Kael Hound had them covering their fists with their essence while they went about their normal training. It was difficult; they had to focus their minds on putting energy into their hands while they went through a series of forms.
Azaroth slashed with a downward cut, but his energy-covered hand returned to normal immediately. He stopped, concentrating hard until he could bring the white invisible energy back to his hand.
"You have to put all of your skills at the back of your head so you can concentrate on the fight," Kael said. "How did you all survive in the crypt?"
Alex scowled. "It was different when we were fighting for our lives! I threw a punch with my essence-covered hand then!"
Azaroth frowned. He had fought with his chaos core easily; he only had to think about warping the chaos energy on his hand without doing any hard concentration.
Was the chaos energy easy to use? Azaroth couldn't be sure, but his normal core energy seemed... uncooperative. He couldn't fight and hold it at once.
"Oh? You mean you want to be in danger to learn?" Kael's voice had gone low.
"What? No!" Stallus shouted, understanding the threat. She shot Alex a dark look.
But whatever idea Kael was building, he had already made up his mind. Fire energy warped around him and he lifted his hand. "Let's train differently now. You all will fight me and I will only use energy to cover my feet and two fingers on my right hand."
Stallus scowled and mumbled, "Why don't we just continue training like we were?"
Kael pointed at Alex. "He made some sense; you all seem like the type to learn during real fighting."
"I will fight you for real, though I'll only use essence with my middle and second fingers, also my feet. Try not to die." Then Kael disappeared.
Azaroth immediately tightened his hand on his weapon as his red eyes started scanning. Kael had the speed advantage over them; there was no way to defeat that speed.
Alex groaned. "Why can't he just fight us for real? Why run..." Kael appeared beside him and punched Alex in the stomach with his left hand.
The punch lifted Alex from the floor and his eyes rolled back in his head as he slammed back on the ground, his weapon flying from his hand. Curling around himself, he groaned.
Stallus stared at him in shock. Maybe she hadn't truly believed Kael, but now she raised her sabre and drew it back.
Kael rushed Stallus, appearing in front of her with the speed of air, but Stallus was ready. She launched her sabre forward, directly in front of her where Kael appeared, and put energy on her left foot to slide backward.
It didn't go as expected. Her sabre didn't reach Kael, and her energy was frizzling, so it only drew her back a little.
Kael moved close and punched her in the face. Her head snapped back with the force, but she had put an essence cloak on her head at the last minute.
Stallus worked her jaw and spat out blood as she swayed backward. "Damn, this is even more scary than the crypt."
"You can say that again," Alex grunted where he knelt. He had recovered his sword and now used it as a standing stick.
Kael looked between Catena and Azaroth. He put his hand on his mask, pretending to think.
Then he propelled himself forward, straight at Azaroth.
Azaroth didn't bother with his essence energy. He brought his sword up sharply and then downwards, confusing Kael, who had already dodged with his head.
Azaroth's sword almost pierced his stomach, but Kael was times faster than Azaroth, and his two energy-covered fingers clenched the sword.
Kael's fingers glowed red. "You are a tricky one, aren't you? If you were ten times faster, you might have done some damage to me."
Azaroth tried to remove his sword, but it wouldn't budge from Kael's fingers. It was stuck fast. Then Azaroth thought; he was only not able to use his essence and his sword. Azaroth started concentrating.
Kael flipped his fingers and Azaroth somersaulted, but shifted midair and, with his fist covered with white energy, he punched Kael.
Or tried to. Kael brought his two fingers up, and the two connected with a blast of shockwave that sent Azaroth flying through the air.
He slammed against one of the dummies and groaned, but still, he smirked. If Azaroth had the same amount of power as Kael, he was sure he could have done real damage.
Kael appeared on Catena's back. The tall boy turned with his smooth chain metal ball and swung, but a quick chop to the head and he fell.
Kael looked down at all of them. "Well, this is disappointing. There wasn't any actual use of essence and sword fighting. Only Stallus managed something. Azaroth used tricky moves, but he didn't combine the two."
"I must admit this is the first time I'm teaching weapon and essence fighting at the same time. Usually, you will be trained separately and then combine it," Kael said.
Azaroth sat upright. He had used both sword and essence with his chaos energy when he was in the crypt, though he hadn't been able to infuse it into his weapon.
He looked at the dark blade at Kael's feet. Maybe he would be able to do so now, but which core should he use to create the soul weapon? Azaroth didn't want people to know he had two cores.
Since the chaos core energy was similar to that of fire, maybe people wouldn't notice too much.
A thought came to him then. Is that why the eye said he should choose fire techniques?
"One thing I noticed is that there was no attempt at teamwork among yourselves. Of course, that is perfectly fine since you are being taught to be self-capable, but as a Hound and Awakener you should use every available resource to complete your mission," Kael snapped his fingers. "Use a team if it's useful."
Azaroth frowned; he could see Kael's point.
"Now stand up! We will do this as many times as possible until you start getting it!" Kael shouted.
Catena grunted and Alex cursed. Stallus only sighed and massaged her jaw.
Azaroth said nothing and just stood up.