2 weeks later, MC's POV, village training ground
"Ur, stop that!" I yelled at the dragon as he climbed up a large tree to jump down again, not listening to me. He continued to climb. I sighed, why can't he be like his sister, I thought, looking down at Tia sitting contently in my lap. "Thump!" Hearing the sound for the third time today, I looked to see Ur now on the ground next to a large hole. Getting up and moving Tia from my lap, much to her dismay, I moved to Ur before he could go for another tree. The little bugger tried to fight me, but being a newborn, he was too weak to do so. I placed him down next to his sister and then sat down in front of them so that they could face me.
"Alright, today is going to be our first training session," I told the two of them, which seemed to make Ur happy, but Tia seemed to prefer sleeping. God help me, I thought. Tia was the perfect child when it came to everything, but she was lazy. Sighing, I got up and placed stones at different places in a line and then got back to the two of them. "Alright, this is the first drill we will be doing from now on," I said, getting both of their attention. I then did the line drill from my last life to show them. They seemed to understand, Ur took to it like a fish to water, but Tia, being lazy, was not giving it her all.
"Tia, if you don't give it your all, no sweets tonight," I said. That seemed to light a fire under her as she started moving faster. I hated having to do that to her, but she was going to have to give it her all when it came to training, or there was no point to it. I then went to the side and began to do my own training as well. We all did our own training for about two hours, Ur going from running the line drill to tree climbing with only his arms and Tia to pulling on tree trunks with only her mouth. After that, we all met up with Metal and Braveheart, who had their own training with their father.
"Alright, today Ur will be training with Braveheart on dancing, and Tia with Metal," I said. Tia looked at me with disaffection after I said that. I patted her on the head with a firm look, letting her know that she is not getting her way. Still dissatisfied but understanding that she had no choice, she did as told. "Metal, I want you to help her with dragon breath," I said. He nodded and took Tia with him to a distinct clearing. "Braveheart, I need you to help Ur control himself after he dances; he keeps going crazy," I said. That had been a shock to me; Ur had been able to dance like Braveheart and the other fighting dragons right after being born, giving a boost to his strength and speed, but he went crazy after he did one. I needed him to be able to control himself, so Braveheart was the best one to train him other than their father, who was too busy.
After sorting their training, I went to the other clearing to meet up with Rose for my own training. She was already waiting in the clearing for me, so I walked up to her so we could get started. "Let's start," I said, sitting cross-legged in front of her. She nodded, and then I felt it, my body weight increased. It had been a shock to me to find out she was able to do this. She could up the gravity on an object, which was amazing. Having seen Dragon Ball in my last life, I wanted to start training at once. But reality got in the way; she could only up the gravity for one person at a time and only double it for now. Ikaika had said that it would be best for me to use it for now because the twins' bodies would be weak for now, and Metal and Braveheart had him to train them.
Taking his advice, I started to train with Rose right after we had started small at 1.1x gravity so that the body could get used to it. Feeling the weight having gone up, I stood up slowly and looked to Rose, who nodded, and we started the training. I began to run as she followed me, keeping up with ease as we made our way into the forest. Once we got deeper in, we slowed down to keep our stamina up, making our way through the path with practiced ease, having done this for the last few days.
We moved while keeping each other within arm's length. Just when I thought we were safe, a grey shadow jumped out from behind Rose. "There!" I yelled to Rose, pointing to the shadow. It moved as fast as a stream of blue fire broke out of its mouth and dashed towards Rose. Having heeded my warning, she created a green circular shield around her to protect herself. Seeing it as my chance, I threw a rock at the shadow. It ducked into the bushes, getting away from us. I turned to Rose, saw that she was okay, and we began to move on. Ikaika had come up with this training to improve our teamwork after I had decided to let Rose come with us after I leave the island.
Me and Rose moved down the path towards our objective, the large tree at the end of the village. We moved in silence, not because we could not speak, but to keep our focus and not get caught off guard. Just as I was about to relax, two shadows jumped out, one from the trees and another from behind me. I got into a crouch as Rose got behind me, and the two shadows started their attacks. The one in the trees let out a roar, causing Rose to freeze as the other launched a wave of rocks at us. I kicked Rose away and, using her body to fire myself towards the tree, grabbed onto a branch and used it to once again launch myself upwards.
