At the training grounds, Erik was clearing out an area for Ian and Ellie to use. He moved boulders out of the way and filled holes by hand, packing the dirt flat.

  Shortly after he finished clearing the area, Ian and Ellie arrived.

  “Hi, Dad. Are the training grounds ready?” Ellie asked.

  “Yup, just finished not too long ago. Though it would’ve been a whole lot faster if Roy or Klev did it. Having earth abilities can be so handy.” Erik crossed his arms

  “You could always teach yourself some earth skills and develop earth abilities,” Ellie said.

  “At my age? It takes years to gain an element you’re not proficient in. Plus, that’s why I have your mother.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ellie narrowed her eyes.

  “Moving on. The training grounds are all set so you kids can go wild on them.”

  “Perfect. Ian, let's get to training.” Ellie cheerfully walked onto the area.

  *sigh* “Yay.” Ian slouched as he followed behind Ellie.

  As Ian walked past him, Erik slapped his back, making Ian trip forward. “Try and have some fun, son.”

  Ian gave Erik a small smile before continuing onto the training area.

  Once on the training area, Ian and Ellie faced each other at a distance. Erik took a seat on a boulder he moved, far from them, watching them closely.

  “You’re the one who wanted to train, so what is it that you want to work on? It can be just sparring, is it?” Ian stretched his arms over his head.

  “This will be mostly sparring. I want to improve my skills against a stronger opponent. Most of my classmates were weak or couldn’t keep up, so I wasn’t able to improve as much as I wanted to. With you, that’s a different story. I wanted you to go all out; don’t hold back.” Ellie pulled out her practice sword, taking a fighting stance.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Even though you’ve gotten stronger, so have I. If I used my full strength, it wouldn’t be a fair fight at all.”

  “Don’t care. Just fight.” Ellie dashed forward, her sword aimed at Ian’s chest.

  Ian quickly activated his strength, stepping to the side to dodge her attack.

  “You don’t want to do this.”

  Ellie ignored his words, swinging her sword at him with devastating force. However, it barely missed as Ian leaned back.

  “You’re not going to land a hit on me if you just go on the offensive. I can see all of your moves.”

  Ellie quickly launched into a flurry of attacks, trying her hardest to land a hit on Ian. “Shut up and fight back.”

  Ian kept dodging all of her attacks, letting them barely miss him. “Fine, but I tried warning you.”

  When Ellie swung her sword one last time at Ian, he quickly ducked under it, throwing a weak punch at her side. Even after Ian’s fist landed on her, he kept pushing it forward, sending her a few meters to the side.

  Though the attack had barely any power behind it, Ellie still grabbed her side in pain. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, it was too late to react.

  Ian was in front of her, twisting his body as his fist flew towards her face. Ellie’s face showed panic as she saw the incoming punch. She was too slow to react. All she could do was close her eyes and brace for the impact. An impact that never came.

  When Ellie opened her eyes, she saw Ian’s fist less than an inch away from her face. She was breathing hard, her body trembling from worry. In the next moment, she dropped to the ground as Ian pulled back his fist.

  Erik had watched the entire thing from his spot on the boulder. His face showed a mix of concern, confusion, and surprise. He understood that Ellie couldn’t utilize the skill he taught her to the fullest, so she was at a greater disadvantage.

  “If she can just rank up, she’ll be able to use the skills to their fullest extent,” Erik thought.

  Ian patted himself down as he said, “See? I told you it wouldn’t be fair if we fought. The power gap is too wide. If you want, I can try to lower myself to match your skill?”

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  Still a bit shaken, Ellie said, “No. I don’t need your pity. I need you to be at your best so I can grow stronger.”

  “That’s not going to work. Yes, I agree, fighting a stronger opponent can help you improve, but you might encounter someone physically weaker who can outplay you.” Ian walked up to Ellie, reaching out his hand to help her up.

  Ellie grabbed his hand, pulling herself up onto her feet. “Okay, Mr. professional fighter, then what do you recommend I do to train?”

  “First, when was the last time you got your power tested?” Ian asked.

  “During finals. It was part of one of my finals. We had to get our strength test to see how much we improved since the start of the year.”

  “And what was your score?”

  “My score was 117.”

  Ian’s eyebrows raised in surprise. He knew Ellie was at the top of copper rank, but now she was leaning towards the territory of silver. If he had to guess, she was on the very edge of ranking up. One more push and she’ll break through.

  Even Erik was surprised to hear this. His face lit up with both pride and joy.

  “Wow, you’re pushing silver rank,” Ian said, sounding surprised.

  “I know, and that’s why I wanted to train against you at your full strength. I was hoping to be able to push myself and break through into silver.” Ellie sounded defeated and embarrassed.

