Training Part 6 of 14 - The Worst One

('Ddraig speaking telepathically')

("Ddraig talking out loud")

['Albion speaking telepathically']

["Albion talking out loud"]

{'Bahamut speaking telepathically'}

'A character's thoughts'

Mount Olympus

The sound of glass shattering can be heard throughout the dining hall, wine splattering all over the floor, causing all the major Greek gods present to wince.

"What did you just say?!" Zeus exclaimed, his complexion shadowing black in anger with glowing neon-red eyes which worried the other deities since it is very rare for him to show this emotion. (53)

The Chief guardsman of the universe's most secure prison spoke. "A-Atlas has escaped from his cell as well as Kronos, sir. We believe the Khaos Brigade played a hand in this."

"Who's Atlas? Sounds like a yummy person whose ass I would love to kick in a fight as I slowly... sadistically... gouge out his eyeballs and eat them," Ares, the Greek God of War, growled with an insane smile, licking his lips creepily.

Artemis looked disgusted. "You're so gross!"

Apollo smirked. "No, sister. While I wouldn't eat other people like him, this Atlas sounds like someone that needs a show of force to learn their place. Same goes for this Crony person."

Zues looked at them. "Atlas is... my younger half-brother, son of my father Kronos. His mother Clymene is long dead. He's a complete psychopath who helped me kick out the Titans from Olympus, such as my parents Kronos and Rhea as well as my many Aunts and Uncles. When we succeeded, Atlas said he was going to take over the throne and declare war on the other pantheons, the ones that serve as our allies today. That would have been the end of all of us had I not stopped him."

Athena frowned as she tucked a strand of silvery hair behind her ear. "You could have at least told us this a long time ago so that we could have been better prepared for a prison break."

Hermes sighed. "So what do we do?"

The Greek God of Lightning trembled nervously as he slowly took a seat, having grown old and weary in his current form. "Well, the two most dangerous Titans are now at large again. Go let the other pantheons know. I doubt any of them will do anything except maybe the Norse, but we'll see. We have many more prisoners in Tartarus than we do in Cocytus, so I will be sending you four to guard it." He pointed at Ares, Artemis, Athena, and Hephaestus. "Poseidon, you guard the Cocytus."

Poseidon groaned. "Ehhhh? Do I have to, brother?"

One glare from Zeus shot any complaints down. "Do it."

The Greek God of the Seas sighed. "Fine, fine."

Titan

"I thought you said the ice in the Cocytus used to freeze prisoners is thought to be indestructible, impenetrable, unyielding, everlasting. How did you free those two new servants of ours?" Satan curiously asked a seven foot tall figure wearing a teal cloak in contrast to the demonic Dark Lord's black robes.

The mysterious man smirked. "I am the one who created the Cocytus, after all. I'm older than Zeus himself. Something like this is child's play to me, a primordial."

Satan was thoroughly amused. "I see. It's good to have you on our side then... Uranus."

Thanos, who was deep in thought, voiced his opinion. "Their Titans and Titans here such as myself are quite different, but I wonder exactly how strong this Kronos is?"

Satan looked at him. "By the way, what happened to those two Aesir you sent to Asgard?"

Thanos frowned. "They haven't returned yet. I'm beginning to suspect that they have failed their mission."

Chapter 19: Training Part 6 of 14 - The Worst One

Days 11-15 of 120 Training Days

Asgard

"Hello there! I'll be your trainer for the next four days." Ikki Kurogane smiled at the group. "I will be training you from sunrise to sunset, almost nonstop aside from 30 minute breaks for lunch and dinner as well as two ten minute bathroom breaks, until you have mastered your sword-fighting techniques. Offense, defense, blocks, dodges, parries, pirouettes, footwork, jabs, slashes, etc."

Ikki looked at Issei. "Hyoudou, how many stabs in a second do you think is good?"

Issei shrugged. "I don't know. Ten?"

Ikki grinned Akeno-style with his eyes closed, giving them male Ara ara vibes. "I'm afraid that is incorrect. Ten is awful. I'm able to do 20 in a second."

"20?!"

"Yes! I am also aware that one of you has an ability to see the future for what you have to do for the best possible outcome in a combat situation. Murayama, you will not be allowed to use that ability, because I promise it will do you plenty of good to try to use your own instincts to counter my attacks."

