"If you want to defend this town, you must learn how to fight," Balos said. "There is a chance that the people that we let go will return with more people and more firepower." He was holding a standard katana like the one Lucius used. "I will teach you an advanced stance, but it is hard, harder than anything you will do. There is no time to teach you the simple things. Do you wish to proceed?"

Without hesitation, Lucius said,"I do." It was the same day the village was built. Even through their sore muscles, Balos decided to teach Lucius how to fight.

"This stance is called Quickdraw. You can slice something extremely fast without anyone seeing."

Balos walked to a tree and rested his hand on the hilt of his katana. He paused, then there was a massive crack! and the tree blew off and crashed into several other trees. Balos didn't seem to move an inch.

"That is Quickdraw," Balos said.

Whoa, amazing! That... could I ever attain that? Lucius thought in both amazement and disbelief.

"Let's start with the basics," Balos said. "First, stop keeping your katana on your back. Terrible form. It is not a greatsword."

Lucius (embarrassed) took the katana off his back and tied it to his waist. The extra weighed seemed to make his body lean to one side, but he forced himself to straighten out.

"Now take the katana out of its sheath," Balos said. Every second, Lucius started to get more and more excited. I'm going to learn an overpowered sword technique! I wonder if I can use it in the real world... Lucius thought to invest into a real katana in the future.

"Now put the katana back into the sheath without looking at it," Balos said.

Lucius shrugged. Okay, this is easy enough, Lucius said. He was sorely mistaken.

He poked his hand. Over and over again. The katana would refuse to go into the sheath. It was as if there was a magnetic field that repelled the sword away from the sheath's hole. Lucius's hand was poked and prodded over and over again until it felt like there was a porcupine sticking needles into his hand.

Finally, he got it. He sighed in relief and stretched his hand out.

"Now do it one hundred more times," Balos said and walked away.

Lucius didn't register what he said, and when Balos walked away, Lucius muttered, "Hold up... what?!?"

One hundred more times?! My hand is going to be minced meat by the end of that! Lucius explained in his head.

Nonetheless, Lucius slowly pulled his katana out from his sheath and raised it, then, very slowly, inched the katana toward the sheath.

His hand was poked hundreds of times. Some of the pokes were small and didn't even break the skin, but most of them drew blood. Soon, there were hundreds of small blood drops coming off of his hand, but he got better and better at it.

At the end of the hundred, Lucius could pull the sword out of his sheath at a normal speed and put it back in at a normal speed. He walked back to the house and looked for Balos.

He found him in the water. "I have done one hundred," Lucius said.

"Demonstrate," Balos ordered.

Lucius pulled the katana out of his sheath and put it in without much difficulty.

"Good, you are learning fast," Balos said. "This will help with speed."

"Now what do I do?" Lucius asked.

Balos closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "One hundred push-ups, one hundred curl-ups, and run around the outskirts of the town five times."

"...are you trying to kill me?" Lucius asked with a joking tone, but he really wasn't.

Does he really expect me to do this? I'm just a human! Lucius thought. However, he started to get to do the push-ups.

It was a weird feeling. Lucius's core and arms hurt, but his body in the real world was perfectly fine. He would never get over that double feeling.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

His real-world body went to sleep already, so Lucius soon had full control over his other world body.

It took Lucius about thirty minutes to finish the push-ups. He was dripping sweat like a waterfall and his limbs felt like lead.

He tried to go into the water, but Balos stopped him.

"There will be no rest until you finish your task," Balos said.

What kind of a monster is this guy?!!? Lucius wanted to yell out in frustration.

Before he did one hundred sit-ups, Lucius got his katana out and put it back in. He didn't seem to be losing it, and after doing the push-ups, his arms felt lighter. He could do it much faster than earlier without wrecking his hand.

Speaking of that, Lucius went inside and wrapped his left hand in the white bandages. He had no idea where Luna got them from.

Then, Lucius returned to the sit-up grind. He sharply inhaled with every crunch as his body burned from exhaustion.

This time, it took Lucius forty-five minutes to finish. His core and abs were stripped of any energy they had, and Lucius lay on the grass, gasping for air.

