Queen Puri was standing in the doorway wearing a set of black leather armor that was almost stylish enough to pass as formal wear. In her hands, she held two scimitars with golden handles. Kenrich spotted many different gems encased in the golden handles.
“Don’t tell me…” Violet said.
“Correct! I am going to train you all for the journey ahead!” Queen Puri said proudly.
“You can’t even get up on time! How can you teach us anything?!” Violet said.
Queen Puri’s head drooped a bit.
“Th-that has nothing to do with my skill!” she responded.
“Let’s give her a chance, Vivi,” Fae said, putting her arm on Violet’s shoulder. “I doubt she made the promise of helping us become stronger as a joke.”
“Sure feels like a joke right now…” Violet said.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover!” Queen Puri said, getting into a fighting stance. “Let’s have a friendly duel to see just how capable I am then, okay, Violet?”
“I’d prefer not to hurt you…” Violet said, still not convinced.
“Just get in the damn ring!” Queen Puri said, slightly frustrated.
Violet threw up her hands, retrieved her blade from her sheath, and stood nonchalantly at the other end of the gym mat. Once Violet had raised her weapon, Queen Puri immediately thrust herself right at her. Violet was taken off guard by the sudden assault, but after a few seconds, she began taking it seriously. The fight lasted less than thirty seconds before Violet sat at the base of the wall with the wind knocked out of her lungs. She gasped for air and her weapon was nowhere near her. It was hard for Kenrich and Fae to track, but Queen Puri’s punches and kicks looked to hit like a catapult thrusting a large boulder. One punch was enough to knock Violet off of her feet and the kick right after had her flying at the wall putting her in her current state. Violet had no chance for a counterattack even though it was clear that Queen Puri had tried to give her a few seconds at the beginning of the fight so that she could gauge her strength.
“This is the problem with young warriors…” Queen Puri said. “So much confidence, but so little actual strength. You’d be nothing without your stones, Violet.”
Queen Puri then tried to confidently walk back towards the other side of the gym but immediately tripped and fell flat on her face.
“What a strange situation we are in…” Kenrich said to Fae.
“You’ve got that right,” Fae responded.
Fae then went over to Violet and propped her up on her shoulder. Kenrich went to the other injured fighter, who was injured only by gravity and clumsiness, and gave her his hand.
“How’s your…uh…face?” Kenrich asked.
“I hit my nose…” Queen Puri said, rubbing her nose with her palm. “Who just leaves things lying around like that?!”
Violet was now on her feet and looked straight at Fae with a disgruntled look on her face.
“Ugh…She hits harder than you, Fae.”
“Does she now? Almost makes me want to test it myself…You up for another duel, your majesty?”
“I owe my pupils as many duels as they want!” she said excitedly.
Queen Puri had not seen a lot of actual combat but during her training, she always loved sparring with her peers. No one ever wanted to spar with her for a second time though so she was happy to finally have some students to both teach and fight.
Fae took her spot in the same place that Violet had, and brought out her battleaxe, getting into a very serious fighting stance. Fae was not going to take her lightly. Queen Puri, who now had a small bandage on her nose, took her place and put her scimitars out at her sides.
“Don’t you even think of putting those swords away like you did with Vivi! I want to see your full power!” Fae yelled.
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Kenrich did notice that Queen Puri did not attempt a single attack with her scimitars during the previous fight. He wondered what she would look like at full power if she could easily knock Violet out without needing a weapon.
“I wouldn’t want to hurt my students before we even start our lessons!” Queen Puri remarked. “There will be plenty of time for me to fight seriously when you three actually learn how to fight.”
“We know how to fight!” Violet yelled from her spot against the wall.
“You know the Admian way of fighting, but I’m going to teach you how to fight like a true warrior. One who doesn’t need to rely on stones to help them scrape by. By the time we’re done, you will all be able to take down anyone without the need for any magic stone.”
“In today’s world? I don’t know if anyone could be that strong…” Violet said to Kenrich.
“It’s worth exploring,” Kenrich responded. “Might as well see what we can learn. It would benefit us for her to be right anyway.”
“I suppose so.”
