Leon's point of view

We're going to fight against Nami for the first time in over a year. I doubt we still stand a chance. She's been doing this for years already. To catch up in a single year is even foolish to think so... Maybe... We will have to see. I still want to see how much further we've gotten. She pairs off against the first person. It is Brick, Brick is very strong… He just can't fight against people. He was the most likely to beat her if he could get over that hurdle.

She beats him… It takes slightly longer, he puts up more of a fight because of the 2 weeks of training… Next is Lance… I start to get slightly excited by this. It is like watching two juggernauts pair off. The set-up across from each other… Lance takes his new stance which Nami questions… After stating he made his own style and Nami questioning it thoroughly they finally square off.

Nami takes the normal karate stance. Lance takes one of his own design. Similar to Kite's unique style, the main difference is his hands… Both are clenched as tight as possible and in front of his face, eye level. He has a huge hunch in his back. Leaning heavily forwards with his legs almost bowed to a 90 degree angle. He waits for Nami to get closer… She seems beyond guarded compared to normal. Where she rushes in to fight… I think she knows that he is stronger than before… The tension right now is crazy.

She breaks the tension, rushing towards Lance… Big mistake, she gets into Lances kill range… This is going to be bad. Lance pushes off the ground with enough force to almost leave crack marks where his feet were. Shooting at Nami like a cannon, WHAM! Right through all her defenses… Nami is knocked flat for the first time since we've started… Unconscious… Nami has been defeated!

The entire room goes silent… I can't believe this myself… I knew Lance was strong but… To beat someone we had been struggling to beat a year ago in a single hit… How fucking strong are these awakened classes!? His new style also takes advantage of his classes, heavily reliant on his dragoons jumping capacity… Methodis rushes over and starts healing her. Someone runs over to a bucket of water Nami had started using to wake us up after we had been knocked out…

She wakes up beyond confused. This is the first time anyone has landed a solid hit, let alone a knockout punch… She tries to get up but immediately falls back down on her ass from the physical trauma. Her body still shaking, trying to understand what happened to it… That is the first time I had seen this attack from the outside where it wasn't countered… I can't believe it worked… If Kite could counter that punch… And Nami couldn't… Doesn't that mean?

She stands up with the help of two people. She looks at Lance before saying.

“What the hell happened to you? You suddenly look older and you fight as if that much time has passed with you practicing… You're not even the same person are you? You're the little kids older brother aren't you?”

“Nope. I just trained all day two days ago.”

I laugh a little and she looks at me. Very thoroughly… She speaks…

“You… Your muscle tone is different too… You're hair is longer… You are also older aren't you? Hell, even that giant over there has gotten stronger… What are you people?”

Lance answers her.

“We are members of an army. An army that gets stronger by the day. We have to in order to stay alive. We have an amazing general, one that gives us all these advantages… If he wasn't around I wouldn't be here… I would most likely be dead. We all would… Kite is our leader for a reason. I am proof of that by how much stronger I am.”

I see Trice turn away. Everyone else seems to be in agreement. I know he saved a lot of people here. People who would have died. He has helped us all… Including myself, I guess the speech that saved me from… Myself, was originally inspired by his speech. She has recovered completely for her loss… I doubt I can beat her now that she is going to focus completely… I should have fought before Lance.

“You're next tough guy. We'll see how much stronger you have gotten compared to your friends.”

I step forward. I take the normal karate stance… I haven't really made my own style yet. She smirks somewhat seeing it… I guess she expected… More… I start to feel defeated already. We start edging towards each other. She's never been this guarded before. Lance must have flustered her completely.

We get closer and closer, our hands are almost touching. She grabs my hand and pulls me closer, slamming her foot into my side. Damn it! Spinning my arm forcing me down… I'm defeated, she looks almost disappointed. She begins to speak.

“I guess I was worried for nothing… Next!”

She calls for the next one… I'm not happy with the outcome, I ask her.

“Can we fight again?”

“Well… More people want to fight but if you want thrown down again I'm fine with that.”

It is the same thing again. I ask for another attempt… Then another… Then another… Then another. She starts to get mad.

“THIS IS THE LAST CHANCE! Nothing has been different since the first attempt. I get it, you're stronger than you were but you can't expect to be better than me by just going through the motions of training. I train everyday too, you can't just beat me with practice! You need something more, something all your own, you can't beat me with a style I've practiced for years.”

She's right... I… I can't be beaten again. An entire year wasted! I'll throw everything into this next attack. I'll sacrifice my body if I have to. We square off again, I can't… I WON'T BE BEATEN AGAIN! EVERYTHING! I'LL GIVE EVERYTHING TO BEAT HER!

All of my power. I use everything! I have to push my body faster. I continue to move but… She is still looking at where I was… I move to the side of her, crouching down as low as I can. Mimicking Lance's punch except close range. I'm going to throw spring loaded punch at her. She still hasn't even flinched yet from me moving… What is wrong here? Is she waiting for me to attack? I don't care anymore! I need this attack to land or I'll go back into the fucking tree for another year to beat her!

