A few minutes later, Inside the training room of the hunting storage building—
"Uh— We're training? right now?!" Syla asked as her shoulder was pushed by Raywen into the training room. "Isn't it already late!?"
"Aahh, don't worry about it, it'll only take a minute." Raywen replied, he gave Syla a wooden sword that was lying on the floor and took a few step back.
Syla turned around and saw her dad standing at the side of the room, along with his friends, they seems to be curious with Syla and wanted to observe her.
"Umm– What am i supposed to do?" Syla said, scratching her cheek while looking at her dad.
"Hm? Ahh, well– You see that wooden dummy right? Just attack it with whatever you have, listen Syla– I know i made a promise.. But i can guarantee you, that these guys can keep a secret, among other people in this village, i trust these 6 more than anyone else, i've already discussed this with them, they won't tell a soul about your abilities, and they won't try to recruit you into the hunting squad either." Her dad responded, assuring Syla that his friends are trustworthy.
'So you're telling me that they knew everything about me?' Syla thought, she still had some doubts in her. 'But if dad said that they're trustworthy, should i believe him?—
'...Hmm, well if they already knew.. I guess there's really no point in hiding it anymore, i also don't think they're bad person.'
After she made her decision, Syla held her sword tightly and prepared for her attack. She focused her eyes on the wooden dummy, imagining it as an enemy, and pushed her leg back with insane force.
Swoosh!
Syla dashed forward, cutting through the air infront of her and closening her gap between the dummy in less than a second. She then swung her sword, hitting the dummy from the left side.
When she hit the target, the dummy's body suddenly spun to the right, it's wooden hand rapidly coming for Syla as it was heading for her head.
'This thing rotates!?' Syla thought.
It seems like she would get hit by the dummy's hand, and usually that would be the case, however, Syla had trained for more than 6 years, and in that 6 years, she had been sparing with her dad more often than ever. She remembered her dad's unique fighting style of using two slashes in his attack, one as a bait to get the opponent to parry the attack, and the second as the real attack using the incredibly short moments where the opponent loses its guard.
Syla saw the dummy's hand moving and raised her hand just in time for her sword to block it.
Clack!
Everyone in the room was perplexed, they never thought Syla's reaction speed to be that fast, to be able to see the hand and instinctively blocking it is not an easy feat.
'Phew! That was close, after a dozens spars with dad, my reaction speed has significantly quickened, because i realized that even losing my guard for a few miliseconds could lead to death when facing a strong opponent. Im used to unpredictable attacks, and this dummy in particular has a rotating body that mimics a style of fighting where you find an opening in between the opponent's attack to launch a counter attack for yourself.'
After experiencing the dummy for the first time, Syla smiled and continue attacking, her swings became faster, and when each of her attacks causes the dummy to rotate, she knew that she'll have to block or dodge everything, her dad and his friends saw her switching between attacking and defending in split seconds and were amazed.
Clack!
Clack!
Clack!
When Syla finally felt her fatigue creeping in, she knew that she would have to slow down her movement, even though her attacks were still fast, it wasn't as fast as before, and she began dodging more rather than blocking the dummy's attack to conserve her energy, when her hands was beginning to slip away from the sword's hilt, Syla suddenly backed away, she jumped back and stretched her hand forward.
"Huuh..." She took a heavy breath and summoned a ball of fire.
"MAGIC!?" Jroe accidentally screamed in shock as he saw the ball of fire appearing out of nowhere.
"WAIT WAIT— THE ROOM WILL—" Drego tried to stop Syla from using the fireball, but his warn came a bit too late.
Boom!
Syla launched the fireball towards the wooden dummy, it exploded in a spectacle of flaming walls.
"NOOO!! EVERYONE GO GRAB A BUCKET OF WATER! QUICK!!" Raywen shouted and ordered everyone to put the fire out, however when he himself was about to go outside, Syla's dad stopped him in place.
"Don't worry, just watch." He said with a calm face.
