Chapter 79 – BFO Combat Training

“Mmm…”

A soft sensation and warm body heat. The scent tickling my nostrils woke me. The sky had just begun to lighten.

I was sandwiched between the two of them in their sleepwear, being used like a body pillow.

“Mmm… Good morning…”

“Morning, Ashley”

“Yes…”

When I shifted slightly, Ashley greeted me. Her amethyst-colored eyes met my gaze.

But perhaps she still needed more sleep, for after barely opening her eyelids, she closed them again immediately. Resting her cheek against my shoulder, she breathed quietly in her sleep.

What left an impression was the completely relaxed smile she showed just before falling asleep. I could feel she trusted me, but the body pillow situation remained unchanged.

…Lately, whether it’s helping Grace with recoil dissipation or Ashley with circulating ki, I’ve been doing these things more often before sleeping in the main bedroom.

While these are necessary for Grace and Ashley, doing so tends to create a three-person time including me. So I’ve been making more effort to take our time doing these leisurely activities in the bedroom.

Both of them seem to find it reassuring or comfortable, allowing them to sleep soundly afterward.

Since it’s summer, I use magic to lower the room temperature to create a comfortable sleeping environment, which often results in the body pillow situation being complete by morning, like today.

Through experience, I’ve learned that circulating ki is significantly more effective the larger the contact area and longer the duration. Ashley’s movements clearly improve during sparring sessions with Sheila or Rosetta.

While I personally restrain myself to some extent because full-body contact would be problematic in terms of rationality, considering our labyrinth diving, I can’t afford to be too reserved either, which is troubling.

As for my own issues—well, in the end, if I cast sleep magic on myself, it becomes a non-issue whether I endure or not, so that’s how I’ve been handling it lately. I shouldn’t rely too much on self-control alone.

“Fufu”

A small voice escaped from the other side.

Looking over, Grace had also slightly opened her eyes, wearing a gentle smile.

“Good morning, Theo”

“Yeah. Morning. Did I wake you?”

“Even if I wake up early, I can watch both of your sleeping faces”

She said with narrowed eyes. …Hmm. Not sure how to respond to that.

“You’re used to seeing my face by now, right?”

“I like it. The feel of your hair, your eye color, things like that”

Her fingers gently ran through my hair.

“I’ll be preparing breakfast soon, so please rest until then”

She said, but…

With the sensation of Ashley’s body against my arm and the ticklish feeling of having my hair stroked, going back to sleep from here seemed quite impossible.

“Nah. I’ll get up too. Since I’m up early, I thought I might do some morning training in the garden”

I gently slipped my arm out from under the sleeping Ashley, lightly stroked her hair, and left the house with Grace seeing me off.

Training, huh… Sparring with my companions using spare beginner magic staves is fine, but in that case, since my attack power is excessive, I end up primarily defending without counterattacking.

While this trains my defense techniques and Ashley’s group’s attack techniques, the reverse gets neglected, which is problematic.

Moreover, my fighting style involves performing close combat while controlling magic, but during sparring I can’t channel magical power into the staff, so my magic processing capacity ends up being underutilized.

So I’ve been thinking about alternative training menus for when we’re not diving the labyrinth, and came up with something. If it works well, it could be useful for Ashley and the others’ training too.

“Create Golem”

Using earth magic, I create golems about my height. Four should be enough for now?

Their movements aren’t particularly agile, nor can they execute complex commands. Their movements are either combinations of patterns I predetermined or real-time control, making them predictable… but that’s exactly why I decided to add another layer.

Well then. Training begins from a surrounded position.

I have them attack simultaneously or with staggered timing from four directions, which I then handle.

I’m making them perform reasonably difficult coordinated attacks, but since I’m the one controlling them, golems alone can’t really predict my movements.

Ducking to avoid the arm of a golem approaching from behind while thrusting backward. Good feedback. Continuing the motion from the thrust in one fluid movement, I swing the staff held in a reverse grip to blow away the front golem, then spin the staff like a windmill. I strike down the head of the golem approaching from the left, slamming it into the ground, while timing a rising strike from below against the one from the right, slightly offset by one rotation.

