Once Shiko was able to activate his dragon fragment without the need of Dreik's help, the trio of brothers decided to test the young man's resistance and control over his powers.
-Dreik: Very well Shiko, we need you to exceed your time capacity by maintaining that shape, just try to resist and control it for fifteen minutes, for now, we will not make you waste your energy, just stand firm.
-Shiko: Ahg! I understand what you're trying to say! It's a little overwhelming the power I feel running through my whole body, it's really hard trying to stay still... But I must try, for now I'm going to relax and focus on feeling it flow.
-Tetsu: Don't stop absorbing the magic that runs around you.
-Asuka: Are you sure it's okay for him?
-Light: Asuka, you can worry about Shiko, but this progress is necessary, even if it hurts or fails over and over again.
-Dreik: We're putting the world on top of Shiko's shoulders and it's something he recognizes very well. Shiko... all that fear you felt when you learned the importance of your role here, the helplessness you felt when you were defeated in the forest, the pain of every wound made in battle, the lives you have not been able to protect, everything... Remember everything, let it be your motivation to continue progressing.
-Shiko: Without a doubt, every detail, every moment, every battle, every defeat and every victory I remember, and I have it in mind every time I breathe, I understand perfectly... I can improve! I must improve!
After Shiko raised his voice saying such words, the aura surrounding him was extinguished by a huge sigh. He calmed his breath and calmly absorbed every molecule of magic around him, opened his eyes, and remained in his partial form in all tranquility.
-Shiko: I understand it perfectly... That is why I must also understand myself, in order to achieve the progress, I long for.
-Light: You've done it! Try to move, walk, and talk without losing your composure.
-Tetsu: It seems that training with Dreik to manage their shared power has made this part much easier for him.
-Asuka: Shiko... You've really managed to control yourself.
-Shiko: I feel good, I'm getting used to handling this, I think I'm capable of achieving it.
-Light: Hehehe, we'll see that...
They looked for a place to rest and, in this way, wait for the fifteen minutes to elapse, once they were finished, Shiko continued to retain his current power management along with his composure.
-Dreik: Be ready Shiko... Now you have to learn on your own to turn off your transformation.
-Shiko: I knew this couldn't be so simple... It's something I've been thinking about all this time.
-Tetsu: Have you ever had insomnia, have you tried to disconnect from the world in order to sleep? Try to do the same at this moment, you can try to repress all the power you feel in a single point and then relax your body, exhaling in the moment helps you clear your entire body and dissipate all that accumulated energy in a single point to return to your base state.
-Light: Another way it works is by releasing all the power you feel at once, although this way of doing it is somewhat dangerous since it is like making an explosion releasing everything you contain inside.
-Asuka: I recommend that you try to do it as Tetsu says, it sounds more complicated, but with more control and with less waste of energy.
-Shiko: Well... I must try this way...
He breathed and exhaled, and as if he was trying to fall asleep completely, Shiko relaxed his body with his eyes closed. With his sigh, he calmly released any molecule of magic that he could feel running through his body, thus hiding his power again and regaining the appearance he used to have before. It was quite an achievement, but at the moment, the young man felt how his body was totally weakened so that, staggering, he could barely stand up. Luckily, Asuka had the time to help and support Shiko once he could no longer stand.
-Shiko: A-A-Aahh... What was that? My body feels too weak, I can hardly stay conscious.
-Dreik: I knew this was going to happen... I explain, while you are transformed, your body is exerting an enormous effort to be able to resist all the power that you are not able to contain at the moment, you do not feel pain because it is your own force that flows throughout your interior, but once you turn it off, your body stops feeling all the force provided, so you feel tired until such a moment.
-Shiko: I see... That makes sense.
-Light: It's a matter of habit hehe, after a while your body will feel its strength again as if nothing happened. But... We already knew something like this would happen, so we must practice getting your body used to maintaining its strength without weakening.
-Dreik: That's right, once you feel normal, you will transform again, this time trying to maintain your strength for twenty minutes and we will be like this for the rest of the day.
