The morning sun came in a flash as if it was angry at the sleeping Masaru,
"Urg... My body feels stiff"
Masaru felt whatever he was laying on was simply too hard to be a bed when he opened his eyes seeing his surrounding the drowsiness he once felt was gone and he immediately got onto his feet looking around vigilantly.
'Forest? How did I----'
Masaru noticed a letter nearby leaning against a tree with a bag filled with only one day's worth of food.
[Good Morning! If your reading this it seems you safely woken up, and yes your survival training has already started! Your objectives are to survive! But be careful... There are creatures or perhaps... Enemies lurking in the mountain... No need to thank me since I did not scan this mountain, so it's full of mystery!
Yours truly, Dad]
'Fuck! Since when did this old man have a playful side to him!? That old geezer! To think he would bring me here without me waking up... No, if it's him it will only be natural'
Masaru placed the bag on his back starting to search for his sword, but he could not find yet he still felt the link he held with it so he used that spiritual link to talk with Grendel
[Oh, I was wondering why I could not see you from my body's view... Interesting, to think your father could take you from your room without even me realizing it, your father is truly dangerous young lad]
"You tell me, right now I am stuck on the mountain and you're not near me"
[Naturally, it appears your father only restricted my body from going over to you but not the spiritual link. Interesting...]
Masaru sighed, the first things that came to his mind would be to search for a location to sleep, a water source and hunt for food.
[Boy, I must warn you that you best take this test seriously... I sense a dragon in your vicinity]
"huh?"
Masaru felt something was wrong, does his father want to ensure he fails or something?
[Also it appears talking with you is draining too much of my energy so I will be sleeping now to recover, I will talk again when I wake up]
"Guess my eyes has been opened, even after these years I still don't know everything about my old man huh?"
Masaru began moving eastwards according to the fake sun the devils created for the reincarnated devils who were once human, the strange thing was Masaru did not feel his instinct screaming or anything but he could still faintly hear movements of demonic beasts in his vicinity.
But the next action he took was a mistake he made, if he never operated his mana actively he might not have been discovered, he called out his Spellbook to see if it had a search spell specifically for water source but was interrupted when a shadow flashed towards him.
He immediately reacted by catching the shadow's right fist with his left hand,
"Urk!"
The strength behind that punch was truly enormous as he believed if his body was not durable thanks to his timely body enhancement spell and the experiment he endured he might have already lost this arm of his.
"Wh---Who are you!"
The shadow that was around the assailant disappeared as if the magic effect has ended, revealing a girl his age with long red hair in a messy style making her appear to be a bit wild with a pair of red-coloured eyes with a slit pupil looking at him fiercely.
"No need for questions... Fight me"
The girl did not respond and started to throw another punch, Masaru who experienced this girl's brute strength knew better not to take this head on so he grasped her wrist with his right hand while in a swift spin pinning his back against her chest and threw her over his shoulder.
Strange energy covered the girl in the form of an aura similar to Touki causing Masaru to let go of her midway, it was out of surprise he felt the aura was similar to touki but a different kind almost like the magic of a different element.
"Can you at least tell me your name?"
Masaru thought of distracting her by keep trying to interacting with her, but the girl snorted
"Beat me and I will tell you"
Masaru sighed thinking he found a troublesome fellow to deal, without any further discussion he cast an earth element spell }Earth Shrink{ to swiftly manoeuvre behind the girl while casting another spell covering his fist with paralyzing electricity
}Viper Punch{,
"You got to do better than this"
The girl lowered her body spinning with a kick, Masaru kept the paralyze spell active while opening his fist to grasp the leg. He could feel his entire arm vibrating from the sheer force of the girl's Raw power.
'Shit! Is this the dragon Grendel spoke about? Seems I need to remove my restrictions otherwise I will end up getting myself killed'
Masaru began to murmur as magic circles forming several layers on top of each other at each of his arms, wrists, waist and chest slowly began to dissolve. Because of his continuous burst of improvement to his strength, he feared his foundation will crumble so he already made use of the restriction devil magic that restricts his movements while applying appropriate gravity without any side effects of hindering his natural growth.
"Oh? So you have been holding back even now? Are you perhaps looking down on me because I am a girl?"
