"Looks like it's my win."
"Yeah..."
Edward and the Automaton stared at each other. A moment of silence emanated between the two immensely powerful individuals.
The environment could testify to their strength, as it was completely wrecked.
"In the end... I couldn't land a single hit..." Edward laughed, looking at the armored being floating before him.
Unlike the latter, the former's armor was as good as gone, and blood covered a great deal of his body.
He had definitely been through a lot, and he tried his hardest, but...
"I didn't know the gap in power would be so vast."
... Ultimately, even Edward couldn't win.
******************
"Do you all understand now?"
My defeated friends were now seated before me, completely mellow after suffering absolute defeat at the hands of Gawain.
Neron would have reversed time to make it as though their wounds never existed, but it was better to just heal them.
They grew a great deal from this exercise, after all—well, almost all of them.
'Lemi, that girl... she's the oldest among them, yet she acted like a baby on the battlefield.'
While I couldn't blame her, I definitely wasn't satisfied with what I saw.
'I'll need to drive some sense into her.'
What was it called again? Tough love? Yeah, it was best to be even stricter with her.
And, let's not forget the stunt Edward pulled in the battle—how he carried MY daughter like some princess and brought her so close to his chest.
It could have been my imagination, but I was sure she was smiling when that happened. They were supposed to be training, yet...
'No, Jared. Not now. Focus on what you have to do...'
"Compared to a single Automaton, you couldn't win."
"You're talking as if this isn't the state-of-the-art weapon of mass destruction..." Ana chimed in, rolling her eyes.
'What's with the attitude?' I wondered.
Was she still mad about the whole Lemi stuff? Well, I planned on telling her about my lack of interest soon anyway.
'Just be patient till then, Ana.'
Returning my gaze to everyone before me, I gave the analytics of the match.
"Edward, you were too impatient." If he had just stayed more-level headed, he wouldn't have been knocked out so quickly
Even Lemi lasted longer than him initially.
"Aloe, you were too conservative."
If she had been a bit more reckless and violent in her assault, she could have achieved more results.
Not only did she have the advantage in speed, but her destructive powers were also a very big deal.
I was sure she would be able to land a couple of hits on Gawain.
The only problem was that he superior to her in durability.
"Ciara, you were stuck for some reason."
"H-hey, what could I have done? Original Magic doesn't work!"
It seemed Ciara was used to handling many enemies with her Original Magic, so this time she was unsure of what to do.
'I'm sure she's at least on Edward's level when it comes to power, though...'
Why did she lose, then?
"Jerry, you became flustered after Ciara lost, and you went down soon after."
After he lost, he plummeted on Ciara's body and remained there for most of the match.
"Hmm?" I noticed Jerry's face turning a bit pink.
'Eh? What's going on?' Ciara was smiling as she stared at the flustered young man, and I felt like she was sending him a message via Telepathic Magic.
'I can't deal with this right now...'
I turned in Ana's direction and also criticized her lack of active battle ability.
Her excuse was the lack of appropriate tools, and it seemed she heavily relied on preparation when it came to fights.
"While I can understand the need to utilize tools and an active battle strategy to win, certain situations don't allow that. You should be able to think on the spot and transform a situation to your advantage."
Of course, she only murmured and argued further.
'She's really upset today...'
My gaze turned to Ivan, whom I gave a simple criticism to.
"You're lacking in power. That's the only thing I see. You have extremely good battle senses, and you make very good use of the Magic at your disposal. But, you're too weak." It sounded blunt, but it was the truth.
"I see..." Ivan was frustrated, no doubt.
It wasn't fair, the fact that he was working so hard but his limited potential made him behind everyone else.
There was a limit to what he could achieve in a lifetime.
He would probably never reach the level of certain monsters.
'Which is why I won't ignore things this time.'
"Maria was very good with everything, except skill and tact. Your fights are similar to Serah Crimson, especially how you use absolute power to crush your opponents."
While that was all well and good when it came to battling weaker enemies, in a battle between equally matched individuals, the one who emerged as the winner was the person with more skill.
In essence, just as I was able to beat Serah, it was possible for a weaker person with better strategy and skill to win against Maria.
Thankfully, she took her criticism well—I think. An emotionless face and a light nod was all the reaction I got from the girl.
'Cool, I guess...'
"Lemi... I have no particular comment for you. You were awful, through and through."
"You're so mean..." She pretended to break down, even staring at Edward for some reason.
"Ah... erm..." Good thing my good friend, Edward, knew better than to take her side.
Sure, Edward was a muscle-brained person, but I was glad he still had more loyalty toward his friends than a random girl he just met.
"All in all, you were all standard—no, even above average in your fights..." Of course, when I said that, I wasn't including Lemi.
She wasn't even on any playing field.
"But, that's just when compared to regular people. You might all be powerful out there, but this is the big league. You are all less than average in here."
With monsters like Neron and Serah in existence, there was no telling what cards our enemies had to play.
Besides, they even had Arcanas—nearly making them invincible.
Our current team stood no chance.
'It's risky, but I have no choice. I better start with this small circle...'
The only way to win was to increase our chances of victory.
'Time to teach them something new.'
