"Well, now that you've explained everything, I need you to do me one more favor, Elaine." said Ron, who took Elaine by surprise.

"If it's within my power, I'll try to help you" replied the girl, who felt she was indebted to Ron and Erwin;

Ron stood up from his chair, and then walked over to Erwin and stopped behind the boy, then laid his hand on Erwin's shoulder, with the latter somewhat puzzled.

"I would like you to face Erwin in a sparring match; what do you think?"

"WHAT?!"

Erwin and Elaine, after hearing Ron's proposal, exclaimed in unison, puzzled by the middle-aged man's request;

“Hey Ron, what’s the meaning of this?” Erwin’s voice carried a mix of confusion and frustration. “Why should I spar with her?”

He couldn’t fathom the rationale behind such a demand, not after all that had happened that night.

"Well, consider this sparring as part of your training; you might learn a lot." Ron said dryly and decisively, still not convincing Erwin, who had a thousand reasons for not wanting to fight Elaine.

"First of all I'm still a little tired, even though my wounds have healed! And also... damn Ron, that wouldn't be challenging for me!"

Elaine, who didn't have the slightest desire to do an unnecessary sparring, was intrigued by the boy's words, not understanding what he meant, although in her mind she had half an idea about the meaning of those words;

"What do you mean by that?" the girl asked, looking with serious eyes at Erwin;

"Well, even if it's a sparring, it would be like a rass to raise my hands against a woman, that's not fair. I apologize for this wicked request, Elaine.." - Erwin said, not realizing that at that moment the elf took those words very hard: in fact, if there was one thing that bothered her, it was the fact that she had always been underestimated because of her appearance; it was something she hated, and which Erwin naively reminded her of.

"Okay Ron, I would gladly accept your offer." Elaine said, thus catching Erwin by surprise, who couldn't believe what he had just heard;

"What the heck---!!"

Erwin was about to ask Elaine what was going through her head, when a single look at Elaine's eyes was enough to make him realize that the girl was really angry at him; she was so angry that her look scared Erwin, who in fact could no longer say what he wanted;

[What did i say now?!] thought puzzled Erwin, who looked at Ron in a bad way to make him realize that he had no desire to face the girl in the slightest; in response though, Ron completely ignored him, not caring about his ideas;

"Well, now that we've decided, let's go to the garden" Ron said, thus heading toward the garden set in the back of the inn.

"I didn't decide anything!" - replied Erwin, annoyed by the way things were bending against his will.

"In fact I decided for you, I don't see the problem." responded Ron, looking the boy with his usual cold and impassive look.

Erwin felt a knot in his stomach as he saw Ron’s determined look. He knew that look meant trouble, and if he kept refusing to spar, Ron would probably give him a noogie. Not wanting to deal with that, Erwin decided to just go with it and follow Ron’s lead, even though he really didn’t want to.

*****

"I still think this is a very bad idea..." Erwin said, while reluctantly stretching a little ahead of the upcoming sparring.

"You don't think, just do what I tell you" Ron said in an annoyed tone of voice, tired of the boy's constant complaints;

Erwin knew that his master never did anything for no reason, and he was certain that, again, there had to be a reason why Ron was asking him to spar with Elaine; but at that moment he did not understand exactly why, and that was the source of his unhappiness.

Meanwhile, Ron detached a medium-sized branch from one of the trees in his garden, and began to draw a large square on the ground, then invited the two boys to enter it;

"Okay, the rules of the sparring are simple" – said Ron who stood in the vicinity of the inn so as not to get in the way of their fight – "What you see is a small ring, and the first person to step outside this square will lose the match... Elaine! Use your entire arsenal, but try not to create life-threatening weapons, as you fight against an inept. And also, try to don't hurt him too much."

"Don't worry Ron, it will be over very quickly." – said the girl, starting to snap her fingers;

"Wait... do you really think I can lose?" Erwin asked annoyed, provoked by the way Elaine and Ron were talking.

"Yeah, you have 0 chance of winning this sparring..." the girl replied with a serious look, as her body began to be surrounded by her sky-blue mana, which shone with its own light.

"Okay, I think you are delusional now...." - said Erwin, who in the meantime began to enhance his body, with the latter beginning to release a faint light that indicated, indeed, his mana; his initial intention was not to go too hard on Elaine, but since the girl began to take him lightly, in addition to particularly annoying him, it made him change his mind, thus wanting to demonstrate the gap between him and the elf.

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"You seems motivated now..." said Elaine, who expected just this reaction from her opponent.

