The Demon King's Paladin Part 1 Vol 2.

Chapter 356. A Quick Sparring Session With Emma

" Looks like you both are next!"

Liz cheerfully said that to Emma and I as Emily and Lucas walked away from each other after a quick sparring session that ended in Emily's defeat. Thanks to the training with Ruby, Emily was able to avoid most of Lucas's attacks, granted he was going easy on Emily and Emily was still doing her upmost to dodge the attacks, but I still think it was a great effort from her. No doubt the Emily that I first saw most likely would've been beaten soundly in about a minute, this sparring match took 5 minutes. I could tell that Emily was somewhat disheartened by the result, so I as I rose up to take my spot for the sparring match, I quickly spoke to her after healing both her and Lucas. Just like with everyone else that's sparred today.

" You did great, you were so much faster than when we first started learning from Ruby."

" Thank you, Matthew... But still..."

Emily puffed her cheeks as she went to sit down with the rest of the audience, I didn't know she could act so childish about losing a sparring match, it was kind of cute to be honest. Emma and I were the last sparring match of the day. We were using the rules that Ruby had used for our sparring matches. Which were pretty simple, if you could land a solid blow on the opponent you would win, or if the time limit of 10 minutes was reached, a judge would decide who won. The results so far were, Sarah winning by decision, Ruby winning by a good strike to the stomach of Maria, Les winning by decision and finally Lucas winning. Of course, if we could use magic and mana, some of these results might've changed, but since so few of us could, we decided that just using our martial skills was the way to go. I remembered that as I took my stance. With that, Ruby called out to Emma and me.

" Are you both ready!?"

 I was only using my hands and feet for this; I've only sparred with a training sword with Sarah and Anna recently for 2 reasons. the 1st was because we were on the road for the past 6 months and the 2nd was because of Sarah and Anna's growth. Before when we attempted to spar, Angel's Swordsmanship made the matches end quickly and those matches nearly ended with serious injuries, but now, after the battle with The God Of The Blackwoods, they've both grown immensely, it was similar to my Mana Advancement, instead of their mana advancing, they said that they had breakthroughs with their Jobs. Sarah especially has grown by leaps and bounds. Her Calamity Mana has grown stronger since then. She hasn't mentioned much about why that is, but she said not to worry about it. Anna on the other hand has had slow but steady growth. Apparently, both of her Jobs are complimentary to each other. Because of that, it's almost like a positive feedback loop, if she gains something in her understanding of her Druid Job, it furthers her growth as a Divine Channeler because of her link to the Goddess of Nature. And the opposite is also true.

" On your mark!"

Ruby's yell woke me up from my thoughts, Emma was sitting with her blunted one-handed axe and was waiting for Ruby's signal. I was also ready with a bladed stance, I'll need to watch out for how she swings that axe, but considering I'm used to Sarah and Anna's movements, I don't think Emma should be too hard to follow.

" GO!"

/BANG!/

Emma and I both kicked off the ground and launched ourselves at each other. It seems that we were about equal in speed as we both ran at each other. I watched as she attempted to ready her axe for a wide swing. It looked a bit too serious for a sparring match, but it's fine at this level. I continued on my path and waited to react to her axe swing, I didn't need to wait long.

/Swoosh!/

An axe swing came horizontally at my head, I don't think she's taking into account that this is a sparring match... Regardless, I duck the axe swing and begin to jab at Emma, she dodges as well, her speed is good. I quickly follow her and begin to dodge the axe strikes that come from her, it almost feels like she's speeding up now. Regardless, I continue to dodge and jab, I'm treating this more like an exercise in out-boxing more than anything else.

" Are you really just going to throw jabs and circle around me!?"

" Maybe..."

Emma didn't seem to like my gameplan for the match, she started to throw the axe in her right hand harder and harder.

/Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!/

Miss after miss followed every strike that Emma attempted to throw, I continued with my jabbing, it was clear that I was aggravating her since my jabs had begun to land on her right arm. I was just simply trying to tire her arm out and judging from the more wild and labored swings, it seemed to be working.

" Alright!"

/Woosh!/

That strike from Emma nearly landed, it was a strike she put a bunch of power into, she even swung herself out of position. I quickly opened my hand and pushed her on the back to make her lose her balance. She fell on her face, and I quickly ran to her and made a fist to imply that I could strike her as she was on the floor, with that, Ruby's voice sounded out.

" Halt! Winner, Matthew!"

With Ruby's affirmation of my win, I quickly relax my fist and change it to an open palm.

" Holy Heal."

I quickly heal any damage or fatigue that might have occurred from the fight for both Emma and me. With that, Emma turned around onto her back and I offered her my hand to lift her off the ground, she had a look of annoyance on her face, but that was normal for someone who lost a match.

" I want a rematch!"

And apparently the feeling of wanting a rematch was also there, but I wasn't really up to it.

" I'll have to refuse."

" Why!?"

She wasn't happy to hear my answer. Regardless, I'll explain it.

" This was only for some light exercise and besides, Anna and Sarah already have a plan for what to happen after this. I think you'll enjoy the next thing more than having a rematch, but if you want, we can have a rematch tomorrow, if you'd like."

Emma glared at me for a moment, then she looked at the crowd that had her family in it, she then took my hand to help her up. Her reaction to her loss wasn't something I was particularly worried about, Demons are quite prideful about their physical capabilities, the fact that I as a Human could handle her attacking me and even win with just my hands is something that could be hard to swallow. It's all thanks to my Holy Mana and my training with My Wives and Ruby. One thing I've noticed is that my physical abilities have grown greatly ever since my Mana Advancement... Well, I don't think I've quite described it right, if this was a game, you could think that all of my physical aspects would increase by +1 or +2 every day from my Holy Mana, now that I've grown to Intermediate Mana Advancement, it's now anywhere from +2 to +4 to my Physical abilities. Again, this isn't huge in a short period of time, but just recently, I feel like I've finally reached the point where I have the average strength of a male Demon. It's taken a little over 2 years to reach, but I'm leaps and bounds stronger than how I was when I first arrived here. As for Emma, it's not like she's weak, if anything, she's physically stronger than I am, it's just that I've been fighting Sarah, Anna, Ruby and Charlotte during our training sessions. And they are stronger than her, from what I could tell.

" Fine... But I definitely want my rematch! Hmph!"

Emma's bad mood didn't improve, I looked to the crowd to see Sarah and Anna both staring daggers at Emme... It's quite the different look from Anna who at first was quite happy to see Emma when she came out of the carriage earlier today. Well, in a way I guess that's family. Laura would always seem a bit more spirited when her cousins would visit during the holidays. But when I would interact with them in small talk, she'd find some reason to remember why she couldn't wait for them to leave the last time. I never understood why, since they always seemed really nice, they even asked about coming over more, but Victoria and Dan always seemed to follow Laura's lead till the holidays would come around. It made me think that I was also doing something wrong, but they always told me I was overthinking it. Speaking of overthinking, Les and Maria were also staring at Emma and I, at first, I thought they were mad at me for sparring Emma seriously, but then I noticed that they, like My Wives were also staring daggers at Emma... I wonder how I can smooth this over?