Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

Chapter 603: Chapter 603. Advanced Knight Training 2

”You bastards have been here for a month! If you’re not Rank 1 with at least one combat technique under your belt, you should just kill yourselves!” a Rank 4 knight roared, releasing his aura and making the trainees cower beneath the pressure. ”I’m talking about you, Walter! What kind of fucking child prodigy from the academies hasn’t even figured out how to properly execute a Slash, let alone its elemental forms? You should be fucking ashamed of yourself!”

Thirty fresh trainees stood in formation on the training grounds, receiving their usual lambasting from their instructor. For the past month, this had been their daily routine. Every morning began with an hour of verbal abuse mixed with subtle hints on how they could improve before their instructor finally decided they had been humiliated enough to start training.

”You’re all done with the advanced breathing technique, so we’ll skip that from now on. Congratulations. Your prospects for the future are better than 90% of all the knights out there. Give yourselves a pat on the back.”

No one moved.

”I said pat yourselves on the back, you fuckers!” the instructor yelled.

All the trainees awkwardly reached behind themselves and patted their own backs.

”Your advanced combat technique, Elemental Slash, has been coming along nicely as well, save for a few dumbasses. But I’m not delaying the rest of the lessons just because they can’t keep up. Come see me after training. You know who you are.”

A handful of trainees lowered their heads in shame.

”Now, we’ll be working on your defenses and mobility.”

The instructor’s expression turned serious as he looked over the trainees.

”Unlike attacking, you don’t get to choose when someone hits you. If you can’t defend yourself or get out of the way, all that fancy offensive power of yours won’t mean a damn thing. For defense, flare your aura, but don’t stop at your body. Let it continue expanding beyond your skin until it naturally forms a spherical barrier around you. It won’t have nearly as much defensive power as you might expect, though, so you’ll need to feed it even more energy to properly strengthen it. To do that, take two quick breaths, rotate the energy around your stomach once, then exhale from your diaphragm as you flare your aura. It takes a little longer to deploy, but it’s still faster than turning around to block an attack from behind with your weapon...”

The instructor continued explaining the technique, along with the various ways it could be adapted to suit different users, before demonstrating it himself.

Alex quickly realized that this wasn’t the same as Protect, which could block significantly more damage in a short burst at the cost of a cooldown. This was closer to an energy barrier with a finite amount of resistance. It could absorb damage until that resistance was depleted, but unlike Protect, it could remain active for much longer.

Whether Feint or Phantom Force would work against it was another matter. The chances were high, though. Both techniques were specifically designed to bypass or break through barriers, after all.

For the next half of the day, the trainees took turns testing each other’s defenses while the instructor moved among them, offering suggestions for improvement in the form of insults and yelling. The training quickly became chaotic, with barriers collapsing from the slightest touch and more than a few trainees suffering minor injuries. Still, no one stopped. This was a core technique required of any knight who hoped to reach the higher ranks.

”You all fucking suck! I can’t believe you’re supposed to be the best of the best from whatever hole you fucking crawled out of. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”

By noon, they were dismissed for lunch. Afterward, they returned to the training grounds and fell back into formation, ready to learn their second technique.

”Everyone here knows how to walk, run, and jump... At least, I hope all of you dumbasses already know how to do that,” the instructor began. ”That said, you can improve all three by manipulating your mana. Tell me, what have all of you noticed whenever you launch a powerful attack that’s clearly stronger than your physical body?”

No one answered.

”Answer me, damn it!” the instructor yelled.

”We skid?” one of the trainees answered nervously.

”YES! Finally! Someone who probably ate dirt while practicing sword forms with the breathing technique,” the instructor said, patting the trainee on the shoulder so hard that he crumpled to the ground. ”Strength without control is just you flailing your arms around like a dumbass. You need grip, stability, orientation, and direction. You need to be able to go where you want while exerting the right amount of energy without overcompensating or kicking up clouds of dust with every step. To do that, you need to send your energy past the soles of your feet and have it branch out like the roots of a tree. Then exert force through those extensions before releasing it, allowing you to maintain maximum grip with minimal effort and greater returns. This will also help stabilize your swings and maximize your strength. At the highest levels, you can even run across water and air...”

