Spar

"I..."

Before Alex could utter a word, the grand duke asked him.

"How about a Spar?"

Alex was surprised. He considered this offer seriously and nodded quickly, "Thank you for your guidance."

Alex and the grand duke were separated for a few meters. But before they started, someone called them suddenly.

"Father!"

Both of them looked at the source of the voice.

"Can we talk?"

"Alicia?" Grand duke was surprised. It was Alicia who called him.

  "Sure."

"Father, I want to go to the dungeon again."

Grand duke and Alex were shocked. Their eyes widened.

"Alicia?" Alex was stunned.

"Alicia, are you serious?" Grand duke asked.

"Yes," Alicia nodded.

"Why would you want to go back?" Grand duke asked again.

"Because of him," Alicia pointed at Alex.

Grand duke immediately sent a glare at Alex.

"Alex is strong, but I'm too weak to help him. I don't want to be protected and stand behind him all the time. All I want is to stand beside him, always. Even when the whole world sees him as an enemy, I still want to stay beside him, I want to help him. So, when the time comes, I can proudly say that I am his woman."

"Alicia," Alex's heart was moved to hear her words. 

"If so, I will follow you to the dungeon."

"No! I don't want you to accompany me! Everybody can, except you. If you go with me, you will end up protecting me again and again."

Grand duke was shocked. His playful daughter was grown up. He wanted to reject this idea at first, but seeing the determination in Alicia's eyes, the word stuck in his throat.

"Sigh… It's time for the girl in the house to grow up and soar to the sky."

"Your sister Mia also wants to go to the dungeon, what if you go with her?"

"Can Firia also join?"

"Yes, she only has three people in her group. If you want to go together, it will be five and perfect then. Go talk to her about it."

"Yes, Father," Alicia smiled and left to find her sister.

After Alicia left, the grand duke gave a sharp glance at Alex.

"Now, our time to try the Spar," the grand duke smiled evilly. Even though he already gave his blessing and tied Alex and Alicia in an engagement, seeing Alicia growing up and leaving him like this still hurt him a bit. He wanted to vent all this to Alex.

Alex shivered a bit. He wanted to reject but couldn't do so. He wanted to cry but had no tears and reluctantly accepted.

Alex and the Grand duke prepared their stance.

"Your stance...." the grand duke astonished.

"I never learned sword art before, I only practiced some basic sword movements such as slashing, stabbing, or parrying. This stance was the result of fighting with many monsters," Alex explained.

The duke nodded solemnly. On the other hand, for Alex to reach this point alone in his age was surprising. Even hunters or adventurers who dealt with monsters daily might not reach this if they were in Alex's age.

Alex's right hand held the sword, and his left hand held his spear. He rarely used his spear and sword simultaneously when fighting monsters. He only used them together when he had a hard fight, and of course, the spear was provided by the system. His right leg was in front of his left leg by one step away, and his body turned a bit to the left.

Grand Duke observed this stance a bit. He thought this stance had weakness from Alex's right side since his body turned a bit to the left. That might be a blind spot, he thought. But seeing Alex's left hand held a spear, he shook his head inwardly. The spear's length made it a bit impossible, but Alex could cover his right side.

"Let's start, you can make your move first," Grand duke said.

Alex nodded. He used his boost step right off the bat in the hope this speed could shock the grand duke a bit and gave him an opportunity.

The duke was astonished by Alex's speed. He noticed the little bit of explosion under Alex's speed that might be the reason for Alex's speed change, but he soon recovered. He waved his sword toward Alex.

Alex parried it. 'Strong,' he thought. He was overpowered by the grand duke's raw strength.

He used a couple of boost steps on his hand. He managed to repel the grand duke's sword. The Grand duke was astonished by this. It seemed these peculiar techniques not only could be used for his speed but also his power, depending on how he used it.

The grand duke moved a few meters away from Alex.

"How versatile this technique is, it can give you speed or power depending on how you use it. It might give you another boost in another area. From my observation, you can use this technique on all your body parts."

Alex was shocked. The duke was spot on with his speculation.

"Well… try to use all your techniques, though my element was wind, I might give you some advice from my own experience."

"Thank you for your guidance," Alex said.

As soon as he said that, Alex used another boost step toward the grand duke.

"I said to use all your techniques, using the same movement in a fight continuously might give your opponent a chance."

Alex only smiled. He used his boost step to stop his advance two meters away from the grand duke. He thrusted his spear to the duke's head.

"It might be dangerous if your spear is at high rank, but this is only a normal spear," he parried the spear thrust easily.

Alex and the duke were exchanging blow and blow. They clashed for around two hundred blows. The series of clashing between Alex's sword and spear and the duke's sword was heard around the mansion. Alicia, who was still packing up her clothes, opened her windows and watched this scene from her bedroom.

The madam who was in her study room also got out of her room and watched Alex's practice. Some servants that passed by also stopped for a while to watch the Spar between Alex and the grand duke.

