretending was pointless. She, like him, was wearing weights on her arms and legs, making their tasks a lot harder, plus the sheer number of times they had to do it on top of all that, meant they were probably going to go to sleep exhausted tonight… again…
The two went at it for the next few hours. They were actually surprised a little, by the fact that they hadn’t fully tired themselves out yet. Probably having to do with the fact that they ranked up a few times while in the forest, and fought a few dangerous animals and beasts, not to mention the insect hordes and their corrupted form…
“Alright you two, now for your laps and we’ll be done with the warm-ups,” Alv said. Then ushered them onto the tracks. “Since doing ten laps was too easy for you yesterday, we will be doing twenty laps. Finish them as soon as possible, the first one to finish can rest until the second one finishes. The last one to finish gets extra training… good luck, and Go!”
Van and Luna looked towards each other for a second, then looked ahead, then back to each other before shooting off towards the finish line. They gave each other the side-eye as they ran, and both silently came to an agreement. Matching each other’s speed so that they would finish at the same time so as not to have to go at their top speed and tire themselves out.
Sadly, their parents noticed and added another caveat to their training.
“If you tie, you get double the training!” Alv shouted.
“And you have to finish within half an hour or your double training becomes quadruple!” Thea added.
Van and Luna paled and gave each other exasperated glances filled with annoyance and anger at the unfairness of it all. After that, Van slowly started to pull ahead, much to Luna's wide-eyed fear. Van was actually the faster of the two, so it made some sense that he would pull ahead of Luna, he had more training in running, and was taught techniques by his father last time they were in the forest to increase his speed. Luna, on the other hand, wasn’t taught any techniques to increase her speed, nor did she have the stamina, even upgraded as she was, to keep up with her husband. His upgrade and almost constant nightly ‘exercises’ made sure of that…
Soon the gap between the two began to widen with Van taking the lead. It honestly wasn’t so bad for Van, if he had to be honest. He hadn’t realized how fast he could actually go and was only now seeing that he could go so much faster. So he did, speeding up even further, trying to figure out his top speed. By the time Luna was finally completing her first lap, Van was already halfway through his second. And each lap after, the gap widened even further as he tried pushing himself to go faster.
“This… actually feels amazing!” Van thought to himself as the adrenaline pumped through his veins and skull. “I must be the fastest thing in the entire castle!” said adrenaline now messing with his thoughts as the speed high got to him. He completed the twenty laps easily within twenty minutes. Though near the end he was slowly losing speed as his tiredness and exertion finally began to catch up to him.
Van then waited on the sidelines for Luna to finish as she gave him a slight glare every time she passed by, her chest heaving in and out. Just like him, she was running with the weights still on them, unless given permission, they were not allowed to take them off until the training session was over, whenever that was…
“Alright you two, take an extra ten-minute break and we will resume training,” Thea said, clapping her hands together once Luna finally finished.
Luna panted and heaved and gave one final glare towards Van. “you are soo fucking me hard tonight…” she menaced.
Van looked worried, he was already exhausted as is…
“Alright you two, once your break is over, we’ll begin practice sparring. Make sure you're ready!” Alv said happily.
Both Van and Luna groaned. But accepted their fate…
But then Thea whispered something into Alv’s ear and soon he was nodding along.
“Change of plans, we’ll have you do some movement exercises first before we get to the sparring. Thea thinks that you two could have done much better with that run, so she wants to put you to the test, by pushing you two further, while teaching you how to make more efficient movements.” Alv said.
“Bear with me, magic is not my strong suit.” He then made a few gestures with his hands and a few chants. Soon color-coded foot patterns began to form on the ground, each with a number starting with one and moving up. “Place your feet on the footprints that have a number one on them.”
Van and Luna looked at each other confused, then turned and did just that, looking down at the strange array below them.
“Now watch me,” Alv asked, drawing their attention. One second he was there, the next he was right in between them, leaving a hazy afterimage. “This is called the flicker step. A movement technique that's sole purpose is to take advantage of the weakness of the opponent's eyes and effectively ‘flicker’ out of their perceived perception. It requires an intense burst of speed and an understanding of your opponent's perceivable limitations. If done right, it could even confuse your opponent by leaving a slight afterimage of where you just were.”
He then pointed at the footprints down below them. “Your task is simple.” he then pointed at the footprints that had a number two to them and in a slightly different color. “You simply have to follow the footprints to their end. Doing so will help train your legs to move and stretch and get them accustomed to great strain.”
He then smiled. “For every time you have to restart, we will add extra to your next training session. Though since this is your first time, the consequences will be waived… for now…”
Making Van and Luna feel very relieved.
“Alright then! Follow the prints in time and don’t mess up. Ready? Begin!” Thea all of a sudden said, taking over, looking at them with a smile on her face. No doubt already hoping to see how much they will mess up for next time, thereby figuring out how much extra work she can force onto them.
The footprints glowed gently once then faded away, the next set glowed and faded away, revealing the next set, and then the next. Van and Luna were not quite prepared for it and immediately missed their first chance. Forcing them to start again.
After that, they soon realized that this would not be as easy as they first thought it would. For as they finally started to get further and further into this practice, the movement began to get more complicated and faster, not to mention erratic... Soon, their legs were a whirl of stomping feet and crossed legs as they did everything they could to meet the requirements of the glowing footprints in time.
