It was already 3 days since their training.
Oriel taught Derrick and Luna about the basics, practicing their stances and forms. He also let them practice on their own, and he would be in charge of correcting their terrible habits on their weapons.
Thankfully, there were much lesser incidents that happened this day compared to their first day of training.
Today was a special day, however. He called the kids to come over and proposed a challenge.
"We are going to play a fun game. The two of you will group and attack me, and whoever touches my clothes, by your hand or weapons, will count as your win."
"To make this game fair, I will never use magic to run away. The time limit of our game is 10 minutes."
"Use your weapons, never hesitate to hit me." He looked at the eyes of the kids and found out they were hesitating. He waited for their response.
The kids felt that this challenge is sudden, Luna didn't want to hurt her father with her weapon. Derrick also hesitated because even he felt this game was too dangerous to play for them.
"You know we are always clumsy, w-we will always get hurt by... accident. Luna's arrow would sometimes hit me as well if both of us will participate together..." Derrick did not feel comfortable belittling himself.
He stuttered while twiddling his fingers together in embarrassment. He avoided eye contact with Luna and his uncle.
"Yeah..." Luna also dragged her voice. Both of them naturally didn't have confidence in themselves, especially when Oriel showed them his sword fighting and bowing skills. They felt ashamed.
The kids' anxiousness was not unfounded. What they will do next is not just a simple training procedure, but real-life sparring, with potentially dangerous weapons.
Luna's arrows are the most dangerous tools compared to the wooden sword and dagger. If the arrows struck somebody, it may even cost the life of a person.
Oriel himself highlighted that issue for the past 3 days. Now he is proposing a challenge that disregards what he is teaching them? That's not responsible.
He knew what the kid's worries are, so he had to clarify them and give them confidence.
"Don't worry if you are afraid of getting hit by accident, I still have my powerful magic to begin with. I will make sure there are no accidents throughout our game."
His reasoning didn't convince the kids, though. The accidents from the other day would not happen if his magic is powerful like what he said earlier.
"Then, if you can't touch me once under 10 minutes, we will forget about training and go back home. Do you want that?" Oriel pressured them with these words.
"No!!" Both the kids instantly shouted. They don't want to go home yet. They still wanted to tour the city and buy souvenirs.
"Hit me once and you'll win." Oriel matched their fighting spirit and made a stance.
"Get ready papa, we are coming to get you!" Luna tried to intimidate her father with her cute voice.
Derrick charged forward with all his speed, lunging his sword towards his uncle's stomach.
Luna readied her bow and pulled it, hesitating to shoot.
Oriel evaded Derrick's advance with a sidestep. The latter flinched and face fell on the ground.
He also saw Luna's arrow coming towards him. He jumped back, and the arrow fell near his feet.
Then, as he willed the arrow to disappear, he absorbed the arrow's properties into his mana.
Derrick recovered early and strode forward to Oriel once again. This time it was a slash from the side.
Luna took an arrow from her quiver and pulled the bow. She didn't notice Derrick trying to lunge at Oriel and fired.
After a second, Luna just found out that the arrow would hit Derrick and anxiously reminded him.
"Derrick, look out!"
Derrick, who heard her shout, didn't turn to look at her and still moved towards Oriel.
Oriel sighed when he saw the arrow going to hit Derrick's body. He controlled his mana to stop the arrow and disintegrate it into pieces.
Luna was panic-stricken when she almost hit Derrick, but after seeing that it hit no one, she sighed in relief. She didn't doubt his father's words anymore.
It's time to get wild.
For the whole 5 minutes, Oriel and the kids look like they were playing hide and seek. Derrick tried his hardest to touch Oriel's clothes, but he always fails.
Luna kept firing her arrows, and almost 1 of them barely touched Oriel's clothes.
For this entire ordeal, Luna panted in exhaustion. It made her weary and tired, moving their bow back and forth.
Derrick kept charging and following Oriel's moves. It was miraculous for him to endure that long. Before long, he fell on the ground.
Oriel was the only one who didn't break a sweat. He dodged every attack perfectly. He is untouchable.
Luna couldn't take it anymore and rested on the grass. She stopped firing her arrows. Her quivers are almost empty.
No one went after Oriel anymore. They are too tired to follow him.
Looking at the fatigued kids, Oriel smiled.
"How about this? Let's make our battlefield smaller."
So walls of earth suddenly sprang around the open grassy area, Pulling everyone near the middle.
The kids were too tired to marvel at the display of magic. They used their time to rest for a short while.
Before long, the earth walls stopped. The area is 5 meters long from wall to wall.
The area is tiny; you need 5 people extending their arms to touch the opposite walls.
This is very disadvantageous to Oriel, Derrick can easily catch him if the latter extended his arms wide.
Derrick is nearest to Oriel, they are only three meters away from each other. Luna is farther, she is more than 4 meters away from Oriel.
"Nothing has changed except for these walls. As I have said, you will win if you touch my clothes.
The intentional handicap motivated Luna and Derrick. They stood their exhausted selves up and made a stance. Oriel smiled at the kids as he announced.
"You guys only have 4 minutes left. Round 2, Start!"