Another three days had passed.

Marina often dropped by the training ground with a box of sweets. She sat on the bench and silently watched the battles between Kyon and Juno. Marina didn’t know anything about battles, but she was impressed when Kyon pinned her belligerent friend on the floor. Sometimes Marina cheered awkwardly, which made Juno blush with humiliation. Marina apologized to her later, completely confused.

Kyon was cautious enough not to beat Juno at her presence. He had “promised” Marina to be gentle with her friend, after all.

When it was time to restore their energy, Juno begged the master with her eyes to give her some freedom in the conversation. He whispered to her that she could behave in accordance with code 2. She was free to chat with Marina as she pleased within reasonable limits, of course.

Kyon was not interested in the girls' careless chat. However, one thing was clear from their conversation: even if Juno was kind and gentle with her friend, the last word was always hers according to some unspoken agreement. Anyway, it never stopped the two girls with such different personalities from getting close and becoming best friends. Marina knew her place, and Juno never went too far. Juno often glared at the master who was getting all the attention of her friend. She was trying to create a wall between Marina and him, all to no avail. Once Kyon kissed Marina goodbye on the cheek, which made Juno furious. She intervened and pulled them apart. Juno would be very upset if she found out that Kyon had already occupied a very important place in Marina’s heart a long time before.

The training session continued.

With every passing day, the idea of bringing Juno to a nervous breakdown, of breaking or even destroying her morale was something Kyon wanted more and more. He failed in his attempts to do it before, but now he had everything he needed.

If Juno surrendered, there was a chance to make her more reverent and submissive. Kyon might rehabilitate her and maybe even get rid of her disregard for the lower classes of society. Her natural arrogance, especially towards him, drove him mad. There is a cruel method to control people. It’s called “learned helplessness.” It could work on Juno. He used to believe that she would commit suicide if he kept beating her up and dragging her through the dirt. Now he was not so sure anymore. Juno was filled with an unconquerable, unquenchable hope of getting her keys cleaned and the dream of becoming extremely talented to surpass her sister. It made sense to torture her until she gave up, until she entered the state of “learned helplessness.” Kyon liked the idea.

He liked even more the news that his earth element had reached the advanced grade. His eyes flashed with excitement. Kyon started experimenting during the battle. He added some beautiful gems to the collection of things he could create. However, their value was slightly above average. He could also make some metals with simple molecular lattice and, above all, he could produce an improved version of adamantium, the final version created by the best scientists of his world. Its structure was slightly different, which made it stronger by 50% than the initial stripped-down version. But Kyon wasn’t satisfied. He failed to create carbon armor-skin. Diamonds, emeralds, super-strong metal alloys were beyond his power. Anyway, adamantium was the strongest among them. He was sure that he would be able to create carbon skin, at the very least, when he reached the superior grade of the earth element. He had some doubts about diamonds, but it was only the beginning.

The next morning, the seventh by number (the party took place tomorrow), just before the training session, Kyon asked Juno to take off her skin-tight sweatshirt.

She protested, red in the face, but she had to obey the formation. The snow-white bra and her beautiful waist were on full display.

Kyon studied the huge bruises and contusions on her body with a thoughtful look. He ran his finger over the marks, scanning them with Synergy. He had confirmed the idea that the ointment worked worse when used too often. If the doctor had not received the order to remain silent under the threat of losing his head, there would have been problems.

Juno lost efficiency because of her injuries. Kyon had to use Synergy for her speedy recovery. He did not want to train with Juno if she was weak from wounds.

Juno shuddered at his touch, squinted her eyes, her slender body tensed. A strange pleasant feeling spread in the places he touched. Juno vowed that she would kill herself if that feeling meant she liked the servant.

Soon their training sessions resumed.

At noon, Kyon reached the long-awaited 7th stage, much to his delight. The party took place tomorrow, after all. He would have never made it without the Soaring Angel pill that he had obtained from Yegorka. And yet, he had to find the hard way how difficult it was getting to develop his soul, the closer he was reaching the peak of the phase.

At the same time, all of his physical parameters, as well as the concentration of elemental energy, had increased. His body became tougher, faster and stronger. The fire element got hotter, the cold element got colder, the streams of water, wind, darkness and light got more intensive, the adamantium got stronger, the electricity got more powerful, and he had even more pure energy now.

Juno could feel his upgrade by the energy fluctuations.

«Master... Your apprentice congratulates you.» – Juno praised him quietly and bowed slightly with a smile on her face... A bitter smile. The same raging envy was boiling inside her. She wanted to fall on her knees and curl up in a pretzel, hugging herself.

{Why... am I... Trash… Compared to him...? I'm not like that!}

Kyon grinned maliciously.

«My apprentice has just moved from the rank “mediocrity” to the level “scum.” Too bad! So sad! Her master begins to doubt his decision to take you as his student…»

Juno the slave exclaimed indignantly:

«Why do you say that, master? I am still…»

«You're pissing me off.» – Kyon snapped coldly. – «We’ve been fighting for six days, but you’ve never lasted longer than 15 of my movements. You’ve never hit me once. Even a piece of shit would have improved by now. You are a failure.» - He told her a brazen lie.

«Master…» - Juno was about to cry again. When it came to her development, any criticism hit home. More than that, Kyon bashed her around all the time. Her whole body felt achy and stiff. The sprout in her soul required more and more food to grow, but she couldn’t earn it. She had never hit the monster at least once. Anyone in her place would have cried or given up, but Juno persevered. That’s why it hurt so much when he compared her to a piece of shit. It hurt a lot… Juno wanted to give up in despair. She could hardly stand his presence. This monster adversely affected her self-esteem.

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«Shut up. Go and cry to your room and never bother me again, or fight. I can’t stand your whining.»

