Chapter 3 - Third Time's The Charm

Takumi got up at the crack of dawn, changing from his old world's attire to a long robe, undershirt and trousers of medieval reference, eager to get the final part of his training under way.

"Wake up my subjects!" He shouted happily, "your hero awaits!"

Ichika was already up and was in the middle of her morning meditation when she was interrupted by Takumi's ranting.

"Why are you so excited? This is the hardest and most painful part of your training," she said glaring at Takumi.

He gave a wide obnoxious smile and replied, "Oh my beloved Ichika, I am a genius the word hard doesn't exist in my vocabulary." Ichika snickered and said joyfully.

"Oh so you must have a reaaallyy soft body then, right?" She laughed and Takumi fumed with rage, he started a chase after Ichika which lead them into the village head's quarters.

"What is this!?" Lancelot shouted.

"Our hero here is eager to finish his training," Ichika said while out of breath.

Takumi asked where they would go to train this time and Lancelot said that they needed to go to the top of Shisui Mountain and he would go through excruciating pain.

"Oh I've already heard this tune, let's just get it over it I'm sure it'll be a breeze." Takumi said arrogantly.

"As you wish, but when you have completed your training return here for some useful information," advised Lancelot, Takumi grabbed Ichika by the hand and ran out of the village heading straight to Shisui Mountain.

After leaving the village Ichika stopped and asked if Takumi even knew where he was going, his enthusiasm died down a little and he kindly asked her to lead the way. After an hour of walking thought the same forest where they met, they came upon a tall mountain, it had a strange jade mist at the summit and a small number of trees.

"This is where your final training session starts," Ichika informed, "this mountain severely cuts down your Ryū no chikara but you can't get up to the peak without it, good luck."

With that word of advice she sprinted off faster than lightning.

"I see, this might be a little challenging," said Takumi sighing.

He paced back and forth for a while then the solution came to him, he decided to just power up his dragon force and try to get up the mountain as fast as possible. He took out his ōdachi because he thought it would help him with any obstacles along the way, then he breathed in, focused his energy and shot straight up the mountain.

On his way to the top he could feel his energy rapidly decreasing, but he still pressed forward and by the time he was at the top he was totally out for the count, when he came to, he saw Ichika sitting upon a rock in her cat form meditating.

"Well, you did okay for a first timer but after this you'll be able to get up the slope without your dragon mark." she said with her eyes closed.

Takumi asked what was the final step was and Ichika opened her eyes and went back to her human form and told him that he needed to focus his Ryū no chikara on his spirit weapon and become one with it.

"Now how will I do that?" Asked Takumi, then Ichika told him that he needed to penetrate himself with the weapon.

Takumi's eyes widened with surprise and he asked what was the need for that, "it's the only way you can enter the spirit dragon's realm," Ichika told him, "dragons are extinct so that's the only way we can communicate with them, make sure you don't hit any of your vitals or there'll be no coming back."

Takumi gulped cowardly and then sat in the lotus position and focused his power on the sword, when that was done the sword shone with a bright purple light and the character reading 'moon' glowed white, he pointed the blade's tip to his stomach, took a deep breath and plunged it deep into his body, making him cough blood.

He found himself in a world above the clouds fully nude, he could still feel the pain of the stab and leaned against a purple wall he saw, but the wall cut his hand. But this was no wall, Takumi stepped back slowly and looked up where he saw three mythical beasts.

"Well it seems that you are the one I have chosen to wield my power." said the purple beast while Takumi was at a loss for words.

He saw a blue hydra, beautifully designed with scales that seemed like flowing water running across it's body had small, fin like wings signifying it's domain over water held the character reading 'water' in it's eyes.

Next was a crystal purple scaled dragon, with a slender, graceful body had hypnotic eyes and large, sharp wings held the character reading 'moon' on it's tongue.

Finally, stood a brown draco terram with no wings and the character reading 'earth' on it's back, which looked like a range of rock formations and a solid body like a suit of heavy armor.

"Hmm? It seems that you can't talk so I'll do all the talking, my name is Kage, the dragon of the moon, and these guys are Mizuko the water dragon and Daichi the earth dragon." said the dragon.

The other two dragons greeted Takumi at the same time, he greeted all of them at once then Kage told him that since he held the moon's power that he had domain over these two other elements.

Takumi felt pleased with himself and asked how he would be able to control these three powers. Mizuko told him that they would imprint their spirits in him which would allow him to use their elements at will and then he could branch off to master other elements such as ice and metal with further training.

"So how do you guys imprint your spirits on me?" Asked Takumi.

"Well youngster, it's as easy as you enduring one of our attacks each," said Daichi.

Takumi slumped down as this meant more pain for him, he told them to go in order from strongest to weakest and as soon as he finished the sentence he received a purple light blast from Kage which flung him across the floor.

"That was too much!" Scolded Mizuko, "Don't try and kill the poor boy." Then after that she sent a massive wave at Takumi throwing him even further than Kage did.

Takumi crawled back and shouted, "You did more damage than him!"

During his ranting a large rock struck him and Daichi told him he shouldn't shout at a lady while Mizuko blushed,

"Is that all?" Takumi said with what little strength he had left.

"Just look at your chest kid," said Kage, Takumi looked and he saw that there were symbols representing water, moon and earth on his chest.

"Get back to the world of the flesh before you die son." said Mizuko and with that he was back in the world of the living where he found himself in a lake in a cave on the mountain and Ichika told him that it was for healing him.