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Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 122

CHAPTER 122: THE RESULTS OF THE SPECIAL TRAINING

「……………」

「Unyaaah……」

I was currently confronting Kanade.

Kanade and I glared at each other with grim expressions on our faces.

Our fists at the ready, our hips slumping lightly, our legs straining, ready to move at a moment’s notice……

We have been staring at one another just like that, sparks flying between our eyes as we waited for the other side to make some sort of mistake or create some sort of opening.

「……………」

「……………」

It’s been what, five minutes of us doing just that?

It was at that exact moment that a bead of sweat trickled down Kanade’s cheek and the hair on her tail twitched ever so slightly

Now!

I aimed for the time when Kanade’s concentration began to break and I ran forward at once.

「Nyah!?」

I managed to take her by surprise with that sudden action of mine, and Kanade showed signs of visible agitation as a result.

However, it was only for a short while.

Quickly calming her mind and adapting to the new situation, Kanade lightly pulled her body back and shifted into an interception stance.

「Nyahn!」

Kanade thrust her fist out.

It was a blow so fast and powerful that it even swept the wind in its track.

If I was hit by a blow like that, I would have been in some serious trouble.

So in response I twisted my body in order to avoid Kanade’s hit.

But Kanade seemed to have expected me to do this much and threw a low kick in response to my action.

Of course, I was able to avoid that kick by jumping over it.

Despite the fact that I was attacked in such a cunning way, I quickly regained my footing and switched on from the defense to the offense once again.

I knew it, even during such a mock battle, Kanade was not the kind of opponent that could be easily underestimated.

Not only do I have to avoid her attacks, I have to somehow hit her with my own attack while I’m being at it!

「Unyah!」

Kanade unleashed a mighty kick that was supposed to chase right after me, and so I had no other choice but to escape from it into the air by jumping once again.

But right now, there was nothing around me that I could use as a foothold.

I couldn’t regain my stance, and in this situation I was basically doomed to be caught in another one of Kanade’s kick when she would unleash it…… or at the very least it should have been like that.

「“Gravity Manipulation”.」

I used the ability that I have gained from signing a contract with Tina.

Recently I was forced to use it quite a lot in battle, so thanks to that my understanding and control of this skill grew substantially.

I manipulated the gravity around myself and shifted towards the right.

My body slid to the side and avoided Kanade’s kick easily.

I continued to use Gravity Manipulation to normalize the direction where the shifted gravity was pulling me towards.

I then applied another use of that skill, changing the gravitational pull three times……

With the momentum of my falling speed plus three times the momentum of the usual gravity, I released a powerful spinning kick as a result.

「W-What the heck, nya!?」

As expected, Kanade never actually expected to see something like that from me.

I then closed in on her with more speed than Kanade could ever anticipate, and striked a heavy blow against her!

「Nyaaah!!」

「What the……!?」

I thought that the battle would have been decided with that, but……

Kanade used her natural reflexes alone to block my blow.

Although she had extraordinary physical abilities to begin with………

I felt like she has been getting those skills more and more polished as of late.

「This is going to be the end!」

「That’s way too naive.」

Kanade was preparing to launch her own counterattack now, but……

This time around, I applied Gravity Manipulation to Kanade instead of myself.

The gravity on Kanade’s arm was then increased by five times the usual amount.

Even so, I couldn’t stifle the natural power of the Cat Spirit Tribe, but I did succeed in reducing Kanade’s speed substantially.

And with that, once again, the power to manipulate gravity proves itself to be more than a little bit outrageous if done right.

At first, it was difficult for me to handle it and it was quite puzzling, but……

In fact, it’s a pretty good ability to have on you.

Depending on how you choose to use it, it can be a powerful and versatile tool.

Thanks to this, I was able to go toe to toe with Kanade.

Avoiding Kanade’s counterattack, I was now ready to come up with a counterattack of my own.

So I attacked Kanade with a roundhouse kick aimed at her side……

She was able to guard against it, but that much was actually predictable.

I tangled my leg around Kanade’s guarded arm to block it from moving.

I then jumped up and twisted my other leg around Kanade’s torso, spinning her around.

With the created momentum, I knocked Kanade down to the ground.

「Funyah!?」

I thrusted my fist in front of Kanade’s eyes as she tried to get up in a hurry.

「I’d say that this pretty much settles things, wouldn’t you agree?」

「…… Alright, you two. That’s enough for now.」

At that exact moment Suzu-san raised her voice, signaling to us that the battle has officially come to an end.

Hearing that, Kanade threw both her arms and legs to the ground, spreading them out.

「Unyaah…… I lost……」

「You okay there, Kanade?」

「Yeah, I’m fine……」

I lent her a hand and made Kanade stand up.

「Rein, you have grown so much stronger…… I don’t mean to sound boastful, but I didn’t expect to lose to you like that……」

「I mean, I have been working out pretty hard lately, so……」

It had been a few days since we agreed for Suzu-san to train us in the art of battle.

