Van flipped over his father, landing safely on the soft ground, then braced himself, for he knew what was going to happen next.

Alv then flickered and reappeared, aiming for a strike on Van’s left side.

But Van had learned enough about the flicker step to figure out where the attack was most likely going to come from, and prepare a counterattack. Once their swords clashed, he swept in with his leg and tried to flow with the momentum to slide one of his blades closer to his father’s neck.

Alv disengaged and instead used the opportunity of Van’s unbalancing himself to return a kick of his own with his own spin.

Van blocked the kick with one of his swords, but couldn’t stop himself from sliding off the ground several feet away. He then had to quickly coat his blades in extra aura to deflect to energy strikes from Alv’s follow-up attack, before again flickering out of existence in front of his eyes.

Van refused to be caught flat-footed though. Pushing himself, he too flickered to meet his father at top speed. Their bodies reappearing every time they clashed.

Unfortunately, Van hadn’t fully mastered the flicker step yet, and stumbled over his own feet, falling during one of their clashes.

Alv was nice enough to step back and watch while his son righted himself.

Van though, actually stayed down for a few seconds panting, using his father's kindness to get in a few more seconds of breath before getting up and taking his stance again. The flicker step took a lot out of him, and while he would have loved to use some of his mana, his father forbade it, saying that this month was all about growing one’s aura.

As Van got ready for his next attack, he slowly began to clad himself in the blue lightning of his aura. He then zipped towards his father at lightning speeds, sending dozens of attacks in just a few seconds. His veins blackened and his sclera did the same as his pupils turned red and he began to pump his body with every available energy he could muster.

He continued to go faster and faster, every strike filled with electricity, aimed at a weak point. His movements became unpredictable as he threw afterimages of himself everywhere in the hopes of confusing his father.

Alv for his part, actually looked joyful and proud, a smile blooming on his face as he met his sons every attack head-on. He slowly returned Van’s attack, almost as if trying to guide his son in the proper method of attacking him.

Van sensed this and became a little angry. Using his blood and shadow weaving to the fullest extent, he began to increase his heart’s heart rate to pump blood through his body even faster, first going to two hundred beats, then three hundred, then four... He then took even more complete control over his body and started to move it in precise but unpredictable patterns, finally ending it with layers of shadows that flowed a little ahead and behind his actions to confuse his father ever further.

Alv for his part again faced all of this head-on with an arched brow and simply waited.

After a minute of this intense speed and power, Van’s body began to give out, and once more, he tripped over his feet.

Instead of taking this opportunity to attack, Alv simply caught his son before he hit the ground.

Van, instead of trying to take advantage of his opportunity, simply deflated and accepted his defeat.

“Not bad, not bad at all!” Alv said, giving his son a prideful beam of a smile he gently laid Van down on the ground. “But you still have a bad habit of getting too impatient when things don’t go your way. Which is funny, because you are normally so good at conserving your energy otherwise.” he joked.

“That's… because…” Van panted between breaths. “If I win, I can rest, later…”

“Unfortunately, you really shouldn’t go all out like you do…” Alv said, somewhat admonishingly. “This month is all about training your aura and skills. With the amount of energy you expend, you’ll only make things harder on yourself since you are not allowed to eat anything to replenish your energy.”

Van’s stomach growled at the thought of replenishing itself…

“Ya, I know… but…” Van began to say but then didn’t. As even he knew he wasn’t really being logical about this and that wasn’t like him. “I just thought…” he began to mumble. “You’ll let me take a break… and maybe eat something if I could land a scratch on you…”

Alv blinked and leaned back and laughed. “I-I didn’t realize that lack of food would compromise your thinking this much! If anyone, I thought it would’ve been Luna.” shaking his head in mirth. “I hope you learn from this and not allow your desires to overwhelm your thinking. In another way… this really is good training for you if you still have weaknesses of the heart like that.” looking down on his son with an amused smile.

Van groaned a little under the cringe he subjected himself to.

