The grand doors of Carrion's throne hall creaked open. A pair of guards stood by the entrance, wide-eyed and mouths slightly open in disbelief. Moments ago, they had witnessed the unthinkable—a human, with no magic, no weapons, no visible energy, had dismantled the mighty Three Beastketeers in seconds. And he had done it with just his legs.
Word spread like wildfire.
From the lowest scouts to the highest officers, whispers echoed through the capital:
"A human who beat the Beastketeers..."
"Without magic?"
"They didn't even touch him."
"He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets..."
By the next morning, the name Yujiro Hanma had become the hottest topic in all of Eurazania.
The Training Grounds – Day One
Carrion, standing proud beside Milim and Yujiro, had gathered every elite warrior in the kingdom—hundreds of beastfolk, each known for their strength and power. Armored warriors with lion manes, panther stripes, thick fur, claws, tails—all proud, powerful beings born of muscle and magic.
The atmosphere buzzed with tension and curiosity.
Carrion stepped forward, his voice echoing across the grounds.
"Today, I introduce to you a man unlike any other. This is Yujiro Hanma. He will be training our entire army, and I will be joining the training personally."
A murmur rippled through the soldiers.
Milim grinned wide, arms crossed.
"And don't think this is some magic-enhancing course. This is the real deal. Even I'm curious."
Yujiro stepped forward, shirtless now, body glistening in the sun. His muscles looked carved from stone, each fiber tense with coiled power. He stood tall, arms crossed, eyes sweeping across the crowd like a lion among cubs.
His voice was calm but terrifyingly firm.
"No magic. No skills. No energy blasts. In my training—only raw strength. Your own muscles, your own bones. That's it."
A silence fell.
Then the murmurs came again.
"No magic…?"
"How are we supposed to train without it?"
"Is that even possible…?"
Yujiro stepped closer, his voice dropping low.
"This is the style of Kyokushin Karate. And from now on, you live by it."
Training began immediately. No warm-up, no easing in.
"Run!" Yujiro barked.
"Barefoot. Ten miles. Now!"
Dozens of beastfolk looked unsure—but orders were orders. Soon, the entire field thundered with the sound of bare feet pounding against sharp gravel and dirt. The soldiers grunted, growled, some even yelped in pain as rocks sliced their soles. Some tried to enhance their legs with energy—
"Stop right there." Yujiro appeared beside one in an instant. His gaze alone froze the man.
"No enhancements. I see it again, and you're out."
Carrion himself was running. Sweat poured down his forehead. Even he hadn't felt pain like this in centuries.
Milim giggled as she ran beside the soldiers.
"This is great! It hurts so much! Isn't it fun?!"
Most soldiers weren't smiling. The ten-mile run turned brutal quickly. No stamina potions, no healing, just the raw ache of fatigue.
The next day, training resumed at dawn.
No one had slept well. Feet were bruised. Bodies sore. But Yujiro didn't care.
"Today, you punch." he said. "Rock wall. Five hundred punches. Each hand. No gloves."
Gasps rang out. But again—they obeyed.
The sound of fists slamming into stone echoed for hours. Knuckles split. Fur turned red. Many collapsed halfway through, hands shaking uncontrollably. Phobio growled through gritted teeth.
"This is insane..."
"We're warriors, not stone-breakers!" Suphia spat, wiping blood from her hand.
Albis, breathing hard, kept going.
"He's breaking us down... so we can be built back up."
Yujiro watched silently, arms crossed, unmoving as a statue.
By the fifth day, the once-proud beast army had changed.
Gone were the cocky grins. The confident auras. Every warrior had bags under their eyes. Many had lost weight. They had no magic to lean on, no fancy skills. Just tired muscles and shaking limbs.
Carrion sat on the edge of a cliff after the morning run, panting, drenched in sweat.
"How... how is he this strong..." he muttered.
Phobio, lying on the ground beside Suphia, muttered,
"I've never felt this weak in my life..."
Suphia wiped her forehead, looking up at the rising sun.
"No... this is the first time I've felt alive."
Albis slowly stood, bruised and battered, her fists taped crudely.
"This… is real strength."
Milim had joined in every day. Despite her strength, she never used magic. She followed the rules.
She grinned wide as she kicked a giant boulder, cracking it.
"You know... they never trained like this before," she said, smiling to Yujiro.
"It hurts. It's exhausting. But it's fun!"
Yujiro glanced at her and grunted.
"Pain is the greatest teacher. You want power—earn it."
On the tenth day, something changed.
The soldiers woke up early—on their own. They didn't groan. They didn't question. Their movements were sharper. More disciplined. They had stopped whining. Now, they were focused.
Yujiro stood at the edge of the training ground, watching the army sprint without orders.
Carrion walked up beside him, still wiping sweat from his neck.
"They're changing..."
Yujiro didn't smile.
"They're learning what real strength is."
Carrion looked across his warriors—once dependent on magic, now building power with their own bodies.
"And what happens when they do?" he asked.
Yujiro cracked his neck.
"Then... we start the real training."
