CH.4 The Will

Right after the moment I touched his hand, I felt something was released inside my body. I felt that I could peer through time and space, I could defend from all attack, and I could defeat my foes with my will alone.

"Interesting," He said, "With just an exposure of my power you had unlocked the three Haki." He smiled and thought internally, 'Truly someone worthy of your heritage.'

'So this is Haki? it felt weird.' Even though I know what Haki is I decided to feign ignorance, "What's Haki?"

Rayleigh calmly explained, "Haki" is a power that lies dormant in some of the world's creatures... "Presence", "fighting spirit" and "intimidation"... It is not different from the things that you can naturally sense such as these... 'The act of not doubting'. That is strength!"

"There are 3 types of Haki, Observation, Armaments, and Conqueror's Haki. Each one of them represents the three concepts I just told you, Observation Haki represents 'Presence', which grants users a sixth sense of the world around them and limited precognitive abilities. Armament Haki represents 'Fighting Spirit' which allows the user to use their spirit as armour to defend against attacks or to make their attacks more potent. While the Conqueror's Haki represents 'Intimidation' which grants the user the ability to overpower the will of others."

He then moved towards the cave exit, signalling for me to follow him. Before I could move, he struck me down and my world went black.

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The next time, I opened my eyes. I was left with a message. A rather simple and straight forward if you asked me. It only contains one word and the word is.

'Survive'

When I was wondering what danger could be in this forest, I hear a roar behind me. I gulped and started running because my instinct told me to do so.

This is mark the start of my hell for an unknown period.

-Line Break-

Rayleigh is staring at the moon and laughed, "Truly your heritage doesn't end with you huh?"

He then sat cross-legged and pulled out a cup of sake and started drinking. He observed the glass of sake, "Shiro, a beast of winter. A descendant of the 'Moon and Stars', someone whose fate is not predestined. A path that only he could walk on."

He drank up the cup, "Now, will he make the same mistake that you did?"

-Line Break-

I wake up and found myself inside the familiar cave, I was cocooned in bandages. I smelled the strong scent of herbs on me and I immediately recognize Rayleigh. He's watching the moon with his back facing me.

A quick check on my body shows me that whatever happened in that mountain is real. Tilting my head I still saw the huge scar on my body.

It almost felt surreal.

Did I actually survive? I'm sure that I died killing the king of monster, Yet here I am being hospitalized by him.

I didn't know how long I was in that mountain but every living second of it... in short was thrilling. Being on the edge of death multiple amounts of time and defy the odds itself to emerge victoriously.

Sitting up slowly, I stared at my lap, resting my hands on it. Was I really ready to face the world of DxD?

With the experience that I faced in the mountains, I doubt I could survive in this cruel world. I don't know how they compare to the beings in DxD. But it shouldn't be too far off right?

I got up from the bed and walked towards him.

"Master?" I greeted, sitting beside him.

"Welcome Back, did you enjoy the experience?"

Lowering my head, "Truthfully? It made me doubt my own strength." I steeled my heart waiting for him to scold me. Yet, it didn't come the only thing I felt is a warm hand on top of my head.

He shook his head, "If that's what you believe then improve yourself more."

"Understood," I nodded.

He then walked and told me to follow him, before I could get up. I felt it a chop from the back is coming, I turned around and blocked the hit.

"I see that you have improved," I only offered a smile for his remarks. This had shown that I'm indeed improving although I don't know by how much I had improved, being forged by life and death battle is truly the best way to improve.

Walking behind him towards the exit of the cave I feared for what he has in store for me.

It was dark, too dark that I can't even see anything. I barely could feel Rayleigh's aura.

"I had set an obstacle course for you when you're running the course I would throw blunt weapon toward you. Don't stop running, and try to not get to banged up. Each obstacle had a unique trait if you focus your senses enough you could dodge it."

The feeling of dread that he had set the obstacles for me, left me silent. It wouldn't do good to ignore his training. Running through what essentially is hell for most people would help my manoeuvrability, reaction, and Observation Haki. If I could successfully do that then it would be an enormous help in the battlefield. A place where plans never went as they should and a quick reaction would determine the living and the dead.

Not to mention that the life and death mountain experience had forced me to adapt to my other senses. If he had thrown the weapon and the obstacle had a smell or any trait of magic, then I had a given time to react quick enough lest I would be battered up. But for that to happen, I had to train my senses first or had enough mastery with Observation Haki, a skill that required practice... and motivation.

But maybe I could use Armament Haki to block the weapon, it's not cheating, right?

Suppressing a reluctant sigh, I started jogging.

"We will improve your endurance and magic control. You'll be running the course every time until I said otherwise. From, then on the lesson would differentiate-"

I was hit by a weapon which made me fall and almost got hit by a spike. I winced, feeling the sharp sting on my knees. It was hit by an arrow, annoyance flared through me. I pulled it out and froze the wound. I forced myself back up to continue the run.

"We will work on your precision and accuracy in using your mana and chakra, You will, of course, start practising this outside the cave in the freezing cold..."

I dodged a throw but tripped and was sent headfirst into a rock wall, my hand spread out to catch me, but in the process the dug into a spiky layer. I bit my lips before adjusting myself and started running again.

"We will work on the theory of magic, chakra, and battle strategy... and other times we'll work on mana manipulation. When you reached a..."

My feet step into a sharp stone and I gasped from the surprising pain. Swallowing slowly, I lifted my feet, remove the stone and tossing it away.

"-satisfactory level in all of those areas then we'll move on to actual battle. Continue running, it'll help to build up your pain tolerance."

"Oni-Sensei" I whispered,

"Of course, I expect you to improve yourself when I'm not teaching you." I wanted to retort but my head slammed into a stalactite.