Astralex Royal Academy, in one of the indoor training ground. Dorian and Ruby were facing each other.
"I'll only use one hand, show me what you got." After saying those words, Dorian tossed a katana with silver blade and black hilt at Ruby while he readied his spear.
After receiving the katana, Ruby positioned her left leg forward while clutching the katana before.
Bang!
She shot forward like a rocket, she seems to have use Mana to increase her speed for a short period. Her movement were refined. She elegantly moved forward as she swung her sword forward, aiming for Dorian's shoulder, she even used Mana to make her sword swing more complex, more challenging to see through.
However, Dorian could easily see through Ruby's attack , and he lazily dodge it and gave a casual counter slash.
Seeing his incoming slash, Ruby frowned and evaded the slash as she thrust her sword at Dorian. It was not an average thrust as it was powered by Mana, making it cut through the air like a bullet.
Dorian didn't get startled as Ruby expected and parried her attack with a counter thrust. It was a normal counter thrust without any power up, still it was deadly, and because of that, Ruby instantly stepped back as she saw Dorian's counter-attack approaching her.
'I'm still far from making him go all out with using my Mana attributes, but I can still try ' she thought, before putting her thoughts into action.
Formless mana gathered under her feet, creating lightning bolts to propel her forward.
"Ha!. " Ruby quickly closed the distance between them as she threw an overhand cut.
However, Dorian reacted instantly, he stepped to the side before using his spear to pry Ruby's katana from her hand and pointed his spear towards her neck. It happened in an instant giving Ruby no time to counter.
"You lost Ruby." Dorian smiled.
'this quickly? I thought I'd last a bit longer than usual. Today I didn't hold back, and he still disarmed me. Is the difference between us this big, firstly I got defeated by Orpheus and now this ' Ruby couldn't help but feel like a child trying to spar with an adult, she even remembered her defeat In the hands of her best friend Orpheus. The gap was too much, she felt she could never overcome it but knew better than anyone that if she continued to believe like this, she will never really progress.
While Ruby was lost in thoughts, she was forced to stop because of Dorian's harsh words.
"Tell me, Ruby haven't all our lessons taught you anything, you keep making the same mistake again and again, do you think just because you're the daughter of a duke it'll make everything easy for you, it's not because we're born luckier than others that it would mean we'll not put on some effort, Orpheus always said this. The way you use mana to move is wrong, it messed up your movement. "
Ruby was ashamed that there was nothing she could say, out of all the teachers she had, both that of the Academy or the private instructors her parent provided, Dorian was the most patient. It was not that she was dumb but compared to Dorian, who could learn anything fast, she was a tad bit slower.
Having noticed he went a bit overboard, Dorian sighed and decided to show his childhood friend what he meant once more, he became gentle again.
"I will not use my spear this time, so attack me as you did previously, but you must at the same time pay to the flow of mana in my body. Understood."
Ruby nodded and readied her sword. Applying mana under her foot, she lunged forward as she threw a cut at Dorian. Dorian let the mana spread through his entire body before he twisted his body towards the side as he dodged her attack.
The mana was still spreading through his whole body, but he focused a small part of the mana into his hands to make it faster, it was adding boost over an existing boost, this made Dorian extremely fast, then he instantly grabbed Ruby held out wrist and using his momentum, he spun her around and pinned her towards the ground.
BAM!
Ruby got slammed on the ground, she felt all the air in her lungs escaping, she felt like throwing up but managed to swallow it back.
"You lost again, but this time have you learned something?" Dorian asked while offering Ruby help, Ruby accepted Dorian's hand and got up. She breathed in and out before answering.
"I did learned something, finally I understand i wasn't using my Mana as I should. Like most people do, they focus their mana on one part, however , by doing that your defense, attack or speed would not be at their maximum, your method is like adding a boost atop another boost. No wonder I couldn't do anything facing you Dorian, although I didn't want to say it, you're a genius to have thought of this method. I'm curious, how did you think about this method?"
"I'll tell you if you manage to land a blow on me." Dorian declared with a gentle smile, he tossed the katana at Ruby, who caught it and grinned in return, she was up for the challenge.
Swoosh!
Ruby disappeared, but this time she didn't make much noise as she copied Dorian, she first spread her Mana through her body before concentrating on a part on her leg creating lightning bolts to increase her speed. She must admit it, she felt different, she arrived behind Dorian in an instant, from her body lightning Mana spread out and covered her katana.
"Greylash sword 1st form: Raging thunder slash." Ruby moved so fast with raging lightning bolts surrounding her body creating a thunder storm trying to swarm Dorian.
Dorian simply chuckled when he saw this move, he covered his spear with dark Mana before calmly blocking Ruby's lightning sword move.
"Got you." Ruby mumbled as she reappeared behind Dorian, busy dealing with her sword attack, and thrust her sword forward, she was sure of her victory.
"I knew you'd do that." However Dorian had anticipated this, he said without turning back as he covered his hand with Mana and caught the katana with two fingers, if he hadn't used Mana to hold the blade, he'd have ended up with an injured hand.
"What!." Ruby was shocked when she saw this.
Gulp!
She knew Dorian was on another level, both his cultivation, his martial arts and his awesome control over Mana, which people who are in the the same cultivation realm as him couldn't do.
"I lost, but I want you to teach me how to control Mana like that." Ruby accepted her loss and immediately asked for Dorian's assistance.
Naturally, Dorian gladly accepted but postponed it for later.
"Oh how I missed Orpheus, he's the one who usually console me whenever I suffered a defeat from you, he should come back soon." Ruby added.
"Yeah I missed him too, but he'll be gone for 4 months, so we might not see him soon, you should get stronger not to suffer another defeat from Orpheus, let go clean up, we're all sweaty." Dorian told her.
Ruby nodded as she left the training ground first.
Dorian stared at her back as he thought. 'i want you to become stronger Ruby, so I can bring you to see my family, if you're stronger they'll accept you to be my wife, so I'll train you hard.' he then walked out of the training hall.