The next few weeks, Shurry spent most of his time staying at the Zeus & Hera familia. He and his friends all stayed there, "looking after" Meda… They were really just having fun playing around to make Meda smile.
When not doing that, the Zeus and Hera familia members initiated training for the four kids. Training that, Shurry excelled at with little difficulty, oftentimes he even managed to surprise Zald. The power he put on display was enough that Maxim joined in… It was at that time it became clear, in a one on one, Maxim was by far the strongest, the fastest, and most durable.
Alfia, and Meteria were sitting off to the side, munching down on snacks. However, while Alfia was curiously watching Shurry's training, Meteria had eyes for someone else…
On another end of the training grounds under their control, Alraj was undergoing his own trial by fire. He was experiencing in full effect the difference between him and the senior members, most of which were level 6 or higher by now.
Another angle was where Alise, Ardee, and Neze were getting their own training. Each with a specific instructor tailored to their own fighting styles… An easy thing for the level 7s of this combined familia to spot with ease.
"It's too loud." Alfia muttered, standing up, then made her stride towards the active combat with Shurry. "My turn."
Maxim, and Shurry both stopped. Looked at Alfia, and then at each other, blinked, and laughed.
"Alright, I guess you want some target practice, go ahead Alfia, give it all you got."
"Gospel."
Shurry was sent flying straight towards Alraj, but he recovered using a light platform. And then he jumped back into the fight.
Maxim, surprised, let out a laugh, and let Alfia have at it. Then like a doting father, went gushing for his little girl. Causing Empress to recoil a bit, with a protective wrap.
"Oh come on, she's my little girl too you know." Maxim sighed, plopping down next to Empress.
"I know, but I'm not ready to stop holding her. It just feels right. And it seems she took interest in the fight after Alfia started playing. But it seems like…"
"I think this will be good for her. She just leveled up recently, and he's the best type of opponent to deal with. Especially now that she's seen his moves."
"You fought him yourself just now. What do you think?"
"You ask that like you're some kind of slouch. You watched it just now. I don't know where he gets that power from, not even Lyca seems to know."
Alfia kept firing off gospels all around, it was like an endless and invisible minefield around her. However, Shurry was slowly adapting. Then Alfia also seemingly improved. And then back again. They were minor improvements, but after about 20 minutes of battle, both had developed far beyond where they were at the start of their match.
"If this goes on, they might just provide each other endless amounts of excelia."
"Perhaps we should stop it before this goes on too long… Wait, it seems like Alfia is starting to lose some ground."
"Seriously? She's like a cheat?! And she's 3 levels ahead of him."
"Let's be real, the level boost isn't that many points of difference. And he's been training, has the benefit of breaking the limits on most of his stats, if not all, and even then, he never rested on his laurels. Remember what Leon said…. As a brand new level 2, Shurry was able to keep Leon on his toes."
The long sparring match came to an end when Alfia collapsed to her butt, and laid back on the ground exhausted.
"I give, you win."
"Not yet, one final attack. Puppy lick!"
Shurry transformed into his complete wolf form, giving Alfia one big lick on her cheek. The baby Meda made her first giggle seeing the ending. To which Shurry ran over to check on her. Then danced in place, super happy.
"Oh, yeah, big sister Alfia you're really strong too! Hmm? Your illness is acting up again. Lemme fix that real quick."
Alfia immediately began to feel better after the serene light enveloped her. And at this time, Luna popped up and stretched, she was a little taller this time around.
"Good morning Shurry! That was a nice meal you got me last time! It took awhile to fully digest it but I think I can do more cool stuff soon. But it feels like I need a little bit more. I think a level 6 monster rex's stone will do it."
"I wanna go kill it too!"
"Or we could find a really large horde of monsters to eat through. But, where are we going to find another horde like that?"
"Floor 37! That arena thingy, it has endless prey! For the endless hunt! I can taste them right now."
Maxim cringed upon hearing the arena on the 37th floor. "Shurry, that place is extremely dangerous. Without the right preparations you'll be swarmed by thousands-"
"Thousands of prey!" Shurry's eyes lit up as he transformed back to normal, his tail expressing his desire to hunt.
"You're not going to get through to him with numbers. That's just going to make him more excited."
Lyca, seeing the difficult time the two captains were having, came over.
"Listen up Shurry! Not even we hunt there. It's that dangerous."
"Huh? But, I can heal any injury, illness or status effect. And I can even block any attack under level 4 from even reaching me…"
"Huh?"
"Yeah, that's how I heal big sisters' illnesses, I trap it away, then heal the damage. The seal erodes away after a while though, because it can't recover on its own."
Maxim and Empress' minds have a gargantuan shift in perspective. They nod, and Maxim decides to do something rather dangerous but is ready to fall back on his stupidly powerful skills to save the day.
"Alright, Lyca, go ask Lady Hathor for permission for us to do this test. Alfia, Alraj, Meteria, and Caotan, you're coming down with me and Shurry on this little test. If all works out well, then we're going to shift gears and increase our training."
It wasn't much longer after that, when Lyca returned with permission, with one stipulation, that Lyca also go down with them… Which was a slight annoyance, but not too big a one that it would cause any real problems.
And so, Maxim led the rag tag crew down to the 37th floor doing his best to clear the way most of the time. There was no time to test others yet. Not if they could get access to such a valuable training spot like this. The reason this place was such a pain for us in the past was the poison, that's less of a problem now, but still more than a bit annoying. If he can do what he says he can… The 37th floor would be an excelia gold mine.