It took me 4 more full days of trial and error until i finally conquered the skies and succeeded in flight. Every time we started over we did so on an even taller rock than the last, eventually jumping off of a 5,000 meter high volcano where i sustained controlled flight.

I did nothing but fly for the following ‘break’ day, feeling the nice warm breeze and sun on my back as i flapped my huge and muscular wings. No form of skydiving could ever compare to the sensation of deciding where you travel in the air, controlled falling is just that...nothing more nothing less.

But flight is different, going up instead of down is a thrill that pumps adrenaline into your blood like no other. Even getting shot at in all of my missions as a SEAL didn’t make me feel this way, it’s like flight just triggers something in your brain that is only able to be activated by flying.

I had come down only once during my freedom, and that was to eat some elk like creatures called Kip that my father had caught for me for dinner while i had my fun. After eating, i said my goodbyes and went into one of the tunnels formed by the volcanoes.

They weren’t exactly huge, but they were large enough for me to fit comfortably inside in my huge dragon body. Once inside i went back as far as i could to where it was the warmest, it was not only safe but cozily warm so it was perfect for meditation.

During the one time lesson by mother, she had explained meditation perfectly about how it is really just purifying and expanding the mana inside your body. The best meditative position on this world is only available to dragons, but all of the other races have some form of doing it.

Once in a flat enough area, i curled myself into a large and scaly ball and concentrated to enter the required state of calm and focus. After a minute or two of performing a breathing technique and concentrating on my inner self or ‘soul’ a light purple puddle came into my ‘vision’.

From there i slowly willed the mana to separate from the ‘impurities’, or the pollution from the Great Death, out of the puddle. Non dragons are not able to see the clear difference between the two like we can, instead of individualizing the energies they simply take out anything that looks dark.

The process works eventually, but it takes away from their mana along with the pollution. This is only another reason why dragons reign supreme in this world, our mana pools are far larger and completely pure when we reach our peak, but the other races are more of a grey color and smaller than ours when they reach their final stage.

After about two hours of meditation, i feel that i have done enough and allow myself to rest. Staying in the same ball as before, i lose my focus and fall asleep with the warmth of the volcano as a blanket.

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I wake up feeling refreshed by a good 7 hour rest, naturally i yawn and stretch out my gigantic body lazily. Today marks the 6th day of our month long training, since i got my flight down i imagine that we will be doing something different.

After my stretching i get up and walk to the entrance of the semi large tunnel where my father should be located. Behind the perfume of molten rock i can smell my father just outside, not moving very much.

My sense of smell makes things as trivial as looking for someone extremely easy and my sight makes hiding pointless, this is how i spot the sloppily hidden form of a 6’7 wanna be ninja perched on the ceiling of the tunnel opening.

I was about to call out to him and ask what he is doing this early in the morning, but before i can he leaps off of his hiding place letting loose a large amount of killing intent.

Acting on reflex, i turn my body and slam my large 4m long tail into his abdomen before he can get to me, with a dull ‘oof’ he gets sent hurling out of the entrance at incredible speeds.

More confused than alarmed, i casually walk out of the cave staring at where he landed. I know he’s fine, his body should be more than sturdy enough to withstand a weak tail slap like that. I know very well that he can kill me in the blink of an eye in hundreds of different ways if he wanted to, but there is no reason to.

This must be some kind of training? There’s no other reason for him to attack me like that. Content with my conclusion, i ready myself once more in preparation for further ‘training’.

Sahqoviing slowly get up and pats the area where i hit him with my tail, chuckling lightly he says

“That’s quite mean of you son, to hit your father like that when he only wanted a hug. Good reaction though, there is no reason for you to hold back afterall. I can’t train you much in your dragon form because most of it comes naturally, shift into your human form for some exercise.”

What? I dont wanna...oh well...true there isn’t much for me to do with that bulky form physically, but he could at least teach me some fire magic.

I am not going to argue with this 12000 year old beast so i shift into the more boring option of my two forms.

Within seconds i’m standing on two legs, but i have gotten used to it by now so instead of falling i yawn again as i shift my posture over to my right leg. I perform a couple light pre workout stretches so i don’t accidentally hurt myself when we train and wait for orders.

