Arthur's Point of View

Above the Middle Ocean

With a sigh, my eyes glanced off to the side where I saw Elincia join Kheri where I just was. Removing my armor and weapons, Typhon finally looked at me, confused. Even removing my shirt seemed to startle him while I thought I saw Elincia watching a little too closely but ignored her for the moment. Taking a position in front of Typhon, I lifted my hands.

“Here’s how this is going to work, Ty. Either you start moving your magic around correctly, tell me what’s wrong, or I’m sending you back to Helmsforth.” My student looked alarmed at that. “Don’t give me that look. You’ve been struggling with this for days now. I thought maybe you needed some time to adjust, but I was obviously wrong. Now, we do it the hard way.” I don’t think he was expecting the sudden fist coming towards his face as he barely rolled back to avoid it. “Get up.”

“Arthu-“ Elincia called out to me.

In response, I kicked Typhon across the deck as he held his stomach in pain. “Up. Now.” The young Dragon stood on shaky legs. “This is how you wanted to do it. Impress me.”

Angry at the sudden treatment, I expected him to lose his cool. Instead, he merely took his usual stance. Waiting, my student watched me closely. It was interesting to see his magic seemed to be moving about more freely. Moving towards him got him to flinch, but he readied himself.

Naturally, I wasn’t going to hurt him too bad. My blows would hurt for sure, so it’d tell him I was serious. Yet, he didn’t need to worry about getting a broken arm or something along those lines. I even slowed myself down to make it more manageable for him. Typhon adjusted incredibly quickly.

Blocking the blows made him wince in pain, which led him to start deflecting the blows or avoiding them altogether. His dodging was sloppy. Not that he knew the proper ways to avoid being hit, so there was a lot of wasted movement. Then again, that’s what I was for. When he would strike back, I would move accordingly. Ty noticed how I was moving and would quickly mimic me.

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Part of me was surprised, but I was starting to understand why he was struggling so much. Why it was so frustrating for him and why he couldn’t answer. It would appear that he operated mostly on instinct. He did as well as he did in the North because his life was at risk. Ty fulfilled my instructions against that Skeld because everything turned to chaos. Knocking down that tree was the result of him feeling the absolute need to do so.

So, imagine my surprise when I went to grab him, and he redirected my hands with his left arm. My eyes widened slightly when I saw him focused on me and solely on me. All the magic that had been building throughout his training and our little sparring session quickly came forward into his right hand.

“Oh, shi-“ Was all I had time to say.

See, it wasn’t that Typhon was too fast for me or that his magic gave him some manner of new ability. He just completely surprised me. I probably could’ve dodged it easy enough if I wanted to as well. However, another part of me felt like he earned a little payback after I kicked him across the deck.

Slamming his fist into my stomach, my body folded before being launched into the railing of the ship. However, the burst that Typhon had used was far stronger than I had initially assumed. Many gasped in horror as my body slammed into the railing before sailing through it and off the ship. Gasps turned to screams as I fell with a small smile on my lips while rubbing my gut.

Catching myself in a gravity pillar as Elincia and Kheri had jumped after me, I saw them sigh in relief. Both flew near me, keeping an eye on me to make sure I wasn’t injured or started to fall once more. It was slightly amusing to see. However, I ignored them for the time being as I landed in front of my student, who looked worried.

Dusting off my shirt around my stomach, I smirked. “Apparently, I need to put out more energy when training you so I don’t get blown off the side of the ship.”

“You are not mad?” Ty inquired.

“Why should I be?” I asked back. “Because you did as instructed? Maybe it’s because you defended yourself?”

“You could have been hurt.” My student answered.

Chuckling at that, I placed my hands on his shoulders. “It will be a while before you can truly hurt me, Ty, but you gave it your best try.” My words made him smirk as I shook him playfully. “I also realized that you are far more interesting than I first realized.”

He looked confused at that. “I am?”

I nodded. “You are, and I now know the best way to train you.” With almost a wicked smile, many seemed alarmed as I spoke. “On top of your regular training, you will spend several hours fighting against other opponents. If no one here is willing to hurt you, then it will be me and only me.” Then I gestured back to Elincia. “Between the blonde wonder over there and I, we can probably fix up most wounds.”

“What did you call me?” Elincia demanded.

Ignoring her, I continued. “Although, most physical exercise doesn’t seem to bother you. Thus, I need to come up with another idea. One that should make things far more difficult for you.”