Looking down towards the ground, I saw that Rose had started to fight a large red bug. Seeing that she was safe, I turned my attention towards the shadow in the tree. I saw it was a larger young fighting dragon; it noticed me too and swung its claw towards me. I deflected with my knife and then jumped towards him. He dodged me and then punched me, knocking the air out of my lungs. Not giving me the chance to get it back, he knocked me off the tree. Grabbing onto a branch to stabilize myself, only for it to break, bracing myself for impact, I closed my eyes.
I then felt myself being grabbed out of the air. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was being held by Ikaika. "You failed," he said, then let me down next to Rose. She was sitting down with some burn marks across her body but still fine. I nodded to her, and we both turned to face our teacher. "So, what did you do wrong?" he asked. I went first. "I left Rose and tried to fight by myself," I said. He nodded and motioned for me to continue. "I also went into the fight without thinking and trying to understand who I was fighting," I said. He nodded. "You also went to a high area without a safe way to get down," he said. He then turned to Rose. She went into thought, then said, "I let myself be affected by a roar." He nodded and waited for her to continue. She went into thought, and we waited, but she did not talk for a while. "Sir, where else did I go wrong?" she asked Ikaika. He sighed and then said, "You let him decide on how you would move," he said, pointing to me. I was about to ask why that was a fault when he continued, "You are his partner, not his child," he said. "In a life or death situation like that one, you must tell him if you think his decisions are not the best," he continued.
He then turned back to me. "Your job is to make the best decisions you can and not fight every battle yourself," he said. I wanted to argue, but then he silenced me with a look. "Now, clean yourselves and get back to the training area," he said and walked away. Rose and I made our way to the training area. Taking a deep breath, I spoke. "I'm sorry," I said. She looked at me in surprise; I guess she was expecting me to say that. "It's my job to think of plans and give orders, and I failed, so I am sorry," I continued.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "It's my job to keep you safe, and I failed," she said. I was about to argue, but she continued, "You only left me because I failed," she said. I had to shut that down; for all of her gifts, she had a very low opinion of herself. "No, Rose, this failure is my fault," I said. Seeing that she wanted to argue, I continued, "My job as the leader, so this failure is mine," I told her. She looked at me and then back to her. We stood there for a second. She seemed to understand that I was not going to back down and looked away from me. "Thank you," she said and walked in front of me faster. I sighed; I was happy that she understood my thoughts.
We made our way back to the clearing where the twins and others were training to see that they had also wrapped up their training. As soon as I got to the clearing, Tia spotted me and began to run towards me, yapping. Seeing that she was dirty and knowing what she wanted, I went to my bag that I placed under a tree. I pulled out a brush that I had gotten from the tribe. I sat down, and Tia did not waste any time jumping into my lap. I sighed and lifted her up from my lap and put her on the ground. Before she could say anything, I got a bottle of water and a blanket from my bag and then dumped the water onto her. After that, I cleaned her off with the towel, getting the dirt out of her fur, and then placed her back onto my lap.
As I began to brush her, the others had sat down in front of us, Ur sitting next to me, looking like he was waiting for his turn. I sighed and patted his head. "How did their first day of training go?" I asked Metal and Braveheart. Metal went first. "She did well; it should not take her too long to get it down," he said. "Did she give you any trouble?" I asked. "No, she was an angel," he said. I sighed; I knew he was lying. Tia was talented, but she was lazy. It was really hard to get her to do anything; I needed to find a way to motivate her. "Ur did well, but it will take a while to get control," Braveheart said, answering my earlier questions. I thanked her; I knew training with Ur could be stressful; he was even more talented than Tia, but he had too much energy. I sighed again; god, what do I do about these two children, I asked myself and whatever deity brought me into this world. Seeing that Tia was fully clean and that Ur might lose it, I put her onto the ground and took Ur into my lap.