In A Month

Blocking another attack to her stomach Tearia took it in stride as she pushed her grandfather's hand away and went for her own attack on him causing him to stop his other attack. Watching her attack get closer excitement welled up inside her as this was probably the first time she had gotten this close but alas it wasn't meant to be as she saw her fist getting stopped by his other hand before it reached its mark on his chest. However she had made progress that she hadn't seen over the last week in that moment. Not even caring for the fight anymore she stopped and entered her own little word as she began jumping around in happiness while her Grandfather stopped fighting seeing that and let her have her moment.

He wasn't someone who praised others often but even still he had to admit that he was impressed she had got this far so quickly with such little time even if she didn't hit him. "Of course this is only without Astral strength..." He had only been training her like this to get her body use to things again so she could know the basic structure of fighting without just relying on brute forcing everything with frail power from Astral but now it was probably time she and himself began to use it and maybe even a little test of her strength and he had the perfect thing in mind for Tearia. A couple days back he had heard from one of his guests at the Inn about a big competition that was being held in a month that was going to be entered by thousands. At first he ignored it thinking Tearia might not be ready but now he was thinking differently and he still had a month to keep training her as well so it was perfect.

"Tearia."

Hearing her Grandfather's stern voice Tearia stopped her little dance as she quickly remembered where she was at the moment and panicked thinking she was in trouble.

"o-oh, umm...I'm sorry..."

Seeing his Granddaughter stuttering around like a fish out of water he could only sigh. He wasn't mad at her or anything but the only one he could blame was himself. Over the course of their training he had always been stern and harsh the entire time without holding back unlike his usual self but he couldn't help it. A part of him honestly didn't want her to start fighting at first but seeing how much hard work she was putting herself through and how much pain she took without flinching or begging to give up the more serious he got as time went on while also starting to cheer her on in his head however he couldn't stop being harsh despite that. If he did perhaps she would stop and go in reverse again and that wasn't something he wanted to see.

"I'm not mad don't worry, though you should remember not to do such things in a real fight okay?"

"I understand."

"Now on to what I really wanted to talk about."

"...?"

Tilting her head to side hearing her Grandfather question marks practically flew out of her head wondering what he wanted to say.

"I was thinking about entering you into a competition in a month. Are you okay with that?"

"Wai-What no, that sounds like a horrible idea. I'm not good enough in the slightest."

Panicking for a completely different reason at the idea of going to a competition to fight actual fighters who trained their entire lives for stuff like this Tearia lost any sense of confidence she had as she resorted to putting herself down. She wasn't exactly against the idea though she just didn't have the will or the strength to probably do anything besides embarrass herself. "Is this change?" hearing that voice in the back of her head Tearia paused herself as she struggled against that thought in her head but didn't have time when she heard her Grandfather's next words that surprised her.

"Nonsense. I'm not asking you to win this competition or anything Tearia, Hell i'm not even asking you to not get last. All I want is for you to go there and experience something different and if you happen to win some matches then good on you or if you happen to lose the first go around then you take that loss and come back while learning from it. This is what you wanted after all right, So don't be afraid okay? You have a month of practice while thinking about it so maybe don't decide now and just try your best until then."

Eli just wanted to do whatever he could for his Granddaughter and this was probably the best option for Tearia now. Unlike before he no longer had all the resources in the world at his disposal so he couldn't help her there and eventually training against him would no longer help Tearia anymore and instead hurt her so it was for the best if Tearia began to learn on her own as time went on. Especially if this was what she wanted from life. Hearing her Grandfather's words Tearia silently took them in as she quickly thought about it but hearing his last words and remembering the thoughts she had before she barely squeaked out a silent ok.

"Ok."

Hearing that answer Eli smiled a little as he remembered their training and got back into the mood of things.

"Alright now that we're done with that we're going to do something a little bit different."

"Different?"

"Yep, we're going to start using Astral Energy from now on so you better prepare yourself."

Listening to that Tearia felt a world of pain incoming that would soon take over her entire mind before she could even begin to worry about her decision in a month. These fights already took a lot out of her without any of that but now they were just going to get even worse. "Xilo..." thinking about where Xilo was or what he was even doing Tearia sighed as she prepared herself for the next couple hours of training.