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"Ouch." He yelled lightly. A broom made of hard wood and with witchcraft, the material of the head part was hard enough to give him a neat beat on arm which he used for defense purpose. "That's an impressive hit." He beamed with delight, happy about how hard the witch may attack. He may be more relieved if she was alone. If he could, he would try his best to protect her 24/7, but that wasn't good for her growth, he knew that. "Try to lock your eyes on me next time, okay? You are doing well, but some enemies have the ability to move really fast, so your eyes need to look at them all the time." He raised two fingers and made a gore-it-out gesture, towards his eyes and then to hers. "Keep your eye contact all the time even if you feel nervous or uncomfortable."

The serpent-dragon boil swung his arm easily, and made his stance for the next attack. "Come and try again. Remember to open your eyes this time because -" He paused and winked. "I might assault anytime." His tone was playful but Maple should remember this was a spar.

"Hey hey don't be sorry, or you think I am a crybaby?" He lightly asked, but he already got his answer for that question. "Look at me, Maple, I am as strong as a dragon!....Wait, what am I saying? I am already a dragon haha~" He laughed, didn't really bothered by the pain from the smack. When two of his species fight, it was something more than that, they usually use weapons like knife while he bare handed, but so what? "No worry, just hit and smack with your lovely broom!" The dragon boil beat his chest with a rather strong force to show how substantial he was. "You don't need to worry I will break like a crystal animal-"

When Maple was just standing, AJ was bubbling and bubbling, so there was no idle time actually. The boil was very talkative ever since he joined Amityville and the witch should already used to that. Since he was talking all his way, the broom jab came as all of a sudden. However, he was AJ, the sensitive warrior boil, so with a rather swift and fierce glare, he grasped it with a claw, before it could reach his stomach. A whistling came out from his mouth. "I am a bit startled, nice try, Maple~"

He was happy that she was taking his advice sincerely, a big smile that was a tiny different but hard to tell was shown. If the witch was interested in some fighting techniques, he would be the most happiest to share her some he accumulated. As a student, especially an Amityville student, she would face a lot of dangers in her life, the appearance of shadowlings, portal to different worlds, hunter encounter - and.... That's why he wanted her to be capable to fight on her own even they were separated, he wanted to ensure she could protect herself no matter what.

The nightmares or simply illusions adumbrated him what might happen in the future and for him to realized what his biggest fear was.



That's why he had to force Maple to prepare, even though the ghoul was never into spar or fight. She will be facing enemies that get their claws at her and the worst - the boil himself. He normally can suppress the beast, but he was worried one day he would lose his control, so the spar was a preparation, in case one day - she had to face him - as a enemy...

The thought made the boil frowned and for a moment, his defense was off.

The tiny bit of a smile was caught because AJ was looking at Maple all the time, when his claw was on the broom (he made sure the force he used won't damage as he knew it was very important to the witch), he smiled and waited, curious about what she would do next.

Show me your potential, Maple.

The boil could tell she was doing something, but he didn't know what, all he observed was the witch concentrated on the broom he was grasping. A few minutes later, she announced it didn't work. AJ was a tiny tiny little bit disappointed, but he didn't show it on his face at all, he was so good at hiding his emotions. "Oh! What was you trying to do? Using FEAR?" He looked down to check the broom, nothing changed. "Lack of practice? What does it supposed to do? Wanna try again?" He made an offer.

One time he was her spar partner, and then the next second he could be her friend again.

"Concentrate and feel the fear essence within you, like something drawing out from you. Trust me, imagination helps one not to be distracted. Since we are practicing, you can close your eyes, it would be easier." He shared his experience and waiting for her. "Relax, Maple, if you can be less worried, the effect will come out naturally~" The dragon serpent boil coaxed.

Seeing the red on the witch's face, AJ wanted to pet her head or touching her cheek but when he reached out, he found he was having some pointy sharp claws at the moment, so he turned around to rub his head instead. "You should use it if it's useful. What will it do? Make me numb? Huh - bounce me off? Or -" The boil's eyes were full of curiosity and excitement. "Don't feel bad, I seldom use mine unless I am forced to, my FEAR will mix with the venom and make my target numb for a short period. However, I prefer fight with my body usually." He shrugged, not seemed to be bothered by the several misses of his FEAR attack before, "They don't always work, and that's why we need to practice. Don't afraid of failure, they are good in the sense that you know where to improve. Don't give up, Maple, you're doing quite good." He beamed.