“Good, good. So, i am going to be teaching you some hand to hand combat before we move on to weaponry. It is not always convenient to be in a large dragon body so you will have to be in this form more often than you think. Make sure you don’t blow this off, it will only hurt you in the future.”

Yeah, yeah...i already knew that i can’t be a 110 meter long dragon whenever i feel like it, but it doesn’t change the fact that i don’t want to be a human anymore. Plus i already have a lot of knowledge in martial arts and small bladed combat.

Sure, i dont know anything about a sword or a club but i consider myself an expert with a dagger or a knife. Some of the concepts should carry over, but it’s going to be a pain to learn how to swing a large sword.

Even though i shouldn’t even really need any foreign objects to kill when i can not only use magic but grow claws and a tail to help. Plus i have wings, short range fighting should be easy as physical training for the chair force.

In this body i don’t have anything like a reach advantage so i can’t use my favorite side stance, so i shift my body into a more boxer like front facing stance.

After nodding my head signaling that im ready i bring my fists into a tight guard and tuck my chin.

The moment i do so my father darts to my left in a speed that normal humans would not be able to register, i can see him fine though with my advanced vision.

I pretend like i am having a hard time following the image of Sahqoviing and within a second he already closed the distance of 25 meters that we were staring at eachother from and is now feet away from my left side.

Still feigning ignorance, i turn myself to face him while he delivers a would be devastating blow to my temple. Barely ducking underneath it i slip over under his arm and send my right knee into his ribs.

Before it can land, he deflects my leg with his free hand and palm strikes the top of my thigh. Because of the strength behind it, the hit sends my leg crashing into the ground and i falter slightly losing my balance.

The instant my foot caves in the ground underneath me, i stumble forwards and hastily try to free myself from the hole. Before i can recover, he performs a perfect uppercut straight to my chin.

Fortunately for me, he stops the punch before it can connect, just the speed behind it causes a moderately sized after wind to follow after he freezes his arm in place.

I had tried to brace myself for the pain, but now that there is nothing i sigh in relief and finish getting my leg out.

In a reprimanding way, my dad informs me of my mistake

“Don’t let me hit away your knee, either shift the point of impact or stop the strike altogether. If i did not reflect it the hit would have been good though, again.”

‘I did change my target, you just blocked it you brute.’ I didn’t voice my thought though, instead i eagerly readied myself once more. It has been a long time since i last sparred with someone and lost, it will surely be fun to fight against this man.

Hiding my excitement, i give the same head nod and wait for his assault. This time however, he waves his hand towards himself and does not move.

Understanding that he wants me to attack him this time, i bolt straight towards him with a course of action already plotted out for my body to follow.

One of my strongest weapons is the constant simulations i do in my mind, everything from daily conversations to fights is acted out in my head before hand. It’s just a habit that i developed in early childhood after constantly being told to think about the consequences of my words and actions.

Sometimes it gets a little bit unnecessary, but it has benefited me more than being a nuisance.

From the time we started the spar i had been constantly thinking of different possibilities, one of those being the situation i find myself in right now.

Step for step i act out the plan i made as i make tiny leaps from left to right, hoping to be unpredictable as possible. After the 5th step i find myself on his left side with my right leg about one meter away from his side.

I throw a heavy shovel punch into his ribs, but it gets blocked with his forearm. Not allowing my momentum to go to waste, i pull back my arm and launch a left cross, twisting my entire body to the right in the process.

I don’t even wait to see if the hard surface i felt was an arm or his face as i begin to pivot on my right foot, raising my left leg at the same time.

As i fully complete the rotation, i extend my shin and slam the front of it into his chest. Of course, he blocks it again with both of his arms but he can’t stop the power behind it as he gets sent skidding backwards 2 meters before coming to a stop.

Seeing it was another failure, i continue my advance and rapidly close the gap between us. Refusing to move, my father stands still with an amused expression on his mature looking face as he waits to see what else i can do.

In a flurry of movements i punch and kick as fast as i can, trying to stir up as much dirt and ash as possible in order to hide myself from him. Eventually, the entire area is so black that i can only make out the vague shape of his tall body.

