SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant Chapter 802: Origin Guard

The next session began differently.

Dravok didn't put Trafalgar back in the same place and start throwing slow punches at him. He walked farther out onto the black ground instead, loosened one shoulder, and waited until Trafalgar joined him.

"We've spent enough time with you standing there and letting me hit you," he said. "It helped at the beginning, but if Origin Guard only works when you're waiting for the attack, then it's useless. From now on, fight the way you normally would. Use Godstep, use your sword, move around. Just don't forget what we're actually training."

Trafalgar nodded and raised one hand. Dark motes gathered over his palm before Maledicta settled into his grip, its familiar weight grounding him almost immediately.

"So basically, fight you while trying not to forget the new thing."

"That's the idea." Dravok adjusted his stance. "You already know how difficult that becomes once your attention has somewhere else to go."

Trafalgar let out a quiet breath and lowered his centre of gravity. "I suppose standing still and getting punched was getting a little too comfortable."

"I wouldn't go that far."

Dravok came forward before Trafalgar could answer.

The first strike was fast enough that Trafalgar only caught the shoulder moving. He fed mana into [Godstep] and vanished from the line, crossing five metres in a burst as Dravok's fist passed through the space where his head had been.

Trafalgar landed cleanly and turned with the movement, Maledicta already cutting across toward Dravok's side. The old Primordial slipped inside the blade, shortened the distance, and drove an elbow toward Trafalgar's ribs.

The attack felt right before Trafalgar consciously understood why.

Mana rushed into his side, spreading through skin, muscle, and bone just before the elbow landed. The reinforcement wasn't complete, but it softened enough of the force that Trafalgar only slid several steps instead of folding around the blow.

Dravok followed immediately. "That was better. Don't stop because one defence worked. Keep going."

Trafalgar reset as he moved. "Wasn't planning to."

He fired [Godstep] again and appeared across Dravok's flank, Maledicta dropping into [Morgain's Linebreaker] the instant his boots touched the ground. Dravok turned the attack aside with one forearm and stepped directly through the opening.

Trafalgar caught the knee rising and pushed mana into his stomach.

Dravok changed the attack.

The knee never came. His heel drove into Trafalgar's shoulder instead, and the impact sent pain down the whole arm hard enough for Maledicta to nearly slip from his fingers.

Dravok stepped back a fraction. "There. That's the part you're still getting wrong. If the first thing you see looks convincing, you commit everything to it."

"I know what happened."

"I know you know. I'm telling you why it keeps happening." Dravok gestured loosely between them. "When the attack is simple, you're reading well now. Give you two possible targets and you still start choosing instead of reacting."

Trafalgar rolled the ache out of his shoulder. "Then keep giving me two."

Dravok's expression shifted by the smallest amount. "That's what I was hoping you'd say."

The pressure rose after that.

Dravok moved faster than he had during the drills, forcing Trafalgar to manage distance, Maledicta, Godstep, and Origin Guard at the same time. There was no room left to stand calmly and study every turn of the hip.

That was clearly the point.

Trafalgar escaped a straight punch with [Godstep], appeared behind Dravok, and flowed immediately into [Morgain's Requiem]. The first cut was parried, the second missed, and the rest of them forced Dravok to shift half a step before he drove a fist toward Trafalgar's chest.

Trafalgar's body answered before his thoughts did.

Mana gathered over his sternum.

Dravok changed low.

Trafalgar caught the shift through the hips and moved the reinforcement down with it, but the fist hit his abdomen before the mana fully settled.

The defence still took enough of the impact to keep him upright.

Trafalgar backed away and breathed through the ache, unable to stop a faint smile from pulling at his mouth. "That one was close."

"Closer," Dravok agreed. "But if I had been trying to put my hand through you, close wouldn't be much comfort."

"You're getting very good at ruining small victories."

"I'm trying to keep them small until they're actually victories."

Trafalgar couldn't argue much with that.

They continued until the fight lost any clean shape. Godstep carried Trafalgar from one angle to another, Maledicta cut whenever he found space, and Dravok kept forcing him to divide his attention between attacking and protecting himself.

The fractions kept shrinking.

