Drageria

Ch. 25: Training part. 3

In the coming months, we're something else to be sure. It was a given that they weren't anything close to the three weeks of hell, but they came with their issues. Like how Namiel stood true to her word and took no prisoners with her training. From team calisthenics, fighting forms, boxing, judo, 6k runs, hand-to-hand, gunplay, and so much more! Namiel wasn't just a pretty face, she knew how to kill you in 101 different ways….including emotional.

As expected, over several dozen people quit, leaving even fewer people than before. Once everyone was set with the skills needed for everyone to generally know, she then set off to go through every person to find out their fighting style. While everyone got some one-on-one, everyone else was expected to keep improving on their already acquired skill or personalized ones.

Finally, it came to Izuku's turn and thought many of the recruit's needed more time to find their bearings or only a day or so, Izuku….was none of those. Even though he gave everything he had, putting his heart and soul and never giving up, he always seemed to fail in one way or another…..anything he did. It was honestly kind of frustrating.

Namiel loved his tenacity, seeing him get back up no matter how many times she swept his feet underneath him, but there was a fine line between adulation and pity, and Namiel was just about out of pity. She tried just about everything she could to teach him and figure out what his strong suit was, but even she was coming to more dead ends than she expected. If the kid couldn't perform the proper counter or strikes in a fight, then he also couldn't use a weapon properly! He was permanently banned from using any firearms after….the incident.

Now she was standing over him….again, as Izuku lay on the ground panting like a dog as he tried to fight her and failed enough times to run him completely ragged.

As he lay there, Namiel repressed the urge to sigh as she told him truthfully, "Wow. You're really bad at…everything. I'll be honest. I have no idea how you survived the first three weeks of hell, but here you are."

Izuku looks up from the dirt and asks, "Have you *pant* figured out *pant* anything!?"

Namiel taps her chin, thinking back to everything she learned, and explained, "Well….your strong, that's for sure, but not meant to be a slugger. Your smaller and thinner frame does leave you with more flexibility…..perhaps you're more agile."

"Agile?", Izuku repeats back, not expecting that reply.

Then a lightbulb goes off in her head and she cheerfully says with a clap, "Yes! Okay then, let's switch gears!"

From there, Namiel completely changed how she approached this. Instead of focusing on strength and one body movement, she had Izuku look towards sharpening his quickness and reflexes while using an arranged array of all of his limbs. She had to teach him some ballet and gymnastics, but he managed to learn them quickly.

She helped him hone his skills in utilizing his fast moments to hit fast and sharp! Use his feet to not only attack but confused opponents from how he approached. Perform feats of trading between hand and foot attacks, jumping around, and even moving around moved to sliding across his opponent's bodies before using the counterweight and inertia to throw them off balance!

All in all, Namiel's idea bore obvious fruit as she saw the boy go from struggling with everything to learning and adapting in just a few days'' time! Now she was sparring with him once more, and still not getting the upper hand, yet this time he hadn't been thrown to the ground at all!

Namiel fell for a fake out and Izuku went for a high kick, but Namiel wasn't a pro for nothing and managed to dodge just in time, only letting the shoe skim right past her face. It was the first time in a long time she had been hit, and she was fully impressed, to say the least.

After backing away from the heavily breathing boy, she praised him, "Very good! You've certainly improved a lot since last time. You're very light on your feet, and even though you can't strike someone down in one go, your attacks will still sting if you hit them just right."

"Thank you, ma'am.", Izuku replied back, wiping spit from his mouth.

"Now that we know what you can do, time to put weapons in the mix.", She told him while walking off to a rack with weapons all lined up on it.

Izuku was shocked by this and tried to argue against the decision, saying, "But I can't use anything."

Namiel just scoffed with her back turned as she perused the weapons, telling him, "We just haven't found the right one, and I think I know just the things."

With that, she produced two short metal sticks and handed them off to him. Izuku looked at them and asked, "What are these?"

"Escrima sticks. They can also combine into a bo staff.", She told him excitedly.

After looking them over a bit, he shook his head and denied her, stating, "I can't use these."

"You haven't even tried yet.", She huffed while rolling her eyes.

Izuku looks at the weapons again and then quickly grows irritated as he throws them down in frustration while exclaiming, "What's the point? I just keep messing it up or breaking them!"

"Yeah, I have no idea how you broke a sword of all things.", Namiel stressed while looking over to the rack where a sword was broken in half at the blade.

Namiel had worked with these weapons long enough to realize that doing something like that What's next to impossible thanks to how incredibly they were crafted.

