In the end, making his siblings level up or improve their spears could solve the problem, but that wouldn't teach Billy's siblings that they could overcome almost everything with hard work. Still, it wasn't like Billy had done any special training that made him improve, so when the next morning came, he only asked them to spar in order to see their good and bad points.
After just five minutes, Billy discovered the problem. Samara was top defensive, and she hesitated in attacking when she found an opportunity to do so. On the other hand, thanks to that, she could see the moves of the opponent and predict them. Samuel, on the other hand, was too focused on attacking, he had speed and power for a five-year-old boy, but thanks to that, he had too many openings. The twins were basically polar opposites.
"I get it now… Samara, move away a little bit," Billy said. "Attack me, Samuel."
"Where is your spear?" Samuel asked.
"I don't need it," Billy said. "Come on."
Samuel didn't like that, but he didn't hesitate much. He took a step forward, and out of nowhere, a water Ball appeared in front of him, and he collided against it.
"Not fair, you can't use magic!" Samuel protested.
"I won't use again, I just wanted to show you that some people might use magic against you and if you charge without thinking, you will get hit," Billy said. "All right, try again."
Billy wondered if Samuel had understood that. He was just five… but he should learn as soon as possible that in most of his battles, things won't be in his favor. Still, he nodded as if he had understood something… despite that, he charged recklessly again. It seemed that he liked to overpower his opponents. In any case, when he thrust his spear toward Billy's stomach, Billy just reflected the weapon to the side with his left hand and then dropped a chop on Samuel's head.
"Ouch…" Samuel said.
"Did you get it now?" Billy asked. "You can't just attack while only thinking of attacking. Cool down your head and keep your focus when you decide to attack. Otherwise, your opponent will read your moves and prepare an attack. It is your turn now, Samara."
Billy took Samuel's spear since he knew that Samara wouldn't attack first. She stepped forward looking pretty nervous, and even when Billy told her to attack, she approached… very slowly, one step after the other, very carefully. In the end, Billy swung the spear toward her left leg, and she used her own to block the attack. While that wasn't so bad, she had reacted fast enough to parry it. Billy attacked again, and he swung down the spear toward her head this time. Once again, Samara blocked the attack, but she didn't do anything else.
"Fighting defensively when the enemy is stronger and faster is the right answer, but if you focus only on blocking, the chance to attack will never come," Billy explained and then increased his power over the spear. "See? A stronger opponent would try to overpower you, and a fast one wouldn't let their attack be blocked so easily."
"But isn't that dangerous?" Samara asked.
"It is if you don't practice enough, but once you get good at it, you can render your opponent completely wide open," Billy said. "Just like a parried Samuel's attack. You don't need to be stronger or faster to do that, you just need to be skilled, and to become skilled, you need constant practice. Now, practice with each other while considering what I said."
While his siblings obeyed, they only followed his instructions at the beginning. After a while, they let their vicious control them again. Billy had to remind them of what they had to do every time that happened. Fortunately, they were smart kids, so little by little, they began to fight while considering that for more extended periods of time.
While they couldn't practice under Billy's supervision for long, they did make some progress over the course of the following weak. Now and then, Samara would parry, followed by an attack, and now answer, then Samuel would see that one coming and prevent it from happening. Weirdly enough, even without Billy interfering with his system, he saw their Spearmanship level jumping from three to five.
"I wonder if receiving tips also increases the leveling up speed of skills…" Billy thought.
If that was possible, some optical mental training might be as effective as the physical one. Perhaps even more since one would be able to imagine all types of scenarios. Billy realized that it was something worth checking… considering that he had just learned Zen. Doing something like that didn't seem impossible.
The skill that was on the lowest level was Fire Manipulation, so Billy decided to do some mental training with that. Just imagining himself creating a Fireball and firing didn't seem that efficient. So, Billy imagined himself creating a Fire Arrow. As one would expect, that was difficult. Even in his mind, Billy couldn't just imagine an arrow of flames easily appearing. He had to follow the rules of the real world…
"I suppose suddenly making it appear on that kind of shape would be too much," Billy rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Billy focused on making the heat take a triangular shape instead of a circular one. Pointy right above and getting thicker as it goes downward… it wasn't perfect, but Billy managed to imagine that. When he tried to make it in the real world, it didn't take the same shape, and it happened slower, but the projectile had a shape that was different from a Ball.
"Hmm… who could have thought that helping my siblings would give me such an inspiration," Billy nodded to himself in satisfaction. "This has a lot of potential.... even among the other magic attacks, if I change their shapes, it will be easier to control them or make them have even more power."
