The Supreme Level Up System

With his left arm and shield pretty close to his left side, Georges swung his training sword downward in a wide motion. He seemed a bit too dead-set in landing the first strike to obtain some advantage by making Aion pay the push-ups first. Still, Aion blocked the attack with his spear, and since it was a single-hand attack, he didn't feel much weight behind it. Or perhaps he had added too much strength to that class.

Regardless, Georges moved his shield to attack Aion's left side since both of his arms were busy. However, Aion was fast enough to see the attack coming and jumped backward. When he landed three meters behind, his half-brother had already assumed a defensive stance while he was walking toward him.

Georges had tightened his guard since his first attack failed, and surprises aren't very effective after one failure like that. Still, he charged soon enough and, without breaking his guard, tried to hit Aion with the shield and by using the full weight of his body. Aion attacked the shield with the tip of his spear to decrease the power of the charge, and while that happened, he still was pushed backward for a full meter before Georges stopped his momentum.

Georges moved his shield to the side and forced Aion's spear to move away as well before he approached and swung his sword. However, by copying his father, Aion moved to the side and dodged the attack by a thin margin. He had a good chance to attack with a kick, but he chose to move away he resumed his defensive stance.

"New rules: if you miss the chance of a good counterattack, you will pay forty push-ups as well…" Lexus said.

"It isn't fair to change the rules in the middle of the spar," Aion protested.

"Life isn't fair, just like wars," Lexus said. "At wars, we attack and are attacked with larger numbers whenever possible because we don't want to lose our homes, our families, and our friends. When you want to protect something, you need to do your best and even use cowardly tactics if necessary. Losing chances like that is the same as giving the enemy the chance to the same against you many times more."

That sounded like nonsense, added with extra spicy bullshit to make the argument sound more convincing. Still, Aion decided not to complain again. Georges also looked pissed since it looked like Aion was going easy on him… in the end, it was better to teach his half-brother using other methods.

When Georges charged again, Aion moved the tip of his spear forward and forced him to raise his shield. At the same time, he lost sight of him for a moment, and when he lowered his shield a bit, Aion was no longer in front of him, and then he felt a strike on his left side.

"Pay forty push-ups, Georges," Lexus said.

"... Yes, father," Georges said.

"Why did you get hit?" Lexus asked while his son was doing the push-ups.

"... I raised my shield too much and lost sight of him," Georges replied.

"What should you have done?" Lexus asked.

"... Parried the attack instead of trying to fully block it," Georges replied.

"That is one way of dealing with that," Lexus said. "When someone aims at your head, and when they are too close, you shouldn't lose sight of them for even a moment. That might be fatal."

Aion felt a little bad for using that kind of knowledge against his half-brother. He knew a bit about martial arts, and he had read enough books in his previous life to know that when they are raised, shields leave a big blind spot on their users. In large-scale battles, that wouldn't change things a lot since allies could watch their backs, but in duels, things were different.

In the second part of the spar, Georges realized that despite being strong for his age, Aion had a disadvantage… his weight. With his guard up and with his stance lowered, he charged at Aion, and his first sword strike was aimed at his legs. Aion quickly blocked the strike, but he could see the shield approaching, so he only blocked for a moment before jumping backward, and that made Georges charge even faster than before.

"He is a lot faster than I predicted…" Aion thought while furrowing his eyebrows.

It seemed like Georges was trying a suicide attack in a spar since he was planning another body slam using his shield. Still, Aion could tell that he wasn't that naive. He strengthened his stance and blocked the charge when he landed by using the whole spear. However, in the next moment, he moved his shield to the side and broke Aion's balance before swinging his sword down to Aion's head.

In the end, Aion was forced to kick his chest to avoid the attack aimed at his head… that was going to hurt, so it couldn't have been helped, even though he regretted kicking a kid.

"More forty," Lexus said. "You did better this time, but your opponents can use more than the weapons in their hands. Headbutts, kicks, punches… you have to expect that all of them will be used if the target is unable to use their weapons for a moment."

While carrying his equipment, it was kind of hard to do push-ups, so in the next part of the spar, Georges had a hard time attacking since he was tired. He hadn't lost all of his advantage against Aion, but he sure wasn't being as troublesome as before. After a few charges, he began to slow down, and then Aion targetted his pivot leg, and when he staggered, he hit Georges' chest.

"You need to be smarter at the start of the fight. You have to be even smarter on the end," Laxus said. "Unless you access your situation clearly before attacking, you are bound to fail. Give me more forty push-ups."