Sparring Match

Out near the South Gate was a forest, just down a trail which also led to a lake named Bellow Lake, there was a training ground that Kale and Lilith used for practice and such. The last time we were here together was in the Winter when it snowed pretty heavily, so we couldn't really do much in the snow. But now it was the Springtime, and with all the snow melted, we could finally see the lavish green grass and flowers that surrounded the forest.

Now, alchemy class told me a lot about flowers. How to tell one from another, what their usages will be, how much I should use. It's probably my most underappreciated class that I have besides healing class. The forest was filled with herbs and things that I could've easily made during our first time out here.

It was me, Lilith, Sarah, Kale, Tera, and Edward who went out to the forest today. Kale and Tera decided to join us today as Kale felt he had enough drinking from yesterday and Tera was keen on seeing what I was capable of. Edward followed behind me, as we were the last two behind everyone else. I took this time to sort of evaluate what I got myself into. I sort of wish Everyone else was here, but they had other plans.

Derrick and Mary went off on their own. From what Edward said, they wanted to spend time together. And Idea of Mary's that Derrick openly agreed to. He wasn't sure where they were heading, but he assumed they'd be fine without him tagging along.

Sura was off studying in the university as her family wasn't in the kingdom, I don't think any of us wanted to bother her studying, actually I still don't know why she studies so hard. Sura always opted to study about multiple topics, Politics, kingdoms, Prusha's history and even other kingdoms histories.

Griffin was off with his family, The Belark family. From what I recall from Griffin, his family during this festival set out to their friends homes and celebrated with an offering of their service. I thought it was weird at first, but I reminded myself that Griffin was devoted to being my friend. Which made me confused as if that was the case, he would've come to me during this festival…Not that I would be happy that he'd be asking me for his assistance in that way. Anyways, I wouldn't have counted on them going. Lilith seemed more eager than yesterday to head out.

This morning, Lilith was already up early with her mother, already over the fact that Sarah was going to pass. It seems she quite literally cried out all her feelings last night as her eyes were red as well. Sarah spent all morning talking with Lilith. I didn't really listen to it since I felt it was just too personal for me to be a part of it. But once they finished up, Lilith seemed more confident and rejuvenated.

"Kota." I turned to Edward, who said my name. The man was still wearing his ushanka along with a white shirt that was drenched in sweat.

…Maybe he should take off that fur hat? I know of the policies of this kingdom being fairly rough of beast and demon people, but that's if they were crossing into our side or going back to the demon continent. Edward shouldn't have an issue with that…at least I think. Wait, actually I recall Derrick and him had an issue with some guards when they travelled to Shanford.

"How far do we need to go?" He huffed. His tongue sticking out. I keep forgetting this man is a beast person, underneath that ushanka of his was his floppy dog ears.

Just out of curiosity, I stopped dead in my tracks and reached my hand out towards him. Edwards at first looked at me in confusion until my hand landed onto his hat. I was about shoulder height to him, so it was that hard. But he quickly slapped my hand away and clutched his ushanka hat.

"No…" he said sternly, but I could tell that he seemed embarrassed by his own actions.

"Ah-Sorry. Don't worry, Edward. We're almost there."

Some point I'll take that hat off.

A couple minutes passed and suddenly, the forest opened up to a flat ground. We made it to the training place. Here the trees formed a circle around a beaten up ground, it wasn't a perfect circle as it seems as though some of the trees were cut down. Stumps were all around the place.

"Alright, we're here." Kale said as he moved into the circle. "This is where I train Lilith. It's close enough to easily travel, and far enough from any Goblin nest or any monsters. Though it'd be nice if they did show up. Would be a more interesting."

"I cut down most of the trees here!" Lilith shouted, aiming her finger at the stumps that were on the ground. Kale nodded at her words, looking quite approving of her.

"Wait, are you telling me she made this area then?" Tera asked. "This is fairly large for just the two of you."

"Oh, trust me." Kale turned to us. His eyes narrowed. "This amount of space isn't enough for what the both of us can do." He said that with a dramatic voice, it was like hearing something out of an Anime.

