"So Dad, how did you do it? I was certain that I struck you." It had been over an hour since Mane lost consciousness. He woke up about ten minutes after he passed out and immediately began to meditate. After swallowing some recovery pills, he had meditated for over 40 minutes. His meditation had only just ended, and he finally felt full of energy and vigor. Although he was a bit exhausted, this was mainly psychological, and a little bit of sleep will be enough to deal with that. Of course he was ignoring the slight aching from his body. After a month of tedious training, he had become accustomed to this feeling. Once he was sufficiently fit, he immediately asked what he had been curious about before he even lost his consciousness.
"Lease. Make that two leases." Ray answered with a smile. "What spells are those?" Mane asked curiously. He really wanted to know what he did wrong. Every time he dueled his father, they would have this conversation. It pulled them closer together, and it broadened Mane's knowledge of battle skills. Although Mane had an outrageous battle capability, it did him a lot of good to battle against an actual god. Even with his strength reduced, Ray was still a god, and Mane appreciated their spars.
"The first lease is called 'transformatio'. It allows one to take the form of another object or person. The second one is 'reformandam'. It allows you to make another copy of yourself." Ray answered.
"I see. You made a clone of yourself?" Mane inquired. "You really are sharp. I did." Ray praised his son for his sharp wit. "And you used transformatio to keep yourself hidden. But what did you transform into. And when did you create that clone?" Mane asked.
Ray smiled and replied, "When you kicked me the first time. During your mid-air flip, I stealthily created the clone. And then I transformed into that." Ray pointed at his footwear. Mane finally understood what had happened. He had been too careless in the fight just now. During their bout, he noticed a shoe discarded at the corner of the room, and had ignored it. At the time, he didn't have any spare concentration to waste on what he considered an insignificant member of the training room. That was his mistake. With his exceptional memory, he should have been able to tell that there was no such footwear when he first entered the room. And during his training, there was nothing like that. He should have noticed that there was something wrong with the shoe. To be fair, Mane was being too hard on himself. The pace of the battle was such that taking his eye of it for just a second would have spelled his immediate defeat. So there was no way he could afford to think about something else.
Secondly, transformatio and reformandam were high level leases that were difficult to master. Ray himself had only mastered them after reaching the peak of the heavenly realm. And these were leases he had been studying since he was a profound realmer! That was how hard it was to grasp these two techniques. Unlike leases like restituere, which required a lot of energy- chaos- to use, but weren't difficult to understand, the other two techniques were much more complex. In fact, there were some high level spiritualists who hadn't grasped these techniques yet. So even among spiritualists, masters of this technique were rare.
"Don't be too hard on yourself. You have gotten much better. And my skills are being displayed to you slowly. Soon, when I am depleted of all my tricks, I would be hard pressed to get a win over you." Ray consoled. He wasn't trying to be nice. He meant every word he said. Unlike Mane, who didn't have any clue as to what his battle skills were like, Ray knew a lot about his son's techniques. So it wasn't really fair that Mane had to duel the man without knowing what his father's skills were. But even after being told that he- Ray- was aware of all his techniques, Mane insisted that it mattered little. According to our blonde haired protagonist, there were definitely going to be times when he faced people who knew much more about him than he did them. So fighting against his father was the best possible training he could get.
"It doesn't matter. I'm ready. We should start the second phase." Mane nodded at his father's words. But he didn't dwell much on it, neither did he his loss. He was eager to continue with his training.
"No, not quite yet. Let us get something to eat first. I could go without food for ages. But you are still in your growth phase. You need all the nutrition you can get. And you will get them all. Or else your mother will kill me." Ray shuddered at the last part of his sentence. Any god would feel it was comedic that the Brute King was so afraid of his wife. He wasn't. But when he recalled the scolding and black eye he got a few weeks ago from forgetting to bring Mane up for his lunch, the shuddering was involuntary. At that time, Mane was studying the body wielding art form of the 4th. It was called the 'beast form'. It involved getting accustomed to an animal that called to you and following the movements of that creature to enhance your unpredictability. That was what Mane had employed in his fight against his father. Mane had begun training in the wolf form, an animal that had always appealed to him since he was little. It was the only creature that had been able to kill him in the simulation chamber, and it had left a big impression. In their eagerness to try out this new form, the duo had stayed in the basement till late in the afternoon. As they had lost track of time, they had no idea that they were hours past their lunchtime. It was Alexis who came to call them out after realizing that the two were nowhere to be found. Although she didn't seem mad, later that night when the two were alone in their room he was scolded. It turned out that she was only keeping her cool because Mane was there. In her eyes, he wasn't to blame. In fact, Ray was certain that even if he was tied up by Mane before her eyes, and the boy refused to eat, she would still blame him. To her, her boy could do no wrong. She didn't care about whether Ray ate or not. He was a god, he didn't really need to eat. But Mane was different. Nutrition was vital for him at this stage, especially since he was a body wielder now. But there was no way he was going to tell Mane that he wanted them to go and eat because he had been beaten up the last time.
"Oh right. Now that you mention it, I am starving." Mane exclaimed upon realizing that he truly was hungry. Body wielding required an enormous amount of food. Since he had begun his training, his food consumption had increased by about twice the previous amount. He quickly stood up and hurried towards the door.