Chapter 73
My Pet Is a Holy Maiden – 73
Maneuvers
A dry clang echoed down the corner of the morning residential street .
And it was not a single occurrence . Clang, clang, clang, it maintained a consistent rhythm that echoed and echoed .
Or so one thought, until the rhythm was occasionally disturbed . And there were times when you thought that it had gone completely silent, only then it would start again, claaaang, over and over again .
In fact, this was the sound of wood hitting on wood .
The sound of a wooden sword and shield used for training and a wooden staff clashing together .
Of course, it was Tatsumi who wielded the wooden sword . And it was Calcedonia who used the staff .
They were in the garden . Their house garden was quite large and had more than enough space to train and swing their weapons . There was even a small stable in one of the corners, though there were no horses currently kept there .
While Calcedonia had more of a supporting occupation, she was still capable of close quarters combat using weapons . At least, she was far more adept at the use of weapons compared to Tatsumi .
Calcedonia held and twirled the staff which was as long as she was tall, the sounds the staff made as it cut through the air was echoing around them .
The head of the staff traced complex patterns in the air, and then it went in to attack Tatsumi and his wooden sword and shield .
Somehow, Tatsumi managed to anticipate the trajectory of the staff which would surely sweep him off his feet . He swung his shield between his own body and where he knew the blow would land .
He could feel the strength of the impact through the shield . Tatsumi tensed his lower body and held firm to brave this impact .
But now that her staff had been blocked by Tatsumi’s shield, Calcedonia once again twirled the staff in her hand and then thrust it forward like a spear .
Tatsumi could not react to her speed . Even so, he attempted to protect himself with his sword . But he was too late .
The head of the staff met his shoulder in a painful explosion .
“Gah!!”
A gasp of anguish escaped his lips before he knew it . However, he bored the pain in his right shoulder, and with the shield in his left hand, he swung towards Calcedonia with all of his might .
But the swing and the shield met only empty air . Calcedonia had pulled the staff back like a flash of lightning, she had leaped into the air with the staff as her support .
It was very much like pole vaulting . Of course, she didn’t have much momentum, so her jump was not very high, but it was enough to dodge Tatsumi’s attack .
And from above, she swung her staff vertically downwards onto his open head .
Tatsumi sensed the blow as it was about to land on him, he desperately pulled his head back in an attempt to dodge it .
The staff came down, slightly scraping Tatsumi’s ear before it blasted into his left shoulder .
The pain caused Tatsumi to drop his wooden sword and squat on the spot . Seeing him like this, Calcedonia frantically ran to help him .
“I, I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize that I was hitting so hard! I, I’ll treat it right away!”
Calcedonia knelt next to Tatsumi and immediately started to chant a spell of healing . As soon as it was finished, the pain in Tatsumi’s shoulder disappeared as if it had never existed .
“Ahhhh, damn . I’m still no match for you . ”
“Don’t say that . You’ve improved so very much . It’s because you’ve improved so much that I find it difficult to know…how much strength I should…”
Calcedonia said apologetically . Of course, the two had not been fighting in earnest . It was only an early-morning training session .
Tatsumi was still at the point where he was exclusively punished by Calcedonia’s skills, but as she said, he was indeed stronger than before . It was not a lie that Calcedonia was finding it hard to adjust to this .
At this rate, it would not be long until Tatsumi could stand toe-to-toe with Calcedonia in terms of close-quarters combat .
“But really, that staff of yours is…it’s like you can use it for anything . ”
Japanese martial artists who use staves have a saying, ‘If you poke, it’s a spear . If you swing, it’s a halberd . If you hold it, it’s a greatsword . There are no mistakes with a staff . ’
A staff can turn into anything depending on the skills of the wielder, it was in no way inferior to weapons such as the sword or spear .
Calcedonia applied the healing magic on other parts of Tatsumi’s body before standing up and collecting the wooden sword and returning it to him .
“What now? Do you want to continue?”
“Of course . This time, I will finally beat you!”
“Yes, that’s the spirit . ”
The two brandished their weapons and faced one another . They lightly tapped the weapons together as a salute before continuing their intense sparring .
It was starving .
It had not eaten for a very long time .
It would not die of starvation, . But even so, satiating this hunger was it’s top priority now .
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It searched through wobbly, -no, softly dense trees, looking for something to eat .
Days and days . It searched between the trees for that something that would fulfill it .
And .
And, at last, it found it .
That giant thing lying between the trees . It too was so very hungry .
The intense desire called ‘hunger’, it was based on an instinct to survive . It was one of the strongest desires of all living things . It crept up to it, slowly .
As it crept closer and closer to its target, it slowly, slowly invaded its body .
In an instant, it was filled with an intense desire . This intense desire, ‘hunger’ was shaking it to its core .
The desire slowly fulfilled it from the inside . Fulfilled its hunger .
The long overdue meal caused it to go mad with joy . Caused it to suck in the desire even more .
But no matter how much it sucked in the desire, it’s desire did not end . That was how strong the ‘hunger’ that it carried was .
It shuddered with glee as it saw that the strong desire continued to overflow, even after it had become full from it .
This intense desire would surely keep it satiated forever . It would stimulate this desire even further, it would eventually reach a much, much more delicious meal .
As it thought this, it stimulated the desire known as ‘hunger’ within it .
It’s huge body jiggled and shook . And then, its once blue eyes changed into an ominous red .