Now, just like we did with Kanade, we had mock battles with different partners every single day……

Afterwards, Suzu-san would instruct us on what we did wrong there and what we could do in order to improve those things……

It was a very hard, but also very fulfilling training.

Although Suzu-san’s words were soft spoken, her teaching style was relentless and she was a true Demon Coach, in every sense of the term.

But it was precisely because of that, that I think I was able to gain some much needed confidence in my skills.

「Good work out there. Even though it’s only training, it’s still amazing that you managed to beat Kanade in a proper fist fight, Rein.」

Tanya called out to us from the side.

Sora and Luna followed suit.

「Sora and the others are also growing up! But Rain might be the one who grew up the most in the least amount of time!」

「Umu! Now I’m really curious to see the full extent of your growth, Rein! What do you say that we spar once again!?」

「Luna, have you already forgotten that you lost to Rain just the other day? And that you did that in a quite miserable way, I might add?」

「O-Oh, yeah, that…… You know, that was just the learning process! Yeah, that’s right! A learning process! I have gotten much better ever since then!」

「…… Rein.」

Speaking gently, Nina came over and handed me a warm towel.

「Here, use this……」

「Thank you.」

「Here. Here’s one for you, too, Kanade.」

「Thanks a lot.」

Kanade received a warm towel from Tina as well.

It felt so good to put the warm towel against my sweaty face, I had no idea.

「Yes, yes, great work out there, everyone.」

As we were all catching our breaths, Suzu-san gathered everyone together.

「You guys are growing up pretty good and pretty fast. Way faster than I initially expected.」

「Really? Are we really that stronger now?」

Kanade asked, sounding somewhat happy.

「Yes, that’s right. Kanade-chan has gotten so much stronger. In the beginning, you could only charge at your opponent head on, but now you have learned how to play a proper dueling game.」

「Ahh…… Actually, when you are saying it like that, I no longer know if this was meant to be a compliment or not.」

「Fufufu, oh yes, it was a compliment. Believe it.」

「Hmmph.」

Not entirely convinced, Kanade made a somewhat complicated expression.

Maybe she herself did not get a feeling that she was getting that much stronger.

「That’s right. I can sense it as well. You are getting stronger, Kanade. You just have to believe in it.」

「Funyah!?」

I placed my hand on top of Kanade’s hair and gently stroked her hair, to which Kanade jumped up at once, visibly startled.

I wanted to make her feel confident, so I did what I always do…… But why did it startle her so much this time around?

「R-Rein!? Umm, I mean…… If someone stroked my head all of a sudden like that, it’s only natural that I would be surprised and startled…… Nyah……」

「O-Oh, yeah? W-Well then, I’m sorry for that. I just thought that doing so would cheer you up.」

「I-It’s fine, really. Umm, this is, I mean…… You were trying to cheer me up, weren’t you?　Then it’s not something to be angry about…… Or rather…… It made me really happy and…… Nyaah……」

「Huh……?」

There was something strange about Kanade as of recently.

Her face was reddish and flushed furiously…… or maybe it was not……? I wonder what’s that all about……?」

「Fumu, fumu.」

Seeing Kanade, who was looking so funny and flustered, Suzu-san nodded her head to herself with a satisfied expression on her face.

Then she smiled and placed her hand on top of Kanade’s shoulder.

「Kanade-chan.」

「Yeah?　What is it, Mom?」

「It’s fine and all to train your body to become stronger, but you also need to train your mind so that you could stay on good terms with all of your friends, if you know what I mean. Would you like your Mom to show you a surefire way for that to happen?」

「M-Mom!! P-Please don’t say stuff like that when Rein is right in front of us……!!!」

「Ohh, it’s fine, it’s fine. Besides, it seems to me that Rein-san is really dull when it comes to stuff like that, so there’s no problem.」

W-Well, maybe that’s right, but that’s not what this is all about here! So no thank you!」

I wasn’t really sure what the two of them were talking about, but I understood that Suzu-san was apparently teasing Kanade quite mercilessly.

「Well then, that takes care of the special training for today. Good work, everyone.」

At Suzu-san’s words, we all let out a gasp as if a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders.

The strength drained from my body and fatigue then hit us all at once.

After all, we have been training all morning and all night for the past couple of days…….

「Come on, guys, let’s take a bath while we are all at it! The water is already boiled, so you can hop right in!」

「Nice one, Tina.」

Tanya’s face lit up upon hearing Tina’s words.

「Since we are all gathered here, how about we all go in together? It’s too much trouble to wait for every single person to be done with their bath separately.」

「I agree! Nyan!」

「Oh, and by “all”, I meant “all girls”. Sadly, you need to be excluded, Rein.」

「Yes, I know.」

For some reason, Tanya’s words made me chuckle.