15 Exchanging Partner

"I will win this time!" Char told himself as he continued to challenge the skeleton.

It was the third day after the skeleton could fight back; he had tried all kinds of things to fight the skeleton. He improved greatly, but the skeleton also got better, albeit slowly.

"Tomorrow is our sparring day, so I must at least win once today!" he resolved.

The skeleton could not feel pain and it was really unfair for him, it would sacrifice its body part so it could counterattack if he was getting the upper hand.

Actually, on the second day, Char almost won, but the skeleton regenerated using its regeneration magic and made a comeback.

Once the timer started, Char went on the offensive since the skeleton was in the defensive position. It tried to buy more time.

"It knew that I needed to kill it within ten minutes. Rather than being aggressive, it waited for me to make an opening," he analyzed.

After so much fight against the skeleton, Char could see the reasoning behind the skeleton's every move. Others might say he was delusional, but he believed the skeleton was learning too.

With that assumption, he improved a lot in fighting the skeleton. Char activated his magic and made a wide move as if he was about to use his vertical strike. It made the skeleton raise its sword in defense.

The skeleton was wary of his vertical strike, it would always parry the strike while dodging before it counter-attack.

Knowing it would block the strike, Char aborted his strike. It was a feint! He bent his body to the side and pulled his blade in front of his chest before he made a backhand strike at the skeleton.

With its sword raised, it was wide open. Char's sword was about to split the skeleton in half at the chest.

He thought he had the skeleton, but it actually took a step back. The skeleton arm was not ready, but it did not mean its feet could not move.

Char cut the skeleton's rib bones and its sword arm, but he failed to cut the skeleton in two; the skeleton's sword fell to the ground.

"Now it will try to attack me so I dodged and it can recover its sword," He thought as the skeleton immediately charged after it dodged the swords.

"If I tried to dodge, then it would recover its sword and reattach its arm," the skeleton tried to hit him on the face with its other arm.

One lesson he learned when he fought the skeleton was if a human got hit on the nose, no matter how hard they tried, it would always stop their movement.

His sword was too slow to stop the strike, so he used his other arm to parry the skeleton's fist. He had used an iron arm guard to do so.

According to Mr. Brown, he was free to use any weapon prepared by the academy, so he used the arm guard so his other arm could contribute as well.

"I tried a shield, but it's too unwieldy. On the other hand, arm guards provide enough protection without hindering my movement."

The skeleton failed to make him dodge or hit him straight in the face, so it tried to stab him with its broken arm, but Char did not wait for it to stab him. He used his sword to cut at the skeleton's waist.

He did not need to use any magic to cut the skeleton at the waist as the only bone threw as the backbones.

The sword split it in two before it could stab him on a proper footing. The skeleton's broken arm only scratched him.

Its upper body fell to the ground while its lower body was still standing. It tried to kick him away, but he tackled it easily with his foot as it didn't have a proper balance.

With it temporarily immobilized, Char used his vertical strike to cut at the skeleton. He aimed at its upper body where the most backbone was at.

After that, it was simple for him to break all of its bones. Although he cut less bone with his powered strike, he still had enough time to finish the job.

"That is one down," he wiped sweats from his forehead.

He still needed to kill the skeleton nine more times, but he doubted the same trick would work twice. He believed the skeleton would learn their last fight.

"Alright, Char, good job! You can stop fighting the skeleton now," Mr. Brown told him.

"But I haven't killed it nine times," it confused him when Mr. Brown told him he could stop.

"You will need to learn to fight other creatures too, continue fighting it would only slow your progression. Of course, you can still try this training on your own, but from now on, you will fight another opponent during class," he explained.

"Anne, come here!" he called the girl who was sparring with her summoned creature.

"From today onward, you will exchange training partners, Char will fight the imp while Anne will fight the skeleton," the man said.

Char and Anne exchange a look before they reply to the man, "We will, Sir!"

There was a small rivalry among them since their last fight ended in a draw. Even though both of them are only fighting each other's summoned creature, the one with the most kills would represent who was better among them.

"I'm sorry if I'm going to interrupt your training too often, I think you will need to re-summon your skeleton a lot," the girl said in sarcasm.

"No, on the other hand, I'm the one who is sorry if my skeleton sends you to the infirmary, it is not used to holding back," He replied back with sarcasm as well.

A brief spark ignited between them before they went to training with their new partner.

Char looked at the imp in front of him in amusement. It had grown taller since the last time he saw it, its leg grew longer and bigger after so much kicking practice.

"Hahaha, it looks like T-Rex" he could not help but laugh in his heart.