Chapter 39 - Back to normal.

After Rio and I got dressed, we walked to the track together.

I decided to check Rio's status as I hadn't in a while.

Rio Vondheart – 16

Skills -

Talents – Weapon Master

Stats: D+

Strength: D-

Agility: D+

Dexterity: D

Stamina: D+

Mana: F

Those look pretty good. At least way better than when we arrived here.

"Let's run for a little bit then head to the gym."

"Okay!"

…

After we finished our run, we were both lightly panting. We didn't exercise too hard and just lightly jogged for a few dozen minutes.

We headed to the gym shortly after and inside was Taku and Ian.

Huh? I thought Taku would be sleeping or something.

I gave them a little wave and Rio and I went to the weapon rack.

They both looked at me.

"You're up?" Taku asked.

"Yeah."

I grabbed a wooden sword.

"You like the rapier, right, Rio?"

He nodded his head.

I tossed him a wooden rapier.

"You're practicing already?" Taku asked.

"Yeah, I skipped too much while on the mission."

"Oh yeah, I heard you and Ayaka tried to help. Thanks."

"But we didn't... Sorry..." His voice sounded a little down contrary to his looks, he was still swinging his sword.

"I appreciated the thought. It was probably better that you couldn't."

He didn't reply and kept swinging his sword.

"Can you do me a favor though?"

"What do you need?" He stopped swinging and looked at me immediately.

"Can you help Rio out a little? You're better than me with swords."

Taku had a 'Swordsmanship' talent, and he was a million times more experienced than me with a sword.

"Sure."

"Thanks."

Taku nodded his head in response.

"Eh!? Leo?" Rio looked at me with a confused face.

"Good luck."

I looked at him and gave him a thumbs up.

"Eh?"

I had sparred with Taku a few times and utterly lost all of them; I had tried to trick him like Ms. Brent taught me, but he never fell for any of my tricks.

Taku and Rio went a little bit away to spar and I walked over to Ian.

"Can we spar?"

Ian nodded his head.

We both took our stances.

"How'd you do it?"

"Huh?"

"The Ogre."

"How'd I survive it?"

Ian nodded his head

"With luck."

Ian nodded his head again, then began to charge at me.

...

I sat down, out of breath, and looked towards the ceiling.

"Good fight..."

Ian extended his hand to help me up.

"Thanks."

I took his hand and stood up.

I had lost within a few moves.

Both Ian's and Taku's experience just outdid mine. I mean I had only been training with a sword for the past month. It'd probably be stranger if I was better than them anyways.

I looked over towards Rio and Taku. Rio was sitting down just like I was, he had lost his spar as well.

It looked like Taku was giving him some pointers.

I stretched my arms wide and yawned.

"Let's go again."

I looked towards Ian and spoke.

He nodded his head and got into stance.

---

I laid on the wooden floor, I had lost track of the amount of times we sparred. But I do know I lost all of them.

I was heavily panting while Ian was lightly breathing.

"Good fight." Ian said while sitting down.

I could see that it was already dark out, I didn't know the exact time we had been fighting, but it was definitely a few hours.

"Thanks."

Rio and Taku walked over to us.

"Thank you again, Taku!" Rio energetically spoke.

"No problem."

"Leo! How was your sparring?" Rio asked

"I lost every fight."

"Haha, same!" Rio continued,

"Taku and Ian are really strong!"

"Yeah." I continued,

"Should we go eat?"

"Yes!"

Ian nodded his head.

It looked like Taku was thinking of something, so I don't think he heard me.

"Taku?"

"Huh? Oh. Sorry, could you repeat the question?"

"Want to eat?"

"Oh, sure."

I stood up and stretched my arms.

We all began to walk to the cafeteria; Taku and I had walked a little slower than the others because he wanted to talk to me.

"Leo..."

"Hm?"

"Rio is a genius..."

"Is he?"

"Yes, he was improving really fast. Although I don't use a rapier, I could tell he was definitely using it correctly. I only had to give him tips on how to actually fight."

"Hm... He just needs more experience then?"

"I believe so."

What a broken talent...

"Hm... Thanks for letting me know and once again, thank you for helping him."

"No... This is nothing compared to..."

He stopped himself before starting to speak again.

"No, thank you."

"Mhm."

We arrived at the cafeteria shortly after, unlike this morning, now it was pretty populated.

We all grabbed our food then headed to our usual table.

…

As we were eating, I could feel a few eyes looking at me. I could even see some people looking at me as they walked by.

"Why is everyone looking at me?"

"Huh?" Rio looked confused at my question.

"So this is where you were!"

A girl's voice could be heard from behind Ian.

"And, ah! You're here too, Leo, Rio!"

It was Kathryn, Ian's sister.

She took a seat at our table.

"How are you doing Leo? I heard about the Ogre."

"You did?"

"Huh? Of course, everyone in the school probably knows by now."

"Really?"

"Yeah! But how are you doing? I heard you took the aggression away from everyone?"

"Better than Gene for sure."

"He's the one who got thrown right?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I hope he's doing alright. But Ian! I had a question for you."

Ian tilted his head.