Chapter 51: Friendly Bout II

Dustin looked around the training ground for a moment before his eyes settled on the environment itself.

’Fine.’ Dustin thought to himself.

If Raul wanted to use the environment, there was no reason why he couldn’t do the same.

"Move forward." Dustin ordered.

The Stone Golem started advancing toward the narrower side of the training area where there were more pillars and walls, leaving much less open space for the Panther to move around.

"You’re trying to corner me." Raul said with a frown.

"Obviously."

"At least you’re using your brain."

The Panther took off, but Dustin didn’t chase it this time.

Whenever Raul tried to circle around from a wider angle, Dustin adjusted the Golem’s position and kept pushing forward, slowly reducing the amount of space the Panther had to move through.

The Panther was still much faster than the Golem, but speed wasn’t nearly as useful when there were fewer directions to escape through.

"You’ve been thinking." Raul said, clicking his tongue.

"Surprising, isn’t it?"

"A little."

"Idiot."

The Panther rushed toward the Golem again, and the Golem raised both arms.

Raul expected Dustin to block, but instead Dustin gave another order.

"Push."

The Golem stepped forward hard, using its entire body and almost catching the Panther between itself and one of the nearby pillars.

"That was dirty." Raul said after the Panther barely managed to escape.

"I’ll take it, you mean smart."

"Feels like the same thing when you do it."

The Panther landed and immediately ran toward one of the pillars. It climbed halfway up before pushing itself away from the surface.

"What the hell?" Dustin said, looking upward.

The Panther came down from above and landed on the Golem’s raised arm. It quickly ran across its shoulder, struck the back of its head, and jumped away before the Golem could react.

"You aren’t the only one who can use the surroundings." Raul said with a grin.

The fight continued like that for a while, with neither of them able to maintain a clear advantage.

Raul’s Panther was too fast for the Golem to pin down easily, while Dustin’s Golem was too durable for the Panther to bring down quickly.

Whenever Raul found an opening, Dustin adjusted his approach, and whenever Dustin restricted the Panther’s movement, Raul found another route to escape.

"Hold." Dustin suddenly ordered.

The Golem stopped and lowered one of its hands toward the ground.

"What are you doing?" Raul asked.

Dustin didn’t answer.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, then some of the small pieces of stone close to the Golem’s fingers started moving.

’Come on.’ Dustin thought to himself as he concentrated harder.

The stones trembled slightly for a moment, then one of them lifted from the ground before dropping back down.

"Was that supposed to scare me?" Raul asked.

"Shut up."

Dustin tried again, and this time several broken pieces of stone shifted along the ground.

The movement was weak and unstable, but it was still movement.

"You’re learning another ability?" Raul asked, his expression showing clear surprise.

"Trying to."

The Golem raised its arm, and one small chunk of stone slowly lifted from the ground.

"Go." Dustin ordered.

The stone suddenly shot forward.

Raul was surprised sure enough, but there was no panic, since the speed wasn’t threatening. The Panther dodged easily, and the rock flew past before hitting the wall behind it.

It wasn’t very fast or strong, but Raul still looked at the small mark it left before turning back toward Dustin.

"That could become annoying."

"That’s the point." Dustin said with a laugh.

The ability was still extremely rough. He couldn’t control much earth yet, the range wasn’t impressive, and every attempt required much more concentration than he liked, but it gave the Stone Golem something it didn’t really have before.

Range.

Raul didn’t give him the chance to try again.

The Panther attacked immediately, forcing Dustin to abandon the ability and focus on defending.

From there, the fight became much messier.

Both of them were already tired, their commands became shorter, and their summons were no longer moving as smoothly as they had at the beginning, clearly, they had used up a lot of energy already.

Even at that, neither wanted to be the first one to stop.

"Again." Raul said, pointing forward.

The Panther rushed in.

"Come." Dustin ordered.

The Stone Golem raised its arms, and the two summons collided.

Stone cracked from the impact before the Panther jumped backward and the Golem staggered.

Dustin and Raul stared at each other from opposite ends of the training area, visibly drained.

"I’m done." Raul finally said, bending over with his hands on his knees.

"Thank God." Dustin replied before sitting down.

"You were waiting for me to say it first?"

"No."

"You were..."

"I could’ve kept going."

"You’re sitting down."

"Strategic recovery."

Raul laughed weakly before on his back side as well.

Their summons remained nearby. The Dark Panther lay down almost immediately, while the Stone Golem continued standing beside Dustin with several fresh marks across its body.

"You’ve improved." Raul said, looking toward the Golem.

"Hehe, I have, I have. So have you."

"Obviously." Raul replied, letting out a big breath of air.

"I take it back."

Raul smiled and didn’t respond, he was too tired for it.

Neither of them said much after that as they just rested.

They were exhausted, but neither really minded it. Both could feel the difference compared to a few weeks ago.

They were getting stronger. Maybe not as quickly as either of them wanted, but there was still progress.

Raul leaned back on his hands before something at the edge of the training area caught his attention.

"Dustin." Raul said, staring in that direction.

"What?"

"Look."

Dustin followed his gaze and saw Leon sitting nearby.

He wasn’t training, stretching, or meditating, he was just sitting there, and judging from how comfortable he looked, he had probably been watching them for quite some time.

"What?" Leon asked after noticing both of them looking his way.

"We’ve been killing ourselves for the last hour." Dustin said, his eye twitching slightly.

"Yup, I saw." Leon replied with a nod.

"And you’ve just been sitting there?" Raul asked.

"What else?"

"Doing nothing?"

"I was watching." Leon said after thinking about it for a moment.

"That’s still nothing."

Leon only shrugged before leaning back.

"You’re not very encouraging, are you?" Dustin said before falling backward onto the ground.

"Not at all." Raul added.

Leon looked at the two exhausted Summoners, then at their summons.

"Since when was it my job to encourage others? Although, you both got better." He said.

Neither answered immediately.

"You think?" Dustin asked, raising his head slightly.

"Yeah, considerably so, if I do say so my self, after all, I watch you guys more than even the instructors."

Raul smiled a little after hearing that.

The compliment still felt good coming from Leon, especially considering what they had just seen him do during the tournament.

"But your stamina is terrible." Leon added, leaning back where he was sitting.

Raul’s slowly dried up.

"Get out." Dustin said, pointing at him.

"If you have the energy, come push me." Leon replied before closing his eyes.

Raul started laughing at that, and a few seconds later, Dustin did too.