King Ilrymax was glaring through my soul as his side was bleeding. He looked at his side, seeing the blood dripping from the wound before looking back at me. The wound sealed from him healing it in a matter of seconds before King Ilrymax demonstrated the fact he was much, much faster than I realized. Compared to Miril, he was quite slow, so I bounded away to make space between the two of us. He pursued me, but I was capable of playing keep away from him while trying to use the to retaliate against him. I solidified my claws again, feeling them rake against what felt like armor when they collided against him. I made distance immediately to keep his from connecting as he tried to corral me to some desired location he had in mind. Unfortunately for King Ilrymax, I was used to faster or someone able to bend the space around me.

  That was until I saw a wall of wind with storm clouds above full of crackling lightning. I didn’t even need to get near the wind wall to see the blades imbued within it as I knew I couldn’t leap through it. Restricting the amount of space I had to work with was a way to deal with the fact I kept making distance on him. When did he even cast this? How did King Ilrymax even cast this? Before I renewed my assault, King Ilrymax put his talons into the earth where it then proceeded to detonate. What? What or is that? The entire area began shaking as multiple jagged crags erupted from the ground. Seriously? What was this?

  I used my assault combination to try and attack him again, but King Ilrymax made several roots erupt from the ground to make my path change and where I kicked myself to I was greeted with several bolts of lightning being launched towards me. Just because I was faster than him and his , he kept quickly casting simple, fast where I was and my dodge locations. I pivoted around his assault as I kept trying to get close to King Ilrymax who attacked me with little effort with a ceaseless barrage of . I did the few kicking maneuvers that I had practiced with Nox’s blasted obstacle course, getting near him finally. I solidified a few claws, slashing King Ilrymax again. My claws bounced off his feathers where I learned he apparently reinforced them with an absurd amount of because they barely deflected. What was this?

  My paw was screaming from how hard I hit King Ilrymax with my claws feeling like I nearly ripped them off from the force. In what world was this King Ilrymax holding back? Simply because I was processing the lack of wounds of King Ilrymax didn’t mean he decided to stop attacking me. He was conjuring blades of wind, spikes of earth, bolts of lightning, and the cream on top were his talons missing my skull by less than an inch as he tried slicing my head off. It nearly was like I was dancing as I kept pivoting and using my paws to spring off whatever or wherever I could around his ceaseless barrage of and . I used my assault combination to close the gap as I instead solidified my tail to try and impale King Ilrymax, reinforcing it with while making a spear tip on the end. My tail barely broke the surface of King Ilrymax's feathers, but his expression let me know King Ilrymax was not appreciative of my tail managing to wound him.

  How long had we been fighting? It was difficult for me to tell time while dodging and trying to fight back against King Ilrymax. How fast was my heart beating? I kept bounding around, using to process the endless barrage he was chucking at me. King Ilrymax kept up his attacks where he finally threw in a mix-up I wasn’t expecting; he flapped his wings hard at me, launching several feathers reinforced with at me in a spread pattern I couldn’t weave between. As fast as I could I formed a

  which while it stopped the feathers from hitting me pushed me into the wind wall. My suspicions that it contained blades were confirmed as I felt myself start bleeding from the slashes across my back. I used my while healing myself, digging in deep to try and close the gap on King Ilrymax once more. I wove around the best I could, flickering around King Ilrymax to use my tail attack from an odd angle, connecting a bit better than before.

  Unfortunately, King Ilrymax was willing to trade blows this time as his wing sliced into me, slamming into the ground. Several things in my body cracked and popped as my vision was just wavy lines now. I tried standing back up, but my legs fell out from under me. Yep, that wasn’t happening. His containing storm wall dissipated while I was healing myself as much as I could. My body was howling in agony as how much I hadn’t been breathing hit me full force. In what world was that King Ilrymax making it fair? He was nearby, but I couldn’t make out much of the details because my vision was all blurry and wavy still. Was he mentally unwell? Who hit this point of overexertion and was like, let’s do it again? My body felt awful as it was repairing itself slowly but surely while my brain felt like it was cracking itself in half. I was never exerting myself to this point unless I was absolutely forced to.

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  King Ilrymax waited patiently as my vision was finally back to normal. My body was still struggling to move around as I was gasping for air still. How did I get to this point without realizing it? Once I was stopped, the amount of energy I exerted rudely made itself apparent. I rolled over a bit so I was at least upright while I looked at King Ilrymax. His gaze was stern as he looked at me on the ground. It was steadily healing with crackling and sparking around the edges, but nowhere near as fast as I thought he could heal. King Ilrymax demonstrated he clearly knew how to deal with faster opponents. To be fair, he did state that the two of them were childhood friends.

