“Meet Cara Sue.” It took Isabella a week to find someone suitable to join Nil and Shawn during their daily sessions. “She just won her fifth Bronze Gauntlet of Ten yesterday and has graciously agreed to help out.”

“I wouldn’t have if Isabella and Layla didn’t ask personally,” Cara said. “I think it mad to attempt the Death Gauntlet, let alone in Iron Realm when you’re so inexperienced and creeps literally troll the arena for easy money.”

“Thank you for putting in the time Carasu—”

“It’s Cara—” She paused for a couple of seconds. “—Sue. They’re too separate names.” The woman sighed, rolling her eyes. “I hate my mother for that name. It's okay to love anime and Japanese culture, but why force such a stupid name on your daughter for it. I’d get it if I were born with raven hair or something, but—” Cara sighed. “Nevermind. I’m just having a shit morning. Please just call me Cara. Forget the Sue.”

“Her last opponent made a hate video, made fun of her name, and stuck Cara’s head on a crow,” Isabella explained.

“I don’t get it,” Shawn said, looking confused.

“Karasu is Japanese for crow,” Nil said. When his training partner stared at him questioningly, he shrugged. “Andrew and I liked watching Japanese cartoons and films growing up. There wasn’t much else to do when it was raining outside, and my parents remembered to re-block Apocalypse Arena.”

“Let's save the nonsense chatter for the cafeteria,” Isabella interrupted. “This training should help Cara improve her aim, power, and speed. Meanwhile, you two will be working on defense and reaction time. How about we start with a demonstration so everyone knows what to expect?”

Cara went last.

Nil had already guessed from the woman’s build that she wasn’t a brute, knight, or arcane warrior. She didn’t have the toned light frame characteristic of rogues and people who invested Finesse as a primary attribute and let Might lag. Individuals of the remaining archetypes still trained their bodies, of course. However, individuals who pushed themselves to their physical limits while simultaneously investing in their physical attributes were easy to identify.

A flash of blinded Nil. By the time he opened his eyes again and blinked away the spots, Cara had disappeared. Nil saw no trace of her, but Energy Instinct detected a powerful, unnatural presence radiating from where the woman had stood moments ago. Trying to focus on it was a lot like locating Kennit’s spatial distortions. The signs were subtle but unmissable.

The sensation suddenly intensified to Nil’s left, and he felt a sudden build-up of heat. His instincts told him to move, and he obeyed, but just an invisible pulse passed him. If not for the aerial distortion, he would’ve missed it altogether. It was like looking through the hot air above a fire. Orbs of blinding white manifested around Nil. They collapsed on him and even though he believed it wouldn’t work, Nil activated Absorb. Much to his surprise, they worked on the energy attack. The golden-white spheres merged into one as big as his head. Shawn still had a barrier up from his distortion, and a beam shot from the ball, striking it. The translucent conjuration cracked before rapidly deteriorating. The continuous attack drained the floating light sphere, and it fizzled out of existence.

“I’m a Light Mage,” Cara said, emerging on the opposite end of the room. “I need to buy more spells from Nexus Market and am just starting to get used to my Bronze Realm power, but it should be enough to push you two to your limits.”

“The invisibility will help you train Energy Instinct,” Isabella told Nil. “You also need to get faster at switching between Expend and Absorb if you want to deal with Shredder’s blades. Cara’s hard light orbs should help you with that.”

“Your training should be far more straightforward,” Cara said, facing Shawn. “That was one of my weaker light beams. They take a while to prepare and focus, but they can come at you from any angle I desire. You need to be able to conjure strong enough barriers to block them and also conjure them at the correct angles. Since my attacks come from preset, preprogrammed spells, there is no pulling back once I’ve unleashed a beam. So, if you can’t keep up, you’re going to get burned.” Cara turned her attention to Nil. “That goes for you too. Destroy my spheres before I detonate them, or I guarantee you’ll end up in the infirmary.”

Both men took Cara’s warning lightly and paid for it. They spent an hour in the infirmary and visited the ice baths afterward. The soak soothed the newly grown, raw, and irritated regions. Despite the discomfort, the pair couldn’t help but gush about the session. Neither had dealt with or seen a full-on mage archetype individual up close before. Summoners like Susan also used magic but rarely for attacks and to a much lesser extent. Rogues like Selia had the potential to learn spells as well, but to a much lesser extent.

While Nil and Shawn trained, Selia departed on a week-long quest to accrue more Schema Tokens and visit the Nexus Market. She hoped to find something that would help her conjure or imbue her weapons with poisons, lightning, or some sort of debilitating effect. Phase shifting alone didn’t give her much offensive power. She could still grab foes and drag them into surfaces, but that wasn’t always possible or easy to do. She needed more options, and her ability forced her to invest heavily in Mind, making spellcasting a worthwhile pursuit. The ludus also had trainers to help her with the relevant training.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Isabella had also pushed her into sessions with the Forge’s stealth expert. Phase shifting gave Selia the ability to easily slip around foes and approach from unexpected angles soundlessly. The common consensus was that she was good at using her power, and her control appeared to increase every day. However, she wasn’t creative enough. Nil wasn’t sure how creative one could get with phase shifting but didn’t question people with far more experience than him.

