Chapter 121 - Some Spars

"Look up the coordinates for me." Dominic orders his attendant.

"…" His attendant shakes his head.

Dominic has his own internet connection in his boat and uses one of the latest smartphones yet he never bothered learning how to use them.

After a simple search, the attendant sighs.

"Sir, I don't think you should go."

"Why not?" Dominic asks.

"It's halfway between Hawai'i and Bora-bora." The attendant answers.

"Hmmm…" Dominic ponders.

"It's really isolated, huh." He shakes his head.

"How valuable is a tonne of gold to us?" He asks.

"Last time I checked, it should around 5 percent of what our mine in Brisbane produces a year. Or… 0.7 percent of what we harvest in all of our mines each year."  The attendant reports.

"Ah. Well, it's not that expensive then." Dominic nods.

"Sir, I really think this is a trap. Who knows who the culprit is? It might even be the Fowler Family. We didn't see Samuel's wife in the video." The attendant suggests.

Dominic gives the attendant a glare.

"Why would they do that? Angus and I are friends for almost a hundred years and we still talk over the phone every few days. Do you know that it was him who gave me my wood chip?"

"I'm just exploring all the possibilities." The attendant sighs. .

"It might not be the Fowlers, yes. But maybe the culprits are just as powerful. Maybe they're just trying to lure you out of here. Who knows what will happen while you're away? What if other S-Class superiori are waiting to gang up on you?" He raises valid questions.

"Well, what do you suggest I do?" Dominic asks.

"You haven't made a public appearance in years. Samuel also was not sure if he really received his mission from you. No one knows what your real status is." The attendant says.

Dominic gets what his attendant is implying.

"You'll represent me?" He asks.

"Yes." The attendant confirms.

"I'll claim that you're sick or dead. That way, whoever it is that harbors ill will towards us will be brazen to attack. Even if no one is really plotting, this will buy us time to figure out how to get the wood chip back." He explains further.

"Alright. A week is a plenty of time. Go now. I too will prepare with my nephew." Dominic then enters the water, transforms into a mansion-sized turtle made of water with him in the core of it, and carries his boat on his back as he makes his way back to shore.

<>

Hinohara.

"Yoshiko. You can take a break. I don't think we won't have any other visitors anytime soon." Fumio says to Yoshiko as he joins her at her patio.

Since the event two days, ago Yoshiko has not slept and simply trained her elixir control in her house while guarding the hill with unease.

"No. Who knows how many more are out there?" Yoshiko refuses.

"I checked for you. I spent the whole night scanning the ten-kilometer radius around us." Fumio says.

"Really?" Yoshiko asks in skepticism.

"Yes. I was running around in a spiral. It probably ran almost 500 kilometers." Fumio assures.

Yoshiko knows that Fumio did it for her, so she even feels more burdened.

"I'll rest later." She can only promise.

"Why don't we spar then?" Fumio asks.

"…" Yoshiko is stunned by the invitation.

"I know you won't rest anyway. And. What's the use of cultivating if you don't your abilities often?" Fumio asks.

"Where? I can't let the children see what I can do. The gardens are full of valuable herbs too." Yoshiko asks.

"…" Fumio sees that Yoshiko is simply scared of him.

"Boss' dimension. He keeps it activated all the time now." He suggests.

Yoshiko, seeing the stare from Fumio, she knows she cannot refuse.

<>

*Whack* Yoshiko gets hit in the shoulder and "Offf.." she grunts in pain as she backs away.

Fumio however pursues her immediately and *whack* lands another hit to her arm.

She then produces steam with her spiritual energy by combining the basic fire summoning and water summoning technique. After that, she jumps meters in the air to distance herself.

Before she can sigh in relief at the momentary break, "Hello.", she hears Fumio's voice from behind her. Before she can turn around, or defend, she gets hit in the back, making her shoot towards the ground.

*THUD* Her organs are rocked and wind is knocked out of her lungs as she lands.

She gets worried that Fumio will continue to attack her, but fortunately for her, Fumio seems to be waiting for her to stand up.

"You're ruthless." She says through gritted teeth as she sends tens of spiritual energy blades to Fumio's direction before quickly standing up.

Fumio meanwhile simply dodges the blades. The blades are only as fast as an arrow shot by a non-superiori recurve bow archer, and he can run twice as fast as that without effort, so Yoshiko's attempt was moot in the first place.

In Yoshiko's eyes, it was as if Fumio was miraculously not hit by her volley. She knows however that Fumio's dodging is no miracle.

"That won't work. Too slow." Fumio remarks, annoying her.

She does not listen however and sends more and more spiritual energy blades.

Fumio this time, is not confident in dodging all the blades so he summons a spiritual energy shield and easily shatters Yoshiko's blades.

"My elixir is more potent. That won't work." He advises again as he goes on pursuit.

Yoshiko grits her teeth and decides not to run away for now. She swings her wooden katana at Fumio.

"What the-…" Fumio's jaw drops at how bad Yoshiko's swing is.