-Shiko: Pff... Understand.
-Asuka: For the moment... You can rest on my lap if you feel so tired, hehe...
-Light: Hahaha, these lovebirds! For the moment, I will go to where the curious people who live on this island, we must prepare our stay, it is necessary that we must eat and sleep as is supposed to.
-Tetsu: Thank you for the consideration, Light. We will leave it to you.
In this way, for the rest of the day the young men continued to help the young swordsman to be able to control his new powers, with due rests, his training continued until nightfall. Once they realized that the day was over, the siblings decided to take Shiko and Asuka to a cabin not far from the training area to rest and continue with the next day. Dreik was in charge of leaving food and a bed, with candles so that they would have lighting inside the cabin, once he showed them the place, he retired with his brothers.
-Shiko: Uff... I'm exhausted, it's really been much more tiring than I expected, my body needs to be in such good condition to support myself... it's something I didn't expect.
-Asuka: But you've really done very well... And luckily for you, you have a very considerate girl by your side who wants to help you rest.
-Shiko: Now that I think about it... we should sleep together again...
-Asuka: I'm getting more and more used to this hehe... leaving that topic aside, how do you feel your muscles? Do you want me to help you eat?
-Shiko: I feel like awful, everything really hurts, but I would be very embarrassed if you really help me eat.
-Asuka: *She took Shiko's plate and with a spoon a portion of food* Let's see, say "Ahh".
-Shiko: Asukaaaaa!
With great embarrassment, the young man had no choice but to accept the offer and thus be fed by his companion until he finished his dinner.
-Asuka: Very well, now to relieve your pain, do you think if I apply a little magic to dispel it?
-Shiko: I think it's alri- ... Were you able to do that from the beginning? You fed me because you wanted to give yourself that luxury! That's cheating!
-Asuka: Complaints, complaints and more complaints, stop being a crybaby and just accept it, okay?
With no other option, Asuka used her magic to relieve Shiko's body pain and once this was done, the young couple blew out the candles to go to sleep. In the following days, the young people continued with the same type of training, changing the methodology for an increasingly difficult one to help Shiko get used to his powers, teaching him better handling of his magic, learning to move and fight with these activated. On the fifth day, Shiko seemed to have decent control of his powers, so the three brothers decided to give him the go-ahead to start testing him.
-Tetsu: Well... Now that you haven't gotten so tired of turning off your transformation, I must give the green light to start with the actual training.
-Shiko: Actual training?
Tetsu: As we told you the first day we were here, being the core of the legendary hero, you can handle all the power it contained, but as you can see, we have fragments of these powers.
-Dreik: Which means that since we have fragments of the same core, you are able to use our abilities, which we have also mentioned.
-Tetsu: So... first we need you to learn how to perfectly handle the water powers that Dreik is able to use.
-Shiko: I see... I have used them partially or by chance on some occasions I think... But since they mention that I can handle them without problems, I'm going to give it a try.
-Tetsu: Then to learn such powers, your first test will be... a direct confrontation against Dreik.
-Asuka: Eeeh? Are you going to fight each other?
-Dreik: That's how it should be, while I'm fighting Shiko, I'm going to instruct him to be able to handle my powers.
-Shiko: It makes sense to me, let's try then.
Shiko and Dreik stood in front of each other with a proper distance, having Tetsu in the middle of the two who functioned as the referee of the fight, with his arm raised -Very well, Dreik will fight with his dragon form so that Shiko can better understand his way of using his powers, once I lower my arm, the battle will start- Tetsu said. The young man lowered his arm and with that signal, Dreik proceeded to transform into his beast form to start the battle.
-Asuka: Is this good? Isn't that too much effort?
-Light: Don't worry, Dreik is the best at handling his beast form, there's no way he can seriously injure Shiko.
-Asuka: I hope so... Be careful Shiko!
Shiko, with Asuka's encouragement, used his transformation to try to match his power with that of his opponent, starting the battle in this way...
To be continued…