The two of them slowly made their way back to the gambling house they were staying at. It wasn’t a particularly popular place, though the regulars kept returning here every night to wager small prizes and get drunk on cheap alcohol. Although they had only been here for a month, Grizz occasionally played a game or two with the regulars, so as they walked in, they were greeted with friendly smiles.

Entering their room, Orou expected to see Kris and Izz, but all that greeted him was silence. A few books were opened on a nearby table along with a note, though Orou still couldn’t read what was said. Grizz dropped his backpack in a corner and looked over to Orou who was still inspecting the note.

“Both Kris and Izz have important tasks at hand so they won’t be here until the final day,” Grizz said as he laid down on a coach and simply stared at the ceiling. Orou slithered next to him and coiled up, just like he had done back when he met Grizz. Orou wasn’t in a mood to practice spells for some reason as he kept thinking back about various things that had happened during his travels and what would’ve happened if he never stumbled upon the small village.

Before Orou even realised it was already sunset. Grizz showed no signs of waking up, but that was typical of him. Usually, Kris would kick him awake, but now that nobody was there to keep him in check, he could sleep for as long as he wanted. A few more hours passed as Orou got out of the strange mood he was in earlier and started to think about combining the two spells he knew already.

Grizz woke up before Orou could make any new discoveries and after doing his morning stretches, he walked up to Orou and slightly nudged him. Orou saw that by his side were two wooden daggers which he held up in the air before saying to Orou: “Since we have to fight Nim, or more likely, his bodyguards, I figured that we should practice together.

Grizz twirled the wooden dagger in his hands as Orou processed what Grizz had just said. He repeated it multiple times in his head, but he still didn’t get what Grizz wanted from him. Why should he fight Grizz? He wasn’t about to eat him and he wasn’t even hungry for some beastman flesh so Orou didn’t see a point in fighting Grizz. Apparently, Grizz realized that Orou was thinking after several minutes of Orou doing nothing, so he decided to start things off himself.

A wooden dagger was rapidly approaching Orou and was about to strike Orou’s head if he did nothing about it. Although Orou didn’t feel a sense of danger from the strike, he still decided to retaliate. Orou launched himself into Grizz’s strike, not being afraid of being hit by it. Grizz quickly withdrew his strike and nimbly avoided Orou’s strike, circling around Orou to get to his backside. Orou simply used his tail to swing at him, but once more, Grizz jumped over Orou’s tail and used his wooden dagger to strike it. Although the dagger was made from wood, Grizz wielded it with surprising strength, enough to actually make Orou feel pain.

Grizz jumped around the room like an agile ape, avoiding Orou’s every hit and landing two in return. Orou wanted to move around and corner Grizz, but his size prevented him from doing so. The room was only so big and unlike Grizz, he didn’t have much space to maneuver, so deciding to fight this battle another way, Orou used his tail to create some distance between the two of them. He started to create the formation of one of the simpler spells he knew, that is, the water serpent spell, and as Grizz rushed towards him, he found himself to be constricted by a floating serpent.

Deciding to take a bit of revenge for Grizz’s earlier strikes, Orou made the serpent constrict tighter around Grizz, but as the serpent started doing that, it constricted around nothing but air. He felt a strike land on his backside as his concentration waned and the serpent was no more. In his irritation he instinctively guided the waves from his blood core towards his tail and slapped downwards, causing the section of floor that was there to be a mere crater. Immediately after, he realised what he could’ve done to Grizz and turned around. Orou let out a sigh of relief in his mind as he saw that Grizz was as safe as ever, though he looked a bit exhausted simply from running around so much.

Honestly, Orou could stand here and not do anything and he would win this battle. The wooden daggers did no significant damage to his body and the waves soothed the bit of pain that was there. Grizz would eventually get exhausted and that would be the end of his life, but Orou realised what Grizz wanted of him. He had seen Grizz practice with Kris every day and now that he had fought Grizz, he could see the progress he has made in these few days. Although it was a waste of energy to Orou, perhaps it was something as exciting as learning spells for Grizz, so he entertained him for as long as Grizz could go on.

The two of them exchanged blows as Grizz got more proficient in reliably landing strikes on Orou’s body. In return, Orou had to control his strength and fight in tight quarters, which helped him land more blows on Grizz. Although Orou had never considered practicing spells this way, he found out that it was surprisingly effective. He had a limited amount of time to cast spells so he had to judge which spell he could cast, and which would take too long to be effective. Although it was still a learning process, Orou felt like his concentration was not as easily broken as before, and all of this because of a sparring session that lasted a few hours.

Grizz was drenched in sweat as he sat down on the couch, heavily panting. “Back when I was younger I could go on for days without end, but look at me now, exhausted after mere hours of sparring,” Grizz laughed at himself and looked at Orou, though he didn’t appear to be much different from when he started. In Orou’s opinion, this had wasted more energy than simply practicing spells, but his thoughts might have been influenced by the fact that he was getting hungry now.

Grizz seemed to agree with him as he grabbed the several large chunks of deer meat lying in a corner and dragged them over to Orou. Just as Orou was about to dig into the delicious meal before him, he saw Grizz doing something strange. The large piece of deer that Grizz had grabbed earlier was being stuffed into Grizz’s mouth, a bit of blood running down Grizz’s mouth. Grizz took his time and minutes passed, he was clearly enjoying each bite of the meat and he looked a bit saddened when there was nothing more in his hands. He looked over to Orou, only to find him staring at him, not having touched any of his meat.

“It’s fine to eat a bit of meat once in a while, you do it all the time so why can’t I?” Grizz laughed to himself though Orou could see guilt written all over Grizz’s face. His gaze shifted around nervously as he observed both the door and Orou who was still staring at him.

“I have a nearly pure blood crystal by my side, so I should be fine, right?” Grizz seemed to be talking more to himself than to Orou. He double-checked his pockets and pulled out a blood crystal that had a deep shade of red and examined it for something before sighing and putting it back into his pocket. He ignored Orou’s gaze as he stood up and grabbed his real daggers and his backpack, saying to Orou: “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

What Grizz had done was clearly strange as he hadn’t seen a beastman eat any meat so far, but after thinking about it for a while, it wasn’t anything that bothered Orou. What interested Orou was the behaviour he showed after the fact, this was the first time Orou had seen Grizz so nervous and fidgety about something. He started to eat the meat before him, deciding to find out more about the blood crystals and what uses they had at some point.