“This is like Ren’s stupid dance game, but not as fun and with too many different directions and colors! I can already feel my muscles and ligaments straining and buckling under the pressure. At this rate, I might not be able to move after we're done!” Van thought as he tried again for the fifteenth time.
Oddly enough, out of all the earlier training they had been doing before, this one was one that caused them to sweat the most. Their legs felt like they were on fire, as muscles they hardly ever used were forced into action. Their mind felt taut and under pressure, as if their veins were digging into their brain from the sheer amount of concentration they were doing.
Alv and Thea on the other hand, looked like if they had popcorn at that moment, they would be eating it, with the barely contained grins they had on their faces at the silly movements they were making.
“That’s it, sweetie! You can do it!” Thea cheered in mirth.
Alv said something non-committal as he tried to hide his smile.
Van and Luna shared a look with each other, on the same page. If they were ever able to get back at their parents for this, they will take the opportunity, no questions asked…
An hour later, both Van’s and Luna’s legs were spazzing out. They were completely unable to move and were completely drenched in sweat from head to toe. It was unbelievable that such a thing caused them such pain and grief that it put all other training exercises to shame. And yet, that silly dance effectively did just that…
Van lay on his back in pain, unmoving and not wanting to move as they were given the go-ahead to rest up. Luna slowly crawled her way to him from the side and plumped the back of her head on his torso.
“Nooo…” Van languidly whined, not wanting to deal with the pressure on his chest.
“Yeesss…” Luna slowly groaned back, closing her eyes and trying to get some rest.
“Ugh…” Van replied, too tired to even push her off.
And like that, they stayed for the next fifteen minutes. Doing their best to recover their energy and heal their legs.
“It’s fine to use your aura for healing in this case,” Alv said. “Since you two will be sparring with each other later.”
Van and Luna groaned some more but began using some of their aura to pick up the healing speed of their body. In another fifteen minutes, they were mostly back to normal, though their legs still felt like jello…
“Alright you two, that’s enough of a break, time to get back to work, and then we can have a nice large meal for lunch!” Thea said happily.
Luna and Van slowly got to their legs, it took them a minute, but they were able to at least stand.
“Finally…” Luna said. “You were really sweaty…” she complained to Van.
Van turned to Luna with a slightly affronted look. “Rude…” he replied. “No one asked you to rest on me. And you added to that sweat!” he accused.
“Impossible.” she said, “I'm too perfect to sweat on you. And It is my duty as your cute little wife to make as much use out of you as possible!” Luna said, puffing out her chest and looking rather proud. “The proof of my love is that even as sweaty as you were, I still lovingly let my head rest on you. You should be honored!” giving him a mirthful smirk.
“Oh yes… so honored…” Van replied, rolling his eyes and going along with the joke.
“Hmph! I see you still don’t know your place! It is time that I fixed that!” Luna said, straightening her back and making a pose while pointing at him in an exaggerated manner.
“Go ahead and try, I'll spank you like I spank you in bed,” Van replied, taking his stance, fists at the ready.
“OoOoH… kinky…” Luna played along, her eyes narrowing and taking her own stance.
Thea looked between the two trying to hold back her huge grin. “Alright, you two.” putting a hand between the two of them. “Ready? Fight!” then removed her hand and got out of the way.
The two of them went at it. Surprisingly, the both of them stumbled on their first few steps, their legs still trying to get back to normal, but they were able to take back control quickly and closed the distance between the two of them.
The both of them threw a punch at the same time. They both saw the punch at the same time. and tried counterattacking, soon, they were counterattacking counterattacks. As they were not told they were allowed to use aura for their match, they stuck to their own bodies' strengths to try and win over the other.
Which meant that Van had a slight edge since he trained for longer. Though not by much, since Luna had improved greatly in a short time and ranked up and evolved as well. And considering fists weren’t his strong suit, they were evenly matched all things considered. Of course, if Luna’s legs didn’t feel so numb, she probably would be using them since that was what she excelled at, and this match might actually favor her instead.
Van tried flipping Luna over, but Luna went along with it and landed on her feet. She then tried doing the same to Van, but Van was a bit heavier and he knew how to throw his weight, making Luna stuck and forcing her to let go before Van tried to take advantage of the situation and turned it back on her.
While fighting, Van couldn’t help but think. “Damn… I wish I could just squeeze those beautiful melons.” unable to deny how nice Luna’s breasts looked, swaying back and forth.
While fighting, Luna couldn’t help but think. “Damn… I wish this was back in our bedroom… I really want Van to make a move to pin me down on the bed and have his way with me…”
Though they both thought lewd thoughts at the same time. They were dedicated to the task at hand of beating each other up and determining the winner… or just continuing on until Alv or Thea said for them to stop…
The two went at it for another half an hour. Doing flips, tricks, and more, slowly ending up a bit bruised, but never going any further since they really didn’t want to actually hurt each other. Which was the reason why they always tried to end their attacks with something that could pin their opponent down, or at least make it impossible to continue the fight.
“Alright you two, that’s enough!” Thea said, clapping her hands twice. “You can rest up now and then we’ll have lunch.”
Van and Luna let themselves drop back to the ground, glad for the much-needed break. Exhausted and even more sweaty than before. The two stayed like that until…
“Nooo…” Van whined.
“Yeesss…” Luna complained back.