Sparring With Each Other

They finished their last class.

"I have something to show you." Noah dragged Alice with him to building D. He took out the key and started unlocking the door.

"This is the training centre you were talking about?" Alice looked at the building from the outside. It was a large building with a curved roof. She had seen the inside once or twice as it opened only during big events held at the school.

Noah unlocked the door and pushed the two doors open. The basket court size inside was lit up by the orange light of the sun coming in from windows and sunroofs. The hall had white cloth-covered objects placed near all four walls, leaving the middle completely open. One of the back wall white cloths had been taken off to reveal stacks of spare tables and chairs.

The weather outside wasn't bad so it wasn't too hot inside the hall. Noah walked in taking in everything. He turned back to Alice.

"This is where we'll train every day from now on."

"You went to ask permission to use this hall?" Alice said as she looked around. "Weren't we going to go horse riding after school?"

"We don't need to go as regularly anymore, you've gotten skilled enough to ride on your own. We should spend more time on combat training."

"Will training on earth even help? It's not like my attributes will increase or I'll gain a new skill."

"Compared to training in the Eternal Battlefield, training on earth will give you minimal results. However, I think it helps build a foundation. All combat stems from the body, the body is controlled by the mind. What we want to do here isn't to train your body rather train your mind."

To convince her further, Noah explained, "You are talented, there is no denying that. When you pick up a dagger it's like you become another person, the ferocity and calmness you show during a battle aren't common for someone who started learning less than a month ago."

"Nevertheless you must have noticed that something is holding you back. During fights, you aren't as successful with your attacks as you'd wish. A slash that should have deeply cut only leaves a light scratch or an attack that could have killed misses."

Alice didn't say anything, she knew Noah was right. The greatest example of this was during the fight with the werewolf. Her attacks were only leaving light scratches because of its high speed.

"Isn't that because of the difference in attributes?"

"It is." The reason why Noah had been able to solo clear the Werewolf dungeon was due to the fact he had a much better weapon and higher attributes. "It'll be hard to overcome such an attribute difference. It's not impossible. We need to train to bring the most out of the talents and skills we have to close the gap."

"Let's keep working out for later. First, we should spar. Look around to see if there are any mats around that we can set up." Noah found thick blue mats that would cushion their falls when they sparred. They conversed as they set them down.

Talking about talents Noah remembered he still didn't know Alice's talents and traits. "I still haven't asked, what talents and traits do you have?" He knew Alice had the Guarded by Love talent that paired with his Guardian of Love. He also knew she had some talent or trait that allowed her to sneak up on Dungeon Lords. Regarding skills and attributes, he knew her skills and a rough estimate of her attributes observing her in combat.

"I have three talents, you should be familiar with the first one called 'Guarded by Love'. It gives me a 10% attribute boost in your presence and has an active skill called 'Summon Guardian'. The skill allows me to summon you whenever I want and automatically activates whenever I am in a life-threatening situation. It does however have a seven day cool down."

"Then I have 'Future Sight', it's sealed since I still haven't gone through my family's Eye Opening ceremony."

Hearing Alice have such a talent, Noah wasn't surprised. At a young age when it had been decided he would marry Alice. To qualify as a proper groom he had to learn about Alice's family because of its complicated circumstances.

Alice's mother came from a long-running family of shamans. Where all female descendants had the ability to see into the future. Naturally, having such an ability came with restrictions. To unlock it you had to go through a ceremony at the age of 21. For the ceremony, you had to keep your body pure from outside disturbances. This meant she had to stay away from many things, but mainly she had to stay a virgin.

From what he knew Alice was the last female descendant with the power. Noah was always strict with the amount of affection he showed as he knew he had to stay within a certain limit.

Alice continued, "Finally I have Negative energy, which is the talent that allows me to use dark magic. I also have three traits which are 'Special Eyes', 'Silent' and 'Thorny'. Tell me about your talents and traits."

"I have five talents..." Noah explained his talents giving a summary to Alice. As they discussed they finished setting up the mats.

They both got ready to spar. They took off their shoes and their shirts since they both were wearing t-shirts underneath. Noah took off his watch and placed it to the side.

