Chapter Ten

It was two more years of meditation, practice, and following Freyja's instructions to the letter before he was finally able to begin practicing Touki. It had taken him that long in order to master holding a positive Senjutsu state under duress, which meant fighting and combat against several enemies at once. He could still only hold it for a few hours, but that was more than enough time for the length of the fights at his current level of power.

During the first few months, until he had shown full mastery of filtering the negativity, he had been under constant watch by either Freyja or an instructor she trusted to be able to instantly restrain him. It was immensely stifling, and his Yako instincts had been yowling and pacing in frustration since he no longer had any easy outlet for his impulses. The following month after receiving Freyja's approval saw an almost vicious level of schoolwide mischief occurring nearly daily, though it eventually tapered off back to normal.

Rooms filled with foam bubbles, thousands of small rubber balls bouncing down stairwells and corridors, exploding paint and glitter bombs, some of which were combined in a single package, eggs balanced precariously atop doorways or placed in seats under a mirage or camouflage rune, random farm animals wandering the halls, entire hallways changing their physics or being snared under illusions. Daichi had become immensely competent in the Nordic Rune system over the years under Rossweisse's genius tutelage and leveraged his studies during what the Valkyries in training later called The Plague.

The worst part for all the girls and instructors was that they knew who the culprit was but never once were any of them able to find any evidence to prove it. They tried, too. For a full week, the entire student body mobilized in an attempt to catch Daichi in the act. To add insult to injury, Daichi helped them attempt to catch himself, cheerily assisting as they triggered trap after trap. Rossweisse was an invaluable ally; delayed runic sequences and triggered event components made everything all the more chaotic, and over the years she had come to be a willing, perhaps even gleeful, assistant in their now combined pastime. The runes themselves functioned similar to a countdown timer or an if-then clause in a program. If( ==pressure), then( ). It was almost like writing in pseudocode but with magical letters that had directly translated mystical meanings.

The one upside the instructors found was year-by-year their graduating Valkyries became more and more adept at identifying and avoiding magical and mechanical traps, some of the more combat oriented adopting a motto of Constant Vigilance within their squads. It was pure coincidence that many of them also had squad emblems resembling a multitailed fox.

All these events led to where Daichi found himself on this particular morning. He had been practicing manipulating Touki for a few weeks at this point and Freyja had finally decided he was ready to use it to its full capacity. That was why he was currently facing down an incredibly jolly Ullr who was practically bouncing in place in anticipation.

His normal power level had him at a place where sparring with other students was no problem, even with nothing held back it was still relatively safe. Touki boosted his physical abilities quite a bit further than the young, non-blooded students could handle which was why Freyja organized a spar between someone powerful enough to be safe at Daichi's full power, but was also no stranger to combat in order to evaluate his abilities and provide pointers. Having all the trainees watch also served as a two for one educational experience.

"Begin!" Freyja's voice was easily heard over the excited chatter of the audience. Daichi reacted instantly, bringing up his full power and imbuing himself. His Touki enhanced step shattered the ground and tossed him to a still grinning Ullr's side. His left foot swung up in a round house kick aimed for the back of the god's knees, but Ullr's hand shot out and slapped the foot away. Each strike sent or intercepted let out a sonic boom of force and Daichi rotated with the momentum of the deflection, ducking below a strike and coming up with a pair of punches that he slammed into Ullr's ribs, the force blowing the god several feet away but not doing any appreciable damage.

Daichi stepped again leaving another crater behind as he suddenly appeared in front of Ullr, the god's smile still as wide as before. Tossing out another pair of jabs aimed in soft locations, the god casually knocked both aside, lashing out with a casual kick of his own that Daichi leapt away to avoid. Ullr used the separation to speak out in his low, gravelly voice.

"Not bad, brat. You have a good foundation along with the aggressiveness and instincts to capitalize on openings. Now, let's see your limits."

It was Ullr's turn to vanish, though he did so without a sound. There was no explosion of force against the ground or shattering of the sound barrier when he moved, he simply existed in one location, then he was launching a strike into Daichi's face in the next instant.

Daichi weaved to the side, palming the side of Ullr's arm to help in the deflection. It felt like shoving a steel beam, but he forced a burst of energy through his palm to help, the explosive result successfully diverting the blow. Daichi whipped his leg up to retaliate, but Ullr's offhand intercepted it, knocking it away and forcing Daichi into a back handspring to rebalance himself and attempt to find some separation. He wasn't given a reprieve, Ullr hovering over him from behind, a strike already sailing through the air where he would finish his movement.

His tails whipped up, his dark red Touki aura coating his black fur as they lashed into the arm to deflect its course, then followed up with pinpoint strikes to soft locations and joints. Ullr laughed as he stumbled back.

"Nice work, kid. That was a nasty surprise. If it was anyone else around your power level, that likely would have ended the fight." He vanished again, Daichi attempting to defend but was still sent hurtling across the field by the strike that slammed into his stomach.

"You're still lacking in response time perception, but that mostly comes from experience." Another strike landed against Daichi's back, sending him skidding and sprawling across the grass. "Recovery was passable, but even when you've been struck, you should maintain awareness of your enemy's location." It was like the bastard was invisible, even to his life detection. It made some sense considering he was a god of the hunt, so being invisible in nature was part and parcel to who he was, but it was still infuriating for Daichi. Maintaining visible sight of the man was maddening.

Daichi held his ground, no longer attacking as Ullr assaulted him repeatedly from all sides. Deflections, defense, absorption, Daichi's hands and tails went into overdrive to keep his vital areas covered yet strikes still managed to occasionally break through his guard. The assault went on for several minutes before it suddenly ceased, leaving a disheveled and panting Daichi glancing around warily. Ullr gave him a bright smile, his stance completely casual.

