Sparring with Valina.

After calming Valina, Drako returned to the house with her on the motorbike. It was another hour of quiet ride, with both of them quietly enjoying each other's company.

By the time they returned home, a few hours had passed. In fact, there were barely two hours left until dinner.

"What are you going to do now, Valina?" Drako asked as he got off the bike.

Valina got off behind him, but she didn't move from the spot. She sank into her thoughts, pondering what she could do next.

In the end, she could only ask Drako.

"What are you going to do?"

Valina's question took Drako by surprise. He didn't have anything planned to do that afternoon either.

He had to prepare dinner for tonight, but since he didn't want to do anything complicated, a half-hour in the kitchen was enough for him.

For the rest of the time... he had nothing to do. Maybe he saw what the other girls were doing, or wasted his time watching TV. He could even train Senjutsu until it was time to prepare dinner.

When he thought about training, he remembered that he hadn't trained with Valina for quite some time. The desire to have a good fight filled Drako's body, he didn't have a good fight in a long time.

The last fight Drako had had, if it could be considered a fight, was when he became involved in the Utsusemi issue. In the end, it was all over with Drako firing a few arrows, and he had received a great deal of experience in return. He could have gained more experience, but a mistake in decision making had caused Tobio and Lavinia to take all the glory.

In the end, Tobio had broken the seal of his Balance Breaker, which meant a boost in the strength of Drako's team. As such, everything had gone quite well for Akatsuki, although the organization had not been formed at that time.

"I know you suffered with Mordred this morning, but do you want to have a practice match?" Drako asked Valina.

Valina's eyes lit up when she heard Drako's proposal. It wasn't a lie that she felt unsatisfied after what happened this morning with Mordred, so she wanted to blow off some steam.

"By the usual rules?"

"By the usual rules."

The two looked at each other with a smile of understanding.

..................

In one of the training rooms in the basement, Drako was facing Valina. The two had exchanged the casual clothes they wore while in Kuoh City for training clothes.

The two looked at one another in the eyes, and they needed no sign to begin the fight.

Without much thought, Drako lunged at Valina. A dark aura surrounded Drako's right arm, specifically from his elbow to his fist. The aura took the same form as his human arm, but it took the form of claws when it reached his fingers.

This is what [Numbing Darkness Claws] looked like when he used the skill in his human form.

The speed at which Drako moved was one that a normal human eye could barely follow. Drako's best feature in his human form was none other than his speed, just the opposite of his dragon form. Whereas in his dragon form his speed statistic was the worst, in his human form it was the highest as it was the only one that did not see itself divided in half.

By the time Drako reached Valina, however, she was gone.

If there was one thing that characterized the descendant of Lucifer, it was her speed.

Even when Drako had increased so many levels, he was still slower than Valina. But speed, while possibly one of the most important, if not the most important parameter, to Drako himself, had its own limitations. In the end, even though Valina outpaced Drako in speed, she didn't outgrow him that much, and there were ways to compensate.

Drako felt the kick Valina was sending him from his left flank and dodged it with a minimal movement.

This was the problem of a person who only trusted his or her speed. If she or he missed an attack in front of an experienced person, the person was left very exposed.

Drako's analytical cold eyes did not let this opportunity pass. His left arm, surrounded by a golden aura similar to the dark aura of his right arm, was already more than ready to strike Valina's body.

Before he could strike, however, Drako felt a sense of danger and quickly covered himself with both arms.

He covered himself just as quickly as to prevent powerful demonic magic from striking his face.

As a descendant of Lucifer, Valina's demonic power was immense and tremendously powerful. Even with Drako's incredible defences, he was not going to come out unscathed after that attack if he received it head-on.

Even with both [Numbing Darkness claws] and [Holy Healing Claws] fighting back, Drako could feel his arms were a little numb.

But Drako wasn't angry about that, and it only made the battle more and more exciting. He had been longing for a fight like that for a long time.

Practice fights with Valina were the activity that Drako enjoyed most, and by far. Because of what had happened in the past few weeks involving Tobio and the rest, they could not train as much as they wanted.

Both Drako and Valina loved these moments, and it was the main reason why the relationship between the two had come so close.

In the first fight that they had months ago, they both fought with everything they had. Drako used his [Gandiva], [Touki] and even his real form to fight Valina, while she used her Sacred Gear. After a tough battle, in which they destroyed the entire battlefield, Drako emerged victorious by a minimal margin, earning Valina's respect and admiration. No one her age or close to it had ever defeated Valina, and only the mighty of Grigori could defeat her. Even most of the eight-winged Fallen Angels could do nothing against her.

After that fight, the two agreed to make a rule not to destroy the battlefield every time they fought. In the end, Drako couldn't use [Gandiva] and his true form, and Valina couldn't use her Sacred Gear.

