After saying that, Gildarts punches the air in front of him lightly. Nothing seems to happen, but Alex's beastly instinct screams danger. He trusts his instinct that keeps getting sharper as he grows stronger, so he quickly raises his guard up.
Alex raises his big and wide sand raccoon arms in front of his face. Then he wraps his whole body with his sand raccoon tail that gets longer and thicker.
Shukaku's body is made of sand, so he can manipulate his size in humanoid form if he has enough magic power. But Alex mostly just manipulates the size of his arms and tail.
Still, it's enough to defend himself as his elongated tail can wrap his whole body, forming a sand cocoon. It's very similar to Gaara's absolute defense that creates a sand barrier, but Alex uses Shukaku's power directly.
After he is wrapped by the sand tail, a strong impact suddenly hits his sand cocoon. Alex is sent flying a few meters to the back and he rolls on the ground because of his egg-like cocoon shape shield.
"Oh? He actually sensed my attack even though it was invisible and defended himself properly." Gildarts is impressed by Alex's sharp sense.
That obviously wasn't his serious attack, but it would still be strong enough for a kid Mage like Alex. It might even be too strong for most kid Mages, proved by how it could send Alex fly.
Alex in Shukaku form is actually very heavy because his body is made of sand. He should weigh some hundred kilos, yet that attack could send him to fly a few meters back. So Alex would fly much further if he wasn't in Shukaku form.
Gildarts wants to stop this test now because he already knows that Alex is strong enough to protect Cana when they are on missions and Makarov won't give children like them dangerous jobs, so they will be safe.
But Alex still wants to continue. He whips his sand tail while unwrapping himself. From his whipped tail, many sand needles come out and fly toward Gildarts at very high speeds.
Gildarts smirks and punches the air in front of him again. The flying needles break apart without any resistance and they crumble.
Then suddenly, a pair of giant Shukaku hands come out of the ground beside Gildarts. Alex only used the sand needles as a distraction to create this attack.
"Desert Beast Hands!"
Alex claps his hands and the giant Shukaku hands also do the same. Gildarts just smirks as the giant hands on his sides are trying to crush him.
Then as Alex thought, it doesn't work. Gildarts breaks his giant Shukaku hands easily. It doesn't even injure him because the sand hands break apart as soon as they touch Gildarts's body.
Alex then transforms into his humanoid Matatabi form. His transformation has gotten much faster now and he can switch from one beast form to another in a moment.
"Oh? Another strange beast that I've never seen too, and it even has 2 tails." Gildarts look at Alex's new form with an interested gaze.
He has been going to many places in this world and seen many creatures. But he never saw the 2 beasts that Alex transformed into. It makes him interested to see more of Alex's beasts' abilities.
Alex runs toward Gildarts and he is really fast in his humanoid Matatabi form. He reaches Gildarts in just a few seconds even though the distance between them is quite far after Alex gets thrown back.
The reason Alex transforms into his humanoid Matatabi form is because he wants to engage in close combat with Gildarts. Shukaku form is heavy and he can't move well, so he transformed into the more agile Matatabi form.
Alex jumps and sends a kick to Gildarts's face. Gildarts blocks it with his arm, but then Alex swings both of his tails to Gildarts's body. One tail is blocked by another hand, but the other tail manages to hit Gildarts's left stomach.
That tail attack manages to push Gildarts a little, but then Alex is thrown to the ground after Gildarts grab one of his tails and slam him down.
Alex clicks his tongue before increasing the heat of his tail. His whole body is currently made of blue and black fire that isn't hot normally, but he can raise its temperature if he wants.
Matatabi has just taught him how to do it not too long ago and now he already has a chance to try it. His trick works and Gildarts releases his tail that burns the man's hand.
"OUCH! OUCH! HOT! What the hell?! I thought your beast body just looked strange. Turns out it is made of fire." Gildarts says it while blowing air onto his hand to cool it down.
"It's nice, right?" Alex smirks before shooting a fireball from his mouth.
Gildarts raises his hand to block it, but before the fireball touches Gildarts's hand, it explodes. Alex makes it explode at that time because it will be useless if Gildarts breaks it.
The explosion is quite big and it surprises Gildarts who reflexively jump back to avoid getting engulfed by the explosion.
The surprise isn't over yet because suddenly Alex jumps out of the explosion. His arms and legs are covered with a red fire that looks contrast with the blue and black fire body.
While Alex can just raise the temperature of his blue and black fire body, it's actually easier for him to just make red fire to cover his arms and legs for now because he needs better magic control to increase the heat of his fire body while the red fire will always stay hot as long as it still ignites.
Alex attacks Gildarts with his close combat skills that have gotten much better now after he experiences a lot of real battles and learns new techniques.
However, his skills seem to be useless against Gildarts. Well, compared to Gildarts who has years of experience, Alex is still just a newbie. Gildarts has fought many people stronger than Alex, so he obviously can handle Alex's attacks easily.
Still, Alex's skills actually surprise Gildarts because he is really strong and skillful for his age. He is also not rash, unlike most kids who can't keep their calm in difficult battles.
"How old are you, kid?" Gildarts asks casually while blocking Alex's attacks without much problem.
"11, almost 12." Alex actually doesn't know his real age because he doesn't know his real birthday in this world.
The first memory he has of this world is being detained and tortured in that damn facility. Those damn researchers obviously won't care about his birthday, so they didn't have any record of it.
Ultear who felt saddened by it decided to choose a date for his birthday. She was the one who gave him a name and then she also chose his birthday. Ultear actually chose the same date as her birthday, only the year is different.
(A.n: no information of Ultear's birthday and age, so I just made it up here for my convenience.)
Now in his profile, his date of birth is 14 February X764. So he will be 12 in 2 months because it's already December X775 now. Well, at least that's his age in this world.
"Heh, then how long have you been practicing magic?" Gildarts still asks nonchalantly while blocking Alex's attacks that have gotten fiercer.
"Less than 2 years." Alex doesn't lose focus on the battle even though he is talking with Gildarts.
"Oh? Then you are a fast learner, that's good." Gildarts grins before he finally starts countering Alex's attacks.
He has just been blocking Alex's attacks for a while, but now Gildarts finally starts attacking too. He uses light attacks that only use a little amount of magic power to fight Alex.
Gildarts has approved Alex's skills now. He judges Alex to be good enough to protect his daughter as her teammate. So he decides to keep playing with Alex.
He is teaching Alex to fight through this little match. Gildarts knows he can't bring Cana to his jobs, so he thinks the best way to keep her safe is by making her and her team stronger, which means he needs to make Alex stronger too.
"Your attacks are too obvious. They will work on beasts, but experienced Mages will see through your attack patterns quickly. Try to use feints. You are fast and agile, so use it. Learn to use your bodyweight to strengthen your attacks."
Gildarts keeps giving advice to Alex while fighting. Then he tells Cana to join too and it becomes a combat training session for the 2 kids.
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Ch. 82: Being A Teacher