Odyssey of the Guardian Emperor

Training with Dara'k continued after discussions were concluded. Alaric was to use the days they spent here to train and become more acquainted with his abilities. As he stood now, he was more of a wreck than he needed to be to take on the difficult battle ahead.

The contents of his training, however, made him go pale.

Dara'k offered to help him train in aerial combat. This involved using his Teleportation Ability and his power to fly as well. As someone who'd never considered this before, Alaric was not feeling so great about it. Fortunately, he had a potential battle looming ahead that motivated him to train with the Heaven-Crested Eagle.

The rest of the day would go into Magic and the Dance of the Sword(which he was also to integrate with Teleportation for a more elusive battle art). These made up the three parts of his day, and as soon as it was confirmed with Alia, Dara'k grabbed him by his white cape and took off, leaving the High Sentinel with the rest of the adventurers.

Maple and Bumi decided against being a part of this and left for Flintstone Quarry, leaving Scarlett, Sariah and LionHeart as the last of the party.

Scarlett clenched her fists, watching Alaric struggle to get his teleportations more precise, all while avoiding Dara'k's attacks. His training got even more brutal as the Eagle attacked faster, expecting Alaric to react quicker and use his ability on instinct. The common denominator was pain.

The eagle slammed into him several times, ramming him into the mountainside before shooting up again for a battle beneath the clouds. Alaric, against the pain he was obviously in, followed the Eagle to the sky.

"I want to train, too," Scarlett spoke up.

The High Sentinel sighed, "You humans keep honing your killing skills. I will summon a Healer for you and go hunting. Ignore the Eagles that fly by, except for the healer I will send."

"You healed him?" Sariah's curiosity burst out. At the time Alaric had been healed that morning, she'd been looking for their healing elixirs.

"Healing is a common skill among the Higher Ones," the eagle replied before jumping high, and with a powerful flap of his wings, he crested the mountain range, vanishing from view shortly after.

LionHeart turned to the red-haired girl, "Alaric's told me you're a decent fighter."

Scarlett scoffed, "That was before he rose above my Temper Rank. I can't believe some fifteen-year-old is stronger than me. Just yesterday, he was two whole levels below me."

"I know it's irritating… but Alaric's been through his fair share of training. At least, that's how I try to explain it to myself. At this rate, he's only one Level below me… and will blow past that if he continues like this," the man explained.

"And you're okay with that?" Scarlett wondered.

Before LionHeart could speak, however, a bright amber light cut their conversation short as a Heaven-Crested Eagle covered in more gold than any of the other eagles they'd seen, with the exception of the High Sentinel, emerged from a rift in the air.

"Compete with the Protector and you'll surely fall behind. Aid him and growth will be but a side-effect: A reward," a feminine voice emanated from the Eagle.

"You speak the human language, too?" LionHeart noted.

"I am what you may call a Higher One. My name is Kair'ak, and the High Sentinel sent me to offer healing services," the Eagle spoke.

"Do Higher Ones always appear in a flash of light?" Scarlett asked next.

"Yes, yes, we do," Kair'ak shook her neck feathers with pride, "Looks cool, doesn't it?"

Scarlett laughed at the display, "You're nothing like the High Sentinel."

Sariah had been watching all this with curious eyes. However, rather than involve herself with all this fighting 'nonsense', she chose to munch on a few strips of jerky while she went about preparing breakfast. A pot was set above a fire, held in place by a simple yet ingenious contraption made of wood.

She then started roasting the meat while waiting for the scent to attract everyone to her meal, and it worked. Kair'ak stopped mid-conversation, hopped over to the fire and sniffed the meat.

"I imagine you have a stomach big enough to swallow a deer. Perhaps you could wait for me to take off our share of it," the woman tried.

Kair'ak stared her in the eye before taking a few steps back. The eagle wrapped her wings around herself, hiding her head behind her wings before glowing a bright yellow. The glow dimmed and vanished, leaving a beautiful woman behind.

She had short, white and gold hair that matched her similarly flashy eyelashes, and she dressed in a fine silk tunic made from the same material as the bag Alaric had been given with the Storm Orbs.

LionHeart's eyes widened at the sight, "Can the High Sentinel do that?"

"Yes, he can. I imagine there is a lot more he's not telling you. Now, can I get some meat without waiting for the others?" Kair'ak asked again, her attention captured by the rich aroma of the roasted meat.

