-----

After fighting with Eric, he was too tired to continue anymore even if I healed him, so he quickly went to rest while Erika comforted him by petting his blonde hair as he rested over the grass fields.

Chris was the other kid most eager to fight against me, so I quickly decided to get into a fighting stance against him because he was way fiercer compared to Eric, his fighting style could be said to completely insane, a berserk, in fact.

I had already healed him with my magic, and his Mana and Qi recovered a bit more thanks to him not being cursed like I am, so his internal energies recover way faster, in fact, twice as fast as me because my regeneration is halved thanks to the curse.

"Chris, are you ready? I won't go easy on you anymore; you've shown some serious growth now." I said.

"Okay… Me neither, Blake! I'll show you that I can also be someone reliable!" said Chris.

He was obsessed with being a reliable man, probably because of his own father. What happened to him really left an emotional impact on the young black-haired boy. He looked for a way to become strong and reliable like his muscular father, so he wanted to grow stronger for that.

Chris probably sees me as his rival in some sort of way, although I cannot really take a child seriously, I can at least accept his desire and motivations to grow stronger and guide him towards the path he desires. His emotions are noble.

Chris' spirit was summoned at his side, as it suddenly grew larger, up to the size of an adult dog or so, it had a large aura of flames, and it seemed like a very strong spirit even at the level Chris was.

I saw that his newly acquired Fire Qi already began to be used, covering his body with a blazing aura, Chris seemed to have increased the amount of pressure that his own presence emanated in a split of a second.

Although he was still a small and still cute six-year-old kid, so I cannot really take such a young child seriously… Nonetheless, he was very serious about it, and the young boy quickly rushed towards me while covering himself with flames.

CLAAASH!

His fist was the first thing that clashed against my arms, as I decided to give him a heel sweep and throw him into the ground.

"Hah!"

However, he saw through my actions, probably because I was getting rather predictable by the amount of times I do this with the kids, as he jumped and evaded my heel sweep, using this opportunity to generate a fireball and shoot it at my face with the aid of his spirit.

FLASH!

"Hmph! Not bad!"

CLASH!

I covered my arms with my Qi and easily hit the fireball with them, dissipating the flames with ease, only for a smoke wall to cover my vision.

Oh, interesting, was this part of his plan?

I sensed the presence of Chris lurking behind me as he tried to kick me in the back, I caught his leg but he suddenly twisted his entire body around, throwing me down.

BUMP!

"Hah!"

Chris celebrated as he was about to attack me with a punch in the face, but I blocked it with my fist and then, jumped from the ground by infusing mana into my back and releasing it through the usage of the Tier 1 Wind-Attribute Spell 'Gust'.

POOF!

"Woah!"

Chris lost his balance as he saw me getting up in a second, he pointed his fingers at me and unleashed a rain of fire fireballs towards me, which I evaded or intercepted with my bare hands covered in Qi, although one of them managed to sneak, a six one, which hit my belly and forced me to step back a few centimeters.

Impressive, he has really improved.

However, I wasn't going to lose to my disciple so easily either!

FLASH!

"Huh?!"

Suddenly, Eleanora emerged behind Chris, as she had used Shadow Sneak to sneak behind his back's shadow, and used her blood threads to wrap them around his legs and pushed him down.

"Uwah! W-Wait, that's unfair!" he said.

"Unfair? You've been using your spirit all the time, isn't it fair I use mine too?" I said with a smirk, as I quickly was about to attack Chris, but he stood up and burned the threads, asking his spirit to deal with Eleanora while he intercepted me with his arms covered in fire.

"Hahh!" he roared, as I clashed against him with a powerful kick.

CLASH! CLASH!

"Uagh…!"

My kicks were way stronger than he could handle them, the impact felt through all his bones, he was hardy but not enough to take me head on.

I jumped over by propelling myself using the Gust Spell once more, and then gathered darkness around my hands and conjured the Shadow Attribute Spell 'Shadow Bullet', firing it repeatedly against him.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Uuaggh…!"

He tried to unleash fireballs against me, but my magic attacks were more precise and stronger, the bullets hit his body strongly, throwing him down.

I quickly reached him and gave him a gentle karate chop in the head.

SMACK!

"Ouch!" he cried.

"I win." I said.

I looked at Eleanora, who had also defeated his spirit fairly easily, by wrapping it around her Blood Threads and inhibiting its movements.

"A-Amazing… I really can't compare with you yet…" he said.

"No, you've grown very strong already, I was surprised a few times… You simply need to learn more techniques and you'll be able to easily become even stronger." I said, as I gave him my hand and he stood up.

"Thank you, Blake… It really means a lot that you can help me grow stronger… Y-You're really a good friend!" he said, as he suddenly hugged me.

"Don't worry about it." I said with a mild smile.

"H-Hey! Why are you hugging Blake?" asked Erika while pouting jealously.

"That's what good friends do!" said Chris.

The two kids ended discussing over who could hug me…

-----