"Brother… what exactly you intend to do with that?" Amanda frowned.

"I will keep it as my cat," Leon smirked. "I call him the bloodthirsty kitty."

"I think that is a bit too big to be called kitty…" Hector frowned.

"Brother…" Amanda said.

"I"m joking; I want to use it as a test subject for the new skill I want to learn," Leon explained. "Anyway, I don"t like doing this either. So, don"t complain too much."

Ten days had pa.s.sed since Leon, and his friends started to train together; their strength grew a few points, so the weapons were beginning to feel less heavy. So, Leon decided that it was time to spar with them.

"Your steel weapons aren"t sharp like your real ones, but they are heavy," Leon warned them. "If you are not careful, you will end up breaking several bones."

"Brother, I cannot spar with a fake bow," Amanda said.

"Well, you just need to use one hand to aim your spells correctly," Leon said. "So, try to use them as if they were your arrows. Anyway, you guys know themselves better than I do. So, try to spar while trying to improve your own fighting style. I"m a mage who likes to block attacks, so I don"t think my advice will help melee fighters and archers."

In order to increase their combat experience, Leon wanted to let everyone spar with everyone. In the close distance, Hector would have an advantage over Amanda, but that kind of situation would be a valuable experience if someday Amanda sees herself in a similar situation. The same could be applied to Hector; spells could be used faster than arrows, so he would have to think twice before charging like a bull.

The first ones to spar would be Betty and Sasha. Although both of them used two weapons, their fighting style was quite different. Leon noticed that when Betty charged to attack first. Like always, she moved to attack the target"s vital points, but without her daggers, she couldn"t teleport. So, Sasha blocked her steel dagger that was aiming toward her shoulder. Sasha used her weigh, making Betty pa.s.s by her a little and destroyed her stance. However, the swing of her short sword had been easy to read. The attack that she aimed at Betty"s rib cage had been evaded since she used her other dagger to block and buy some time.

In the past, Sasha and Betty didn"t interact all that much, even though they went to the same school. Despite that and their different personalities, they were becoming close friends. So, that was why they weren"t aiming at their vitals. They were only trying to cause some damage to make the battle end. However, since the weapons were heavy, they weren"t fast enough to land any clean hit.

Anyway, Betty"s fighting style focused on offense. She used her speed and teleportation to catch the enemies by surprise and killing them without letting them notice what happened. Meanwhile, Sasha"s was a bit more tactical. She focused on dodging a bit too much, but she was good at making enemies drop their stances.

Just observing wasn"t enough, but watching people fighting up close, it was also a good way for Leon to learn how to fight without relying on magic alone. Just like everyone else, it was better to develop his own fighting style. Still…

"This is bad…"

Although the weapons, made everyone slower, they were still way faster than Leon could move using his steel katana… even Gisela was already faster than him, swinging a humongous greatsword.

"I need to run to increase my speed and stamina."

Leon thought that sparring with his friends would be a good idea, it indeed was, but since the difference in their related physical status was so big, that Leon would only make a fool out of himself. Leon would train alone for a while before he finally reaches a level where he can spar with his friends without using magic.

Anyway, the spar between Sasha and Betty lasted until Leon saw their hands bleeding. Blocking and parrying attacks still didn"t completely nullify the power and weight behind the attacks. So, Leon was the one who had to stop to heal their broken bones.

"You guys are more hardcore than I thought…" Leon frowned. "But, I guess that shows that you want to get stronger."

The next spar was between Hector and Amanda. Much to Leon"s surprise, they didn"t fool around just because they were married. Even though Hector was an idiot and his little sister was still young, they knew the times to act seriously and the times to play around with each other. Since they trained together since the very beginning, their speed was more or less the same, and they knew each other moving patterns very well.

Hector charged with his s.h.i.+eld and lance raised, but Amanda jumped backward while attacking Hector"s legs with Ice Bullets to slow him down. It worked, since Hector"s s.h.i.+eld couldn"t protect his entire body, but not for long. Using his eyes, Hector predicted the places Amanda wanted to hit and parried the projectiles with his lance as he charged again. Unfortunately, that tactic wouldn"t work forever. He couldn"t parry and attack at the same time; Hector noticed that when Amanda entered his lance"s range and tried to hit her, but then saw her pointing her right hand toward his face. Both of them stopped; it was a draw.