  “I will admit, you innovated more than I believed in those two hours. “ King Ilrymax confessed in a slightly annoyed tone.

  “Howwiz thatho ding ‘ck?” I slurred at him. What I wanted to say definitely is not what came out of my mouth.

  “Recover a bit more Lux. You pushed it a lot more than you realize.” King Ilrymax stated calmly. Why was he waiting for me to recover more?

  “Whyya waitin’ fammee?” I tried, trying to form coherent words and phrases.

  “If I understood what I think you are asking, because someone in a friendly spar with me put themselves in a state where they cannot overly defend themselves. Once you are more coherent I will drop you off in front of Ikol because I imagine you’d like to keep appearances.” King Ilrymax explained. The dragons and bug definitely weren’t going to see me like this.

  “Ikol fine.” I answered. I missed a syllable there, but that should’ve conveyed the message I intended.

  “You can take a minute or so to recover more. I am a bit surprised to see what you managed to create, even if the ability to maintain it is currently lacking.” King Ilrymax assured me. Yea, the stamina and endurance to keep up the halos and needed immense improvement. I took a few more moments to recover as my breathing and heart rate were finally steady. Still elevated and racing a mile a second, but not concerningly high.

  “How long was that spar?” I checked because I was struggling to tell how long the spar went.

  “A bit longer than three minutes give or take.” King Ilrymax replied.

  “Great.” I sighed.

  “Sound more enthusiastic, that is quite impressive. Have you thought of a name for it?” King Ilrymax told me.

  “To be named for now. And how was that holding back? That felt like how Miril tended to spar me.” I answered. King Ilrymax grimaced as he clearly stopped himself from saying his initial thought.

  “What? What did you not say?” I probed, not grasping why he went silent.

  “Are you sure you want to hear that answer?” King Ilrymax checked as he cocked his head to the side.

  “Yes, I want to know what you stopped yourself from saying.” I insisted.

  “King MIril’s approach may be better suited to teaching you than I originally thought.” King Ilrymax informed me.

  “WHAT?!” I cried at him, refusing to believe such a statement.

  “King Miril understandably while a harsh teacher clearly grasped how you tend to learn and innovate.” King Ilrymax added on.

  “No! I refuse to believe it!” I pouted. Miril’s approach was awful.

  “It is why I originally did not say it. Now that you have recovered, do you want me to bring you to Ikol so you can recover more? Or did you want to bound over on your own?” King Ilrymax asked politely.

  “I’ll take the ride please.” I requested as I jumped up between his wings.

  He took off, flying towards where Ikol was. I tried sensing how King Ilrymax was forming his to make his , but I was so exhausted and spent I was not sensing well. It took less than a minute for us to reach where Ikol was carving rocks, looking like he was nearing success. King Ilrymax landed, so I hopped off next to Ikol who jumped over to us ecstatically. I stretched a bit, feeling how stiff my body was as it was still recovering. Who would ever want to reach that level of overexertion? I needed to train and practice so I never reached it again.

  “King Ilrymax! Chef!” Ikol chimed happily as his tails wagged.

  “Hello Ikol. I merely came to drop off Lux; I need to check on the others.” King Ilrymax stated before flying off.

  “Chef!” Ikol told me happily, doing happy bounces around me.

  “Lay down.” I ordered him. I didn’t have the energy for hyper Ikol.

  “Yes Chef!” Ikol complied, plopping down where he was.

  “Asre asre.” I continued as I laid down, setting my head on Ikol.

  “Yes Chef!” Ikol obeyed as he wrapped his tails around to be a blanket for me.

  I relaxed a bit now that I had my sleeping set up. My body was sore with waves of pain as I kept recovering. Ikol was laying at the greatest angle to keep my head well aligned with the rest of my spine, making the ground we were on much more comfortable. His tails made an excellent blanket on top of it all which was helping me relax. I reached out and pat Ikol’s head with a paw to congratulate him, and he even didn’t bounce up in excitement. Ikol was smart in times like these.

  “Are you epe epe?” Ikol checked with barely contained joy.

  “Yes. Nap time.” I confirmed as I shut my eyes and settled in.

  “Yes Chef!” Ikol agreed, adjusting a little so he was on guard.

  “Good Ikol.” I yawned before I began drifting off.