The Time God Slayer

Chapter 25

Smoker yelped as his back hit the ground once again. He has been training since dawn. Currently, it's the early afternoon and he's been getting kicked, punched, and elbowed to the ground. He didn't last a second in the beginning of training. Now, a month later, he can last about 15 minutes.

Smoker gritted his teeth and slowly got back up on his unsteady legs. "Yaaaahh!" Smoker yelled while swinging his fist.

Hikari dodged and swept her leg, intending on tripping him but Smoker leapt back and turned to do roundhouse kick. Hikari caught his foot and pushed it upwards, causing him to lose balance and topple backwards towards the ground once again.

"All right, 30 minute lunch break and then let's review the katas." Hikari went over to where Smoker was groaning on the ground. Smoker looked up at Hikari, who was blocking the sunlight. He saw a hand stretched out towards him. While his muscles protested against the action, he nevertheless reached out his arm and took Hikari's hand, allowing her to pull him up.

"You did well in making your moves flow better. The things you should work on is your katas, balance, and speed. Your strength is above average for your age from your training and your endurance will grow with both of our training and with age. Keep your training up." Smoker smiled wearily at Hikari and replied with a "yes Hikari". He slowly padded to the tree's shade and sat down with a groan. He never thought this was possible but his bruises have bruises. Everything felt sore and he'd never imagine that Hikari could be this good at fighting and teaching. Even though she's younger than him, she can defeat him and, he supposes, a lot of adults. This just makes Smoker more determined to get stronger and throw himself in her lessons, focusing with unperturbed concentration.

Well, he only has 30 minutes for lunch so he better make use of the time. He slowly reached for his bag beside him and started eating his lunch, savoring his mother's home cooked lunch. Hikari sat down beside him and took out a cat bowl and putting kitten food in it for the feline to eat. Once Hikari opened the kitten canned food, the feline's ears perked up and Smoker can see the dark purple head of the kitten a few feet away from the tree before it bounded over to Hikari and sat down, waiting patiently. The feline started eating after the food was put in the bowl and Hikari started eating her lunch.

The only sounds were eating noises and the occasional clink of the chopsticks against their bentos, neither of them needing to talk to fill the comfortable silence. Hikari finished first so she put away her bento and stood up and began to take a walk. "You have 10 minutes left. I'll be around." Hikari waved at Smoker. Smoker nodded and finished the rest of his lunch and stood up too, intent on stretching out his muscles and loosening it up for katas. Lavender finished her lunch long ago and was somewhere a few yards away, playing with dandelions and investigating insects.

As Smoker did his stretches (and winced as he felt his muscles scream at him to stop this torture), he spotted Hikari a few yards away, her hair a blinding white with the sun's rays. He almost had to squint to see her.

Hikari was doing the usual, walking around and taking in her surroundings. Sometimes, Smoker suspects that Hikari had her eyes closed and was observing her surroundings with her other senses. Maybe she's training in haki. This time though, Hikari seemed to be practicing her swordsmanship. Her katana in her grip and her feet spread apart for balance. Smoker watched, mesmerized, as Hikari slashed, followed by multiple slashes and a jab, her feet moving in precise, flowing steps. Frankly, she looked like she was dancing.

Her blade was sharp and if Smoker squinted, he can see blades of grass floating in the air before falling back on the ground.  Hikari's hair flowed as she turned around and attacked an imaginary enemy, her blade constantly swinging and flowing into different moves and the occasional style while still looking graceful.