In contrast to the cold mornings in the North, the weather shifts into a higher temperature as mid-day approaches.
Leon is currently standing inside the soldiers' training area. He was escorted here by a junior warrior of his grandpa.
"Young Lord, Lord Oliver ordered me to escort you here. Your trainer will be here in a moment. He will be the one to take care of you then. Please excuse me, I have other duties to attend to." the warrior salutes to Leon.
"Yes Sir Alfrid, thank you for your service." Leon respectfully addressed the warrior.
These warriors were actually members of the Oliver branch family.
Descendants of the Great Tribe Clan, they have decided to take on official posts to help the Tribe Head in his plans.
Leon was told by his grandfather that these warriors are to be treated as family, even when they consider those who bear the Oliver name as masters.
Warriors are titles given to branch family members who enter the army.
The other army members who are not Tribe members are named as soldiers or knights.
Leon observed the training that these young men of his age do daily.
They train in their chosen weapons and are separated into teams. They then do exercises together with their team members. Each team has a junior knight or warrior that leads them.
After basic exercises, they will begin solo training with their chosen weapon.
They are given a few minutes of random slashing, stabbing and various techniques to train in and then they do the attack-defend training routine.
They group into pairs and begin the back and forth training of attacking and defending attacks from each other.
As Leon gets engrossed in observing the various training sessions, he suddenly felt a dangerous sensation behind him.
Leon tries to look at his back when the dangerous feeling suddenly intensified.
He was being attacked!
He was forced to duck but his heavy body refuses to cooperate properly. He tumbles forward to evade the sneak attack.
"Ack, what is happening? Someone is actually trying to kill me in broad daylight! Help! Someone is trying to kill me!" Leon shouts for help.
Leon stands up from his position to get a clear view of the person who wants his life.
"Ain't nobody trying to kill you young man." the suspicious man declared.
Leon's shout for help gathers everyone's attention towards him and the suspicious guy.
"Hey, isn't that the Young Lord?" soldier 1 noticed Leon.
"Yes, it is him. What is he doing here?" soldier 2 affirms, confused by Leon's presence in the training field.
"I noticed him arrive a while ago. A warrior was escorting him. Maybe he is going to join us in training?" soldier 3 tells both of his colleagues.
"Join us?! Hell, we are lucky we get to live another day just by training and he wants to join us? No way. He is going to die." soldier 1 ridiculed soldier 3 for his absurd words.
"Hey, enough with the chit-chat isn't that guy in front of the Young Lord, the Guard Captain?" soldier 2 berates his 2 colleagues.
"Now that I look closely, it really is the Guard Captain. Hey, I think the Young Lord is in deep trouble. He actually picked a fight with the best warrior of the North." soldier 3 said.
"Are we helping?"
"Nah, just mind your own business."
"Yup, life is already so short. I do not want it to become even shorter."
Conversations similar to this also began spreading throughout the training field, turning more of the soldiers attention towards Leon and the Guard Captain.
The Guard Captain notices that his actions has garnered a commotion towards the soldiers and so he gestured towards them.
"It is okay folks, just go on with your training! I have something to deal with over here!" the Guard Captain winks towards the junior warriors in charge of leading teams.
"Men, marching formations!"
"Men, marching formations!"
"Men, marching formations!"
"Men, marching formations!"
As the orders of their superiors went through, the soldiers began to form their marching formations.
A clean formation with an orderly arrangement is setup in one corner of the training field giving Leon and the Guard Captain more space to move.
"Well met Little Leon." the guard captain smiles widely to Leon.
"Who are you? Why do you know my nickname? Only grandma and grandpa calls me that!"
Leon was worried when nobody came over to help him but he was in greater shock when he realized that the soldiers actually followed his orders.
"Well, I guess introductions should be the first part of the proceedings. Very well, my name is Dylas Smith Junior. I am titled as the Guard Captain of the Oliver territory. I was asked to be your personal trainer by the Lord." the Guard captain introduces himself to be Dylas.
Leon is flabbergasted by the truth of the man's identity.
He was actually the Guard Captain. The trainer who was asked by grandpa to take care of my training was actually the Guard Captain himself.
"Please excuse me Sir Guard Captain. I did not know who you are. I thought you were trying to hurt me a while ago." Leon explained his possible blunders.
"Oh, that. I actually meant to knock you down but unexpectedly you were able to evade my strike. It was quite fast considering the standards of young men of your age. Hmm, now I am interested. Come Little Leon, it is your turn to introduce yourself." Captain Dylas encourages Leon.
"Yes. I am Leonvolt Machia Oliver. I am a new member of the Oliver family. Please take care of me Sir Captain!" Leon introduces himself to Captain Dylas formally.
"Oh just drop the Captain honorific. Just call me Uncle. I am technically your uncle. Lord Oliver is the little brother of my mother which means, he is my uncle. And so, you, Little Leon, are my cute little nephew. Kuuuh, you look just like your mother back when I used to tease her around a long time ago. Hahaha!"
Captain Dylas explains their relationship with each other. Dylas is the son of the former guard captain and the elder sister of Lord Oliver. He is indeed Leon's uncle.
"Uncle? So the Guard Captain is actually my uncle? So cool! Uncle Dylas, are you the strongest warrior in the North?!"
Leon's idolism habits began to kick in once again. He is such an emotional young man that he could react to anything that is new and cool to him.
"Huuh?! I- uhh, ha ahahaha, I guess so? I am technically the Guard Captain of the North so that means I am strong right?" Uncle Dylas speaks in an uncertain tone towards Leon.