She nodded. "Right!"

"Intetsu!" Ikki spoke the name of his raven-black sword, summoning it and pointing it at Issei. "I'll spar starting with Hyoudou for 20 minutes straight before I let you rest and repeat the process for everyone else, but whenever you're not sparring with me, practice your swings."

The two of them stood in the middle of the soccer field.

"Let's go ahead," The robotic female voice declared, marking the beginning of the spar.

Ikki sprung forward and viciously hacked and slashed at Issei. Issei, who usually uses an offensive style of fighting, was doing all he could to fend off his opponent's weapon which is aiming directly for his body. Feeling like his life is in danger, Issei summoned his shield while holding Jounetsu in his right hand.

"What's wrong?" Ikki asked as he spun around multiple times with downward slashes, trying to get Issei to attack. "You can't win if you don't try. Didn't Michael Jordan once say that you will miss 100% of the shots you don't take?"

Issei grit his teeth as he jumped back. "Actually, that was Wayne Gretzky that said it, the greatest athlete of all time!"

He lunged forward and began attempting to mimic Ikki's fighting style while combining it with his own. 'Speed is key, but so is patience,' He thought. Physically speaking, Issei is stronger than Ikki, but with a sword, his adversary is like a demon since Ikki is more flexible and experienced.

Issei slashed diagonally upwards, quickly ducking and spinning as he used his sword to block a counterattack. The shield reversed all of Ikki's momentum as his Intetsu met it, the force causing Ikki to stagger backwards for a very brief moment. Issei used this to his advantage, spinning around as he ducked and threw a horizontal slash at the boy's legs. Ikki barely blocked, but in the process, he dropped Intetsu.

Issei had found his fighting style, a balance of offense and defense. In that moment, he considered pocketing his shield, sacrificing a possible form of defense in favor of speed, but the boost in his offensive abilities would have been too small to be worth it.

"Well played."

Ikki went on to spar with the others for the remainder of the day, cycling through everyone at least three times.

Akeno, Kuroka, Ravel, and Tsubasa played defense since they're role is more support-based. They usually practiced dodging, waiting until they could find an opening to attack, the first two throwing their daggers at Ikki, Ravel firing her magical staff, and Tsubasa keeping him busy. Never once did they manage to land a hit.

Irina, Rossweisse, Murayama, and Raynare also found that they prefer to be balanced between offense and defense. They want to challenge themselves and be perfectionists in their technique.

Arisu and Vali prefer brute strength, meaning purely offense. While Vali has a lot to work on, Arisu is perfect in every aspect of swordsmanship, including defense which she rarely has to use.

In the end, the one most skilled with a sword is Arisu by a very large margin.

Issei watched Arisu and Ikki spar, creating powerful shockwaves when their swords met. "Not only is she great with a bow, she can duel with a sword too. One could say the heavens have blessed her twice." (54)

Right now, Issei is practicing his swings, hitting the one of the PVC pipes on a soccer goal. The most number of attacks he could get in a second is 14, which shouldn't be considered bad, but by Sekiryuutei standards, he's good but not good enough, mediocre at best.

When Ikki sparred with Murayama, it was like a graceful yet dangerous dance as both duelists showed more experience than most, neither side yielding despite their fatigue as they jabbed at each other at a fast pace.

Ikki raised his sword to block. "Stella taught you how to combine the use of both a weapon and your magic in one, right? Remember to use your magic."

Murayama nodded as she jumped back a dozen yards. "Right."

She slashed horizontally, sending a volley of ice projectiles at Ikki with the goal of forcing him on the defensive as she seemingly disappeared in front of him due to the fog and snow.

Ikki ducked while casting a barrier over himself for protection, gritting his teeth as he looked all around himself, squinting. 'Where is she?!' For a moment, it went deathly quiet until Ikki heard a whoosh of wind above him. His eyes widened. 'An ambush!'

By the time he brought his sword up to defend himself, it was too late.

"Ha yah!" Murayama grunted as she swung as hard as she could and knocked Intetsu out of her trainer's hand, making him fall onto his back.

Ikki was surprised to say the least, no longer able to see his breath in front of him. The cold and fog vanished to reveal a 12 foot tall circular wall of ice all around him in the shape of a dome, a single hole at the top. "How did you do that?"

