Chapter LXXV - Spar and Training (part 1)

Before the countdown stops, everyone watches in silence and curiosity fills the air.

No one knows what will happen, which gets them both confused and excited. After all, anyone being recognized by Jrake isn't just some random individual.

The countdown stopped, and Hod shouted the final word.

"Go!"

Jrake dashed forward. I always thought he was the defensive one, but this time he is the one to make the first move.

Everyone else was quite shocked when they saw Jrake move first, but Jrake had his reasons.

I knew he was going for the rush from his stance, so I was quite ready. I waited on my position, waiting for him to come.

When he is in range, Jrake leaped forward and spun his body. I simply leaped backwards to dodge his large swings, and then moved forward again at the perfect time to attack.

Unfortunately, his body is way more agile than I thought. 

Our sword clashed when I tried to attack him, but since his blade is much bigger and heavier than mine, his defence is also much better and his attacks are more destructive.

I clicked my tongue, while the big guy simply grinned.

"Goo!! Jrake!"

"Go, Jrake! Go!"

The other adventurers who are watching the spar with their all are rooting for Jrake. No one present is rooting for me, not that I needed any.

Our sword clashes with one another as we trade blows. His sword is totally bigger than mine, and he doesn't need that much effort to stagger me. It's not fair.

When the timing was perfect, he dashed forward to do a fast attack, so I dodged to the left side. Unfortunately for me, it was a fake. 

His right leg immediately stopped him from moving forward, and his body spun to the left at high speed. His blade is now slicing horizontally from the right, at an extreme speed and power towards me.

KLANGG!!!

I stopped that attack with my sword, and it pushed me backwards really hard. 

"W-Wooaah!!!" 

"That's insane!!"

The adventurers watching our spar are amazed by our movements. Even though we did some nasty attacks, we were able to stop every single one of them and continued with the barrage of endless tricks.

That's for their eyes. In reality, Jrake is totally playing around. I can tell from the grin on his face.

"You are grinning again."

"So are you."

I touched my face. I am in fact grinning… possibly wider than he is.

"Heh."

"Kheh!"

I leaped forward, and this time, I decided I should go on the offensive. 

Even without magic energy, my moves are still very fast. Jrake's blade is big, and there are plenty of downsides, such as the weight and the large size. The weight was easily covered by Jrake's monstrous muscles, but the large size will still be able to block his view…

So I will use that.

By the time I got close, I swung my sword at a very awkward position for him. Just like I predicted, he used his sword to block the attack, making his blade cover his field of view.

Now's my chance.

I jumped and kicked the blade, pushing him backwards. By the time Jrake's sword was moved away, I had already dashed and had my blade on the skin of his neck.

It all happened in less than a second.

"W-Woah..."

"Heh."

I chuckled as I pulled my sword away. Around us, everyone is dead silent. Nobody is saying anything, as Jrake shrugged the back of his head.

"Your win."

"My win."

I let out my hand for a handshake. He grabbed it and I pulled him up. Everyone around us can only watch in amazement after the fight ends. 

Jrake has always been known to be very strong. There's not that many people that are better than him in terms of swordsmanship, and there's possibly only a couple, including the Swordsaint.

"Your technique has gone much better… and faster, too."

"Thanks. I had lots of chances and time to polish them."

I explained to him how I started reading books about sword arts a long time ago, and that I always used the arts to practice during missions. He nodded at me, telling me that's actually a good move.

Hod came at us walking, saying that he was too amazed by the spar, that he didn't even realize the fight had already ended. He apologized for being a bad judge.

"Yeah. Bad."

"Don't mind it, Hod."

Me and Jrake had two different opinions. We laughed at how confused Hod looked when we replied to him.

Jrake asked me to spar again, and so I accepted. In the end, we spared six times, and I won all of them.

"You have... truly gone beyond me..."

"Thanks. I had a good teacher."

He is on the ground, catching his breath, while I laid my back on the wall. Hod is also watching from the walls. He wasn't really good with swords, since he only used them to slice monsters.

Not that I use my sword to slice people, what I meant is, Hod had a different sword basis than I did. I trained with people, but Hod trained it with monsters. The outcome is very different.

Even if you slice monsters for a thousand years, your sword skills can never be better than those who trained with people in just a month.

"You should continue your teaching session, Jrake."

I said to Jrake who is done catching his breath on the ground.

"Ah, right."

He stood up and called the adventurers to continue their training. Me and Hod went up to the spectators seat to watch the training while waiting. Aside from us, there are other groups, but we just don't recognize them.

The second bell is in an hour, so the others should arrive very soon.

From the looks of it, more and more people are coming here. Multiple groups even came at the same time. It's unclear why there are so many today. 

I guess since it is a weekend, people just want to have some break and practice in the new fancy arena.

Me and Hod watches the arena for some time while we wait for the others to arrive. More and more people are entering the arena and sparred, and there are no one is disturbing Jrake's training session.

Jrake's training is counted as the Office's event since Jrake is technically an agent to the Office. As a result, people take his classes very seriously and no one dares to disturb the training.