The old man hadn't shown up to this fight.
A moment passed without anyone saying anything and then Taz started charging at Kaiser.
Taz continued doing mostly feints, following yesterday's trend. They were fun to do and against Kaiser, basically guaranteed a hit.
Kaiser knew Taz's plan but wasn't mad. He would learn to counter it and then use it against him.
That was part of his journey after all.
Taz and Kaiser spent another hour fighting. Under normal circumstances, this would be unfair as Taz was older than Kaiser and had more experience with fighting. However, Kaiser's comprehension and learning ability were boosted by his ring.
Finding patterns and making quick plans were included in the package.
So on the second day of fighting Taz began sweating, his body more physically exerted. Even though it was only beating Kaiser up, it was slightly more difficult.
'He hasn't improved already, right? Yeah, no way.' Taz thought to himself.
--A Few Days Later--
Kaiser had finished reading the book and was already doing the exercises. They weren't too difficult at the earlier stages, but once you mastered them. That's when the real challenge came.
He didn't notice too much change in his body yet, but then again, it had only been a couple of days. There's no way it changed his body too much within that time.
His spars with Taz had also been getting less painful. He could dodge or block most of Taz's feints and on rare occasions would throw a punch of his own. It never hit though.
By this point, Taz was sure that Kaiser was improving by leaps and bounds. Although it was only on the topic of feints. It was crazily fast and would make training other physical aspects easier.
'I can't let him beat me like this.' Taz thought and tried even harder, still using feints.
They continued to fight while Kaiser could see patterns aligning themselves faster and faster each time.
At the end of the first week, Kaiser was proficient in fighting against and with using feints.
Taz was considered a young genius when it came to fighting. He was also proficient in feints and was proud to have reached that level at his age, but this younger kid had reached his skill in feints in a week.
'Was the Branch Head not overestimating Kaiser?'
Taz's mind was all over the place. He wanted to be mad that someone younger was better than him, but he was happy. He could fight someone around his age on the same skill level.
Now if they were to use mana, he'd win in a heartbeat as Kaiser hadn't the slightest clue on how to use it still.
'I wonder if he'll surpass me in mana as well. Regardless I should step it up.'
Taz was going to fight all out now. Using all of what he'd learned besides using mana.
If Kaiser could keep up and learn, then good for him. If not, Taz decided this month would be a kind of vacation for him.
The two kids fought at noon for another week.
At first, Kaiser was getting beaten to a pulp, getting healed, working out, and then repeating. But on the 5th day, something clicked.
He was seeing Taz's movements more clearly. The attacks he did at certain times and the smaller movements that were made became see-through for him.
It was all coming together.
On the first day of the third week, he finally managed to not outright lose. Instead, he put up a fight for most of the hour before he succumbed. Exhaustion was the main culprit.
'Who knew this was so tiring.' Kaiser thought, recounting the fight. Finding places to improve on and maybe get hits in.
He did this every day they fought. Mainly for the fact that he wanted to beat Taz, but it was also extremely helpful and improvement always made it easier to train.
As the 3rd week passed he fought Taz for longer periods. To the point where an hour simply wasn't enough. Kaiser kept getting closer and closer to Taz's skill level and consistency.
Each fight was tougher than the last and caused each of them to work harder. Even Taz had been trying to improve his techniques against Kaiser. Now that he was good enough for that.
On the 20th day, the old man showed up again.
Both the boys looked at him, unsure if they should fight or greet him.
"Just fight, I'll speak when you two are done."
They looked at the old man and then at each other, only standing for a second, before they attacked each other.
Taz tried punching his liver, but Kaiser stepped sideways bringing his own punch toward Taz's face.
He always went for the face when he thought he could land a good punch. Although he wasn't sure why.
His punch landed squarely on Taz's face, forcing him to take a few steps back.
Neither of them took any hits personally, after all, this was a fight. They were both learning so why make things difficult for the other?
Not giving Taz a moment's rest, he dashed forward kicking out his leg. However, when Taz reached out, attempting to grab it, he retracted his leg. He used his leftover momentum to throw his elbow into his side.
Taz wheezed, losing his breath.
He knew he couldn't remain on the defensive. He recovered as fast as he could and threw a punch, landing on Kaiser's raised arm which pushed him back a few feet.
Each hit they threw hurt, but so what? This was how to advance their fighting capability.
They continued the fight for another two hours before they ended in a draw. Both were sprawled on the floor, completely out of breath and in pain.
"That was an impressive fight. You two have been working hard the last two weeks." The old man said with a smile.
The only response he got was an out-of-breath Kaiser saying, "Thank you, Teacher."
The old man then looked at Taz and said, "I see you've also been improving. You're much stronger than before you fought Kaiser."
Taz knew that. Fighting with Kaiser was perfect for him. It allowed him to try new techniques on an opponent who was trying their best.
He could truly see how well it would work on a similarly skilled opponent.
Fighting the guards was always an option, but those fights were either too difficult or not realistic.
He needed this authenticity.
"It's time to change things up. Taz from now on you're permitted to use 10-star magic in your fights with Kaiser."
"Magic?" Kaiser asked.
Taz pleaded, "But our fights are now even sir."
"Kaiser would've won the next fight and the ones after that, but faster. Also Kaiser, magic is mana, but in a skill format. So, it's the application in which mana is used."
Taz was unhappy. They had an even playing field for once, but now he had to use magic against his sparring buddy. That would make his best learning time disappear completely.
'Is this a perk of having the Branch Head cater to you?' Taz wondered.