16 Spar (part-1)

[Reynolds' POV]

Uncle Reynolds came home after hearing about the commotion. Aunt Alice told him about what happened and about my "miraculous awakening".

I messed up big time this time. I didn't know that the explosion would be so detrimental. Now, I am left with tens of broken windows and other damage to properties. I feel bad for Uncle Vincent and Aunt Tabitha, but more than that I feel bad for the worry that I will cause mom and dad after they return home. At first, I thought to get this done very gently but didn't know it would expand to such proportions. The explosion was way bigger than I had anticipated.

"Reynolds, did you really just form your mana core?" As I was thinking to myself, Uncle Reynolds asked with an incredulous expression.

"En, apparently I did..." I replied with my own clueless expression.

"Did you feel anything? Can you tell us?" Uncle asked again...

"Hmmm, I have been having this funny feeling around here, you see. And I also had this urge to bring the feeling closer together. I have been doing this for a long time now. Today, they finally came together and caused the explosion" I said while pointing towards my solar plexus region.

"Hmm... I see..." Uncle muttered while pondering something.

"Okay! Reynolds! Come, we are going to have a spar!" seemingly deciding on something, he grabbed my hand and started dragging me outside.

"Honey! What are you doing! He just formed his mana core and is still so young! What are doing talking about sparring?!" Aunt Alice shouted after Uncle, clearly displeased with his attitude.

"What's the problem? I started training Arthur when he was much younger..." Uncle said with a completely innocent face. 'Seriously?!'

"They are completely different people! You can not just compare them and indulge him in your barbaric ways too!!" Aunt said with an expression that told tales of some troubling memories.

" Umm... actually I can fight... I have learned martial arts from dad..."I cut in the middle of them. To be honest, I also wanted to spar with uncle. Though I can not use all of my magical prowess just yet, I can exhibit my Martial arts. After all, that's something I have learned from my dad and even pioneered in, I am not going to let that get any less credit than it deserves.

"Huh? Raymond has taught you martial arts? Hahaha! that even better then! It's gonna make it a lot easier! Alright! come on then, to the backyard!" Uncle laughed with a bright expression, pumped for the upcoming spar.

*Sigh~* Aunt Alice just gave out a defeated sigh and followed behind us with the rest.

==============

I was back in the backyard. It had clearly seen better days. There was not a single tree or even a blade of grass left standing. And to top it off, there was a giant crater to the side of it.

I was standing across uncle Reynolds, preparing myself for the workout that was to come.

Uncle was also flexing and stretching his muscles here and there, making his own preparations.

Aunt Alice, Aunt Tabitha, Uncle Vincent, Ellie, and Lilia stood to the side as spectators. Among them, Lilia and Ellie had anticipation plastered on their face, clearly excited about our match.

"Alright then, Vincent, would you please be the referee and give the starting signal?" Uncle asked, turning towards the others.

"Sure, why not? *cough* So, Ready?.... get set... start!"

And with that, we lunged towards each other...

We had with us a wooden sword, so it was purely gonna be a display of my martial arts along with my swordsmanship. Though, I started moulding mana around me to make the terrain to my advantage.

I did want to showcase some of my magic spells, I mean I just "formed" my mana core, how can I not show off?!

When we were around one hand distance apart, I brought down my sword with an overhead swing. Uncle blocked it before parrying it to the side. Our momentum carried us forward until we had our back turned to each other. Turning around while swinging our sword towards our back, our swords met each other halfway and a shrill *thung* rang out. But, this time, I couldn't hold back my uncle's force. I was forced back.

Turning towards each other, I gave uncle a cautious look while he just had a smirk on his face.

"What? done already?" He said with a provocative tone, which did irk me a little bit, not gonna lie...

'Damn old man! that was just testing the waters!'

I figured getting agitated wouldn't do me any good, so I took a deep breath in while having my eyes closed and exhaled it out. Opening my eyes once again, I was perfectly calm right now, my bright golden eyes shadowed over for a slight second before returning to normal. Taking a "Flowing Arts" style stance, I readied myself before lunging forward for our second round of the bout.

{Flowing Arts: Tidal Assault}

I kept sprinting forward but to uncle, it felt like a raging tide was coming for him, as it was evident from his expression.

He bent down a little, his face serious and tensed up now. He was serious!

I came down on him like a tsunami, overwhelming him with my attacks and persistence. But he was a veteran adventurer for nothing. Though he couldn't make space for an attack, he did predict most of my attacks and either blocked or parried them. he couldn't even dodge, or he would be completely overwhelmed by my flurry of attacks.

This was the gap between us when it came to experience. {Tidal Assault} relied on the constant chain attacks. Unless one was an absolute cheat character, they wouldn't even have time to even think about attacking. They would constantly be on the defensive, waiting to get overwhelmed. But, that was also its weakness. Such fast-paced attacks without any breaks make the attacks very linear and predictable, making them very easy to block and parry. So, if one can hold out for long enough and tire the opponent out then they can win very easily.

That's what's happening now. Years of battle experience had made him able to withstand consecutive chain attacks for the most part. Even though I was dealing damage, it was not doing anything significant. At this rate, I was gonna run out of stamina before he did. I was younger than him, by a lot... and even though I had larger stamina than the others, it was not infinite. So, I was running out of time, fast...

'{Tidal assault} is consuming more stamina than I had anticipated..... I guessed it is weakened considerably if there is no magic to go along with it... but, at least the terrain is ready to give me some advantage now...

....I guess I have to try, even if it's not complete.'