"I'm just…..useless.", Izuku said in a dejected tone, looking to the ground with watery eyes while crossing his arms.

"Hey hey now! Where is all this self-negativity coming from? Why beat yourself up if there's nothing to be beaten on?", She tried to cheer him up, placing a hand on his head to make him look at her.

"I-.", Izuku tries to argue.

"Well, you need to stop that, here and now!", Namiel tells him firmly.

"But-.", Izuku tries again.

"No buts! Now listen to me!", She commands, making the boy stand at attention with eyes locked on her.

She then pulled away from him and pointing to her chest she told him, "I want you to take all that negativity and self-doubt you have and collect it all inside one spot. Pull it out and then throw it onto the ground! Then stomp that bitch into the dust!", She exclaimed while smashing her hood so hard on the ground that it broke! She then calmed down from her mini rage and asked chipperly, "Got it?"

Izuku was unsure but took a crack at it, he could only reply at first with an, "Um…", then 'collected' his negativity, grabbed it, and threw it out with an, "UMPH!", He then looked down and patted his foot on the spot and meekly said, "...ta-da."

Namiel just blinked at him with a neutral expression as she asked in disbelief, "What was that?"

Izuku realized that wasn't anything like what was told, shrunk into himself, and apologized, "I'm sorry, I just-."

"Don't be sorry, be better.", She immediately cut him off firmly telling him with a wagging finger.

However, this seemed to have the opposite effect as the teen looked even more dejected and shrunk into himself, a sad and pitiful expression adorning his face. Namiel sighs as she sees this and taking off her hat she leans down to his eye level, due to how unearthly tall she was, and told him, "Okay, look kid. I get where you're coming from. The world and all its people have beaten down on you so hard that you believe their lies and it reflects on what you do. But you can't let that happen. All those things that were said and done to you can only have power if you give it to them. You're the one in control, not them."

Izuku seemed to take this to heart, something she wanted to see, and she continued on while poking his chest, "You're stronger than you know. You've proved it already."

"How?", Izuku asks back in disbelief.

Now it was Namiel's turn to look at him with shock and disbelief and exclaimed, "How?! You took the initiative to leave your broken life behind, save that girl and care for her, meet and befriended the dragons, survived the invasion, made it through the three weeks of hell, and have improved yourself and your fighting prowess. So how do you think you haven't?"

Izuku looks off to the side, thinking all of this over. He really has done all that stuff, hasn't he? Things that no one would dream or attempt to do, but he did it anyway. He really had many different and many accomplishments. Maybe Namiel was right, maybe he was stronger than he thought.

Namiel can see what Izuku was thinking, and its effects on him. She smiles, seeing her work getting done and then taps his nose to get his attention as she offers, "Now then, let's try again. Take all that negativity, that self-doubt, that insecurity, that self-hatred, collect it, fuel it with anger, and rip it out!"

This time he does as she says. He closes his eyes, thinks back to every horrible thing done and said to him over the years. Collect all of that into raw emotions, putting it in the center of his chest, grabbing hold and "pulling" it all out at once.

Namiel sees what he does and continues on to encourage him, saying, "Good! Now throw it on the ground and stomp it into the dirt!"

Izuku grits his teeth, tightens his fist where it held all his negativity, bursts his eyes open filled with anger, and then throws the first down over his head with a war cry! He then proceeded to stamp his foot into the spot with all his might and continued doing that until he was making noises like an animal while crying with frustration!

He finally stops with one last slam and yells breathless, "And you stay down there for good!"

Namiel is ecstatic at watching this, clapping her hands while bouncing up and down, cheering him, "Good job! Excellent job! Absolutely wonderful!", She then takes back her more authoritative commander type tone as she picks up the discarded escrima sticks, handing them back to Izuku while telling him, "Now then, let me show you how to work these and something else I have in mind."

From there she shows Izuku the basics of how to use his new weapons in both its forms. From how to fight with them, and how to incorporate them into his agile combat style. Once he understood the basics of how to use his escrima sticks and bo staff, jumping, blocking, hitting, pole vaulting and so much more! Izuku was too embarrassed when Namiel tried to show him some "pole dancing" moves to put into it. And even showed him how to use its taser function.

After this she gave him one more weapon to use in combat, or rather four of them, to give his attacks that extra kick they needed. Ones he didn't need to practice with since they melded so perfectly with his fighting style. Ones that would give him the upper edge in a fight, even if the opponent had a quirk.