"Excellent. Your attack and defense are acceptable. A couple more years of practice will shore up any minor deficiencies." He hummed to himself in thought for a brief moment. "What do you know about power and strength?"

Daichi wheezed out a response.

"More, power, harder, hits."

Ullr shrugged.

"I suppose that's technically correct." He raised his voice to ensure he was heard by their still attentive audience. "The more involved answer is that mortals and supernatural beings are different in that their strength stems from different sources. Mortals typically grow stronger from improving their meat golems. The supernatural grow stronger from enhancing their energy and souls." Turning to directly address the crowd, he continued his lecture.

"What that means, is physical exertion usually matters very little to us, as we're fueled by our chosen metaphysical energies. There are always exceptions of course, but that's the general rule since it's typically vastly more inefficient. It's why we focus on flexibility, stamina, and combat foundations so heavily. Explosive power comes from our cultivated energies, not our physical shells, but we still need our shells to last long enough and conform to our wills."

He turned to Freyja, jutting a finger out at a still recovering Daichi.

"Freyja! I'm taking the kid over to Alfheim! We're going hunting!" She simply sighed and waved them off, the other students breaking out into excited babble as Ullr grasped Daichi's shoulder.

"Hang on tight, kid." Within the next blink, the pair had vanished.

The popped back into existence on the Bifrost, Heimdall shooting the pair a glance as Ullr gave him a wave.

"Heimdall! Think you could send us over to Alfheim?" The guardian didn't deign to respond, simply lifting his sword and dropping it back against the rainbow road causing a clang to resound.

"Appreciate you, brother!" Ullr called out as the pair vanished once more. They came crashing down into a clearing in the midst of a forest. Ullr immediately seemed to relax even further, taking a deep breath of the fresh air.

"Right, here's the plan kid. Odin has a standing bounty on dark elves. Something about Ragnarok, and the end times, and them all being unbelievably evil little shits. Anyway, that's the target of today's hunt. You ever shot a bow?" Daichi shook his head, still catching up to the rapid pace of everything that had transpired.

"Well, you're going to learn today." A bow that came up to Daichi's chin manifested itself in front of him. He grabbed it out of the air on reflex. "Go on. Give it a tug." Daichi did as instructed and quickly found out even his full strength could barely budge the string. "Touki, kid. Use it." Enhancing himself, Daichi pulled. Even using his full strength, it was a struggle to completely draw the string, but when he succeeded an arrow of light coalesced between his fingers. Ullr nodded in acknowledgement.

"Good work, kid. Now, that bow is named Alf Svafnir. It literally means Elf Slayer." At Daichi's deadpan glance Ullr shrugged. "Dwarves aren't known for their wordplay. Regardless, it'll pierce through a dark elf's defenses like hot butter. A light elf's too, but we're not hunting them. The hard part is getting the drop on the little buggers. If you succeed, you get to kill them easily. If you don't, you're stuck fighting your way out." Daichi opened his mouth to object before Ullr interrupted his attempt.

"No, no, no. That's the rules. You'll either learn the hunter's path, or you'll learn the warrior's. Or both, if you're ambitious." The next fifteen minutes were filled with a quick explanation on proper shooting form and stalking. Stand straight, body in line, feet shoulder width apart, bow arm straight but not locked, string arm even with jawline, ensure string won't get caught on anything on release, stay relaxed, deep breath, release on exhale.

"I'll only drop you in the outskirts of their domain. You should be able to handle their grunts." With that they vanished once again.

When he reappeared Daichi found himself alone in a gloomy, humid, dank forest. Vines clung to low hanging limbs and the forest floor brush was thick and thorny. Life was incredibly abundant despite the malaise hanging over the atmosphere, but the hairs on the back of his neck had immediately stood at attention once his brain caught up to his eyes. Nature's presence reminded him of the Grove, but significantly more feral, and very hungry. Glancing around for a few more moments, Daichi prepared to pick a direction. As he went to take a step, he threw himself into the bushes instead as a sharpened shaft of wood went flying over him

"Well, fuck."

A/N:

Discord: discord dot gg/YNNwwvy

Silver1997 – I appreciate the positivity! Thank you, I hope you continue enjoying the story!

Azaira – You have some good points about special circumstances surrounding Rias' peerage, but I'm still of the opinion that they wouldn't progress as far as they did within a single year. I'm doing my best to keep a logical perspective and progression, but I have no doubt I'll make some slip ups, so be sure to call me out when I do lol

A good reminder about Yasaka. I'm taking the approach that as a nine tails a kitsune is still ultimate class, but the leyline allows her to have uncontested power for her area of Japan to the point where if a Satan class power came to pick a fight it wouldn't really be worth the effort. I can't comment on anything further without dipping into spoiler territory, which is in itself probably somewhat revealing, but what can I do?

If you have any other comments that you remember, don't feel shy about leaving more than one review. I read them all, so you'll be seen.

Blaze2121 – I'm glad you're enjoying so much about the story lol I can't comment too much on what you stated so far since I want as much as possible to be a surprise moving forward, but I think you'll enjoy what I have planned.

Reader0007 – It's good you feel so strongly about this stuff since I'm not well educated on Hindu myth and religion. I learned a lot just from your breakdown that I can take notes on for possible future chapters.

As for God's power level, my theory is he was at least at Great Red's and Trihexa's power level, or very close to it since he would have to be at least that strong to seal the beast of the apocalypse away. He did that by himself, when it took how many top-level members of how many different factions to do something similar once it was released? Yea. DxD Christian God was hella strong.

DarkMatterPhoenix – It was an intentional description on my part, but I'm okay with revealing that it held no deeper meaning beyond its unique feeling to him as a Yako. Nature isn't the Force, though I could definitely argue the point if I was going to make it part of the plot lol