"Thanks," Jelo said, feeling a genuine warmth from the praise. "It was harder than I expected. She was really good."
"She was," Mira agreed. "Twelve wins isn't easy to rack up. Blood manipulation is a tricky ability to fight against, lots of versatility, hard to predict. But you handled it."
Jelo nodded, already analyzing the fight in his head, thinking about what he'd done right and what he could improve. The Scaled Guard timing had been close, too close. He needed to work on activating it faster, more reflexively. And his Dragon Claw aim could be more precise, especially when under pressure.
But overall, he was satisfied. This was exactly what he needed, a safe environment to practice, to experiment, to learn from mistakes without catastrophic consequences.
"I want to fight one more person," Jelo announced, already feeling that familiar hunger for improvement burning in his chest.
Mira raised an eyebrow. "Already? Don't you want to rest a bit, analyze what you learned?"