Masaru could feel the anger contained in that cold voice of the girl, he shook his head
"I never underestimated you... I am simply taking this seriously now"
But the words did not seem to have reached the girl so another round of the fight between the two began to explode within the mountains, from a distance you could see the sheer force of their attacks was enough to cause air to explode up each contact.
"Damn... That boy of yours, you were serious when you said he is a monster"
The Purple dragon was watching over the fight together with Diehauser who was laughing but his eyes were still seriously looking at the fight,
"But that daughter of yours is even more monstrous with only her defence and strength"
"Hmph! As long as it is not an opponent of a low-Rank Ultimate or higher, there will not be any opponent that can easily match her... But your son... To think he can face her head to head"
Diehauser who smiled but shook his head
"Right now he is forced to redirect the attacks of your daughter, I am sure he knows he can handle only several attacks head-on but not continuously"
The dragon nodded while having a serious look
"Hoh? So this boy learned senjutsu and even managed to manifest his touki?"
"Well he has a Nekomata in his peerage, apparently he learnt Senjutsu during the years he was experimented on under the guidance of the Nekomata's elder sister"
The Dragon nodded feeling a bit depressed at how corrupt the politics of the Devils became,
"It's a shame that politics caused that Nekomata to flee otherwise the Devils would have another powerful devil"
Meanwhile
"Hora Hora! Keep fighting!!"
The girl slowly starting to lose her sanity under the thrill of a heated battle against this boy, it was the first time for her to fight against a male who could last this long against her not to mention this boy was even showering her with a stronger sense of intimidation compared to her natural intimidation she inherent as a dragon.
But Masaru held a different thought
'My Satan! Why do I have the luck of facing against troublesome women like her! I love them but this is simply too much!'
He allowed the girl's punch to come closer before he twists his body to dodge the strike at the last moment before launching his counter-attack,
'Not to mention her power being ridiculous, her defence is even worse! I need to figure out an attack that can bypass her natural defences and injure her from within'
Exchange after exchange Masaru began to think of ways to defeat this girl in front of him, it was only after he unconsciously focused on the explosion force when their attacks connect he realized he needs to perform an attack that can cause vibration.
So with each attack he started to use wind element magic to experiment with each blow, at first it did not work but he could notice the girl was showing signs of being irritated.
"Stop with the tricks and fight me head-on!"
The girl felt pissed because it appears this boy figured out a method to bypass her natural defence since it was only at her fist it did not do much damage other than irritating her. But Masaru smiled broadly as he was using wind magic only get the experience and feeling using it before he swapped to lightning magic, dodging the girl's right hook he advanced towards her chest and struck out a palm enchanted with vibrating electricity.
The crackling sounds entered the girl's body causing her to spit out blood, although it was not much however, Masaru felt he was gaining some understanding of applying magic in his hand to hand combat.
"Bastard!"
Just as the girl was about to attack again she stopped as if she heard something, she snorted with an unhappy facial expression before glaring at the boy
"I will see you tomorrow, and when I do"
The girl released her killing intent towards Masaru
"I will kill you!"
Masaru simply smiled
"I will be waiting for you"
Far away from the two were Diehauser and the Purple dragon breathe a sigh of relief, it was not planned to stop their first combat right here but the destructiveness behind Masaru's technique proved that once it was completed then the girl will be in danger. The purple dragon looked at Diehauser
"You tell me my daughter is a monster, but your child is even more so... What kind of attack was that?"
"I believe he used vibration, I suppose he first used Wind Magic to experiment while gaining the feeling to control the vibrating force before he swapped to lightning attacks. That last attack was a failure, although it only barely passed through her defence, she only suffered a minor shock internally"
Diehauser concluded how he speculated that last attack,
"To think he can come up with these things during combat"
"Well, that son of mine is, I'm afraid the kind who gain explosive progress in his combat ability during combats...."
Diehauser sighed
"He's a natural Battle Junkie although he tries to hide it"
>\/<
"Phew, although it was dangerous. However, it truly was fun"
Masaru felt refreshed as he even released some of his pent up frustration he held towards his father about his current situation,
"The vibration attack works but I feel I need to add another element or perhaps use a different form of application for it to truly work"
[Heh, for you to fight that girl and survive is truly something]
"What do you mean?"
