Chapter 74: Training
After discovering that the food tonic could bring great benefits to an apprentice Mage's body, the magical energy meal which he only eats once a day became an essential part of his daily life.
After being inspired and guided by him, it didn't take too long for Bleia to become a slave of this "delicacy" as well, accompanying him in indulging in a frenzy eating spree. If not for having to carry out appropriate 'exercises' after each meal to help in the digestion of bioactive element substance, Leon would surely change all of his regular meals into magical energy meals.
For the following days, every morning was spent on studying for magic knowledge, be it rain or shine. Leon utilized fully the help of the Chip, instilling the huge amount of knowledge he learned into his brain, then saved them in a systematic manner.
Noon time was the most important time of the day, being the time to enjoy the various delicacy available to them. Both of them had already tried every single one of the magical energy meals that was provided by the Mage Tower, but chose to eat the one that suited them the most. Leon still preferred the Fried Heart of a Flaming Hound while Bleia enjoyed drinking the blood of a Wyvern.
The insanely high daily meal expenditure of fifty magic crystals had caused their Physique to skyrocket. Currently, Leon would have daily increase of 0.3 to his Physique. As for Bleia, although she didn't experience such an incredible development, she was still euphoric, showing a look of satisfaction and contentment.
After they finished eating, it was finally time for appropriate "exercises" where Bleia would give Leon a good beating. Leon practically turned into a high quality human punching bag, brutally tortured by Bleia.
Facing Bleia who had used her full speed from the get-go, Leon was forced to wear his Circlet of Nobility and only then can he barely make out her flickering figure. Whenever his palms holding scorching flames moved slower, he would be rewarded with five bloody shallow scratches on his body.
For the first three days, Leon's body would be full of wounds after every fight. His body which had just grown a bit sturdy looked like it had been used as a scratching post by more than a hundred catwomen at the same time, was full of crisscrossing scratch marks.
Leon had a sorrowful discovery that, without the help from his Golems, fighting Bleia all alone was as if he was inviting torture. Bleia could even use the gentlest 'touch' to reduce his health points to one, while his flaming palms couldn't even touch the corner of her dress.
Initially, he thought of suddenly changing the direction of his flames to give Bleia a surprise attack, but the same technique had become useless the second time around when dealing with Bleia, who was an agility type assassin Mage. Without a suitable defensive magic spell, Leon would never be able to withstand Bleia's attack just with the Burning Hand alone.
As for the reason why he didn't want to use Fire Arrow and Flaming Spear, the answer was too obvious. Even the Burning Hand, the type of magic spell that could be casted with just a thought, couldn't intercept Bleia in such a close distance, how much more for the Fire Arrow and Flaming Spear which required three seconds of casting time.
In order to save a little bit of his face, Leon was forced to break his personal vow, secretly ordering the Chip to perform a scan and save Bleia's attack pattern and habits. After that, he asked the Chip to construct a mini battlefield spellcasting assist system. With the help of this system, the Chip could capture Bleia's movements, using its incredible calculation speed to derive possible positions she would appear, and also the possible spots she would attack.
Later, Leon followed the calculations of the Chip and finally caught Bleia.
Unfortunately, Leon's temporary success angered Bleia, and he received a continuous and brutal beating from a red figure who suddenly rampaged. Leon didn't even last for five seconds with his body fully bathed with blood.
Leon couldn't help but think Bleia was a lunatic who would be a crazy sex machine in bed, as she could control her attacks at a very precise level without the help of something like the High Precision Chip. This... this shows fully how perfect her control over her enemy's life is, and her aggressiveness that can overwhelm the enemy with grief.
The Mage Tower's arena also comes with various functions beyond an outsider's imagination. Any apprentice Mage who fought inside it could choose between two modes: Training Match or Death Match.
Under the training match mode, once an apprentice Mage had their health reduced to a dangerous level, any attack from their opponent would immediately trigger a defense mechanism of the arena, putting up a strong protective barrier that would protect the wounded apprentice inside. Meanwhile, the death match mode didn't come with any life-preserving defense mechanism.
This was where Bleia's remarkable control stand out. Every time they fought, she could make Leon be covered in blood all over with her ferocious attacks, while never triggering the automatic defense mechanism of the arena. This really frightened Leon!
Therefore, every afternoon had become the hardships of Leon's painful journey. The match would always end with him being covered in blood and being dragged out from the arena by Bleia. The only difference was how long he could last.
The first day, he lasted for seven minutes.
The second day, he lasted for fifteen minutes.
The third day, he initially had a chance to last for much longer but since he provoked Bleia, he was defeated close to five minutes.
The fourth day, he lasted for half an hour. It was also the first time he and the Chip worked together flawlessly.
The fifth day, he managed to last for one full hour without being hurt at all because his Fire Shield had finally appeared.
That's right, it was really a surprise!
