In the Loki Familia's training ground, Judas, who sat in a meditative pose, gathered mana around him as a magic circle shone on the ground.
'One step closer to repairing my mana core.'
He thought as wiped the sweat from his brow.
It was a daily routine that he made sure to perform everyday, he hasn't forgotten that his main priority was to restore his original strength.
After a few hours, he finally stood and stretched his body after sitting still for too long.
It was then a certain Amazon walked up to him with a bright smile.
"Hey, Judas... want to spar?"
Judas shifted his gaze and saw Tiona staring at him, holding her giant sword, Urga.
"Sure, why not?"
He accepted without hesitation.
...
In Loki Familia's courtyard, Ais could be seen walking towards a tree and unsheathed her weapon.
'After getting repaired from Goibnu's smithy... let's try out my new sword.'
She thought as she closed her eyes, felt the weight of her sword and got into a stance.
'Sharpness.'
'Balance.'
'Swordsmanship.'
Her thoughts sank down deep within her mind and a memory surfaced.
The image that she saw in her mind was her father, Albert Waldenstein, performing a series of sword moves in front of her as little Ais and her mother clapped happily, visibly impressed.
"See this my little Ais?"
Albert said as he swung his sword, his skill as the Mercenary King wasn't just for show.
Even when compared to a monster like Alfia, Ais didn't think he would lose, not by a long shot.
And it wasn't even because she was biased, but Ais truly believed this to be the truth with her experience as a swordswoman and as an adventurer.
With his back turned, his scarf fluttering in the wind... young Ais back then couldn't help but think of him as the coolest person in the world.
'Father... Mother...'
She took a deep breath just as leaf fell from a tree branch.
The moment the leaf was within range, Ais opened her eyes and her sword arm moved at blinding speed.
Sword arcs cut through the air and the leaf was cut into hundreds of different pieces.
With a loud exhale, Ais put the sword back into the sheathe as she turned her head to see Lefiya staring at her in awe, hiding behind the tree.
"Miss Ais... that was amazing."
Lefiya's gaze was full of admiration as she watched her idol in action.
"Um... thank you?"
Ais said while titling her head.
Lefiya who still had sparkles in her eyes as she gazed at Ais, suddenly shook her head as if she had remembered something.
"Oh right... Miss Ais, you have to come to the training grounds... Sir Judas and Tiona are about to have a spar."
Lefiya said with excitement.
The way Lefiya addressed Judas' name had changed, there was more of a respectful tone to it, but Ais wouldn't notice as her attention was immediately captured when she heard the word 'spar'.
'Judas and Tiona... sparring.'
Ais blinked and then immediately turned around to head to the training grounds.
"Ah! Ais, slow down!"
Lefiya exclaimed as she tried to catch up.
When Ais and Lefiya arrived, the first thing she noticed was that a small crowd had formed, members who happened to be in the mansion at this time had stopped whatever they were doing to watch the spar.
After all, witnessing the sparring match of powerful adventurer was a rare occurrence.
But Ais had her attention fixed on the two figures who were on the center of the stage.
...
'Oh, it seems we gathered quite the crowd.'
Judas thought as his gaze swept towards Ais who had just arrived, Tione, who was watching from the side and even Bete, who leaned on the walls, pretending to be nonchalant but the way he kept glancing at this direction every few seconds betrayed his intentions.
Looking at Tiona's eager expression as she prepared herself, twirling her Urga around, it seemed like she was excited.
Judas, who strapped his metal gauntlets, noticed that there was something different about Tiona's weapon.
"Did you get it repaired?"
He asked with curiosity.
"Hehe... me and Ais paid a visit to Goibniu's shop and I happen to want to test this puppy out."
Tiona said as she held up her giant sword that is even taller than her own height.
"And I also have been itching to fight you for some time."
"You know the saying... killing two birds with one rock."
'It's stone... but I guess its not wrong.'
Judas thought after hearing her answer, but chose not to correct her, because Tiona had already gotten into her fighting stance.
The courtyard gradually fell silent.
Tiona planted her feet firmly against the stone.
"Don't hold back, okay?"
She said brightly.
Judas exhaled slowly and rolled his shoulders.
"I'll do what I can, just don't complain if it doesn't go the way you expect."
He replied calmly.
"Hah! As if!"
The two locked eyes.
BOOM!
Tiona kicked off the ground, stone cracking beneath her feet as she closed the distance in an instant, Urga swinging down in a wide, brutal arc meant to crush rather than cut.
Since Judas had already activated his strengthening magic, he was able to respond to her moves.
Judas moved to the side.
His body twisted just enough for the blade to miss by a hair's breadth, the wind pressure alone sending his coat fluttering violently.
Before Tiona could recover, Judas stepped in.
His fist shot forward.
CLANG!
The metal gauntlet collided with Urga's flat side, sparks flying as the massive sword was knocked off course.
"Huh—?!"
Tiona blinked, surprised... but her grin only widened.
"Nice!"
She twisted her grip mid-swing, spinning Urga around and sweeping low.
Judas leapt.
The blade passed beneath him, carving a shallow trench into the stone.
As he landed, Tiona was already there.
Urga came crashing down again.
This time, Judas met it head-on.
He crossed his arms, magic power flaring faintly as his gauntlets took the full force of the blow.
CRACK!
The ground beneath his feet fractured outward in a spiderweb pattern.
Several spectators took an involuntary step back.
'I endured.'
Judas smiled, even as his arms shook from the sheer force behind Tiona's attack.
In terms of overall combat ability, Tiona did not lose out compared to Alise, Kaguya or Ais if magic is taken out of consideration.
There was a reason why he was having an easier time dealing with a level 5.
'My stats... compared to before, they are much higher now.'
It was only now did he realized that his body had become stronger.
Because he kept getting beaten by Alfia all the same during their training, it was only now that he noticed the difference.
When he fought Alise and Kaguya back then, all of his parameters were at zero, all at the lowest rank.
And when he fought with Ais... his parameters averaged around 600 points each, with most of them at C rank.
Now with most of his parameters almost reaching a thousand points each, reaching A to S rank... he no longer had to strain himself just to keep up with a first-class adventurer.
"Are you having fun Judas?"
Tiona questioned when she saw Judas smiling.
"Yeah... I guess."
He replied, which caused a huge smile to bloom on Tiona's face.
"Great! Me too."
After a brief conversation, the two moved and clashed again, the sparring match between them continued.
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