"Wow, you are actually the strongest person in the North! I better thank grandpa later for allowing me to learn from you." Leon praises his Uncle Dylas.
"Uh Little Leon, just slow down for a bit okay. Just tone your praise a bit. I am not really that fond of praises. Especially to your Grandpa, just do not mention the 'strongest in the North' part." Uncle Dylas began sweating profusely.
'If that old man hears that thing about the strongest of the North, I might get pounded to the ground.'
Captain Dylas thought about the old man in his house and shivered slightly. He was not afraid, just a bit terrified. But the cause of all this, Leon, have no idea that he may cause the demise of his very own uncle.
"Anyway, Little Leon I want to test your current capabilities. I am quite impressed by how you dodged my sneak attack earlier. How about a light spar?" Uncle Dylas recommends a spar to Leon.
A spar is actually the most effective method in determining someone's current abilities.
It gives the trainer a more specific insight towards your strengths and weaknesses. In Leon's case though, the weaknesses are quite obvious.
Leon is fat and slow. He does not have any fighting experience. He is basically starting from scratch.
But Dylas wanted to know what Leon would do when forced to take on the fight with all the obvious weaknesses he has.
Dylas hopes to see what Leon's hidden strengths are.
"Okay, Uncle Dylas. I accept a spar with you. Please take care of me." Leon accepts the offer.
"Hmm, get ready then."
Dylas affirms. He is happy to know that Leon was a courageous kid.
Leon automatically activates [Shell Inspection].
He focuses towards Uncle Dylas and he is shocked by his Uncle's energy reserves.
It has reached Grandma Elizabeth's level in density but the amount he has is much greater. He does not have an Outer Shell but Leon can inspect the Shell Energy flowing inside his body.
Leon does not give in to fear though, this is just a light spar. He is confident he can pull off quite a fight with his abilities.
"Uncle, please watch out!"
Leon dashes towards his Uncle. As he begins running, he activates [Shell Utilization] and opened up his Mind's Swirl and Heart Vortex.
Leon tried to simultaneously control the Shell Particles coming in through the two pathways.
He decided to ignore the Elemental Shell particles and focus more in gathering irregular shaped particles.
He also activates [Shell Engineering] to immediately complete the particle pattern that he wants to utilize.
As Leon closes in the gap between them, Captain Dylas also began to set up a defensive stance.
He began to bring out the Shell Energy within him to reinforce his whole body. He also strengthens his upper torso and anchored his foot to the ground. He braces for impact.
Leon attacks Captain Dylas with his right fist.
It was reinforced with a strengthening pattern and an extra smash pattern.
As Leon's fist hits Captain Dylas's body, he realized that there was no significant damage dealt to the man's body. But-
"Ugh."
Captain Dylas let's out a short grunt. He did not expect a strong blow right at the start. It was a good hit.
But now, he is at an advantage.
Leon's weakness is his slow recovery speed after an attack. Captain Dylas counter attacks with his right hand and hits Leon on his left shoulder.
"Ack, too strong." Leon was hurt.
Leon then activated the pattern he prepared on his left arm.
It was a Grapple pattern.
As if Leon's arm extended, Captain Dylas's arm was grabbed by the launched Leon. Leon used [Shell Engineering] to create a strength pattern and jump boost pattern.
"Hmm? When did he do this?" Captain Dylas was surprised to notice that he was being grabbed on to.
Almost instantly, the patterns that Leon created were completed and he immediately used [Shell Optimization] to activate them.
Leon strengthened his upper body and applied jump boost on his feet.
Leon attempts to push Dylas forward but he did not expect that Dylas's foot was tightly anchored on the ground.
Leon failed to carry Dylas up into the air.
On the other hand, Dylas did not expect Leon to grab unto the arm that he used in his attack. He was astounded by the ingenious idea that this kid have.
"Amazing Little Leon. I did not expect you to be able to fight in such a degree. You actually used your one weakness to work in your favor." Dylas praised.
Indeed, Leon's biggest weakness was his heavy body.
He can not react fast, can not run fast, and he can not dodge fast. Leon then thought of using this heavy body of his to the greatest advantage.
It was by leveraging his weight.
By starting the fight with a dash, Leon can gain greater momentum than just by standing still, waiting to be attacked.
He decided to use raw power to smash through Uncle Dylas's basic defense causing him to grunt.
When Leon was attacked from the shoulder, he only protected himself with defense patterns causing his momentum to shift as a result of being hit heavily.
But Leon took advantage of that momentum to immobilize Dylas by using the Grapple pattern.
Leon was supposed to be launched a few meters away by that strike but instead, he canceled the force by holding unto Dylas's arm.
He then quickly tried to carry Dylas into the air and launch Dylas forward to make him fall down but Dylas was well prepared. He already anchored his foot to the ground for better balance.
"So this is how experts fight. You have opened my eyes, Uncle Dylas." Leon acknowledges his defeat.
"Hmm, you are correct Little Leon. But you are still young. You can learn a lot more techniques moving forward. Haha! This is quite a satisfying victory. I have also realized some mistakes I committed in this spar. Come Little Leon, let's take a little breather."
After that short spar, Leon began sweating bullets. He just has a weak stamina and he does not have enough gas to go on. He needs to work more in improving his fitness.
"Little Leon, are you coming? I have something special for you. Come over here!" Dylas calls out Leon.
"Alright Uncle, I am coming. Wait for me!"
Leon's training is off to a good start.