Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

"Minimal movements and don\'t do anything that leads to more openings. Got it." Zach nodded. It wasn\'t difficult in theory.

But as it turned out, it was incredibly difficult in practice.

"Again." Yanael\'s melodically strict voice cut through Zach\'s concentration.

Zach glanced down. He hadn\'t even noticed when he stepped outside the circle. He thought he was still close to the center. Zach sighed and continued.

"Again." Yanael\'s voice once again alerted Zach to a mistake he made. He had stepped outside the circle.

"Again."

He had ducked and then rolled. He was both outside the circle and had neither foot on the ground.

"Again."

Zach forgot about the circle.

"Again."

Zach swore the circle was moving or shrinking. It was two and a half steps wide. How could he leave it with one step when he started in the center? With another sigh, he restarted.

Zach felt like he was even worse than when he and Dukiel first started the training. He could last barely a few seconds even after trying several times. He wondered how bad it would have been if he had tried it with Yanael\'s rules from the beginning.

Still, Zach didn\'t let his repeated failures get to him. Since he could dodge the arrows for a matter of seconds, it was easy to see progress. Seeing his quick progress was as addictive as the feeling of heightened senses and the rush of adrenaline when he was dodging for his life.

Once again, Zach made strides in his arrow-dodging skill.

He got so caught up in training and making progress that he completely forgot about sleep and his two friends.

"Zach? Have you slept at all?" Dukiel\'s voice was like a distant echo. Zach barely heard it, and he was about to ignore it when he realized what it was. He threw up a barrier and turned around.

"Dukiel? Weren\'t you going to sleep?" Zach asked with a tilted head.

"I was—I mean, I did. I have slept. I slept for several hours. Have you been training all this time?"

"I guess I did." Zach shrugged, not thinking much of it.

Dukiel\'s eyes widened for a moment before he sighed with a shake of his head.

"Whatever. What\'s the deal with the circle?" Dukiel pointed at the circle around Zach\'s feet.

"Oh. I realized that this environment and these circumstances are ideal."

"Yeah?"

"They\'re too ideal. In a real fight, I won\'t have an entire floor of open space to dodge and roll around on. Rolling around and doing anything I possibly can to dodge these arrows also leaves me open to other attacks. Moving like a child on fire also takes a lot of energy. With minimal movements, I won\'t get tired as quickly." Zach shamelessly took credit for Yanael\'s wisdom and insight.

"I see…" Dukiel inspected the circle for a moment and estimated its size and how big it would be if he was moving around.

"Move over. I want to try." Dukiel pushed Zach out of the way. Zach raised his hands in resignation and when Dukiel was ready, Zach took down his barrier, unleashing the arrows again.

"Fail."

Almost instantly, Dukiel moved out of the circle to get out of the way of the arrows with a significant margin.

"...Shit."

Dukiel tired again with a scowl. Once again, he almost failed as soon as Zach took down his barrier.

Even with his shield, Dukiel had a hard time staying in the circle. But he didn\'t give up.

Zach, however, was getting a little bored. He was still focused on protecting Dukiel, but he wanted to train, not watch someone else train. He didn\'t say anything, though. He could tell Dukiel wanted to improve and train as much as he did.

Zach silently watched and protected Dukiel with barriers until Dukiel had enough. Then, he took the stage and dodged the arrows with is arms behind his back and chest facing the wall. He bent and curved his body like a snake to dodge the arrows. Since it seemed like taking a single step brought him outside the circle, Zach just decided not to move his feet at all.

Dukiel was stunned. Zach was better than he wanted to admit.

Taking turns, the two continued training, eating, and sleeping while waiting for Julius to finish filling his Mannequin with liquified underworld energy. Julius wasn\'t in a rush, and the other two had a lot of time.

After a while, Zach moved on to a new room with two walls of arrows in opposite directions. Zach had to keep track of what was in front of and behind him. He also tried the other types of rooms, the ones with big stone balls, flamethrowers, and poison darts.

But it seemed those rooms were meant to test and train strength, flammability, and poison resistance or how to move and dodge when afflicted with poison. They weren\'t exactly things Zach could test or train in a short amount of time.

Dukiel did his best to keep up, but he wasn\'t as energetic as Zach. He grew tired quicker and didn\'t improve as quickly. He didn\'t like it. He was giving it his all and wasn\'t slacking off, but Zach still improved faster.

However, Zach didn\'t sleep nearly as much as Dukiel. Zach would rather try and dodge an arrow and fail than put up a barrier when he could have dodged. He ended up with more cuts and injuries than Dukiel.

Dukiel didn\'t have the same freedom to do that since Zach was the one with the barriers. He also didn\'t want to do that. He didn\'t understand how Zach willingly threw himself into more and more dangerous rooms like he was looking forward to getting turned into a hedgehog.

Dukiel knew that he needed to train and improve. It was a necessity and a way to pass the time.

For Zach, however, it was fun.