Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

pαndα,noνɐ1,сoМ It has been a long while since Ethan changed his mind so many times in a short period of time, but in the end, it couldn't be helped since things were much simple while he was on Hedo. Regardless, he was determined to develop his second fighting style, but he could do that at school. In the end, Ethan decided to spend the rest of his free time using Zen in his room.

"All right… let's do this."

Ethan always tried to look cool and composed, but even he had some fears. The fear of losing his mind amidst that power of his was one of them. Still, Ethan forced himself to sit down and relax in order to activate Zen, and this time, he didn't stop the process after the end of the of his third day on Hedo.

On the fourth day after his summoning, Ethan, for the first time, heard some things about the situation on the frontlines. Some guards were whispering early in the morning about the things they had heard on the previous night. Ethan, who had woken up and decided to exercise a little, stopped and listened to them.

"Did you hear? The demonic army advanced again and attacked some villages near the frontlines." The guard A said.

"Yeah… in times like these, I don't know if I am grateful or not for having this boring job. I am safe, but I feel like I am not doing anything meaningful… if we lose this warm, then…" The guard B nodded.

"I get you, but we worked hard to arrive in this position, and we can't just throw it away now. Anyway, I also heard that there is a relatively big town near the villages that got destroyed. I guess that is the demons' next target." The guard A said.

Ethan felt shivers while imagining all that… to think that several villages got destroyed in a single day… how many monsters they had in the demons' army anyway? Did the royal family expect that a simple teenager was going to change the tides of that war? Had he gone senile?

Regardless, things were happening a bit too fast for Ethan's standards. Usually, the summoned hero would have time to grow stronger, but it looked like time was one of the many things that were against him. In a hurry, Ethan began to run around the garden of the castle. He didn't know if he would be able to do anything, but at least he should try to repay the chance to sleep in such a luxurious place. Fortunately, even though Ethan still was at level one, his Vigor was already at level five, so Ethan could feel that all that crap training had a meaning.

"Oh? Look who fell from the bed this morning," Hugo said as soon as he arrived at the castle. "It seems like you aren't a spineless kid as I thought you were."

"You have a weird way of complimenting other people's efforts, captain Hugo," Ethan said.

"No need to be so formal. You can call me Hugo," Hugo said. "I have some bad and good news for you, Ethan."

Ethan sighed, he didn't know if his morning could get worse, but he decided to bet that it could. It would be better for his sanity, anyway. However, despite his words, Hugo seemed pretty pleased.

"The old man Lucius left the castle this night without telling anyone," Hugo said. "He abandoned his position as a court magician. Apparently, he left a letter, but you should ask His Majesty for the details. So, from today onwards, we will train until mid-afternoon, and Catty will train you until late in the evening. Rejoice, Ethan! Not many people have the privilege to be trained by me for so many hours straight."

Those were the bad and good news… Although it seemed troublesome, Ethan was confident that he would manage to keep up with Hugo's training as long as his Vigor levels up. Still, he wanted to learn some magic from Lucius since the last night had been a fiasco. Later that day, Ethan would hear from the king that Lucius had left the castle and blamed him for his lack of talent. He got quite depressed after that, and maybe it was because of such an incident he never tried to walk on the path of magic while he was on Hedo.

"Anyway, kid. Today you will learn how to handle a sword," Hugo said and then tossed the longsword, and the equipment used the previous day to him. "Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves and make today's goal to teach you how not to cut yourself with it."

Hugo's method of teaching wasn't the traditional stick and carrot, and it was the carrot and stick. First, he tries to increase the morale of his students, and then he makes them fall from their high horse. Well, maybe it was thanks to Hugo that Ethan never got carried away.

"You don't have enough stamina yet, so let's do something that will help you with that," Hugo said. "The overhead slash should do the trick… repeat this at the same speed."

Hugo also had a real sword with him, and moreover, it was much more impressive than the plain-looking sword Ethan had. Regardless, Hugo slowly raised his sword until the hilt was almost touching the back of his head, and then he slashed forward and only stopped when it almost hit the ground. Even with that massive sword, the movement had been so fluid that Ethan couldn't help but frown while watching. For someone who had muscles for brains, Hugo seemed like an absolute master.

"You are right-handed, right?" Hugo asked. "Then put your left foot in front, and you're the right one to support your body while you swing your sword backward. Remember, do everything slowly."

"All right," Ethan nodded and then prepared his posture.

"Let's see… five hundred repetitions should be a good warm-up," Hugo said.

Ethan almost dropped his sword when he heard that. Although he was got stronger, there was no way he would be able to repeat that attack so slowly five hundred times with a sword that weight over five kilograms. Still, he couldn't just say no to that, and the only thing he could do was to endure that spartan training.