Chapter 24: Mother's Jealously.
"Haa... Haa..." After a few minutes of constantly swinging her limbs without even being able to touch Lumine, Alicia was also getting a little tired.
"Okay, we can stop now." With Lumine's words, Alicia stopped using her moves and panted heavily.
Alicia was flabbergasted, thinking, 'I have practiced martial arts for way longer than this. How can I get tired so fast?'
As if reading her thoughts, Lumine said, "You were using Mana coating while doing martial arts. So you needed to focus more than before. Which mentally exhausted you."
Alicia nodded in understanding. When Luis came near them, he gave Alicia a bottle of mana potion and a towel to wipe her sweat.
"Thank you," Alicia whispered. Luis just gave a charming smile and said, "No problem."
*Clap*
"Okay, it's your turn, Luis." Lumine disturbed their little flirting without hesitation.
***
Alicia was a little distance far from them as they stood in front of each other.
"Mom, are you angry about something?" Luis asked carefully, as he saw the annoyed look on his mother's face.
Lumine gave a fake smile and said, "Why would I be angry when my unfilial son brought a towel and drinks for his fiancee when he didn't even care about his mother?"
Luis looked at her weirdly and retorted, "But you didn't even break a sweat."
That was true. With her rank, there was no way she would break a sweat over something like this.
"Does it matter?" Lumine pouted.
'Isn't it?' Luis felt a headache coming, so he instantly changed his words. "I will remember next time."
"Good boy~," Lumine said sweetly. "Let's start."
Luis took a fighting stance and covered his fists with mana coating as he started throwing punches and kicks at Lumine. Expectedly, none of them could break her defenses.
This was the first time he was using martial arts since he entered Luis' body. The only experience he had was from the memories of Luis. The reason he could use them properly was because of his high talent.
As he continued fighting, and as every moment passed, his moves improved. Lumine had a wide grin on her face as she noticed the changes in Luis' moves.
"Sweety, don't think I'll let you off so easily." Her sudden words caught him off guard.
"What do you mean?" Luis wondered what she was talking about now.
"Oh, did you forget? Then let me remind you." Lumine saw the confused expression on his face and said.
"For years I felt sad because my son didn't have much talent in martial arts, but I still pressed him to practice them. I always felt guilty in my heart for pushing him so much." When she said that, she had an expression as if her heart was breaking and tears will come out of her eyes.
But suddenly her expression changed to surprise. "Until recently, when I suddenly found out that the bad boy was just pretending. When I saw his Martial arts talent was S-rank."
Then she had a thoughtful look on her face. "At first, I thought there was something wrong. Because the pain and effort he put into practice all looked so real." She said, remembering the past few years when she trained Luis.
"But he also had a talent for acting, which made all my guilt disappear as I decided to punish that bad son of mine." She had a fake smile on her face, but Luis could hear the irritation in her voice.
'It's a misunderstanding!!!' Luis wanted to scream, but all the facts were against him. He wanted to say everything was real. All the hard work the previous Luis put in and the pain he went through. Everything was real. It wasn't an act.
But how could he explain? So he could only grit his teeth and accept whatever punishment he will receive. After all, from Lumine's perspective, Luis had tricked her, which made her heartbreak.
Even if he was ready to receive the punishment, he still tried to escape in one last struggle. He remembered all the movies, anime, and comics he saw in his previous life and used his Performer talent to the max.
He stopped using his moves and lowered his head.
"Hm? What happened Luis? Why did you stop?" Lumine asked in confusion. 'It doesn't seem like he is out of mana.'
"Can..."
"Can?"
Luis suddenly raised his head. His eyes looked teary and full of pleading. It could make anyone's heartbreak seeing his expression. "Can you let me off once?"
Lumine felt her chest tighten and thought she was a bad mother who was abusing her little child. 'How could I be so cruel? Even if he was pretending, he still worked hard.'
Lumine's eyes became moist as she looked at Luis lovingly. "Don't worry my son, it's alright. I know there must be a reason behind this."
Luis nodded his head as he said in a solemn expression, "Yes Mom, but I can't tell you yet." Lumine nodded her head in understanding. "It's fine. You can tell me when you are ready."
'I'm saved.' Luis thought inwardly and smiled. "Thank you, Mom."
Lumine looked at him with a smile. As she wiped the tears from her eyes, she said, "I won't punish you, but I'll make you work hard."
Luis nodded his head seriously. Hence, he once again started attacking Lumine.
"Don't just put powers behind your punches."
"You are leaving a lot of openings."
Soon after, Alicia also joined them as she also started fighting Lumine.
This time, whenever there was a flaw in their movements, Lumine would point it out. Fighting one of the Overlord (S) rank powerhouse, their combat sense was improving rapidly.
After the combat training, Lumine taught them muscle-strengthening techniques using mana. Both Luis and Alicia had been taught Human Anatomy since childhood, so it was easy for them to grasp it. Now they just needed to practice it while applying it in battle.
Muscle strengthening, as the name suggests, is the strengthening of a body's muscle by using mana. It can give a boost in strength or agility based on the type of muscle that is strengthened.
For this, a lot of practice is needed, otherwise the muscles will tear apart if they can't handle the input of mana. That's why with practice, the muscles can get slowly used to it.
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