Juno lowered her head, her lips quivering.

Kyon couldn’t wait to see Juno break right in front of his eyes, but against his will, she slowly looked up, her eyes full of firm determination:

«It’s all part of the training, isn't it? Otherwise, you have to be a sick bastard to compare the master of all elements with a weak girl!»

Kyon thoughtfully rubbed his chin, nodding to her words, then he imperiously snapped his fingers:

«Attack!»

Juno rushed headlong into the battle. However, her mood quickly reached the depths of the seabed. The moment she got closer to Kyon, he beat her in 3-5 movements. Each time, the expression of neglect on his pretty face hurt her more and more. She could hardly find the strength to continue the battle. No one can bang their head up against the metal wall for a long time.

Her hard work had been rewarded by the end of the day. In the evening, she reached the seventh stage! At that very moment, Juno jumped, screaming with joy. All her pain and humiliation that had reached a critical point by then vanished into thin air. Her smile was shining brighter than the sun. Juno was on the brink of tears of joy.

Kyon silently watched her glee.

Juno was gloriously happy. She smiled at the master, eager to boast of her news when his silhouette blurred, and sharp pain spread from her stomach to every point of her body. She had missed another heavy blow.

{What…} – Her head swam, she tumbled and rolled on the ground, breathing coarsely. Her delight had disappeared, depression and unbearable pain came in its place. What happened? Was she seeing things or did the master passed several meters in an instant? It must have been a clever trick. What a monster was he? He couldn’t be a human being... He didn’t even congratulate her on the upgrade but started beating her right away.

«You’re an idiot. How many times do I have to tell you that you can’t relax during the fight? Even when you find out that I’ve knocked you up, try to hold back your wild joy, or your opponent will take advantage of that.»

Juno looked at him through the veil of pain. Kyon was towering above her like a legendary immortal warrior. She stood up, coughing frantically, holding her stomach, her knees bending.

«I'm sorry, master... I don’t know how it could happen…»

«Never mind.» – Kyon smiled charmingly. He liked Juno’s new-acquired habit of talking to him respectfully, even if she was just being wise not to make him angry.

Kyon’s silhouette blurred again.

* boop *

Juno felt the familiar sharp pain. A moment later, she was rolling on the ground again, coughing even harder. {What's happening?! Has he tricked me again?! No... Don’t tell me...} - At that brief moment, she saw him rush forward her to deliver another blow. He seemed unreal.

Juno couldn’t believe her eyes and yet, she tried to rise. It hurt to look at her. Her whole body was wounded and beaten, but she stubbornly stood up, a bright flame of unbending will burning in her eyes.

Kyon might have been touched by this pathetic scene that was more suitable for some old martial arts film if he did not know the true essence of this little devil.

He was more impressed by the news that he could move five times faster with the help of pure energy. In fact, his speed reached the level of an average practitioner with the development of exactly one phase above his!

Kyon had been experimenting with multifaceted pure energy for more than six days, testing countless options on his own body. He extracted the best details from every successful experiment, mixed them, looked for connections, combinations, “synergized” them... In the end, he found the perfect formula that could give him an explosive advantage in speed. Kyon was firmly convinced that no better movement technique had ever existed. He got into the spirit of pure energy and understood its principle like no one else. His sense of perfectionism was completely and utterly satisfied. He had achieved perfection once again. The sum of purity of Kyon’s keys was 900 percent. He was the master of 9 elements, and now he had worked out an ideal movement technique. He assigned it an “S” rank which was the ceiling by the local standards. He decided not to give it a name as he had no intention to teach it to anyone nor give away the secret of creating adamantium.

It is worth mentioning that he had gained additional power for his blows together with speed. A quick fist will always be stronger than a slow one. But still, pure energy provided more input than simple inertia.

To sum it up, his technique of movements surpassed any other by a whole phase (taking into account his pure energy). It was a god-like, explosive, unfathomable result. That’s the kind of perfection Kyon wanted to achieve.

Juno had a really bad feeling about all that. She limped to her feet and looked at the boy who was three meters away from her. She was ready for any trick.

Suddenly, he blurred in her eyes, and there she was lying on the ground yet again like a wounded kitten gasping for air. She was sure there was no trick this time... The master used his speed and crushed her like a cheetah triumphing over a fox. She didn’t stand a single chance. Juno had a feeling he had been always pretending to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. {He’s a monster... A monster!}

Kyon laughed when he saw his apprentice slowly creep away from him.

Juno was about to run away (she had had enough of tortures), but he grabbed her by the collar and dragged her back as if he was a maniac, and she was his unfortunate victim.

«Well, well, baby. I am not done with you yet.»

Juno looked at the monstrosity, who was frightening her with his talent and strength.

«You... you are a monster! You are too strong for me! I am not training with you! I don’t want to feel unbearable pain anymore without a single chance to learn from you at least something! You never give in! You are a ruthless sadist, not a master. Let me go!»

«I? I never give in? If I had never given in, I would have done something like this!»

*bang*

A spark of lightning, equal to the 2nd stage of the advanced phase, flashed from his hand and hit Juno in the neck.

Her face distorted in shock, her arms and legs quivered, her body limped, but the hand holding the collar of her jacket did not let her fall.

Kyon grinned, but then he noticed clear liquid slowly drip down Juno's leg.

He winced theatrically and was about to arrange demonstrative spanking but then he looked at Juno’s rolled eyes and realized that he had gone too far. She had passed out.

Reluctantly, he carried her to the bench and carefully laid her down. Juno fell to one side, right on his shoulder, weakened, defenseless and cute, light as a feather...

Kyon held his breath when all of a sudden, his heart went right through his feet. Right at this compromising moment, the gates treacherously creaked.