Chapter 54: What Kind of Bloodline Trait Is This?

’Of course they’d have a training area,’ Magna thought looking arround, still hanging from Titus’s grip, looking at the wide space stretched out in front of him.

It was located in the estate’s outer garden, still enclosed within the garden walls, a fairly large open area.

By his estimate, it looked about half the size of a football field, entirely covered in packed sand.

Around the space, he could see training dummies set up for weapon and bare-handed practice.

Every kind of weapon imaginable sat displayed on a shelf nearby, along with what looked like weights and some strange but cleverly designed gym equipment.

None of it looked as modern as anything back on Earth, but it was still probably a rare luxury for a world like this.

"So, what do you think? Should we start by putting some muscle on that weak, saggy body of yours?" Titus said cheerfully, finally setting him down on the ground.

To him, Magna looked small and fragile, barely reaching up to his waist, with limbs so thin they looked like dry twigs.

If he wanted to turn him into a real man, he figured he needed to bulk him up first.

Magna wasn’t a fan of that idea, though. "Can’t we just go straight to the fighting practice?"

With Gaia on his side, he was confident he could build muscle easily enough in the future.

Besides, his body technically wasn’t even four years old yet, even if it looked closer to eight. He still had plenty of time and room to grow.

"Have it your way, kid. Show me what you’ve got." Titus said, surprisingly leaving the choice up to him.

Before taking his stance, Magna glanced over at the weapon shelf. "Mind if I grab a weapon first?"

If he wanted to see Titus use a spell, he had to push him hard enough to force his hand, and for that, he figured he needed a weapon.

Titus also wasn’t wearing his frost armor right now, just his usual white shirt and black pants, so Magna believed he had a real shot at pushing him to his limit.

His confidence wasn’t baseless either. Between everything Gaia had upgraded in his body so far, and years of experience burned into his mind of a cold-blooded assassin, he had every reason to feel sure of himself.

"Sure, go ahead." Titus agreed, a flicker of curiosity crossing his face, clearly wondering what weapon the kid would end up choosing.

He watched as Magna walked casually over to the shelf and checked each weapon one by one, all of them made of real steel, none of the wooden training kind.

After about a minute of looking things over, he finally picked out a pair of daggers and walked back.

"I’ll use these. Is that okay?"

Titus raised an eyebrow slightly, clearly not too impressed by the choice, but he said anyway. "That’s fine."

He wasn’t expecting much from him regardless. As far as he was concerned, the kid was still just a child who had never had any real combat training.

But his expression, and his whole way of thinking, shifted the moment he saw Magna settle into a fighting stance.

Holding one dagger in a reverse grip pointed forward, and the other in a regular grip held slightly back, his legs bent just enough, his body angled with his weight distributed perfectly across both feet, he no longer looked like some untrained kid at all.

Even his eyes seemed to change along with the stance.

His dark brown eyes locked onto Titus with such sharp focus that, for a moment, Titus wondered if the boy had just slipped into some kind of serene state of his own.

While Titus silently gave the kid credit in his head, Celeste was watching them both from the sidelines.

She had already slipped into her own serene state, her face completely blank, her eyes focused on the small body.

In that state, her analytical thinking sped up considerably. Even without real combat training herself, she could clearly see just how flawless Magna’s stance was and how sharp his focus had become.

"It really does look like a bloodline trait, but I can’t quite tell what kind," she murmured calmly.

She had never heard of a bloodline trait that granted someone this kind of clear, direct combat ability.

To her eyes, Magna looked less like a boy raised in a cave, and more like someone who had grown up on a battlefield, having lived through every kind of bloody fight imaginable.

"Come at me whenever you’re ready." Titus said, standing there completely relaxed, not even bothering to raise his guard, clearly still underestimating the kid.

That worked out fine for Magna anyway, since he wanted to force him into using a spell as quickly as possible, in one decisive move.

Then, without giving his opponent any warning to catch his movement, Magna lunged forward, perfectly coordinating every muscle in his legs and core.

To the naked eye, it looked like a single seamless leap.

In a fraction of a second, however, his feet struck the ground three times, building explosive speed with every step.

Before anyone could blink, he closed the distance and stood directly in front of Titus’s massive body.

One of his daggers pointed straight at his broad chest, aimed right at his heart.

Titus was caught off guard for a moment. Not by Magna’s speed, but by the fact that the dagger was aimed to kill.

If it pierced his heart, even Celeste wouldn’t be able to do anything to save him.

Yet he didn’t panic in the slightest.

His entire body stayed completely still. Only his right arm moved, reaching forward slowly.

It looked almost too slow to matter, since the dagger was already well ahead of it, closing in on its target.

But the moment Magna noticed that massive hand, fingers already curling toward his thin throat, he stopped his attack instantly.

His right foot slammed into the ground, bringing his momentum to a halt. Then, with perfect control over his body, he pushed off and threw himself backward, narrowly slipping out of the hand’s reach.

’What the hell was that?’ Magna landed several steps away as he stared at Titus in disbelief.

Titus was still standing exactly where he had been. His body hadn’t moved an inch.

Only his right hand remained raised in the air.

Magna’s mind struggled to process what had just happened.

He was so sure that he could already picture his dagger piercing his chest before that hand could ever reach him, but for some reason, the hand was far faster than his blade.

Until now, Magna had thought of Titus as nothing more than a mountain of muscle with an incredibly durable body.

But he had been wrong.

That man wasn’t just strong and durable like an ogre.

He was fast, too.