Meanwhile, Ron waited a few moments and, when he saw that the two boys were completely focused, he started their sparring.

"You can start!"

Erwin, who wanted to finish the sparr as soon as possible, launched himself into the attack, moving at high speed and running in zig-zags to disorient Elaine; the princess, however, was not surprised by Erwin's swift movements, and after taking a great leap backward, she created three small glowing spheres of water around her, from which small, highly concentrated jets of water began to shoot out, looking much more like bullets;

"This... This is nothing compared to Rudolf's attack!" said Erwin, who with ease, began to dodge all the shot towards him with quick and precise movements,leaving Elaine completely dumbfounded by the boy's quick and precise movements....

"He's much faster than I thought..." said Elaine, who despite having seen Erwin's dexterity against Rudolf, was still taken aback by Erwin.

Erwin managed to dodge all the blows and bring himself close to Elaine, attempting to hit the girl with a mighty punch. Erwin's blow was quick and accurate, and Elaine, caught again by surprise, still managed to dodge the blow, not without some difficulty by making an awkward leap to the side.

Erwin's fist, went to impact the ground violently anyway, and to Ron and Elaine's enormous surprise, the power behind Erwin's fist was such high that it went on to destroy a small area of the ground with ease, thus creating a small crater about a meter deep.

[...am I mistaken, or did he not possess this destructive force?!] thought the princess surprised, that besides realizing that her attacks had no effect, she now had to worry about that power behind Erwin's blows as well.

Erwin himself, seeing the power of his blow, was surprised: he did not understand how he had managed to give that much power to a simple punch, but he had the feeling that he could replicate such a blow with ease, since he was feeling at the peak of his strength.

"He's evolving..." thought Ron aloud, noticing how the mana inside Erwin circulated totally differently than when he had returned, thus wondering if the fight against Rudolf had somehow helped him progress.

He was happy to see his pupil grow so exponentially, but at the same time he had a doubt: could it be that that was all Elaine could do against Erwin?

"Don't you think we should stop here, Elaine?" said confindetly Erwin, who at that moment, seeing his current level, he coouldn't see how Elaine could beat him, if this was his level.

Elaine did not swallow Erwin's arrogant words, and although she was convinced that she could not replicate that enormous strength, she was still convinced that she could beat him. So, leaving Erwin stunned, she decided to dissolve the three mana orbs, which were the only thing that at that moment, allowed her to partially control Erwin's rapid movements.

"Do you think you are that strong? Come, I'm waiting for you with open arms..." said the girl making a mischievous smile, thus opening her arms.

Erwin did not understand the reason for that choice, and he didn't know why Elaine was so confident; but at that moment he had the opportunity to be able to attack Elaine in a clear way, and he could not let such an opportunity pass him by.

So, he strengthening his legs to the maximum with the mana, and he made an absurd sprint that instantly destroyed the ground under his feet; his speed was incredible, and judging by his expression, He was sure he could beat Elaine with that attack; the Elf, however, was calm and impassive, which Erwin did not pay any attention to.

Erwin was now about to hit her, and this time, he strengthened his fist with mana: he didn't concentrate a lot of mana into his fit, but it was enough energy to knock her out;

"It's over!"

Erwin set off a violent right jab; the punch approached Elaine at a frightening speed; the blow was fast, strong and accurate, and Elaine could follow the speed of the blow.

Although it was her plan, facing that vicious punch made the girl agitated, but she tried to stay focus; she knew that, in terms of speed and power, she was inferior to Erwin, however, judging from the boy's movements, she realized that his patterns, though precise, were very foreseeable; therefore, Elaine trusted precisely Erwin's accuracy and predictability, so as to launch her counterattack.

She trusted her gut, and when the right time came, with a quick movement of her hand upwards, Elaine raised a water barrier which parried Erwin's blow with extreme ease;

"The Fuck is that?!" - Erwin let out a surprised shout as his attack was effortlessly halted by the enigmatic water barrier.

".... Water Spell: Repulse!"

In the next instant that Erwin's fist was stopped by the barrier, an extremely bright alchemical circle appeared inside the barrier. Erwin did not even have time to realize what was happening, as suddenly, the barrier released a powerful shock wave, which violently struck Erwin and sended him out of the ring, leaving Erwin puzzeld by that ending.

"It looks like I managed to beat you..." - smirked Elaine - "Not bad for a girl, right?"

"W-Wait, that's not---!"

"The sparring is over. Congratulations Elaine, you won."

END OF THE CHAPTER 10 - Sparring Match.