Familiar Monsters

Once they had all returned, each of them started a training of their own as Xilo went back to repeating the same process with Seli. For the whole day he tested until night came. Once it had gotten dark out they all stopped and went back inside for some rest. Like that they spent the next couple days hanging out and training when they could. Xilo even visited Felian for a little bit for a small talk when he had the time. "We've got two weeks until we got to go back." Once they had returned with Felian then their job was officially over. Right now they were just wasting time until then.

"See you soon Felian."

"Come back again Xilo!"

With five days having passed Xilo had made significantly more progress then he had ever imagined possible as he flexed his hand. Right now he could only use a little bit of the energy and still couldn't move much with it but he had managed to figure out the activation of it and gain a time frame before it overwhelmed him. "About ten minutes...is my limit." In the grand scheme of it that was just a drop in the ocean but it felt good. Since he could control it now he could even just play it off as an Astral Ability if he ever decided to use it.

"It's only giving me a slight edge right now compared to before."

That was another thing he wanted to figure out through testing. Just how much power this could actually give him. Seli had been avoiding fighting him though so he was left to just guess. "Besides a few extra tricks, it feels like a very tiny boost that takes a lot more effort." He was severely disappointed with the results he came up with. He didn't expect a lot from it either though so he tried not to let it get to him too much. Today though Seli said they would have another practice match to see if he could handle it in combat. Standing in that practice room he arrived early before anyone else as he sat there with the lights off.

"Yilel....Zelfin...Felli...Althea...Nepl...Belturn...The Royal Family... Haaa....talk about being overloaded with so little time. Well, let's try my best to take things one step at a time. Like always..rushing never leads to anything good. Figured that out the hard way once I fell down that cliff...Twice."

Hearing some rustling at the door, Xilo turned his head to see a woman with pink hair staring at him.

"Oh, Hia Seli, what are you doing here already?"

"I figured I'd get some early stretches in, what about you?"

"Yeah I was thinking about doing the same."

With a super forced smile Xilo tried to push the conversation in another direction while hoping she didn't hear anything he just said. He doubted she would know what it means but he wasn't in the mood to explain anything right now. Watching her turn on the lights and walk over without saying much he chose silence as the two of them stood next to each other and began to stretch. Spending about twenty minutes doing that, they didn't say a word until they were finished.

"I think that's enough preparation for now. Ready for a little practice like you promised?"

"I am but don't you want to wait for the others, they aren't here just yet after all."

"No, I'm fine with just starting now. No need to wait for them."

"If you say so."

Walking over to the other side of the room Seli looked at Xilo as she nodded in approval. Over this last week he hadn't done much physical training but he had improved quite a bit. The way he carried himself was beginning to change. There was a tad bit more confidence in his posture and eyes. "Now let's see how well you can fight." She wasn't going to fight with him just yet but Xilo had brought it up yesterday and seemed quite eager to give it a go. At the time she didn't have the heart to say no so she reluctantly agreed. It was still too early for it however it let her get an accurate measure on where he was so far and she liked keeping her promises.

"Ready Xilo?"

"Yup and I won't be holding back this time!"

"That means you were previously? You may have gotten a little stronger but don't get cocky with me. It'll come back to bite you."

Laughing as she finished her sentence Seli didn't give Xilo any time to reply as she started her attack. Watching Seli's movement, Xilo was a lot more patient this time around. "I want to see if I can confirm something." Like before, this time his goal wasn't to win but instead figure something out. Seli was hiding something from him, he just didn't know what it exactly was. That drive for battle she had along

with her aura during fighting was creepily similar though and that had bugged him for a while. In this fight though he was going to figure out why even if he had to break a few bones over it. To Seli this might have been a practice match but to him it was something more. "Why do we feel so similar to each other? That familiar air." He didn't even think of the possibility of losing as he blocked her attack.

Blocking, he summoned what little of that power he could to help him out as he ignored the pain. It hurt just as much as he remembered it but this time it was a little more bearable. He was also able to see her movements more clearly. Trying his best to keep the anger bottled up inside of him, he pushed her back for once. Not because of his strength though, instead he was able to catch her by surprise as he slid his arm down her's letting her attack him. Eating a fist straight to the chest he attacked her without flinching as a worried cry escaped her mouth.

"Xilo!?"

Seeing Xilo act so reckless in a practice match Seli was confused and scared for a second, this wasn't like the match from before and it had just started.