"Hey, come on, your opponent won't wait until you're ready!"

Ryu abruptly dashed toward the unprepared duo before swiftly performing a Quick-Slash on Verdi. Luckily, Verdi still had the time to jump to the side, successfully evaded the attack with his eyes opened away in surprise. "Brother, you really use the blade edge!?"

"Do you think I will stay soft forever? It's time for us to proceed with the next level of training."

"Here, take this." Ryu tossed two of his storage ring to the startled pair, which then being accepted clumsily by them. "There are exactly 20 minor potions in there, aside from sparring, you guys should learn when's the best time to heal yourself using those liquids."

"As I thought, it seems my cloth will be bloodied tonight."

"If you want to become a Hunter, at least you have that kind of determination."

"Of course, don't underestimate me!" With a shout, Mizuha quickly fires an arrow targeted at Ryu's chest. And at the same time, Verdi brandishes his weapon from the side.

"Good coordination, but..." Hopping back, Ryu avoids both of the arrow and slash. Not even a second has passed, Ryu immediately delivers a counter using the back kick to Verdi's head, forcing his face to strike up the ground powerfully. "It's still predictable."

Just as he said this solemnly, there's another streak of arrow passed through his torso as he tilted his body over to the side.

"That's a good one." To the praise, Mizuha grumpily response, "And, here I thought it was perfect!"

"You're a hundred years too late to caught me off guard."

Giving a sneer, Ryu soon kicked down the ground, terminating his distance between Mizuha. "Got you!"

"Kyah!" Rolling to the side, she narrowingly dodged the attack. Didn't have any time to breathe a sigh of relief, Mizuha then hurriedly ran towards Verdi who's already gotten up from his position.

"Sorry, I'm totally shocked earlier, are you okay, Mizuha?"

"I'm fine, just focus on Ryu for now," she replied while readying her bow for the second time. Noticing how intense the situation was, Verdi unconsciously swallowed the lump in his throat before shifting his entire focus toward his sworn brother.

"I'm gonna show you how Agi-specialized individual fights!" Shortly after throwing a smirk, Ryu begins to run and circling them around with a breakneck pace, leaving the duo confused in their place.

'How long brother's intended to keep this up?'

'Was incapacitating Mizuha his goal?'

Sure enough, in a flash, Ryu turns his foot in the archer direction from Verdi's blindspot. 'As I thought!' He promptly went to block Ryu's charges. Meanwhile, Mizuha also released her arrow, hoping that it could halt the other party's actions.

However, outside of their expectation, Ryu suddenly slides forward and forming a beautiful arc with his blade aimed toward Verdi's Achilles tendon. 'Swish,' the sound of slash entered Verdi's mind acutely, simultaneously bringing his knee to the ground.

"W-What??" Trying to withstand the pain, Verdi's groaned in his place.

"Your intuition wasn't that bad, sadly you're still failed to do an appropriate follow-up action," Ryu explained while playing around with his dagger carefreely.

"Verdi, drink your potion, fast!" Mizuha hastening becomes more desperate as she sees Ryu preparing himself to give a rush again.

Emptying the red vial in a matter of seconds, Verdi staggeringly stances himself. Right after he finished this motion, a dagger has abruptly entered his field of vision. 'Clash,' thanks to his instinct, he barely able to meets the knife with his short sword, not his chest.

"That was close, isn't it?" Ryu lips curved up a little before he added;

"However, it's too early to feel relaxed!" Didn't leave a blink of an eye, Ryu connects his attack with a stab toward the stomach. But, 'Ting,' a sound of the metal still reverberated in the backyard, accompanied by a grin on Verdi's face. "What did you just say, brother?"

"Oh, you're starting to get cheesy now, huh." Jumping back, Ryu intended to create a gap between them. But, it appears the duo actually waited for this moment to come as a focused expression fills their face completely.

"Mizuha, NOW!"

"Yes!" Catching the signal, Mizuha loosens the bowstring that she's been pulling until her finger turned purple. Because Ryu's currently airborne, his choice was limited to block it using his weapon, and to his surprise, the force was enough to fling his dagger quite far into the air. Didn't stop at that situation, the instant his feet touches the ground, a short sword swiftly pauses themself before his neck. In sequence to this, Ryu gradually raises both of its hands as he begins to whistles away. "What a brilliant combination."

Picking up the compliment with their ears, Verdi and Mizuha's automatically gave a high-five toward each other.

"I didn't believe we can win against Mr. Pervert!"

"Yeah, I've never imagined that this plan could be successful like this!"

Fetching the dagger, Ryu carefully sweeping off the dirt and blood that's attached to it. "You guys sure have improved a lot." When Mizuha's about to gave her reply, Ryu enthusiastically injected, "Now I need to take my revenge, right?"

"Eh? W-what did you mean by that?" The previously showered with joy Mizuha was quickly stiffened as soon Ryu comments entered her mind. It's also the same for Verdi, "Brother... Isn't the match already over?"

"Did you forget that we switch only after one and half hour has passed?"

Changed the grip to reverse one, Ryu then spoked another word;

"Since that battle last for ten mins, we can roughly do 8 more of them!"

The pair dazedly stands when they saw the elated expression coming from their leader.

"... Verdi, I think we made a mistake in our decisions..." whispered Mizuha.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't agree more with that statement..."