…

When no one said anything, Kale awkwardly looked at everyone. I think he was hoping that everyone would be amazed by that statement. But no one batted an eye.

"…Ugh, fine. Alright, guess you guys don't like me making things sound cool."

"I was hoping you would elaborate on what you meant by that, kale. Not everyone here knows what you mean by that."

"Tera, that's why I was alluding to something bigger! Makes it more mysterious!"

"It makes you sound stupid." Tera rolled her eyes. "Just elaborate so we can get to the fighting."

"Fine." Kale irritatedly said. "As you know with Fire king style, the focus of it is the aggressiveness and speed of it. For most users in Intermediate, this space is quite enough for speed and aggression." But he then glanced at Lilith. "However…we're talking about a normal user. Lilith's quick footing and speed is something that would be obtained for a King ranked user. This area isn't enough for us to traverse with our speed and strength."

Jesus, these two are able to go that fast? I know Lilith is quick, I've seen it when we fought the demon bird. But I don't think I've seen Kale be fast though. These two managed to do so much training that they destroyed parts of the training ground. I took a glance around and even noticed on closer observations that there were marks and rubble of rocks on the training ground.

What the fuck was I getting into?

"Kota!" Tera turned to me, frantically rushing to me and grabbing my shoulder. " Do you actually want to do this?"

"Sadly…I did tell her that I'd smash her in a sparring match…" That was a lie, I meant the other definition of smash. "Look, I've been training too! I'm basically intermediate or king in most of the basic elements!"

The past few months of being here have actually increased my magic efficiency quite a bit. Being able to learn new spells and seemingly being able to cast them without their long chants was an upgrade for me. And though most of the classes I had went through what I've learned before, I learned to manage mana output and input for spells. A simple fire spell for me would've easily burned my hand since all I did was pour mana into my hand, now I was capable of calculating how much mana would be poured into my hand so that it wouldn't burn me. I think this would come in handy in Situations where some spells would prove to be fatal unless their mana input was low enough.

That's the strange thing about this world, I don't think they really use math in the way I use it for magic. Though to be fair, I don't think anyone here fully understands magic, just how well they are able to not kill themselves with it. Hell, I'm sure there's still a bunch of combinations of spells that we don't know yet until we try.

"Kota, do you know the first thing you do when fighting a Swordsman?" Tera asked.

"Erm…"

I've watched Lilith fight and train when I had the chance. You could say I'm able to somewhat follow her movements when she uses Fire king style. I found it simple enough to just keep your distance and make sure they don't close in on you. Using Quicksand seemed to be the best case scenario for me, or just an area of effect spell would do something. But judging by Tera's look, she didn't seem confident in me.

"This your first time sparring with Lilith?"

Huh…You know what, she's right. This is my first time. Is it weird that we never actually sparred with each other? Well, our schedules are different from each other and by the time both of us are home, we're both tired and exhausted.

"Uh..yes."

Tera eyes furrowed at my response. "So you asked her to spar with you without even knowing how to fight?!"

"H-hey! It was in the heat of the moment! Look, if you're so anxious about this, why not tell me how to fight a swordsman?"

"Ugh…" She palmed her face. "Well if you're going to be beaten, might as well tell you."

So much for a confidence boost.

Edward moved ahead of us, along with Sarah. The two found a log that they decided to sit on and waited patiently. Edward striking up a conversation.

Tera began to give me some of her tips. "From my own experience, dealing with a swordsman comes with understanding how they fight. Now I've fought with kale before. In bed and in training sessions before."

"Hey!" I heard kale yell.

But Tera ignored him. "With Kale's style of fighting, the most you are dealing with are fast and swift Front attacks. They'll manage to close the distance on you before you get the chance and strike. Erm..Think of their strikes as…a cone if you will. The way they swing their sword means if you try to get out of it, they'll manage to catch you. You won't have enough time for speed to move out of it."

Seems reasonable. It's obvious that Lilith has the advantage when it comes to this sparring session. If the distance between us was even more, I'd likely be able to beat her, she hasn't fought a mage like me before. If I'm able to cast the spells quick enough, I should be able to get with one of them before she closes in on me.

