Chapter 620: Training with Dorian

Dorian smirked as he watched his student go sailing through the air.

"What?" he asked as Elion groaned, dragging himself upright again. "Take away all those little cheat abilities of yours, and suddenly you can’t fight?"

He tilted his head mockingly.

"How disappointing."

Elion did not answer. He spat a thick mix of blood, saliva, and phlegm off to the side as he forced himself back to his feet, then launched himself forward again without a word.

Another furious exchange followed, blades flashing in and out of view faster than most eyes could properly track, and five seconds later he was sent flying once more.

Isla watched the whole scene with her brows drawn tight in concern, her hands clasped together so firmly they had become a single tense knot.

Every time Elion was struck and thrown aside, a sharp ache twisted through her chest.

She knew this was training, and that he was not truly in danger, but that did very little to soften the sight of him being battered over and over again.

Beside her, Celeste could only smile faintly and shake her head at the blonde’s barely concealed distress.

"He’ll be fine," she said, trying to ease her worry.

Isla gave a small nod, but her expression did not change at all.

Celeste’s gaze drifted briefly from Elion and toward the other young vampires gathered nearby, the ones regarded as the clan’s most gifted talents.

The vampire clan had its own academy, the Bloodbourne Institute of Magic, a place for those who either failed to make it into Grimholt Academy or simply had no desire to go there, yet still wanted to become accomplished warriors or mages.

For them, it was the natural path.

There were roughly twenty students from the Institute present that day, and some of them were among those chosen to form the entourage that would accompany Elion to Grimholt for the Legacy World expedition.

Despite the fact that they had spent the past two days watching their so-called Prince Consort get his ass handed to him over and over again, not a single one of them voiced even the slightest contempt.

After all, Elion had just finished taking on all twenty of them by himself before stepping into a one-on-one match against their Grand Elder.

And somehow, he was actually keeping up with Elder Dorian.

At least to some extent.

Between those beautiful bursts of movement, the two of them exchanged dozens of strikes so quickly that most of the younger Vampires could barely follow what was happening.

Of course, it usually ended with Elion being sent flying, but the fact that he could keep up at all was already absurd.

"Wow..." one of the younger Vampires muttered. "I can’t believe he’s only around our age!"

"I know, right! I didn’t even know it was possible for someone to be that talented."

Another immediately scoffed.

"Of course, you fools. Only someone so great would be worthy of our esteemed Princess Celeste Chronos!"

"Ahhh! Yes, of course, Senior Dimitri is absolutely right!"

The scene was almost comical, considering the Princess they were talking about was standing right in front of them, but they didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

In fact, the moment the twenty young Vampires looked toward her, several of them practically swooned.

"Bunch of fools," Celeste complained to Isla.

Unfortunately, Isla wasn’t listening.

Celeste sighed and turned her attention back toward Elion, watching him receive his beating for what had to be the hundredth time.

Unlike Isla, she wasn’t as worried about Elion; this brutal training was a necessary expense.

After Dorian had returned from his duties, Elion’s instruction had begun almost immediately, though the previous two days had been considerably better for him.

Back then, Elion had been allowed to use everything at his disposal, and, of course, Dorian had been impressed.

No surprise there.

Elion’s strength was terrifying when he went all out.

It was almost inconceivable how overpowered he had become in such a short amount of time.

But once Dorian began stripping away those advantages and focusing purely on raw skill, it quickly became apparent that Elion was lacking in both his swordsmanship and spellcasting.

Celeste hadn’t been able to see it at first, but after Uncle Dorian pointed it out, the flaws became painfully obvious.

For someone of Elion’s strength, his raw power was simply overwhelming, but his actual technique lacked finesse.

Of course, you wouldn’t exactly notice something like that when the person in question was bulldozing through everything standing in his path, now would you?

The reason was easy enough to understand.

Elion had simply become too strong, far too quickly.

His growth had been overwhelming, and while that might sound like nothing but a good thing, other aspects of his strength had suffered as a result.

At some point along the way, Elion had begun abandoning the fundamentals in favour of overwhelming speed, strength, and destructive power.

Why bother perfectly positioning a blade when you could simply move faster than your opponent could react?

Why carefully control the structure of a spell when you possessed enough mana and power to overwhelm whatever stood before you?

And of course, most people would mistake speed for technique or actual skill.

Against weaker opponents, there was little difference.

Against someone like Dorian...

...The difference became painfully obvious.

That became even clearer when Dorian asked Elion to explain how several of his unique skills actually worked.

After all, it hadn’t taken the Grand Elder long to realise that some of the things Elion was doing were simply unnatural, even by his standards.

Once Elion explained a few of the abilities at his disposal, everyone finally understood. He had far too many ridiculously useful skills.

Enhanced Cognition alone was absurd.

The skill allowed Elion to perceive information, process it, and react at a considerably faster rate than he normally should have been capable of.

From an opponent’s perspective, it could almost appear as though he was predicting their next attack before it even happened.

It was simply too useful, and that was only one ability among many.

So one could probably guess what Dorian had decided afterwards.

Elion was forbidden from using any skills whatsoever during their training, and anything else that could compensate for poor technique.

Only Elion himself, his body, his mana, and his sword. That was how things had reached this point.

It was almost like Elion was being forced to relearn everything from the beginning, and as far as Celeste could tell, Uncle Dorian hadn’t even truly begun instructing him yet.

In fact, he had barely taught Elion anything at all.

For the past two days, Dorian had simply fought him.

Again, and again, and again.

He watched Elion’s movements, punished every opening, exposed every weakness in his stance, and seemingly committed every mistake the younger man made to memory.

At first, Celeste had assumed he was merely studying Elion before deciding how best to teach him.

The problem was...

...He had been doing that for quite some time now.

Another thunderous impact echoed across the courtyard as Elion was sent crashing through the dirt yet again.

Celeste watched him slowly push himself back onto his feet.

Her crimson eyes narrowed slightly.

’Just what exactly are you planning, Uncle Dorian?’