"Go ahead," Sariah chuckled at the sight of the woman eagerly attacking the hot skewers, "I take it Higher Ones is just another fancy term for demihumans."

The bright-haired woman winked at her before returning to the meat she was intent on demolishing. Nothing would stop her from enjoying this fine feast.

Alaric landed shortly after everyone had started eating. He came staggering over, his body covered in dirt and bruises. With each step, he winced, and yet, he didn't look the least bit bothered by all this gruesome training.

He casually muttered a few words in the Old Tongue, and his limp vanished as he made his way to the gathering of humans. He saw Kair'ak and waved, wincing at the pain of smiling with his cut lip. Kair'ak waved back, then uttered a few words in the Old Tongue.

The spell was superior to anything Alaric could cast, and it lasted a few seconds. Just like that, Alaric stopped wincing. He brought his hand to his face and felt for the bruises, then checked the rest of his body frantically, "That was…"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"A casual healing spell," the bright-haired woman responded, "Come eat. I've heard you plan to break more than just your head with this training."

The boy shrugged as he approached the flames and started picking more skewers than anyone could expect him to eat in one sitting from the makeshift grill.

Picking about seven skewers, Alaric piled them onto a plate and went about removing them from the sticks until just two skewers were left. With the skewers in one hand and a plate in another, he left to rejoin Dara'k.

"Breakfast," he announced to the bird in the Old Tongue.

Sariah watched the interaction with a curious look, which Kair'ak noticed, "You thought you'd avoid feeding at least one of us?"

"No… I just didn't expect that from Alaric. Just how much food am I supposed to cook? I need to know so no one sleeps hungry," the woman responded.

"Cook as much as you can, Sariah. I will make sure none of it goes to waste. I do, however, think you should cook more for the Eagle Alaric is trying to feed. I doubt five skewers will do much," Kair'ak explained.

………………………….

Three hours after breakfast, Alaric had concluded his training with Dara'k and was promptly healed by Kair'ak. It was time for his next part of the day, and yet, he was already feeling exhausted.

His muscles were hurting, and he still treated his body like it was bruised, wincing when there was nothing there. It was like he was covered in phantom bruises, an effect of getting bruised and healed several times within a few hours. 'How many more days do I have to do this?' he cried, 'I need a break.'

[ You can rest after you're done with the Dance of the Sword. Cast an S-grade Concealment Barrier. ] Alia's voice echoed inside his mind.

Alaric stood and took a deep breath, only to stop himself briefly. He was about to cast an S-grade Concealment Barrier, and the realisation of what that meant made his heart skip a beat.

The Barren Mountains seemed to disappear into the background as his mind recalled the words he was to use.

Without much focus, aether flowed through his body, moving to his hands and throughout the rest of his body like it always did, only this time, he felt it all intensely.

His lips moved on their own, and the aether in the air reacted. The wind stopped blowing in the Barren Mountains, and the world went quiet as Alaric recited the spell. Three minutes passed before magic poured out of his hand, and a dome began to appear high above the boy, dropping down to cover their camp.

"An S-grade Concealment Barrier!" Kair'ak gasped, "It's rare to find a human who can cast that."

Alaric simply nodded as he stared forward at a patch of shadow that had started to quiver and boil. The top of a helmet emerged, drowning the space within the dome in a wave of oppressive aether.

Alaric, of course, didn't feel any of the oppression as it was his guardian emerging from the shadow. The knight rose until it was two meters tall and towering above her master.

Alaric looked up with a smile, "It's been a while."

"Yes, it has," Alia responded. A moment later, she started shrinking till she was just a foot taller than Alaric. Her limit. "Now come, Alaric. You have a lot to do."

[ Wait, you're helping me with training? ] the boy winced, [ Please go easy on me! ]

[ That wouldn't be called training now, would it? ] the guardian asked with a devilish smirk peeking beneath her visor.

The pair walked off to start the next phase of Alaric's training, leaving the rest of the party stunned, staring at the sudden appearance of an S-class guardian. It was a whole five minutes before any kind of normalcy could return to the camp.

……………………

Scarlett was covered in a sheen of sweat, holding wooden knives in her hands, with bruises here and there, facing off against LionHeart, his body still intact. There was not a single scratch on the man's body.

LionHeart's blade was a lot more indomitable than Scarlett had initially assumed. Shooting forward, she went for his ankles, but there the blade was, smacking her knife away. The advantage of knives was that they were light.