"It's obvious that moving backwards isn't enough for you, so what I usually do with Kale is that I move forward. The amount of force one uses to lunge forward won't stop them once you manage to get behind them, which is why you should be moving towards them instead of back. This way, they'll still be going that same direction as you get a magic spell ready to hit them from behind."

"Well, what if they manage to turn around in time?"

"They wouldn't be able to counter as fast as you cast, kota. Face it, your silent casting is a huge advantage for you when it comes to mages. Even if they did manage to hit you, you'd still be at the advantage as you use your magic."

Wow, I didn't even think of that. Maybe I should give Tera credit for being a teacher for once. I mean she is a pretty experienced mage.

"I see…Thank you, Tera." I said with a genuine tone.

"You're welcome! Now get out there, get smacked around so we can all go and drink!" Tera then scurried behind me and pushed me towards the training grounds. Lilith and Kale seemed to be talking as well before they noticed me and Tera.

"Ready?" Kale asked, he gave Lilith a wooden shortsword since this was a Sparring match. We don't need limbs flying or someone cut in pieces, right?

I nodded, holding my staff Incongruity tightly. " Of course."

"Now, you can easily forfeit. Understand?" Kale looked at me. "I don't really see why you thought you could beat Lilith in a sparring match."

"Thanks for the encouragement." I said in dismay. "But I just wanted to be sure I was a capable fighter. And what else can I say to rile up Lilith?" I shrugged. I was sort of making stuff up on the go, but now I feel what I was saying was somewhat true. Last time I fought someone was when I had way less experience. And now that I was able to learn more at the university and had a fight with a monster, I just wanted to be sure I was actually capable of fighting.

"Alright, if you say so. Anyways, here's how we'll do this. Both of you stand in the middle of the training ground, I'll have Tera shoot a fire spell that'll be your guys start. Now, once you two fight, you just need to beat the other until one yields or falls. Simple." Kale explained. He then quickly moved past me and towards tera. "We'll be keeping an eye on you both and if it gets to the point where we feel it's a little too dangerous, we'll jump in and stop the match."

Me and Lilith walked to the center of the Training ground, I took this time to observe the whole arena now just to make some sort of plan. With how much distance there was between us, the only suitable thing was to try to be offensive and listen to Tera's advice. Playing defense would likely get me destroyed. So I have to mark off using a stone wall. Dry ice seems like something I could use to slow down Lilith, I've managed to figure out how to make it non-lethal so it would only sting and slow people instead of causing frostbites.

"Kota! Are you ready?" Lilith asked, she got into her Fire king style Position. She held the wooden sword of hers in her hand as she went into a crouch. "This'll be fun!"

"Ahaha…For you…" I laughed, but I was absolutely terrified right now even with the preparation I was making. So now I was taking even more observation of what Lilith was doing.

Lilith decided to wear her adventurers gear, she used it when we fought the demon bird. Her White coat seemed like it would be a nuisance for her combat style, but from seeing how she fought the bird, I didn't believe that. However instead of wearing the black leggings she once did wear, she wore black shorts that seemingly disappeared underneath the coat she wore, showing off her well toned legs.

Hm…Perhaps I'm observing too much right now…

"Alright, I'm going to chant the fire spell!" Tera yelled, she stood next to Edward, Sarah and Kale at the outer parts of the training grounds. Her staff raised in the air. "Mind your eyes!"

As Tera began to chant her spell, I took a stance as well. Grasping my staff tight as I intensively watched Lilith. She eyed me back with excitement in her eyes.

"Don't be mad at me when I hurt you!" Lilith teased me. "Or break your arm or something."

"Haha…don't." I said somewhat terrified. Who says that and thinks the other person would be fine with that?

"Aren't you excited that we're fighting? I mean, you asked for it! Oh, I could show you some of the moves Kale taught me! Here, I'll start off wit-."

