I staggered to my feet. Shaking my head to clear the lights out of my eyes while my body healed itself.

"What was that?" I asked as soon as all my bones went back to their usual place.

"He hit you." Marco replied helpfully.

"Really hard." Drew added.

"Go Julian!" Ramji cheered. "Kick his ass!"

"I thought you were my friend!" I called out to him.

"That was before the roaches!" He answered, and his words brought on murmurs of agreement up and down the rows of onlookers.

Drew and Marco looked at each other. Shrugged. And started cheering for Julian too.

'Bunch of Quislings!' I groaned internally.

But then I got ahold of myself and straightened my posture. Coach Russell and Elsie had both been very clear about how much there was to learn about Magic and fighting in general. The former had said time and time again that I should be spending my time focusing and drilling on the basics of training if I ever wanted to get anywhere. Assuring me that there would a time and place for more advanced techniques and complex fighting styles. The latter had chided me on going too far, too fast.

"We usually spend the latter half of level 1 training with different kinds of weapons." Elsie had said. "And then a lot of tie in level 2 learning to fight other people who use Magic. It helps to prepare you for when you have to fight smarter, sneakier monsters down in the Dungeon. You gotta know when to move and when to take a hit for your friend. You gotta know when to stand your ground and when to cut and run. Ya might think that none of this applies to you because of the whole unending horde thing you do, but the Necromancer of Nepal thought that too and he got assassinated in the end. You can't assume that you'll always have an army with you Cecil. Just like how I can't assume I'll always have a solid team to share Skills with. You're bound to get your teeth kicked in if you don't shape up and start learning to counter Magic and martial arts by your lonesome."

Of course, when she said that, I'd assumed that she was just covering her bases and giving me some generally good advice for what I should be doing next.

In all honesty, I hadn't taken her all that seriously. Not after the way I could tear the gnomes apart.

'Welp. Better to find out I suck here in Gym class instead of out there in the Dungeon.' I mused.

Then I spat out a few broken teeth and allowed my Magic to re-form them.

"Are you ready to go again?" Coach Homer asked.

"No. Give me another minute. I need to think a little more."

"You need to do less thinking and more guarding." Julian taunted. "Dad was right. You have your head in the clouds when you should be focused on the fight in front of you."

He looked me up and down and up again. His shoulders losing some of the tension they'd had until now.

"You didn't even see me move."

"Yeah. I didn't. But you've got Skills specifically made to give you physical boosts." I countered. "Doesn't seem fair to blame me for not reacting the first time."

I put up a hand to forestall him.

"I'm not stupid. Or, not so stupid that I don't realize you're better. That's normal. I need to work on my fighting and you've had a lot of practice. It's normal that you're better and it's normal that I need to improve. Just... give me a minute and I'll at least give you a challenge."

I started heaving again. Circulating Magic around me and trying to think of ways I could maybe stall for time or slow him down. Then I noticed Julian scrunching up his face as if he'd just stepped in dog poo.

"What do you mean, I've got physical Skills? You've got physical Skills too don't you?"

"Yeah? But it takes time for them. You're too fast."

His scowl turned into a look of worry.

"So dad never went through Instant Activation with you?"

I let out a dry chuckle.

"Look man. I'm not gonna lie. I got really lucky with my Skills back in the Dungeon. I haven't been doing this for long enough and I'm not half as good as you think I am. Free Form Magic wasn't even something me and your dad covered okay? I'm flattered that you think I'm good enough to know things like that, but I can't even use Presence right."

I popped my right arm back into place and let out a sigh of relief.

"Like I said, just give me a minute to game plan."

"Very well." Coach Homer interrupted. "Switch out and let Yuann and Emma have a go. Then Drew can go against Mark. Take your time to come up with a plan. You'll face Julian again shortly."

I nodded and practically limped my way over to the crowd of onlookers. The damage was already healed, but phantom pain was still gnawing at me. Chipping away at the back of my mind.

"Well that was a nice show of humility." Elsie commented from the side.

"Yeah? And? He kicked my ass before I could blink. Humility seemed like the way to go. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Act like Pool-Cecil and start provoking him when he's right there and obviously stronger than me? Remind me again how that turned out with coach Russell?"