Hoping to use this to my advantage, i slip lower than i would normally to about his waist level. Moving as fast as i can in this final attempt to land a successful hit, i dash towards his left leg and try to grab it with both of my arms.

Immediately after i lock myself onto his long leg, he tries to move away, but before he can manage to separate himself from me i lift upwards with every single muscle in my body, hoping to cause him to lose his balance.

I manage to completely raise his leg, but he just perfectly stands on his right not losing the slightest hint of balance. This is what i expected, if he had fallen down i might have cried in utter disappointment.

The instant i feel his foot leave the floor i pull it and jump backwards, fully extending it in the movement.

He must have been curious as to what i was trying to do, because he didn’t try to push down or pull away any further.

Fine by me, it does not interfere with what i am about to do.

I put his calf on my left shoulder and twist his leg with all of my might to the outside, while my arms are doing that i bend my legs and jump upwards causing his back leg to raise as well.

Clearly startled by the sudden movement, he loses his balance and i make one final push to set up my victory.

Still in midair, i pull his extended and twisted leg towards me once more with even more force than the last time. Met with little resistance as he has no support, his entire body gets yanked downwards to me.

He is still falling by the time my foot hits the floor, and i jump up once again this time towards his face. Extending my arm with all of the force i can muster, i launch my arm with such force that it pops and dislocates.

Pushing through the piercing pain, i continue the motion as he continues to fall in my direction.

For the first time in this spar, my fist meets his unprotected face and he gets spun through the air at breakneck speeds, tumbling on the ground as he lands some distance away.

Too excited by my accomplishment to feel the pain and exhaustion that i just forced upon myself, i try to walk forwards but trip on my own feet and fall flat on my face after trying to stop myself with my dislocate arm.

Even with my superhuman body it is only that of a 10 year old boy and the instant i hit the ground i feel the accumulated stress that was the result of such tiring actions.

Every single muscle in my body feels like it has been put through a meat grinder and my lungs burn for oxygen, i can feel the pain of the shoulder i dislocated and my fists must have shattered at the impact.

I have felt worse to be honest, but it still does not help the fact that i feel like shit.

Slowly propping myself up with my good arm i lean backwards onto my butt so i can sit and see what happened to my father.

Judging by the fact that my hand is broken, i'm sure he’s completely unharmed.

As if responding to my thoughts, his figure suddenly appears next to me and without saying a word he pulls out a bottle from his pants pocket. The bottle looks more like a clear flask and contains a fair amount of red liquid.

I reach out to grab it from him but he nods his head sideways telling me ‘no’ as he lowers the bottle next to my lips, pouring the strange substance down my throat.

As soon as i stomach it my entire body feels hot like i just swallowed coffee straight out of the machine, far worse than that when i attempted to breathe fire the first time i begin to cry out in pain only to manage a shallow croak.

Just as quick as it came the pain is replaced by a small warmth and my limbs feel just as good as when i woke up.

I realize that this must be a healing potion that i read about in an alchemy book, a combination of certain plants and herbs that make a drink that heals injuries. Depending on the quality of the potion, the process could take days or even seconds.

In this case it’s the latter and i stretch out my now healed body and confirm that there is no discomfort.

After cracking my neck and hands with several loud ‘pop’ sounds, my father speaks out in another one of his pride filled voices saying

“I did not interfere because i wanted to see where you were going with it, i have not seen someone do that before. Although you did land a hit it would not have happened if i simply pulled my leg back, but against those who are weaker than you in terms of strength it will do fine. Good job! But….uhm, don’t tell your mother i let you break yourself, alright?”

With a heavy laugh i wave away his concerns as i think about his words, true he could have ended it when he wanted to but i would call it a success for now, considering i only wanted to get one hit in.

I definitely won’t be doing it again though, it was just something i thought about on the fly, tons of openings and counters from everywhere and it would likely end up in more failures than wins.

My train of thought is interrupted by Sahqoviings voice as he simply says one word:

“Again.”

(Hello comrades, i might have to slow down production a little bit now that my sports and school work are starting to come back, but i will try to get a chapter out once a day, i might have to do one per 2 days at the most. Hopefully you guys don't mind too much :D Thanks for reading!)