I managed to connect several good hits that showed signs of damage from her heavy breathing and visible bruise marks, pointing to signs of internal bleeding. None of those slowed her down as I managed to catch her by the wrist, using the momentum of her lunge to spin and toss her back into the wall on the other end of the room.

It amazed me with the way Lyra managed to contort her body mid-air to land hands and feet first against the wall instead of the loud thud that would have normally followed. I used this distance as a chance to verify if my fear ability truly was useless against her, activating it on eye contact.

This time there wasn’t even a roar in response to the ability as she rebounded off of the wall charging low to the floor, approaching me in a zig-zagging fashion.

I matched her pace and waited for the dodge to happen, using my open palm like a knife to test out the ki blast. I wanted it to be ready before the event tonight and she provided me with a perfectly speedy target.

I aimed my tensed fingertips to the spot she retreated to, right before she had a chance to readjust her weight. The crackling sensation reverberated, shooting out like invisible lightning that could only be heard by me, or so I thought since it seemed like she reacted from the sound too. Rapidly pulling in her arms together to guard her midsection, unable to do anything else without her feet touching solid ground.

Lyra made defending the blast seem like child’s play as she dissipated the force in mid-air by working with it, spinning all the way to the back wall. I predicted that she wouldn’t be able to land gracefully on the wall this time and pushed forward to follow after her to maintain the advantage.

She ended up too focused, enacting mid-air gymnastics to react against my goal of pinning her against the wall. My sudden blitz caught her in an awkward position with my hand digging into her shoulder blade along her back as she cratered face-first into the rubbery foam-cushioned wall.

The sound of several things snapping and the blood that smeared the rubbery surface wasn’t a big enough sign for me as I slammed her down to the floor, bloodied face staring up. The slam itself caused blood to cough out as Lyra’s eyes glazed over, fading out of consciousness.

“Eris!” It didn’t take long for her to come over to reach us, beginning the healing process.

I flared a mental oopsie on the fact that I should have held back on the ground slam, seeing as her nose was disfigured with her teeth puncturing the insides of her lips. The blood that gushed out, coagulated back into her body with each wound rewinding in time. Her shattered nose was the last to reform, returning to the cute and tiny shape it used to be with her consciousness not too far behind.

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“Are you with us, Lyra?” As soon as the cloudiness from her eyes vanished, she sprang up into an upright sitting position. Not only did it cause me to slightly back away but it also startled Eris into a jump scare, causing her to flinch backward. It was such a surreal scene that I forgot to laugh, offering a hand to help Eris stand up.

Eris tilted her head up to accept my hand and patted the bottom of her skirt on the way up. I’d never let her forget about this and choose to save it for another time in the future since Lyra’s stare was burning a hole through me.

“Sorry, about the rough treatment...” I apologized, hoping she wasn’t upset and extended the same helping hand to her.

“That last attack of yours was incredible!” Lyra took my hand, cheerfully voicing her opinions. “The healing too, thank you again, Eris.” She lowered her head to bow after managing to stand on her own.

I wasn’t sure if she was talking about crushing her into the wall or slamming her into the ground, but thinking about it, she probably meant the ki blast. I was glad either way, at least there were no hard feelings on the outcome of the fight.

“No need to thank me…, it’s a shame he doesn’t know how to hold back.” Eris ignored me even though she took the opportunity to criticize my actions right in front of me.

“I’m glad.” Lyra giggled a tiny laugh. “That means I was able to force him into a tough situation and now that I’ve lost... I’ll be yours to command, master.” Lyra finished with another deep bow.

“Eris is most likely right…, and I’m looking forward to your help out on the field.” I patted her on the head, unable to withhold the urge back any longer. The soft fluffiness of her thick fur-like hair and ears were blissfully satisfying to the touch. I wasn’t sure if I imagined a purring noise but stopped once I noticed the glaring Eris was dulling my way.

“Master, is it alright if we train together before the events tonight?” It looked like the daily training requirement wasn’t going to be an issue for Lyra. I thought for a second on our possible to-do list for the day and nothing major came to mind. I was going to train or relax until showtime and knowing me, the first option was definitely more probable to happen.

“That would be up to, Eris.” We discussed a light training session to follow, in the attempt to avoid fatiguing Eris’s mana pool. She agreed to help for the next thirty minutes, afterward going off to do her own thing at the spa.

I asked if Rachel wanted to join our training, including her on the off chance that standing around to watch became boring. She accepted without much convincing and rather than call it training, it turned into a two-on-one sparring session with both of them teaming up on me.

Even though I struggled against both of them individually, now that I learned their general habits, overpowering them from the start became possible. If anything it ended up becoming a handicap for them as their teamwork got in the way at times, not entirely in sync with one another. All I had to do was make them trip over each other and like that, the training session came to an end.