"Lilith, don't give out what your doing! Come on!" Kale yelled annoyed. "Just cause this is a sparring match, doesn't mean you should act like it is!"

"Gah! S-sorry…" Lilith apologized. She then quickly focused again, staring intensely at me. Welp, there goes my idea of figuring out what she'll do.

Once Tera finished her chant, a orb of flames appeared from the end of her staff and she held it up in the air. "Ok…Three, Two….One!" And she then launched the orb of flames into the air.

I watched as the orb flew into the air, skidding through the air before it quickly exploded in the air, beginning our mat-

"You're open!" Lilith shouted as she began to charge at me. She began to run with such speed that the ground under her when she ran ripped off the ground. Her arm raised in the air, ready to swing at me.

I barely had time to even finish my thoughts as she was already blasting her way at me. She was swinging with her right arm, so I took Tera's advice and moved forward, practicality diving as Lilith made a huge swing that went right above me.

I found myself tumbling behind her as I tried to recover and land. Once I did though, Lilith was already turning to me. Taking this time, I casted a earth spell known as stone cannons. To make them non lethal, I made them into more blunt forms so they wouldn't peirce Lilith. They had a cone look to them before the ends were rounded out.

Once they started to form, I began to furiously spam them at Lilith. Shooting them at high speeds at her from my left side to right side. One of them whizzed past Lilith as she began to move towards me, sword readied.

Lilith struggled at first at trying to dodge them, being hit by some of them but quickly began to use her sword to deflect them. Either slicing them apart or deflecting them to the side, slowly making her way to me.

I started to move back, trying to circle around her but she began to move at a faster pace. she was beginning to learn my pattern, shit. Lilith wasted no time as once I began to fire from the left side of me, she quickly made pace to move That side and began to quickly out maneuver my stones. Beginning to circle around me now.

With Lilith moving at this speed, she'll manage to get behind me and get the advantage.

"Gr, Stop moving!" I yelled.

"You can't hit me! Haha!" Lilith laughed. She seemed to be finding amusement in this as she deflected another stone. "This is fun!" She then quickly darted forward at me, hastily closing the gap between us.

"Shit!" I blurted out. That made Lilith laugh even more as she pulled her sword in, readying to jab me with it.

My stones aren't fast enough to even hit her and she's closing in! With the way things are looking, she'll get a hit on me and quite possibly knock me out! Shit, I need to block this or something!

Gripping my staff hard, I used it to try and shield myself from her jab. Might not be the best thing right now, but it's better than just taking the hit full on.

However, instead of going for a jab, Lilith instead twirled clockwise and went downwards, looking up at me as she decided to go for another swing at me. She went and did a feint!

My body couldn't react fast enough as I tried to move to block that swing. The wooden blade smacked my right leg, causing me to lose my balance. And when I mean losing my balance, I mean she quite literally lifted me up with that smack.

"Yeow!" I yelped when she hit me. For a wooden sword, this shit was like being hit with a sandal. Raw. Powerful. Chancla.

Lilith quickly stood up and jumped, putting the palm of her free hand on me and pushing downwards with little to no effort. "Sorry if this hurts!" She said as she slammed me back to the ground, knocking the wind out of me.

Luckily, the cloak that Synthia gave me was still on me. The impact from my back was reduced thanks to the cloak's magic enchantment. Still, even if reduced, that pain stung a lot as I was left in a daze on the ground.

"Kota? Are you ok?" Lilith asked, concerned. She squatted next to me on my left, poking me with her wooden blade. "Does your back hurt? Can you speak?"

I couldn't even speak at the moment as I was trying to breathe again. Kale and Tera haven't come to stop this, so that must mean the match is still going, right?

I gazed at the outer region of the Training ground and saw Kale looking at me, motioning me to give a thumbs up or down if I needed help. Talk about coming to help when you feel it's dangerous, huh?

Still, if the match isn't over…this moment is a chance of a surprise attack! I looked back at Lilith. If I were to use this chance, I gotta make sure she's unaware.

"Lilith…" I mumbled out, my left hand moving. Towards her. "congrats, you beat me."