The golems’ forms break, get blown away, then reform and rejoin the battle line. This repeats.

Being able to attack freely is good, but this alone still feels insufficient. It’s like combining choreographed sparring with shadow boxing.

But when I occasionally mix in Caduceus’s attacks, the story changes. Between the leaping golems, rounded thrusts or whip-like strikes fly in, or snare traps are set.

Since they’re not hardened, they lack lethal force, but they’re quite sharp attacks. For Caduceus to perform movements like this just from my commands, he really is an outstanding familiar.

I can practice defense using not just staff blocks and parries, but also incorporating magic shield. Good. This is proper training.

By having Caduceus provide support with timely guerrilla attacks, I mix in unexpected movements. Essentially, it’s close combat training with Caduceus while controlling four golems.

Magic control ability, close combat skills, Caduceus’s combat experience. Everything gets trained—nothing to complain about.

I handle Caduceus’s attacks while crushing golems through the gaps. Immediately control them to revive and continue attacking. Scooping up and blowing away, entangling and pulling down.

I don’t let defeated golems stand up one by one. By having them counterattack immediately from where they were crushed on the ground, I compensate for their sluggish movements. By having them roll up parts of their bodies to throw, I fill the time needed to close distance.

Knocking them down. I tilt my head to avoid Caduceus’s strike that approached hidden behind golem projectiles, but from behind, piercing through a golem’s abdomen, I catch Caduceus’s thrust approaching in my peripheral vision.

This is unexpected. If I stay planted on the ground leisurely, the golems form walls leaving no space to dodge. I plant my staff in the ground and cartwheel in an arc, completely removing myself from the spot.

I can tell the golems’ movements themselves are becoming optimized and refined, gradually increasing the difficulty. More and more—I should be able to handle it.

“You’re… doing unbelievable things again”

Just as I was getting into it and losing track of time while immersed, Sheila and the others arrived. Wearing prototype aerial equipment that just came from the workshop—they must have come out intending to do morning training too.

“Morning”

“Yeah. Morning”

“Was that… new training… perhaps?”

Irmhild tilts her head.

“Just something I thought of. With this, everyone can practice group combat”

By reducing golem density or changing materials, I can eliminate lethal force. Since it’s not real combat, unlike in the labyrinth, I don’t need to consider safety margins. Grace should be able to participate in training without worrying about her opponents.

The implications of this are significant.

For example, we should be able to practice handling attacks at the absolute limit or nasty coordinated attacks. Since I can train everyone while also honing my control abilities, it’s killing two birds with one stone.

“Can we… try what you were doing just now?”

Perhaps sensing something from my smile, Sheila’s expression unusually twitches.

“Hmm, well. I’ll adjust the difficulty and number of golems. If we use aqua golems, we can practice aerial combat without getting dirty or injured, so it should be safe.”

I won’t make the training too harsh. If you can’t continue this kind of thing, it’s meaningless. Since we have my circulating ki and Ashley’s healing magic, we won’t accumulate physical fatigue either.

—And so, until Grace came to call us for breakfast, I had them undergo special aerial combat training with the new menu.

“Impossible. That timing-based attack is impossible”

“Close the distance decisively. Sticking close to the opponent approaching first, using them as a shield, would probably work better”

“How… should we dodge that?”

“For deviation shooting, either evacuate the spot before it closes in, or use defensive magic. Identify where projectile density is thin and slip through, covering with defensive magic. Anyway, don’t let them read your movement patterns—avoid monotonous evasion”

“Huh? Are arrows effective against aqua golems too? It’s not just Theodore-kun making them pretend to be hit, right?”

“Maybe because Irm’s bow can channel magical power through string resonance? Since it interferes with my control, it’s quite effective. I think it would make a difference if you could do it faster and with more weight”

“Hmm. I’ll work hard at it”

…And so, while envisioning demon battles, we incorporated various elements including tough experiences from BFO PvP, making it quite a dense session. As we continued, their movements kept improving, and I could also get feedback on golem control methods for my own training.

Labyrinth practical combat. Pushing limits in training. I think we’ll proceed with these two wheels driving us forward.