Celestial Swordsman – Danmachi OC

"Well done immediately setting yourself into a ready stance.” Kaguya says.

Huh?

She was talking?

“Being able to set yourself naturally in a more relaxed manner will come with time. This way, you will primed for combat at any time.” She says.

“Thanks… You kind of beat it into me last time.” I say.

“Indeed. It seems that you grow the most with experience and practice, which means in the dungeon, not only will your status and combat experience increase, but your technique will as well.”

I was surprised that she was actually explaining things this time, as only attacks were exchanged in our last session.

I had just assumed that was how she taught, and since I was better by the end of the day, I had no complaints.

“For now, I will be teaching you the basics of combat. Things like movement, instincts, dodging, and strategy. By the end of this training, you will know how to spot an opening, how to exploit it, and how to ensure you yourself are not leaving an opening to your opponent.” Kaguya says.

“So… no weapons yet?” I ask.

“No. They would likely be a hindrance to this type of training. You want your body to be ready for combat before you supplement it with a sword or spear. Regardless, weapon training won’t be too far in the future, as just yesterday you made a good amount of progress. Speaking of… do you know how you lost yesterday?” She asks.

I feel like I was losing the entire time yesterday, but I’m guessing she was talking about her final strike that knocked me out.

“I let my guard down… I thought I could predict it, but as soon as you made your strike more complex, I was left in the dust.” I respond.

“Precisely. I do not expect you to be able to defend against a strike like that properly, and you shouldn’t either. That’s why you must always be protecting your vital areas, like your head, at any point in combat.”

I see.

“So I can kinda cheat, like this?”

I then raise my arms to cover my head, almost like a boxer’s stance.

“Well, considering your stomach is wide open, you would only be cheating yourself.” She responds.

So no.

“Besides, unless I see you let your guard down again, I won’t punish you with a strike like that. The goal for today is for you to be mindful of when to dodge and when to block while learning how to block through practice. Once you get a feel for that, I want you to begin parrying my strikes.” She says.

Uhh…

“What’s the difference between parrying and blocking? Is that what you were wondering?”

“Uhh, yeah.” I say.

Could she read minds?

“Blocking is what you would expect. Stopping an attack from hitting you by stopping the motion. Parrying, on the other hand, is smoother. Its aim is to not only disrupt the opponent's current attack but also their future ones. This is done by taking control of their combat flow and guiding it to your advantage.”

I think I get it.

But to properly block and parry…

“Okay… but don’t I need a sword for that?” I ask.

“Not my problem.” Kaguya answers with a smile.

Well… this isn’t going to be fun at all.

“On a more serious note, it is easier to understand the difference between a block and parry through unarmed combat. As I do not expect you to be able to read the flow of combat, you will know when you have properly parried rather than blocked as your arm or hand will not hurt.” Kaguya says.

Oh?

This might not be so bad!

“That much.” She adds.

Nevermind.

“Well then, no time like the present. Ah, I almost forgot. After this training, I would like to see your status. Mother Astraea did an update last night, no?”

“Yeah, I have the sheet on my desk.” I respond.

“Good.”

She then begins slowly walking toward me before suddenly leaping my way.

As her sword arcs toward me, I push off to the side, hearing a faint wooshing sound pass by my ear.

Huh?

I… did it?

“Nicely done, Sirius. That was the perfect time to dodge. And if you had positioned yourself better, you could even have landed an attack on me in return.” Kaguya says with a hint of pride.

The way she was actually explaining things… the fact I could surprise Kaguya even a little…

Maybe this time would be a bit easier?

“It won’t.” Kaguya says.

Huh?

Feeling a sharp pain shoot up my arm, my body is then flung across the training grounds once again.

And like that, my second day of hellish beatings continued.

----- Kaguya POV - 4 Hours Later -----

Dropping the unconscious Sirius into his bed, I lay a cloth under his head to not dirty his pillow.

Unfortunately, even with the healing from Maryuu, he was still too tired to regain consciousness. 

I suppose that this is my fault for pushing him too hard, but how could I not when I was able to watch him grow right before my eyes?

His growth speed made it extremely fulfilling to teach him.

Amazingly, Sirius was able to start where we left off last time. 

Actually, considering he was now actively defending his head, he was even better.

I hope I didn’t give him a new fear from last time…

Anyway, his dodging ability was able to be honed even more as I added combos and feints into my attacks, and while he faltered with the combo at first, he quickly adapted to the pace by maintaining his stance instead of needing to reset for every strike.

