Richard started the battle with a simple strike downwards, focused on testing the water.

He knew that Galileo could likely take care of himself now; heck he'd bee able to do that even before he left for his apprenticeship.

Regardless, he couldn't bring himself to muster his full strength on that first blow.

Clang!

To his surprise, Galileo easily took the blow, deflecting the blow with fitnesse, before using the opportunity to thrust the blade.

It didn't hurt, merely bouncing off his scales, but the quick and reflexive reaction showed RIchard that Galileo was trained well, seen as he promptly lunged after the fact, planning to push the advance.

Richard didn't let him, using the lightning spears quickly, forcing the young man to halt his advance.

Gathering his energy, he began launching a volley of lightning spears, not holding back as much.

Still, he was sure Leo would be fine. As dangerous as it was, Richard could feel that he was weaker than usual, thanks to the absence of a certain beetle.

Even if it hurt, it shouldn't be too dangerous.

The energy spears began raining down in the dozens, as Galileo was forced to deflect and dodge the arrows, finding it difficult to respond to them.

One even pierced the young man, and to Richard's surprise, he staggered back, as if hit by a serious blow.

Galileo quickly figured out what was going on, by Richard's surprised look.

The man who he regarded as his father clearly underestimated his own strength.

And so had he.

Galileo decided to concentrate his effort, as he began to glow faintly, the flow of divine energy began to run through his veins.

A sense of vitriol overcame him as he began running faster, easily dodging the lightning spears.

Galileo had become visibly faster, signs of the amplification ability divine energy had.

Richard, seeing Galileo coming closer, began summoning cloud golems into existence.

He was surprised, and even a bit anxious at seeing how effective the lightning spears had been, but still managed to respond in a timely manner.

Even if he no longer had familiars at this moment, he could conjure up aid to his side.

Four cloud golems burst into existence as they charged towards the young man.

They were not enough to hold Galileo.

The golems were slow and untrained, good for distractions, and not much else.

For foolish beasts with some level of intelligence, they were enough, but for Galileo, they were merely distractions.

He cut and sliced with great precision, easily bypassing the distractions.

Perhaps had he spent more mana on them, the golems could regenerate their dissipated limbs, but he hadn't intended for them to be anything more than quick expenditures, to give him space to think.

----------------------------------------

"I'm surprised you suggested this first." Commented Devis as he watched the two children fight it out. It was a rather soft fight, expected given that neither of the two truly wanted to hurt each other.

Clearly Richard was holding back, and Galileo less so.

Clang!

Much less so.

The great wyrm responded calmly. "Richard needs more confidence in himself. He feels insecure in his own power."

Devis agreed with the notion. Watching Richard fight, there was hesitation in his movements, even though Devis could tell that Richard greatly overpowered Galileo in terms of stats. Were he to press this advantage, he could easily win.

Seeing his shaken look at the spear Galileo took, and the way he sent the golems out as distractions, There was a lack of steel in the boy. Fine for a young adventurer, but for a dragon, this was an unacceptable weakness.

"And you think this will help him?" Devis asked, genuinely curious.

"It will help him realize the gap in strength between a human and a dragon, and hopefully give him a greater sense of security. He is too trapped in what ifs and hypotheticals that he cannot see the reality of it, scared of shadows he cannot see"

Scave chuckled. "Perhaps, but the boy has good reason to fear. There are many powerhouses that lurk in the empire."

"Those are everywhere. If one refuses to go anywhere, always worried about a maybe, then they'll go nowhere.The world's too dangerous to worry about what ifs like those"

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Copernicus commented off handedly, focused on the fight playing out and Alexandria nodded.

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"Precisely."

If Richard were to go anywhere in this life, he needed to have the confidence to step on the path above else.

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Richard realized that he had the storm bank as Galileo, but he was hesitant to use it on Leo.

Primarily because he was worried about hurting Galileo.

Even with all the safety measures in place, he couldn't bring himself to hurt his friend so easily.

Galileo pushed his advantage, slashing and stabbing his blade at Richard.

Even if it didn't hurt physically, it clawed at him mentally, giving him a sense of frustration as he tried to hit the boy.

He was fast, hard to hit, with how agile he was.

Fwoosh!

Choosing to push this time, rather than just take the blows, Richard's wings sent him up, and sent the young man flying back hard, knocking him off his feet.

There was no hesitation this time, as the frustration from being attacked pushed him to return the favor.

Seeking to disarm, but not seriously hurt, Richard activated his molten claws skill, lunging forth and grabbing the shield.

It melted easily in his hands, unable to with stand the molten heat.

IN the next moment he quickly flicked his tail, making brief contact with the apprentice.

The boy had reacted fast, throwing off his shield at the dragon's face, and Richard anticipated this, using his tail to land a blow on Leo.

Not to hurt, but to limit.

The skill static activated, as Galileo's sensations began to feel off, the static causing his senses to faltar on him.

And Richard's senses began to improve as he applied hyper sense and berserk rage, strength coursing through his veins.

Sure, he also felt a little drop in speed, but considering Galileo was suffering the effects of static, there were few better times to incapacitate him.

Galileo was already running for his shield, as RIchard quickly lunged at him.

Richard got to the shield first, thinking as quick as he could as he put his foot down on the shield, pinning and breaking it.

The static wore off, but it was too late, as the shield was already broken.

