The Gymnasium of the Brave had several battle arenas, marked off as squares of twenty meters in area each one. This battle area could be small for long-distance combat training, but it was perfect for frenetic training.
Luke went to the right side of the arena, and Alexis went to the left.
Whenever he saw the half-dragon fight, Luke unconsciously felt something different when he looked at her. He couldn't determine if this feeling was a kind of admiration, affective memory, or something more intense.
As Nathalia always normally did, Alexis tied her long hair into a ponytail shape and made sure it was securely fastened.
"Are you ready?" Luke asked her, after removing his belt of throwing knives from his abdomen.
"Just one more second, please." She asked and unbuttoned her white shirt. In recent times, she was not wearing her everyday shirt with embroidery, but rather a red shirt with a black skirt. "There, now we can begin!" She said, smiling.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtSo, the training began. Luke immediately ran towards Alexis, and she ran towards him. When their forearms collided, Luke realized that his arm hurt much less than it normally did when he did this type of defense in the past. The clash of arms lasted for only a few moments, because Alexis took this training very seriously and used a martial art that she knew. His right fist was quick, direct, and powerful, hitting Luke's chest with precision before he could react.
As he was thrown back five meters, Luke realized that he felt almost no pain. This was the effect of the First Stage of the Sea Ornament, strengthening of the physical structure.
After that, Luke felt even more motivated, and in the first few minutes, he bravely resisted the attacks of the S-Class, while gradually fixing his mistakes. Like he did against Serena and Nebezial, Luke focused on learning his opponent's attack patterns and began to react before she could repeat them.
Reacting this way, the half-wolf's body would become a little fatigued since he would get used to the pressure at some point, and his opponent would become increasingly impatient, irritated, and frustrated by having most of her blows deflected. Alexis Dmitry realized this tactic and also noted how effective it was.
The stamina of Alexis was huge, and her blows were very powerful, causing thunders in the air with each hit, but the Sea Ornament evolved Luke's body much more than he expected, helping him avoid heavy damage. Even the half-wolf was startled to see that his movements were also clearer, and his joints didn't hurt.
Nevertheless, Alexis' determination was practically unshakable, and, contrary to normal, the half-dragon was getting stronger and stronger during the battle. Luke was also evolving during training, but Alexis was on a much higher level as if she understood the half-wolf's movements much more than himself.
The truth was simple: Alexis was a genius of one-on-one fighting. Her eyes captured the information from the slightest movements of her opponent, and so she noticed his strengths and weaknesses. If Luke's half-beast talent was his super-sharp senses, the half-dragon's talent had a supernatural battle sensitivity.
When they reached the thirty-minute training mark, Luke Lange was completely soaked with his own sweat, and Alexis Dmitry was too, but both were still up.
Even fatigued as he was, Luke loved that workout, because it had been a few months since he had evolved so much.
Luke invested against half-dragon, fast like never before. His strikes were more polished than the beginning of the training, and his movements were smoother. Luke punched towards half-dragon, who grabbed his fist and tried to pull him even closer to punch him in the stomach. Anticipating that something like this would happen, Luke came forward and blocked her right fist with his left knee, taking advantage of the same movement to kick her right shoulder.
The blow was effective enough to force Alexis to free Luke's other arm since her leg hits were not as flexible as Luke's to choose to fight without one of her arms.
After Luke was let go, he dared to use one of the positions he saw Ynosuke do during practice, to surprise Alexis.
He left his fingers extended and copied the arm pose of an archer, but with his legs bent. This pose made Luke's blood flow quickly from his heart to his fingertips, making him feel a sudden burst of energy. Suddenly, Luke's speed increased considerably for a single second; that was enough to make him disappear from the half-dragon's vision, startling her. When she realized it, Luke was already behind her and was about to punch her, but the half-wolf's body was not yet evolved enough to use such a technique.
As if the universe was punishing an insolent person, Luke felt his heart stop in the next second after he used the technique. In those moments, an overwhelming pain squeezed his chest like someone was sucking the life out of him. He felt as if he was really going to die.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmBy luck and because he had almost completed the First Stage of the Sea Ornament, he didn't die this time.
The half-wolf lost all his strength before he struck Alexis and fell to his knees.
"Hey! Are you all right? What happened?" she asked him, confused that she hadn't been hit.
He stood up slowly, brought his right hand to the back of his head, and replied with a smile: "I almost died. Hahaha!"
Had Alexis not been attentive, she would not have noticed that the half-wolf's eyes went out, preventing him from hitting the blow, and thus would have come to the conclusion that he was joking.
"And you're smiling, you idiot?" She asked angrily and slammed her fist into the top of his head.
"Ouch! You want to kill me for real?"
The half-dragon suddenly grabbed his hands and placed them against the top of her breasts. "Luke, pay attention. Martial arts are no joke, and there is a method of learning. Don't EVER dare do what you did another time, because... I don't know what I'll do if you die."
Luke could clearly see in her eyes that she was very serious. The sight of the half-dragon's beautiful face, mixed with the warm sensation of her breasts, caused Luke to immediately blush with shyness like an inexperienced teenager. The half-dragon's big eyes, her silky hair, and her perfect lips made Luke feel something he only felt when he looked at Ayumi.
Seeing that the half-wolf was looking deeply into her eyes, the half-dragon was surprised. 'Wait! Wait! Wait! Is this really happening? This can't be real! Should I...' She did nothing.
Even with the two of them wishing for each other, they valued Alexis' opinion highly, and most of all, they respected her, so when their hands moved apart, and their gazes looked away, the two half-beasts laughed at the situation, secretly wondering what might have happened if they had continued.