After her knife had been parried, she could try to slice his other foot before she was out of range. Swords imposed a great inertia compared to knives, which meant he wouldn't be able to parry the second attack if it came too fast.

But then his foot moved, pivoting out of range before she even got the thought to retaliate.

It wasn't even a movement out of caution. It was something he did every time she was getting behind him. He probably didn't even notice she was going for his foot when he did that. And this happened several other times in different places.

LionHeart had footwork and movement unlike anything she'd ever witnessed. He parried her blade and weaved his next attack into his movements so seamlessly that it was mesmerising to watch.

She darted around him like an arrow, clashing with his blade a myriad of times while searching for a weak spot. The longer they clashed, however, the more she realised that for as long as his blade was intact, he was untouchable, towering over her like a Sentinel.

It was a whole hour before the girl collapsed on the ground, exhausted, "Timeout…"

Sariah approached with a bottle of water and gave it to her. "Mind if I tag in?"

"He's all yours," Scarlett grabbed the bottle and staggered away from the scene, joining Kair'ak at the fireplace where a tantalising pot of stew was brewing for their lunch. The High Sentinel had brought them a whole deer and an assortment of wild fruits and vegetables.

For a place rumoured to be so barren that nothing could grow, the Heaven-Crested Eagles were quite self-sufficient. Scarlett drank the water, shivering from time to time as she remembered the sense of insecurity she got from fighting LionHeart.

"He's unbeatable!" she mumbled.

Kair'ak, who'd been minding her own business, looked up, "What? You mean him? The man fighting like a Sentinel?"

"Yes. LionHeart," the girl sighed, "I've tried everything, and I know I'm not the strongest out there, but lately, it feels like all I am is weak. I ran from the Three-Cut Tiger while Alaric fought. I ran from the demon stampede only to get saved by Alaric, and when we were attacked on our way here, I still couldn't do anything. And now, I can't even land a hit on that man."

Kair'ak sighed, "Hey, assassin girl. Look at me."

FLICK went the woman's finger on Scarlett's forehead.

"Ouch!!!"

"Listen! Just because you've had a constant streak of bad luck doesn't mean your weak. You probably started to think you're strong because of a continuous streak of good luck," the Eagle stated.

Scarlett furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "What?"

Kair'ak rolled her eyes. "Humans are so pitiful! Think about it, girl. You are Wood Rank. There are five whole ranks above you and just one below you. What made you think you were ever strong, to begin with?"

"I seriously don't follow," the girl shook her head.

"Look over there," Kair'ak pointed at the spot where Alaric was supposed to be training with his guardian. At first, Scarlett saw nothing. Then, she saw the boy appear out of nowhere, skidding before a black knight appeared, her arm drawn back for a devastating punch.

The punch landed and it sent the boy flying like a ragdoll, too fast to see. The Barren Mountains shuddered when he crashed into them and shuddered even more when the knight's fist slammed into a spot Alaric vanished from.

A second later, and he would have felt all his ribs shatter. The battle continued, leaving a pale face on Scarlett's face.

"That boy there… is weak," Kair'ak whispered.

Scarlett felt bile rising within her. What was this woman talking about? Alaric was going toe-to-toe with an S-class guardian and was managing to hold onto his life.

"The guardian is going easy on him, and he can barely keep his body intact. I've already healed him sixteen times, yet she continues to break him while not overdoing it. It's all to make him stronger. To make sure he'll be able to take advantage of a second in a battle against a being stronger than him. The pain reminds him of how real death can be… and the fear reminds him to keep fighting even in the face of death," the bird continued.

Scarlett thought back to the battle against the demon. Had Alaric been scared back then? Scarlett had been. She'd been so scared that she was frozen, putting all her hopes on the others. Who was to say that Alaric wasn't scared either?

"Strength is not the number of times you put your enemies down. Strength is not your Temper Rank. The Great Emperor was of the Divine rank when he was killed over a thousand years ago. Strength… is the power to stand when no one else can. Strength is the power to protect those you love. Strength is the power to look death in the eye and defy it.

That man, LionHeart, is using an ancient fighting style known as the Dance of the Sentinel. It is the same battle style the High Sentinel uses, but to wield it is to stare death in the face every time you hold your sword and never look away. That's why he always turns to face you and keeps on fighting.

It is a Dance of Strength," Kair'ak's voice rumbled, resonating with Scarlett's own beliefs, "Will you embrace your strength, child?"