Concordia took aim and fired. Her arrow was deflected.
"TCH! It's that annoying circular wall of wind again!" Concordia complained to herself.
"It's too late to complain. You should have guessed I'd resort to this the moment you said you wanted to fight me in cat-mode" Keiran said with a smirk.
Concordia dropped her sigil and charged in.
"I see you're resorting to your superior martial arts skills and enormous physical strength now. You intend to fight in close range combat now" Keiran said seriously. "I'll ask one more time Concordia, are you certain you don't want me to hold back?" Keiran asked.
"Of course not!" Concordia said and threw a punch.
Keiran blocked her punch by catching it with his palm. He didn't budge an inch. Concordia stared at him in surprise.
"What's this? He didn't budge one bit" Concordia opened her eyes in shock.
"Of course I didn't. You should have realized it from our previous battles. My ability to use other elements connote that…I also have an affinity for Earth" Keiran said.
Concordia leapt back and took her fighting stance. Keiran smiled.
"Besides, this isn't supposed to be a rematch. I'm supposed to be helping you raise your abilities and there are many ways to do that other than sparring" Keiran said.
Concordia's eyes widened in surprise. She sighed and smiled.
"You're absolutely right. I was a bit hotheaded" Concordia admitted.
"It's understandable. It is frustrating to hit a wall in developing one's abilities. In your case, I have the perfect training method in mind" Keiran said as he walked out of the Old Library.
Moments later, he returned with a pole the size of a large log and mounted it vertically. Then he removed a bulls-eye from his bag and nailed it to the log.
"All you have to do is hit the bulls-eye…however…" Keiran said with a cat-like grin. "…you'll be doing this with my ultimate jutsu in effect" he said.
Concordia nodded and took aim. She fired however Keiran had raised the circular wall of wind around the pole. Her shot was deflected.
"Are you sure you want to help me train Keiran? If I learn to break through your circular wall, you'll be at a disadvantage in our sparring sessions from now on" Concordia said seriously.
"If you beat me in our sparring sessions just because you managed to overcome this technique…then I really deserve to lose. It would mean I've stopped growing even though I was aware of a flaw in my fighting style" Keiran said.
Concordia turned to stare at him. For a moment, she felt slight admiration for him. She stared into his eyes.
"He's not being overconfident. In a sense, he's challenging himself by teaching an opponent to overcome some of his stronger techniques" Concordia realized.
"Your funeral" Concordia said and fired another arrow at the bulls-eye.
She missed again.
"It's so easy to see why you keep missing. It's actually a shock that you've failed to realize why yourself" Keiran said with a cat-like grin.
"What do you mean?" Concordia asked.
"It's the job of the trainee to figure out the answer to that question however I'll give you a clue… 'when was the last time you ever lost a fight prior to your first battle with San?'" Keiran asked and walked away.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Concordia glared at Keiran.
"I'm not trying to be rude. Think about my words. You'll find your answer" Keiran said and sat with his back against the wall of the Old Library.
Concordia kept aiming for the bulls-eye but all her attacks were deflected.
"What did Keiran mean? Ever since I developed the Dream Realm Border Wall Defense Mode, I've never…" Concordia realized. "I never lost. San was the first person to overcome that mode since it was developed and Keiran overcame it too. Because it was unbeatable, there was no need to strengthen it any further. I've never had to think of making my sigil stronger…because I never lost" Concordia realized.
Keiran noticed the surprised look on Concordia's face and then his words began to echo within her mind.
"Are you sure you want to help me train Keiran? If I learn to break through your circular wall, you'll be at a disadvantage in our sparring sessions from now on" Concordia recalled her words.
"If you beat me in our sparring sessions just because you managed to overcome this technique…then I really deserve to lose. It would mean I've stopped growing even though I was aware of a flaw in my fighting style" Concordia recalled Keiran's words.
"Was that…a hint?" she wondered.
"It's easy to see why you keep missing. It's actually a shock that you've failed to realize why yourself" Concordia recalled Keiran's words.
"What do you mean?" she recalled her question.
"It's the job of the trainee to figure out the answer to that question however I'll give you a clue… 'when was the last time you ever lost a fight prior to your first battle with San?'" Concordia recalled Keiran's question.
"I see. I began to develop my sigil in order to grow stronger. Every time I discovered a new technique…it was to overcome an obstacle that seemed insurmountable. My awareness of my limitations allowed me to devise the means to overcoming those limitations. This awareness of my limitations was the source of my creativity. That was lost the moment I developed an 'unbeatable' technique. But now that that technique has been beaten…I can begin to grow again" Concordia thought in determination and pulled her arrow to full length.
