Erdrich unleashed a thunderous barrage of kicks against me, moving like a furious Asura. His skin was slowly turning red as his eyes blazed with demonic flames. I remember that this exact thing was happening to him back then. However, although he was getting pumped up by the fight, he didn't seem to be losing his mind at all.
Was meditation and the control of Ki what he needed to properly control the volatile demonic energy?
"Hoh, you're getting better at this!" I laughed, I quickly decided to retaliate after taking a few kicks. I moved swiftly and directly towards him while Erdrich's fists attempted to hit my face, evading such big arms wasn't a problem at all for my smaller and nimbler body, [Acrobatics] also helped in that regard. Grinding the Skill up to Level 4 was proving to be a great thing!
I gathered Mana and Ki into my right fist, Blood Ki in specific, and then, I let it all out into an explosive punch into his face.
Erdrich immediately flew away from my sight. It seems that I overdid it a bit there. He fell over the floor, rolled through the grass, and ended half-dead there. I think I have indeed overdone it.
Maybe because he was showing signs of growing stronger and getting the gist of it, I had assumed he had managed to obtain the iron nerves and furious berserk will he had before, but it seems a mere punch in the face with enough strength to shatter a boulder was enough to almost knock him out. I remember that back then, he took all my hits just right, even with my spear.
I quickly ran towards him with Elizabeth and the rest, they all were looking at me with angered glares. I seem to have enraged them all due to my actions. I felt slightly bad for what I did, after all he was excited and I ruined his fight because I thought he would be capable of taking a big hit… Well, he's partially to blame for tricking me!
"Are you alright, Erdrich?" Elizabeth asked, as she tried to heal him but quickly remembered that actual light magic that could heal normally would hurt him due to being half-demon weak against these elements.
"Y-Yeah, I am alright." He sighed. Erdrich quickly sat down over the floor and looked at me with a swollen face.
"That was a good match, you've surely gotten stronger…" I said. "I… I might have gone a bit too hard on you, you tricked me into thinking you have attained the strength you showed to me back then."
"I-I was getting through it still, but I guess I also went overboard, this is a sparring match after all." He sighed. "I-I am the brute here… Are you okay?"
Erdrich body slowly went back to his original size. Each time his skin would slowly turn red, his muscle mass would grow twice as big, giving him an orc-like body wrapped in strong and iron-hard musculature.
"Yes, I am alright. Your techniques were very good, you looked like a furious Asura." I said.
"Asura? What's that? But thanks anyways." He said with a giggle, feeling slightly embarrassed of being praised.
"Geez! You two are such brutes hitting each other like that! You even created shockwaves!" Elizabeth began to reprimand us. "You think you could do this if you were closer to a house? You could had destroyed it!"
"S-Sorry… You're right." Erdrich apologized.
"You're exaggerating, Elizabeth. Don't be so sensitive. This is two men giving their all in a fight. You'll understand when you begin putting more into your fighting, you'll even comprehend the thrill of fighting!" I said.
"Eeeh? You're just cocky, Blake! Just apologize." Erika said while crossing her arms.
"I am not apologizing…" I said pridefully.
"Hahaha! You two girls will never understand Blake if you keep trying to make him do things he won't. He's just built different." Chris said.
"He's too prideful, don't ask him to do the impossible." Eric said while shrugging.
Erika and Elizabeth seemed to sigh in unison as they decided to let it go.
"Well now! Elizabeth, time to fight me again. After you, Erdrich will fight me again, and then we can continue with our other training and teaching sessions as usual." I said.
"Eeeh? Barely like ten minutes have passed since I fought…" Sighed Elizabeth.
"Come on, do your best."
At the end, Elizabeth fought me rather well. She was getting slightly better at grasping her aura's true capabilities. Moving faster and more precisely. She was also unleashing rays of light from her fists and legs whenever she tried out faster kicks and punches, showing that she had great potential.
Her healing capabilities were also tested as I had decided to hit her a few times in the stomach, shoulders, and her leg. The bruises left and muscular pain quickly were healed after a few minutes of fighting, her aura seems to be quite promising.
After she was left almost knocked out because I overdid it a bit, I fought again with Erdrich, this time he went all out from the beginning, turning all of his skin completely red and even showing a few black tattoos that emerged around his red skin, even his horns grew larger and he was around x2.5 times his size.
His kicks and punches shattered the ground and created powerful shockwaves, and I had to go a bit all out against him, using some Flowing Fist Techniques such as [Skull Smasher] and [Punishment of the Ignorant] into his pressure points to beat him easily.
Nonetheless, he was quite promising, so I had increased my expectations for both him and Elizabeth.
And after the sparring sessions ended, we quickly decided to have a small break where we ate some lunch I had premade, mostly sandwiches with demon and rabbit meat alongside the veggies we have harvested in my family's farm, and also mayonnaise I made myself from chicken eggs I got gifted to me from someone I healed with First Aid and some oil.
The food was delicious and easily recovered our stamina.