1 day later
Gideon is walking around the Boreas estate.
The wooden sword swinging behind his belt with each step.
"Damn, where did he go? He was suppose to be in the class with E-"
BAMM!
Rudeus flew out through the door of the barn with his face in dirt. Right after him, Eris walked out, very pissed and with slightly flushed face. She didn't even looked at him, just went straight to the building.
"Uhh, what happened?"
"Heh, don't worry Gideon, nothing serious." He sais with his usuall weird smirk.
"I mean why did she throw you out of there?"
"Eris being Eris, you probably understand, right?" He said while getting up, cleaning himself up quickly"
"I might not, but whatever, I was looking for you."
"Why? What's the matter?"
"I need to tell you something."
"Well...I'm listening."
"In a month I'm moving to the capital, Ars"
"Huhh?! Why so suddenly? You didn't mention anything! For how long?!"
Rudeus asked. It's not that he will miss Gideon much. Sure they are friends, but only friends, not best friends or something.
Rudeus need's Gideon presence for one specific reason.
That is tempering Eris.
You might thing that Eris is not respecting Gideon at all, more so, you might even think that Gideon is Eris's least favorite person, BUT, he is also the one of two persons that don't have to hold themself in her presance, as he is her equal in status and unlike Sauros, in age.
Without Gideon, Eris's anger and frustration that's been discharged on him while sparring, now will be directed on Rudeus.
"Uhh, let me start from the beggining. Not so much time ago, Ghislaine stated that reaching Intermediate level in the Water God Style will took me no longer than 2 months.
Yesterday she said that I'm learning faster than she excepted and she changed her mind from 2 to 1 month.
If I will live to her expectations, she will take me to train in the Water God Style Dojo under the eye of the Water God herself!"
The boy explained with a pure joy in his eyes, not so common in his character.
Hmm the Water God Style Dojo? Paul mentioned that he used to train there for a short time. If I'm not mistaken, Lilia is a daughter of Dojo's owner. I wonder if I can help him in some way, but I don't want to accidenlty ruin something for him either. I will hold it for myself, for now.
"That's great news Gideon! I'm very happy for you. How long do you plan to stay there?"
"I don't know yet. Ghislaine said it depends on my potential, but she is sure that I can reach the Advanced rank before my 15 birthday, we will see after that.
I plan to visit once every 3 months to see you all."
"Every three months? I see. It's a 2 weeks of journey from Roa right?"
"Yes, with a horse, if travel goes without any complications.."
"Like what complications?"
"Bandits, of course, there's a lot of them on the road to Ars. They are weaklings, but I guess 20 of them are troublesome. So, I will train hard to deal with them alone!"
" Hah, I'm sure of it. Ah, by the way Gideon (...)"
Twoo weeks later
THOCK! THOCK!
In the backyard, two swordsmans are crossing swords.
Eris and Gideon are engaded in combat.
Eris is in clear offence. The surge of swings at Gideon's neck, ribs, arms and head.
But non of them are able to hit his body. All of Eris's attacks are either blocked or evaded.
"STOP RUNNING AWAY AND START FIGHTING YOU COWARD!"
The girl grows irritated of this fact and began to speed up.
THOCK! THOCK! THACK!
The sound of wood clashing fill the whole area yet the situation in the spar doesn't change at all.
After about 15 minutes, Eris began to slow down.
Yes! She is finnaly getting tired! She is getting stronger eachday, my arms are starting to hurt from her blows and she is no longer this easy to get tired too.
But she can't match me. Even in a 100 years, I will still be stronger.
That's a fact.
I am a wall that will keep growing with her each try to climb over. That's my word.
Just when Eris is about to unleash a strike from above her head, Gideon suddenly sidesteped and delivered strong kick to Eris's abdomen.
GAH!
Gideon taked his chance and swinged his sword horizontally.
Eris managed to duck under his swing, but lost her momentum, allowing Gideon to take control over the battle, pushing her to defence, her biggest flaw.
Just after a few seconds, Eris become compleatly uncovered and Gideon stabbed Eris's chest with wooden sword.
UH!
Eris's lungs blocked from the impact, Gideon attacked again, hitting her left knee with round slash, forcing her to kneel and puted a sword on her neck.
"That's enough." Ghislaine stated, arms crossed under her chest, leaning against a tree watching the whole spar.
"I win." Gideon said with a moking smile.
"Get this of me!" Eris shouted punching the sword away from her neck and stand up.
She gave Gideon a cold look and went somwhere else. Her expression wasn't angry, more like hollow, sad.
"What's wrong with her? She always hated loosing, but never this bad." The boy asked scratching his head.
"Are you for real Gideon?" Ghislaine asked with deadpan face similar to Eris's.
"What do you mean, what did I do wrong?"
"Uh, just think about it. How do you feel?"
"Umm, good? Why do you ask?"
"Gideon, you didn't even break a sweet. You weren't even serious while fighting her and she noticed that.
More so, I'm sure you could have defeat her at any moment you liked. With no need for that -"I need to find the right moment."- acting.
And it seems that you didn't really noticed for yourself...
You have already achived the Intermediate rank. Not today and not yesterday, but about 3 weeks ago. You could have realize the gap between you two has went wider, especialy in this few weeks."
"..Yes, I noticed that I grew stronger, but so do Eris, right?"
"Of course, but the pace of grow is unmatchable. It's like comparing a wolf to a lion or something like that.
But that doesn't matter right now. I'm trying to show you the reason why you became so much better that fast. Do you know how?
"Mmm, because I was training harder to achive something I want to get?"
"Yes, but not quite. It isn't about the motivation or just a run for a highier rank."
Ghislaine made sure that boy is listening and looked him deep in the eyes.
"What's important is to have a desire. The force to push you further no matter how big the wall you have to cross is or how much potential and talent you posses. With a proper desire even the weakest will somday be strong."