Chapter 325 - Fighting

About an hour had passed after the incident and Stella finally got all the information she needed about Diether and about the current situation within the village. 

Of course, the kids weren't too familiar with the events happening in the nearby fortress and she wasn't expecting them to know about it anyway. 

Nevertheless, what truly impressed her was that how their teacher was capable of blocking bullets with his swords!

"Did you see him do it in person? Or did he just mention it as a story?"

Stella asked curiously. She had never tried blocking a bullet yet! However, based on their words, it seems that Diether did it so easily! It just shows that he's either used to it or he just really have an amazing reflex.

Even dodging the trajectory of the bullet is already quite tough for her. Unless she has the protection of her Full-Body Armor, she wouldn't dare to just allow anyone to trigger their guns pointed at her. She either has to attack first or hide somewhere else and use her Arcane Magic to deal with the gun users.

Anyway, with her question, she thought that they would actually hate her for doubting their teacher. However, instead of that, they seem to be even more excited to tell stories about how good Diether was!

It seems that that man has truly influenced these kids a lot!

"Yes, Sis Stella! We saw him do it before! He already protected this village a couple of times!"

"That's right! Unfortunately, the people here are not aware of it!"

"Yeah, we were almost attacked by several bandit groups with Gun Arcana… However, before they can even cross the Bailee Valley, our teacher already defeated them!"

"Uhm! Uhm! He's really strong! We were just picking up herbs and mushrooms when he noticed them. Then we watched the battle behind the large trees and stones. It was amazing…"

Stella listened to them telling what happened and nodded after she understood everything.

It appears that they are not lying. This only means that Diether was truly that impressive.

'However, I thought that he became a Knight Captain, or perhaps Lieutenant? Why isn't he together with his subordinates?' Stella pondered after realizing that Diether was alone here in the village. 

Anyway, she didn't think too much of it and focused on just finding him instead. Most of her questions about him would surely be answered once they've met with each other.

"Alright, thank you for sharing your story… In exchange, I'll help you guys a bit with your training."

"Really? But the teacher said that this sword technique is very rare. Do you know what we're practicing?" Alex, one of the young boys, in the group asked curiously. He was the one who questioned Andrea for sharing information about Diether. 

"Yes… It's called Kendo, right? I'm pretty sure that your teacher and I have the same master… So I don't think there's a problem. Anyway, I'm only giving you some advice and will try to show you a few moves to practice."

Stella said with a smile. 

Then she stayed with them for two more hours and gave them advice about the stances in Itouryuu, especially when to switch stances to fight their opponents… Since they already have the foundation with the five stances, they easily learned them so she decided to let them study a bit of Nitouryuu…

This is not something Diether could teach. Not just because he didn't learn it but because he was hopeful that these kids would learn how to use Magic Items or even have their own Arcana in the future. 

With that in mind, having a single sword would be better instead of just focusing on the art of the sword. One sword and one magic item might be better after all.

As for Stella, because of her talent, she doesn't have any problem using a couple of swords, a couple of Arcana, and three magic items during battle. She has enough skills to multitask and she has no problem with her Spiritual Energy pool as well since she has the Energy Bank in her Vambrace. 

"Teacher Stella! You have so much equipment with you… I wonder how you could use all of them?" Andrea ask after Stella showed them her pieces of equipment and magic items.

"Practice… As long as you found a piece of good equipment and magic item, you just have to regularly use it. However, before doing that, you have to practice with your Spiritual Energy… Did your teacher teach you anything about it?"

"Yes! He said it's important to increase our control in Spiritual Energy! We are practicing it every day."

Andrea explained.

Next, Stella gave them a bit of advice on how to increase their Spiritual Energy…  It is to empty it regularly and to get exposed to powerful magic items or even Arcana to stimulate their Spiritual Energy within their bodies.

As Stella was about to leave them and return to her group to share what she learned about Diether's whereabouts, she suddenly noticed that the kid who called himself Shawn brought a group of people!

They have weapons on their waist and backs as they walked to their group. There are eight adults in their twenties and four other kids including Shawn.

Stella couldn't help but smile wryly at this. This guy is really looking for trouble. 

However, she's considering how to end this farce completely. After all, she can beat them up today but they might just return to this training ground once she left the village. 

'Haa~ It's not like I could kill them, right?'

Stella squinted her eyes as she waited for their group to speak.

"My little brother said that you guys stole their friends' playground… If you don't leave now, you will have a taste of my sword!"

The man in his twenties said as he brandished his sword in front of Stella. The other guys followed suit as they pulled out their weapons.

Looking at it closely, they all have the same swords and even wear the same clothes…

"This is not their playground. You can ask the village chief about this." Stella replied recalling what the children said a while ago

"That's right!"

"This place is ours!"

"Teacher already told the Village Chief about this!"

The kids who were previously afraid shouted after Stella spoke for them.

"Hmph! It doesn't matter. Let's just fight for it." The man said as he decided to wield his swords in front of Stella.

She then realized that this group of eight were all students of a Martial Arts Training Hall that is teaching the Northern Eclipse Sword Style.**