After waking up, the two walked out of the building and towards a large yard. There, they were greeted with a loud shout, “Oi! Yuu!”

Looking towards the direction of the voice, he saw Jebon waving towards them with an older woman next to him, thrusting a spear at the air. He was fifteen minutes early yet someone had beaten him to it.

It was the lady he saw when he came to Basic Combat the first time, however, he rarely chatted with her as she was usually quiet, only having some small talk at most.

As he got closer to Jebon, he felt a fist start to head towards him. Being utterly surprised, he managed to dodge the fist, however, he slipped and landed on the wet grassy floor.

Getting up, he heard a voice speak to him as he felt an arm help lift him up, “Heh, you’ve only been training for a few days yet you really have improved. It wasn’t an exaggeration when they told me of your achievements. Though you still got a lot of work to do.”

“Jebon, how am I even supposed to know that it was going to happen,” Yuu dusted the dirt off his body, rubbing a slight sore spot on his arm.

“You don’t. What if I was an ally who betrayed you? You’d die instantly. Or what if I was a Dark Crow, a body part would have been pierced. Even on the wet grass, you must have the ability to dodge even if you have less than a second to think about your life.

“Anyways, I need to assess your strength again since I didn’t think you would get blood on your hands. Try sparring with her,” he pointed towards the middle-aged woman, “obviously, you both will be using props that I got.”

Realizing something, Jebon made an “Oh” sound and looked towards Leah who was next to Yuu, “Leah, we are also going to do some training, let me get you started. I managed to think of a good formula for you!”

Unlike Yuu who felt dirtied and tired, Leah happily moved along with Jebon as he told her what he had planned for her. Luckily, compared to before where she had a bit of trouble understanding a lot of words or phrases, she was starting to get comfortable with a lot of the things he and anyone else was saying.

Not wanting to waste the woman’s time, Yuu went to the wooden table nearby and grabbed a propped spear. It was slightly different in shape as it looked like a farming scythe but had a consistent angle, but he knew Jebon most likely spent time out of his day to prepare this so he couldn’t complain.

Looking at the middle-aged woman picking up the spear, he made a gentle comment, as to try to talk a bit instead of having a closed empty atmosphere, “I hope we do well!” he said while smiling.

However, the woman did not reply back at all, she instead just smiled back and went towards the field. Feeling a sweat falling off his face, Yuu shrugged it off and didn’t mind too much. Looking back at her, she looked very mature, in a sense of, if she didn’t wear regular baggy clothes, she would have looked like the mother of a young noble.

But she most likely had a reason or past that caused her not to talk, especially since she carried an eerie loneliness. He knew people like that, causing him to not pry into it too much since she bore no ill-intent with her actions.

Finding an open space, Yuu moved the scythe around, getting a feel of it since the shape was slightly off. But he didn’t delay too much as he asked if the woman was ready. She nodded, getting into a stance as if she would stab him before he would reach her.

“I’ve fought a few goblins and worked with Jebon who would use a sword, but this is the first time fighting someone with a bit of range… Let’s do this!” he charged forward, knowing that she wouldn’t charge first, he decided to be a boar, preparing to slam into her bubble.

Deciding he wanted to keep his distance, he raised his scythe to the right, preparing to slash at an angle while paying attention to where the spear will target. Getting almost in range, he swung the training scythe down while his eyes were drawn towards the spear.

However, just as he thought she would try and stab him, she actually got out of her stance and took a step back, missing the strike by a few centimeters before charging in. Even though Yuu was taken by surprise, he pushed down on the furthest leg, attempting to propel his body back before she could strike, yet even that was futile.

Keeping his eyes on the woman, he saw her making a strange movement where the spear would suddenly turn the opposite way, with the head facing her, and the end of the wooden shaft facing him, before bending her body forward, causing him to feel a wooden stick smash against the side of his stomach.

Even though it was just a small portion of the tip that landed on him, he rolled a bit on the ground before quickly getting up. But even despite getting up, the scythe that was in his hands was between him and the woman.

He charged, wanting to get a grasp of the scythe, but before he could finally grab it, he moved his head ever so slightly to the right as a spearhead was a millimeter away from injuring him. Just as his hands touched the shaft, and as he was picking it up, he saw something in the corner of his eyes before falling down once more, this time he felt his left eye feel sore.

Rolling on his back, he laid there and rubbed his left eye as he realized what had happened. The woman did miss when she attempted to stab him, but instead of retracting and thrusting once more, she instead kicked him with her feet.

“Take a breather. We fight after,” the woman spoke quickly, like Bedgard, she had a few words to say and that was it.

Taking a moment to rest, he got back up and picked up the scythe. He turned towards the woman and spoke in a confident voice, “One more time please!”

As usual, she did not say anything, she just nodded and instead of taking on a stance, she actually chose to charge at him!

Knowing that she would not just attack regularly, instead, using tricks and sly movements, he tried focusing his attention on his surroundings. Instead of attacking when she was going to get close, he instead decided to attempt to dodge the first attack before attacking. Though since she most likely would be near him instead of keeping a distance, he placed his dominant hand, his right hand, more towards the blade to prepare for other attacks.

While he did see the woman using the shaft as a way to attack, he would have to be more careful with a scythe, especially since he didn’t even know how to spin it properly. If he made a mistake it would end up hitting him instead.

As she got closer Yuu stood still, watching her every movement. When her spear finally moved, he quickly dodged it by a hair before letting go of his left hand, letting the right-hand twist, sweeping the padded training blade towards the woman.

Ducking out of the way, she continued to charge forward before raising her fist as she was going to punch his lower half. But before she could, she had a surprised look on her face as a hand stopped her.

Yuu quickly gripped her hand before going for a jab with his knee, hoping to at least land a strike.

“Bam!” a loud smacking sound was made. However, it was not the woman that got hit, instead, it was Yuu. He got thrown back, landing on the grassy floors once more, feeling his sides burn in pain.

Trying his best to get up, he saw the woman rubbing her left hand. Even though he gripped that hand, he knew that she got out. And more importantly, he lost again.