Lying spread-eagled in the centre of the meadow, Nico felt the grass around him whisper softly in his ears. As he shifted his gaze and stared at the dull visage that covered the firmament, he heaved a silent sigh and winced.
Nico still felt the muscles in his shoulders suffused with heat and agony. Luckily, his instructor finally had some mercy and let him off with a couple more minutes of that gruelling exercise.
Oh, the bliss, Nico thought after he had collapsed on the ground, spent.
He had stayed in this position for the past few minutes recuperating his energy. Looking back at all the events which had happened so far during his brief stay in the Camp, the young man became a little wistful.
If someone had told him that within the first five days, he would have antagonised the heir to an important house, received a beating by said heir and felt progress being made regarding his physique, he would have called that person crazy.
Yet here he was in a meadow of the East Leaf Wilderness preparing to learn how to use a Spear.
Speaking of spears… Nico slowly sat up and shifted his gaze toward the large oak, where his instructor Phantom lay beneath the shade of its archaic branches still whistling away.
His brows twitched sensing the older man had enjoyed his excruciating plight.
"Sir, can you at least teach me some Spear drills or exercises? Pretty please." Nico pleaded.
Phantom slowly finished the stroke he was on and shifted his head slightly to get a better look at his student's condition. Through his peripheral vision, the Spear instructor gazed intently at the trainee.
Sweat matted the boy's forehead. Damp patches covered his uniform as it stuck to his skin. His chest rose and fell erratically, trying to return to a normal rhythm.
This continued for a few seconds, where the silence stretched to the point Nico felt Phantom would refuse.
'Might as well make him experience more hell.' The instructor thought gleefully. This was the price his student had to pay for making him lose out on his precious downtime.
"Fine…"
Contrary to the brown-haired boy's expectations, his instructor agreed!
Phantom grunted as he got up and carefully stowed away the canvas, brush, and paint with a swipe of his hands. The materials disappeared in a blink of an eye.
'A storage ring.' Nico's eyes widened.
He had only ever seen important people such as his mother, or Beverly come to possess such a thing. Not to mention that these things were pricey and extremely hard to find in the common market.
The dimensional magic engraved within the rings required not just any common artificer to make… but a master, and one that was exceedingly knowledgeable in their craft.
'What is his background to have such a thing?'
This thought inevitably appeared in Nico's mind. He became even more curious about his instructor's occupation. Shaking his head, the young boy watched Phantom leisurely make his way over with eager eyes.
To Phantom, the young man's gaze reminded him of an excited puppy wagging its tail restlessly. The instructor had to bite his tongue to keep his wits about him. His hands itched to summon his supplies from his storage ring and capture the splendid scene.
'Haaaa….' The blue-eyed man sighed regretfully. His shoulders slumped down. However, he perked up again after remembering the opportunity he had just received to put his delicate specimen through more torture.
Sighing to himself again, Phantom soon stopped and lingered, looking past his student toward the lake.
"I will teach you the Spear Art that I have been continuously perfecting for over a decade. It will push you to your limits, but once grasped, shall open many opportunities for you. Watch closely."
Staring into his instructor's cold, blue eye Nico shuddered. He had a feeling this was going to hurt.
***
'Ugh, man what a day.'
Lying on his back in his bed, Nico reflected on the training session he just had with his Spear instructor.
After declaring that he would teach Nico his own personal Spear technique, Phantom wasted no time getting to work.
First, he had taught Nico the basic stances of cutting, swinging, slashing and thrusting, before making him repeat the attacks to get a feel for their execution.
Then, the dark-haired instructor moved on to the Reaper of Shadows Art - the name Phantom had given to his own personal Spear Art - and showed his student the first three forms.
During the display, Nico was awed by Phantom's spearsmanship. It had a sophisticated, yet elegant feel to it.
When he had requested for Phantom to slow down so that he could get a better look at each stance and strike, Nico discovered a crucial underlying detail of the Spear style he had previously missed.
The speed at which his instructor flowed between the three forms… the sharp, precise, methodical change in his movements. The cadence of his steps.
All of it pointed toward one thing…
…adaptability.
This Spear style Phantom had cultivated for such a long time focused on allowing its user to be as adaptable as possible. When he peered closer, Nico observed that each form had a distinct purpose.
The first was a simple yet effective dash. The second had used soft steps to create a lull of action to fool your opponent into making a pre-emptive strike, before using that momentum to your advantage, and the third… created a barrage of swift, frenzied attacks designed to overwhelm your foe.
Growing up, one of Nico's hobbies had been to analyse different battle styles and figure out what made them so effective. He thought that if he had got a head-start on the theory behind combat, it would make his future training easier.
All these three strikes had great variety and Nico felt he could adapt them to many situations. This was all still speculation, though.
Until he experienced them first-hand he couldn't be too sure.
He needed to try it out in person to gain a better understanding of their intricacies and deeper, hidden facets invisible to the naked eye.
Unfortunately, Phantom had assessed that Nico was in no condition to execute the Reaper of Shadows Art.
Never mind that his muscles had been on fire from the strenuous exertion of William's physical training earlier in the morning, the walk to the meadow, and having to hold a spear aloft. Just the few basic beginner moves Phantom had showed him exerted his body to the limit.
Nico sighed despondently. His mind was keen to understand the Reaper of Shadows right away. However, that would have to wait for a few days.
Until he had increased his proficiency in the Spear and recovered from pushing his body so hard, at least.
The good thing, though, was that with every training session, whether bodyweight or with a weapon in hand, Nico felt that the limit of strain his body could experience was slowly but surely increasing.
Soon, in the future he could train and exert his body to a degree that was double or even triple of that when he started. It was only a matter of time.
Recalling how proficient Phantom was with a spear, a seed of admiration couldn't help but bloom in Nico's heart. The boy was determined to reach that sort of mastery…
…the level of mastery where the Spear became an extension of his self.
Nico slowly sat up and groaned feeling his stiff muscles cry out in agony. Shifting his gaze about the hut, Henry's figure came into view.
The raven-haired trainee was sitting leisurely at the wooden table, flicking a book in his hands.
The cover depicted a Human, and Dragon locked in combat.
Nico noticed it was the same tome he had seen before he had received that pummeling from Lucas.
"Hey, what's so interesting about the book you're reading?" The brown-haired trainee asked with a curious tone.
"Eh?" Snapped out of his reading by the sudden question, it took Henry a second to remember where he was, "Oh, this old thing? It recounts the events of the Second Great War." Henry patted the book affectionately.
It helped him pass the time whenever he was bored.
Upon closer inspection, Nico noticed that the edges of the book were tattered and worn. Some pages were even yellowed and shrivelled.
"Doesn't it get boring constantly reading about history? I much prefer action myself if I was ever going to read something at all." Nico shook his head in amusement.
"Oh, who said anything about this containing no action?" Henry spoke with a sparkle in his eyes. He chuckled after seeing he had grabbed Nico's immediate attention. Beckoning his friend over, the raven-haired boy pointed towards the book. "Although most of the book contains historical events, there are sections where it described some of the more important conflicts in vivid detail. It seems the author had a knack for describing conflicts well." Henry's eyes danced with mirth.
Making his way over, Nico peeked over his friend's shoulders and scanned the page.