Burning Soul

…

A shadow, running through the dense region of forest, his breathing was heavier than normal

Maybe he was running for a while. He was holding onto his ration, a recent hunt.

‘Damn these creatures, they never get tired of chasing me.’

Theo was running with all his might, in the past month he had figured some things

First, the creatures were exceptional when it came to running on the ground, but they were no good at climbing on trees and also jumping, but that was for the creatures he was hunting, he hadn’t been able to dare catch any of them.

Lumiere had warned him about not going there right now, the creatures he mentioned were a bit difficult to handle and were a bit farther than the forest he was hunting in.

With his skills now he was able to hunt two creatures without any difficulty in one go.

The only problem he was still facing was related to his stamina, and there was no quick way to overcome it as it was a physical attribute and only regular physical training would improve it.

Another strange thing was that he never heard that voice after that day, Lumiere was also curious to know about it, yet he wasn’t able to figure out who was talking to him.

After running for a while Theo climbed up on a tree nearby, he was already far ahead of the creatures who were chasing him.

‘Damn it, I still can’t take this in one shot to home, they'll still outrun me.’

…

It had been over a month and yet he wasn’t able to gain a significant advantage over these creatures in Lumiere’s opinion.

For him to qualify, he had to be strong enough to run across the entire forest, in one go, without using any teleportation magic.

It was easier said than done, even though Theo was skilled and had leverage in running, he didn’t possess sufficient stamina.

After taking a little break he finally returned to the base, where Aeneas and Lumiere were waiting for him.

For the past few days, Aeneas had been training Theo with his sword skills.

Although he had been using daggers for as long as he could remember, Lumiere convinced him in using a totally different weapon.

Not one but two swords!

Learning the perfect balance and skills required was no joke as most of the time dual sword-wielding was considered a bad move in times of war, thus he had been using daggers for hunting.

He hadn’t yet mastered sword skills and hunting with armature skills here was like jumping in war with no weapon!

“You are earlier than yesterday!”

Aeneas, who was building training dummies, asked him looking all covered in dust and leaves from the bushes.

“Rough landing again it seems!

Haha, it never fails to amuse me!

How come you manage to get caught up by them every single time?”

Aeneas asking him this question was no new to him.

“Give him some time will ya?”

Lumiere who just got returned from the hut was looking for something.

…

“If you are looking for that last bottle of exquisite wine, you should better not look for it!

It has already found its peace.” Hearing Aeneas says this Lumiere snapped!

“Damn you, bloody idiot, that was my last supply

I shouldn’t have offered it to you.

How much did you drink?

Do you even know?

You emptied two bloody barrels,

Two!”

Lumere was obviously mad as his supply which would have lasted him over a year was emptied in a month by some random ‘Berry-Loving’ creature!

Theo was trying to stop those two from fighting as they pounced on each other.

“Damn you Aeneas, now I gotta stay sober only because of you!”

Lumiere complained to which he laughed and replied,

“That’s better!

Now you can focus on training him.

You were supposed to be the one to train him and see what you’ve been up to!

This kid has learned nothing!”

His cheery jolly tone suddenly got sharper and his words felt heavier.

“If you don’t start taking it seriously, we’ll stay stuck in here!”

Aeneas stormed off after saying so, this got Theo worried as well.

Although he was being trained by Aeneas, his skills were out of his league and swordsmanship was all new to him, training wasn’t going as smoothly as he had thought.

Taking a deep breath in Lumiere walked to Aeneas, “I understand why you are so mad, but all I can say is that every action I’m making him perform has a motive behind it!”

Hearing him say Aeneas turned and replied in a bit higher tone,

“Motive!

You think I’m crazy!

You want him to gain stamina just by running off in the forest!

Is this how you train people?

Is this the training of a sword maiden!”

‘Sword-Maiden’, Theo was dumbstruck hearing this. Aeneas didn’t stop this time and went to the hut without looking back.

“Is it true?

Are you really…” Theo was still not able to process all of this, it all happened too quickly

“Ah!

Yeah!

It indeed is true!

Though I’ve lost my touch it seems.” Lumiere sat down on the ground and stroked the soil.

“That means…” Before Theo could complete Lumiere understood what he was about to say,

“Nup the one who forged those artifacts was my father!

I never can reach where he was!

So, I joined the fleets in war times.

That’s how we know each other.” Hearing him Theo sat on the ground as well looking at him with amusement in his eyes, he was looking at one of the legends he grew up hearing about!

Sword maiden was the title bestowed upon the legends, it was passed on after seeking worthy peoples, the most remarkable being the one who forged the heavenly artifacts for the Aces, Lumiere’s father!

If Lumiere was really bestowed upon by this title, that meant he had surpassed the grandmaster rank in swordsmanship, in using more than one sword at a time to be precise.

This was a title that came with a domain of its own,

slaughter!

That meant he was not anyone to be taken lightly, his powers must be rivalling that of Aces, yet he seemed not to use them, not to mention Theo never saw him carrying a single sword since he met him.

The reasons were still unknown to him yet being trained by such a guy was remarkable, with the only problem being, he wasn’t training him a bit!

Also, it was a bit strange, when it came to mastery in swordsmanship, no one was ever beaten by beast-men, no one! Even elves were short on mastery there.

Lumiere, who seemed more of a human than that of Beast-Men, how on Earth did he beat ‘em all up.

Theo couldn’t help but wonder.

Though he got up and walked to the hut, it was time to prepare for lunch and it looked like the training was done for today.

As he walked to the hut, he heard Lumiere calling him,

“I really tasked you with it to help you get a better kid!”

Hearing him he replied,

“I know, though I feel you know that this won’t be enough, those whom we are to face are a lot stronger and I have a long way to go.”

Saying so he walked into the hut. “Let’s take him to the next phase, shall we?” A voice spoke to Lumiere to which he nodded before getting off the ground.

…

At the other edge of the forest, two shadows walked in,

“Now now, let’s not go playing on our own, shall we?

We are here for some work, but let’s warm up a bit!”

“Sure, it’s been a while since I played with some of these creatures!” Saying so they both walked to the deepest region of the forest.