And the result of this was no less exciting than combat using their powers to the fullest. This was a different kind of tension, and it made both their fighting skills improve by leaps and bounds.

For Drako, these training were essential for when he was in situations where he couldn't take his true form. He wanted to consider his true form as one of his trump cards along with his Noble Phantasm. He considered his human form as his main form, and his true form was an overboost to his statistics. In this way, his mentality was different, and he could push his weaker form to the limit, further improving his efficiency. This was then reflected in his true form and abilities.

For Valina, these training were also essential. Her main goal was not to fight the most powerful beings in the world but to finish off Rizevim. Fighting the most powerful beings was simply a secondary goal. To achieve her main goal, Valina knew she could not depend on the Divine Dividing because of the power her grandfather possessed. That's why these pieces of training with Drako, where she couldn't use her Sacred Gear, were invaluable combat experience for her.

The fight between the two continued, and neither had mercy on the other.

While Valina attacked Drako with quick moves and powerful attacks of demonic power, he defended himself with his own natural defences and resistance skills. And when Drako managed to connect a blow to Valina, she defended herself by creating magical circles. Magic circles of protection were not the best, but they did an excellent job of minimizing the damage Valina received.

Both Drako and Valina had difficulty connecting a true blow, so this had become a battle of attrition.

The minutes passed, and there didn't seem to be a real winner. The two were very evenly matched. Even Drako thought he was going to run out of MPs before he could finish the fight.

In the end, one attack hit hard.

Drako received a powerful attack of demonic energy from Valina directly into his chest, which sent him flying a few feet. Drako's back hit the wall, and he fell to his knees. Valina did not miss this moment to approach Drako and placed her palm above his head.

"You've already lost, give up."

Valina had a triumphant smile on her face.

"Yes..."

But she didn't know that beneath that headless head was Drako's evil smile. Even in this desperate situation, he hadn't given up.

"Hehehe" Valina had interpreted that "yes" as surrender on Drako's part.

"You really are an innocent child."

Before Valina could react, Drako had already pulled her arm and placed it under him. Unlike her, he had completely immobilized her.

In this position, with both of them lying on the ground and Drako on top of Valina, he put his mouth to the girl's ear and whispered in her ear.

"I've won."

The warm air reached Valina's ear, causing her to tremble and blush.

"Get off me, I can't breathe!"

"Yes, yes. Whatever you say, lady."

Drako slightly mocked Valina's appearance as he stood up.

Internally, Drako let out a relieved sigh. He was observing a certain statistic in particular.

MP: 15/400

The constant use of skills to fight Valina had consumed a lot of MP. Maintaining two skills at the same time, each on one arm, consumed a huge number of MP. Not to mention that those two weren't the only skills Drako was using. On the other hand, using his human form also consumed MP, and due to the constant skill use this was not recovered at an optimal rate.

Restraining himself in his human form was way too much MP consuming to Drako, but that was another handicap that made the battle exciting.

He let Valina out and sat down on the floor. Without expecting her to do anything, he sat down and started practising Senjutsu.

It wasn't that practising Senjutsu made his MP recover faster. Still, the fact that Drako stopped any unnecessary movement made a recovery multiply. In fact, he had already cut off his senses.

Valina stood up and looked at Drako gently. She already knew of his condition and agreed that it was important not to destroy the building where they lived. She also knew that when Drako was like this, he ignored everything around him.

She knelt in front of Drako and kissed his forehead lightly.

"I... I think I love you, Big Brother."

.................................…..

A few minutes later, when Drako felt he had recovered enough and Valina has long gone, he opened his eyes.

"That girl... isn't she too young to be talking about love?"

It was true that Drako sealed off his senses when he practised Senjutsu, but he always left a trace of his consciousness in case something happened. He was able to sense Azazel entering the first floor of the building from the terrace, so sensing Valina in front of him was not a problem. And when he felt the contact, he focused his senses a little bit just to hear Valina's last words.

Letting out a sigh, he got up and left the room. His own smell was bothering him, so he decided to go into one of the bathrooms on this floor.

There was still an hour left before the time when he had to start preparing dinner, so he could relax in hot water.

The bath was of the Japanese type, the one that appears in many anime. It was divided into two parts, one in which one washed and the other in which he relaxed. Drako soon washed up and entered the relaxation area.

It had barely been a few minutes since Drako had entered the relaxation area when he heard the splash of water.

Someone else had entered the pool.

Drako had his head resting on the back of his head with his eyes closed, so he could not see who it was. Still, he was 100% sure who it was.

"We're finally alone-Nyaa!"

It looked like Drako was going to have another battle.

--------------------------

Is there going to be a lemon on the next chapter?

Hehehehe...