"Gah!"
Theo didn't give him a chance to recover and immediately struck Laust's head with the spear he had thrust earlier for a fake.
Laust gritted his teeth and slashed down his sword, not allowing the attack to continue. However, Theo had seen it and shifted his body.
Using the momentum from earlier, the spear bounced back from the face toward the hand, hitting it in order to knock the sword off his hand.
Laust's eyes brightened as he dropped his sword, only to be caught by his other hand. At the same time, he grabbed the spear's handle with that newly free hand.
Laust's strength was far stronger than Theo's, so he planned to utilize it to regain the ground.
The plan was easily visible from Theo's point of view. He used Laust's hand to make him come closer while sending a kick toward his chest.
Unfortunately, the sword came into his way, blocking the kick.
Seeing that they couldn't move anymore from this stance, they decided to retreat once to get a stable position to launch another attack.
During this exchange, many people were impressed.
The female beside Alea couldn't help but praise Theo's tenacity as well. "This guy. It's obvious that his strength can't be compared to that of Laust, but he's fighting him on equal ground."
"Indeed. There are three things that can defeat a stronger opponent. The first is experience. From what I can see, these two seem to have the same level of experience. Laust aside, the guy must have gone to the other side to hunt monsters so many times." Alea narrowed her eyes, observing Theo, who now piqued her interest.
"His family problem, I think? It's not that rare for someone to go to the other side for the sake of money." She shrugged.
"Yes. Then it connects to the second thing, which is control. The more you fight and the more you practice, the better your control or mastery over your technique and form."
"But I believe Laust has this advantage. I mean, his family must have hired tutors. Although he is known as a useless son compared to the first son, there is no way that the Lange Family will have their own sons to be that useless."
"Agreed. The third reason is the real reason why the other guy can fight him on equal ground. It's trickery." Even Alea couldn't help but sigh when she said this.
"You look like you have an experience with this kind of thing? Trickery was it?"
"Ellen, you know why assassins are dangerous?" Alea glanced at her.
Ellen thought for a moment and answered. "Isn't it because they are hiding and we won't know when they are going to appear?"
"Yes. But above all, they will resort to anything that allows them to win. After all, my grandfather once gave me the best lesson about this. Fighting is not about the process. It's about the result. Do whatever you can to kill your enemies because no matter what kind of explanation you have, no one will hear it from a dead man." She sighed. "As much as I want to rebuke him, I really can't."
"Hehe, you are always righteous."
"Righteous? Not really." She shook her head mysteriously.
"Fine, fine." Ellen shrugged.
Meanwhile, the instructor, Rektus, was impressed by Theo's movement and thought. 'This guy… Faked his off hand to strike at his opponent. He is quite talented himself, but the problem will be Laust. I wonder why he wanted to fight this guy? It seems this situation requires me to investigate the problem.'
The same as him, Laust also had a different opinion of Theo. He never thought that there was a drastic change right after he tried to kill him. Although the Rock Turtle was not a part of his plan, Theo should have died from that monster.
Yet, not only did he return stronger, but he also began relying on trickeries. His expression grew colder the more he thought about Theo's changes.
He took a deep breath and stabilized his breathing before charging at him to test his new plan.
"!!!" Theo realized that Laust's movement was somehow different from his normal form.
Laust thrust his sword toward Theo. With that small pointed blade, it was hard for Theo to stop it with his handle alone. At the very least, his current skill didn't allow him to do such a precise movement.
Instead of taking it head-on, Theo decided to jump to the left, avoiding the strike.
As if he had predicted this movement, Laust stomped the ground to regain his balance before swinging his sword toward Theo.
"Kh!" Theo lost his form due to prior movement. He pushed his spear's butt to hit the floor, gaining the ground to stop Laust's swing entirely.
Even so, his strength wasn't enough. He was pushed to the side.
Not wanting to lose, Theo shrank his every step and made a 360-degree turn and used that momentum to strike Laust in the head, only to find itself slightly lower due to his off balance stance.
Despite missing the original target, this movement allowed him to create enough strength that could rival Laust's.
Bang.
The sound of collision between Theo's spear and Laust's sword echoed in the gym.
"Kh!" Laust clenched his teeth as he was blown away by that strike. He took another look at Theo, who looked down on him.
His pride took more hits than his body. He just couldn't accept that the useless Theo, who couldn't even hit him before, was currently fighting him on equal ground. There would be many rumors spreading about this unprecedented sight.
When his family realized this, he would surely become the "Useless" son they always thought. That was what Laust didn't want to see.
He took another deep breath to calm his mind. If he got too fired up, the new Theo would surely take a chance to land another hit on him.
'Is he really that idiot Theo? He never fought back before, and now I need to deal with him seriously? Something must have happened from that incident. That idiotic couple, I will beat them after this. Still, I can't afford to lose this match. I almost reached level 50 and became an Elite Rank while this bastard's level was 7 previously. I will become a laughing stock if I lose this spar.'
When he fell into deep thought, Theo closed their distance again and thrust his spear.
"…" Laust had sensed him and retreated one step back. As much as he wanted to show their difference in strength, winning took priority.
This one step should never cross in Theo's mind, so he decided to pull this stunt to create an opening.
And just like he predicted, Theo's left side was open.
Suddenly, Theo stretched his left hand to block the attack, but Laust took advantage of it and hit the exact spot where he struck him earlier.
"Aah!" Theo clenched his teeth, enduring the pain. He had endured something more painful than this when the rock turtle almost killed him. There was no way he would give up when the chance had presented itself before him.
However, everything was futile. The moment that pain froze him for a split second, Laust's sword had moved toward another position, hitting him on the left shoulder and blowing him away.
Rolling on the ground, Theo launched himself to the air with his right hand and stabilized his stance as soon as he landed on the floor.
There was no way Laust would miss this chance. Before Theo could do anything, he charged toward him, planning to keep him unstable.
Theo smirked and threw a small wooden cylinder along with its splinters.
"!!!" Everyone watching this had their jaw drop. They just noticed that the spear's butt had already been crushed by something.
Theo must have broken it with his own hand. Only some realized when he did all this. It was in the 360-degree turn he performed earlier. When the spear was hidden behind his body, it was the perfect time to do that without having Laust knowing. Now that they thought about it, that was also the reason why Theo's spear went toward Laust's shoulder instead of his head.
Because of those fragments, Laust had no choice other than to cover his eyes with his off hand, giving an opportunity for Theo's thrust.
Even with all this, Laust was still strong. He managed to block that thrust with his sword so the spear didn't hit his body directly.
Not wanting to end the attack as a failure, Theo pulled back his spear and kicked Laust's on the chest, blowing him several feet away.
"You bastard!" Laust couldn't take it anymore. Theo's trickery had been chipping away his patience. "I have it enough!"
His wooden sword glowed, and he swung it down, releasing three blue lights that flew toward Theo from three different directions.
"!!!" Theo widened his eyes and thought about what he needed to do to escape this attack. He didn't have time to dodge, and even if he had, he would be injured since he would take one or two attacks during the process.
The only escape route would be his clone. He needed to use it and had those three strikes hit his clone instead of him. As a result, Laust would also know that he had another skill. There was no doubt that the investigation would follow. In order to fool him, allowing him to realize that only his strength had grown, he needed to hide this one.
'As expected, taking this attack is the only way if I don't want to mess with my overall plan.' He gritted his teeth and braced himself as the three attacks hit.
Boom.