The instructor continued outlining the mobility technique, which focused on grounding the feet with every step to ensure maximum use of strength. He also outlined other forms, such as adding small wings to guide movement through the air, creating a larger surface area for water and air steps, as well as the ability to stand on walls. He even demonstrated all of them, amazing not just the trainees but Alex as well.

Alex had always struggled with maintaining his grip. If he couldn’t dig his feet firmly into the ground with every strike, he had trouble exerting the full strength of his muscles. Fighting on loose dirt or sand was particularly troublesome, as it significantly weakened not only his strikes but those of his Pokémon as well. With this technique alone, he could already see a greater improvement in his combat ability than simply flaring his mana to increase his strength or the force behind his attacks.

For the next four hours, the trainees stumbled around like babies learning to stand, walk, and run for the first time. Many ate dirt because they couldn’t get the timing of the release right, maintaining their grip on the ground even after they had already pushed off. Even Alex was no exception, repeatedly face-planting or slipping as he struggled to get the timing down. No one laughed or made fun of anyone, though. The training was simply that demanding.

As usual, the instructor moved among them, inspecting their movements and offering hints disguised as insults to push their progress along. It was crude, but it worked. By the end of the training, everyone had at least managed to get a basic grasp of the technique.

”Congratulations, dumbasses. You’ve taken your very first baby steps. Keep working on it. I expect every one of you to know how to run by next month.”

They had dinner before getting some free time ahead of lights out, with Alex heading to the training grounds as usual. As far as everyone else was concerned, his stamina was inexhaustible, so no one thought much of it.

Alex, meanwhile, stood with his greatsword raised in front of him, eager to test one of the many combat techniques he had stolen from the nobles. It began with the same breathing sequence as their defensive technique, and since he had managed to perform it at the end of training, he was eager to see if he could reproduce it on his own.

He flared his aura over his skin and took two quick breaths, drawing the air deep into his diaphragm. As he prepared to exhale, his mana flowed into his arms and surged through his hands, naturally pouring into the blade and gathering toward the tip. He then exhaled forcefully and swung his greatsword horizontally, releasing the gathered energy. A dark wave swept outward in a wide, expanding arc, flying toward the edge of the training grounds before gradually dissipating.

”This looks like Breaking Swipe, or I suppose Brutal Swing,” Alex said with a smile.

”Where did you learn to execute an Elemental Moonlight Slash?” a voice asked from behind him.

”Captain Thomas,” Alex said, immediately turning toward him and standing at attention.

”Answer my question, trainee,” Thomas said sternly.

”I don’t know anything about this Moonlight Slash,” Alex replied.

It was about as blatant a lie as he could tell, considering Moonlight Slash was the title of the very manual he was pretending not to know anything about.

”But I noticed the instructor said this breathing sequence was meant to enhance power, so... I figured I could use it to enhance my Night Slash.”

Thomas narrowed his eyes at Alex but couldn’t exactly blame the lad for stealing a noble’s technique. After all, that was precisely how the technique had been created in the first place. Some optimizations had been added ever since, giving it a few key differences, but seeing a trainee immediately recognize the underlying principles and reproduce it was impressive.

Unfortunately, Alex might not live long enough to follow in the footsteps of the Moonlight Slash’s creator.

”Follow me to my office,” Thomas said before walking away, with Alex following close behind.

Once they entered the office and sat down, Thomas took a long look at Alex before letting out a heavy sigh. It was a shame to see such a talented young man being dragged down by politics.

”Do you know whose arm you cut off during your duel?” Thomas asked.

”Some noble brat?” Alex replied.

”Yes, and that noble brat’s father is furious. You can expect an execution by next week, when his uncle comes to collect him.”

”I don’t suppose another duel could fix this issue?” Alex asked.

”It can, but he’s Rank 5, so even I’m not confident I could win.”

Alex fell silent, contemplating the situation. He had a good thing going here, and it would be a shame to lose the opportunity to receive proper training. Unfortunately, there was little he could do. He couldn’t reveal his true strength without exposing himself, and he also couldn’t allow a Rank 5 to execute him just to maintain his cover. If he couldn’t find another solution, he would have no choice but to leave early.

”Which is why,” Thomas said, leaning forward with a serious expression, ”I have a proposition for you.”