The week went by horribly fast. Almost all of Liam's time was spent with Gray, practicing processing Mana or his own life energy, Od, and Reinforcement. Some days he practiced on his body, and other times he was given tools to reinforce.

One thing that became abundantly clear after days of practicing was his abnormal skill in Reinforcement.

"What makes Reinforcement so hard is the fact that you are adding to an already completed object." He heard the Lord speak from the phone. Gray had called him using the wired phone at the dorm supervisor, Krishna's, desk. She had reported the results from the past five days of training and incidentally brought on a lecture.

"A knife is already a knife-in a sense, it's already perfect. It's usually very difficult to make it more perfect by adding more material." The Lord continued on. Gray held the phone between her and Liam so they could both hear. "Typically people either add to little to make any difference, or add too much and risk damaging the object."

"Well, what does this mean for me?" Liam questioned, crossing his arms and leaning against the desk at his side. A long silence filled the air as the Lord tried to formulate his thoughts cohesively.

"I have my suspicions." He finally spoke. Liam swore the pause was actually due to him smoking. "It's not important right now. Classes start in two days, so Gray, I want you to give him a bit of combat training."

"What?" Both Gray and Liam spoke at the same time.

"Sir, are you sure you want me to do this? Why not get Svin, he-" She started to protest, but El-Melloi had already anticipated it.

"You've been doing great so far." He assured her, this time inhaling loud enough with his cigar that they could hear him. "Remember, Liam isn't the only one learning. This is for you too." The Lord finished and hung up the phone, leaving the two magi with only the beeping of a disconnected caller.

"Combat training? He means fighting?" Liam's eyes widened at the thought. He had never even gotten into a regular fight-how the hell would he fare in a fight with magic?

Gray clutched the phone for a few more moments before placing it back on the receiver. Her eyes avoided his own, instead staring at the floor.

"We should go to the tower."

- -

While the Clock Tower was a school, it was also the main gathering spot for Magi all over the west. As such, even though the semester hadn’t started yet, it was practically always open.

The two magi entered an incomprehensibly large room, easily more akin to a warehouse than a room. Although in actuality it was the size of several warehouses.

The walls were all made up of ornate yet immensely hard stone, all different shades of brown. Pillars stretched up to the impossibly tall ceiling. A few wooden golems stood around, sweeping or cleaning up anything they could find. Liam saw them in almost every hall they entered while they walked through the Clock Tower. Unsurprisingly, they weren't the only ones in there. Liam watched with widened eyes as other mages trained with each other, leaping twenty feet off the ground, jumping from a pillar down to their opponent.

Gray walked up to a large area, a dark brown square of stone outlined by a lighter shade of brown stone. She stood at the opposite end and turned to Liam with a grim look on her face.

"Let's just get this over with." She said, although Liam had to strain to hear it from the sheer distance. He agreed wholeheartedly, slipping off his blue jacket (which had finally dried from his first night in London) and focusing his mind. Surely they wouldn't be sparring as hard as-

Gray charged forward, traveling an eleven meter distance in almost one step.

Liam panicked-blood shooting through his veins, chemicals combining to create that adrenaline he's become familiar with over this past week. He wasn't ready, or at least, some part of him was.

The image of the waterfall burst his circuits open and his mouth moved on its own. He didn't even hear himself speak his activation spell as jumped to his side to avoid Gray.

The Od latent in his body poured into his circuits. They processed it like a factory, transforming the life energy into workable Magical Energy. Gray leapt at him again, this time spinning and driving forward with a kick.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

His brain struggled to react in time, leaning to the side again as the kick grazed his chest. The energy flowed instinctively into Liam's legs, strengthening them beyond human recognition. He felt he could win an Olympic sprint with these legs-but that was the least of his problems now. The spare energy flowed into his hands and forearms now as he gripped Gray's leg and spun, swinging her down to the ground while his own legs stabilized him.

She quickly slipped out his hands, almost floating along the floor rather than cratering into the stone.

'Not enough energy.' Liam cursed at his mistake. His legs remained rooted to the ground, but his hands already felt sore from lack of enhancement. In the brief moment of respite, Liam noticed something he had never seen before.

Gray's hood had slid back into a bunch behind her head, revealing her full face.

Her grey hair was tied up in a perfect bun, with only a few strands loose and hanging next to her face. Her eyes shown a brighter green than usual-and for some reason, Liam found them more intense than usual. More... angry.