It moved its strong jaw, loudly sounding the sharp teeth that grew within .
It’s clawed legs were small compared to its huge body, yet they moved forward as its giant wings beat the air .
The air seemed to shake, and then the giant body was flying in the sky . It’s long, thin tail curved gracefully .
It was completely covered in black armor . Its giant red-stained eyes searched the skies for the ‘hunger’ that would satiate it .
As it flew in the sky as if it were the lord of all, its eyes caught sight of a large beast in a thick forest .
It was really only large from the perspective of humans, compared to it, it was no more than a conveniently sized meal .
It gnashed its teeth together, it -what the humans call a wyvern, shot down from the sky in a sudden swoop to fall onto the beast .
Drawing a sharp trajectory from below, Calcedonia’s staff struck Tatsumi’s wooden sword so it was pushed upwards .
He had seen this so many times before . Her next move with the staff was sure to aim for his chest like a spear .
Tatsumi tensed his right arm that had been pushed above his head, he swung the wooden sword down towards the staff that came for his chest, as he had predicted .
The wooden sword intercepted the staff before it could reach his chest, he had succeeded in blocking its path .
But perhaps Calcedonia had also predicted this, she quickly retracted the staff and returned to a thrusting position .
He would intercept the staff that was thrust forward again, before it could reach its maximum speed . Tatsumi decided as he stepped forward before Calcedonia made her move .
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He had bridged the gap, and she could no longer use momentum in the attack . And like that, the staff crashed into Tatsumi’s shield .
At the moment that the staff came into contact with his shield, Tatsumi adjusted the angle of the shield ever so slightly . And he was able to make the tip of the staff slide upwards .
And then he took another step . He was now even closer to Calcedonia .
The reach of the sword was much shorter than the staff . He needed to take one more step in order to be able to hit Calcedonia .
Just one step, but it was a step . And it was still difficult for the current Tatsumi to take that one step .
But now, her staff had been pushed upwards and seeing this opening, Tatsumi took that last step . Finally, he had brought his sword within striking distance of her .
However, Calcedonia would not go down easily . She didn’t fight against the staff that went off course, instead, she used that movement to move into a spin . The opposite end of the staff came from below, cutting through the air and attacking Tatsumi .
The staff’s course stretched from his feet to his chin . Tatsumi was aware of all of it .
All this repeated training with Calcedonia had not just been for show .
He intercepted the blow from below with his wooden sword . The sword struck the staff with a loud clang, -or so he thought . Before he knew it, he had received a blow to his jaw .
“… . huh?”
There was no sound of sword against staff at all . Only the pain in his jaw . In other words, she had somehow avoided Tatsumi’s sword and dealt the blow to his face .
As he thought this, he ignored the pain and looked at Calcedonia who stood in front of him .
But Calcedonia herself had a look of surprise, she was staring at the staff in her hands .
The tip of the staff had been cut off, it was now only two-thirds of its original length .
“Ah, huh…?”
Tatsumi also looked at her staff . That staff which had been assaulting him a moment ago was cut as if it had been severed by a sharp blade .
Apparently, the tip of the severed staff was what had hit Tatsumi in the face . The broken pieces were now lying at Tatsumi’s feet .
“Uh, what…?”
“Did, did you do…?”
“No, no, even I couldn’t possibly ‘cut’ something with a wooden sword…?”
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They both looked at each other, and yet their expressions conveyed nothing but confusion .
Then it happened .
A small, dry sound came like a whip, and in the next moment, a diagonal line started to appear on the upper half of Calcedonia’s clothes .
As we were in the middle of training, we wore clothing that prioritized mobility instead of armor .
Calcedonia was just wearing normal clothes . There, the line ran, and her white skin was peekomg through the gaps .
While his face turned red, Tatsumi stared at her despite himself . He was a young man after all . He had grown quite used to, -though, never ‘bored’- of seeing his wife’s skin . But it still had the ability to draw his attention .
Then the diagonal line grew larger, and before he knew it, the inside pressure was too much for the clothes, and Calcedonia’s two mounds popped out into the open . Completely .
“Hhhaaeee!?”
“Uh, uwawawaw!?”
Tatsumi was even more frantic than Calcedonia by this .
Even if they were on their own property, it was still a garden that could be seen by anyone . Fortunately, the time was early and there were few people walking around in the neighborhood . So there was no one to see them .
Even so, who knew when someone would pass by? He had a slight desire for exclusivity in regards to who was allowed to see the skin of his beloved wife, and he hurriedly covered her breasts .
With his two hands .
This was accomplished by grabbing them from the front . Of course, Tatsumi had not given this any thought . He was only in a panic and had ‘messed up’ without thinking .
“… . ahhhmm . ”
Tatsumi only realized what he had done when the suggestive sound escaped his wife’s lips .
He was grabbing his wife’s exposed breasts in the early morning in his garden . There was no doubt, that this is what it would look like from afar .
To be frank, this was so completely off-putting, that he would hardly be able to make any excuses .
“Oh…ahhhh!!”
Tatsumi was hit by an even stronger feeling of panic . He wordlessly picked Calcedonia up -like a princess, if you will- and ran at full speed back into their house .
At this point, Calcedonia’s face had turned a bright red as Tatsumi held her .
But who knew if it was due to the embarrassment of having her breasts exposed . Or if it was from the joy of being carried like this by her husband .
She alone knew the answer to this .