“Let’s go!” Alex shouted. Using the time his parents were talking to gain energy and power, he dashed towards Julius, arms lowered as he summoned a mace of pure light on his hands, this time made of pure light with the enhancement that it flashes a bright light when struck.

“Just from looking at it, I can’t break or even hurt dad with him fully armored like that. But remember what’s the point of this fight! Two minutes!” He swung his mace upwards, only for Julius to catch it with his armored hand. “He grabbed it!?” Alex’s eyes widened as he quickly lets go of his mace and jumped back to not be within arms reach.

“Aiming for the head?” Julius unsummoned his helmet. “You surprised us with your special enhancements, Son.” Julius crushed his mace with a simple squeeze of his hand. “But don’t think you can fool me twice.”

“Tch!—” Alex tsked. He’s right about not fooling them again, they are expert fighters and the reason he managed to hit them was that he surprised them that he used his ability for the first time. He raised his arms, summoning a bundle of swords above him, around 6 swords and all made of light as he lowered his arms to aim at Julius as the swords rained down on him.

Julius hugged his arms together, summoning a large shield to block all the swords like throwing knives on a wooden target. But he didn’t take account that all of them were enchanted and exploded upon sticking into the shields. “Hgh!—” He grunted, surprised his son can make all those swords enchanted to blind his eyes. Unsummoning the shield and the gauntlets to rub his eyes.

“What did you say earlier about not being fooled twice, Dad?” Alex taunted, despite his taunt and a toothy grin forming on his face, in his head he is planning, he may not be as smart as Lea, but when it’s in critical scenarios like fighting, he prefers to adapt and figure it out while in action. “Think Alex, Your Dad is as tough as nails, makes armor tougher than nails, and can crush you like a spoiled tomato if he wanted to.”

He sprints, circling around to his father’s behind to surprise him. “Conserving energy to make the weapon enhancements very weaker at the cost of quantity, it’s still damn exhausting but if I can keep surprising Dad, extend this fight for long until two minutes have passed, I can beat this. I have to.”

Julius’s vision was slowly returning. “Mgh…he’s learning how to make more than one weapon with enhancements.” He muttered to himself as he looked from left to right, quickly realizing that his son was behind him.

Alex summoned a shield of fire, a smooth round shield known as an Aspis. He immediately threw it on the ground as he jumped on the shield and sent himself flying to his father faster than he can dash. Half-way through his dash, he quickly summoned another shield, this time it’s a Kite Shield.

“What the?—Hngh!” He turned around and grunted as he felt his face get bashed by the weight of his son and the force of his shield bash combined, even though he realized his son was behind, he didn’t turn around quick enough to block his son's rocket shield bash “Aghck!—” Julius groaned in pain as the force was strong enough for him to stagger and take a step back.

”Not done yet!” Alex said after bashing his dad. He unsummoned his shield and grabbed him by the collar of his armored body. “HURAAAAGHHH!—” Alex screamed, channeling all his strength as he practically lifted his father and flipped him over against the ground.

“Woah...!” Sal exclaimed in astonishment as her eyes sparkled in awe from such strength. “Sharky’s becoming cooler by the second!”

“It’s really impressive seeing him making such innovative and creative use of his ability...” Lea commented, not seeing the passion similar to Lea but is acknowledging the use of his pragmatism and adaptability.

Julius fell on the ground. His son was not strong enough to break his armor, but he took advantage that he took off his helmet, being his only vulnerable spot other than his hands. “Mgh…” Julius slowly tried to stand up as he fell back down when a foot stomped on his back. “Agh!—” Julius grunted in surprise as he looked up, smiling weakly at his son.

“You’re doing pretty good.”Julius complimented. “You’ve lasted longer than I thought you would.” He couldn’t help but be such a proud father to have a son who can take the challenge despite the odds of who he’s facing.

“You’re ready. More than you’ll ever be.” He wasn’t completely hurt, but he felt defeated already for falling, and despite how easily Julius can grab his son’s leg and flip him over, he didn’t do it. He allowed his son to win out of respect and honor. “I give up.” He deactivated his ability, The armor that covered his body was gone and left a splash of warm flames fly around him.

“W—what?” Alex stuttered in surprise, he lost his footing on him and fell on top of his father’s back. “Oof!” He grunted as he fell on his dad. He attempted to stand up, but couldn’t. “E-eh? N-nghh!” He attempted to lift his arms, nothing but jittering as he soon realized, “I…i can’t move.”

“You alright, Alex?” Julius can feel his son struggling. “Looks like your body gave up the moment I forfeited.” He couldn’t help but softly chuckle that he had his trait passed down onto him. He remembered how stubborn he is to give up.

“No way…but I don’t feel tired, and I can still talk normally!”

“That’s the adrenaline kicking in to hide all the fatigue your body had to endure. Makes sense. You made so many weapons with enhancements in them and made a giant weapon all in one day.” Julius slowly got up and picked up his exhausted son. “What you need right now is a good nap and once you wake up, you’ll feel like total hell.”