"I did!" Lilith's eyes brightened at my words. "Hey, you did pretty good too!l

"T-that's debatable. But hey, you want to learn another lesson? I learned this from the university."

Lilith pumped her fist. "Yeah! Tell me! Are you going to teach me some magic sp-."

She was cut off short as she was launched right in the air by a pillar of soil that came from the ground underneath her. I've managed to cast the spell as we spoke.

"Uwaah! Hey, that's cheating!" Lilith yelled as she flew upwards. She managed to recover in The air, which I found quite impressive.

"Not cheating, it's called being sma-Hey!" I was also cut off mid sentence as a rock was shot right at me, right between my legs. "My baby makers!" I instinctively covered my nether regions. So close. When the hell did she grab that?!

I looked back up at her and saw that she was now coming back down. She landed with a thud, her knee crashing to the ground. Kind of reminded me of a superhero landing. But what had me worried was her look, her eyes furrowed and she was pouting.

She took a new stance, having one leg in the front and her sword raised above her head as she stared aggressively at me.

"Grr, Kota!" She angrily yelled at me. "You cheated!"

Hold on, I think she's genuinely angry at me now.

Now, I'm not the best when it comes to fist fighting. In fact, I'd say I'm piss poor at it. Whatever Lilith was intending to do, she'd probably do it with ease and with no mercy.

"H-hey, Relax! This is just a sparring match, no need to be upset!" I tried to calm her down. But I noticed that her left eye was pulsing a reddish color.

Oh, she's really mad.

Just when I thought it wouldn't get worse, Lilith began to glow. The magic cloak enveloped her as she concentrated. Whatever the hell she was doing, it was going to be fast and powerful.

Not even thinking twice, I casted a earth spell that made a dome around me. The casing of it was made of the ground, but I ensured that the dome itself was extremely thick. Maybe like Three feet of thickness to the walls?

Inside this dome was dark and I couldn't see, so I made a hole in the front of it to see what was happening. In this hole, I saw Lilith was still charging up for an attack. The ground underneath her seemingly cracked under the pressure.

"Fire king style: Flash strike!" She yelled.

Wait, do Sword users need to chant something to do a skill? That's weir-Oh, Shit!

I quickly moved to one of the sides of the dome and pressed tightly against it. If I was a second late, I would've been killed. I was sure. As the dome itself blew open from the back, sending debris all over the place. I couldn't even describe the sounds I heard beforehand correctly . Like a bass boosted VWOOMP noise or something. But that didn't matter, what did matter was the Effects it did.

From the back of the Dome, I could see a huge trail of dirt and rocks that went to the other side of the training ground, it was deep too. It was like looking at the aftermath of a plane crash or something. The trail ended in front of some trees, but I could see that they had some deep cuts on them.

Then I looked to my left, where the front of the dome was. A sword lodged at the bottom of the dome, it had sliced from the top all the way down.

Slowly, The sword was pulled out. And then, The other side of the dome toppled, leaving only my side still standing. Lilith slowly walked until she was in front of me. I was too terrified to move, I kept myself extremely still as she slowly squatted down to me. Her red eye beamed at me and she frowned.

"Did you like that?" She asked, eerily cool.

"Uh…No?" I choked out.

Her eyes pierced into mine. "Now you feel what I felt when you flung me."

What!?

"B-but you could've killed me!"

"I would never kill you."

"I'm pretty certain I would've died In that."

Lilith sucked her lips in as she thought about that. She took a glance at the aftermath of it, slowly nodding. Why is she thinking about this? I think she would've known how to use that skill, right?

She then turned back to me, her left eye reverting back to its amber color, she seemed to have calmed down and finally took notice of what she did. "Oh…"

Can't believe that eye works on emotions.

"A-are you hurt?!" Lilith pulled me out of the dome, swiping off debris off my cloak. She began to examine me everywhere to make sure I wasn't scathed at all.

I guess our sparring match was over. I'd call it a tie. Although in the back of my mind, Lilith had won that one.

As she was examining me, I noticed a purple mark on her shoulder. Probably made by one of my stone cannons. It was a small bruise, but I went on to touch it.

