Date With Hu Tao, Part Four - A Spar!? Again!?

Hu Tao didn't know whether he would ever share his secret with her, but she would wait for that day to come.

...

..

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The dress came together with a pair of white stockings, a cute hat and many other accessories.

As mentioned previously, it looked like a cosplay of something Barbara, the Deaconess would wear.

There was even a prop of a book for caster magicians together with the outfit.

Blanche affirmed that the costume was made based off of Barbara's outfit.

Everything about Barbara the Idol was cute and beautiful, so Blanche was inspired and made a few costumes, just a play on colors and nothing else.

It was cute nevertheless, so he bought it.

Hopefully she would wear it more often.

It was surprisingly only a couple of thousands of Mora, so he didn't have to run back to home to get more money...

After Yomite paid for it, the two of them went to the forest of Wolvendom, towards the place they met for the first time.

He had the whole day planned out, but she told him she wanted to come here so he obliged.

Hu Tao held her hand out for him to take, no longer acting as shy and wary as before.

He arrived at the conclusion she must have not liked to be around other people whole doing so.

He took her hand and they began making their way deeper into the woods.

The trees were thicker here, but he could still make out where she was leading them through the underbrush.

They walked through the tall grass and into a small clearing.

Once there, she put the bag of clothes against a nearby tree and turned towards him, taking off her coat.

Her eyes were sharp and focused as they met his.

Yomite immediately knew what was about to happen.

That was a sign she wanted to spar...

(Not again...Why now!?)

He looked around and frowned. They could be easily ambushed from the trees or the high grass in a place like this...

It was a really bad location for a spar...

"Why does it have to be training again!? Why is your idea of date a god damned training!?"

Yomite yelled in frustration, the sound echoing throughout the forest.

Yomite's complaints were promptly ignored as she relayed her own logic upon him.

"Eh? But didn't you say a date is when two people who like each other spend time together for an established duration of time ranging from a couple of hours to a whole day? Isn't that what we're experiencing right now?" asked Hu Tao with a perplexed look.

The brunette was confused by the concept since she never had heard about such thing in her life before meeting him.

The question was innocent enough for Yomite to drop his shoulders.

"I can't argue with that...but still!"

"Then...Are you ready, Assistant-kun? Okay, here I come!"

She grinned mischievously at him, her eyes glinting maliciously under the blue sky.

Her figure was illuminated by the sun rays. It looked like she'd stepped out of one of those fairy tales.

"I'm going to kick your butt~!"

The girl's voice boomed over the wind as she ran towards him, her long, light brown hair floating around her in a way that made it seem to be dancing.

Hu Tao went on the offensive the moment her words fell, as she believed victory would go to the one who made the first move.

Then again, she always won, so the victor was bound to be her, once more!

For some reason, Hu Tao was way too motivated today and wanted to fight.

She often had the urge to tease and prank him, but she only recently found out that bullying him during the spar was what made her heart race the most.

She simply savored the feeling.

Hu Tao moved her feet and her forward rush was accompanied with enough speed to claim lives of random Anemo slimes that were passing by...

Her body was a blur of colors as she came closer, her speed never seeming slow, boosted by the explosion of air from the dead slimes, making it hard for Yomite to keep up with her.

He watched as she neared her target with anticipation, excitement building inside of her even more than it usually did.

Hu Tao was a battle junkie, there was no denying that.

Yomite tried his best to tense his muscles and managed to dodge, though the move wasn't exactly graceful or elegant.

In order to challenge a stronger opponent, Yomite knew there were only a few ways to win.

He must have caught the opponent by surprise or at the very least he had to use a combo that could unbalance the opponent for a quick chance.

If a fighter attacked without any tricks, they must have at least had the awareness that would protect them, or else it would be over for them if their initial attack was dodged.

It wasn't a trick, it's just how things were in combat.

If he could dodge and get to safety with his life in the end, well then, it was all worth it.

The last thing he wanted to do was to get himself into a situation where his body was completely on auto pilot and he couldn't respond to every single move of his opponent.

It wasn't as hard as it sounded when he thought about it, especially in the beginning, when there were so many ways it could go horribly wrong.

The best defense was a good offense, no?

Or was it the other way around?

Either way, he had to put everything he had into fighting her.

In the end, Yomite who had survived Hu Tao's hellish training for a few months had at least a bit of understanding about her moveset, strength and speed.

But despite that, he didn't believe it would be enough to completely beat her.