Mikhail's advance was sloppy as he basically stumbled forward.
One strike.
Two strikes.
Four strikes.
Eight strikes.
Sixteen strikes.
Thirty-Two strikes.
Mikhail's body was moving like a rag doll as he helplessly took each and every punch without being able to defend. His arms flailed around helplessly, and his balance was constantly on the verge of being lost.
Yet his grip on the spear remained unbelievably firm. It was like that spear was his lifeline. Throughout the strikes, Mikhail was able to get a handful of retalliations in by using his spear like a stave, changing his grip as often as he could manage in order to strike precise and extremely easy to miss openings.
Azalea's stance was seemingly impeccable, which spoke volumes of just how accurate Mikhail's stave-play had become as he adeptly landed seemingly impossible strikes going straight through her defenses.
However, all of those hits were nothing more than pokes. His accuracy and improvements were astonishing, but he had pushed himself beyond his limits already. He was running on fumes.
Their spars seemed to drag on and on as Mikhail forced his body to move through unimaginable amounts of pain. It all seemed for naught, nearly pointless, but Azalea continued to train with him regardless, foregoing her responsibilities for the day.
PACK!
Mikhail took a right hook to the jaw and spun to the ground, landing on his back.
Alaya sighed and began to walk over, but stopped with surprise when she saw him shakily trying to get up, despite his clearly dislocated jaw. "Khrr- Ah- I- I ca-" He spoke but all that came out was gibberish.
Azalea stomped with excessive force into his stomach, knocking him out cold. He had begun frothing at the mouth as Alaya began healing him. It took around ten minutes, and the whole time, Azalea could only look at him wordlessly.
"So, I take it you like this kid?" Alaya said as they waited for him to wake up.
"I do. And he's not a kid, he's the same age as me."
Alaya turned back to the young looking Mikhail and seemed to scrutinize him as thoroughly as she could. Yet she shook her head. "Doesn't look like it. That's a sixteen year old body through and through."
"And you look like you're in your early twenties despite being-"
Alaya flicked her in the chin, knocking her back onto her ass. Azalea turned to her with slightly narrowed eyes, but understood why she had stopped her when she heard Mikhail stir.
"I can still keep going!" he shouted while lifting himself off the ground with the help of the spear he was using.
WAP!
A feminine hand made of water slapped him in the face, knocking him to the ground again.
"Mikhail, are you stupid?! We've been over this before! Just look at what time it is!" Alaya shouted back angrily.
He looked up and his eyes widened in shock. "Since when was it evening?!"
"Ages ago!" she said, her face one of disapproval.
"Shit… I really went overboard this time," Mikhail said with a hoarse chuckle. His body almost felt as bad as when his Spirit wasn't being suppressed.
"Sorry. Your earnest desire to keep going made it difficult for me to say no… It's my fault." Azalea looked away, feeling guilty.
"Damn right it is. Take responsibility by helping me home!" he said while getting up again.
"I'll see you both tomorrow. I'm going home to eat. And Mikhail, seriously… You need to pace yourself a little better than this."
Mikhail only sheepishly smiled in response to Alaya's advice. She then walked off, leaving the two alone.
He stared up at the evening sky silently for a while, before Azalea came by and stood over him.
"Why do you go to such extreme lengths to get stronger? Is it because of your past? Do you want to take revenge on the people that ruined your peaceful life?"
He shook his head, letting out a sigh.
"The people that ruined my life… It'd be a fruitless effort to try and search for them here, Azalea."
'The people responsible are nothing to me, seeing as I could probably pop open their heads like a grape now…'
'I'm not even sure if a gun could kill me at this point… A tank might be a different story though…' he thought to himself with a frown. 'Maybe I should make one and find out…'
He held his hand upwards after putting that thought aside, and Azalea was quick to help him up.
"Uh, right. Anyway, the source of my tenacity. You wanted to know what it was?"
"Yes, that's right," she said while taking care of an itch on her scalp.
"It has to do with my… My goal. I never thought a goal like mine could be realized to such an extent, because it was the talk of mad men in my old land…"
"But in these lands, I have the feeling it's possible. That I can achieve my goal…"
Azalea waited with bated breath as she waited for him to continue.
Gasp!
And she eventually released it, because Mikhail kept the dramatic pause up for an obscenely long amount of time.
"Hahaha! Were you that absorbed in the story?! Haaa!" He slapped his knee while laughing, grunting viscerally in between his laughs as a result.
"Jerk," she said while looking away for a moment.
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Where was I… My goal, right? Okay, enough funny business."
Yet the funny business briefly continued as he took another deep breath for dramatic effect, causing Azalea to roll her eyes and say, "Get on with it, damn it!"
"My goal is to create a world!"
Azalea's brows furrowed slightly as she thought about what that meant.
"So… You want to become a Heaven?"
Mikhail hummed to himself. "I guess that's one way to put it."
A soft rumble echoed throughout the lands as soon as he finished speaking. He noticed how Azalea flinched, and couldn't help but roll his eyes.
Being scared of thunder at her age?
How silly.