Masaru understood what Grendel meant but he wanted to confirm if what he felt and what Grendel sensed were the same,
[Based on that girl's physical strength alone, she has no rival even in the high-class devils but that is only my speculations... Well her defence could only be attributed to her dragon trait]
"I thought so as well, even now my arms are feeling numb. If I received an attack from her with my body I would have gone down sooner"
[Your luck lies in the fact the girl is too reliant on her strength, if she was experienced with technique then you would, of course, have to book your funeral]
"Ptui! Thanks for the vote of confidence"
Masaru felt this dragon became quite haughty since it was a topic about dragons,
[kuku, well it appears I have to sleep again since I woke up earlier than planned to watch your battle with her which was naturally entertaining]
Masaru did not respond to this and Grendel simply went back to slumber.
>\/<
It was morning and the sun was shining upon Masaru's half-naked body as he took a bath in the lake, since he finally found a water source, a relatively small cave that was easy to hide but the only horrible thing was the time he consumed to search for food.
What he never realized was the dragon girl was hunting for food regularly and the amount she requires naturally began to deplete nearby running meats faster.
"Is this boy an idiot? Taking a bath in the middle of a forest"
The Dragon girl was naturally looking at the boy from a nearby tree to ambush him, but the sight of his lean yet firm muscle body caused the girl to stop and blush
'I'm not a pervert peeking at a boy! I am only preparing to ambush him'
She reasoned with herself but Masaru already discovered this girl as he was casting life detection spell which warns him when living creatures or humanoid beings reach near him.
'I understand that dragon libido is almost infinite, but to peek... Is this girl serious about doing that?'
Masaru naturally misunderstood the girl entirely and labelled her as a pervert, feeling a bit conflicted about being peeked at by a girl Masaru conjured several magic circles near the ground under the surface of the lake.
Just as the girl was about to move forward a jet stream of water launched towards her from the lake, because of the sudden attack she was forced to retreat backwards in the direction another few water bullets launched at.
'Did he discovered me?'
The girl took a defence stance blocking the water bullets with her body.
When she lowered her arms Masaru stood in front of her only wearing his pants and shoes, he did not have the luxury of time to put on his shirt as well. This sight caused the dragon girl to blush furiously
"How shameless! You pervert!"
Masaru who heard this was shocked
'What the hell!?'
Suddenly he shouted
"Are you some sort of Perverted Maiden!? You already peeked at me while I was bathing!"
"Wr-Wrong! I was planning to ambush you! I did not have any intention to peek!"
The girl tried to defend herself, Masaru formed a smirk feeling a strange feeling that makes him want to tease this girl more
'Is this what Akeno feels?'
He swore he could get addicted to this feeling if he carries on
"You could have turned away but instead kept looking! You have to take responsibility for this!"
The girl who heard this felt her world went upside down
'Is it not me who should say that!? Are you a girl'
But her mouth was stuttering while Masaru walked closer towards her, for some reason she could not muster up any fighting spirit to fight this boy
'Well he is handsome looking and his body is hot'
She furiously shook her head
'What the hell am I thinking!?'
Before Masaru could come close enough to be in a hand reach the girl turned and fled while screaming
"You better remember this!!!"
"We---Well.... It seems my son has been a bit influenced by Akeno-chan more than he realized"
Diehauser could only chuckle nervously because the girl Masaru teased was none other than Tannin, the Ultimate Rank Devil Dragon's Daughter!
"I don't mind, honestly I am more surprised at how he managed to get her to act like that."
Unbeknown even to himself, Tannin was crying tears of joy
"I honestly thought that girl will start to believe she is a man after acting like one for so long!!!"
Diehauser kept quiet looking at Tannin with shock
'It appears each father has their difficulties'
Without saying anything he tapped the shoulder of Tannin,
"I guess we can say that there will be no combat for the second day huh?"
Tannin nodded
"Yeah, from the looks of it she completely lost her fighting spirit and to regain it requires some time"
"Let's go have a drink!"
The two men went off to a bar sharing their troubles especially in regards to their children.
--------------
Author Note:
The chapter has been edited, If I missed something please just drop a Paragraph Comment and I will Fix it