Bab 34: Training

They had one week. One week was all he had to train the meek rabbit in front of him. The Dragonborn, while pragmatist, was also one who believed anything could be surpassed through stubbornness.

If one wanted to go stronger, what should they do? Study? Exercising? Or they face them head-on with reckless abandon? There's no definite answer, but one thing he knew was that humans are foolish but they're bodies are not. They learn; they adapt.

People exercises to tear their weak muscle apart, straining it. The body responded by repairing broken muscle tissue, filling in the gaps, making it far more robust to the sudden change of strain the body treated to. The body must learn.

"Mr. Knight, what we had to do?"

Bell squirmed, unease crept up to his back as they saw a tower of milky quartz in the middle of the room. Congregating near were dozens of monsters, but in a single blink, they had disappeared -Their ashes and twinkling of magic stones were the only tell-tale sign of their existences. The Knight turned to him, nodding in grim acceptance, bell's felt searing heat emanating from the Knight then all hell were let loose as numerous crack formed up on the wall.

"That is what we're going to do."

Pointed the armored Khajiit as he went with a trail of dust, only to suddenly appear behind the congregating mutated monsters that surrounded the- no, Bell. While saying this, he crouched.

"Survive."

Bell dreaded, eyes widened. He, in a reflex, put his body in alert as grabbing his weapons. Taking a deep breath, he only closed his eyes, numerous monsters come charging at him, he opened it, then let an equal, if in an attempt, yell to the monsters.

Let the body learn, forced it if it must. All his training menu that had come up, born from the single-mindedness of a Dragonborn and the principle of a man that was once him.

It was far from spartan. In 10-minutes, he must commend it, Bell's left hand was no more.

"AGHHH!!!!!!"

The Knight only watched, sidelining, while killing any monsters that almost detected him. He occasionally supported the rabbit with subtle healing spell only to the point he didn't die because of internal factors. Other than that, he uses telekinetic when the bell was getting overwhelmed and had no chance of surviving.

Wailing intermixed with monsters frenzy in a cacophony of madness. The training was far from spartan.

It was utter hellish. The only way is to break through with force. Head almost split into two from a Troll club he watched. Oh makes no mistake, Bell will survive this. He assured, confident in his restoration magic. The only question was whether Bell would die internally, or proving himself as a hero material he was.

Apollo would make do with his apology should the former happen. Well, there's nothing irresistible in broken goods. At least, he would spare Hestia from the war game should things go south.

To sum up, Bell will fight with monsters for 12-hours long, then 1-hour break including patching his broken limb, then a 6-hours session fighting him, Bell will about to face humanoid opponent after all. And another hour to advise him. The rest would be spent to restore energy, while the Knight summoned Dremora to safeguard the perimeter from constant attack.

This would go on and on for about at least a week.

...

They didn't know what to say. A single glance told a devastated land wrought broken by two powerful beings, strong enough to level kilometers of hills and land into a giant crater. The smells of arcanum still wafting, dancing beneath the scorched soils.

Beyond that, some survive, mountain cleaved into two, a few remains of burned forests, nothing more than solemn witnesses of tragedy unfurled in that land.

"Riveria is that building I've seen."

The Amazon sisters commented, eyes scrunching up to the far horizon at the other side of the crater, the opposite where they stood. True to her words, a few clouds of smoke is emanating, her sight wasn't that good to see far, but she can make basic outlines.

Probably survivors from nearby area, she thought.

"Mount the wyvern, we'll investigate."

"Yes."

It didn't take more than a few minutes using the transport they hired from Ganesha Familia, exorbitant the price it is, they rather not wasting time. Not when potential information may slip off their hand.

Most of the buildings were just emergency shelter, nothing more than tents or hastily built houses. Though a few foundations had been laid out as proven by numerous men working on to clear debris, flattening the land, and more.

Some were curious about the visitors, but the top-ranking party didn't pay any heed. "Hey, lassie, don't block the road, will you. I have some deliveries to make."

A bearded man said as they turned around. He rode transport carriages, carrying what they presume as building materials. His clothes while shabby, were several higher qualities than those who surround them. They made way as to make the carriages pass.

"So, tell me what reasons for top-ranking adventurers to grace our little shamble of a village." The old man said after hopping off his cart and instructed several men to start to unload the materials.

"Information," Riveria said straightly.

The old man just waved his hands, "Bah, of course. What do I expect, it's your kind we see all these past days." It's no strange that they were not the first to investigate the source location.

He motioned his fingers, as they follow the man into a wooden hut. Once inside Riveria made a gesture to Tione who simply nodded and produced a bag of coins and placed it on the table.

"Consider it as a gift."

The man simply smirked, "I hope they were as amiable as you. Now, where do I begin."

"How about a starter, from the beginning."

