The Lone Dragon 12 Combat Training

The masked expert, who escorted Eluraa, was silently watching the whole thing from a distance. "Hmm. the standards here are lowering every year. Not one of them realized it. It is very impressive to make that many tamed magical creatures acknowledge and react to you. It is almost impossible. Looks like we got one more good egg this year. Well, in the end it is all up to her, how far she can go from here onwards".

"That is enough." A loud voice brought Eluraa back to reality. She saw the shivering fatty in front of her and realized what had happened. The masked escort who brought her here was walking towards her ominously. Students had again gathered near her and were looking at her fearfully. The masked expert pointed her towards the offices and she silently entered the place without looking back. Finishing up the registration process, she submitted her affinity crystal test results and picked up her training schedule.

Children with yellow affinity towards magical resources started in the Ashenville academy at five years of age. For the first two years they underwent vigorous physical training. At these early years, it is astronomically important to build a strong foundation. They started their day with fifty rounds around the huge academy grounds. In the initial months of training period, children take almost the whole day to finish these fifty rounds. They are not allowed to rest, drink water or eat food during this time.

One can see the difference between children from various families here. Children from the aristocrat families, who currently or in the past had blue or green affinity combat experts were extremely well to do and had a huge supply of nutrient resources. These children received magical energy rich nourishment right from their birth and had more stamina and soul strength development. Comparatively, children who were from common families, had much worse foundation and usually collapsed half way during the fifty rounds training.

After finishing their daily rounds, children were fed with nutritious magical beasts' meat. The Emperor placed a lot of importance on training these potential young experts and arranged for a team of combat experts to guard each academy, hunt and provide nutritious food supply for the students. By the end of 3 months, almost all the students are able to complete the full fifty rounds before the afternoon sun.

"Huff.. huff.. huff .." Eluraa was just finishing her fiftieth lap. She decided not to use wind elemental energy or cast a speed spell on herself. She needed to build a strong physical foundation first. Today was her first combat training cla.s.s. After the students finished their fifty laps by afternoon, they were allowed a brief break period for a meal and then they a.s.sembled for their new combat cla.s.s.

Each student's physical fitness was a.s.sessed and they were given a basic set of combat moves for practice. Students were then split into groups and each group was separately trained in handling short swords, dual swords, long one-handed sword, two-handed weapons and target practice using guns and bow and arrows. This went on for 6 months and at the end of the term, there were combat compet.i.tions between the students of the same group and their performance was a.s.sessed. For the next 6 months, students rotated to a different group.

The emperor himself personally planned these early years training programs and they are all designed to identify the unique combat type suited for each student. Based on their performance in different groups, students are able to identify the combat type they are naturally talented in and best suited for them.

Eluraa, for instance, performed extremely well with short swords and dual swords but couldn't bring out her full potential with the heavy two-handed weapons. Actually, Eluraa ended up sparring with the instructor most often because the students still remembered the murderous and sinister aura she released on the first day. They subconsciously were scared of her and were easily defeated. She was labelled dangerous and ended up alone always.

Eluraa however, had little time to care about all these. After finishing her everyday physical training, she still needed to meditate to develop her spiritual and soul strength. Then she went to the academy library and ended up spending her nights and evenings there. She started with the history books and tried to understand what had happened all the years she was imprisoned. Then she moved on to the current exploration records and tried to learn about the world she currently lived in. Then at night she silently sat in the moon light and tried to absorb the magical energy from the magic crystals the academy gave students every day.

Eluraa continued doing this every single day and it is almost two years now, since she joined the academy. All the students including her were looking forward to the year-end combat tournament, which was fast approaching. This is a special tournament, which is held every two years, after students finish a section of combat training. Students from different academies partic.i.p.ated in this tournament and each year a different academy hosted it.

This year it was the blood academy's turn to host the tournament. The whole place is shrouded in mystery and students were really looking forward to observe the top tier combat students in action. They all understood the difference in combat strength between the blood academy students and other students. They have the top level magical affinity and naturally this was a huge advantage. Though, the tournament is merely in combat training and does not include magical spells or other higher training, there still existed a difference in strength. Every tournament year, the blood academy students always won the top five places. The only exception was five years ago, when a genius orange affinity student who came in fifth.

Though this was the norm, students still dared to aim and strived really hard to practice. This is because the students who placed in the top five, were awarded with the xenon bracelets. The xenon bracelets were the epitome of technological advance and helped students quantify their different features, including their available health, energy, focus, magical energy, core and soul strength. Binding with one of these bracelets, improved one's combat strength by leaps and bounds.