(Nov 7)

I was doing my morning shift until my superior officer told me that since most of the sick soldiers were coming back to work, we had enough people patrolling and made me go to the training grounds with some other soldiers.

At this point, I was stronger then almost all my fellow soldiers, but there’s always room for improvement.

The soldier training grounds were filled with sweaty people swinging around swords randomly.

I casually lifted some weights, swung my sword a bit, ran a couple laps and did the usual recommended training regiment.

Obviously at my current strength, it wasn’t difficult, but it was still a good idea to tone my muscles and allow my inner magic to slowly develop as I adapt to my strength.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a giant wooden greatsword swung straight down towards my face.

Luckily, I was able to narrowly avoid the attack using my dragon instincts and instantly tossed the training sword in my hand at the attacker.

The training sword was easily swatted away with a single flick of his hand…

“Heyo, Anthony! I see you’re training well! You avoided my attack so easily! Chahaha! I expect no less of you!”

Briggs chuckled as he stabbed his wooden greatsword into the dirt ground.

“H-hey…”

It’s been a while since we spoke, and the first thing Briggs does is swing a greatsword at my head, which by the way, would’ve killed any normal person.

“I trust you enough to be able to dodge my slow attacks! I mean, I heard from William that you fought against your wife in her Grinch form after all! How could you be hit by a mere training sword?”

Briggs is as straight forward as always.

It seems like William already told him everything.

“Haha. It didn’t doubt a single thing William said! On the day you fought The Grinch, I was able to sense your magic all the way from the kingdom! It felt like two monsters were rampaging! It made my blood boil! I so wished I was there to join the fight, but argh, what a pity I wasn’t.”

Now I’m starting to wonder what would’ve happened if Briggs was there to fight The Grinch.

Who’d win, the godspeed Grinch (my wife) or the berserker Briggs (my friend)?

It’s fun to speculate, but I don’t intend on letting my wife fight him.

Suddenly, I felt the magic around Briggs surge.

“So… I wanted to test how strong you became Anthony. You up for a sparring match?”

My arms got goosebumps as he said that.

I wasn’t scared, but god damn, he was intimidating.

His voice was brimming with confidence and yet had no malicious intent at all. He simply wanted a spar to test my new strength.

It almost looked like his eyes were glowing from anticipation.

How could I refuse him when he was so excited to fight me? It’s like denying an excited child from receiving a present.

“Alright Briggs, let’s have a match. Friendly match, alright? Friendly. Friendly.”

I made sure to emphasise the word: “Friendly.”

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“Of course, I wouldn’t want to seriously hurt you! Chahaha, don’t worry, it’ll be a learning experience for the both of us. Oh, and we should also change location. We don’t want spectators getting hurt afterall.”

I nodded.

Knowing how my powers work, there’s a high chance of soldiers nearby getting hit in the crossfire.

Briggs and I moved to a separate courtyard that was reserved for royalty and nobles.

Since I was a commoner, this was the first time I was in such a luxurious royal courtyard.

This was an area where princes and elite knights would train, and the fact that me, a simple dude, managed to befriend the king’s son and came here to spar with him filled me with an unexpected pride.

The next time I meet my father, I’ll have so much to brag about!

And honestly, even though it sounded as if I was reluctant to fight Briggs, I was actually pretty excited as well.

Fighting is… fun.

I know it’s strange to say that, but it is. Especially between two strong people.

I didn’t always like fighting, but as I said before, I’m slowly becoming a battle junkie. Maybe Briggs is rubbing off on me.

“Alright, so what are the rules for the match?” I asked.

“Hm. How about no weapons? Just our fist. Mano a mano.”

“Sounds good.”

We both tossed aside the training weapons were holding and stood at opposite ends of the court.

It's been a long time since my last battle against Briggs, so I was excited to see how I've grown. I felt a little nostalgic upon remembering all the times I was beaten up by Briggs despite it only being a couple months ago.

I quickly snapped back to reality though when Briggs pulled out a royal gold coin.

He had a childlike grin on his face as he placed it on his thumb and flicked it into the air.

Ka-tink!

The moment the coin hit the floor, Briggs instantly vanished and his massive fist appeared in front of my face.

This wasn’t an issue for me though as I weaved my body like water to avoid his attack.

Briggs twisted his body, allowing his center of gravity to tilt, and swung his leg in an arc at my body.

Almost as if I could see the future, I predicted where his kick would aim, grabbed his foot and smoothly jumped over him.

“Hahahaha, you move well! I see your battle senses have improved lots!”

Indeed.

After The Grinch fight, my senses were a lot sharper.

Not only that, but it also seems like my instincts have drastically improved.

When I found out my wife was The Grinch, I’m pretty sure I went through dragonification but I wasn’t sure what powers I got from it.

Now I’m sure though.

My instincts and awareness have improved.

Dragonification doesn’t always give new abilities or dragon body parts, it can also simply improve already existing aspects.

I’m still not sure what my dragon instincts are; how they were able to have its own will during The Grinch fight, but so far, everything it’s done has helped me, so I trust it.

And since my instincts were drastically improved by dragonification, it was almost like I could see the future.

Of course, I can’t actually do that, but it almost feels like it since my instincts allows me to instantly analyse Brigg’s movement and predict the mostly attack pattern along with having a nonlogical instinct alerting me of undetected attacks.

This ability suits me well since I’m quite good at finding patterns when fighting and honestly, this upgrade is probably the best one I’ve received from dragonification so far.

My dragon instincts alert me of attacks and incoming dangers that I’m not even aware of. So even if an assassin capable of 100% concealing their presence were to attack me, despite not being able to notice them in any way, I would still be able to somehow sense that I’m in danger.

Honestly, I’m pretty sure this isn’t how normal instincts are supposed to work, but then again, my dragon instincts aren’t normal.

Regardless, it isn’t perfect since it won’t protect from attacks that I can’t react to in time or avoid, but it’s still extremely useful.

After a bit of casually exchanging blows, Briggs finally started to heat things up.

“Well, that’s enough of warm up.”

And as he said that, an ominous miasma rose from his muscles.

I know that black curse energy all too well, I did fight him during the festival tournament and got wrecked after all.

I knew firsthand how deadly he was when he goes berserk.

In his current state, he’s about as strong as he was when he fought me during the tournament.

This was when I was able to confirm that what William told me was true: Briggs was indeed holding back.

When I first faced him in battle, I was overwhelmed by his strength, but now that I’m stronger, I can tell he’s not at full strength.

He’s gone a bit berserk, but he’s still mostly conscious.

Man, that meant I got fucking smacked around by Briggs who was still going easy on me.

Well, I couldn’t afford to hold back myself or I’d get beaten again so I went all out.

Dragon scales appeared all over my skins and my hands morphed into dragon claws.

5 dragon jets were summoned, one on each of my elbows, one of the backs of both my feet, and one on my ass. The same positions as they were when I fought The Grinch.

A few dragon missiles appeared behind me as my dragon essence made my body glow red.

I had entered my newly achieved dragonoid form (formerly known as dragon combat mode but my wife suggested dragonoid instead because it sounded cooler).

With this, I activated every single dragon ability I had.

Briggs seemed surprised at my new appearance, but then grin mischievously as his eyes narrowed into slits.

He looked excited to bash my face in…