"Fire Arrow!"

Alex sent around twenty fire arrows to the grand duke.

'Boom Boom!'

A series of explosions was heard there.

"Oi, are you going to destroy this garden?" The grand duke teased.

"Ummm, I'm sorry," Alex apologized. He didn't have any intention to do that. He felt he was just caught up with the fight.

The grand duke saw many people come to watch this. There was his wife, Alicia, Mia, butler Ji, and some servants.

"Let's finish this with one sword strike, I will just use my wind strike."

This wind strike was similar to Alex's Flame Sword Wave. The Duke already showed it to him during this Spar. But Alex still hadn't shown his Flame Sword Wave.

Alex nodded, raised his sword, and poured his Mana to his sword.

The duke who saw it got shocked. He grinned.

"That's very good. This technique of yours is really good. It is similar to my wind strike. What is the name of this technique?"

Alex swung his sword while shouting, "Flame Sword Wave."

A tyrannical and beautiful red-colored Sword Waved moved toward the duke. Mia watched this scene and felt oppressed. Because her element was also fire, that fire element inside of her body was suppressed by Alex's absolute flame. This 'Flame Sword Wave' was a technique that utilized Alex's absolute flame.

"Good, I can't lose, can I? This is my wind strike."

Wind-crescent Sword Waves flew toward Alex.

"Crap, I use too much power," the grand duke said. 

"Alex, dodge it!"

However, the grand duke was too late. Alex's Flame Sword Wave and his wind strike already clashed with each other because of the difference in power. Alex's Flame Sword Wave was destroyed. After all, his Flame Sword Wave managed to fight a bit but was soon destroyed.

"Alex!" Alicia shouted, but Alex didn't manage to dodge this strike.

'BOOM!'

The duke's wind strike reached Alex.

The fog was soon cleared away, Alicia already tore up. But she soon saw Alex's figure standing between the smoke.

Alex used all of his Mana to use 'Flame Armor' to create a shield made of flame on his right hand to guard the wind strike.

Alex's head was fuzzy. All parts of his body were in pain. Because of this strike, he got internal injuries and needed around a week to recover.

"Alex!" Alicia was relieved when she saw Alex was fine. All people watching this were also relieved, especially the grand duke who released his wind strike. He was scared that he was going to directly kill his son-in-law with his hand.

Alex spurted blood and collapsed to the ground.

"Alex!" Alicia immediately ran out from the window and went to Alex.

The grand duke immediately approached Alex and supported him, not letting him fall to the ground. The closest was the madam.

"How is he?" Madam asked with much concern.

"He is fine, he only passed out," the grand duke assured her.

"Sigh," the madam was relieved but soon became angry.

  "You better control your strength, look at what you have done. You almost killed him, are you going to make Alicia become a widow?"

Grand duke was sweatdropped.

"Alex!" Alicia already arrived at the back of the garden.

Alicia checked his condition.

"Don't worry, he only passed out," the grand duke said apologetically.

Alicia was relieved when she heard Alex was fine, but soon threw an angry look at her father, "Father, why are you doing this, you are a rank 7 while Alex only a rank 4. Are you out of your mind?"

The grand duke was more nervous than before. His back was full of cold sweat. He secretly sighed. His son-in-law already fully snatched his daughter. Now, she can scold her father because of him.

"Don't worry, he will be fine," the grand duke only said that awkwardly.

They carried Alex to his room.

...

At night, Alex woke up. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a familiar ceiling.

"This is my room?" Alex recognized this room.

He checked his body condition. He found no physical injuries, only a sore body. But, he got some internal injuries, even with a rank two restoration pill. He needed around three days to recover, but he didn't have any stock for restoration pills now. He might need to rest for a week.

He wanted to raise his left hand, but he felt like his hand was held by something. He looked at his hand and found Alicia sat on the floor beside his bed, holding his hand while sleeping. Alex smiled gently and his heart was filled with warmth.

Alex tried to get up slowly. He managed to get to the sitting position. Alex gently smiled at Alicia, he raised his right hand weakly to reach Alicia's head. He slowly patted her head and stroked her hair. Alicia woke up by Alex's movements.

"Mmm," Alicia slowly opened her eyes. She felt comfortable when Alex patted her head and wanted to sleep again with that feeling. But she forced her eyes open. She looked at Alex.

"Did I wake you up?" Alex gently smiled.

"Alex!" She hugged Alex strongly.

Alex closed his eyes, and slowly stroked her back. "I'm sorry for making you worried," he said gently in her ear.

"Wa!" Alicia then realized that she was impulsive just now. She slowly released him awkwardly. She was embarrassed. Her face turned red like a tomato.

Alex looked at her face that became so cute. He said with a low voice, "Thank you."

Alicia was surprised to hear this and her red face that looked so cute was now filled with a very big smile.