I looked at Nochtrael. "Uhh… who's supposed to guard the pass if you're coming with us?" He didn't even slow his steps.
"I have capable sons for that matter."
"That's not an answer, you know."
"It is."
Blaze, walking beside me like he paid taxes to no one, nodded once. "He's right. It is."
I stared at both of them. Somehow, I hated that they were united on this. Then an idea hit me. "Hey, Nochtrael."
"…What?"
"If we spar for a bit, is that okay? I didn't really get the chance to fight you earlier on my own."
"It is fine," he said. "If you are not afraid to get hurt."
Elandor spoke before I could. "Trust me... He is not."
"Yeah, and this is good timing too," I said. "Last time, you said Elariel and I were almost nearing top B-rank adventurers. On top of that, I'm almost eleven now since I've been in Valerión for months."
Elandor gave a small nod. "For once, you are speaking something of sense."
"Hey! I always speak with sense."
"Debatable," Blaze said instantly. Traitor.
We stepped into a clearing. Nochtrael lowered himself slightly, muscles tightening beneath dark fur. His golden eyes locked onto me without blinking. He looked less like an animal…and more like a predator deciding where to bite first. We took our stances.
Then he moved. No warning. No growl.
No shift in posture. One second he was across from me. The next, he was already in front of me.
I threw myself sideways on instinct. A claw tore through the space where my chest had been a heartbeat earlier. The pressure alone carved deep lines into the dirt behind me.
"WHAT THE–"
I rolled, pushed off the ground, and barely ducked as his tail swept over my head like a battering ram. Trees behind me shook violently.
I know he was holding back, and that was the terrifying part...Mana surged into my legs, forcing my body faster than normal as I moved inches away from death again and again.
Too close. Every dodge was too close. My breathing turned uneven. That pressure again. The same feeling from when Elandor first released his mana in Valerión.
That instinctive fear that screamed Run. Kneel. Survive. But I didn't stop. Nochtrael lunged again, jaws snapping shut where my shoulder had been. I pivoted under him, drove my fist into his ribs, and followed with a second strike wrapped in compressed mana.
*Thud*
*Thud*
He didn't move an inch. Nochtrael glanced at the spot I hit, then back at me.
"…Acceptable."
"That sounded insulting."
"It was."
He swiped again. I jumped back, slid, nearly lost balance, corrected it, and fired a burst of flame from my palm to create distance.
Smoke covered the clearing for half a second. He came through it immediately.
I barely crossed my arms in time. The impact launched me across the field. I crashed through a bush, bounced off a tree root, and landed flat on my back.
For a few seconds, I just stared at the sky.
Blaze sat on a nearby rock, unimpressed.
"You looked cooler when you are standing."
"Shut up."
Byakuren flicked his tail once. "Your footwork improved."
"Thank you."
I sat up with a groan and looked at the bruises already forming on my arms.
"Yeah, no. Give me a second."
Soft green light gathered in my palms. I pressed them against my arms and chest as healing mana spread through the soreness, mending the damage little by little. The pain dulled. The bruises faded.
Nochtrael stared at me. "…So you are a healer?"
I looked up. "Partly?"
The giant wolf's eyes narrowed. "Then how are you competent in combat?"
Before I could answer, Elandor stepped forward with his arms folded, face as unreadable as ever.
"Actually… he has no class. Nor rank yet. I merely gauged him."
Nochtrael went silent. Even Blaze looked mildly entertained. "…You travel with strange things," Nochtrael muttered.
"That makes two of us," I said.
Elandor ignored the conversation entirely.
"..But that's good."
I pushed myself upright. "Good? I just got turned into luggage."
"You landed strikes. You remained conscious. Improvement." That was somehow the nicest thing he had ever said to me.
He looked toward Nochtrael, then back at me. "You are nearing the middle range of A-rankers."
I froze. "…Wait. Really?"
"In your current state." The way he said it immediately ruined my happiness. "However," Elandor continued, "alone, you would not have dodged him. Nor landed even a finger on his fur."