Gray charged again, approaching and spinning faster than before. Liam pulled again from his Od, using the Magical Energy from it and stuffing it into his arms. With his legs' reinforcement weakening he stepped to the side once again, expecting a similar attack as last time.

Rather than kicking, Gray spun again, driving her left fist forward as her body became completely parallel to her limb.

Liam raised his arms immediately. The fist collided with them-pain shooting all the way from his wrists to his shoulder. The sheer force sent him flying back a few meters, tumbling backwards and landing on his stomach.

It hurt less than he had expected, but he wouldn't be surprised if his hands were broken. He pushed himself up with his hands. They ached, his circuits ached as they processed more energy, and jolts of pain spread through his chest. If he wasn't fast, exhaustion would prevent him from moving further.

Gray hadn't moved forward this time, but her eyes still looked wide and pissed. She had taken a slight stance, but still hesitated on whether she should stay on the offensive.

So Liam decided he would take it.

Pumping his legs full of energy, he leapt forward and spun, kicking behind him with a horribly strengthened leg. It was truly a poor imitation of Gray's initial attack.

Gray reacted accordingly by imitating Liam, stepping to the side and gripping his leg. She wouldn't screw this move up this time. The girl spun behind her and slammed Liam onto the stone back-first. Cracks of either bone or stone echoed through the training hall as the boy sunk slightly into the floor.

All the air escaped from Liam's lungs. His circuits shut down immediately, all reinforcements faded along with the energy inside him. His body sagged as he struggled to reach air, not to mention the fact that simply being caused pain he had never felt before. Specifically from his back.

A second passed before the situation processed in Gray's mind. Her intense expression fell off as she flipped her hood back up and knelt down to Liam.

"Are you okay? Can you breathe?" She attempted to inspect his body, pushing down on different areas. Everywhere she pressed caused Liam to hiss, which stressed her even more.

"That... was insane." Liam managed to speak once air finally filled his lungs again. He tried to look around, but any and all movement just brought more pain. "Isn't there a clinic somewhere?"

- -

"Shit." The boy hissed as the Lord applied the medicine to his back. Liam sat backwards on a wooden chair, leaned over with the back of his shirt lifted up. The salve felt ice cold, and for some reason caused his muscles to tense up and restrict. Pain was all he knew for the past twenty minutes.

"You know, when I said combat training, I didn't mean take him out of commission." Lord El-Melloi II sighed as he applied more of the medicine to the boys back. There were several purple spots across it. He was surprised Liam had gotten away with just bruising and not a broken spine.

"...I'm sorry." Gray murmured. She stood next to the Lord but facing away from the two of them.

She had practically carried him back to the dormitory and called El-Melloi. The injuries weren't life-threatening, so at the very least he would be able to help heal Liam.

"I was joking. He'll be fine in time for classes. Tomorrow was going to be your rest day anyways." He assured the two magi as he twisted the lid back on the medicine jar. He replaced it into a bag he brought with him, closing it with a plastic clasp.

"Thanks for the assist." Liam slid his shirt back down and slowly stood up, pushing the chair back to the desk in his room. The Lord simply nodded and stood up as well before making his way to the doorway.

"You should get to bed now, let yourself heal." He left without any other words. Gray walked to the doorway as well, but looked back to Liam first.

"I'm really sorry-I got carried away."

"It's fine, really. Gets me prepared for when other people kick the crap out out of me." He replied with a laugh, although he tried to ignore the small pain that caused. Gray only nodded with the same somber look she had since the incident. She closed the door with a nigh silent ‘good night', which Liam returned.

It didn't take long for him to fall into a heavy sleep.

- -

The door to his room creaked open slowly. The darkness inside his room and the darkness outside began to meld and combine, becoming a single entity. Liam's eyes opened slightly in an attempt to see through it. For a moment there was no cause for the open door in sight, but soon a figure began to gather in the darkness.

It confused Liam. Why would anyone go into his room so late at night? And if they did, why wouldn't they announce themselves?

"Krishna? Is that you?" Liam whispered, thinking it was the dorm supervisor just trying to check up on him, as odd of a time as it was. A small light shown through the dark. It was odd that someone would carry a flashlight-but the light was far too small to come from that. It was more like the glint of metal.

Once he saw the full form of the metal, the blade came hurtling towards his head.