  “I can’t guarantee that you’ll rank up by fighting me, but I can still help you improve. And in the process, do some training myself.”

  “So what did you have in mind?”

  Ian straightened himself, looking supportive and cheerful. “The one thing I can help you with is your reaction time. Your attacks have a lot of power behind them, but that’s useless if you can’t react to your opponent.”

  “Okay…and how are you going to train my reaction time?”

  “Simple. I attack you from a distance using my max speed and see if you can react to it. Each time you successfully manage to block an attack, I’ll close the gap a bit. Does that sound good to you?”

  “I…guess that could help.” Ellie thought about it for a moment.

  “Great, then let’s give it a shot.” Ian began to walk away from her, creating some distance between them. “Let’s start with 15 meters first. That should be a good starting point. Not too far, but not too close.”

  Ellie calmed her nerves, patting herself off before taking her fighting stance.

  “Ready?” Ian got down low, taking his unusual fighting stance.

  Ellie steadied her breathing, focusing her gaze on Ian. “Ready.” Ellie nodded her head.

  With a smile on his face, Ian dashed forward. He closed the distance quickly, throwing a punch towards Ellie. The punch had little to no power behind it, but it still traveled fast.

  Ellie didn’t blink the entire moment. She watched as Ian launched himself towards her, raising his fist to punch. She swiftly moved her sword to block the incoming attack.

  Ian didn’t plan to change his fist’s trajectory. He kept moving it forward, aiming it at her face. However, before he was even close enough, Ellie’s sword appeared to block the path. His fist met her sword, creating the sound of a wooden spoon smacking skin.

  The moment Ian’s fist made contact with the sword, he stopped advancing forward. He stood still for a moment before standing up straight, smiling at Ellie.

  “Good, you’re able to react to my attacks from 15 meters. Now, let’s shrink the distance.” Ian started walking back to his starting point.

  Ellie lowered her sword, taking a deep breath before taking her stance again. Ian reached his starting point. He looked down at the imprint he left, stepping on it, then taking a step forwards.

  “Okay, ready?” Ian asked as he got low to his fighting stance.

  Ellie nodded her head, focusing her vision on Ian. She gripped her sword with both hands, holding it directly in front of herself. This time, she was fully ready.

  Just like before, Ian bolted forward at top speed. His fist swung in a wide arc over his head, aiming at Ellie’s face again.

  Ellie, being ready, quickly stepped forward, swinging her sword to block the incoming strike midair. Her sword made contact with Ian’s fist, stopping it in its tracks.

  Again, after Ian’s attack was blocked, he pulled back and stood up straight. “Good. You could block it from that far. Let’s shrink the distance some more.”

  Ellie nodded her head, getting back in her position. As Ian was walking back to his starting point, Ellie noticed her dad still watching them from his boulder.

  “Y’know, Dad, you don’t have to watch us since we’re not sparring,” Ellie said.

  “Nah, it's fine. I took the day off so I could watch you two train. Besides, I want to see how far you can keep going before hitting a wall.” Erik shifted on his boulder, getting more comfortable.

  “Okay, but you don’t have to say it like that. I’m not going to hit a wall.”

  “Right, right, you’re better than that.” Erik waved his hand apologetically.

  Ellie pouted slightly at Erik’s comment, turning away to get ready for the next attack.

  For the next hour, Ellie and Ian kept repeating the same training, shrinking it ever so slightly each time Ellie managed to block an attack. Once the distance between them shrank to 10 meters, Ellie began to struggle. She still managed to block the attacks, though there was some panic in her eyes.

  It wasn’t until they reached 8 meters that Ellie finally failed. At that distance, Ian was too fast, slipping past her attempted block to punch her face. Thankfully, Ian stopped his fist less than an inch away from making contact.

  With her first failure, Ellie dropped her sword and fell to her knees. There was shock on her face. She thought Ian was going to go through with it and punch her. So when she saw he didn’t, a wave of relief washed over her, mixing with the panic.

  Watching from the sidelines, Erik smiled when Ellie finally failed to block an attack. He knew that now was the starting point of her train.

  When Ian pulled back his fist after Ellie dropped to the ground, he took a moment to stretch. “Great, now we know what your limit is. From now on, I will only be attacking from 8 meters away.”

  Ellie had calmed her nerves and was just staring at her hands in defeat. She balled her hands into fists, squeezing them tightly. For a moment, she just stayed in that position. After a few seconds, she snapped her face up to look at Ian, a look of determination on her face.

  “Okay, let’s go again.” Ellie picked up her sword, standing up quickly.

  Ian smiled at her determination. He reached up his hand to pat her head, but was stopped by Ellie pointing her sword at his throat. “Don’t even think about it.”