"Ow!" Lilith instantly reacted, flinching back. "Why'd you touch it?" Her face was reddening.

"I bruised it." I plainly said. "I gotta fix it now." I reached my hand out, planning to use a beginner healing spell on her. "Come on, it's not like I'm going to hit you again."

I placed my hand on her shoulder, watching as she squirmed. Then I began to chant. "Oh great god that bestows us. Let your light restores those in need. Please grant me the power to heal!" And with that, a flash of green fluttered out of my hand and onto Lilith's shoulder. Lilith seemed to instantly feel a relief as the purple mark on her dissipated.

Still bummed that I can't silently cast these healing spells. If I could, then I feel I would be more useful in a lot of situations when it gets dicey. Maybe at some point, I'll figure it out. But for now, this was good enough.

As I finished healing Lilith, I heard everyone walking towards us. Kale and Tera looked quite pleased.

"Well, that was better than expected." Tera said. "Didn't expect you to actually listen to my advice, to be honest."

"And I didn't expect Lilith to fall for a surprise hit." Kale added. "Also, that Flash strike you did, Lilith. Uncalled for. You could've blown the entire training up!"

"What even is that?" I asked, curious. I've known that each style of fighting had some abilities attached to them, but never seen them until now.

"It's a move that involves channeling your magic cloak into your arms and legs, greatly enchanting your speed and power for a decisive one hit. As you can see…" Kale pointed at the damaged ground. "It sends a shock wave of sorts. It's like adding another punch to another powerful punch."

"Oh…if that's the case, then I would've have-"

"Died. Yes." Kale finished my sentence.

"S-sorry…" Lilith said, her head lowered.

"Now, now. No need to be that down." Kale walked to her, putting his hand on her head. "I'd rather focus on the fact that you did it. How many times have you tried it before? Five? Six? You got it down today. Be proud of that."

"Yes." A voice came from behind. Sarah had walked beside Kale and crouched in front of Lilith. "That was amazing." Sarah smiled widely as she went to pinch Liliths cheek.

"Aw, Mom!" Lilith's mood brightened up immediately. "Really?"

As those three talked, Tera eyed me and waved a finger for me to come near her. Awkwardly, I moved towards her.

"You did well."

"No comments on what I did?"

"Hmm…" Tera held her chin for a moment. "I suppose your usage of magic is unique. Your ability to morph the spell is nice. Though I'd say that earth Dome of yours was a stupid idea."

"But I lived." I shrugged.

"Barely. As my student, you should be more careful." Tera held a finger at me. "Still…I'm impressed with you."

"Gee, thanks."

As our conversations ended, there was only one thing on Kale's mind now. I watched as he scoured the training grounds. Was he looking for something? He tapped his feet for a moment before letting out a deep sigh.

"Right!" Kale began, turning to us all with a smile. A smile that seemed very synthetic."Now we clean up! This place looks horrid! Sooo…Kota and Lilith will help clean up the mess they made!"

Ahh…what?

"How are we supposed to clean this up?!" Lilith shouted in Confusion.

"Ah, think of it like a teamwork exercise!" Kale was sweating. "Since we made such a ruckus that would surely piss off Lucian, I think it's best for us to…clean."

"I suppose it will cause trouble. Then we should hurry up before the day ends." Tera immediately said. she probably had the same idea as Kale. "I'll assist in restoring the grounds."

"Alright! Ok, Kota and tera will clean that up! And Lilith and I will make sure no one heard any of this! Because I'm certain that someone did! And hopefully, they don't tell anyone!" Kale said.

"What if they did?" Lilith asked.

"Kill 'em." Edward said cooly, but kale immediately waved his hands.

"No! NO! Not that! We'll bribe them." Kale hastily said. To which, Edward shrugged.

With that out of the way, Kale clapped his hands. "Let's get to work!"

A/N: This will be the only upload this week as I will be going on a little break. Probably for a week, Got some sickness to deal with. Hopefully this king chapter will suffice! Hope you enjoy it!