Venra was the one who threw the first punch.
Her hand blurred as she attacked without giving her opponent even the tiniest signal of her intention.
To her surprise, her fist never connected with Andrew's jaw, but instead got intercepted and closed in a vise grip of the human's hand, right before her world spun and she hit the mat with a thud.
Lying down, she was trying to figure out what just happened, for a full second, before she remembered the rules and rushed to get up.
However, the attack she expected never came, and the emperor stood two steps away, not pressing his advantage and waiting for her to get up.
-Showing mercy to an opponent is simply hurting yourself.
The young demoness said as she once again prepared for battle.
If she were the one standing, she would have ended the fight immediately.
-That's true in real combat, but this is sparring, and it would be no fun if it ended so soon.
Andrew answered with an amused grin plastered on his face.
He had to admit that Venra was fast and very strong, but after only this one exchange, it was all he could say about her combat prowess.
This time, it was the human who attacked first, and Venra felt the power of his punches as she blocked them.
The merchant was shocked at the raw power of every attack, and even more so at their speed, which surpassed her own and rivaled that of her older sister.
She defended herself, waiting for an opportunity to break his rhythm or for a mistake on Andrew's part, which she found after a few rounds of attacks.
Seeing that the human switched to another stance, which took him a fraction of a second, she struck with lightning speed, fully intending to exploit this momentary advantage.
However, the human managed to block her kick, and even counterattacked with his own, which she barely dodged.
After being on the defensive for a while, she decided to go all out, like she did when she sparred with her sister.
Knowing that if she didn't take the initiative back from the human, she would sooner or later lose, she started to use her wings and tail, which she didn't do at the beginning, not wanting to press her advantage of having more limbs than the human.
This change surprised Andrew at first and forced him to retreat and defend against her flurry of attacks.
What's more, Venra used her wings to simulate attacks, forcing him to block them while leaving holes in his defenses, which were rewarded by some hits that landed on his body, and they were not light at all.
These few hits, even though they didn't eliminate the human from the fight, made her feel much happier, as she hated losing or being on the defensive.
Moreover, she shared her sister's trait and loved to see her opponents in pain, which gave her pleasure every time a human groaned after her successful attack.
Pushing her advantage, she continued to beat up the human for a few more minutes and marveled at his stamina and durability, as she could count the opponents she faced and who could hold out under such an attack for so long on the fingers of one hand.
-Do you regret not pressing your advantage now?
The demoness asked, not even slowing down the storm of attacks she showered the human with.
-Are you kidding me?
If I did that, I'd miss out on all this fun.
Andrew answered, catching her leg that was about to hit his gut once again.
This surprised Venra, as previously, the human didn't seem capable of doing so.
However, her eyes went wide as saucers when she saw the joyful smile plastered to the human's face.
She was also surprised when she heard a series of sighs from the ladies watching the fight, and spared a second to glance at them, and saw all of them looking at her with pity or shaking their heads with disappointed expressions.
Seeing her distracted, Andrew didn't attack and even let her leg go, while taking three steps back.
This action of his reminded Venra that they were in the middle of the match, but the human didn't exploit her distraction.
Instead, he stepped back and stretched his body, making an audible popping sound from his joints, before he looked at her again.
This time, his eyes were different, and what she saw in his gaze made her swallow hard.
These were not the bright eyes she saw before.
These were the eyes of a predator who found his prey, and they were locked onto her, making a shiver go down her spine all the way to the tip of her tail.
-I'd say this is more than enough for a warm-up.
Andrew stated and attacked.
He crossed the short distance between them in a blink of an eye and sent a powerful kick at his opponent.
Venra managed to block the incoming attack, but it was like her hand was struck by a battering ram.
She was shocked to discover that the human had gone easy on her so far.
But Andrew didn't give her any time to think about it as he unleashed a storm of attacks, forcing her to defend herself once again.
However, her defenses soon started to crumble, as the sheer strength of the human attacks made her hands and legs go numb, which resulted in more and more attacks landing on her body, making her groan in pain, while a few of the attacks she desperately threw out, hoping to interrupt the human's rhythm, were easily dodged or blocked, and always had a price of another human attack landing on her.
However, the most terrifying thing in this whole situation was not Andrew's powerful attacks, but the expression of pure joy and these predatory eyes which never once stopped looking into her own.
Venra felt as if the human could see straight into the core of her being, and it terrified her to no end.
The sparring match lasted for another five minutes before Venra found herself on the mat, with the human pinning her down and his fist millimeters from her face, where it stopped.
During these five minutes, the demoness used every advantage, every trick, every technique she knew, to try to regain the initiative, but it was all for nothing, as the human either blocked or dodged them all.
What was even worse, it looked like he knew when and where the attacks would come, like he could see the future.
In the end, it was during one of her attempts that he grabbed her hand again and her world spun once again.
This time the human pressed his advantage and won the match.
-I think that's enough.
Andrew said, letting go of the alien woman and getting up.
His eyes went back to normal, and only a slight smile on his lips remained from the grin that he had plastered on his face when he overwhelmed her.
Venra, on the other hand remind on the mat, still not believing that she lost.
Ever since she started training martial arts, this was the first time anyone other than her older sister had defeated her.