It took a while, but Billy had the chance to visit his old friends without a particular reason. His father gave the order to pass some miscellaneous messages to the leaders of the other posts, so he had the chance to meet with Natalie. Just like Alexander said, she was training alone while slicing the air with a real stone sword. It seemed like she had gotten better, but her skills didn't level up all that much. It was a clear sign that she didn't have many chances to spar over the year.
"Hey… if it isn't mister popular," Natalie noticed Billy's presence even before he could call her. "I have been hearing a lot from you."
"I was lucky since I learned a few things from Lily's father," Billy said. "Anyway, it seems that you earned your place here, but you still aren't that welcome."
"I don't mind, I am here to reach my goals and perform my duties for this city," Natalie said.
That was a good response, but Billy could tell that she wasn't as full of life as before. Natalie had a big pride, after all. Based on what Billy knew, her mother should be around to keep her company. Still, Billy didn't see anyone particularly looking toward them.
"Is your mother part of the guards that work at night?" Billy asked.
"Yes, how did you guess?" Natalie asked.
"Why don't you work with her?" Billy asked.
"It is better this way… what, do you think I am lonely or something?" Natalie asked. "Don't look down on me."
Billy wondered why he cared so much about these kids. It wasn't like he had a particularly troubling past. Was it because he didn't see many people helping them, or was he trying to help because he could? Anyway, it seemed that he had too much free time on his hands.
"After our working hours, Alexander and I usually train a bit in our area, if you feel like it, you can join us," Billy said.
"Sure, sure," Natalie shrugged. "I will consider it if I am bored."
"Or if you are fine with having less battle experience than someone three years younger than you," Billy said and then left the area.
Billy had plenty of soaring partners now that the adults of his tribe recognized his strength, but sparing again and again with the people that use the same weapon was boring. Besides, Natalie's learning capacity was higher than theirs. So, Billy was expecting a lot from her. It will depend on whether Natalie can throw away her pride to get stronger.
"Come to think of it, the level difference between me and Dad shouldn't be that high anymore and he still never tried to spar with me," Billy thought. "I wonder why…"
Drew certainly wasn't jealous of Billy. He was the strongest of the tribe, and the other tribes' leaders respected him. Probably, he was expecting Billy to become stronger with a spear or ask him for a spar… Nevertheless, now that Billy could repel the elementalists using his bow skills, he could focus on fighting with the spear again and also experiment with what he had thought before.
The next day, Billy began his training to polish his attacking stance. Just like what he did with the bow, he began to practice his thrusts attacks as slowly as possible while trying to mimic the Light Spear while not using any SP. As one would expect, focusing on precision was hard because the weight of the weapon put a lot of pressure on his right arm while he was moving it. People think that lifting heavy things as many times as possible without stopping is hard, but what is truly hard is lifting something as slowly as possible.
"You are doing weird training again…" Alexander said.
"I am training to polish my attacking stance with thrust," Billy said.
"You already mastered Light Spear… isn't that enough to say that your stance is near perfect?" Alexander frowned.
"If you are satisfied with just, you won't reach new heights," Billy said. "Are you getting carried away just because you are a bit stronger and faster than a few who are older than you?"
It was clear that Alexander wasn't a kid who would do that. Still, he stopped to think about it deeply. His goal was to become as strong as his father, but now that his tribe finally could fight back without suffering too many losses, they were getting stronger as a whole. Even the strength of the adults was increasing. Billy had realized that the lifespan of the people in that world was higher since his grandmother didn't look a single day older than she was ten years ago. That was great. With some luck and appropriate training, he could live a lot longer than ordinary humans, but that also could be applied to other people… probably. Imagine what would happen if he had to fight an elementalists with fifty years of training and combat experience. Could he win or even survive? That kind of thought was what propelled Billy to train day in and day out.
As for the other kids, they didn't copy them. They would feel embarrassed in following the footsteps of those younger than them, after all.