Marks, Melee Spar

Guihu Luixing obviously didn't know hos mother's thoughts and if he knew, he wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Soon, Guihu Luixing and Hector Schmitt arrived at the training field. This one, for being close to the headmaster's house, it was less utilised by other people. The training field's states, however, showed a different story.

There were many small holes in the ground, scorch marks, wood spikes, broken stones and mud piles. These signs were all fairly recent, showing that someone used this same training field not too long ago.

Guihu Luixing knew at least part of these marks should have been made by Serana. But he found the number of marks odd. There were clearly a lot of small, scorched craters. Much more than any other type of mark.

Either Serana had much more energy reserves Guihu Luixing and trained that specific attack a lot, or someone else also trained there.

If it was the second possibility, it could be concerning. That meant that it was possible for this other person to have seen Serana and know pf her identity as a irregular Specter.

While it wasn't a problem right now, it might affect his future plans, he had to keep it in his mind.

"Wow. Looks like someone was training really hard. But they just left after using and nobody cleaned, so we can't use the field as it is." said Hector.

"Let's just clean up ourselves. It shouldn't take too long." Guihu Luixing suggested.

"Eehhh? Why do I have to clean? I'm not the one who messed it up!" complained Hector.

"Come on! This should take only a couple of minutes. If we don't clean, we won't be able to use it." said Guihu Luixing.

"We could just go to another field..." It seemed Hector really disliked cleaning.

"Enough complaints! The sooner were done the sooner we can train." Guihu Luixing scolded him again.

In no time, they cleaned up the field. It's not like they needed to make it perfect. They just needed to move the big rocks and other objects outside and close some holes.

While cleaning, Guihu Luixing took the opportunity to analyse the marks.

Most of them seemed to have been done by the same person, as they looked as if they were all around a certain point.

They were of different elements, but they all seemed similar in power. Guihu Luixing guessed it was somewhere about Middle Phase Qi Interaction Realm. If it really was Serana, it was impressive. She just took her first step in cultivation and already had so much power.

The small burnt craters that seemed to be caused by another person however had unstable strength. Some were just some burn marks, other looked like some small meteorites had fallen there. The deepest marks had a strength Guihu Luixing believed to be around a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator's strength.

What was weird was that, according to what Guihu Luixing heard, there shouldn't be many people in the Ghost Fox Valley Sect that had prominent Fire Element affinity. This could reduce his candidates range.

"There, it's all done!" said Hector.

"Then we can begin." answered Guihu Luixing while he went to his position.

"Hehehe, let's go!" Hector clearly couldn't wait for it.

After they were in their positions, they did a martial greeting and took their stances.

Hector clearly had some battle experience. His stance was both tight and aggressive.

Guihu Luixing in the other hand, didn't have as much experience as Hector. His stance wasn't very firm and seemed to be on the defensive side. But while he was less experienced, he was surely had more wits and cunning than Hector.

After analysing each other for a bit, they both started to quickly approach each other.

When they reaching melee distance, they started to enter physical combat. They weren't using any Qi yet, they just wanted to get a feel of their own and each other's current physical capabilities.

Hector was aggressive and hyperactive, so he obviously stroke first. He launched a straight punch towards Guihu Luixing's chest. In reaction, Guihu Luixing grabbed Hector punch, however, Hector's physical strength was superior to his, sp he had to turn his body in order to fully evade the punch.

Not wanting to give up his starting advantage, Hector kept the pressure on by firing a turn kick. If that hit, it would clearly do some damage, so Guihu Luixing could only do a big evading move again. In counterattack, he crouched and, putting his hands on the floorz he use them as support to try sweeping Hector's only leg on the ground with a spinning kick.

Hector had to hurriedly jump backwards, destroying boty his balance and his momentum. Hoping to build pressure on Hector, Guihu Luixing pursued him, using the momentum of his previous spin, he spinned again while standing to deal a roundhouse kick.

Hector didn't want to get hit by that, but he decided to take a gamble. With a grunt, he caught Guihu Luixing's kick between his left arm and ribs, hurting him in the process, but putting Guihu Luixing in a precarious situation. Hector then took a step forward, still grabbing Guihu Luixing's right leg, and proceeded to punch Guihu Luixing's chest with a right straight again.

Guihu Luixing knew the punch was dangerous, the real danger was the leg sweep that would probably follow it. Not having any choice left, he once again grabbed Hector's punch with his left palm and turned his body, breaking his balance even further.

Not wanting to give Guihu Luixing any chances, Hector wanted to sweep his Guihu Luixing's legs, just as Guihu Luixing predicted, however, before he could, Guihu Luixing used his right hand to grab Hector's right shoulder.

"Rah!"

With a shout, Guihu Luixing used all his strength and weight to spin and pull Hector to the ground. If he managed to do so, he would fall on top of Hector, with his elbow on Hector's throat, being a checkmate.

Hector quickly released Guihu Luixing and both of them took some distance to rebuild their stances.

"Hah...hah...hah..." x2

Even though the exchange of moves was short, they used all their strength and speed, holding nothing back. As they weren't using Qi, they obviously felt tired.

Even though he caught the kick, Hector was still striked on his sides and was feeling a bit of pain when he breathed.

Guihu Luixing recieved two punches from a bigger, more physically developed, strength-focus opponent. His left hand was hurting, and his whole arm was numb.

"Heh...Even though I thought I wouldn't lose for sure, Brother Guihu is surely amazing. I can't deal a proper hit." said Hector.

"That's not right. Mi left hand is hurting a lot. Brother Schmitt is very strong and has a good battle sense." praised Guihu Luixing.

While Hector was clearly stronger and had good offensive, he wasn't good at recieving attacks and lacked on agility and flexibility. Guihu Luixing in the other hand, was much more agile and could deal counters that completely broke Hector's flow, but he wasn't experienced in fighting and his attacks were predictable.

They spent some time regulating their breath while observing each other and reflecting on their short fight.

"Get ready, Brother Guihu. This time I am going all out!"