AJ was waiting, watching as the girl tried again. He could tell where she was at because FEAR was something intangible and invisible, you can only see it when it mixed with something else or transformed into other existences. So when the broom escaped his hand out of a sudden, he felt something dangerous but his move was too slow, his jaw was hit by the end of Maple's broom. It made him bite his tongue.

He shortly covered his mouth out of the pain of the bleeding wound, blood slightly ran out from his mouth. AJ hissed while being impressed by the attack, "Jack! Maple, that's creative!" He then continued to cover his mouth while wiping the blood away so that he won't get excited and hurt the witch. "I love it." He waited until the pain subsided and gave the cute little witch a thumb up with sparkly eyes.

"So nice. Unexpected. Impressive." He laughed in delight and soon returned to a defending posture, what an interesting ghoul she is.

"Hmm? You are saying something?" AJ didn't hear her mumble at all, maybe that was what the witch wished. "Ohh, your aunt. Jinx? Do you mean bad luck? Like a curse or spell? That's pretty cool~" He asked, interested in more details of the witch's background, they were friends, and he should know more about her except she was a witch with a broom. "For me, it's Shishou. She didn't allow me to call her auntie because it felt so old. Normally it should be parents teaching offspring but -" He didn't continued, "-anyway, I self-learnt how to make use of it through mistakes and a lot of fights, but she helped me to grab the idea better and more solid, through butt-kicking and being a punch bag." He shrugged as if he could do nothing with the Shishou he called.

AJ noticed the quietness of Maple as he looked at her. "Are you blaming yourself?", because he was dense, so he asked. "Everyone is different, same as their FEARs, don't get upset because it seemed to do nothing big. Like playing chess, just one small move can change the whole situation." He was forced to play chess back to the days in his homeland, in the name of learning to stay calm and patient. "Don't get into the dead end, you should try to figure out how to make good use of your FEAR, like a gemstone, you need to polish it before it can shine. No need to rush, it takes time." He gently petted her head, tried to hide up the claws by holding them in the palm.

"Maybe we come out and we can focus on practicing your FEAR?" He was interested in it and willing to help. "I know you are not into fighting actually, maybe try to do something you like? Sandwiching the fighting time with your favourite thing, maybe it will make you feel better?" He suggested. "Don't feel obligated to do so, just a suggestion." Shortly, the witch took action and quickly swept towards his legs, it hit one of his legs but he dodged for another one.

"Nice pick, I didn't scale up my legs because it will hinder my movement and extended the time for response. Another weak point would be the knees, knock it hard and it can create a short immediate numb to your target, you can try it next time." The boil was pleased by Maple's choice and wanted to tell her more.

The topic of familiar aroused his interest, reaper type can have familiar, but he looked at the witch and started to imagine what kind of familiar would fit Maple most. A cat? A bat that matches her bow? An owl? A ferret? He stopped thinking and decided to ask. "What familiar does your family have mostly?"

At least she relied to his words, AJ gave another pet on her hair. She then stepped backward and he stepped backward, ready to block her attack again. He noticed she was concentrating on something, he knew she was trying and he wanted to encourage her, but saying things will only distract her, so he just watched with a smile, but still prepared to defend anytime.

AJ interestingly looked at the red haze floating around him, blocking his vision and lower his accuracy. He was like the curious boil who wanted to clarify the composition of the gas, he attempted to touch it but they dispersed. "It looks nice, Maple. See, you did it, good job." He felt delighted to be wrapped around by his favourite color and gave the witch a bright smile with a thumb up.

"Is that candy floss? Cheery flavour?" Head snapped at the smoke like FEAR.

He would never stop encouraging the witch if she could be a bit optimistic and happy, to the others, the tiny smoke was just nothing more than a mild nuisance. Yet, to AJ, he was happy to see a little step of progress from the witch. "Hey, are you okay?" After using her FEAR, the witch looked a bit tired and he was worried about it. Deriving the essence from their body was just like humans losing moisture, it would have a need to replenish the essence.

"Oh~" That's why she had a pair of lovely horns, so different from other witches he might see. "Thanks for sharing, that's pretty interesting to know things about others, especially friends." He smiled, and the smile got bigger as he slowly swung one of his hand back-

And bounced off!

The FEAR was dragged out from his body and concentrated on his claw, making it harder and stronger with a weak red aura. Whenever the claw touched, the red fog was dispersed temporarily. The claw attacked swiftly, creating a sound like a whistle until he was blocked by her fear shield. He was impressed that the witch cut down his damage by nearly half as he bounced and slid back to where he was standing originally.

"Oh so when our FEAR collide, it would be cancelled temporarily, interesting~" The boil used his clawed head to stroke his chin. "Let me test it with regular attack next, Maple." He suggested.