"Haaa! Haaa!"
Huffing and puffing, I fell back first on the matted floor. Leo, who was standing over me, tossed me a bottle of energy drink and a clean towel from his dimensional ring.
"Nice try," he sent a nod my way before taking a few steps back and clutching his wooden sword tightly, raising it high. "Try to come at me again. This time, use more feint attacks, and don't fight me head-on."
Glup, Gulp–
"Haaa~" Letting out a content sigh after drinking the contents of the bottle Leo threw at me, I stood up on my feet.
I too grasped a wooden spear in my hands tightly and pointed its head at Leo.
Gradually, a layer of azure mana started to envelop my wooden spear as I unleashed Sword Qi.
"Good," Leo remarked with a hint of surprise and pride. "Your Sword Qi is definitely becoming more stable. In a few weeks or a month at best, you'll be able to learn the True Sword Qi."
Right now, the mana around my spear was still wavering as if it was water in zero gravity.
However, it was much more stable than when I first started using the Sword Qi.
In a few weeks, just as Leo said, I should be able to compress my mana around my weapon to the level where it would look as if it was in a solid state.
"Now, come!" Leo's booming voice shook me back to reality as I took a deep breath and rushed at him with breakneck speed.
Swoosh—!
As soon as I stepped into the striking range, I thrust my spear at him.
Thack—
But Leo swiftly deflected my spear with his sword and the sound of wood clashing against wood reverberated in the dojo.
Quickly pulling his sword back, Leo swung it at my head, prompting me to crouch and evade his attack by ducking.
Thak, Thak, Thak—!
I sprang up from my low position with my spear poised to strike but Leo parried my attack once again.
We continued to exchange blow after blow until a kick landed squarely on my chest and the force of it flung me back in the air.
Thwak—!!
Upon landing on the ground, my body rolled around a few times before I finally managed to come to a halt and get up to my knees.
"Arghaa!" Letting out a pained groan, I clutched my chest and shot a glare at the red-haired man in front of me. "Take it easy on me, will you?!"
"You should know by now that this is me going easy," Leo smirked, walking up to me and extending me a hand.
I took his hand and he pulled me up back to my feet. "Well, then, go even more easy. I fell from a building today, remember?"
"Yesterday," Leo corrected me.
"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"I said, it was yesterday," Leo explained, a slight smile visible on his face.
"What?" Frowning at his words, I quickly switched on my smart bracelet and looked at the time.
[08:54 AM]
"What the?!" I couldn't help but clamor in a shocked tone as I saw what time it was. "So we have been training for more than twelve hours?!"
"Yeah, I must admit, you become very focused when there are no distractions around you," Leo remarked with a deep, thoughtful look on his face. "Are you sure you don't have a condition like ADHD?"
"Ah, I don't think so? Before coming to the academy, a physiatrist did all the tests but my reports were normal," I shrugged. "Anyway, I'm hungry. Feed me!"
The thoughtful look on Leo's face turned into an amused one as a chuckle escaped his lips.
"Haha, okay," he said. "I'll order something real quick. What do you want?"
"Whatever you're having," I replied, falling back on the matted floor, exhausted. "The Tournament is tomorrow, huh? Are you sure you can't stay to watch me, Master?"
After ordering a take-out from his smartphone, Leo turned to me and gave me an apologetic look.
"Lucas, I'm really sorry," he told me. "If it was up to me, I wouldn't have missed your match for the world. Besides, I'm sure you will win the Tournament anyway."
"Really?" I arched an eyebrow. "You think I can win against Nero?"
"Ahh," a conflicted look washed over Leo's face as he thought about how to answer me. "To be perfectly honest, I can't say. I don't know. It's clear that Nero surpasses you in both Technique and Power, but he's a human. He bleeds so he can be defeated."
"True," I nodded in agreement. "But it is nearly impossible to beat him in a head-on fight."
"Hmm," Leo gently touched his chin with his fingers as he suggested something. "Do you want me to teach you something?"
My ears perked as I heard him. "What? What? That Air-Walking weapon art?"
"No," Leo chuckled again. "It's not something you can learn in a day."
"Then what?" I pressed.
"Ah, it's a really simple technique but if done correctly, it can be helpful in a lot of situations," Leo began explaining. "So the concept is, you employ Martial Aura and then imbue one of your elemental affinities in it – it's called Elemental Aura.
"For example, you have an affinity for lightning, right? So in theory, you can imbue the lightning element in your Martial Aura and make it a Lightning Aura."
"That does sound cool, but how will that help me?" I asked.
"Basically, you can exploit the qualities of the element you chose to imbue," Leo said. "For example, if you use Fire Aura, your strikes will be explosive.
"If you use Lightning Aura, you can move fast. If you use Ice Aura, you can inflict freeze on your opponent upon contact. If you use–"
Before he could continue by listing the qualities of every single Aura variation, I cut him off.
"Master, I get it!" I interjected. "That does sound useful."
"Exactly," Leo nodded back. "And if that's not enough, then whatever Aura you chose to employ will boost the spells of its own element. For example, Lightning Aura can boost the efficiency of lightning spells and so on."
Hmm, now that he mentioned all this, I think I'm starting to remember stuff like this was mentioned in the novel too.
Eh, I skipped most of the info dumps so I have a very little idea.
Suddenly, however, a worry popped up in my mind.
"But Master," I said. "I don't know any Lightning spells. I mean, I do know one, but that's a low-level one."
"Is that so?" Leo asked. "It's fine. Since my affinity is also Fire and Lightning, I will give you some of my personal favorite spells. But you won't be able to learn all of them by tomorrow."
"It's fine," I assured him. "My High-Elven is very– and I mean– very fluent."
"That's the thing though," Leo shook his head. "You will be learning how to cast the spells by using hand signs not incantations now."
"Why is that?" I inquired, curiosity visible in my tone.
"Because hand signs are faster in the real battle," Leo responded. "I want you to be an all-rounder warrior. If you can only cast spells by chanting then you'll need to focus more, which will take time. Sometimes you will also be way too out of breath to even move let alone chant a spell.
Using magic spells by hand signs may be a little weak in comparison to chanting, but it's way faster and much more accurate in a real battle since you'll only need to move your mana in a certain way and make a few hand signs."
"I see," I replied while softly rubbing my chin. "So when do we start?"
"Right now," just as Leo said that he was about to show me how to use Elemental Aura, but right then a notification bell rang in his smartphone.
Taking out his phone, he checked it and turned to me. "But let's eat the food we ordered first."