She also strengthened the elasticity of her bow's string through her focus.
"First, I'll try breaking through the circular wall of wind by enhancing the penetration power of my arrows through an increase in the elastic strength of my bow's string" Concordia thought.
Keiran smiled.
"Looks like she's finally figured it out" he said.
Concordia fired. Her shot was deflected by the wall of wind however her margin of error had decreased slightly. She took aim and fired again. The faster her shots, the less her margin of error became. For a week, she kept training under Keiran's guidance.
"Concordia, you're a genius of an archer" Keiran said.
"Are you trying to be sarcastic?" Concordia glared at him.
Keiran assumed a cat-like grin.
"I'm just wondering why such a genius of an archer is repeatedly failing to integrate her elemental affinities into her fighting style" Keiran said.
Concordia's eyes widened in shock.
"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF CAT IS THIS?!" she exclaimed in horror.
"There's a reason for the saying 'cats always land on their feet' you know?" Keiran said.
"Yet funnily enough, I remember another saying about 'curiosity killing the cat'" Concordia retorted.
"And how many times was the cat killed again?" Keiran asked.
Concordia's eyes widened in shock.
"You should have realized by now that that saying is bogus because…if the cat was killed once…it is definitely alive!" Keiran said with his cat-like grin.
"'A cat has nine lives?!'" Concordia exclaimed in shock.
"Indeed, it is as I said…a cat always lands on its feet" Keiran said with his cat-like grin.
Concordia sighed. Then she laughed much to Keiran's surprise.
"I don't think I've ever met someone quite like you. You're both depressing and humorous all at once…in a good way. Anyway you've given me a great tip. I'm just going to have to increase the weight of my arrows" Concordia said as her ivory arrow transformed into a steel arrow.
"KRAKEN ANDROMEDA! ANDROMEDA MODE VER. STEEL!" Concordia called.
"You do realize that the new weight of your arrows can affect your aim adversely don't you?" Keiran asked.
"Yes…however, the slight shift in trajectory can be corrected…by further increasing the speed of my shots!" Concordia declared and released her arrow.
It tore right through the wooden pole and rammed into the iron panels Keiran had used to coat the interior of the Old Library to minimize damage and avoid a ruckus.
"My new arrows are heavy enough to penetrate your field of wind and hard enough to resist San's Grand Flaming Hurricane Whirlwind Technique" Concordia said happily. "I didn't think it could be this exciting to work on developing a new technique. Thank you Keiran" Concordia said gratefully.
"I'm glad I could be of help. It was also fun hanging out with you" Keiran said.
Concordia stared at him in surprise and smiled.
"Anyway, I've missed a week's worth of sound sleep. I'm heading home now. You should try and get some rest as well. You're sort of Ciella's combat trainer as well" Keiran said and walked out of the Old Library.
He and Concordia walked together till their paths went separate ways. Keiran finally arrived home. He met Saito and Ariel waiting for him at the entrance to the house.
"So how did your date go?" Saito teased.
"Don't ask" Keiran said and walked in.
"That bad huh?" Saito teased.
"Technically speaking…it was not a date. I do admit I had a lot of fun going cat-mode though. The only thing I look forward to more than that is a good night's rest" Keiran said and walked to his room to sleep.
Meanwhile, in the Dream World, in my Gramps' Castle, my Gramps stretched his sigil before me.
"Remember Junior, you're allowed to spend the weekend in the Real World however you'll have to return to complete your training" my Gramps said.
"I know Gramps. I wonder how everyone has been. I haven't spoken to them in over two months now" I said.
A flash of light teleported me. When I opened my eyes, I was back home in the Real World. I climbed the stairs and headed to my room. It appeared that everyone was fast asleep. It was midnight or probably shortly after midnight.
"Going straight to bed after spending months in the Dream World…just sounds totally weird" I thought to myself and lay down to sleep.
Meanwhile, in her room, Ciella attempted to mimic the moves she'd seen the Dream Knights and combatants in Arlene's videos do.
"It doesn't feel quite right. I'll watch the video again" Ciella thought and watched the video.
Thanks to training with Concordia, she could easily follow the combat moves depicted in the videos. After training for a bit, she sat down and picked up the mini-representation of Christopher. She scrolled through its functionalities and saw a function allowing her to contact me.
"I haven't spoken to San in two months now. Should I call him?" she wondered.
She stared at my contact for a while and put the mini-representation of Christopher down.
"Stupid Ciella, why are you hesitating?" she reprimanded herself and lay down to sleep.