Chapter 219

After leaving the basement, Elizabeth trained on a separate part of the estate for some time before placing a lot of greens and the few smoked rabbits they had left in the kitchen.

She looked outside to see Tibaut and Tina lying on the ground outside.

"Damnit, what changed between yesterday and today!?" She shouted.

"Be grateful he had to deal with me beforehand Tina or else you'd be the only one on the ground," Lily remarked as she watched them.

It amazed Tibaut how much these two bickered. Didn't they live together? Or was it because they lived together that they constantly argued?

Either way, he didn't have to think about this for long before Elizabeth grabbed him by his collar and picked him up like a kitten by the scruff of its neck. She walked inside and dropped him in a chair.

In front of him was more food.

"Eat." She commented.

He wasted no time chowing down on the spread in front of him. 

"So that's it for the training, right Elizabeth? I'm pooped, I'm not sure I could move another inch."

He looked outside and the evening sky with its purple suggested that was the end of anything physical for the day.

"Well, you better find the energy to do so because you'll spar me later."

"Ugh, I'm not even surprised," Tibaut said, disappointed as he crunched on the greens in front of him like a goat. "What's the sparring for anyway? It doesn't really feel like it's doing anything to help digestion."

"It's simply to help you work off any excess calories. After all, I'm not too sure about the efficiency your body can process all that food. (But it seems my worries were unfounded based on his looks. Though regular training can't hurt.)"

As she looked at Tibaut she realised he gained more weight than she imagined he would. She walked over to him and opened his shirt. Thankfully there was no flab and none of his ribs showed.

He was blushing when she opened his and she quickly let it go.

"I was just checking how much your body has recovered," Elizabeth said. She tried to avoid mentioning how odd this action would seem to an outside observer.

"You could have just asked me to open my shirt…"

"That would have looked even worse."

After that violation, he continued to eat and after finishing, was brought outside against his will to train.

"Alright, come at me," Elizabeth said.

Tibaut looked around the area and picked some solid-looking branches.

"I hope you aren't going to use those as weapons." She remarked.

"What are you talking about? I'm gonna use these as torches."

She walked over to him and smacked them out of his hands. 

"Then stop, we're going fight like this."

"Oh come on, this is just unsafe."

"All fighting is unsafe. Consider this training to help you in a low-light environment. (Well, I'm not sure we'll be fighting them in the dark but it never hurts to be safe.)"

She threw a punch to his face and the spar started. Tibaut quickly dodged and backed away.

"Geez, why can't you guys just say 'start' or 'hajime' or something."

He threw a fireball at her and she dodged it without much hesitation. She decided for this spar, like most, to only use her fists. She closed the distance between them pretty quickly and threw another punch. He dodged it without incident although his face showed otherwise. He had his lips pursed and kept his eyes focused on her limbs.

("Jesus Christ, if she hits me with one of those while I'm like, I might actually die.")

Elizabeth proceeded to throw more punches and Tibaut dodged and parried them.

Although it hadn't been more than five minutes, Elizabeth could tell his fighting style had changed.

("He's focusing more on defence than a mixture of offence and defence, like his usual style. I'm pretty he's even gotten better at dealing with my heavier blows. Maybe I should have kept in this weaker state for a bit longer.")

He threw a fire lance at her and she effortlessly dodged. ("I see, this must be how he tired out Tina earlier. If I recall he had little to no bruising and she did as well. But do you think that is going to work against me?")

She performed feint into a kick and Tibaut seemed to have no issue dodging. But it seemed that kick was just set up as she flowed into another kick but Tibaut casually punched it to send it off course.

Her upper body had swung towards the ground and Tibaut had wondered why she had used such exaggerated movements. Until he saw the object she swung towards him and narrowly managed to parry the object with a kick, though it did still sting.

("Oh, he managed to react to that. I'm impressed.")

She had picked up one of the large branches Tibaut had picked up earlier and was using it like a sword.

("Weren't you the one to say not to use them as weapons?")

She slashed at him and left a dirty mark across his shirt.

("That would have cut deep if it was her actual sword…")

They continued their brawl until Tibaaut had gathered a large fireball above his head. They continued fighting with this boulder-sized ball of fire above their heads with neither slowing down.

"Just to check, Tibaut, you aren't planning on killing the both of us, are you?" She asked while stabbing towards him.

"It's not as bad as it looks. Just don't throw anything at it. (Or we might actually die.)"

He caught the stick between his arm and knee and broke it in half with his other fist.