Alice took off her glasses and tied her hair with a band. After Noah tied her hair with a handkerchief yesterday she started keeping hair ties in her bag now. She tied her hair into a ponytail.

They both walked onto the mat and faced each other. Noah scanned Alice who was standing in front of him. With her hair tied up, he was able to clearly see her face and her purple diamond eyes. The t-shirt was fitting in size and with the skirt, her body formed a stunning silhouette.

He regretted his decision of sparring with her. He didn't think he would be able to concentrate. She looked so adorable to him that he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he hurt her. He took a deep breath and entered combat mode. He would make sure not to hurt her.

As for protective gear, they found spare gloves that they each wore, as for armour for the chest and such he thought was unnecessary.

They both nodded that they were ready and started the spar. They both moved forward lowering their centre of gravity. Alice attacked first she punched Noah dodged to the side and attacked his fist stopping in front of Alice's face. The force from it sent enough wind to blow up her hair.

"Again." Noah and Alice moved back and started the fight again. This time Noah just defended. He blocked her hits moving around the mat in circles.

Noah spoke as they fought, "Put in everything you have. Don't be afraid to hurt me. You can slow down, think about each hit and then slowly speed up."

Alice nodded and listened to Noah.

"Compared to when I first saw you after arriving you've gained a lot more weight. Feeding you for the last two weeks wasn't in vain." Noah said as he blocked a fierce punch to his side.

Alice glared at Noah she was putting her everything and trying her best to hit Noah. Which was she wasn't even speaking. While Noah was easily blocking her punches in a relaxed manner.

"Your movements are a lot better than I expected. Especially your flexibility and footwork. Looks like the gymnastics you did while you were younger is coming in hand." Noah deflected a punch and slid past Alice. " Did Instructor Tania mention anything about it?"

Alice nodded. When she was learning the dagger mastery skill, her instructor Tania had also mentioned that she had good movements she just needed polishing.

"I remember you told me on a video call that you had stopped learning gymnastics. So It's been around 5 years since then." Noah stopped defending, making it obvious he was going to attack. He punched in a relaxed manner. Alice was able to dodge both of them. Contrary to Alice, Noah wasn't smiling. He kept the spar going.

Observing your opponent was crucial in a fight and Noah was already a master at doing so. He had been keeping watch of everything Alice did from breathing to eye movement. Even slight twitches and hesitations were noted down in his mind.

"Your movements don't just originate from your childhood gymnastics. Did you play a sport or get into a lot of fights in the last 5 years?"

Alice didn't seem to be listening. She continued her attacks now kicking as well as punching.

"The people who you got into fights with, who are they?" Noah grabbed Alice's hands stopping the spar. Noah kept his seething anger hidden. He was asking for the identity of the people who had bullied her.

The overview Alice had given him on the island was just the surface level of what happened to her. Alice hadn't told him about their identities, only hinted at them. He had avoided asking for a while since Alice never brought it up after leaving the island but he couldn't hold back anymore.

Breaking away from his grasp Alice walked away. Her face was cold. Noah had asked something she didn't want to talk about. She didn't talk about all those embarrassing and low moments. She didn't even want to think of them.

Noah came forward and hugged her back tightly. "Can't you tell me?" Noah asked in his lowest voice next to her ear.

Looking straight, Alice retorted, "If I tell you, what are you going to do? Are you going to get revenge for me?"

"I won't lie. I do want revenge but I won't be satisfied by any type of suffering they face. They are criminals and they need to be punished. If I can't do it using the law, I'll take matters into my own hands."

"Noah, I'm not the same as I was before, this is my fight so don't interfere. I'll deal with them myself."

"Fine, I won't interfere but if you ever need help just say the word." Turning Alice towards him Noah said.

Internally, Noah felt awkward. He already knew who the people who bullied Alice were as he had the whole school investigated by Sebastian. It didn't matter how, he had information gotten from all ways possible. From private investigators to buying information from the government, he had gotten detailed information about each student in the last week.

Finding the main instigator, the girl with a father who was running for mayor was easy. Working as a starting point he was able to find four more people with who she mainly hung out. Even now he had people looking for other victims to her bullying.

Stopping the secret investigation wasn't really an option. He would keep it under wraps until Alice gave him her approval to make a move.