He was even able to parry my strike by the end of the session, which was entirely out of my expectations. 

Although seeing as it broke a few of his fingers, he still has much room to grow in that area.

But overall? 

His combat talent is even greater than I had thought after yesterday.

And with his rate of improvement actually slightly increasing rather than diminishing… we could probably begin his weapons training in three days or so.

Nevertheless, for now, he still needed to master the fundamentals, and only after his combat abilities were honed to an adequate level would we try adding a weapon into the mix.

From how he moved… I’m almost certain he will be a swordsman, though I do want him to try the spear as well.

Walking over to the desk, I grab the sheet of paper that was resting under a journal.

Glancing over his stats, my eyes widen in shock.

This much improvement?

From one day?

Without facing any monsters?

…That skill truly was monstrous.

No, it would be better to call him as a whole monstrous.

Normally, one could only gain a few stats from training as the excelia required to grow your status required killing monsters, but that didn’t seem to be the case for him.

So he grew in more than just technique with our training… That is very good to know.

Looking it over once more, I feel a small pang of sympathy when I see the growth of his endurance, but that feeling is quickly purged.

It was better for him to gain endurance from me rather than in the dungeon, as that often led to danger.

Besides, training is meant to be harsh, isn't it?

Placing his status sheet back onto the desk, I head toward my room to grab my equipment before making my way to the dining hall a few minutes later.

While having a quick, simple dinner, Alise and Lyra relayed the basic plan of the joint operation to the rest of the girls, and before we knew it, we had already departed toward Twilight Manor, home of the Loki Familia.

Under the darkening sky, I let my mind wander about what was going to come later, a broad grin unintentionally spreading across my head.

"Eh!? Kaguya, what's with that creepy smile?" Alise asks.

"Nothing, Alise. Let's pick up the pace, though. We don’t want to be the last to arrive two nights in a row." I respond.

“Ah! You’re right! Let’s hurry up, girls!”

As the sun disappeared behind the city walls, we quickened our steps toward our destination.

----- 4 Hours Later -----

The plan was set.

Everyone was in position.

We were ready.

While the Ganesha Familia would handle keeping civilians safe and blocking the exits of the city, the Loki and Astraea Familias were organized into strike teams in order to eliminate the miscreants.

And that was only for Orario, as Melen and the surrounding bases would be dealt with by the Ganesha Familia’s first-class adventurers.

Luckily, this plan suited our Familia very well, as we already had regularly used teams for dungeon exploration and patrols, which we were using for this operation.

Even though we were a relatively small Familia, coordinating 11 fighters was a difficult task in the middle of a fight.

The solution?

It was to organize ourselves into three balanced groups, with Lyra, Alise, and myself leading one each.

This way, the groups were small enough to not get in each other’s way and the groups would gain chemistry when fighting together, eventually being able to fight as one cohesive unit rather than three or four separate adventurers.

The team I led consisted of Iska and I as the vanguard, with Noin providing ranged support with her bow and Maryuu in the middle, defending Noin with her mace while also providing healing magic for the entire Familia.

Anyway, back to the mission.

The building we are currently watching over was our target, and once the Loki Familia gave us the signal flare, the fight would begin.

From the information given by the Hermes Familia, these groups should have no one above level 2, thus in combat we should easily overpower them.

One might think our cautiousness and meticulousness were unneeded, but there was a reason for this.

And that was the fact that Evilus would use any means necessary to kill.

Traps, child soldiers, poisons… they would go to any length to finish the job, so we must be vigilant in order to complete the mission without any casualties.

In the corner of my vision, I see a streak of bright red rise above the cityscape, briefly illuminating the dark night.

Seeing the signal, my team nods at each other as I begin chanting Shikai, my magic that allows me to sense the surroundings.

Sensing no traps, I nod to Iska who then breaks down the front door with a kick, the sound of exploding wood soon followed by shouts of surprise.

A simple diversionary tactic, and with Iska’s brash nature, she was perfect for the job.

While she was having fun distracting the enemy, I slipped through the opening and hid in the shadows while chanting my magic Gokou, creating five blades of pure magic to surround my sword a moment later.

Stepping behind the terrorists, I promptly release my prized Higanbana from its sheath, quickly cutting down the enemies.

Carving through weapons and bodies, the job is done not a minute later, the scent of blood permeates my nose.