Elsie gave me a mischievous grin.

"No! No! You are absolutely right! Be meek when you're weak and proud when you've earned the right. That's the smart way to go about things. But... I dunno. I guess I was kinda hoping you were going to have a whole anime moment and look my way when you were down. Then you'd feel the power of love coursing through you and suddenly awaken your true potential and kick Julian in the teeth before professing something like: The power of love will never be defeated!"

"Pretty sure I've seen a few anime characters get killed while saying that exact same thing. I don't feel like jinxing it."

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

I waved her off.

"Besides. This is training. What's the worst that could happen if Julian thinks I'm not anywhere near as scary as he thinks I am? Do you suppose he and everyone else will be less tense around me? That's what I want to happen!"

"Did you get beat up on purpose?" Marco asked from the side.

"No. I really did think I was going to win." I admitted. "I knew he'd trained more but I figured the stats would make up the difference while we both used our Skills."

"Yeah. That's what I figured." Ramji piled on. "You'd have to be a really good actor to fake getting pounded that badly."

"Thanks Ramji. With friends like you I don't even need guys like Julian stepping on me." I said sullenly.

"I mean, like a really good actor. Like, you could go out and get an Emmy if we filmed you getting beat that bad."

"We could also play sad music over the footage and pas it off as an anti-bullying commercial." Drew offered. "I can see the title now. 'Requiem of a buff blind guy.' Now playing in theatres."

Marco placed a hand over his face.

"I have the trailer lines already."

He struck a brooding pose.

"No matter how hard I work out, nothing will ever make me suck less. The size of my biceps matched only by the tininess of my..."

"Okay! That's enough! You've had your fun now! Time to watch the fights!" I interrupted.

Feeling a flush creeping over my face.

Though if truth be told, I was kinda relieved. Yeah, the beating was bad, but at least these guys were talking to me again. That felt good.

"So how did the dirt taste like?" Drew asked.

Never mind. These guys were just as bad as Julian and Russell.

Elsie tugged on my gym shirt then.

"Don't worry honey. I'm sure it isn't as small as they say."

"Screw you."

"Not until we're married." Elsie tittered.

I was about to snap back when the whistle went off again.

Just like with my fight, it was over in an instant. Yuann having deployed some kind of slowing field around himself right as Emma went for the flamethrower attack.

After that, he simply hummed along as he walked around the near motionless flames. Emma's eyes turning in his direction, but failing to follow his leisurely pace.

He went to her back. Wound up a kick and then sent it to the back of Emma's legs as time resumed. The flamethrower attack went wild. Flames licking the air as she yelped. Her feet flailing in the air for a fraction of a second before she went down hard. Then he piled on the disrespect by kicking her face a couple more times.

"See? Your beating wasn't that bad." Elsie assured me. "It could have been way worse."

"Yeah. No kidding." I muttered. Silently thanking my lucky stars that I hadn't been fighting him.

'Though I guess the difference in stats might have mattered more then. As I'm now level 3.' I pondered.

"Hey, what's the trick to Instant Activation anyway?" I asked Elsie as coach Homer signaled the end of the fight.

"You send Magic to the Skill and hold it there while it's ready. But you don't actually activate it." Elsie answered. "Instead, you hold it and learn to keep holding it while you do other stuff like walking around or working out or even using completely different Skills. You end up learning to multi-task. To really divide your attention in a way normal humans can't. That and the pressure keeps building. Making you stressed out and mentally fatigued. You feel like someone's pressing down on you even when you're standing still and you get some really great gains if you do it while undergoing things like Gravity training to make your actual body heavier. Do it long enough and you can cut down the time it takes to activate Skills to pretty much zero."

"You are actually insane." Drew snapped. "I can't believe you actually had the nerve to say all that with a straight face. You should be in straightjacket for your own good."

"How come?" I asked.

"How come! Because what she said is cruel and unusual!" Ramji piled on. "Training to hold a Skill is already super hard, but doing stuff while you hold the Skill is actually torture. Like Geneva Convention torture! You'd get your kids taken away if you told them to do that!"

"Yeah man." Marco agreed. "I tried it once last week for the first time and it felt like there were three gnomes stabbing me from three different sides. And I was standing still. The fact that Julian can do that at his age is crazy. We should report coach Russell."