I blinked. "Then how am I doing it now?"
His gaze shifted briefly toward Blaze and Byakuren. "Your affinities."
"My what?"
"As I told you before, familiars are not decorations. Each grants different traits to the one bound to them. They are like tools. Extensions. Influences."
Blaze snorted. "Calling me a tool is bold."
Elandor answered. "I did not ask for your opinion."
Byakuren sat beside him calmly, like this was a normal lecture. Elandor continued.
"The dragon sharpens your instincts and raises destructive potential. The sovereign refines perception and control. Combined, your body performs beyond its natural limit...and the training we did before also helped.."
I looked at my hands. "So… I'm borrowing from them?"
"For now."
That answer carried more meaning than I liked. "Fair enough."
He added, "But I noticed something."
I frowned. "What?"
"When you were facing Nochtrael… you were overwhelmed. You panicked."
"I didn't even–"
Before I could finish, he cut me off.
"Did you notice it yourself?.." His gaze stayed sharp. "You were unable to cast a proper spell...In fact none at all. You couldn't even construct basic magic circle. In the end, all you did was rely on instinct." Elandor folded his arms. "Just like when you fought me before."
I fell silent after that. He was right. That pressure… the moment I faced someone far stronger than me, my thoughts scattered. My body moved, but my mind didn't.
Instinct took over while everything I had learned disappeared, I hated that. If that kept happening, then against real monsters… I'd lose before the fight even began.
…I really needed to find a way to deal with that feeling whenever I faced stronger opponents...
We resumed the journey soon after.
Nochtrael led us through the deeper forest like he had personally invented the roads. Sometimes he stayed in his massive form, casually forcing branches aside.
Other times, he reduced his size so we could pass through narrow terrain faster.
Three days passed. And every time we stopped…
…I got beaten up.
The journey settled into a strange rhythm after that.
We moved deeper into the forest, away from Valerión's last visible borders, where the roads slowly stopped pretending to be roads. Nochtrael led the way most of the time, his massive form parting trees and terrain like they were nothing. When the path narrowed, he shrank his body down just enough for us to keep pace without getting left behind.
And every time we stopped… We sparred.
No weird magic of some kind. Just raw movement, instinct, and whatever I could manage against something that didn't hold back enough to be comfortable–but also didn't try to kill me.
The first day, I barely lasted. The second day, I started noticing patterns. By the third day… I stopped freezing as much.
Elandor watched all of it without interfering. But what was worse than silence was his occasional comments.
"Better footwork."
"You hesitated less that time."
"You reacted instead of panicked. Improvement."
It wasn't praise in a warm way. It was more like he was confirming progress on a report. But it still hit differently than getting thrown across the ground.
Even Nochtrael noticed it. "You are adapting," he said once after a spar. Not impressed. Just observant.
"…I guess that's good?"
"It is necessary." That was the end of it.
By the time the third day passed, the forest changed. The air felt older. Larger.
We stepped into a clearing where the trees didn't just tower over us—they dominated the horizon. Ancient trunks stretched so high they disappeared into mist and canopy layers that blocked out most of the sky. Light filtered through in broken golden lines, like the world itself was remembering something it forgot long ago.
Nochtrael slowed down. Then stopped.
His golden eyes lifted toward the distance. "Orynthia lies ahead."
I followed his gaze. Somewhere beyond those massive trees… was it. Elandor exhaled slowly, arms still folded. "Good," he said. "We're ahead of schedule."
Nochtrael tilted his head slightly. "If we run the rest of the day, we will reach the entrance before nightfall."
I blinked. "Run? The rest of the day?"
Elandor didn't even look at me. "This might be a good workout before anything else."
"…Wait–hold on–"
I didn't even get to finish. Because the next second, Nochtrael moved. Elandor followed immediately after. And I was already sprinting just to avoid getting left behind.
"…Of course we're running now great.."
End of chapter.