TBATE-A New Beginning

34. Small Steps

Arthur Leywin Pov

I walked towards the backyard after I felt mana was being used. It seems that dad was training, so I decided to help him train and see his progress. Regis and Sylvie were still asleep in my room. During the past three years, they were doing their best and working hard so I decided to let them have a break until I start going to the academy.

As I reached the backyard, I saw dad throwing punches and kicks in the air completely engulfed in blue flames. He has gotten used to using these blue flames and adding in his combat style. I sensed his core stage to see he was at the light yellow stage.

"Good morning dad," I announced my presence, walking toward him.

"Good morning son, did you sleep well?" He asked, turning towards me.

"Yeah, after sleeping in those tents for such a long time, this felt like sleeping on clouds to me," I replied lazily, earning a laugh from him. "Anyway, what about you? I can see your training is going pretty well."

"Yeah, it's all thanks to you, son." Dad smiled, ruffling my hair.

"No need to thank me. That's what family does." I smiled back at him. "So how is your progress going with your beast will?"

"As you know, I unlocked the first stage a while back thanks to elder Virion, but I still haven't unlocked my second stage. It's still going to take some time. Guess I still have a lot of training to do." Dad answered with a grin. He didn't sound disappointed since he knew how hard it was to unlock the second stage of a beast's will.

"Yeah, in that case, let's have a spar since the best way to unlock the higher stage is being in constant combat." I started to stretch since I knew he wouldn't deny this opportunity.

"Alright, let's do it," Dad responded with a wide grin as he took his position.

I followed suit and stood in front of him with a little distance between us and took a stance. Dad closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I could feel the fire mana around him moving. When he opened his eyes again, his irises were red instead of their usual blue, and whiskers formed on his face. It looked the same as when Curtis released his beast will, with the only difference being my dad's whiskers were made of flames.

"Ready, son?" he took a stance, igniting blue flames around him.

"Always," I smirked back, igniting blue flames around me too.

Dad used the surrounding flame to boost his speed as he rushed toward me. I activated thunderclap impulse and charged to meet him face-on. As our fists collided, a wave of blue flames spread across the stone platform we were sparring on.

My dad twirled to kick me, but I instantly grabbed his leg and threw him to the other side of the platform. Usually, he would've used his hands or body to readjust his position, but now he used his flames to stabilize himself and land on his legs with a wide smirk.

His control over flames really astonished me. With a flick of his wrist, he released several fireballs which curved and rushed towards me. I formed a fire sword and rushed towards them, slashing every single one.

I swung my sword towards my dad as he raised his fist towards it, completely covered in flames. I wasn't going to beat him this time since the main goal of this spar was to train his beast will, so the longer in combat he is, the stronger he'll get.

We exchanged blows for a few minutes. I wasn't affected by it much, but dad was visibly tired. His beast will was still taking a toll on him. After I deflected his last attack, dad deactivated his beast will and raised his hand.

"You win this one," Dad spoke between his breaths.

"What's going on?" We turned around to see Elijah at the entrance rubbing his eyes.