The Hathor familia training grounds, despite the fall of Evilus, and the city in recovery, Hathor familia, Astraea familia, and Ganesha familia knew this wasn't the end of things. There was far more left to do, more strength everyone needed to acquire. Thus they trained.
In particular the Astraea familia was training to work everyone into their combat formation. As well as work on each other's ability to fight one on one battles. To truly put them to test in this regard, Zald was acting as the monster they all had to fight one on one.
Legi, who'd been training with the Astraea familia, with every intention of turning the war game into a victory at all costs, sweating and bruised, continued to stand, defiant of the gargantuan strength before her.
"You're not bad at all. You'll do well in the war game should you need to join." Zald said without making any jokes, he was serious. "Fact is, I think you might be enough to deal with all of Loki's level 6s. Ottar though, you'd need someone to help you with that guy."
"Thank you, Master Zald. I feel like I've improved a whole lot since I joined this familia. But, I'm still falling further behind my friend, Shurry."
"Hmm, I don't think he sees it that way himself. Here's a bit of advice, don't compare yourself to anyone other than yourself from yesterday. Let others compare you to another, if they are right, cool… If they're wrong, prove them to be so."
Legi's expression went from slightly worried and ashamed, to confident, and straightforward.
"Alright, next up. Bell, are you ready?"
"Great Uncle Zald, I'm always ready."
"Kekeke, then come, show me how much you've improved with all those lady friends of yours."
"They're my big sisters!"
Bell darted forward, using his nimble and small frame to his advantage, slashing at Zald's legs, and then leaping to the side, only to change angles, and come in once more. The assault continued, while Zald simply watched Bell's movements closely, ensuring that he wouldn't miss anything.
Then he started with light counters, to which Bell responded after taking a few lumps. Bell had changed his entire attack strategy in a matter of just a few blows… He was getting better, far better than he'd been before. Even so, there's no chance in hell he was going to last long if Zald really gave him a good whack, instead, Zald just extended his leg enough that Bell ran full speed ahead into what amounted to an adamantite wall.
"Ouch, Uncle Zald, that was mean."
"You won't be saying that when you see your next status update." Zald laughed, and then patted Bell's head. "You've improved a whole lot recently. I'm sure your pops would be proud of you. Keep it up, alright?"
Bell got emotional for a moment, and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt.
"I'll work harder than ever!"
"There you go. Now, stop holding up the line, I've got more people to judge."
Bell nodded, and ran off, to continue his training. Bokhoir, while he wasn't next in line, came over all the same.
"What do you want Bokhoir? You should know that any fighting between the two of us has to be in the dungeon. I won't be able to gauge you properly otherwise."
"I just noticed how much you care for Bell, and Meda alike."
"Heh, I feel the same towards Alfia, Meteria, and Shurry. I knew all of them while they were kids. And, perhaps it's because I feel responsible for what happened to Lyca. Had I not been knocked out, I'd have been the one to stay behind and die." His hand formed a clenched fist. "Not her. She, and Alraj both would still be here, had I not fallen unconscious-"
"Shut up with that bullshit. You know good and well, the kind of condition you were in. If anyone made the wrong choice, it was the fact, none of you came to get properly healed up, and rest, perhaps even doing a run down in the dungeon to really feel recovered."
"Bokhoir, I know… But do you know why I put so much on myself?"
"I do, Zald, I really do. It's a regrettable shame what happened, and you want to be the one to bear that responsibility."
"I… I usually don't care about what others do, but I should have come back to get healed. At the very least I would have been strong enough to handle that one attack that knocked me out."
This time, Leon, who'd been out on a date with a certain someone, returned to see the heavy mood, and thanks to the insight he has as a level 8, he could tell…
"Master Zald, there's no need to blame yourself. You and everyone else did what they thought was best at the time. We are not gods, we can never make the perfect choices. And in this case, even the gods didn't realize the scale of the threat."
The current look Leon was boasting at the moment was fairly odd. He'd just been out on a date… One that seemingly got a little spicy.
"Pfft, Leon. You've got a few hickeys there."
"Huh, wait what, really?"
"Nope, I just knew you'd done it"
"Damn, it's like level 9s can see everything."
"It is a bit different than level 8, but I'd imagine that Shurry can see something else now."
"That wave of pressure, that was him leveling up, right?"
"Without a doubt in my mind."
"Yeah, that's him leveling up alright, he had a similar thing happen at level 8. I don't remember it happening at level 9 though." Bokhoir mentioned.
"Well, I doubt anyone was paying that much attention to it, in the face of a god's arcanum."
Zald's comment answered Bokhoir's curiosity.
"That's good, the first level 10 in history…"
"Yep, and the first thing he does is go to bed. I'd bet anything Alfia is having one very interesting experience right now."
Alise and the other Astraea familia members sighed.
"Master Zald, are you continuing training today, or are you done?"
"Oh, sorry about that… Bell makes me a bit emotional. Reminds me of what Shurry was like ages ago."
"Good, then it's my turn now, Master Zald. I want to earn my status, but I also want to see just how good I really am."
"Good, I'll dial it up a couple notches for you then." Zald smirked…
The atmosphere in the training grounds grew cold, serious, and dangerous.
"A shame this is the limit for such a small area, but I promise to test all of you well on our expeditions."
"You'd better keep that promise."
Alise prepared herself, and took this match seriously, using every last one of her stats possible, and pushed herself beyond those limits, demonstrating everything she'd learned over the years.
Zald, on the other hand, dodged, parried, and yawned, all barehanded. He did this until the warm up time he gave everyone was over. And, he then began to retaliate, not much, just enough to balance out the excelia she would gain from the spar at hand.
…