Aside from messengers, all soldiers were forced to stay on the bridge site from now on. So, Billy will have to forget about his week off for a while. Again, it was a pain, but it was inevitable...
"Hopefully, Samuel and Samara will continue on with their training without me," Billy thought.
"You are looking absent-minded again… you are losing your edge, Billy," Natalie said. "Come to think of it, it has been a while since you had a spar and fought using only your spear."
"I suppose so, what is your point?" Billy asked. "If you want to duel, I will keep you company."
"That is what I wanted to hear," Natalie smirked. "Prepare to get your ass kicked."
Billy naturally held back since he didn't want to damage his weapon and hurt Natalie. Still, even so, he was supposed to have an advantage over her… Unfortunately, during the duel, Billy was forced to keep a defensive stance because Natalie focused on attacking several times. Her attacks were relatively light, but she aimed for troublesome spots. All in all, she overwhelmed him with sheer speed and accuracy. He knew that she had gotten better and she had talent, but that still was troublesome. Even though he helped her overcome her weakness...
"I guess I am getting rusty," Billy frowned.
"That is only obvious since you practice so many things at the same time," Lily said. "If you ask me, that is only natural, but he is unreasonable enough to try and master all of those."
"Considering that Billy learned Light Spear when he was nine, I kind of wanted to see how good he would be by focusing on training a single style," Alexander said. "But I suppose that isn't possible, huh. I suppose I will become the best of my generations, then. Just kidding."
Alexander laughed, but Billy could tell that despite his attitude, he truly wanted that. Regardless. It seemed pretty interesting, but it also would make it easy for enemies to find ways to surprise Billy. By having many tricks up his sleeve, he would be the one surprising the others. Speaking of tricks, Billy had another idea… he went silent for a moment and then turned around in order not to let his friends see what he was doing. In the end, they opened their eyes widely when he turned around, and the spear was floating around him.
"Now I will defeat you without using my hands," Billy said. "Behold my awesomeness and despair."
"How did you… ah, you are using wind Manipulation to control the spear," Natalie said. "That is..."
"That is so cool!" Alexander said. "I wish I could do that."
"You can, just envelope your spear with Earth and control it the same way with your mind," Billy said.
There was no point in keeping that secret since anyone with half of a brain and good senses could understand what Billy did. Natalie was someone like that. In any case, Billy assumed something wrong before. He thought that manipulating the elements was somewhat limited, like he could only force them to do something when he put his mana on them, but that wasn't true. He could keep sending his mana and change the orders, and he didn't even have to touch the elements since they were already under his control.
In any case, Alexander tried that, but his control over his spear was limited by his low magic. He could make it move at his walking speed, but nothing more. As for Billy, he could make his move at his running speed while he rotated and spun at the same time. When Natalie asked to him to attack with the spear-like that, she felt quite the power. Even though Billy only used the butt of the spear. However, he couldn't forget the extra power the rings granted him.
"Hey, Drew," Nikola said when he noticed that a lot of people were looking at Billy's group. "It seems that your son came up with another novel idea."
"Hah… I wonder who he took after to be so creative," Drew forced a smile. "I am just a muscle head, after all."
With that skill, Billy probably could fish the magic beasts in the river by himself. However, after doing some experiments, he realized that the further away he moves his spear, the more mana he will use. Still, it was an excellent combination of martial arts and magic.
"This is enough for now, let's return to the old school sparring," Billy said and then grabbed his spear again.
Billy felt that he wasn't training Light Spear and Quick Spear enough lately, so that was an excellent chance to do that. After taking a deep breath, he prepared his stance and then began to thrust his spear toward Natalie at fearsome speeds. He didn't give her the chance to do anything aside from blocking. Even that, she couldn't do it properly since each strike had a lot of power and destroyed her stance.
In the end, what Billy warned Natalie many times happened. He felt strange feedback when he was attacking and then stopped, Natalie frowned at that, but then half of one of her swords cracked and fell on the ground.
"I told you," Billy said.
"Come on… just when things were starting to become fun," Natalie said and then sighed. "Now what am I going to do if those guys appear?"
"You should have asked yourself that earlier…" Billy facepalmed. "Let's see if I can make a spare sword made of dirt. It will be heavier, but the durability will be higher as well."
Thanks to all that mental training, Billy managed to craft a copy of Natalie's sword really fast. The shape and size were perfect, but it was two times heavier, but there was a problem. Her previous weapon granted her a small boost in strength and speed, but the new one didn't grant that.