"Often, for some it's just easier to understand one another by beating each other up than talking. I will neither confirm or deny if I'm one such person myself!" - Radoth of Clan Bloodfang, legendary orcish warchief.

"Ooooh, thanks! I'll cook this right up for dinner tonight!" said Lucea happily when Cal and Kino presented her with the tyrant lizard that they had run into along the way there. "I just love the meat of these~ Oh right. Miss Celeysria, are you fine with heavier foods? I know some people can't really stomach the meat of these beasts."

"I've had them before in my travels, so don't worry about me," replied Cal. Lucea had not asked about the others, as the siblings likely had thick enough therian blood to digest the meat, and Adelheid had her goblin and elvish heritages. None of them would have any issues with tyrant lizard meat.

Kino had told Cal in the past that she was unliving before she became a champion. While the champions and those they chose generally masqueraded their longevity with being unliving as an excuse, they were practically no different than if they were alive. On the other hand, those who were unliving before they became a champion, like Kino and Aideen, remained so, with all that it entailed.

It meant that whatever food and beverages they consumed would get converted to mana anyway, and that even if their digestive system was originally incapable of handling some things, those no longer posed any issues once they turned unliving.

While Lucea busied herself with cooking, with Lazlo of all people helping her out - it turned out he was the best one at cooking and other domestic duties out of the three siblings - Cal had stepped out with Adelheid. The half-goblin champion had expressed some interest in a spar, and Cal had agreed, while Kino just joined them to watch.

"Thanks for agreeing," said Adelheid as she took her position around five meters away from Cal. Cal had her halberd in hand, but rested on her shoulder since the other woman had not taken her weapon out yet. "Haven't had a good spar in a while. The kids were no challenge, even if they were to team up."

"No problem. Looking forward to some exercise anyway," replied Cal as she stood across her deceptively youthful-looking opponent. Fittingly, as a former bodyguard, Adelheid was quite a bit into fighting, and the lack of good sparring partners had annoyed her, as Lucea was not really a combatant. "Want to do it just with weapons, or all out?"

"Weapons first, all out afterwards?" asked the diminutive woman in reply as she pulled out her weapon from her own storage artifact. What Adelheid held in her hands was a two-handed longsword, though with her size it looked comically oversized, the sword nearly as long as she was tall.

"Works with me," answered Cal as she switched her halberd to a ready position. The sword Adelheid had drawn was proportioned and shaped like a normal two-handed sword, if a bit decorative with how the overall shape resembled a snowflake with one spoke being far longer than the rest.

It was also see-through, made from a crystal-clear material that seemed to freeze the air around it. Even in the mere moments it had been out, a layer of frost had started to build up on the weapon and obscured its clarity.

Cal held her halberd at the ready, her grip on the weapon with her hands wide apart, closer to the middle of the staff, similar to how one used a quarterstaff. Adelheid on the other hand held her weapon above her head, the blade slightly diagonal, and pointed straight towards Cal.

Adelheid was fast, and the smaller woman charged first, as she tried to thrust her blade in, closing the distance so the halberd's range advantage would be less than useful. That was standard tactics for a swordsman fighting a polearm user, and very valid. Unfortunately for her, Cal, much like most people from her homeland, used polearms somewhat differently.

Throughout her travels Cal had noticed how people in the continental mainlands - both Alcidea and Ur-Teros - used weapons very differently than in Al-Shan. In the mainlands when someone used a spear, they focused on the point almost entirely, often to the exclusion of all else.

In Al-Shan, the humble staff was considered the foundational weapon to train with, for anyone who considered a career related to fighting. Lessons from the staff carried over to spear and all other pole weapons, and they considered the staff itself as much a weapon as the sharp ends of their weapon.

Cal's late father had been quite fascinated with how the Al-Shan people fought using staves, as he himself used one, and had learned and incorporated the various styles he had run across in his long life in his spare times with it. Cal had then inherited those techniques from him, and still used them as the foundation of her own fighting style.

In the past, when she sparred against Aideen, those techniques were less than useful. Just like how Cal learned her basics from her father, her father had learned his basics from Aideen when he was much younger. Adelheid however, employed a fighting style more akin to what Cal had seen in the mainlands, as she was certain she had seen others who used a similar style before, if nowhere as refined or mastered.

Cal whirled her weapon around, the frosted blade Adelheis thrusted her way caught from the side by the ebony heartwood staff of her halberd. She easily pushed the blade's trajectory aside, away from her body, which was not difficult as she was stronger than the smaller woman.

The same maneuver also brought the crescent blade of her halberd in a scooping upward motion towards Adelheid's torso, which forced her to leap back to avoid the blow. Cal had not stopped there, however, and allowed the momentum to carry her around, the other end of her weapon swinging for Adelheid's head.

This time Adelheid blocked the blow with her sword, and found that Cal had allowed her to shove the staff away to add more momentum as she pulled it back and stabbed with the spearhead on the other end instead.

Adelheid chose not to contest Cal in power. The first few clashes had made it very clear to her that she was no match in that aspect, though just by comparing their body types one would likely have guessed as much. She gently parried and pushed the spearhead aside in one direction, while she herself glided lightly to another direction.

Cal was stronger by a fair margin, but Adelheid matched her in speed and grace, and they fought relatively evenly for a good half an hour. None of their blows landed, as they were deflected, parried, blocked, or otherwise evaded by both combatants, and neither gained the upper hand.

Eventually, they separated from one another, with wide grins on their faces as they faced each other. An exchange of looks showed that they gave respect to each other, as a worthy foe.

"That was fun," said Adelheid as she held her blade in a relaxed position and a grin on her face. "Shall we try going all-out now?"

"Why not?" replied Cal with an equally wide grin.

The battle restarted just as the words left her lips, this time, with magic thrown around without a care for the surroundings.