Mr. Till found fending off two people to be easy. All he had to do was pay moderate attention to one and watch the other. Ritchard was working a lot, but he wasn't an expert just yet with life energy or weapons just yet, so Mr. Till just stepped from side to side and was prepared to defend with his own life energy if needed. Dirin was a different matter to him. He needed to keep track of how Dirin trained and when to relent a little now. It wasn't the first week anymore, and he didn't need to be so brutal with his attacks to make Dirin change his perspective.
He paid minimal attention to the other two in the training field. They were just here to watch. Well, Tillie was here to watch Dirin while Vale was watching them both. Vale was close to achieving her goals for Rank 1 soon, and Dirin was getting much closer now. After some supervision from Rose, who was a little awkward with him at first, Dirin got his blacksmithing and enchanting done quickly.
All in all, Dirin was very close to reaching Rank 1 as well, from what Mr. Till could see.
Mr. Till tilted his head down and avoided the sword that was coming toward his head while he erupted more water from the ground in front of Dirin. Having multiple people to defend from was much more interesting than the one-sided beatdowns he did on Dirin.
This continued for a bit with both Ritchard and Dirin doing opposite things. Ritchard couldn't seem to hit Mr. Till for his life, while Dirin couldn't seem to dodge all that well, and his life might actually depend on it. In the future, of course. Eventually, Dirin tired out, and all of Mr. Till's attention went onto Ritchard, who then felt a shiver run down his spine as he saw the very lucid eyes lock onto his.
The water immediately came to his hand and seemed to turn into solid water in the shape of a rapier. He tilted the water rapier at an angle and thrusted down into Ritchard's shoulder. Ritchard tried to dodge, but the best he could do was coat his life energy over his shoulder and reduce the impact of the rapier.
The water made contact with his aura and broke through with ease. It struck his shoulder without piercing his shirt. The sharp tip became a very fluid water and wrapped itself around his shoulder and all over his arm. By the time the hilt was hitting his shoulder, he couldn't move his arm at all and was wildly moving his other arm to hit Mr. Till, who simply used water to deflect the blows easily.
The water then found itself all over Ritchard's torso and enveloped him completely. The water then started to move towards his legs, but Dirin was already up and was about to tap Mr. Till on the shoulder. Mr. Till spun around and barely caught Dirin's wrist and twisted it, causing Dirin to fold quickly, but Ritchard found himself able to move out of his water mold and get some distance.
Ritchard ran over to the wall and picked up a bow and started to pull back. His golden aura started to cover his arms as he drew the bow back. He couldn't infuse the arrow itself since it would dissipate once it was out of his reach anyway, so he used his arms instead to draw the bow farther back.
When he let go of the string, the arrow flew towards Mr. Till, who had already noticed the arrow a long time ago and used multiple walls of water to stop it. He was still trying to figure out how Dirin got so close to him without him knowing. He did drop his guard down and was focusing on Ritchard, so making a mistake was bound to happen, especially with how much they've been doing this. He was just happy he didn't instinctively hit Dirin in the gut with life energy or water.
Dirin was rolling to get out of a barrage of water and got up quickly. He was taught a long time ago that rolling was bad. Though disciplined would be a much better word for it. He got on his feet and kept moving even when he wasn't being targeted. He could see now that Mr. Till was starting to exert himself. Ever since Ritchard became a Rank 1, Mr. Till had to stop holding back as much as he did towards Dirin. He still held back a lot. He didn't want to kill these children and flood a quarter of the city while he was at it.
Taking a step forward, Mr. Till took the initiative this time as he walked towards Ritchard, ignoring Dirin completely. Ritchard started to pick up another arrow, but he felt a small gust of air pass by him and noticed the entire quiver of arrows was destroyed, along with the one he was holding. He reached over and grabbed a broadsword, and his aura covered it completely. He planted his feet and used his weight and muscles to swing it as hard as he could. A bit of his aura separated and flew towards Mr. Till, who brought up his arm that was covered in his dark blue aura and blocked it completely. It seemed like Ritchard's broke on Mr. Till's.
With another step, the dark blue aura covered the ground of the training field, not touching Vale or Tillie, and then it started to flow like water towards Mr. Till, causing Dirin and Ritchard to have to fight for their footing as it seemed like the very ground they were standing on was starting to make them slip.
Ritchard would've had an easier time with this than Dirin. He could've just covered his feet and legs with his aura and used it as an anchor against it, but he was more amazed and trying to understand what was happening with Mr. Till's aura. Since he had access to aura himself, he was very curious about all the functions it had after his first time using it. From his experience and knowledge, something like this was near impossible to do. He was starting to wonder if it had something to do with Mr. Till also being a water elementalist.
On the other hand, Dirin was having a hard time. He was trying to stay grounded as the aura pulled him and tried to knock him off his feet. He had to shift his weight multiple times on each foot to let the other one get secure ground again before he shifted back to the other. It was a necessary and tedious process to stand up. He had the idea to run with the current, but he didn't want to embarrass himself while being watched by the two girls on the side. He glanced over and saw Tillie looking at him thoughtfully.
Looking away quickly, Dirin had to remember that this was for his own training, and they've seen himself get embarrassed many times already. So, he took a step forward and started to run towards Mr. Till. He had to adjust to how he was running because he was going to slip if he didn't. The blue aura was thick and rough. It gave way to his foot easily, but the next moment, his ankle was surrounded by it as well.
What neither of them were aware of was that Mr. Till still had complete control over his aura. He could make it so they couldn't move at all since their ankles were already surrounded, making them immobile for as long as he wanted. Ritchard could have put up a fight initially, but it was already too late into it for it to be possible. Mr. Till, though, didn't have any intention to do so. The fact that Dirin was trying to run in it was already amazing, so he wanted to encourage this behavior by letting him get some success in it.
These types of training were perfect in his head. The type where he could guide his students completely and encourage them with things other than words. Now that he was sure that Dirin wouldn't stop after things got hard, he could finally reward his good habits instead of trying to destroy them completely. He eased up on the flow of the aura in Dirin's direction while making the aura in Ritchard's direction slow down so he could read it better. He had to do this subtly or else they would find out, and it would lessen some of the impact on them. Afterward he would let Ritchard study it freely though.
Once he felt that Dirin was within ten feet of him, he made the aura surge and start to ripple, causing him to slip. He made sure it didn't cushion the fall on anywhere but his head in case he fell to hard, but that didn't stop much. Ritchard was swept off his feet and was being dragged in towards Mr. Till, who had a piece of chalk in his hand and swiped down with it. A small line of chalk was immediately marked on Ritchard's shirt as he felt the chalk make contact with him through the extended range of the aura.
"Take a break now. Round two will start in an hour."