The man scratched his chin as saying, "Well, it was a no different day. The evening the sky suddenly grows dark, cloud amassing into a weird circular shape. We know the source, it came from the valley behind the mountains. There's nothing there but a swath of monsters nest and a certain old temple we were not privy about.

I remember there was a band of adventurers, the size of a small expedition passing to our village, buying few supplies, and went deep to the valleys."

Riveria nodded, the information matched with the quest Hermes Familia done at the time.

"No news of them for a week, then suddenly they came. At first, it was just a few, some oversized black scorpion our hunter can take care about. Day after, they were getting bolder, dozens of critters were reported marching from the valley. The elders, I included, knew a bad sign was happening. We evacuated the very same day."

The man sighed, taking a bottle beneath the table, "We made a good decision that day. Heard the news some villages were decimated in a few hours after that. We keep walking, marching, with nothing but sparse food and cloth on our back. Then thunderous sounds, the arrow on the moon, and raining light, I'm sure you've heard of it."

Then his voice growing tense, "Some of the men decided to scout around. I was with them, personally, witnesses foul creatures we would never think we'd seen before. I've been an adventurer once, I tell you this is no creatures out of the dungeon, they were something else.

You know the tales of the demon, hell, evil god they said in the storybook. Guess what." The old man scanned the room, he particularly caught the young elf slightly quivering, "It was as witnessing a nightmare. They were wrought in spiked armor of black and red, beside them were what we thought as a flying devil, imp, or something. Dozens of men and women were rounded up, no exception, children, elder, young. They skinned them alive, burned them with chant-less magic, then throw their corpses into some kind of circular symbol. We ran as far as our leg could carry us. We don't want to know whatever foul conduct they about to do. Hell, it was lucky that they didn't detect us."

The information intrigued them, there's no report of external forces colluding behind of what's happening at the time. Nothing, not these demons… though she heard there's an accident back in the Orario where they encountered an unknown monster, killing several guild workers. She ought to pin that to her mind when she came back.

After that, the story was basically similar to the rumor, until the man said one thing.

"Are you sure of this?"

"Yes, they seek shelter to us, particularly, they brought a tattered armor, though we realized there was an actual person in the inside. No idea why they insisted to keep him inside that scorched wreck of a metal coffin. We were not privy to the adventurers business, out of respect and fear at the time."

"And out of all the adventurers, he was the most visibly injured?"

"Certainly, my eyes couldn't fool me."

"How about the figures that stood beside him, any clues?"

"I have a share of time when I was at Orario, you could never mistake a divine and mortal. She certainly is a goddess. They practically glued at each other, she wouldn't come out of his tent until they departed two days after when the Knight recovered."

Red cloak, golden hair, petite figure. She wasn't familiar with the description of the goddess. There's no sign of Familia emblem either, so they were either new or from the outside of the Orario. The guild only provided two registered Familia that majorly involved in the incident, Hestia, Hermes, and to an extent Hephaestus and Soma by the proxy of their children, Welf and Lily who were Bell's party member.

Riveria stood up, nodding at the man in appreciation, as they went out. The amazon sisters were quiet, though there's an air of giddiness in Tiona. Tione she always likes that unless she was beside Finn. While her student, Lefiya as always reserved her thought as something occupied her mind. Riveria was too focused on the shred of information that may lead them closer to the truth.

They need to know whoever this armored man is, and his, possibly, Goddess. Though it was only part of her suspicion, the fact they ruled out their involvement from the official statement of the guild warrant enough investigation on her part. No doubt other parties already held this information, perhaps, if any bit consolation it will make it easier to find him.

...

Frustration, anger, hesitation. There are only a few individuals that could rattle her mind, gnawed at her stomach, so much that she was not even in the mood to festive in whatever debauchery she'd planned tonight. This was probably her biggest worry yet.

Not only this morning, when she gazed to the outside of her tower, happily purring as she saw her Bell, as usual, waiting below the town square. No doubt waiting for his party or so she thought.

Never in time, she thought her precious rabbit would be waiting for that man. The man that makes her puke out of simply his presence. Her stomach knotted, flash at her eyes seeing they converse below. How dare he, to touch her bell. How dare he, to dare taint his pure soul.

A range of scenarios passed at her mind, all screeching to send Ottar and the rest of her Familia, and simply purge the abhorrent entities near her bell out of existence. No, her rational mind resisted. Not now. It was simply out of curiosity why bell would so willingly to mingle with the man. She had to preserve.

Bell ownership was vied both by Hestia and Apollo, it was possible because he wanted to become strong enough to overcome the war-game next week to come. She couldn't intervene directly, lest all her plans come to failure. As such, she was willing to see the man's plan for Bell.

However, should any sign of taint smear his soul, however small, she already sent both of her trusted children to deal with whatever inside that scrap metal.

Anything for her bell.

Anything.