Halfway through the week, Isabella found another mage to help when Cara couldn’t. Zora was also a Bronze Gauntlet fighter and was taking a break after getting knocked out of the Gauntlet of Ten for the second time. She too seemed frustrated. Nil couldn’t help but wonder whether she agreed to help out just so she could work through her anger with destructive artillery spells. Everyone understood and sympathized since she got knocked out on her ninth match the first time and the second time around.

Unlike Cara, Zora’s magic didn’t appear to help with Energy Instinct. Nil hadn’t seen anything like her magic or abilities before. It revolved around opening portals and shooting spears, swords, and a range of weapons out of them. She launched them with the force of a ballista, damaging the training room with most of her attacks.

At first, Isabella tasked Nil and Shawn with reaching Zora while she bombarded them with an onslaught of seemingly neverending weapons. Both considered the task easy until the lightning chained between spears, swords exploded into monstrous fires, and blizzards blossomed around the hammers. The elemental effects proved inconsistent, with hammers turning into fireballs and swords causing minor dervishes where they landed.

As a result, the duo needed to figure out what to expect. On the rare occasion either got close to Zora, portals appeared in the ground between them, and giant weapons rose, creating barriers. Nil made a note to look up her matches when he had the time. He wanted to find out what kind of monsters managed to defeat her.

“It’s called Eternal Quartermaster,” Zora explained when Nil asked about it during a break. “It's one of those rare abilities that you can get only after the previous owner has died and a new worthy inheritor is found. It comes with a vault of magical weapons, and I can conjure copies of them.”

“So, the shooting out of portals is all you?” Nil asked.

Zora nodded. “The power lets me pull them out through portals. The launching, spinning, creating barriers, and volume are all me. The spells demand a fair bit of focus and cause a lot of mental strain, or I’d do more.” She chuckled. “I bet it was meant for a knight of some sort.”

“But the Schema considered you a better candidate,” Isabella said. “You fishing for compliments and reassurances again, Zora?”

“No.” The mage glowered. She rolled her eyes, and they resumed their training. “The Nexus will rip you a new one if you tell anyone else about my power.”

“Why did you tell us then?” Shawn asked, preparing new barriers.

“Because I have a big fucking mouth,” Zora replied. Her voice went nasally, and she clicked her fingers as she continued. “Got a problem with that?”

“No, ma’am.” Shawn somehow managed to suppress his laughter, and Nil snorted. Isabella showed no such restraint.

Even though Zora’s attacks were more straightforward, it took Nil quite a while to get used to fighting her. While the challenge with Cara was finding her and sensing the source of the attacks, in Zora’s case, he needed to be able to tell instantly whether the launched weapons had any arcane imbuement. If they did, an inkling of the element also helped Nil decide how to deal with them. Galvanize helped Nil block or handle anything with fiery effects. He had tried the same with Cara, but the explosions were often larger and came from unavoidable angles. Nil powered through frost and cold but avoided lightning altogether. On the rare occasion when they grazed him, he ended up on the ground, spasming and shaking.

Sessions with Zora resulted in fewer injuries. Nil also enjoyed them more since the weapons without magical effects or just strength and speed enhancements helped refill Brutal Battery’s stores and helped train Absorb.

Noah’s sessions didn’t change much besides gradually getting harder. The man had Nil drill weapon forms and techniques regularly and punctuated them with spars, encouraging putting the lessons to practice. Whenever Nil thought he was getting better, Noah increased the number of floating blades and got faster. Initially, not being allowed to use abilities frustrated Nil. After all, he was losing the ability to train Absorb, and the time taken to recover from the bruises and cuts ate into his afternoon. But then Nil found himself getting better much faster than he thought possible.

The weapons training helped improve Nil’s martial ability, but Nil believed that a lot of what he had learned wouldn’t translate well into real combat. Whenever he equipped a practice weapon, Nil was locked into it. In reality, he would only summon them for a brief moment between strikes and blasts with the gauntlet. The source weapons used far too much energy to keep manifested for more than a handful of seconds.

Nil believed that the most significant benefit of weapons training wasn’t the martial skills but the experience gained from fighting Noah. He was a fluid fighter whose technique and style changed depending on the number of blades he had out and their configuration. Noah taught Nil how to react to changing circumstances and fight different types of attackers.

Even though Shawn had shed a good deal of his intensity, Nil struggled to tolerate the man for more extended periods without a buffer. So, he cultivated, spent time with Meatball, and continued to practice the move he used to defeat Klocky Kennit. It had proven potent but was grossly inefficient and complex to use, and he couldn’t wait to translate it into something more. The idea of throwing knives or darts made of the source excited Nil.