Unlike Randolph, Alex was far more aggressive in our sparring. The moment Randolph suggested our open sparring, he came right for me. My knight in shining armor positioned herself between us in the blink of an eye. Alex tried to sidestep Eris, but his path was blocked as an ice wall formed from Sylphiette's [Ice Fortress] spell.
I saw Randolph closing in on Sylphy, so I fired a barrage of rock bullets his way. He deflected all the projectiles, but it slowed him just enough that Sylphy noticed his approach and focused on defending herself.
Aleksander remained single mindedly focused on myself. During the moment I took to attack Randolph, Alex had somehow managed to trip Eris and continue his charge at me. I fired repeated [Electric] spells at him, but he dodged each of them as he continued closing in.
My eye of foresight saw Alex coming in for a strike from my right side so I began to conjure an [Earth Lance] to block his strike. The moment the lance began rising from the ground, Alex changed his attack to come from my left.
"Rudy, behind you!", Sylphy yelled out.
Randolph had abandoned his attack on her to surprise me when I looked back towards Alex. His coordination with his uncle was spotless. I was stuck in a bind, being attacked from both sides, but at the last moment, I saw with my eye of foresight that Eris was coming to block Alex's strike so I decided to focus on defending from Randolph.
*WHACK*
Eris and Alex's training swords collided as I fired an [Electric] towards Randolph. Randolph blocked the strike with his sword. Normally this would be a terrible idea, but since we were using wooden training swords, the electricity didn't get conducted. Still, it looked like the shock reached him slightly.
I was going to press my attack on Randolph, but Eris tumbled into me as, although she had blocked Alex's strike, the force had knocked her back into me. As we both fell to the ground, I conjured a dense, stone cocoon around us using the [Earth Fortress] spell. I couldn't see through to the outside, but I followed up with an [Earth Hedgehog] spell just incase, having earthen spikes shoot out from the cocoon in all directions.
If it were just Alex, I was pretty confident that I could defeat him on my own without much problem, but throwing Randolph into the mix changed things completely. I wasn't aware of all his abilities, but from what I've seen thus far, he seemed like just another skilled swordsman. Still, his coordination with the North God was impeccable, and he himself was an even higher ranked Great Power.
That being said, Eris and Sylphiette worked well together. The three of us held our own pretty evenly against them. I was at a disadvantage having to hold back my spells enough to make sure they wouldn't be lethal, but then again they were using wooden swords.
The five of us continued sparring for about half an hour. Each team got some good hits against the other, but nobody was seriously injured. By the time we finished, we were all drenched in sweat. I think it's safe to say we burned off the calories from that earlier lunch. Randolph seemed to specialize in battlefield control from what I could tell. He was a master of catching his opponent off guard.
We made our way to the exit of the training grounds where several soldiers that had been spectating waited for us.
"That was unbelievable!"
"I can believe you guys held your own with the two gods!"
"What was that magic!?"
"Who are those people?", one of the soldiers asked Randolph.
"Just some friends of mine who stopped by for a visit", he answered.
"Of course we held our own", Eris exclaimed. "Rudeus is the magic god!"
"The magic god!?"
"I think I've heard of him", one of them whispered.
"Isn't he a bit young?", another questioned.
"Maybe he's one of those immortal demons."
Eris seems to revel in the praise, but Sylphiette looked embarrassed so I ushered us out of there. All the exercise from sparring worked up our appetite, so we decided to eat at Randolph's restaurant before heading home after all.
He served us a plate of rice alongside some deep fried meat and a vegetable soup. The soup was alright; nothing special, but not bad either. The rice was mediocre, but I still loved it simply for being rice. The deep fried meat on the other hand...
The breading was wet and oily, rather than crisp, while the meat inside was dry and chewy. Worst of all, as you chewed, the meat gave off a rancid aftertaste.
*Blergh*
I had trouble keeping the meat down. Sylphy didn't seem to like it either, but she ate some just to be polite. Eris genuinely enjoyed her meal. I think she's more of a fan of gamey tasting meats.
After our meal, we said our goodbyes and I teleported the three of us back to our home in Sharia. It was only early afternoon, so Roxy should still be at the Academy teaching her classes. It was an exhausting day and none of us slept very well the night before, so Sylphiette plopped down in her bed and took a nap.
I was tempted to join her, but Eris had other plans.
"I've been thinking about this and I really want to start adventuring again", she said. "I had so much fun today, especially sparring with such incredible fighters. Then the food at Marianne's reminded me of our days traveling the demon continent... I've never been happier. We should reform our party. We can invite Sylphiette and Roxy too. Hey, maybe your dad would want to join us?"
"I suppose we could. You do realize we'd have to start over as 'F' rank again. Are you planning on running around town fetching kittens and shoveling snow?"
"No we won't. Our party's level is the average of all of our levels."
"Oh yeah. I think I remember that. Won't we still be 'F' rank though? If I recall, re-registering will automatically reset our rank to 'F'."
"Did you withdraw from the guild? Why did you do that!?"
"Well, no. I don't think I officially withdrew. I have no idea what I did with my card though. I'll need to find it if I don't want to reset."
"You idiot. How could you lose something so important!?"
"Well, it's not like I had planned on adventuring again."
"Hmph!"
Needless to say, the two of us spent the rest of the afternoon rummaging through my stuff to find my old adventurer's card. Eventually we found it in the back of one of my desk drawers.
When we asked Paul about forming a party with us he was ecstatic.
"You don't know how long I've dreamed of partying with my boy! Of course I'll join!".
"Roxy, me, and you are all 'A' rank... your dad's 'S' rank, but Sylphy is going to have to start as 'F' rank", Eris said while counting using her fingers. "What rank would that make our party?", she asked.
"Uh... I'm not sure. Probably 'A' rank. Maybe 'B' if you average in Sylphy, but I'm sure she would level up quickly."
"What are we going to name it?"
"Dead End!" / "The Greyrats!", Eris and Paul shouted over one another.