Soron did not respond to Leo's confusion right away.
Instead, he loosened his grip on the wooden dagger and let it rest naturally at his side, the weapon treated less like an instrument of combat and more like a forgotten prop now that the spar had shifted into something else, as his gaze remained steady, patient, and quietly analytical.
"Fighting gods or demi-gods at your current stage is stupid," Soron said calmly, his tone neither harsh nor condescending.
"There is not a single metric in which you can match them."
Leo frowned slightly, but he did not argue.
"Strength, speed, skill, endurance, aura control, experience," Soron continued evenly.
"In every measurable category, you lose."
The words did not sting the way Leo expected them to. They landed cleanly, like statements of fact rather than criticism, and that made them far harder to dismiss.
"So if you insist on fighting them on equal footing, you die."
"There is no honor in that, only waste."
