Ivar walked back to the area where the other sword users were training, most of them were either swinging their swords or lifting rocks and doing exercises. Ivar walked towards Cohen and questioned, "Hey Cohen, Do you want to have a duel? Also, how are you going to train?"
Cohen, sweat dripping from his face, looked at Ivar and replied, "Oh Ivar. They gave me a book for now, about training for ability users. They said that one of the rank 3 legacy elders or first elder will take me under them in a few months."
"Oh! That's great. So do you think we can have a duel?" Ivar remarked.
Cohen smiled, looking at the various weapons on his side, "Well, the book did tell me to train my body and use my ability for the first stage of Path of Ability."
"Alright! Let's fight." Ivar unseathed his sword, keeping his bow on the ground. It wouldn't serve a purpose in this fight.
Cohen levitated a sword and a spear and thrusted the spear towards Ivar, while he himself was carrying a sword ready to attack.
Ivar deflected the spear with the swing of his sword, but he was attacked by the levitating sword. He deflected the sword with yet another slash.
Ivar was surprised at how hard it was to fight someone with an ability. He was sure that he was physically stronger than Cohen but as soon as Cohen used his ability Ivar had to start defending.
Ivar continued defending the blows from the sword and the spear all while Cohen sneakily came near him and thrust the sword to stab Ivar.
"I see you," Ivar said those words and crossed his sword with Cohens, and deflected the stab. The levitation weapons attacked Ivar by stabbing but Ivar moved his head to narrowly dodge the sword and the spear.
"That might have been dangerous…" Cohen apologetically said looking at Ivar, his weapons still levitating.
"I am still alive, aren't I? It wasn't dangerous. Don't hold back. We won't be getting proper training or else. Also, We will do this only for three hours. I have to train in archery after that."
"Okay!" Cohen nodded.
Sounds of multiple weapons clashing and moving through the air ensued as the duo continued fighting.
Ivar's lackeys on the other hand were screaming at the now wide-eyed audience, "Look! Look! They are our bosses. Follow them, you bastards! Unless you want to get beaten up that is!"
***
After three hours of continuous fighting, with only short water breaks in between, the now sweaty duo stopped. Sweat dripped from Ivar's back as he looked at the rays of hot sun.
He breathed deeply through his mouth, taking in multiple gulps of air, and said, "Well, that was fun. Let's do this every day. I am sure that It will help you too."
"Yeah, It did give me some creative ideas." Cohen looked at some head-sized rocks lying on the ground he used to sneakily attack Ivar.
"Heh. You did go all out. I am thankful for that. Just don't hold back." Ivar smiled and made a thumbs-up with his hands.
"I won't." After that, the duo stopped talking and basked in the hot morning sunlight, hearing the sound of clashing metal and grunts of pain and discomfort from other trainees.
The other trainees followed their example and started dueling each other after one of them challenged the other to a duel.
***
Aira looked at the duel happening in front of her with wide eyes. So, that's what an ability was.
Aira had never seen an ability user in her entire life. She had heard the rumors about the fire demon, who could manifest and use fire to cause destruction to destroy countries but she had never seen it with her own eyes.
A thought plagued her mind at this moment. Both Ivar and Cohen were stronger than her, Isshin was even stronger. He was like a mountain with its peak hidden by the clouds. Would she ever be able to get her revenge if she remained weak like this?
No. No, She wouldn't.
At that moment, she looked at a girl who was also looking at Ivar and Cohen fighting. Everyone was looking at their fight, that girl just happened to be one of them.
"Hey, you," Aira called in a not-so-loud voice.
"Me?" The girl looked at Aira and tilted her head.
"Yeah, you. Get your sword ready. We are going to fight." Aira plainly remarked.
"What do you mean?" The girl panicked, asking Aira a question. But Aira wasn't in the mood to reply. She let her sword do the talking. Aira unsheathed her sword and lunged towards the girl, attacking her.
The girl instinctively defended back and Aira continued attacking. Everyone else was surprised by yet another clash of metal on the ground and looked at them.
A second clash of swords lit up a spark among the crowd of trainees. A spark to surpass them and get stronger. From the attack of Isshin on their village and caravan, they had already learned that strength reigned supreme in the world.
The people near each other looked at each other's faces and nodded. Almost immediately, everyone lunged at the other, starting their duel.
***
Back to the present, Ivar walked behind the halls through the trees and bushes with his sword and bow.
He saw a clean archery range made out of wood and with bows of multiple sizes and the equivalent arrows. And most importantly, there were nicely made targets at increasing distances.
He also saw a plain-looking woman practicing archery in there, but he figured not to bother her and started practicing himself.
He first stretched his body and then picked up the bow and arrows from the storage stand and started to aim from the nearest target.
He pulled the string and focused his concentration and… bullseye!
Ivar was happy that he could still make the shot. He hadn't practiced bow for the duration of time he stayed in Oraburg after all.
He moved on to the next target of 25 meters, skipping the 15-meter one, and continued increasing the distance until he couldn't make an accurate enough shot.
He finally reached a 200-meter target, he pulled back the string, focusing solely on the target and shot! He only hit the Magpie, the third layer out from Bullseye. Ivar was happy with this result. It turns out that after he stepped into the circulation stage, his strength and accuracy did increase.
He continued practicing on the 200-meter target hoping to make a good and accurate shot.
Time passed on like the way his arrow flowed through the hair. It was already midday.
"Everyone Come to the main grounds. It's time for yet another announcement!" Isshin's voice reverberated through the top of the mountain.
Ivar and the other girl rushed back to the ground and stood up in front of Isshin.
He glossed over the crowd and remarked, "It looks like you are training well. Now, You will rest for an hour and have some food. But before that, I have to tell you your schedule for the rest of the day."
"Listen closely as you will follow that for the rest of your time unless you die or become a rank 7, team member." Isshin once again mightily announced.
"You will have the following classes for the rest of the day, Observation class, Impersonation class, Ways To Cover your Tracks, Types of Poison and Poison resistance, and finally Survival situation classes." Isshin let the information sink into the trainees' brains.