"I heard you were training the kids. I'll help out." Gorvak said.
"Glad to have you. Now how many of you have received permission to train today?" Chronos asked.
"Everyone that is older than eight has permission. Matron said that if we start training when we're too young, we'll ruin our bodies." April said.
Several children glared at her for saying that. Making Chronos realize that some of them were planning to secretly train with them if they weren't stopped but the matron was right, aura training too early on could harm their body.
"I see, then I want everyone that's older than eight to raise your hands. And don't try to pretend that you're old enough or I'll have the matron come and lecture you."
Groans sounded from several of them who had hoped to trick the werewolf into training them anyways, but they stepped away before the matron was called.
After they had stepped back Chronos counted the raised hands finding that there were fifteen kids who wanted training.
"Alright, now I'm going to be teaching all of you a neutral method that increases your combat endurance. If any of you feel that this method isn't right for you, we can have one of the others teach you. Don't forget that learning the wrong method is even worse than not learning a method at all." Chronos said.
Watching them nod he could tell that very few of them actually understood what he meant.
"Now the first thing you need for the Guardians Steel breathing method is a weapon, without one this method will not work. So, for today each of you will receive a dagger provided by Gregory here." Chronos pointed at Gregory who was standing off to the side.
Stepping forward he opened his item bag and passed out daggers to each child. He had brought more than enough of them to use with his new combat style and still give out the spares for others, but Chronos started to wonder just how much he had stuffed in there.
Each dagger was well made and allowed for an even flow of energy through them, making them perfect for a first weapon.
"Now that you all have a weapon, I'll go over some safety rules before we start. This method involves using your weapon as a part of your body by drawing in more world energy through your weapon in addition to your body.
However, if you do this incorrectly the energy you draw in will poison you instead of restoring your strength. If you are being poisoned you will taste metal in your mouth, hear ringing in your ears, or experiencing sudden bouts of euphoria. If you start feeling these things make sure to stop training and inform one of us immediately.
These symptoms are not lethal but should be treated as soon as possible." Chronos stared at all of them until he was sure they understood how important these warnings were.
"Good, now that you know the dangers we'll proceed with the training now. First take this guard stance, once you are in the guard stance inhale for 4 seconds hold your breath for 2 seconds then slowly exhale for 6 seconds. During this whole process imagine your weapon is your lungs breathing with you."
They imitated Chronos's stance.
"Are you ready?" They nodded, "Then begin. Inhale...hold your breath, keep holding...exhale, slower you're exhaling too fast. Good, now again. While you're practicing, we'll be giving advice to each of you."
As the children practiced Chronos, Gregory, and Gorvak moved among them helping stabilize their breathing and correcting posture where it was needed.
Several of the older kids had an easy time as they had practiced martial arts before even though they didn't have a method to pair with it.
Amongst them April had the easiest time learning the first step. It was similar to how you held a bow when you were about to shoot a target and she had plenty of experience hunting.
On the other hand, Birk was struggling as he tried to force it and Chronos had to stop him multiple times, slow him down and refocus his efforts.
"Birk you can't rush aura. Calm down and focus on your current training, you'll gain strength as you focus your efforts in a single direction." Chronos said.
"But I need to get stronger fast."
Looking directly in his eyes Chronos said. "Fast growth always comes at an extreme price. You're young and don't need fast growth, what you need is steady growth. Let us adults handle the threats right now."
"Fine." He didn't look happy about it, but he did slow down.
Seeing him calm down Chronos moved on to the next child that needed help. After they trained for an hour, he stopped everyone for the day.
"Good work all of you. I can see some of you making progress already."
"What do you mean? All we did was breathe for an hour." One of them grumbled.
"Yes, but you are starting to breathe through your weapon. That will increase your recovery speed both in and out of combat, tomorrow we'll go over the next exercise to further increase your speed."
One of the older boys raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"When do we get to practice techniques? I thought we would be learning how to fight, not just breathe."
Several other children agreed with him. When they had been told, they were going to practice an aura method they had thought it would involve more combat.
"We'll practice combat techniques once you can breathe properly even while training your stances, not before then. Learning aura is not a fast or simple process; it takes time if you don't want any flaws in your foundation." Chronos said, causing several children to grumble about the slow pace.
"If I catch any of you trying to use techniques before I give you permission you will be given extra breathing training for a week."
That got their attention, even if they were told that breathing could help them become stronger it was still very boring for kids to do for an entire hour.
"Now we'll be going over your stances and correcting your movements until lunch."
They groaned at the intense training they would be doing now.
"If you're not happy with training then you can leave now." Chronos looked at all of them but not a single child left.
At lunch Lyla and the matron watched as a group of kids stumbled in to eat with Chronos behind them.
"How are they doing?" The Matron asked.
"Pretty good, April will probably start feeling aura within the week, but the others will take a little longer. I wanted to ask you is it alright to give them access to the system once they can feel aura? It'll probably provide better techniques than we can." Chronos said.
The Matron took a look at her system which she had been given before she left the army for here and couldn't help but think it would be better for them to have it sooner but her instincts to let children grow up as children conflicted with her thoughts.
After thinking about it for a time she came to a decision.
"Alright but only after they can feel aura. They should spend as much time being children as they can, you only get to be a child once after all."
"Agreed." Chronos said while secretly planning how to help them advance faster.
Luckily only Lyla noticed.
Sitting next to him for lunch she asked, "So what's the plan?"
"For now, I need them to understand the breathing method first. The Guardian's Steel breathing method is designed to introduce them to aura in the shortest time possible without actually giving them any dangerous abilities or strengths.
After that we'll go over their systems with them and see what they have access to. I'll also teach this method to Gorvak so he can train them when we are out on patrol." Chronos explained.
"You better hope the matron doesn't realize how helpful that method is or it might become forbidden."
Her instincts to let them enjoy childhood were too strong and a fast-growing method could be forbidden if she thought it took away their childhood.
"That's why I'm trying to teach it to them as fast as possible." Chronos looked at her as he got a sudden idea. "Do you want to learn it as well?"
"No, it's super useful for warrior types but for casters it hinders our growth."
Chronos nodded in understanding. The whole method focused on turning your weapon into a new part of your body, for casters who tried to align their bodies with an element or multiple elements having more body parts to align would just get in the way.
Over the next few days Chronos fell into a routine. In the mornings he would train the children until lunch then after lunch he would patrol their surroundings to make sure nobody had found them yet. And in the evenings, he would study his own skills or the book on spatial relativity he had in his mind.