Vanessa said, "I was born like this."
Alex with admiration, "Soo Cool."
Rusk started skinning the bear, Kael and Jace helped him. Meanwhile, Vanessa and Alex were talking. Most of the time Vanessa talked about his stories, while Alex simply just listened to him with such curiosity.
Alex then asked Vanessa for help in rescuing his brother, "Vanessa can you help me rescue my brother from bandits?"
Vanessa didn't expect her to have a brother, "You have a brother?"
"Yeah he got kidnapped when the bandits raided my village", Alex told her.
Vanessa felt sorry for what happened, "That must have been tough for you, but I can't help you with that. You see I am on a mission so I don't have time".
Alex felt down, "Sorry, you have your own problems too".
Vanessa patted her on the head and said, "Don't worry, you are with Rusk. He is a lot more useful than I am"
Alex said, "Yes I shouldn't worry like that. He is strong enough to fight you after all."
"Hey, hey, hey, Why are guys making it look like I am weak.", Rusk heard their conversation from afar, "This is like cheating I lose to Vanessa, only because she has the bloodline of dragons".
Vanessa said, annoyed, "Don't butt in when girls are talking !!!"
Rusk said also being annoyed, "Shut up, This is why you never get married, because of your attitude".
Rusk pushed the button he never should have. Vanessa got angry, stood up, turned to Rusk and punched him in the face and sent him flying to the tree. The force of him crashing broke the tree in half.
"This is what you get for saying bullshit"
Kael and Jace couldn't believe their eyes, the man that single-handedly defeated group of assassins was sent flying by a woman. Alex didn't expect that.
Thankfully, Rusk managed to ease impact of the punch by gathering mana around his face. But still there was some damage, he had a bloody nose. Rusk stood up and went to clean his face.
"Damn it. Can you go a little easy on me next time".
"This is what you get for provoking me", Vanessa crossed her arms, and spoke annoyingly "Next time you do that, you might really die".
Kael and Jace couldn't believe what they had just witnessed. Rusk and Vanessa were casual about it, like they do this always. They thought "What a crazy woman".
As Rusk was leaving he warned the kids in a funny way, "Hey guys don't mess with this hag".
Vanessa shouted, "What did you say? You wanna get beaten again". Rusk ran quickly.
Kael asked, "You do this often?"
"Don't worry about it, he will be fine. You don't know what I did to him when we fought.", Vanessa replied, "This is like nothing to that, he gets up every time".
Jace and Alex thought, "This was nothing!" as they opened their eyes wide-open.
Kael was unsure about it being nothing, "Really, this was nothing".
"Well for normal people it might be more but for Torian Ironlaw who was the top among his peers. It is nothing".
Alex also asked, wondering to know more about the Identity Torian Ironlaw, "Just who exactly is Rusk? I know he was royalty and kicked out, has a bounty on his head. How is he strong?".
Vanessa said, "He was always at the top, even when we were at academy. He was naturally gifted and had a sharp mind. And he was humble also among the royalty".
Vanessa blushed as she was talking, "One time, we faced each other when we were in competition. And in that fight I truly knew the real him. Even I defeated him multiple times, he got up, and in the end he collapsed and woke up at the infirmary. I only defeated him, because of my genes I think. We are born strong than any other kid".
Alex suddenly asked, "So you love him, don't you?"
Vanessa shouted and closed her face, "Shut up, No".
Alex with a laughter, "Calm down I was joking"
Kael and Jace were laughing too. Then Rusk came, "Hey what's up"
Vanessa with shaky voice, "nnnothing".
Rusk asked, "Why are you red? you sick or something?"
Vanessa was embarrassed, "No I am fine. It is just hot".
"Whatever weirdo", Rusk said.
All this time, Jace was concerned about how to get stronger like Rusk and Vanessa. So he could help Kael achieve his dreams.
Back when Kael and Jace were slaves, Kael always helped Jace. He would even take a beating from the nasty nobles. Jace felt indebted to him.
Jace asked them, How to become stronger like them. Rusk and Vanessa didn't expect to hear it out of the blue.
"Now, kids come here I will teach you guys something today", Rusk told them.
Alex and Kael were hoping to get stronger too for their own reasons. Vanessa stepped up, cutting Rusk while speaking, "Guys I will be your teacher today, after all you should be learning from the best". After saying that she winks at Rusk, meaning she is stronger than him.
They said with big eyes, "Really, You are gonna teach us".
Rusk said, unsatisfied, "Really you guys are gonna swap me for this weirdo". Then Rusk walked away like he didn't care, "Hmph, Do whatever you want". But the jealousy was clear.
Vanessa messed with him as he was going with an annoying voice, "Hey, don't get jealous. Your time will come".
Rusk left, saying, "Idiot, teach them well".
The kids were chuckling at the back. Vanessa turned towards them with a grin on her face, smiling, "Let's start the training".
The kids' smile faded slowly, thinking "That is not the smile of a normal person".
After 30 minutes into the training, Jace and Alex collapsed to the ground after all that exhaustion. Kael was barely standing, holding onto a tree nearby.
"Guys! Now that we warmed up, let's start the real training", Vanessa said.
Jace shouted, "Real training? What have we been doing all this time?".
"Hey, quit being a bitch. This isn't even a warm-up to me. You guys just were running lifting some small rocks. And you couldn't even do that", Vanessa replied.
"But you were throwing anything that you found to us. We could have died, you know", Jace became angry.
"Ok. That was on me. But this will help your physical strength. But now we start the real training", Vanessa sighed.
"What kind of training will that be?", Kael asked.
"This will be a secret for now, so for 10 minutes you guys can have a break", Vanessa said, with evil smile again.