Insect Tamer's Ascension

Theo slowly walked inside the training hall, and when he saw all these familiar faces among the masses, he started feeling somewhat comfortable.

There were many in the masses that he knew from his previous intensive training sessions. They were the ones that helped him the most.

On the other side were the members of his family and the guest Baron Thorne sitting on a chair with his legs crossed.

Theo and his gaze met, and he gave a nod of luck to him.

Theo reciprocated and looked at his mother next, who was standing with a serious face, but from her eyes, Theo could feel some concern coming from her. She nodded toward him too.

'Wait, this might be the first time mother is seeing me fight this close…'

Even more pressure fell on his shoulders, but for some reason, Theo felt even more excited about the spar.

The Baron was seated right beside the guest one, and both the Baroness and Lucien were standing to the side.

When Theo looked at Lucien briefly, he smiled confidently. Yes, his brother was the one that trained him and he had confidence in what he had learned so far.

"Alright, Theo, you will be having a spar with one of the knights in here right now. Are you ready?" The Baron asked, making Theo nod.

"I am ready, Father. You can choose anyone for this spar." Theo said and showed as much confidence on his face as he could.

The guest Baron whistled in awe. Seeing a kid so young, so confident, made this even more entertaining.

"Alright then," the Baron spoke and skimmed through the knights from left to right, who were standing straight as if they had been deployed for their duty.

They were not as normal as they showed themselves during the training sessions.

"You…" The Baron pointed and squinted his eyes.

After a few seconds, Baron Thorne looked toward him and grinned.

"You don't know his name? Such a shameful thing to witness, Merrick Baron." He did not let it go and spoke with a roaring laugh.

A vein popped in the Baron's forehead, but before he could say anything back to him, the one he pointed at marched loudly to the training stage.

"… Theo will be having a spar with you. And I don't want you holding back, okay? Only limit your strength at a beginner level 5 individual" The Baron spoke, and the knight nodded in seriousness.

Lucien looked at his father and shook his head with a light smile. It seemed he had blabbered his mouth in front of a guest yet again.

Theo smiled and made his way toward the training area, the knight did the same.

"Are you ready, young master Theo?" the knight asked with calm, yet Theo got the message that he was trying to send.

'Be careful, huh…' Theo thought and went in his fighting stance.

The knight did the same. He was wearing a metallic armor that covered his whole body, while on the other hand, Theo was wearing a thick leather armor as usual.

"Go!" The Baron spoke suddenly, and the knight brisked forward after the go.

Theo went on guard. The knight was a level 5 individual; all the guards and knights were.

He waited for the knight's attack intently, and when the knight smacked his fist toward the middle of Theo's chest—

He still waited patiently. The speed of the attack was fast, but at the same time, Theo could see it.

Right when it was going to hit instantly, Theo moved his chest and shoulder back at the same time.

Since the situation with the viper where he took care of it up close, Theo had become more and more daring.

For the spectators who were proficient enough to look, they could see Theo's upper body and the punch moving at the same speed.

The knight was pleasantly surprised and continued with his other hand that went for Theo's head.

Theo saw the attack coming right away and dodged it at a close call too.

"Yess…" Lucien muttered from the side, there was a huge grin on his face.

The Baroness had a hand near her face that flinched every time an attack came too close to Theo, which was happening with each one.

When the knight finally retracted his hands that could not get a hold of him, Theo decided to attack on his own.

He used his footwork and the newly formed muscles of the back of his thigh and calf with prowess and came to him almost instantly.

The guard was not that surprised as he had seen Theo fight before, yet instinctively, he made a gesture as if he was using a sword.

Aldric snorted at his mistake and looked at Theo with a grin.

Theo did not know why he did that, but he quickly smacked his fist as hard as he could at the left side of the guard's body—the one he wasn't protecting much.

CLANG!!

The metal clanged with his fist, and Theo made a few steps' distance between them.

Baron Thorne looked at his hand, especially the knuckles that were all red now and felt surprised. There was no show of pain on Theo's face right now.

Just the focus on his opponent, who was ten if not more times stronger than him.

The knight quickly came to Theo again and smacked his feet at Theo's lower thigh.

Theo wanted to dodge this one too, yet the surprise attacks were over.

He was only able to dodge with the help of his smaller frame than the knight all this time.

Even his attacks fell because his height was considerably smaller than the knight.

"KUGH!" Theo grunted lightly and made a little more distance between them.

'That was bad' Theo thought with a somewhat pained expression.

Clara and the Baroness flinched at his grunt, and the guest Baron sighed. Nobody liked a kid as young get hit by an adult, it felt inhumane.

For everyone, the fight had already ended, as a child no older than eight had been hit with a foot covered with metal. The pain was known by everyone in that place.

Yet to everyone's dumbstruck surprise, Theo completely lowered himself on the ground.

His one hand supported him on the ground while his right foot moved forward at a fast pace and hit the knight right at the knee.

Theo had hit it such that the knee jerked even when the knight didn't want it to.

"YESS!"