Another painful night of torture and cultivation passed.

Arne was at Emil's door first thing in the morning.

*BANG*BANG*BANG*

He put Emil's door under ten year's worth of pressure in under ten seconds.

"I'm coming I'm coming!"

Emil was scared shitless by the sound and sprinted towards the door.

Behind it, Arne's burly physique and spiky hair was revealed.

"I've been out here forever, hurry it up boy."

Emil looked at him, speechless.

'you arrived just now.'

"Good morning uncle."

Emil looked around after greeting.

"Hurry up, where?"

"Don't ask too many questions, just take my hand."

Emil did as instructed before feeling a great force tugging at him from every direction.

Opening his eyes a few seconds later when he felt like everything was settled, he was shocked to see his surroundings.

They were in school no longer no, they were in a mountain range, wide and beautiful, filled with greenery.

"What are we doing here?"

Arne looked around.

"I might have to blast a few things. it'd be troublesome doing it in the Academy.

Why, don't you like it here?"

"Fine by me."

"Hah, that's the spirit!

Look around, beautiful isn't it? You kids spend too much time in class and in your quarters. You should come out every once in a while and experience nature.

Alright, enough chitchat. Take out your sword cause there's a lot we have to learn."

Emil did as instructed and took out Emerald Reflection.

Arne nodded in satisfaction.

"You took the elixir huh? How's the sword feel in your hand."

Emil swung it around a few times.

"Fine. It's still a bit heavy and tires me out quickly though."

"It's alright, you'll get used to it."

Arne rolled up his sleeves, revealing his bulging forearms and placed himself in front of Emil.

"Hit me with the best you got."

Not a hint of mana was radiated from him, he wasn't augmenting.

Emil, for a second, was afraid to do as told in fear of hurting Arne.

After giving it some more thought though, he realized he, not in a million years could harm a blue stage Knight, not at his current level.

A look of focus replaced his normal expression as he raised his sword.

*Swish*

He slashed at Arne.

Arne didn't dodge, or even move an inch. He took the force full head on.

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Emil stopped after seeing his blade couldn't even scratch Arne's skin.

"Again."

Arne said, his gaze locked on Emil's body.

*Swish*

"Again."

*Swoosh*

"Again."

This process continued until Emil was out of breath.

He was kneeling on the ground panting, but Arne wasn't gonna let him rest.

"Get up."

"Huff, Huff, just a se-"

A kick sent Emil flying like a football before he could finish.

It didn't break any of his bones or damage him seriously, but it sure as hell hurt.

Emil limped up and looked at Arne in trepidation.

"What was that for!?"

Arne looked at him, his eyes stern.

"When I say get up, you get up. A Magical Beast, or other magicians for that matter aren't gonna care if you're out of breath. You have to keep fighting."

Emil's mouth moved, but no words came out.

He couldn't rebuke him, he could only comply.

Emil gathered himself and stood next to Arne again.

"Try to hit me this time."

Emil couldn't quite tell what Arne meant, he was hitting him up until now. But by the looks of it he was up to something, so he raised his sword and attacked again.

*Swish*

Emerald Reflection came down, its path unhindered, before engraving itself into the ground.

Arne had dodged.

"Again."

Not waiting for Arne's command everytime, Emil started bombarding his teacher with attacks.

Left, right, up, down, horizontal, vertical, slow, fast, no matter what kind of attack Emil used, his sword didn't land on anything.

What frustrated him the most was one, Arne's eyes were closed, and two, he hadn't moved and inch from his original spot since the beginning of the assault steady as a stone.

Emil fell on the ground again, exhausted. He couldn't move a muscle for real this time.

Arne examined him for a few seconds before starting to speak.

"Kid, do you want to hear my honest opinion?"

Emil nodded amidst his panting.

Arne took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Your sword arts, they're trash."

Emil couldn't quite hear him.

"What?"

"I said they're trash! Garbage! That's not how you swing a sword, you don't put any thought behind it, you swing it like a stick, randomly!

Your sword has two blades, a sharp tip, a center of gravity, try to use them to your advantage!

Not to mention, your form is all over the place, you don't even have a stance!

I don't care if you've never held a sword before, you should be doing better than this!"

Arne's fuming tongue lashing raged over Emil.

it made him feel ashamed.

It wasn't like he did it on purpose. It was his first time wielding a sword properly.

He was giving it his best, but maybe that wasn't enough.

Arne noticed Emil's look and shook his head. He lost his temper again.

"Get up."

He commanded with a slightly gentler voice.

Emil did as told.

"Look at me carefully, the first thing you're gonna need is a stance.

It all starts from your legs, watch me."

Arne summoned a sword and held it in his hands before placing one foot behind, one foot forward, opening his legs in a 150 degrees stance, and bending his back slightly to lean forward.

"This is the most basic and effective stance you could ask for.

This stance allows you to put all your force and weight behind each and every strike and allows for both a solid defense and offense.

Try it."

Emil started mimicking Arne, his left leg behind, right foot forward, back bent and sword held in front of him.

"Raise your sword higher."

"Like this?"

"Yeah, now straighten your back a bit, you're leaning froward too much."

"Good, now grip your sword tightly and try to draw strength from your entire body before slashing at that tree."

Emil did as told, drawing energy from his body and slashing at the tree.

*Pah!*

A shallow cut, it was apparent to the eye. It didn't penetrate much.

"Let me show it to you."

Arne tried the exact same move and cut the tree into two clean halves before Emil's eyes.

"Now you try."

Emil tried again, only to inflict another shallow cut.

"No, not like that. You're not drawing energy from your body. The strike starts from your feet, you then have to turn your whole body and slash forward."

Emil tried again, using his utmost focus to do as instructed.

*Pah*

Yet it only resulted in another shallow cut.

Arne shook his head.

"Not like that, don't hold your breath. Let oxygen pump into your body to increase your strength. Now try again."

A shallow cut again, even worse than last time.

"No Emil no, i said it starts from your foot but you only turned your body."

Emil kept slashing at the tree and Arne kept giving advice, yet they still weren't making any progress.

Arne was frustrated. From the looks of it, Emil had no talent for swordsmanship. He was trying his best to control his temper. He didn't want to be too harsh to Emil, he was sure 'He' wouldn't.

But doing so was becoming more frustrating, Emil wasn't making any progress.

Until an idea struck his mind.

"Try augmenting first, it should make learning easier."

Arne looked at Emil in anticipation.

Emil looked at him for a few seconds unable to say anything.

He could only resort to scratching his head and blurting it out.

"I can't augment."

Arne's face dropped.

"Yo can't what? Bullshit, i saw you do it at the exams."

"...that was a coincidence."

Arne, much like Osric, rubbed his ears in response to those words.

"Come again? That was what?"

"A coincidence."

"Puahahahah, get a load of this. There's no such thing as a coincidental augmentation.

Once you learn how to augment you'll know it forever. Now stop kidding around and do it already."

"..."

Seeing Emil's lack of reaction, and somewhat pissed off face, Arne's eyebrows started to rise.

"You can't be serious?"

Emil shrugged, eliciting a facepalm from Arne.

"Sigh, forget it. I'll teach you how to do it later. Let's take a break for now and eat something."

His eyes lit up when he mentioned food.

With a snap of his finger, a variety of dishes appeared before him and Emil.

"Whoaa, Uncle, you were packing!"

A proud expression emerged on Arne's face.

"My wife made it, come on let's dig in!"