Murayama grinned, proud of herself. "I trapped you in a small igloo. Using the snow storm I created, I was able to ambush you due to your lack of visibility by climbing to the top and dive bombing you." She offered him a hand to help him up, which he gladly took.

"Thanks. You know, Stella told me that she thinks you might be too hard on yourself, both physically and mentally since you collapsed recently."

"Eh? Yeah, I suppose I am."

"Why?"

"I consider myself to be the weakest of this entire group of trainees. I want to be useful to Issei, I do, but I can't if I am weak. I am the weakest out of all of us."

Ikki nodded. "A little word of advice for you. Back in the dimension Stella and I came from, when I met Stella, there wasn't a single person at school or home who believed in me and my abilities. I was called the 'Worst One.' The only people in my own family that gave me encouragement and love were my little sister and my long-dead great-grandfather. Even my own girlfriend, Stella, underestimated me greatly when we first met. But a long time ago, my great-grandfather told me something, words that gave me hope, that I live by to this very day, and I think you could use them."

What he said next, Murayama would never forget.

" 'Are you frustrated by the fact that you are the weakest one? If so, that's good. Hold on to that feeling. It's proof that you haven't given up on yourself. Listen, don't give up while living within your boundaries. Don't be a boring person like that. If you have the guts to keep moving forward, you can become anything you want to be. We're living creatures that don't have wings, but we still went to the moon.' "

Ikki smiled reminiscently. "I live by the code of chivalry, which is more than just how a man treats women, it is a way of life; in combat, chivalry is respecting your opponent, never underestimating them, never insulting them, and basically fighting with honor. Because of my chivalry, people always insulted me and looked down on me, saying that I will never amount to anything, that I wasted my time, but I never retaliated. One time, I was forced to repeat a year all because my father despised me for being useless in his eyes, influencing the administration to discriminate against me. Even then, I never gave up because of those words my great-grandfather said, and I managed to force them all to acknowledge me. Not my father, no. He never loved me or even thought of me. But my fellow students at my school, however, started to see me differently once they saw how powerful I had become. They began respecting me more."

Murayama gulped. "Your father sounds like an awful person, but at least your great-grandfather was nice."

He nodded. "Indeed. He never coddled me or told me he loved me since he gave me tough love, but it was his way of showing it that made me realize how much he truly cared compared to my own father. As a kid, I ran away from home, and gramps was the one who trained me a few months before he died."

The Samurai nodded. "Thank you for telling me this, Kurogane. I will be sure to remember his words."

. . . . . . .

On the final day of training, Stella stood next to her boyfriend who was making an announcement.

Ikki coughed. "I don't mean to put any of you down, but I am going to be honest with you and present you with a list I made of who I think is the best to the worst with a sword, the only ones not being included are Himejima, Toujou, and Phenex, who excel at dodging."

He held up a piece of paper that read the following.

Best To Worst Swordsmen and Women:

1st (Tie) Arisu Yamauchi

1st (Tie) Natsuki Murayama

1st (Tie) Issei Hyoudou

4th. Raynare

5th. Vali Lucifer

6th. Rossweisse

7th. Irina Shidou

8th. Tsubasa Yura

"I can tell that Shidou and Yura are both very new to using blades, so while you have a ways to go in terms of improvement, you are still quite advanced for beginners. Quick learners. Should you ever fight with anyone else with your experience, you would likely win."

Icarus may have lived an easy life as he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he was never powerful. The truly strong would never arrogantly fly too close to the sun, for they know what it is like to be weak.

To Be Continued

References:

(53) Assassination Classroom when Koro-sensei gets angry

(54) Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, the episode where Lelouch fights and loses to Xingke.

Issei's Harem (same as peerage members, most to least powerful, will not change):

Issei Hyoudou (Mutated King)

Arisu Yamauchi (OC, Six Mutated Pawn Pieces)

Raynare (Main Girl, Queen)

Akeno Himejima (Knight)

Kuroka Toujou (Bishop)

Irina Shidou (Rook)

Tsubasa Yura (Knight)

Rossweisse (Rook)

Ravel Phenex (Bishop)

Natsuki Murayama (Two Pawns)