Improvement

Mallory's following days were filled with training, following her compass around the city and outside of the walls to check on any potential problems then occasionally encountered some low level monsters.

When she was not doing those things, she increased her time spent on magic and item creation studies.

It was just another day in the training grounds and Mallory was dodging a wooden training staff that was thrust and swung towards her.

There was no pause in each of her movements were very agile and her response was better timed than before.

Her green eyes were squinted slightly as she was very focussed so the combination of her sharp gaze and the smile on her face that exposed her sharp teeth looked intimidating. "Hup!"

She leapt out of the way once again and kept a close eye on the spell casting of the other side then finished her own chant. "Warding Mirror!"

A large water orb shot towards her and Oars moved out of the way.

The water orb went directly towards her who had raised her hand towards it but then curved slightly.

As it curved, it changed its direction of attack around where she would raise her protective barrier and would go around to completely bypass it.

It pass where the shield would have formed where her hand had raised but Mallory did not release her spell.

She ran towards the direction that the spell was coming from and jumped to the side a little so that it would hit her from an awkward position.

Just as it was about to hit her, a barrier appeared to block it and reflected it at an angle towards Oars who had been looking for an opening once she put up her spell.

He was waiting for that moment but was suddenly splashed with an orb of water. "Alright then.. it seems that you have got the hand of it."

Mallory did not stay in place where the barrier had formed and appeared by the old man with her finger pointed towards his throat. "I win."

Old Smith raised his hands up to show his surrender. "I do not have much else to teach you. I would recommend that you face all kinds of opponents so that you are able to adapt to all kinds of changes. Practicing against me alone will only help you to gain some bad habits."

There were times when it was better to read the enemies movements and positioning to lay out strategies for the battle.

Adventurers wasted a lot of energy when they were moving around swinging their weapons around to kill or wound each enemy.

If there were many opponents in all directions or there were far too many to deal with, it was very easy to become overwhelmed and make mistakes.

Whether it was monsters or humans, if they knew that they could land a blow then their movements and striking position would be more predictable.

It was usually then that an opportunity would present itself and they could fall into a trap.

Either it was her time to strike when they were far more predictable or she could use their movements to her advantage so that she did not have to waste as much energy during battle.

A typical strategy was to lure others into striking a killing blow then avoiding them and those killing blows would land on their allies.

The very same strategy could be used against herself so she could not let herself become overconfident.

When she went in for a killing blow, she would not drop her vigilance and would have to watch her opponent for any changes until the moment that her spear pierced them.

There was another problem that could be a problem for her future which was mentioned by old Smith and that was fighting against the same people too often.

It was good to fight against people above her own abilities in terms of magic and physical capabilities but it was unwise to think of every opponent as the same and use the same tactics against them.

Every opponent was different and had a completely different way of fighting so Mallory had to learn to be flexible in combat.

She had developed some bad habits due to her only having Oars to give her a hard time during training and the monsters that she encountered were not that much of a challenge to her.

Oars was soaked from head to toe so he went to dry himself off and old Smith was resting while Mallory did a little extra of her practice drills and physical training.

Oars came back and looked towards them both. "Goddess Seshat has called for a Familia Meeting. Be ready in an hour and come to the main hall."

Once he was gone, Mallory turned to old Smith. "What is this Familia Meeting like?"

Old Smith answered calmly. "You do not need to worry about this too much. The Familia Meeting is just to update everyone on the progress of our Familia and to discuss certain important topics."

He thought to himself. 'I doubt that there are any big issues to be brought up this meeting since Mallory has solved a lot of major troubles recently. The work load of others have increase but their efficiency has increased since she provided some solutions.'

He thought of something else. 'Is it to do with her return? She has been gone for quite some time so we thought that she had died or had grown tired of the Familia lifestyle.'

There was a woman in the Seshat Familia that had been away for a long period of time but it was not that strange of a thing.

Members of the Seshat Familia were not as restricted as other Familia so they could come and go as they pleased.

There were many that did not stay in Visa City and found work elsewhere in a position suitable for their talents.

Mallory had heard of the return of a female Familia member but she had been very busy with her own things to pay much attention.

Her Familia was a safe space for her but she still had not completely opened up to each of them or made a big effort to get to know more of them.

Almura, Franco and Swaine were originally not from the Seshat Familia so they did not count as her getting closer to those in her Familia.

The only others that she came to know personally was Oars and Old Smith which was due to her sparring with them often.

Mallory ran to her room to dress nicely in her best quality clothing after she cleaned herself up a little then arrived at the hall on time.