Trafalgar stopped consciously ordering mana toward each point. A shoulder turned and his body answered. A foot shortened its step and the reinforcement shifted. A hip loaded differently and he knew the strike was coming high before the fist had properly started.

Dravok noticed the change and responded by making the attacks harder.

Eventually he struck Trafalgar's wrist hard enough to numb the hand around Maledicta. The sword dissolved into dark motes before Trafalgar could recover his grip, and he used [Godstep] to open five metres of space between them.

Both men stopped for a moment.

Dravok looked him over. "You're finally trying to use everything together instead of treating Origin Guard like a separate exercise."

"You told me to fight normally. This is normal."

"It is now." Dravok nodded once. "And now you understand why I didn't start here. If I'd thrown you into this on the first day, you would've spent all your time thinking about the defence and forgotten how to fight."

Trafalgar glanced down at his bruised forearms. "To be fair, I still spent a fair amount of time learning how many different places you can hit me."

"That was unavoidable."

Dravok stepped back into range. "Let's try one more thing."

This time there was no obvious feint.

He crossed the distance directly, right fist driving toward Trafalgar's ribs with a line that felt clean from the moment it began.

Trafalgar could have used Godstep.

He didn't.

He saw the shoulder, felt the weight settle through the front foot, and something in him understood that the attack wasn't changing.

Mana moved on instinct.

It gathered exactly where the fist was going to land, sinking beneath the skin and locking through the muscle and bone an instant before contact.

Dravok hit him.

The impact still lifted Trafalgar from the ground.

He flew several metres, struck the black surface, and skidded before rolling onto one knee. For a moment he stayed there, one hand pressed against his side while he waited for the familiar sharp pain of cracked bone.

It never came.

His ribs hurt.

That was all.

A familiar sound rang inside his head.

[You have learned a new skill: Origin Guard]

Trafalgar's mouth curved slightly as he straightened.

'Status.'

A small blue panel opened before him.

[Origin Guard]

[Type: Primordial Defensive Skill]

[Description: Concentrates mana into a precise area of the body at the moment of impact, reinforcing skin, muscle, and bone while minimizing wasted mana.]

He dismissed it after a brief look.

'Two.'

Godstep had given him movement built for his bloodline. Origin Guard had now given him its first proper defensive technique, something he could build around everything House Morgain had already taught him instead of replacing it.

Dravok walked closer while Trafalgar stood.

"That's enough for today. You've got the skill now. From here, the difference comes from repetition, timing, and how well you can use it without thinking about it."

Trafalgar rubbed the soreness beneath his ribs. "You've given me one movement skill and one defensive skill. I'm starting to notice you haven't taught me anything offensive yet."

Dravok didn't answer immediately.

"You already have offensive techniques," he said after a moment. "The Morgain skills are good. Several of them are better than most things you'll find outside the strongest bloodlines."

"But you also told me to forget the other skills."

"The weaker ones, yes. Or at least stop depending on them." Dravok folded his arms. "They may still work against people beneath you, but against stronger enemies they'll become less and less useful. That doesn't mean I'm going to decide your entire fighting style for you."

Trafalgar listened.

"Keep what works. Drop what doesn't. If you think one of those older skills still has a place, use it. You're the one who has to fight with them, so eventually the choice has to be yours."

Trafalgar nodded slowly. "And the Primordial offensive techniques?"

"You'll get one."

That caught his attention.

Dravok continued before he could ask. "But not yet. What you were missing most was movement that could keep you alive and a defence strong enough to matter when avoiding the hit wasn't possible. Those were bigger gaps than another way to swing a sword."

"Fair."

"For now, concentrate on what you've learned. There isn't much value in collecting ten skills if none of them become part of you."

That made enough sense that Trafalgar left it there.

He let Maledicta remain dismissed and looked toward the Gate, where Rhosyn had already moved ahead of them.

Only then did he properly notice how tired she looked.

She stood straight as always, but the exhaustion around her eyes was harder to miss now. Whatever keeping the dimension connected to her mind demanded, the cost hadn't disappeared simply because she wasn't the one being beaten across the training ground.

Dravok followed Trafalgar's attention and seemed to reach the same conclusion.

"We're finished here for today. Let's get out and give everyone some proper rest before we start again."