Casting Shikai once more to confirm the complete annihilation of this hideout, we do a quick search of the bodies before heading back to the Twilight Manor, leaving behind the corpses for the Ganesha Familia to deal with.

Hopefully, with this, our long fight against the despicable organization will be over.

----- Alise POV - 1 Hour Later -----

Seeing the pillar of light in the distance, signifying a god returning to Tenkai, I let the final bit of tension leave my body.

Having returned to the Twilight Manor shortly before, I was able to confirm that all of my Familia survived the operation, as well as the rest of the strike teams.

So while everything was going well, there was that hint of worry in the back of my head, telling me that it would all come crashing down at a moment's notice.

But since the last team was assigned to the Rudras Familia, which contained the Loki Familia executives as well as Loki herself, had completed its mission with the killing of the God Rudras, the mission could finally be considered a success.

At first, when I saw the pillar of light, I was worried it was Loki who had bitten the dust, but seeing that the Loki Familia members near me didn’t lose their strength, it confirmed that it wasn’t the case.

With this, the final shadows of Evilus had been cleansed from Orario, and we could finally look forward to the future.

A short while later, the final Loki Familia strike team returned along with Shakti of the Ganesha Familia.

“Well done, everyone. Evilus exists no more within these walls.” Finn says, eliciting a collective cheer mixed with sighs of relief.

The debrief passed quickly, as it was more about praising a job well done rather than discussing anything important.

The great thing about being strong, you see, is that you can delegate the annoying stuff to others.

As everyone was tired, both physically and emotionally, we soon parted the Twilight Manor and made our way back home.

After all, crime never sleeps, so we still had our duties to attend to tomorrow.

Arriving back at the Stardust Garden, we enter through the front door to see Mother reading a book in the common room, with a large plate of cookies resting on the table next to her.

Oh… the aroma was… amazing.

I could already feel my mouth watering.

Snapping her book shut, Mother then glances over our members, releasing a sigh of relief.

"I hope you all returning safely means that the mission was a success?" Mother says.

“Yep! All good! Now c’mon, let me at those cookies! Though… don’t you prefer baking cakes?” I ask.

Mother gives me a smile before handing over the plate of treats.

“You are right. It was actually Sirius who made these, though I did have to take them out as he went to sleep before they were done baking.”

Mother then nodded her head in the direction of the kitchen, and when I focused, I could hear a set of soft snores echo through the door.

It seems that some others noticed the sounds as a few girls released hushed giggles.

“He was quite upset that he couldn’t help with the mission, so he decided to support you all in another way. Quite cute, no?” Mother says.

We all widen our eyes slightly at this before Ryuu walks up and takes a cookie.

"Stupid human. An inexperienced level 1 like him wouldn't help in the slightest. Besides, the mission was easy and there were no casualties. Thinking he needs to do something for us… a man’s arrogance really knows no bounds." Ryuu says before biting down on her treat.

Although she spat such harsh words, the small curl of her lips and her warm eyes showed how dishonest she was being.

Seriously… she was such a difficult Elf!

Before I can tease her about her false words, Kaguya speaks up.

“Mother, did you update his status today?” She asks.

“Indeed I did. Although not as much as yesterday, he did grow a good amount. Especially in endurance and agility.”

Most of the girls flinch at her words.

We all know how Kaguya is with training, and Lyra, Ryuu, and I knew that she went even harder on Sirius due to his growth-boosting skill.

“I see… it seems that I’ll have him do other exercises during our next session so that his stats do not become unbalanced.” Kaguya says with narrowed eyes.

“Speaking of, can you update my status tonight?” She then asks Mother.

"Of course I can. Now, as great as it is to talk like this, I think it is time you all washed up. I can smell the blood from here." Mother says with a frown.

I feel my face heat up as I pointedly look away at everyone’s stares.

Although I was strong, I was not nearly as elegant as Ryuu or Kaguya in combat.

"Y-Yep! That’s a great idea! Say girls, I know we're all tired but are you up for a group bath in the bathhouse?" I say, trying to change the subject.

“As long as everyone washes themselves beforehand. I’ll start heating up the water.” Mother says while getting up.

With that, everyone split up into their respective rooms to clean their things and themselves in order to prepare for the bath.

After a few minutes of painstakingly removing the dirt and blood out of my hair, I nearly forgot my bathrobe before leaving my room.

Since we had a boy living with us now, walking around naked wasn’t really an option anymore.