He's never pushed himself so hard. The hardest thing Lucius has done previously was run a mile. And he has to do five times that amount, plus the push-ups and curl-ups.

Lucius trotted outside and took a deep breath. The sun was starting to set, sending waves of cool air in the direction of the water. It was no mistake to build a town there.

Then Lucius broke into a jog. He watched the village he created begin to settle down and sleep. The streets started to quiet down as the wolf-people started to get cozy inside their houses.

As soon as Lucius finished his run, he dove into the cool water and closed his eyes. He never appreciated the water so much.

----------------------------------------

In Voxis Kingdom...

"Huff, huff, huff," a soldier in dulled armor clutched his bleeding arm and ran through the streets of the kingdom. He shoved people aside and sprinted into through the gates of the kingdom.

I need to tell the Warden about this! he thought and redoubled his efforts. He raced through the long corridors and skidded to a stop outside of a door. He kicked it open and briskly walked up to another door, which was plated in gold and Blackmetal, a rare and durable metal. He raised the door knocker and knocked three times, then entered quietly.

There was a man in a red robe that was seated upon a throne similar to the door. He had a menacing aura, but he was not the king. He was the leader of the five generals of the kingdom, the Warden. At his side was a black and gold sword that seemed to gleam with blood-thirst.

"Warden! I have a report!" the man said and sank to a knee. His armor rang against the ground.

"Speak," the seated Warden said in a deep voice. The dim lighting made it impossible to see his face, much less his impression. Everything about him seemed to plant fear in the soldier's body.

"We successfully drove the beastmen out of the village like you asked. However, there was a group of surviving wolf-people fleeing, so Third General sent a group of us to pursue them," the soldier stammered as he spoke.

"I'm assuming there was a difficulty?" the Warden rumbled.

"Y-yes sir," the soldier trembled. "We gave chase to them for three miles. Even with our armor, we were able to keep up with their superior speed because of the potion that you gave--"

"What happened?" the Warden interrupted.

"Uh..." the soldier squeaked. "We were attacked by three people. From what I could see, there was a dragon-kin, a wolf-man, and a human."

"And you lost?!" the Warden yelled and got to his feet.

"Uh... yes sir..." the soldier meekly said.

"How many of you were sent to pursue them?"

"There were about seventy of us," the soldier said. Then he winced. Oh boy, I shouldn't have said that.

"And you lost to three people!" the Warden yelled, enraged. He smashed his fist into a column, cracking it. Dust rained upon the shoulder. "Is that the pride of you soldier dogs?! You dare lose to three people?!"

"N-no, sir. They surprise attacked us and pinned us against a massive boulder. The wolf-man was more than skilled in wielding his greatsword, and the dragon-kin was able to take us down in seconds. The human... well, I don't know. He didn't seem to be in the fight. But they were monsters!"

The warden seemed to pause his rampage. "Hm... a human siding with beastmen... are you sure that was a human?"

"Yes, sir. He had no appearance of a beastman."

"Do you know what he looked like? Would you recognize him if we showed him to you?" The Warden said.

The soldier shook his head. "No, sir. I didn't have a chance to look at him directly."

The warden sat back down in his throne. The soldier quietly sighed with relief as he wasn't killed.

"Send me the Third General. I will have a word with him," the warden quietly said.

"Yes, sir," the soldier said and ran out of the room as fast as possible.

Soon, the Third General walked through into the room. His massive armor and weapon seemed to radiate fear almost matching the Wardens.

"Tell me what happened," the warden demanded.

The Third General gave a more detailed report of what the surviving soldiers told him. A dragon-girl, a wolf-man, and a human defended the surviving fifty members of the wolf-town. They were easily able to overcome the force of soldiers that were sent in pursuit.

After the report, the Warden said, "Two days from today, dispatch a team of scouts to where the wolf-people were last found."

"Yes sir," the Third General said and started to walk out.

"Oh, General?" the warden called out.

He turned.

"Fail me again, and you won't see the daylight again," the Warden said. He seemed to emit blackness.

The Third General turned around and walked out.