Chapter 119: On your Knees

“Push.”

My voice echoed through the empty hall as I encouraged the girl below me.

Diana was currently trying to perform a push-up with her utmost effort.

Even I had to commend it.

Despite not being able to do a single one, she didn’t accept defeat.

But that was it.

“Get on your knees.”

Hearing my instruction, Diana looked up at me with a confused expression.

“Touch your knees to the ground, and then do the push-ups. It’s a newbie version.”

Diana’s eyes narrowed in what appeared to be a look of betrayal, but she obeyed nonetheless.

Well… I was going to suggest the easier method, but I had to first see what she could do in the actual way.

Placing her knees on the floor, Diana went down and pushed her body up again, completing her first nearly successful push-up.

Though the form was a little bad, she had completed the push-up.

“Next.”

“…”

Diana went down again and stayed there without being able to push herself up.

“Kael, can’t we do something easier? Are you really expecting me to get better at these exercises from day one?”

This time Diana didn’t have her usual soft smile, but an intense gaze was directed at me.

Maybe I had pushed her a little too far.

On my part, I had performed decently while doing push-ups for the first time. But yeah—

I couldn’t expect everyone to be the same as me.

Haa…

“Take your sword.”

Informing her, I headed to the centre of the hall, taking my own sword from the storage.

Diana followed me as she took out her weapon.

The training facility had its own weapons, but they were of lower quality than the ones given to us at the start of the classes.

Well… that was fair enough.

The weapons here were meant to be broken if the fight got too intense, in order to prevent any possible severe injuries to the students.

Though according to me, if the combatant was skilled enough, he could kill anyone even with a chipped blade.

Gripping the sword in my right hand, I waited for Diana to stand before me.

Diana swung her sword a few times, a type of warm-up for her wrists… maybe.

Arriving before me, she immediately got into her stance, taking the required distance between her feet.

Seeing me stand casually against her without even holding the sword in any proper way, Diana raised her brow but didn’t comment.

“Attack me. Other than defending, I will not move an inch.”

Remembering my first fight with Arthur, I applied the same rules.

“And yes… you can use mana for this fight. I won’t.”

Diana frowned as I dictated the rules.

Though I wanted to increase her physical capabilities, I would not be able to achieve anything if she herself didn’t realise the extent to which she was limiting her growth by relying on mana.

And crushing her confidence in mana usage was the sure-fire way to do so.

Diana, feeling that she was being looked down upon, had an unpleasant expression on her face.

But knowing that I was stronger than her, she complied with my instructions.

The girl was pretty obedient.

As I had restricted using my mana, that also meant that I couldn’t use mana sense.

That reduced my situational awareness by large margins. But my base abilities were strong enough to counter any such reduction.

That was the benefit behind training your physique, and I had to make Diana understand the same.

Diana slowly inched towards me, her sword extended parallel to the ground.

Her eyes were now focused on me.

Swoosh!

In the blink of an eye, Diana had appeared beside me, her sword already aimed at my side.

Clank!

Though I was caught a little off guard by her speed, that was it.

Easily blocking her attack, I brushed her sword aside.

Before I could look into her eyes, a kick came from my left.

Diana had already positioned one of her hands on the ground and was using it to land a kick to my neck.

Too bad for her—

My left hand shot up, grabbing her leg by the ankle.

Diana, not expecting such a swift response, widened her eyes before thrusting her sword at the same time.

Her flexibility to do such a manoeuvre was great, but—

I picked her up from the ground using my grip on her ankle and yanked her body to the side.

Diana, even after being disadvantaged, managed to land properly before charging at me again.

I kept observing her footwork.

Though she was quite fast with how she moved her legs, the pattern was quite obvious after the first exchange.

She hadn’t yet learned any diversity in footwork and was just using a combination of two or three different techniques.

But none of them were perfected, as could be seen through the messy combo that she was unleashing on me.

Clank!

Thud!

Clank!

One after the other, I kept deflecting her sword while blocking her blows at the same time.

With every attack, I could feel the power behind them increasing in quick succession.

Not getting the required results, Diana had instinctively focused on relying on brute force.

Haa…

Bam!

One of her punches managed to land on the area around my stomach, but—

I just glanced at Diana, who had a shocked expression on her face.

“Even if you use mana, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee the success of your strike.”

My body was far sturdier than what she had assumed.

Diana quickly retracted her hand and took some distance from me.

Even after using mana, she was getting tired.

Sweat had formed on her forehead, and the nape of her neck was drenched in it.

Diana swung her sword in the air a few times, loosening her joints in the process.

One. Two. Three.

Swoosh!

She was before me again, this time her sword directly aimed for my neck.

Though her speed was impressive, I didn’t even have to defend against the attack.

I merely sidestepped, and Diana’s entire balance fell over, making her stumble on the floor.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep