After getting approval from both of his parents, Rion was able to continue his combat training under Haria.
The next few days passed like a breeze as he was beaten black and blue by her under the pretence of moulding it in the body.
Today was his final day to prepare for the fang trial, and he had decided to test his (Predator's Eyes) skill on her.
He hadn't done it before because he didn't want to cause any trouble during the training; he only knew that this skill revealed the weak points of the targeted living being, but not how it actually worked or looked, after all.
Rion entered the cavern chamber, and his eyes fell to Haria, who sat upon a wide rock with folded legs and a wide grin.
Seeing that grin, he gulped and thought, 'What does she have in her disastrous mind? She only grins when she has some stupid idea!!'
"Rion! Come here," she called out while gesturing for him to come.
He turned his head and stared at the exit of the chamber with the thought of running away...
But his pride at being the son of the Dragonslayer and a former princess didn't allow such blasphemous thoughts to take hold of his sharp judgment as he thought, 'No, I am not running away... It's just a tactical retreat.'
He wasn't thinking of running away anymore; instead, he was going to perform a retreat so he could come back prepared.
Haria, impatient with his lack of response, stood up and jumped. She flipped mid-air and gracefully landed before him with her hands on her waist.
Spooked by her sudden appearance, he fell on his butt. He pointed at her with a stupefied look and shouted, "What are you doing?!"
Seeing his reaction, she laughed while holding onto her stomach, tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.
"Haha!"
He stood up, dusted himself off and thought, 'Should I try it now?'
He checked on her, only to find her unable to stop her laugh. He inwardly clicked his tongue at that because he didn't know if he should be happy or mad.
For now, though, he threw that thought away and focused on her.
He didn't need to think or mumble anything because he knew how to use his skill without them; it was as if he had used it countless times before.
His blue ocean-like eyes suddenly turned piercing red, similar to his father's, and he began to see dots of various colours on Haria.
Most of the dots on her body were orange, while only a bare few were red.
He counted the dots on her body and thought, 'Twenty-one dots... including the three red dots. Are the red dots the critical ones?'
Even though he knew her weak points,
He couldn't capitalise them... not with his current strength at least.
Just as he finished checking her weak points, a sharp sting struck his head.
He stumbled a few steps back and let out a groan, "Ugk!!" He held his head with his right hand and muttered, "Blasted hell..."
The pain eased a moment later, and Haria, who had finally managed to stop her laughter, looked at him with a raised eyebrow and asked in a slightly worried tone, "What's wrong?"
Rion let go of his head and shook it before answering in a nonchalant tone, "Nothing."
She looked at him for a few seconds and said, "All right, then let's go." She turned to leave.
"Where are we going?" He didn't move and asked with furrowed brows.
Haria turned her head towards him, flashed a wide grin and said in a joyous tone, "It only makes sense to test you a little after training you for nearly a week, no?"
His body shivered as a bad premonition bubbled up in his mind. He narrowed his eyes and asked in a slightly scared tone, "What kind of test?"
"Guess?" She replied before turning towards the exit, "Follow me," she said and stepped forward.
He watched her close the distance between her and the exit and thought, '...I hope it's not something ridiculous... not like it can kill me anyway.'
At the end, he dismissed his idea of tactical retreat and began to follow her.
They walked out of the training ground, and most of the trainees turned to look at them.
They stared at Haria with admiration-filled gazes while a few mumbled.
"Is he the one who is taking the fang trial?"
"Yeah."
"Is he stupid?"
"Looks like one."
Rion ignored their muttering, it wasn't his first time hearing them, after all. He didn't know the specifics of the fang trial, but from the reaction of others, it was something feared by most, but... He was different — he was immortal.
Suddenly, Haria stopped in her tracks, and loud groans filled the vast training ground as she choked all of them with her aura.
Before he could turn to see what was happening. Her voice thundered throughout the training ground, "You all believe yourselves to be better than him, don't you? Then I should expect to see you all in tomorrow's trial."
She continued her steps, and the trainees fell onto their knees while staring at her and Rion with fearful eyes.
'What just happened?' He frowned in thought and looked at Haria, who no longer had any grin adorning her face.
A few minutes later, both of them reached a clearing filled with small flowers and rocks of various sizes.
She walked near one of the rocks, which was the size of his head, and picked it up before turning towards him with the same wide grin as before.
Seeing that rock in her hand, his body trembled slightly. He pointed at the rock with his trembling finger and asked, "W-What's that for?"
Her grin widened even further, reaching the realm of impossibility, "Dodge!" She said and threw the rock towards him.
His eyes widened as the rock grew in his vision. He jumped to the left, dodging the rock just as it was about to hit him.
Swoop!
It went past him and struck a tree.
Thud!
He sharply turned his head towards Haria to throw sharp words, but before he could do that, another rock filled his vision.
A curse slipped out of his tongue while dodging the incoming rock.
"Blasted hell!"