With Rory's invitation, Vicente immediately nodded with intent to continue training.
As much as Vice would have the upper hand in the confrontation, the point there was to have an opponent for him to better master his skills, not to have profound glimpses of how to elevate his characteristics further.
To train his control over his abilities, Vicente could even do it alone. But in combat against an opponent would always be better than training alone when the strengths of the two were in the same realm.
A weaker opponent was still an opponent who acted independently and could create surprises, which would never happen in one-on-one training.
With both 100% recovered from the last 'fight,' Vicente and Rory activated their powers again, this time with one setting off towards the other the moment a wooden sphere hit the ground.
Directing the surrounding air at Vicente, infusing his flames into the wind current, Rory tried to push his opponent away.
Simultaneously, Vicente already knew that Rory would try to disrupt him with his explosive abilities, so he quickly created several lightning bolts on the outskirts of the training room, targeting his friend's feet.
Vicente didn't want to hit Rory and hurt him. But he also didn't want to leave this guy quiet enough to sustain the magic pentagram providing power to his attacks.
In this magical world, one did not need to cast spells to activate the abilities coming from their Magic Pentagrams. But to keep that ability in use, one had to consciously maintain the flow of mana through the gem and pentagram that was in use.
If anything disturbed the order of these steps, one would lose control over their ability, and it would naturally fade after a few seconds.
Thinking of forcing his friend to lose by not being able to maintain his attacks, Vicente promptly began to pressure Rory with blasts of lightning capable of making even magicians stronger than this young redhead shiver.
"Shit!"
Rory moved a few steps backward, dodging Vicente's attacks.
As he did so, he noticed the floor becoming more slimy and frowned.
'Earth is really annoying to counter...' He lowered his hands as orange flames sprang up in them, touching the ground and conjuring a spell.
Then the ground in the vicinity of up to 1.5 meters away from Rory combusted, countering Vice's spell.
Both Vice and Rory could cast spells with their elements and even a mixture of them.
One didn't need to learn a spell in a book to be able to learn things compatible with their magical nature. Some basic uses of magic came naturally to the minds of magicians when they awakened their powers or grew stronger.
In a way, it was like an instinct.
To make a spell, one wouldn't need much. They would just need to circulate their mana in their Magical Gem and make the necessary commands to form the spell.
Sometimes this could be in the form of words laden with intent. Still, in other circumstances, one could simply make hand seals and generate the same effect as if one had spoken something.
The most talented magicians could cast spells without speaking or gesturing, which worked based on their thoughts alone!
Vicente saw the entire floor around Rory burn, and his spell lost its effect, but he was not surprised. In some instances, Fire could damage Earth.
He made a few gestures with his hands, and soon after, the blades in his surroundings cut closer to Rory, heading towards the young man's arms and legs.
In an instant, the battle shifted from a small advantage in Vice's favor to a large gap between the two. He pressed Rory while working to not hit his friend, only to make his artifacts pass close enough to scare the red-haired young man.
Rory managed to get a dozen explosions to disrupt Vicente's plans, but after five minutes of fighting pretty much on the defensive, he couldn't bear to continue much longer and decided to make an attack.
Having already realized that Vicente strangely had a lot more energy to fight than he did, Rory made his last move, attacking for the first time in this last training match.
Orange flames covered all of Rory's surroundings, causing Vicente to momentarily have to cover his eyes.
Instantly after this strong explosion, a column of fire followed Vicente's body, giving him no time to react.
Vice's eyes were covered, but he felt the mana shift in the surroundings with his senses, noticing that he would be hit.
He put his two arms in front of his face and radiated most of his mana into them.
Boom!
"Aaaaagh!"
Rory's attack exploded over Vicente's arms, burning some of the black-haired young man's clothes and making smoke in the surroundings.
A second later, the large explosion around Rory cast aside the previous luminosity, revealing the situation of the exhausted red-haired young man, now surrounded by blades targeting different parts of his body.
Even screaming in pain, Vicente kept his blades focused on Rory, each floating near the red-haired man's vital points, who was sweating and breathing heavily.
"I lost." Rory grinned as he couldn't take it anymore and fell to the ground.
Vicente pulled his arms away from him, ignoring the burns on them, smiling as he, too, felt exhausted.
Vice wasn't happy about the victory, but with this training, he thought he would no longer expose as much of his powers as he had done when activating his Red Pentagram for the first time.
He could now use his abilities at a much lower level, to the level that he could even face someone of Rory's power without threatening such a person's life.
As for the wound on his arms, that was nothing to him.
As much as it hurt, he had only had 1st-stage burns, the kind that, with his mana boosting his regeneration, he would no longer have the burn marks the next day.
Vicente was actually a lot stronger than Rory, and he hadn't shown his full potential in that brief match with his best friend!
He sighed and sat down on the floor, unconsciously waving at his water bottle and moving it to his hands.
Vicente looked at that bottle that had very little metal in its constitution and smiled. 'I had forgotten about that...
It seems that I unconsciously only pushed away what was most obviously affected by me. Even at my level, I can choose what I manipulate with my ability!'
Rory looked at Vicente and asked. "Hah... Hah... What do we do now?"
Taking a deep breath, Vicente soon said to Rory. "We're leaving tomorrow morning for Martell Village. After tomorrow night, I want to be back by then to start implementing our plans.
I'll finish this training during the trip in the Crow Woods."
"What about forging? Are you really going to become a blacksmith? That would be a good activity to cover your real position in this society."
Vice smiled. "Yes, I will do that, but only after we start with our plans."
With that said, they rested for the remaining minutes of their time in this room, and at the end of the six-hour period, the two returned to their estate to continue with preparations for their quick trip to Martell Village.
