Nozomu vigorously shook his head, “No, I will pass on that! Things were already too dangerous for my taste, no way I am going to fight someone nearly double my size!”

The enormous Guild Master took two fast steps forward and threw a fist straight at Nozomu’s face. Before any of them could realize what happened, Nozomu grabbed the wrist, twisted his body so that his left shoulder was against the Guild Master’s chest, pulled the arm down at the same time that he raised his shoulder, and continued pulling the wrist in a continuous and fast motion.

Like that, Nozomu used the Guild Master’s weight and momentum against him. Not only he avoided the dangerous and fast punch, but also hit the Guild Master’s chin with the shoulder, and threw the big and muscular man over him, making him hit the floor hard, and gasping for air.

The tip of the Udo Eskola’s tongue was cut off because he bit it when he fell, and while his mouth was filling with blood and making him hard to breathe while laying on the ground, Nozomu fell backwards on him, elbowing his rib cage, straight on his solar plexus. The sound of rips cracking and the huff muffled sound the Guild Master made right before passing out, filled everyone’s ears.

Nozomu rolled over, and immediately jumped back, going into a fighting stance with one fist and one open hand facing forward, completing his crouching position.

Nozomu blinked when he saw the knocked out Guild Master with blood coming out from the corners of his half-open mouth, and asked Taisetsuna with a surprised look, noticing her grin, “What… What just happened?”

While Seta Azusake was rushing with his sister to check on the Guild Master, Taisetsuna answered, “Nothing much, you just reacted to a surprise attack.”

She then looked at the Guild Master and her lips wrinkled in a grimace, “Damn! I know that’s painful! I got hit with that move of yours a couple of times until I finally learned not to throw a straight punch at you. This Udo Eskola guy really underestimated you, huh? Did he really think the Priest didn’t train us, or what?”

Nozomu stood up straight and looked worriedly at the Guild Master that was receiving a few drops of Healing Potion that Koyaga was giving him and was regaining his conscience. He slowly shook his head and confirmed if his tongue was still there, before speaking again, “Now, that was embarrassing! Can someone remind me to never throw a direct punch at him? You know your stuff, Nozomu, but how are you with a sword?”

Taisetsuna answered with a mocking smile instead of Nozomu, “He is embarrassingly clumsy with a sword! He normally uses a small buckler and gauntlets over his wrists and the back of his hands. Since Magic don’t work on him, the Priest taught him how to approach his opponents and fight up close. He knows all sorts of joint locks and throws, like the one you just suffered. Even with my speed and agility, I was never able to defeat him, I always ended up on the floor with a few of my teeth missing!”

Nozomu answered with an awkward smile, “I used to know, but after my memory loss, I know nothing. Only my body reacts and my mind must be elsewhere because if I try to concentrate, I can’t do anything properly to defend myself.”

The Guild Master nodded and went to the shelter again while cleaning his clothes, with the Guild’s Cook going to the main building, after glancing at Nozomu, still surprised by the way that once mocking and pranking young boy defeated so easily one of the strongest Adventurers in the country.

Nozomu walked towards Taisetsuna but a smiling Koyaga Azusake stood in his way, with her eyes shining, “You were truly amazing, Nozomu!”

She then gulped as he gently grabbed her hand and kissed it, answering with a slight smile, “You are far too kind Milady. I just got lucky.”

“I… I mean, you really should stop flirting with me like that, Nozomu! If I was younger, for sure you would get lucky with me, but I am fast approaching my thirties and…”

Nozomu winked, “...and you are in your prime years. Smart, beautiful, and I bet, more experienced than you pretend to be. Any man would be very lucky to be at your side, and I am very surprised as to why you are still single, with your long brown hair and beautiful eyes with a hazelnut colour in the middle, a bit of yellow surrounding the hazelnut, and ending in a bright green outside. Just your eyes alone are more than enough to make a man fall for you, not mentioning everything that comes with those gorgeous eyes.”

Koyaga Azusake blinked a few times, and Nozomu felt hypnotized by those fast-moving lashes that hid for a fraction of a second those beautiful eyes, just to show them again, “I guess… It was because I was just unlucky to be badly injured during a Quest when I was younger and lost all my chances of giving birth. It's not easy to get married when a pretender finds out I can’t give him kids. And the years went by and here I am, still single… Only an occasional adventure. I don’t mind now, I mostly got fed up with brutish men, so I am not so willing to marry them.”

Nozomu gently caressed her hand, while Taisetsuna was near her Unicorn ‘Furnace’, glancing at them and pretending not to see while feeding him with a Fireball in her hands.

The Guild Master returned with two rusty dull swords, a small buckler, leather gauntlets and a weird short sword. Nozomu grabbed everything except the rusty swords, and while he was putting on the gauntlets he stared at the weird toothed sword.

It was more like a long dagger, and it had slots cut along one side. The slots made it look much like a comb, and the tips had a hook type tip.

Udo Eskola noticed Nozomu puzzled look and explained, “Considering that you are a close fighter, this sword breaker would be useful for you, since you have trouble remembering how to fend off an attack because you forgot everything you learned and you might one day take a while to react, and that can be dangerous. With the sword breaker, anyone that comes at you with a sword, you use this to stop the slash, catch the sword in one of the slots, then a quick twist of the wrist to break the sword blade. Your buckler can then be used to hit your opponent or to defend if he uses a dagger against you. And since the sword breaker is also sharp on the tip, you can use it to pierce your opponent.”