The fight now commenced. Fae and Queen Puri had run at one another at a similar speed with Queen Puri being slightly quicker from what Kenrich could tell. Kenrich viewed the fight and saw once again that Queen Puri was holding back using her weapon. She threw blows with her fists and legs while only using her scimitars to block Fae’s strikes with her axe. The massive strikes that had made Violet stagger in their duel only a short hour ago were not making Queen Puri budge at all.
“I told you not to hold back!” Fae said, clearly turning it up a notch.
Fae began moving even faster and her blows were creating small shockwaves that could be felt around the gym. Queen Puri still did not stagger, nor did she use her weapon. The kicks and punches that had knocked out Violet quickly seemed to be absorbed by Fae’s axe as she blocked, but it turns out that this was not the case.
“You’re definitely strong…” Queen Puri said as she continued blocking the swings of Fae’s axe. “Not strong enough though, so let’s end this so we can start the lesson!”
Queen Puri was not breathing heavily at all while she talked. It was as if she was trying to conduct small talk in the heat of battle. A few moments after finishing her statement, a massive blow from Queen Puri’s foot had shot Fae at the wall like a cannonball. She hit the wall and immediately fell to the ground in a much more violence manner than Violet had. Violet and Kenrich both ran over to Fae who was lying motionless on the ground.
“Oops…Did I overdo it?” Queen Puri said, making her way to Fae briskly. Regardless of her obvious power, she had a very girly run.
Violet flipped over Fae, and they all looked down on her. After a few seconds, they saw her eyebrow furrow and heard a small, pained grunt leave her lips. She was still alive even after such a rough landing. Violet removed a healing stone from her pack and began using it on Fae. A few moments passed, and she sat up, back in the conscious world.
“I can’t remember the last time I got beat that bad…” Fae said weakly. “To think you held back the entire time after I told you not to…You jerk!”
Fae then got up and started pulling Queen Puri’s cheeks outward.
“Stop it! You’ll pull them right off!” Queen Puri said, waving her arms.
“That’ll teach you!” Fae said.
This was the first time he had seen Fae be annoyed by anything, so it was a sight to behold. He couldn’t help but smile a bit.
“Alright, alright. Let her go,” Kenrich said, lightly taking Fae’s hands off of Queen Puri’s cheeks. Queen Puri began rubbing her cheeks softly with tears in her eyes.
“My students are so ungrateful!” she said.
“You haven’t done anything but slam us against walls so far!” Violet said.
“That’s what you two wanted! Don’t blame me!”
“Slam Kenrich against the wall too so we’re all on the same page,” Violet said, pointing right at him.
“There’s no need for that!” he responded.
“Are we really that weak…?” Fae said, sadly.
“You are both terribly weak,” Queen Puri said blankly. “But…I’ll change that. It won’t be long before you three will be able to stand against any foe.”
“I really hope you’re a good teacher…” Violet said.
“I’m sure I will be!”
“That didn’t sound that confident,” Violet said.
“Well…I’ve never actually taught anyone before, but there’s no time like the present!”
“Every day my life gets a little bit harder…” Violet said sadly. “When will this cruel joke end? When will the universe stop testing me?”
“Hey! Don’t go losing all hope before we’ve even started!” Queen Puri said.
“She’s obviously strong, Vivi, so let’s give her a shot. I doubt she’d make us worse.”
“I trust her. I think we’ll be fine in her care,” Kenrich said. Queen Puri’s face got a bit red.
“I’m happy to see I’ve earned the right to teach you all! So…let’s begin!”
The three finally began their training. Violet and Fae had not received any training since their days in the military and Kenrich only learned from Violet, so it was true that their knowledge of combat had plateaued. But now that they had an immensely powerful warrior as their teacher, they were each going to improve significantly. The training they underwent revolved around many different subjects, but the one that Queen Puri had expressed the most was something called “Solidity,” which she described as a way to make your body as powerful as the armor you wear. Mastering Solidity would make any punch or kick you threw as powerful as a meteor. Queen Puri said that she only put 5% Solidity into her against Violet and only 7% against Fae, but she would teach them to reach 100% if they so wished. The training was arduous. Within the first couple days, all of their bodies were covered in immense bruises. Training your Solidity revolved around flexing your muscles under constant strain from repeatedly pushing your body past its normal limits. Most warriors can’t devote the time to this practice because they lack the time and a master to teach them, but Kenrich, Violet, and Fae had both of those things at the moment. Within a few days, the reconstruction of their bodies was finally taking effect.