A beautiful monster (3)

"sh*t!" 

Alex cursed loudly as he tried to punch Lilia, but his fist consistently missed its mark as Lilia was just too nimble, no matter how he attacked, from how many angles he did so our how fast he attacked, she always successfully dodged all of his strikes, at some time he even wondered if her stats were really inferior to his own and had to summon the system to check.

However, the system confirmed that her stats were really inferior to his, which meant that he was actually being beaten black and blue by someone technically weaker than him.

As Lilia's fist neared his face, Alex blocked it by crossing both of his arms in front of him, bracing himself for the impact.

However, the expected blow never landed. Instead, he felt a sudden jolt of pain originating from his leg, causing him to momentarily lose balance and lower his arms. A split moment later, Lilia's fist struck his chin, propelling him into the air.

Boom

With a resounding impact, Alex collided with the training ground's wall, before slowly sinking to the floor. Fortunately for him, this time, unlike his initial sparring session with Lilia, he remained conscious. Ironically, it was precisely because of that consciousness that he felt an overwhelming amount of pain.

He winced, turning onto his back, gazing up at the ceiling.

In these few hours of training, Lilia had beaten him so much that if he didn't know better, he would start wondering if she truly loved him.

With each spar there was a new scar on his body, each of her punch hurt so much that he couldn't resist three of her blow's before crumbling down.

'How can such a beautiful thing be so much-' before he could finish his thought he heard:

"Didn't I already told you to not give away your next move ?" Asked Lilia as she approached the still laying on the ground, Alex.

'It's not that I'm giving away my next move, it's just that you are the freak who can see the slightest mistake,' countered Alex in his mind, fully aware that voicing this aloud would earn him another beating.

Alex groaned and sat down, leaning his back to the wall and stared at the approaching Lilia, who continued to speak :

Alex groaned and settled down, resting his back against the wall, as he fixed his gaze on the approaching Lilia. She continued to speak:

"Your punches are also too weak for a level 4. To maximize your strength when punching, you should engage your legs, hips, core, shoulders, arm, and wrist for better efficiency."

Once she stood before him, Lilia extended a hand and added, "Your mana manipulation is also a mess. Since you currently lack any offensive ability, you need to rely on your physical prowess, and for that, you must refine your mana manipulation."

She sighed and continued, "Although the fact that your mana manipulation is so low is a direct result of your jump from level 1 to level 4. If you had progressed through the levels in the usual manner, your manipulation would have been better."

"Yeah, I know," Alex replied, taking hold of Lilia's hand.

He was fully aware that the area where he lacked the most was the manipulation of his mana. Back when he was just a level 1, he possessed a decent level of mana manipulation. However, now, as a level 4, it had become incredibly challenging. This was primarily because his mana capacity had expanded significantly. To describe the feeling, it was like going from barely walking to suddenly running– the transition had been too abrupt.

"Rest for an hour, we will continue later" said Lilia while helping him walk.

' I'm really f*cked'

***

"Finally at home," Viviane exclaimed with a yawn.

After spending the last two days with Ava and Amelia, the girls were quite tired, as they hadn't slept during that entire time.

"Yeah, it was quite tiring but also very fun," Violette remarked as she entered the mansion.

"A pity Scarlett didn't come with us," said Amelia.

"There was no way that bookworm would have joined us for something like shopping," replied Alice with a chuckle.

"Welcome back, Ladies. I hope you had fun," Anna greeted them from just behind the door.

"Yeah, we had quite some fun," replied Ava.

"Where are Mom and Dad?" asked Viviane.

"They're in the training grounds," Anna informed them.

"Training grounds? What are they doing there?" wondered Alice, unaware of Alex's training.

"Your mother is training your father," Ava explained.

"Oh, let's go see!" Viviane exclaimed excitedly. She was the battle maniac of the family, so the moment she heard about training, she was all in.

"Okay, let's go."

With Anna leading the way, the girls made their way toward the training grounds, chatting happily.

As they entered the training grounds, they heard the sound of something crashing against the wall just a few meters from them.

They looked at the source of the noise and what they saw left them completely stunned.