Nathan woke up to a change of pace. He got dressed, suspicion filling him as he went through his morning routine. He slowly opened the door to leave his room before cautiously heading downstairs. He found his mother already sat at the table while the ever kind Jaques, his mother’s butler, was setting down breakfast dishes. The aroma of pancakes and sausages tried to convince him that everything was okay. He had been training for six months and had become well accustomed to the fact that someone would wake him at some un-heavenly hour, typically violently. Except for the days when he studied, and he was gently informed that it was time to begin his day. So he sat down waiting to be informed of his misdeed or the latest development in his contractual training.

“Your combat training begins today hon. You better try hard or those girls are going to be gossiping about with all the other company trainers. Oh, and can you guess who called me yesterday…” His mother droned about her day. Nathan tried hard to stay interested, but he really wanted to know about the combat training. He was abused enough already, and if that wasn't combat training he wasn't sure he wanted to know what was. Eventually though he gave in and started eating breakfast. He assumed he would headover to meet up with whichever trainer was going to be beating him into the ground. He dug his fork into a fluffy pancake of utter goodness, buried in syrup and butter, before his aura kindly informed him that a fist was hurtling at him. Shooting out of his seat, or trying to anyways, he fumbled as his aura formed a defensive barrier. He relied on the fact that his aura was quite capable of defending him as he spun to see Lizs vibrant figure attacking him. She cut him a quick smile before using her aura to help break through his own. Nathan awkwardly tried to figure out if he was supposed to attack or if he was expected to hold her off while eating breakfast. He decided to ask was the best course of action.

“What exactly is my goal in this scenario? Am I supposed to attack you or eat breakfast or what?”

“Well, the main goal was to see how you react to an ambush and you aced it really. But know im kinda thrown off as I was supposed to smack you around a bit before letting you eat.” The redhead explained.

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“Seeing as Nathan has stopped your ambush quite wonderfully, how about you join us for breakfast. I already asked Jaques to make enough for four.” His mother said motioning to an empty seat at the table. That quickly simplified matters as the group quickly dug into the meal. Nathan enjoyed the feeling of having succeeded at a test, but also felt a strange emotion wash over him. For the first time in a long while he felt confident. In himself, in his body, and in his spirit. It felt like an odd heaviness was lifted, one he never really noticed. Nathan had come miles from where he had started and it showed.

“Let’s start with some base rules: Standard duel etiquette, if your knocked out of the circle it’s a loss, if I declare a fights over its over. Understand?” She asked once they arrived at the training center. After Nathan nodded his assent they walked into a ring that made up the majority of the center; much of the equipment moved out of the way to allow for a large ‘arena’. Nathan gave a quick bow as Liz announced the start of the duel and then flared his aura into a defensive form. It was no longer a simple soft shield, having gained many new aspects to allow for it to mitigate as many types of damage as possible with high efficiency. Its glossy, but transparent shell had earned it the title of Nullification Bubble Shield. Or as Nathan typically referred to it as, Null Shield. Liz collected her aura on her fists and began pounding his shield. It dented and deformed but Nathan could rely on it for at least a bit. While he had the defensive advantage he thought of a way to go on the offense. Nathan smiled as he figured out a wonderful way to throw her off. Nathan used his aura to emit a sudden blast of light, hoping to blind Liz. The trainer flinched at the intense brightness and Nathan rushed forward. With a quick punch aimed at her gut moved to attack. A hand caught his wrist and threw him forward, pulling him off his balance and landing him on the ground in a sprawl.

“If you hadn’t rushed the attack and maintained a good stance you could have won.” Came the criticizing voice of his tormentor.

“Yeah, but how did you shake off the flash so fast? I thought that would work for sure.”

“I didn’t, but just because im blinded doesn't mean my aura is. The same way you used yours to detect my ambush earlier, I used my mine to sense your punch.” And that really embarrassed Nathan. It was stupid to assume that his trainer wouldnt be able to do something she taught him to do. Or maybe Tanya had taught him that? It didn’t really matter. The long and short of it was that he had lost. But he was definitely going to win next time.