Galileo increased his efforts, as his blade began to glow faintly.

Divine energy, a dangerous power for sure.

Seeing his young friend using it now, Richard felt a slight sense of pride, seeing a young apprentice already managing to use it so, but there was still a battle to fight.

With no shield to rely on, Galileo switched to dodging Richard's attacks while going on the offensive.

Now Richard was beginning to suffer some actual damage beyond mere scratches, as the blade had become sharp enough to draw blood.

It wasn't enough to do real damage, but the fact that a training weapon could now draw blood was proof of the power of divine energy.

Galileo had seemingly not shown any skills unique to the temple of Isis thus far, but that did not stop Richard from being wary of it.

Perhaps Leo was also holding back, worried that such an attack could cause a severe attack.

The battle was long and drawn out, and Richard was even beginning to become tired, as the battle felt like it took an eternity.

And despite Galileo's strong stance, he was clearly panting, the battle taking its toll on him as well.

"Stop!"

Came the voice of referee Scave, and the two sparring partners collapsed, both tired.

Panda leapt over, chuckling.

"Not a bad fight." he commented, before adding on. "Look a little useless without me though, hmm? "

"And the others."

"Hm? Yeah, sure, and the others." the squirrel said in a dismissive tone.

Richard rolled his eyes at the comment.

His other two familiars hopped over to him, and Atlas in particular dug into Richard's scales, as the insertion of the beetle brought a sense of revitalization with it.

It made him feel more alive as he got up and walked over to Leo.

Galileo was being healed by Copernicus.

"You did great! It would've been better if you-" Said Copernicus, congratulating Galileo, as well as educating him, as the boy grunted, yet he was clearly paying attention to his teacher.

His words expressed disinterest, yet his actions spoke of devotion and slight respect to his teacher.

"I guess..." Galileo said non-committedly.

He underwent a noticeable change as he jumped up and ran over to Richard.

"How was it! I'm pretty strong right?!" He said eagerly, clearly seeking the dragon's approval.

Richard chuckled as the dragon ruffled the hair on the young man's head. "You did good Leo. It seems that your teacher has been training you well."

"Yeah I guess so. Teacher is a... strong man." He said carefully.

"Eh? What about as a teacher?" Asked Copernicus, flabbergasted.

"You're alright as a teacher." Shrug

"Yoooouuuu!" He said as he head locked Galileo, giving him a frustrated head noogie.

Richard could only sigh. Galileo clearly had thoughts about the paladin's teaching methods.

Sister Alexandria was not far behind, with Achil walking behind closely.

"You did wonderful!" she said warmly with an encouraging voice, causing Richard to be a little embarrassed by the praise.

Achil nodded in agreement. 'You are strong'

Richard laughed embarrassedly. "I did alright I guess. But there were multiple times were I could've been better."

Sister Alexandria sighed. "Trust me, you did good. You're not as weak as you think you are."

"Is this about what we were talking about yesterday?" Richard asked, as he quickly picked up on the point of the spar.

Sister Alexandria didn't bother hiding it either. "It is about that, yes. I thought that if you had a little spar with Galileo, you could see how strong you are."

"But I didn't win?" Richard pointed out. It hadn't been anything near a win, but a stalemate.

"You were holding back, were you not? I noticed you didn't use storm bank directly on Galileo, and when you had opportunities to press the attack, you chose to merely attempt to incapacitate. And you were still about to win."

"But-"

"-No buts. You were doing swell. And you may not realize it, but Galileo is a high C rank."

"Really? Galileo?" Richard said, clearly flabbergasted by the very thought.

Copernicus cut in at that moment. "Of course! Otherwise, I would've never brought him somewhere as dangerous as the Ymir ranges unless I was sure he could survive at least. "

Leo made a quiet grunt in disagreement, but his silence agreed with the truth of Copernicus' statement.

Hearing this, Richard felt his pride in Leo go up a level. Leo had managed to become a C rnk in but a few years, a feat that

"See? Holding back, and fighting someone who's a high C-rank, and without your familiars. And not a single real injury either. You need to have more confidence in yourself." Alexandria softly added on.

Richard had a hard time digesting it, but he still understood the reasoning.

Devis walked up as he expressed his agreement. "She's right. We stripped you of your familiars, a significant part of your strength and strategy. With them in the equation, I'm sure the outcome would've been very different. You'd be an A-class threat at the very least with your familiars, and a high one if we include the black dragon over there." He said as he indicated towards Achil. "You're a lot stronger than you seem to think."

"So I'm guessing you also agree with the idea of me going out?" Richard asked Devis, surprised the man chose to speak out at this moment.

Devis shrugged emotionlessly. "I don't care about that really. Just stating the truth. You're strong for a barely year old hatchling who started without any form of inheritance or parent's initially, so the growth you've demonstrated is miraculous. And frankly, you're stronger than half the empire's population currently, bare minimum, you alone"

Richard wasn't quite sure about what to say about that.

He still had doubts in spite of it all, and yet, he could not deny it.

That burgeoning sense of confidence.

And the reality of it. Richard didn't feel secure enough, but he wasn't stupid, and recognized the reason why this spar had been set up.

Richard was strong.

Strong enough.

He had no more reason to hide up here.

It was time to face the truth.

It was time to get ready to head down the mountain.