Alex felt like a ragdoll, He didn’t realize that he has reached his body’s limit to endure all the weapon summoning and exceeding more of his energy in doing a brand new ability that he has only used recently. “When you put it like that, I’m kinda scared to sleep now, Dad.”

“Don’t worry Sharky!” Sal suddenly joined in on the conversation, now that the fight was over she can freely walk near him and snatched the tired boy from his father’s hold, carrying Alex as if he were a damsel in distress. “Me and Lea'll be helping you recover your energy, consider us your recovery nurses!”

“M-mh!” Lea agreed to Sal’s comment and continued it for her, “Even though I’ll be doing most of the work helping you recover...this will give me ample time to test out my healing spell on you for the first time.”

Julius simply crossed his arms once Sal took Alex from his hold and simply smiled at the two. “Well, I’ll have Alex in your care then, you two. We’ll just call you three for dinner.”

“Wait, you’re not going to ask if we want to join eating together?” Lea asked Julius rather curiously. She can take a guess as to why with her eyes slowly darting to Sal, already having a glint in her eyes that she gets to eat free food again.

“You got it Mister A! C’mon Sharky! You need some rest!” She excused Julius to enter ahead. “Hey Misses A!” Sal quickly said hi to Amanda who was currently making dinner.

“Hello, Sal." She greeted back but was too focused on making dinner, looks like she's making homemade sausages, seasoning, mixing, and wrapping ground pork and beef to make the sausages.

Alex was laid down on his bed by Sal. He couldn’t believe it. He actually lasted against his parents and won. But yet, it felt a bit…empty.

“Dad went easy on me...” Alex said to his friends, he didn’t try to make it obvious. Compared to his mother who was actively attacking him and doing her best to make him give up. But when it was just him, he went easy and gave himself a weak spot for him to hit.

“He did make it look obvious…but it was still a pretty cool fight not gonna lie!” Which felt like the reason why Julius went easy on him, at least it’s her idea of as to why he made it easy.

“Maybe because compared to Misses Ares, she was going wild and attacking Alex nonstop. Because she wants Alex to stay a bit longer.”

“If I did lose, I would’ve called you guys to help me run away.” Alex let a small, weak smile that showed his teeth “Uh oh—I can feel the exhaustion now.” He can feel his body getting sore, his breathing became ragged and sharp as he felt the consequences of overexerting his body. “I can feel my everything becoming sore...and my body feeling like glass right now.”

“Good!” Lea huffed, “You think just taking a short breather like a couple of minutes is enough to save up energy to do more of those insane stunts?” As cool as he was back then, he was obviously ignoring his body’s limit and needing to rest from using up what’s left of his stamina on his new ability.

“I didn’t know…” He tried to continue but even talking was now a difficult task as he felt his head become dizzy.

“That’s enough talking. You’ll pass out. Just take deep breaths, and relax while I go get a book to learn a stamina spell…because I realize what you’re suffering is from fatigue and not pain. However, I can ease the pain of exhaustion.”

She equipped her staff, letting the crystal orb rest on Alex’s chest. “Soothe!” She chanted the name of the spell as Alex’s body had a bright blue outline before it vanished.

Soothe worked. He felt his body become soft, relaxed, but he can’t move a single muscle other than his mouth. Basically the same how he initially was except he's not suffering from the fatigue caused by his stunts.

“W-Woah…I’m not feeling any pain…”

“Soothe is a relaxation spell, It was a failed attempt in making a spell that grants physical invulnerability. It got the result but the body is incapable of movement and the body can still get destroyed. If anything, It’s basically a paralysis spell.” Lea adjusted her glasses, gloating off her knowledge in spells to her magically inept friends.

“I barely understood how that spell works but in short, Sharky’s now relaxed right?”

“...Yes.”

“Could’ve just gone with that instead of giving us a lesson, Lea?”

“A-anyway! I’m going to the library and borrow a spellbook to find a stamina spell. You keep an eye on Alex!” She felt annoyed because of how underappreciated her short lecture on how the spell worked was.

“Hurry back ‘kay? You’ll miss out on dinner if you’re gone for too long!” With that, It was now the two of them. “You’re not able to feel anything right?”

“Yup, can’t feel the exhaustion and the strain either.”

“Good, good.” She sat on his bed as she scratched her head. “Mhh…do you think I should grow my hair out?”

“Hmm?”

“My hair. I cut it down to look boyish because it’s a hassle whenever I work out, but I think now that we’re adventurers, I kinda want a new look.”

“You with long hair? I dunno, I got used to you having short hair for years now.”

“But I want to look cute once we go find Lexa in hell though. Surprise her that the short-haired tomboy now looks like a sexy woman!”

“Wait…we?”

“Oh come on, don’t go putting that ‘We’ with a question mark. You think me and Lea will just let you go to hell on your own? Nope! Were friends ‘till the end Alex. And I mean that.” She flashed a soft smile at him.

“Sal…I’m glad you and Lea are my friends.” He smiled brightly, showing his sharp set of teeth in full detail.

“Right back at you Sharky.”

“But seriously? I don’t think long hair suits you.”

“Well too bad, I’m letting it grow out.”