Spar [2]

Another day had arrived, and I was currently in the middle of another spar against the big man. Trying to remember what I had learned yesterday, it was still hard to land effective attacks.

It had also been as he said, it was scary to fight at this range, where he was so close I could almost feel him breathe on my neck as I ducked under a right-handed fist, only to then have to force myself not to hesitate for a second as I drove Nandada forward toward his heart.

He managed to turn his body just enough for my attack to just scratch his skin instead of drawing blood. but instead of waiting for him to launch an attack on his own, I sliced Khanda upwards towards his throat. Unfortunately, he managed to push my body to the side using the arm he had already thrown forward before my attack made contact.

As I was falling sideways, I quickly tucked my body so that when I touched the ground I could somersault to my feet again, but this time he was the one to not let up. The greatsword was coming at me as he launched a backhanded horizontal slice attempting to cleave my chest in half.

My instinct screamed at me, trying to get me to retreat and keep my body safe, nevertheless, I didn't do so. Instead, I once more dodged under the attack followed by a small dash into him again.

Then our dance continued. Slicing, stabbing, thrusting all while dodging the man's own flurry of attack consisting of punches, kicks, pushes, and headbutts. As long as I kept myself in this ultra close range, the sword had limited uses but as soon as he could either push me away or managed to take a step back, the sword would instantly come to end my life.

It was a blur of two moving figures, both knowing that stopping at this range would mean defeat. Then a chance showed itself. A stab with Nanadaka had forced Mike to make a sloppy sidestep in order to protect his spleen, opening up a path to his throat as his feet weren't planted in a proper position.

"HAH!"

I yelled as I mustered force into my legs, ready to go for the kill, while I as quickly as possible charged Khanda with [Discharge]. I had already started this process when I stabbed with Nandaka but I still didn't have more than a second to charge it. Thankfully, unlike when I used it as a ranged attack, I had my weapon as part of the attack, making it that much more potent.

Like a spring, my body shot upwards with the bigger, red brother leading the way. However, that's when I saw it. My teacher was wearing a mischievous smile, "Naïve!" *BAM!*

"Argh!"

My body flew back, me not even knowing what had hit me. Sliding a couple more meters, my momentum finally stopped, making me able to look up at the gorilla to try and decipher what he had done to me. When I saw him, I finally understood what he had done.

The sword was lying on the ground. He had dropped his sword to free up his right hand which he then used to push me away. In my mind, there was an unwritten rule for a swordsman to never let go of his weapon, but Mike had just proved me so incredibly wrong.

"Huff, huff... That's..."

"That's what?", the big man asked with a cheeky smile, already knowing what kind of complaint I would make.

"Never mind... huff, huff"

Closing my eyes, I stopped myself from spouting childish excuses, instead just focusing on collecting my breath as soon as possible.

A pool of sweat quickly emerged on the floor beneath me as all my pores were completely opened to make sure I was fighting for as long as possible. Today I started mixing [Discharge] into our spar a lot more, having already seen that without it, my strikes just didn't afflict enough damage. Even if I didn't know if it would be the same against James, I wouldn't take any chances.

The result of this was that now after just two hours of sparring, my arms were screaming in pain, but because I had only charged my attacks a little bit, they were still in good enough condition to move as I wanted them to. It wasn't that I didn't want to accumulate more mana into my attacks, it was because in this sort of fight it was impossible to do so.

There was no time for me to stand idly and just charge my attack, so what I had to do was to look for a situation where I could charge one of my weapons while having the possibility to keep my enemy busy with my other one.

"Hahaha!"

At my words, the gorilla burst out with laughter, seeing that I gave up on trying to come up with an excuse but after just a couple of seconds, he calmed himself down and his eyes turned just a bit more serious, "But boy, you really are kind of a monster, aren't you? How in the world are you getting the hang of this so quickly? It's almost scary!"

I had also felt that my progress had been quick. From yesterday when I could barely hang in for a minute at most, almost always getting pushed back or caught in his grip, to today when I could fight for almost twenty without facing defeat. In my mind, I already had an explanation though.

It was largely due to how my mind numbed unnecessary emotions, creating a situation where I could more easily fight against my survival instincts in order to try things out as well as to no hesitation in keeping my aggression up, always dashing in.

He threw me a potion while he waited for my answer, but sadly for him, I wouldn't give him what he wanted, "I'm just naturally gifted, probably a genius." And with that, I took a swig of the bitter liquid and set my sights on the man who now looked disgusted with my narcissism.

"Never mind then... Anyway, we can probably keep going for another two hours if you want, but then you will have to go to the cafeteria before they close for the night."

It was currently about 7 pm in the evening, and as they stopped serving food here at 10 pm, I had more than enough time to get there. However, I had already eaten dinner, making me unable to understand why I should go there again.

"Teacher, why should I go there again? Is there something I have to get?"

His gaze switched, now looking at me like I was an idiot, "What do you think, kid? Of course, it is to eat more! I have already talked with the staff that you will be coming not only tonight but tomorrow as well. Oh, and don't worry. Your portions will be the same size you get otherwise, so you don't have to worry about getting enough nutrients!"

It was already hard to force down two of those meals every day, probably reaching upwards of 5000 calories, but now he wanted to increase it by 50%?! Unfortunately, I knew that there was nothing to be done about it. If he thought it was necessary, it probably was.

"Now get up so we can start again!"

"Yes!"

****

A huge plate of rice, chicken, and vegetables was in front of me. This wasn't something I would usually eat for a late-night meal, and it didn't help that I was already full from supper.

"Haaaaa, there's no helping it... Just get it over with..."

I mentally prepared myself with a sigh, and I got to it.

"Miren, can I have a word with you?"

A female voice came out from my side, with me not noticing anyone coming up to the table because of the fact that the food took up all of my focus. Raising my head, a green-haired girl was standing next to me. It was Suzuka.

'What is she doing here?'

As stated before, I was for the most part neutrally inclined toward my classmates, with some exceptions, but I had not expected her to approach me after what I did to Arthur, not to mention how scared her sister was of me.

A bit flabbergasted at her sudden approach, I forced the food in my mouth down, making my makeshift chipmunk cheeks disappear. "Sure, go ahead."

Having already learned my lesson from my conversation with Sarah, I tried my best to keep to a polite tone. "Thank you", she said as she sat down in front of me, adding "You can keep eating if you want. I just wanted to talk with you a bit."

Seeing the girl, I couldn't be more amazed at how similar, yet different she and Lindsey were. Both were cold beauties but instead of Lindsey's silver hair she had dark green, her eyes following the same theme, contrasting my friend's icy white.

Her appearance was also not quite as mature as Lindsey's and although she was beautiful, she did not carry the pixel-perfect balance in her face, and her legs were not as long. As I was admiring her appearance a bit, and comparing it to the ice queen, she finally started talking.\

"Miren, I don't hate you."