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We spent three more days refining my Dragon Tongue combat technique, but this time with everything I had available. This included conventional magic, Instinctive magic, aura, primal aura, and my personal armor and weapons.
And instead of using the training hall, Professor Sageira flew me to an uninhabited woods, far away from any settlement. There, she assumed her dragon form and adjusted her size to be around the size of her great-great-grand nephew.
For those three days, I spent a lot of time kissing the dirt as I was smacked, batted, crushed, cut, burned, frozen, shocked, and blown up, even with all the power I had at my disposal. Every time I scored a blow that she considered crippling or lethal, Professor Sageira would take things up a notch.
By the end of the third day, the enchantments on my armor and weapons were on the verge of collapse, and I had a feeling that if I pushed it any further, not only would the enchantments fall to pieces, but my equipment and body would too.
As I tried to push myself to my feet, I felt like I had been put in a giant tin can and shaken. It was then that I realised that all this while, Professor Sageira had been taking it really easy on me. When we first came up with Primal Aura and used it in spars with her, she only fought me at that level.
When I asked her why she did not spar with me back then at the level we do now, she said, "That was because I did not want to crush your motivation. Make no mistake, to me, Primal Aura is a huge step in power for the less powerful races. I did not want to discourage you by crushing you into the dirt too easily. But now that you are fighting with Dragon Tounge, I am training you like I would train any other wyrmling. You may lack the size and toughness of a wyrm, but you more than make up for that with your agility."
As I continued listening to her, I guzzled water and cast healing on myself. "I think you are ready. Take the rest of the week off, repair your equipment, pack for cold weather, and say your goodbyes to your family and friends before the week's end. I will need some time to contact my relatives and set up your fight."
***
I spent the rest of the week making my preparations. My blacksmithing teacher, Haldor Steelbeard, let me borrow one of his spare workstations as long as I agreed to be used as an example to his students when doing my repairs.
Since it was just repairs and not showing off how I made my signature arms and armor, I was more than willing to help my old teacher.
As for my other preparations, I decided to bring Emma and my siblings along to help with my shopping. When I mentioned that I was going on a job somewhere cold, they asked where I was going, and when I said it was a secret, they tried everything in their book to try and get the info out of me. They badged, pestered, used their puppydog eyes, and my siblings even got Emma to pull my arm into her… softness… but I did not budge.
I am going to need to investigate where my siblings learnt how to ask Emma to do what she did… those cheeky buggers.
***
At the end of the week, I was hugging Emma and my siblings goodbye.
Spot, my hippogriff chick pet, who had gotten closer to Emma and my sibling during the weeks I had been with them, chirped to get their attention and his due in pets and cuddles, and they were ever willing to oblige.
To avoid suspicion, I boarded a carriage service associated with the Steward's Guild to take me out of the capital. A couple of hours out of the capital, when I got to a secluded enough stretch of road, I tapped on the small window connected to the carriage driver's seat.
The small window slid open. "Yes, My Lord?" the carriage driver said.
"Stop here." I said, and the driver obeyed without question.
After I got out with my luggage, I went to the driver, put a gold coin in his palm, and said. "I arrived safely at Glenfell."
The driver gave me a knowing nod, "Understood, My Lord. You allighted safely at Glenfell."
I smiled and waved the driver off. I love belonging to an organization that treats everything with discretion.
When the wagon rolled out of sight, I picked up my stuff and walked into the nearby woods. Half an hour into the woods, I entered a clearing where Professor Sageira was sitting on a stump. "Took you long enough." she complained at me.
"Hey, I could not just run out here at full speed. My siblings would get suspicious of where I was going on foot," I replied nonchalantly
She just shook her head at my excuse and said, "Change into your cold gear, we are not stopping, and I do not recommend changing atop my back. That is just asking to fall off."
I dropped my sack and opened it to reveal my armor, but unlike its usual sharp and no-nonsense design, there were some changes. This time, my armor looked more… fluffy.
Out of the corners and edges of my armor was a lining of snow-white fur. And if one looked on the inside, they would see that the armor now had a nice fur isolated padding to keep me nice and warm.
I got out of my casual noble outfit and donned my gambeson, followed by the rest of my armor. By the time I had strapped my sword, dagger, and other accessories, Professor Sageira was lying down in her full-sized dragon form, waiting for me to be ready.
As always, when Professor Sageira took her dragon form, Spot froze in place, and I ended up having to pick him up along with my carry-on luggage, then boarded Professor Sageira's back and secured myself to one of her spinal spikes.
The moment she confirmed I was secure, we were lifted into the air with a giant flap of her wings and headed north.