Eternal Winter's Reign - Book 2 - Chapter 21 - Sparring (Patreon)

                                                                       Alexander North

After I leave the room, I immediately search for Cynthia to get a rundown of what happened at the base while I was gone. And it doesn’t take me long to find her, partially due to my improved senses and partially because I know her.

The soldiers in the training hall pause as I walk in before continuing their training. But I just ignore them and continue towards Cynthia and Alexia, who are sparring closer to the back of the hall.

I pause outside of the practice ring they’re fighting in to watch the two, taking the moment to see just how far Alexia has gotten in terms of her fighting ability.

And what I see has me pleasantly surprised.

Not bad. She’s better than some of the privates in my old team already.

Their spar lasts for a few more minutes before Cynthia finishes it by grabbing Alexia by the wrist, forcing her to the ground, and putting her in a hold with her arm held behind her back. Then I take that moment to walk into the ring and say, “Not bad.”

Both of them turn to me as Cynthia lets go of Alexia’s arm before Cynthia nods at me and Alexia smiles brightly, shooting to her feet.

“Dad!” Alexia exclaims, making me blink for a moment, still not used to being called that. “Wanna spar with me?”

That has me raising a brow, but before I can answer, Cynthia says, “Even before he got as strong as he is he was still better than me at fighting.” Both Alexia and I turn to her. “So how about he spars with me instead? I want to know how it feels to fight a Tier 3.”

Alexia for some reason looks even more excited at that and quite literally begins jumping from one foot to the other before she rushes out of the ring, turns around, and starts waving at us while exclaiming, “Don’t mind me! Start whenever!”

I roll my eyes at that and refocus on Cynthia, finding my cousin grinning.

“You better not hold back on me,” she says while raising her hands to a ready position.

She’s going to regret saying that.

Within a single instant, I vanish from my spot, moving faster than most humans can keep up with before reappearing behind her while holding both of her arms behind her back with just a single hand, my glove keeping my hand from freezing her. Then I state with a light smirk of my own, “Guess it’s my victory.”

She tries to kick out my knee from behind, only for nothing to happen since she’s not strong enough to even make me flinch.

Which makes sense. She only became a Symbiont Host half a year ago. Meanwhile I’m as strong as a Tier 3 Symbiont Host.

After another failed kick along with the sound of Alexia clapping, Cynthia slumps slightly and mutters, “Maybe you should hold back just a little…”

I snort at that and let go, taking a step back.

She turns around while rubbing her arms as she says, “Your hands are freezing.”

I simply raise my hand and indicate the slightly frosted over glove on it that is currently still frosting over a little bit during this interaction.

Over the walk to the base I managed to learn how to control it a little bit, but not perfectly. So I still spread cold energy to whatever I touch. But it’s not a lethal amount anymore, so there’s that.

At most I’ll just be making light frost appear on everything I touch now. Except my armor, which has cold energy infused into it already. Not including my gloves. Because they don’t have powerful enough cores for the armor to cover everything with cold energy.

I look around the training hall as I notice people watching us. And all of the soldiers seem to be rather shocked by how our ‘spar’ just went.

A few seconds pass before one of them walks up to us, making me frown. But then he just bows his head slightly, places his fist to his chest in the salute towards nobility, and asks, “Would you mind sparring with me as well, sir?”

Huh?

“Why?” I ask, crossing my arms slightly while glancing at Cynthia who is smirking as she walks away from the sparring ring.

And why does it look like she was expecting this?

The soldier in question raises his head again, still with his fist to his chest, and answers, “Getting experience with fighting someone as powerful as you will help a lot if I’m left fighting a frozen one out in the field, sir!”

I purse my lips for a second before deciding that his reasoning is sound. It probably would help them.

Although I should still hold back.

On that note though, I ask, “Alright. Are you the only one?”

As if waiting for the question, dozens of other voices raise from the other soldiers as they all ask to spar as well.

“In that case, do you want me to use my abilities?” I ask, uncrossing my arms.

They all look confused as the soldier in front of me asks, “Abilities…?”

To demonstrate, I take my glove off and lower my hand to the ground, letting my control over my ability slacken and causing the ground to start freezing over. Then I stand up straight under the wide eyes of the others as I turn that very same hand and swipe it through the air, my claws extending at the same time before five arcs of cold energy fly through the air to cut into the dummy.

I turn back to the soldiers to find them all looking rather stunned. And they’re not the only ones as both Cynthia and Alexia seem surprised as well, likely due to them never seeing my new ability before.

“Please use them!” the soldier in front of me exclaims, the rest of them behind him mostly agreeing as well. “It’ll make the fight a lot more realistic. As if we were really fighting a frozen one!”

“Very well,” I tell them while taking a couple steps back. “Come at me all at once then.”

This could be fun.

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