24 Growing Close (2/2)
He quickly leapt towards the closest Ursa and threw out a heavy punch directly at it's stomach. Yet, the moment his fist landed on the Ursa's stomach, Magna felt a jolt of pain shoot through his arm.
The Ursa's stomach was like a metal wall. It was firm and thick but most of all, it was hard.
Feeling a chill in his back, Magna forcefully yanked his head back and watched as a white claw narrowly missed his face.
Cold sweat ran down his face as he screamed, ”b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l Winter! Are you trying to kill me!?!”
Barely missing Magna with her blade as he continued to dodge, Winter brutally smiled as she yelled, ”No better way to train than with live combat! Now come back here and fight!”
Magna continued to fight for his life, not noticing the small changes happening to his body. Once in awhile, the Ursas or Winter would land an attack on Magna, mostly due to sometimes leaving himself open.
After being repeatedly beaten, his body started to learn the faults and gaps in his combat style, leading to less and less mistakes being made as he unconsciously corrected them.
He still made alot of mistakes and sometimes left himself wide-open but at least now it wasn't as bad as before.
Seeing his improvement, Winter nodded with a genuine smile of happiness on her faced and loudly said, ”That's enough!”
Like a doll whose strings were just cut, Magna collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. They had only been training for 10 or so minutes, but to Magna, the time felt much, much longer.
Occasionally, Magna would use his demon fox cloak to free himself from bad situations, so his aura was just slipping into dangerous level. Combined with the physical and mental fatigue of ten minutes of continuous fighting, Magna was dead tired.
However, his eyes s.h.i.+ned brightly in excitement as he felt the changes happening in his body. He could tell near the end that he was slowly making less mistakes.
He even managed to pressure Winter in the end, if you didn't take into account the fact that Winter unsummoned the Ursas near the end.
h.e.l.l, even Winter was stunned by Magna. She almost called him a monster at how fast he was learning. It was as if he was born for battle.
Sighing in awe, Winter softly lay besides Magna and smile towards him. The pair quietly rested next to each other, smiling.
Winter was the first to break the silence as she happily said, ”You managed to learn alot from our training session. I'm quite proud of you while also a bit conflicted on the fact that you learned to cover your flaws so quickly…”
At the end of her sentence, Winter bitterly smiled as she couldn't help but compare herself to Magna. Before she could fall deeper into thought, she heard Magna's voice as he said, ”It's only because I had such a great teacher.”
Magna smiled with all his heart as he truly thought that. He could tell that, while direct and dangerous, Winter's approach was way more beneficial for Magna than basic friendly sparring.
The stress of battle forced him to correct is flaws, or else he would've had to prepare to recieve a claw or two to the face.
Hearing Magna's words and seeing the bright smile on his face, Winter's heart began to speed up as a soft blush graced her face. Suddenly, a bold idea popped into her head.
She turned towards Magna with a light smile on her face and asked, ”We can be considered… 'friends', right?”
Seeing Magna nod, Winter's smile grew as she happily said, ”Good! My family will be hosting a gala in a months time. I'd like to extend a formal invitation for you to attend as my +1.”
Having no reason not to attend, Magna didn't think much before happily nodding.
Winter's face blossomed into a beautiful smile as she happily hummed, ”Perfect! I'll come to pick you up a couple days before the gala begins. Well, I best get some rest for tomorrow. See you later, Magna!”
As if she wasn't tired at all, Winter hastily stood up and ran out the door with a childlike expression of happiness on her face, leaving an exhausted Magna on the floor, tired and wearing a wry smile.
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