Nozomu frowned at the weird sword and slashed the air a few times with it. The Guild Master took two steps back and while using one of the rusty swords, he explained, “I am going to attack you slowly so that you get used to that breaker and manage to catch my sword every time. After a few attacks, try to twist your wrist in a quick and strong movement, to break my sword’s blade.”

Nozomu took a defensive stance and waited for Udo Eskola’s attacks. For the next thirty minutes, the big and muscular Guild Master made sure that Nozomu learned as many defensive ways to use the sword breaker that he could think of, including learning how to easily break swords.

After a quick rest, Nozomu was sent to fight against his white Unicorn, Rampage, and he did his best to avoid that dangerous horn. Not that it would pierce him, but if he didn’t avoid it, it would ruin the purpose of that training.

Taisetsuna turn came up, and the Guild Master did his best to stop her attacks, but in more times than none, he would end up on the floor, facing up, with Taisetsuna looking at him with a grin.

By the tenth defeat, the Guild Master asked while getting up and facing the serious Cat-kind girl that was in her usual fighting stance, with a lowered body, legs spread apart, dangerous claws facing forward, “Why are you so good at unarmed fighting? I know that Cat-kind are very agile and quick, but I am normally able to match their speed!”

“Yeah, but I had to learn all sorts of tricks because of Nozo, and the Priest told me to increase my muscular training and flexibility so that I could get away from him as fast as I could. That fool is dangerous if he gets near you, so it’s better to fight him from a distance. But since Magic doesn’t affect him, there is actually no use in getting away to shoot some Magic at him!”

The Guild Master glanced at Nozomu who was happily chatting with a smiling Koyaga Azusake, “Yes, his ability sure grants him a huge advantage. I was thinking how I could fight him, considering that up close, he is extremely dangerous.”

“I normally throw rocks or sticks at him from a distance to distract him, but even that doesn’t work very often. He normally deflects everything I throw with his buckler, and he keeps on coming at me. I run from him as fast as I can, because when he gets too close, I always end up knocked out.”

The Guild Master signalled Taisetsuna to wait, and he went to grab two swords. He slashed the air a few times with one and threw the other at the surprised Cat-girl, “What about if we try some weapons? I want to see-”

Udo Eskola had to suddenly jump back because Taisetsuna didn’t even let him finish, she went straight at him, with a forward pierce straight to his chest, “Hey, at least let me-”

A series of never-ending slashes made him shut up and focus on his defence. He managed to avoid every single one of Taisetsuna’s attacks, but after thirty minutes, he was already panting, and she wasn’t slowing down one bit. Koyaga and Nozomu were watching with excitement, and the Unicorns were looking as well, both of them wondering why that big man was having so much trouble keeping his breathing steady.

The Guild Master blocked Taisetsuna’s sword with his, and slowly pushed it, approaching both swords to her face with sweat running down his forehead, and noticed that she was barely sweating and still had the same big smile for the entire time they were exchanging blows.

Udo Eskola asked, between his attempts to catch his breath, “You… are enjoying this… a bit too much… aren’t you? Not… tired?”

“Nope. I normally train with Nozomu for the entire morning, every day. So this is just a nice warm-up.”

Udo loosened a bit the strength he was putting in his sword that was still against Taisetsuna’s sword, completely dumbfounded by her answer. That split second of distraction was enough for her to go down, sweep his legs with her strong right leg, and when Udo fell on the ground over his left side, Taisetsuna’s sword was against his neck, with her smiling at him, “This was fun, we should do this more often, but maybe next time you can try not to underestimate me that much? I may get irritated and take one of your arms.”

She offered the tired man her left hand and pulled him up which answered while panting, “Yeah… I sure need… to be more careful… with both of you… that crazy Priest… sure trained you, alright… man… I am so tired!”

Koyaga Azusake approached them glowing in a big smile with Nozomu at her side and asked, “That sure was fun to watch! What do you say now, Guild Master? They need more lessons or what?”

Udo Eskola answered while leaning his head over the hilt of his sword and with the tip against the ground, “Uff! No, but training is never too much. We may need to ask a few trustworthy Adventurers if one of them doesn't mind sparring with these two, one of these afternoons. Probably better if we stop this, for now, I need to rest and you all need to get everything ready for dinner.”

Koyaga pulled him up and held his right arm while going to the main building. She looked back with a smile while walking, “Put the weapons inside the shelter, will you? I think the Unicorns can stay here, no one will bother them and they can relax. Way better than being inside the stable, right?”

Nozomu rushed to help Taisetsuna gathering all the weapons lying around, and asked with a puzzled face, “You said that you were never able to defeat me, but you sure put one hell of a show against the Guild Master, Suna.”

“Yeah, I was always better with a sword than you, but that annoying small shield of yours and your craziness always managed to surprise me.”

Taisetsuna then spoke while going to gather the two pieces of a broken sword near the ‘Scaraar’ fence, “You seemed very happy while you were talking with Miss Koyaga, but what surprised me the most is that the Cook didn’t look angry. He tends to be overprotective of his older sister, and he always makes sure that no man approaches her, with ill intentions.”

“Yeah, she is nice to talk to, but I don’t have any kind of ill intent towards her, so Mister Azusake and you can be assured because there is no need to worry.”

Taisetsuna answered with her face all red while leaning to pick the tip of the broken sword, “I am not worried, I just don’t want you to give her the wrong idea, and such.”

Nozomu answered while going to the shelter to put the weapons, making Taisetsuna turn pale, “I didn’t give her any wrong idea, I told her exactly what I think. I don’t fool women, Suna. At least, not now, I mean, because I don’t know if my former self used to.”

Taisetsuna gulped and followed Nozomu in silence towards the door that led to the main building while thinking about his words.