Alv chuckled again and pulled something out of his pocket. “Well, lucky for you, me and Thea decided to give you a little something to help replenish your stores of nutrients since you two seemed to be blowing through it so quickly.” showing his son a small green ball.

“A nutrient pill?” Van asked, taking a closer look. “...Ugh…” realizing he was right.

“Well… if you don’t want it…” Alv teased, slowly putting the pill away.

“No! No, it’s fine! Every little helps after all!” Van quickly said, taking the pill from his father’s hand and staring down at it with mixed emotions.

On the one hand, nutrient pills were a great source of all the things you need to survive for a whole day without food. On the other hand… they tasted pretty bad… on the other other hand… his mouth was watering…

Van quickly swallowed the pill.

“Feel better?” Alv asked.

Van nodded appreciatively.

“Good, you can rest until Luna is finished, then it’s back to work,” Alv said, looking away from their little group to turn to Thea and Luna who were just about to fight.

Van did the same, a little excited to see himself how Luna would do in this battle.

Luna and Thea took their stance, getting ready for battle. Already Luna started to allow her red aura to flow in waves off her, planning to go all out from the start while Thea calmly activated her neutral aura.

With an unspoken word, the two of them went at it at breakneck speeds. Luna’s aura was like fire, and it quickly flared up on her leg as she moved to give her mother a devastating kick to the side. A loud bang was heard as flesh met flesh and a wave of energy exploded from the impact.

Thea though had blocked it and was already making moves to grab her daughter’s leg. The only thing the attack had done, was temporarily blind her for a split second, thereby making her reaction just a tad slower.

Which was all Luna needed, for as her mother went in, she quickly flipped to her other leg, spinning in the air and putting her whole body into it for another resounding BANG! Louder than the one before.

As Van watched, even he felt a little fearful at the thought of being at the receiving end of one of those kicks, though he probably would have dodged it. Which begs the question… Why didn’t Thea?

And then he got his answer…

Thea once more blocked the attack with her other arm, then grabbed the leg to pull her down a bit to give a devastating kick of her own. Hitting her daughter so hard that for a fraction of a second, it looked like her foot had come out the other side of Luna’s back.

Luna coughed up blood and was sent flying more than a dozen feet away. She skidded on the ground before forcing herself to stop by grabbing onto it. Her eyes turning red and her sclera black, ignoring the pain she got up once more and prepared for another assault.

Cladding herself in shadowy aura, thanks to her shadow weaving skill, she moved like the wind, using what little mastery of the flicker step she had to close the distance to try and give one good punch to her mother.

Thea quirked an eye at this, looking slightly disappointed. She wasn’t fooled by the shadows and clearly saw where the attack was aiming. As her daughter came at her she moved to intercept, grabbing Luna’s punch and getting ready to flip her over.

Only… it didn’t go the way she had expected…

Luna, in fact, knew her mother would see through any attack, because of that, the entire thing was a feint from start to finish. She actually wanted to be flipped, to use her new skills that she learned from Ren on her mother.

She spun her entire body around mid-air and grappled her mother’s torso, using Thea’s own arm now as leverage. She then started to output her fiery aura at increased magnitude to burn Thea’s aura away, all the while trying to force her down to the ground.

Thea, suffice to say, was not expecting this… and was almost thrown off balance due to Luna’s antics, forcing her to stomp her foot down and root herself into place lest she fall. She then tried to bang her daughter against her knee through sheer force. But it was a difficult thing with how Luna glomped onto her. Not to mention with all that fire aura being thrown everywhere.

Luna in turn, slithered a little closer and tried to hug tighter, trying to force her mother into a more vulnerable position, increasing the heat of her aura.

Thea… actually smirked, looking somewhat proud of her daughter’s ability to put her into an awkward position. Even though she still didn’t feel threatened at all… she then decided to give her daughter a taste of her own medicine… and soon her neutral aura became red and she too started to output some intense heat of her own.

