As soon as the fist made contact with the dummy, it promptly exploded. The two onlookers had their jaws drop at the spectacle. When the dust settled, the upper portion of the dummy was missing. Noctis was just standing there, blood dripping from the torn skin on his knuckles. What caught their attention was that the wound was closing at a visible rate.

“That’s definitely fatal damage. Looks like I underestimated you a little bit, kid. It’s still far from enough for you to be able to deal with our little princess here.” She walked over and put her hands on Lux’s shoulders.

Lux didn’t realize just how much power Noctis was able to generate. “If he didn’t have such a powerful body, he’d implode.” Salus chimed in from the mental connection.

“Implode? Why?”

“It needs to be able to contain an energy that’s able to destroy almost everything it comes in contact with. In addition to being a very powerful, it is also very volatile. I’ve witnessed one of the sovereigns fights in the spirit realm before. All he did was infuse a portion of his energy into his opponent, and they started to decay from the inside. Truly a horrible way to die.”

“It’s time to spar.” Lux snapped back to reality at those words. “Alright, stand about… 20 feet apart from each other, and don’t move until I tell you to.” Alicia let go of Lux and gave her a slight push, before turning around and heading for the edge of the barrier. If that kid hits me accidentally it could break more than a few bones.

They did as they were instructed, and were facing each other. Noctis was having a hard time standing still, unable to stop his leg from bouncing. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t fought anyone before; scuffles would break out all the time over some leftover food and loose change. It was just that he was scared, but excited to fight the princess. He was a little frightened by her display earlier, thinking back to the dummy being impaled gave him chills.

“Rules are simple, you two keep fighting until I decide a winner. Remember kid, if you land anything I’ll do my best to get you a good teacher. You two ready?”

“Yes.” Lux shouted, while Noctis simply nodded.

“Begin!”

Lux opened up with a spear of light while Noctis tried to begin to close the distance, running straight at her. The spear came right at him at a speed he couldn’t react to, but stopped right in front of his chest, before multiplying and surrounding him. They followed him around no matter how fast he ran, but also stayed exactly the same distance away.

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The same trick again? He kept his eyes on Lux’s hand that was directing them, and as soon as she clenched her fist, the spears began to move and he jumped 10 feet in the air. All the spears drove into the ground then dissipated, while Noctis used his jump offensively, aiming to drop down and land a punch. She was just standing there, not having moved since the start of the fight. Noctis threw a punch accurately at her face. As soon as he made contact, or thought to have made contact, she disappeared and he slammed into the ground, causing cracks to form where his fist landed.

He looked around to find that she was 20 feet behind him, creating more spears. She began to throw them one after another, this time they didn’t just stop like he was expecting. The first one grazed his face, while the next pierced into his left leg. As soon as it pierced the skin, it started to dissolve, so it didn’t make it all the way through his leg. Lux looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, but didn’t relent.

He wasn’t able to run quite as fast, but it was still nothing to laugh at. He dodged the next few spears, and caught the last one to throw right back at her. Lux simply put her hand up and erected a barrier of light, which the spear was absorbed into. She felt fairly confident in the barrier so she wanted to see whether or not he would be able to break through it. The answer came seconds later when it shattered.

He aimed a punch at her gut, hoping to end it, but Lux dodged to his right and landed a shot perfectly on his liver. He was stunned for a moment, and during that short period of time she punched him in the stomach, kidney, and chin. She went in for one more shot to the temple to put him out, but he caught her fist in his left and pulled her into a punch to the chest. The blow caused spiderweb cracks to form on the white armor, and Lux to spit out a little blood.

She knew things would be messy if she over extended herself again, so she retreated and invited him to attack. Noctis being the simple minded fighter he was, came in with a punch aimed at her mouth. She narrowly avoided it, and in the same moment caught his arm. She used his force against him to flip him over her shoulder. The impact forced all the air out of his lungs, leaving him gasping for air. Without wasting a moment she drove her knee into his chest grabbed his throat with her left and was ready to punch him one last time.

“That’s enough. Convinced that the little princess could whoop your ass yet? Ah, well I guess you did manage to get a hit in, a deal is a deal.”

Lux rolled off his chest and started breathing heavily. It wasn’t easy to move around in the armor at all, and with it being hot out, sweat was pouring out of her face, The tips of her black hair were drenched.

Alicia walked over, forming a block of ice in each hand. She handed one to Lux and dropped the other on Noctis’s forehead. It was a saving grace for both of them in the summer heat.

The only thing Noctis knew he felt for sure was embarrassment while he was still struggling to draw air in. He thought he could do something with his superior speed and strength, but got destroyed on a technical level. It didn’t help that the only thing happening through the mental connection with Tyrant, was him laughing so hard he started to cough.