The sunrise painted the skies of Eurazania with golden light, and the beastfolk warriors were already moving. Their bare feet struck the earth in perfect rhythm, their forms sharp and focused. Gone were the clumsy, gasping trainees of Day One. After one month under Yujiro Hanma's brutal regime, they had stamina most thought impossible.
Now, it was time for the next phase.
Yujiro stood in front of them, arms crossed, face stone-cold as always.
"From now on… we shift to combat training. No magic. Still raw. Still real. We focus on form. Footwork. Precision."
He took a single step forward—his foot sliding smoothly into stance. Then came a lightning-fast punch, one so sharp it split the air with a crack.
"Every move you throw should mean something. No wasted energy. No sloppy strikes."
Carrion, now shirtless and bruised from weeks of intense training, nodded.
"Footwork, huh? Sounds basic, but… I get it now. Strength means nothing if you can't move right."
Phobio winced as he stretched his shoulder.
"Great. More of this. My body already feels like it's been through a war..."
Albis smiled as she tied a strip of cloth over her knuckles.
"That's because we are at war—with our old selves."
Suphia grinned.
"Heh. Let's see if my legs can keep up now. I'm starting to like this pain."
Weeks passed. The training changed daily.
Drills focused on balance—fighting while blindfolded, balancing on narrow logs, dodging weighted sandbags thrown without warning. They punched in rhythm. Kicked in unison. Footwork patterns were drilled into them until they moved like flowing water, striking with purpose, blocking with grace.
Yujiro demonstrated once a day—never more, never less. One motion. One perfect technique. Then he'd walk away and let them figure it out.
Carrion would often watch Yujiro quietly from a distance.
"How can someone move like that…? He's not just a warrior. He's nature itself. A storm."
The Beastketeers were no longer just strong. They were sharp. Phobio's movements had refined into aggressive precision, Albis flowed with graceful power, and Suphia's kicks—once wild—were now fierce, timed like clockwork.
Even the regular soldiers—once reliant on magic for everything—now trained with a fury that was purely their own.
Month Four – Unbreakable Spirits
They no longer complained. They no longer hesitated.
Each day started with sunrise sprints—still barefoot. Then came striking drills, hours of kata, sparring matches that ended in bruises and exhaustion. Still no healing magic. Still no shortcuts.
They learned to read body language, to anticipate movement, to flow with the fight.
Carrion sat with his generals one evening after training.
"I used to think magic made us strong," he said, looking at his bruised hands.
"But this… this has changed us."
Albis looked at her reflection in a pool of water, her toned arms covered in bandages.
"We look different."
Suphia smirked.
"We are different."
Phobio cracked his knuckles.
"I wanna test this against real enemies. I'm itching to see what we can really do."
Milim, now just one of the crew, stretched out on the grass nearby.
"You guys are getting scary strong! I'm loving this!"
Yujiro, standing on a nearby rock, spoke without turning.
"You're not done."
His voice was like thunder.
"One more month. Then we'll see what you're truly capable of."
Month Five – The Awakening
Five months. Blood. Sweat. Suffering.
Yujiro gathered the entire army on the main grounds. Even the skies seemed to quiet. He stood before them, expression as unreadable as ever.
"Today," he said slowly, "you can use energy again."
A beat of silence. Then gasps, shocked looks, murmurs rippling through the crowd.
Carrion's eyes widened.
"Wait… seriously?"
Yujiro nodded.
"Fuse it. Blend it with everything you've learned. You'll see what real power is."
The beastfolk looked at each other nervously. Then—one by one—they did as told.
Suphia lit a small spark of energy into her kicks—her foot shattered a stone wall with a single strike.
"Wha—What the hell?! That was just a warm-up kick!"
Phobio roared, letting a low charge of his beast aura flow into his fist—his punch created a shockwave that knocked back five trees.
Albis danced forward with a fusion of magic and her new strikes—graceful, lethal. Her wind magic, once unstable in melee, now flowed with her movements like silk, slicing through stone targets with elegance.
Carrion stood in stunned silence.
"It's like... everything got sharper. Stronger. More efficient."
He looked down at his own hands. Let a small charge of energy build as he moved through a kata. His strikes caused the ground beneath him to crack.
"My magic isn't controlling me. It's amplifying me."
Yujiro smirked—his first smirk in months.
"That's what happens when your body learns before your power does. You're no longer using magic as a crutch. Now, it's a weapon in the hands of warriors."
The training field erupted in cheers, roars, and power surges. The once-magic-dependent soldiers now looked like legends. Their strikes caused craters. Their footwork blurred with speed. Their battle cries echoed across the kingdom.
Later That Night
As the fires of the evening blazed, Carrion sat beside Milim, the Beastketeers around him.
"Five months ago, we thought we were strong," he said quietly.
"Now… we know we weren't even close."
Milim giggled and nodded.
"Yujiro didn't just train your bodies. He rewired your instincts. That's rare."
Phobio clenched his fists, smiling.
"I feel like I could take on a dragon right now."
Suphia leaned back, arms behind her head.
"If we had fought the Falmuth's army five months ago, we would've been destroyed. Now? I'd give 'em a real fight."
Albis looked toward Yujiro, who stood alone on a cliff, arms crossed, watching the stars.
"He changed all of us."
Carrion nodded.
"And this kingdom will never be the same again."