Even though Yoshiko's sword strikes earlier in the spar can pass for a beginner, her anger fueled sword strikes currently is worse than lousy.

"Calm down. It's not a baseball bat." He can only advise.

It is as if he was not heard however and Yoshiko continues to blindly swing.

A few swings later, Fumio gets taken aback.

The lack of pattern in Yoshiko's swings makes it hard for him to predict the attacks, and *whoosh* he gets a graze on the thigh.

He is not impressed however. It was obviously a close lucky shot.

Yoshiko meanwhile, after landing one, hops back, feeling proud.

That feeling does not last however as Fumio charges towards her. Fumio this time is not using his wooden sword and instead opts to continue the spar with bare hands.

"You…" Yoshiko gets annoyed, feeling like she is being looked down upon.

Her feelings do not matter however as after painfully blocking just one punch, she gets hit in the gut with one of Fumio's body blows.

She gets frustrated. Fumio is obviously holding back his speed and strength to her level and yet, she cannot land a square hit, or even prolong her defense.

Fumio's casual expression furthers her frustration.

."Are you a better fighter than Sensei?" She cannot help but ask.

"What?" Fumio scoffs.

"No. Why?" He asks, interested at her conclusion.

"I at least get a few hits on him." Yoshiko claims.

"Right…" Fumio smirks.

"I did! Many times!" Yoshiko gets offended at the obvious skepticism.

"Right… Tell me. Do you only land a hit on him whenever you're at your limit?" Fumio asks.

Yoshiko takes a few seconds to process the question before, "Y-y…" she gets stunned by it. It does not take her to realize what Fumio is saying.

"That's right. Every time one of your attacks landed was simply because he let you." Fumio smirks.

"You should not have said that." Red appears in front of them.

"Sensei." "Boss." The two disciples greet Red.

"Kotone knows though?" Fumio asks.

"Yes. And because you two realized, you started to refuse sparring with me, no?" Red asks, feigning an annoyed face.

"S-sorry, boss." Fumio bows deeply.

Red meanwhile, internally shakes his head at Fumio's unusual behavior and the reason for it.

Unlike Kotone and Yoshiko who have intense motivation to train, Fumio feels that he is not as motivated as them. Seeing that Yoshiko's elixir is now almost as potent as Kotone's after the hell training, he got intimidated.

Instead of dwelling on that feeling however, he started utilize it to give himself motivation. He decided to give Yoshiko more motivation by letting her know the difference between them, and by revealing to her that she is but a frog in a well.

The faster Yoshiko grows, the more motivated he will become.

"A very convoluted way, Fumio. I'm not impressed." Red tells Fumio.

"I'm sorry, boss." Fumio bows again.

"Xoz'gekal!" Red then calls out and a few seconds later, Xoz'gekal joins them.

"If you're so strong, why don't you fight him?" Red asks Fumio rhetorically.

"…" Fumio knows that he cannot get out of this, so he can only accept.

"Yes boss."

"…" Yoshiko seeing Fumio's face, rejoices inside. 

Seeing Red step aside, Yoshiko does so too and stands beside him. The two's gesture signals Fumio and Xoz'gekal to start at any moment.

"Please take care of me." Fumio does a shallow bow to Xoz'gekal while swallowing his anxiety. He had never sparred with the demon before. The demon's fire even left a few fears in himself.

"Uhuh…" Xoz'gekal meanwhile, nods in dismissal.

'It's just a spar.' Fumio takes a deep breath and undoes his spiritual seals.

After that, with just his body's strength, he charges towards Xoz'gekal.

Xoz'gekal meanwhile, simply steps aside and while doing so, a small flame vulture appears behind his ankle before using the leg to kick Fumio.

Fumio is stunned by the speed and he steps to the side immediately, dodging the kick effectively. He then throws a leg of his own to which Xoz'gekal parries easily aside with his hand which wrist is also sporting a small flame vulture.

The force of Xoz'gekal's parry forces Fumio off-balance.

Fumio meanwhile recovers immediately and uses the forces of the parry to do a cartwheel kick. The kick however is dodged narrowly by Xoz'gekal. Before he can fix himself back to the ground, he feels his gut take a huge hit, and he is sent flying back a few meters.

While he gets his footing back, prevents himself from falling down, he is rocked.

Thankfully for him, Xoz'gekal seems to be physically weaker than him.

"The hell? Do you think you're in an action movie?" Xoz'gekal then mocks him.

"…" Fumio does not take offense however, having heard much worse. Instead, he focuses.

With just a few exchanges, he immediately feels Xoz'gekal fighting experience.

He is about to infuse spiritual energy to his body but, "Don't you dare.", he hears Red's voice.

"B-but..." Fumio is stunned by the order. After all, he knows he can offset the difference in battle experience between him and Xoz'gekal using spiritual energy, like how he did with Tezguniuth before his hell training.

"Would you rather spar with me?" Red asks.

"… O-kay boss. No elixir.." He can only swallow.