Chapter 395: Rewards and Lessons
Timothy and Danika had both been looking forward to their private lesson with Second Queen Ancestor Ariana ever since they won their respective divisions in the youth tournament.
A lesson from a Mid-Rank Spirit Elite with over 400 years of life experience was an opportunity impossible to come across in the Rockwell Kingdom.
Even if Timothy felt his victory was somewhat undeserved, and Danika was extremely nervous about making a mistake in front of the Royal Ancestor, the two of them were still very eager to learn from Ariana.
Now that the day had come, however, they were deeply regretting it.
Ariana teaching style was, in a word, ruthless. It mainly involved physically pounding knowledge into her students until they learned, or broke.
Those from Celestina’s generation knew this well, but very few of them were left; and the ones who were alive certainly weren’t going to tell their juniors about how the former queen used to beat them bloody whenever they trained.
That didn’t mean Ariana was a bad teacher; quite the contrary, actually. One only needed to look at the Rockwell Kingdom’s current Generals to understand that point.
Kyle Gunthar, Killian Roth, Manik Eashan, and Celestina Balfour were the strongest Generals in the Rockwell Kingdom, and they were all personally trained by the former queen at some point.
The fact that these 4 were also the oldest and most experienced also had something to do with their strength, but even amongst others in the same Realm, they were outstanding elites.
Put simply, Ariana was an excellent teacher, but her methods were so harsh that many couldn’t withstand them, resulting in very few people having the ’honour’ of calling themselves her students.
The former queen was a free spirit, but when it came to work, she was always deadly serious. As such, Ariana had made a number of preparations for today.
After having watched the matches of the youths she would be teaching, Ariana had drawn up a simple lesson plan for Timothy and Danika, then enlisted Celestina’s help in finding another great-sabre user.
Ariana was primarily a spear-wielder, so giving Timothy a few pointers, both metaphorically and literally, wasn’t an issue, but Danika was different.
Although she had a bit of experience with great-swords, Ariana had almost never used a great-sabre, so while she could provide some general knowledge to the shy girl, precise guidance wasn’t possible.
Fortunately, Celestina had the perfect candidate to assist the former queen, a female Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate that focused almost entirely on physical strength and precise control to wield her great-sabre, a woman that Lucas and Eris knew quite well.
And so, while Ariana stabbed, slashed, and swept her spear at Timothy, forcing the young man to desperately defend himself, Farah Wilder did the same for Danika.
Of course, the two older women weren’t just tormenting the children, though Timothy and Danika certainly felt it was. Ariana and Farah were actually repeatedly targeting the weaknesses and flaws in the youths’ techniques.
For instance, Timothy had a bad habit of thrusting too hard with his spear when he saw an opening, trying to deal lethal damage while neglecting his own defence.
If he succeeded, great, but if he failed, he was left wide open to counterattack, something Ariana repeatedly demonstrated by intentionally exposing herself, drawing Timothy in, parrying his blow, and then hitting back hard.
Each time this happened, Timothy would receive a painful blow and a sharp shout, "Fool! What’s the point of killing your enemy if you die too?! The only winners on the battlefield are those who survive!"
Knowing any kind of backtalk would simply result in more pain, Timothy grimaced, reset his stance, and shouted, "Yes! Your Majesty!"
Mistakes in his footwork, incorrect thrust angles, sweeping too wide with his spear, every mistake was brutally punished again and again.
It was agonizing and exhausting, but Timothy could also tell that his spearmanship was growing sharper and his movements more refined, so he persisted.
While this was going on, Farah was giving Danika a similarly harsh lesson.
At first, the old Redwood Town butcher held back a lot, worried she might injure the young girl, but as time went on, the amount of power Farah used steadily increased.
The innate strength Danika possessed was remarkable, shocking Farah to her core. This short, 160 cm tall girl with such delicate looking arms was able to exert power on par with most Fifth Step Sea Establishment Practitioners despite only being in the Tenth Step Vein Opening Realm.
No one in the Rockwell Kingdom knew how Danika was doing this, but after examining her, the former queen suspected she had a special kind of constitution, one that allowed her body to be tempered much more thoroughly through cultivation than normal.
Without the proper equipment and expertise, Ariana couldn’t say for certain, but she had others with similarly abnormal strength in the Sovereignty before, though none of those cases were as exaggerated as Danika’s.
It had taken her a long time to learn to control it, but now that she had, Danika considered her enhanced strength to be her greatest asset; something that made her special.
Today, however, she learned that things weren’t quite so straightforward.
Danika remarkably strong for a Mortal Realm Practitioner, but against a Mid-Rank Martial Initiate, she was still little better than a newborn.
Receiving so much praise back home had led Danika to become somewhat complacent about her strength. Even if outwardly she was still shy and socially anxious, in her heart, she was actually quite proud of herself.
That pride, however, was being rapidly ground away today as she was repeatedly knocked down, blown over, swept off her feet, and beaten bloody by Farah.
If this was done using raw power alone, Danika wouldn’t have been convinced, but when the two of them met blades, the young girl could tell that Farah was only exerting an equal amount of strength as she was, maybe even somewhat less.
The difference lay completely in their technique and fine control. Farah’s blade, which was even bigger and heavier than her own, constantly slipped past her guard, arrived faster than she could intercept it, or struck from angles Danika thought impossible to achieve.
It was a bitter reminder that she still had a long way to go if she truly wanted to call herself a master.
If that wasn’t bad enough, when Ariana finished beating Timothy to a pulp, she took over for Farah and showed Danika even less mercy.
Unlike the former butcher, the former queen wasn’t aiming to teach Danika finesse. Her objective was to physically correct her flaws through overwhelming pressure.
As such, the amount of strength behind Ariana’s spear greatly exceeded what Danika could match.
The young girl wanted to complain about how this was unfair, but after having witnessed what happened to Timothy when he did just that, she wisely kept her mouth shut and focused on the lesson, knowing it would only end once she had learned what the former queen was trying to teach her.
The ’reward’ for winning the tournament continued for nearly 4 hours before it mercifully ended.
"So, what have you learned?"
"Never fight a master 3 Major Realms higher than yourself."
*WHACK!*
"GAHH!!"
"Seems like you still have some energy left, Boy. Shall we continue?"
*Gulp* "I wouldn’t dare take up more of the Royal Ancestor’s precious time."
"Hmph, coward."
"What about you? What did you learn today?"
Danika secretly admired Timothy’s courage, but she also felt he was quite stupid, so she didn’t follow his example and answered seriously. She had indeed learned quite a bit today, and if possible, she would have liked to continue learning from these two Seniors, a wish she voiced aloud despite knowing how presumptuous such a request was.
"Well, I won’t be staying in the kingdom for much longer, but if Little Farah here has no objections, I don’t see why you can’t ask her for further training," Ariana mused.
Seeing the hopeful look on the young girl’s face, Farah couldn’t help pursing her lips. She wasn’t all that confident in training Danika, but if it was just giving some pointers every now and then, it might be possible, so she eventually nodded.