"What are you saying Hargal!! We need to—" As Raywen was thinking that his friend might have gone crazy, his eyes accidentally glanced at Syla.
From her palm, a stream of water bursted out and created a water jet, it shoots towards the blazing fire and instantly engulfed it, putting the fire out instantly.
Psshhh!!
"Done." Syla said while clapping her hands together and turned her head to look at her dad.
While he was smirking and giving her a thumbs up, his friends beside him can only froze in their place, their eyes and jaws were wide open, as if they couldn't believe what they just saw.
The room was filled with silence for a few seconds, when Syla was about to think the atmosphere had become awkward, a whisper went through her ears.
"Now i see why you're trying to keep it a secret." Raywen whispered to Syla's dad before talking normally. "Hargal, what the hell did you feed her!? TELL ME!"
He then grabbed Hargal's shoulder and looked at him directly.
"Did you realize how insane this is!?" Raywen shook Hargal's body as if trying to get him understand that what his daughter just did was not normal.
"Is she really 12 years old?" Falko wondered.
"I mean, i can use magic too, but it's infinitely weaker than what she just did.." Tusk said.
"Forget about whether she can use magic or not, the real question is how did she managed to get that strong at that age.." Tared also added his own opinion.
"Hahaha.." Hargal laughed at Raywen's dumbfounded face, he already expected this to happen when they saw his daughter's abilities, but he didn't think it'd be like this. "Calm down, I know that well, that's why– I told you to keep it a secret."
Raywen stared at his friend for a while, but he ended up sighing and let him go.
"Haahh, seriously.. She's skilled with both combat and magic? You didn't tell everything to us just so that we can be surprised huh– Isn't that way too unfair!?" He whined. "If everyone knew about this, it will undoubtely spread to other towns.. And many people would be curious, some will have bad intentions when they hear about it."
Syla watched her dad's friends reaction from the distance, she chuckled when she saw their faces, realizing that her powers was way more powerful than she thinks. When everyone had calmed down and came back to their normal self, Syla approached them and stand beside her dad.
"Is there anything i need to do?" She asked.
"— No, that's enough, that was amazing, you're really talented, Syla." Raywen replied, his lips gradually forming a smile and he patted Syla on the head.
"I heard you want to become a wanderer? Well isn't that interesting, with your powers, you will surely live for a long time, it's only natural that you want to explore the world."
"You sure you don't want to join us?" Tusk jokingly said, but quickly got a punch on his stomach.
"Sshh, we already promised not to recruit her." Jroe said.
"Keukk.. I was joking—" Tusk replied, his groan was loud as he tried to hold the pain from that punch.
"Anyway, we know how ambitious you are, so– How about this, every sunday.. You'll train with us." Raywen said, offering help to Syla.
"Really?" Syla was startled to hear the offer.
"Of course— But to avoid any suspicion, i suggest you should make a reasonable cause of why you're coming to the training ground every sunday, you said you don't want other people to know right? Then i have an idea that you might like." Raywen crossed his arms together and waited for Syla's response.
"What is it?" She said.
"We'll tell everyone that you are interested in joining the hunting squad, and that you'll learn swordmanship right now, they'll think you are just following your father's footstep, and won't think much of it—
"But, if you are to get tutored by us, there will surely others that also wanted the same, that's why, i suggest we start taking some of the childrens in the village that are interested with swordmanship, and teach them, we're turning the building into an academy basically.. To raise the next generation of hunting squad—
"Of course, you'll only be tutored by us on sunday all alone so that no one can discover your abilities."
"Then, who should we choose as the teacher for these kids?" Falko asked Raywen out of the blue.
"Hmm, i think a rotating schedule should be fine, we have 7 people and there are 7 days a week." Raywen answered while rubbing his beard.
And so, the plan was set to motion, soon the hunting squad began promoting a chance for kids to learn swordmanship, while secretly tutoring Syla as their private student. This was the moment that will turn this village into something that no one could've expected in the future.