'Good luck with that.' I thought to myself. 'Though maybe I can also pull off something similar. [Seeker-Mind] does let me feel myself and my Magic much more clearly. As if it made everything flow more smoothly. In that sense, it's similar to Instant Activation.'

The plan I was considering probably wouldn't work. But it was worth a try at least.

After all, this was just sparring. Even if I failed, the worst that could happen was me walking away with egg on my face. If I managed it, it might mean I could train that kind of Free-Form Magic while also following Elsie's suggestions.

Or maybe working even harder.

The guys could make fun of her all they liked, but her results spoke for themselves and I wasn't about to turn down good training suggestions.

Yuann offered a hand to Emma and the later shook it while grumbling.

Then it was Drew's turn to face off against Mark and they both went to opposite sides of the arena.

Coach Homer blew his whistle and soon as he did, both sides leapt into action. Mark leaping forwards in a tackle while Drew leapt backwards and to the right. Sending waves of her Magic out as fast as she could.

Mark felt it immediately. His body turning loose and his eyes becoming unfocused so that he landed in a jumbled mess of limbs. Any one person at level 2 should have been able to roll back to their feet and lunge again immediately, but Mark's limbs had turned to jelly. Arms and legs flailing about like the tentacles of an octopus out of water.

He started to hiccup soon after and his eyes grew even more clouded. His expression seeming glazed over and unfocused.

Drew simply walked over to him and kicked him once in the head. Mark went limp and stopped struggling altogether.

Coach Homer blew his whistle and the match was done.

"Okay Cecil. Time to get back in the game." He said.

I nodded and moved to take up my position. Letting Magic gather at the place where [Seeker-Mind], [Spawn] and [Transform] usually were.

The guys had not been kidding. Holding them all in place hurt.

A lot.

Thankfully, I had all of Pool-Cecil's memories of self-experimentation. So this level of pain really wasn't enough to take me out of the zone. Not yet anyway.

'Okay. It will be slower than his own Magic, but I think we can make it work. What do you think?' I asked Pool-Cecil.

'I'm honestly surprised you came up with a plan this good on short notice.' The creep answered. 'Subtle, inexpensive, yet undoubtedly effective. Targeting the frailties of human minds to make up for stopping power. I love it.'

I fought to ignore the revulsion while also fighting through the pain. Taking care to remind myself that Elsie and uncle Uter both agreed that the voice did give good advice on occasion and that I'd improve faster if I used it without having to fight myself.

Coach Homer sounded his whistle again and again the punches came.

Hard and fast. Breaking bones in my arms, my legs my torso.

Thankfully, that last target had been the one I'd been banking on.

[Seeker-Mind] came alive. My own mind melding with that of Pool-Cecil's. The transition making me feel all my cells and all my Magic much more clearly.

Then the tide of [Transform] and [Spawn] that I had been holding back burst open. The former turning the bruised skin and broken bones into an open maw with jagged teeth. The latter birthing a couple hundred giant Burrower Roaches from every pore in my skin.

It still wasn't as fast as his own Skills, but he'd put his whole body into the lunge and that had left him out of balance. So that he wasn't able to leap back in time.

His mouth let out a yelp of surprise when the teeth bit in and held him in place. But the true terror didn't dawn on him until he saw the bugs.

Skittering black legs beyond counting. Attached to roaches as big as his thumbs. All of whom now leapt at him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" He said calmly. His body freezing with terror as the bugs found him.

Yeah.

That was a mistake.

Because the roaches then started streaming into the folds of his clothes. Running up and around his torso and back. Into the folds of his clothes and into the exposed skin beneath. Into his socks and his underwear. Bristling past every hair on his body.

Crawling all over his arms and legs. Crawling into his mouth and nostrils. Crawling all over his eyes and ears and biting at them even as their sisters forced their way up his nose and down his esophagus. Skittering violently inside his intestinal track and biting him from the inside out.

He pulled his arm away from me. Hard.

Bringing up his legs and his other arm to beat the living snot out of me.

Sadly, I had grown a layer of bony plate while he was distracted and all his struggling did was make sure the barbed fangs dug deeper into his flesh.

All while I [Spawned] in more roaches.