Luna, unexpectedly, started to sweat a little. She then tried to combat her mother with even greater flames of her own. A tug of war of fire began until Luna’s eyes quickly widened as something dawned on her and she let go in a hurry. Flipping off her mother and taking some distance.

Thea laughed, once more a bit proud of her daughter's insight. It should have been figured out sooner, but the speed that Luna caught on wasn’t too bad either. For if Luna had stuck on, she would have lost… for the difference in aura pool and manipulation was too great, and trying to fight over whose aura was better would have left her daughter completely drained and out of the fight. So she couldn’t help but feel prideful of Luna’s growing battle instincts.

Luna for her part, frowned at Thea’s laughter, wondering if it was at her or because of her. Either way, her mind started to race, trying to figure out how to put the bind on her mother, or at least put a scratch on her… watching from a distance as Thea was now engulfed in beautiful fiery aura, twice as big and hot as her own, and probably not even the full extent of what her mother could do…

She then gave a few experimental kicks into the air. Sending fast-flying balls of compressed wind and aura Thea’s way, only for them to disperse apart as they hit the aura surrounding her.

Thea smirked and stood there, hands-on-hips and waiting for a while longer to give her daughter a chance to figure something out before she ended this spar.

Luna frowned. There was no way for her to get at her mother now… or at least that was what she thought… that of course didn’t mean she wouldn’t try… just that her brain was having a hard time trying to figure something out…

Slowly, Luna took a deep breath and let it out. Letting her mind relax and think of a solution. After a moment, an idea came to her, using something she learned from Van as he practiced his magic and his sometimes silly ideas of how to make his mana arrows more powerful.

Closing her eyes, she also tried to remember that foggy memory she had of when she went berserk in the forest. Killing those troll-kin. Trying to gather some of that energy…

Slowly… she opened her eyes once more, her gaze steely and determined. She took the stance of an archer and pretended to slowly draw a bow, her aura and something darker, taking form with her thoughts and will.

Energy began to flow from her into the illusionary bow and arrow. She started to give everything she had into the arrow, draining herself completely dry as she drew the fake string taut.

Thea began to look excited, a manic grin on her face as she watched her daughter give every ounce of energy in this one attack. She resolved herself to stand her place and take the attack head-on…

With another deep breath, Luna relaxed her shoulders and stilled her mind until it was empty and there was nothing but her and the arrow. A few breaths later, she let go…

The arrow shot out like a cannonball, leaving behind a miniature sonic boom. Thea grinned and raised her hand.

Another miniature explosion racked the field as Luna’s arrow was caught between Thea’s hand.

Thea’s grin widened, only for her eyes to widen… and a split-second look of fear to flash across her face…

The arrow was doubled layered… Luna knew her mother would try to catch the arrow as a show of strength… so the real arrow was hidden under another layer of energy, which was now heading straight… for Thea’s face…

Thea dodged by a hair’s breadth, twisting her head as far away from the arrow's trajectory as possible. If she hadn’t… it would have taken her eye or at least a part of her face…

Well… not really… considering her fortitude, not to mention the aura surrounding her… but it would have left her blind in one eye for a few days, or a nasty scar for a few less…

But just the thought… that her baby’s arrow could have almost done that to her… made Thea’s heart skip a beat in exhilaration… and soon, a huge grin, filled with pride plastered itself over her face at the thought of her daughter's growth…

Thea now turned her gaze back to her daughter. “That's… my girl…” unable to hide the joy she felt at this moment and not wanting to.

Luna for her part was left where she was, panting in place. By her stance, she had given up and was done fighting for today.

Van, who was watching this entire time. Was simply in awe…

It also hit home how much he had to grow if he wanted to keep up with his own wife…

Alv was the first one to clap, also impressed by the display of power and skill. Soon followed by Van. making Luna feel a little embarrassed, feeling like she didn’t do as much as Van had done in his own sparring match.

After that, Luna was given her own nutrient pill and the two were given the rest of the day off, which they gladly accepted since they needed to recover. Though Van and Luna couldn’t help but think… about how much more they needed to improve…