WHAM! The attack connects! What!? Why didn't she dodge it? She doesn't even react to it… Only a moment later… She finally reacts to the strike. I beat her! She falls down, I instinctively go to jump but my body crumples into a mass of pain. It feels like my arms and legs are broken. I start to feel blood come out of my eyes, mouth, nose and ears. What did I just do to myself… Lance yells out.

“Quickly heal them both! What just happened?”

I barely hear him, the blood coming out of my ears had dampened my hearing. He shouted, it sounded like I was underwater. We both get healed… I'm still in bad shape and she is unconscious… How hard did I just hit her? Lance looks at me then says.

“What did you just do?! You were there one second than by her side with her flying into the air the next… You moved so fast you left an after image of yourself where you were… Why are you so hurt from your own attack?”

“Y-yea… I think that is what I did… I just couldn't lose to her again. I need to keep getting stronger.”

Title acquired At any cost- willing to sacrifice yourself to win a fight that you would have been impossible to win

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Secret skill gained Sacrifice attack- Sacrifice your body to gain temporary powers

Would you like to learn Champion?

Warning! You will lose several classes by doing so

Kite's point of view

“The paper is a specially made paper that only a transmutation master can make. Which we only have one of right now, the apprentices learning it were killed in the pirate attack. It takes weeks of work to enchant a single sheet of paper with the beginning level of the contract. The ink is also very expensive and hard to get, coming from squids caught off the shores. Farming them and making them produce it, then we have to cook it in a pot to boil the water out. We used to use charcoal and still do when we run out of ink… Ink just works better for making contracts. There is less chance of ruining the contract with ink over charcoal. The process for getting it is just long and tedious.”

“That doesn't seem so bad… You said it takes a year though. What other steps does it take?”

“Follow me.”

He leads me outside… To the middle area of the castle, the area is a garden like area. I see holes dug… What is this about? The shogun speaks.

“This next process requires them to be buried for an entire year for them to be infused with the mana of nature. Each animal is part of nature so the nature mana. Any other mana doesn't work for the contract. It is essentially like growing a plant. This process takes an entire year and there is no method to speed it up. This is the reason why we can't just give away all the contracts you need.”

“...Can I try something?”

“I suppose… Just keep it to a single contract for now. This batch is already 6 months through completion.”

I move up to one of them… I have this skill from nature mage that makes crops grow faster… Perhaps it could speed up the process. I cast regrowth on the first one. It starts to grow, the top of the scroll is still visible. I look over at the shogun and he is visibly shaking. He yells out.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?”

“I cast the nature mage skill that helps plants grow faster. Why?”

“That glow is the signal that the scroll is close to being done for the next step.”

“Well what is the next step then?”

“F-Follow me... I can't believe you... Something so simple would work... If only we had nature mages to help...”

He leads me inside again. Heading underneath the castle. We head to the basement where some of the scrolls are at the last stage of creation. The dirt is being brushed off them, they are doing some last minute touch ups to them. Finally applying the contract letters. This is another long process, one misspelled word can ruin the contract at this point. That is still a very strange way to make them. I look at the contract closer… 100% chance to learn enchant when deconstructed… I ask.

“Can I have just one more scroll?”

“Fine may I ask for what reason?”

“I'll show you.”

I pick up one of the scrolls and deconstruct it. Taking it apart in front of him, he yells out.

“What are you doing!?”

Spirit tree learned

Enchant paper spirit contract learned

Enchant paper spirit seal learned

Extinct Enchant weapon ghostly spirit learned

“I just learned how to craft those spirit contracts… Also spirit seals, I also learned how to enchant weapons with ghostly spirits… Have you ever heard of that?”

“Hmm… I have heard of some emperors in the past having floating weapons to protect them from danger… The swords… Aren't very smart though, often fighting anything that tries to pass an area. Besides the owner of the swords… They are also fairly easy to take out, a strong enough attack would down them for a few minutes. They tend to be quantity defenses over quality.”

“I wonder if I could give them commands… Like return, so if they are thrown… They'll eventually return back to me.”

“… I'm not sure. It sounds plausible. The only way to know for sure is to try.”

“Well… I'll get to work on making my own scrolls, thank you for your scroll. What would you like for payment?”

“Can you teach my students each one more class… I'll get on my hands and knees and beg if I have to. I am their ruler but also their mentor… If that is what it takes I'm willing to grovel... I'll do anything to give my people another chance at greatness.”

“Sensei… Please don't demean yourself. I would never ask you to beg. Just give me the chance to become allies with you. Also… I think I can help with the production of these contracts if you wish.”

“Well. Besides teaching us the nature mage class, what else can you do?”

I pull a bucket out of my void bag. Filling it up with my ink spray blue mage skill. As I do he looks on in amazement. I can easily fill this bucket to the brim. The amount that I noticed was barely a single vial per person. This will give each of them enough to finish a few more contracts. I'll have to teach a few of the murine folk the blue mage so they can learn how to make this ink. Teaching a few the nature mage class to help “grow” the scrolls faster… I'm still not sure how that works completely... Maybe while I make my own scrolls, I'll experiment.

I'll teach the bulk of the ninjas the monk class… Maybe… I'm not sure… Perhaps teaching them classes they want would be better. I'll decide when I go to teach them. Today I'm just too busy. I go to visit the old man next.