Throwing one of the creatures over his shoulders, Enrico felt his legs give out, causing him to accidentally fall into a sitting position on the ground. When he tried to raise his arms to stand up, he realized that his body had reached a limit from which it wouldn't recover anytime soon. In fact, he had already surpassed that limit many hours earlier, but now the situation was even worse.
'What the hell...'
Before one of the Nartheis could hit him, Matteo appeared, stepping on the creatures standing in front of him.
"Congratulations on enduring the full twenty-four hours."
Enrico felt a wave of satisfaction upon realizing that he had managed to endure the entire training session.
"If you wanted me to, I could keep going for another two days straight. In fact, I was about to awaken something, but it seems I'll have to leave that for another day."
[What a shameless liar.]
Matteo looked at him expressionlessly.
"Since when have you become such a shameless liar?"
Enrico felt that a third person would probably agree with those two at that moment. Therefore, he looked around but couldn't find anyone.
"Now you can rest. Today will be the day Platina trains you again."
"All right, sir."
Enrico tried to stand up but couldn't, which irritated him with his own body. Besides being dirty, he couldn't even endure training like that without collapsing. And to think that, in the future, he intended to face even worse challenges! That was the monstrous mindset of someone who could no longer be considered normal.
Enrico closed his eyes for a moment to rest, but soon felt someone grabbing his shirt. When he opened them again, he realized he was being thrown directly onto his bed. Surprised, he looked at Matteo, who had brought him there at an astonishing speed.
"Good job. I'll see you in three days."
After saying those words, Matteo disappeared into thin air without leaving a trace. People at his level were truly absurd, so Enrico wasn't surprised by that display of speed. What intrigued him was being taken directly to his room, because that could only mean one thing.
'This guy is planning something for me in the future.'
[Enrico, get out of this house! I'm warning you!]
'Do you think I don't want to? If I leave here, I'll lose excellent training and the opportunity to try to bring all of them over to our side.'
He needed to stay there, and he was certain Matteo wouldn't do anything against him for now. After all, his current level probably wasn't enough to pose a threat to his father.
'But in a few years, I'll need to be very careful with him.'
The most important thing at that moment was that Enrico could finally sleep. He enjoyed training and feeling himself grow stronger, but there were other important things too, such as getting at least his usual five hours of rest.
'I also need to make plans, help the others grow stronger, and get closer to them... I think I'll start by improving my relationship with the family.'
[What is it? Missing your friends?]
'Who knows? Maybe yes, maybe no. I simply felt something when I saw them having fun at that beach. But I can't waste time. They can rest, but I can't.'
Closing his eyes, Enrico finally fell asleep after that entire day of training. His body seemed to relax, relieved that it could finally rest. Perhaps it was only five hours, but they would be the best five hours he could have at that moment.
A few hours later, as the sky began to brighten, Taíra ran down the corridor until she reached the door to Enrico's room. When she stopped in front of it, she grew nervous, as she still wasn't used to talking to her brother after four days of intense training with their parents, her older brother, and her older sister.
"Brother?"
She knocked on the door and slowly opened it, finding Enrico fast asleep. She approached without making a sound and sat on the floor a short distance from the bed, deciding to wait until he woke up.
'It should take about three hours. From what I heard during our parents' brief argument, he spent an entire day without resting.'
Taíra had overheard her parents arguing coldly in their room, as they usually did whenever they disagreed about something. From what she had managed to understand, both were determined to bring Enrico's potential to its maximum.
'I know he's strong, but aren't they exaggerating with these training sessions? They're doing things even worse than when they trained my big sis and big bro.'
She didn't want to openly admit that she now respected her brother, but she was beginning to realize that hiding that feeling was a bad thing, especially because he treated her so well, even after she had mocked him on the few occasions they had met in the past.
"Taíra, what are you doing here? Is breakfast ready?"
To her surprise, Enrico had woken up quite quickly.
"Brother, you should rest a little longer."
She quickly approached and sat down in front of the bed. Enrico opened his eyes and gave an amused smile when he noticed her concern, making Taíra look away in embarrassment. When she saw him get up and begin stretching, she grew even more worried.
"Don't worry. I've rested enough. You could say I'm excited for the next training session."
Taíra's eyes lit up when she heard that. She sat on the bed and held a book in front of him, showing him a fire spell she was trying to master and had almost managed to use.
"Here! This spell could help you. I've already learned a little about it, so I can train you too."
For a second, Enrico seemed surprised by the girl's attitude before letting out a small laugh.
"Hehehe, what a wonderful little sister I have."
Embarrassed by the compliment, Taíra lowered her head. She didn't understand why those words affected her so much. Perhaps it was because he was a family member who seemed to genuinely care about her, maybe even more than her own big sister did.
He approached, looking at the open book.
"Let's see... It's called Fire Step? Sounds interesting. Can you explain it to me?"
She nodded quickly and opened the book, beginning to explain the fundamentals of the spell. Several techniques were recorded on the pages, but this particular one had caught Taíra's interest.
He examined the spell and pointed at the human body illustrated in the book. The illustrated figure seemed to be using the spell.
"It's quite interesting. If you can use it precisely on your toes and the balls of your feet, you can increase the number of afterimages."
Taíra listened to her brother's words and nodded quickly.
"Yes, you're right. If that's the case, I think I can improve it."
Without Taíra realizing it, Enrico wasn't just listening to her explanation. Sitting beside her, he was also helping her understand the technique while learning its fundamentals himself, taking advantage of the opportunity to improve his sister's abilities.
"This is a speed technique. You could say I already have one of my own, but I can also learn to use this one perfectly."
"Really? Can you explain yours to me too?"
Without either of them noticing, Platina had arrived to call Enrico to training. Watching the siblings sitting together, studying and chatting peacefully, she maintained her usual cold expression, although a small puff of smoke escaped from her nostrils as she found the scene adorable.
'I think I can wait a little longer.'