It was a different way to fight using a shield and a sword, but Philip thought of a pretty efficient way to deal with Aion. Since he already had the advantage of being bigger and heavier, he just had to make sure to seal the tricks that Aion might try to use against him, and by using his equipment like that, he succeeded.
That is until Aion used Palm Strike on the shield and made it fly to the distance. He will probably be scolded later for that since the shield fell on a flower bed. Philip clicked his tongue since his hand felt some of the impact… in any case, that was what happens when one doesn't hold their shield properly.
Despite that, Philip readied his short sword to fight. Using both hands to make it hit harder wasn't possible, but at least he could focus on finesse. He charged at Aion and attacked with a big swing, but he stopped midway when Aion jumped to the side… that kind of change of attack in the middle of the motion wasn't something someone could do all of a sudden. Phillip must have trained a lot to pull it off…
Phillip used the first attack to get close enough and then used the thrusts again. They had become sharper and faster than before, to the point that Aion didn't even try to block them since he could tell that Philip was itching to move his legs and kick him.
Unfortunately, the thrusts were getting sharper instead of more sloppy despite the fact that Philip was supposed to be getting tired, they were approaching Aion's head and he had to do something about them.
Aion made his decision when Philip suddenly approached and then attacked his face with all his might… He grabbed the weapon with both hands before kicking Philip in the stomach.
"Cough, cough… That isn't allowed, right?" Philip asked while he was recovering..
"The palm of the gauntlets are protected by a small iron plate and also has a thin layer of protection similar to a chainmail," Lexus replied. "If his sword had a Blade, it wouldn't have cut his hands, and the tip of the weapon didn't reach him either."
"... It is my loss," Philip said and then sighed.
It was hard to contest Lexus' words, even more so when his explanations made sense. Still, Aion wasn't that satisfied since it had been a pretty close match. The sword stopped three centimeters away from his face… Henri was more talented and stronger than Philip, so it was hard for Aion to imagine him winning the next day… Even more so when he was showing more and more tricks that wouldn't surprise the others anymore.
"Since then, others don't spar often, I have no idea what they might have in store… Maybe I should think of something for tomorrow," Aion thought.
Thinking of a battle plan to defeat a child… That was pretty lame, but it would be even lamer to lose or use the system to help.
When the morning of the next day came, Aion and Henri sure looked prepared. As soon as Lexus gave the signal to start, both of them charged… It was surprising, but they had planned to go all out from the very beginning and knock out the other with the first attack.
Aion tried to punch Henri's stomach, but then he attacked in a quick succession by using the sword and the shield… It was surprising, but he used Double Strike… As a result, Aion felt a throbbing pain in his right arm. At least Henri didn't follow up with another attack of that level.
"Henri shouldn't have enough stamina to use that skill more than ten times, but he isn't reckless to the point of spamming that to defeat me…" Aion thought.
Instead of that, Henri charged and after putting his left foot forward, he turned his body to the side and then swung the shield… That was exactly the same motion of Shield Swing… To think that he was able to use that…
Despite the surprise, Aion used the upper side of the gauntlets to block the attack. Still, the skill had all the weight and power of Henri behind it… It pushed him several meters backward, and he felt his bones cracking. He clicked his tongue, imagining that his father would stop the match, but it looked like he didn't realize the damage that Aion had suffered behind his poker face.
"Since it has come to this…" Aion thought while furrowing his eyebrows.
Before Aion could recover, Henri stepped forward in the same way as before since he felt that Shield Swing had been very effective. Still, he opened his eyes in surprise when Aion moved in to attack as well. In the end, Aion used Wolf Fang to stop Shield Swing and not only that happened, but the shield cracked… It was only a training shield with a thin layer of iron, after all.
Since the impact hadn't been direct, Henri didn't suffer much damage and easily switched to the fighting style with a single short sword in hand. Still, this time, Henri looked a lot more focused and cautious since he truly was planning to end things with Shield Swing. Meanwhile, Aion decided to capitalize on that chance and then charged.
Henri decided to block the attack by holding both ends of the sword, and he managed to stop Aion when he used Palm Strike. Still, he was forced to take a few steps backward. Much to his surprise, Aion didn't stop there and used Palm Strike two more times before the training sword bent like a spoon. That left everyone speechless… on the other hand, Aion wanted to shout since his cracked bones were hurting even more.