Under the tremendous pressure from Bleia, the frightening Blood Queen, Leon actually managed to master all of the preliminary knowledge required for Fire Shield one day ahead of schedule, and he was also successful in casting it before the match began.
The Fire Shield was a shield-shaped defensive magic spell that was composed entirely of Fire Elementium. When successfully casted, it would automatically revolve around Leon's body in a radius of one meter. The area the spell can defend covered 1.5 meters tall and 1 meter wide. Not only does it provide an excellent physical and magical defense, it also has the Reflect Damage effect during a melee battle.
Bleia had once tried it. Using her super high agility, she came closer to Leon from the side but no matter how hard she tried, her razor sharp claws couldn't break through the defense of Leon's Fire Shield. The small Fire Shield actually had its own intelligent sensor capable of automatically moving by itself to the appropriate positions to block all attacks.
So far, Bleia hadn't master any close combat skills that had a name. Her offensive methods were primitive, mostly relying on her high agility, attacking the enemy with her strong body. If we were to talk about any special ability that was worth mentioning, it would be the the ability to infuse her blood element magic energy into her claws, making her every attack draw blood from her enemy that can also replenish herself.
But the damage inflicted by that kind of offensive method would never be great. In fact, each strike would always inflict just nine to thirteen points of damage. Meanwhile, the defensive strength of the Fire Shield was thirty five points, making it obvious that it would take more than a single strike from Bleia's attacks.
That's why when Leon mastered the Fire Shield, he was able to turn the tables of the battle to his favor.
Originally, it was Leon who tried hard to defend, having his health reduced bit by bit from the raging attacks of Bleia. The situation would've been better if he didn't try to counterattack since he could last longer. But once he gave up on his defenses in order to have a chance to hit Bleia who moved swiftly like a ghost, he would be defeated by Bleia instantly, resulting to a miserable ending for himself.
But now with the help of the Fire Shield, not only did Bleia fail to break through his defenses even after multiple tries, she also had her claws burned by the sudden explosions of flames from the Fire Shield. Her dress which didn't come with any defensive magic wasn't spared from being burned causing it to have a few large scorched holes.
Finally! He finally got the upper hand for once and this brought great joy to Leon.
While comfortable appreciating Bleia's hot and seductive body, he was reciting the chant of Fire Arrow with a loud voice, manipulating the explosive flames to chase after her. For the first time ever, he never had to worry about suddenly getting scratch marks appearing on his body.
Leon's relaxed method of attack greatly angered Bleia. That's why, after thirty seven seconds of complacency, he was once again bloodied all over after receiving the furious attacks of Bleia. Surprisingly, the defense mechanism triggered this time. A transparent protective barrier tightly covered around Leon's body. Bleia was knocked away by it, showing her skin that had turned black because of the flame.
Looking at the bloodshot eyes of Bleia who kept gazing at him savagely through the transparent barrier, Leon couldn't help but sigh deeply.
As always, Bleia would never let herself be outdone by someone else!
With the current strength of Bleia's melee attacks, there wasn't any possibility she could pierce through the Fire Shield. It was at least correct according to theory!
But when Leon met Bleia, a girl with a tremendous desire to excel over others, even the theory calculated by the Chip had become unreliable.
Driven by anger, Bleia actually withstood the fire element damage from the Fire Shield and didn't even back off. She also withstood the double fireball attacks from Leon's Burning Hands and used an attack that was beyond anyone's imagination. Forcefully hitting thrice on the same spot of the Fire Shield and took advantage of the cumulative damage to successfully break through Leon's tough protective shell.
What happened afterwards was a terrifying experience for Leon!
The pain of having one's flesh burned by elemental fire wasn't something anybody could endure. Although Bleia could use her incredible regenerative ability and blood sucking to restore her health, there was no way she could avoid the pain from using those methods, and thus, she could only endure using her strong will.
It was all due to her stubbornness, not wanting to let Leon suppress her in their daily practice. Even if it was just once, she refused to accept that. This mentality made her willing to endure such a tremendously painful torture, her firm and outrageous attitude had deeply moved Leon.
Looking into his own heart, if he was in her position, he would definitely be unable to achieve this!
Having to face this firm girl who was fierce towards her enemies but even more fierce towards herself, Leon could only continue to think about what it would be like to be hugged by and squeezed by a vampire pussy in a violent and crazy way.
But at the same time, Leon secretly gave the Chip another research topic to work on.
How to manipulate the Fire Shield using his Spirit, so that he would be able to avoid the cumulative damage caused by the enemy's multiple attacks on the same spot?
Unfortunately, ever since the fifth day of their training, Bleia had stopped dragging Leon over to the arena. Contrary to her normal behavior, she immersed herself in the public library of the Mage Tower, spending every day and night reading through books, searching for the possible methods of breaking through Elementium magic shields.
This made Leon's heart fill with anxiety once more!
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