The walk back home was interrupted by a detour towards Rilcoe’s only park. The scars left on the grass and fence from the Tauria incident prior were still there. With the field to themselves, the trio made their way towards the middle of the patchy field of grass. A calm breeze passed by, blowing a bit of paper and other trash their way. Paying the litter no mind, Itzel faced Gurk. Her hands were on her hips as she looked at him as stern as ever.

"If you're serious about this challenge with Siergi, you're going to have to put in the effort to make sure you give him a run for his Tokens. You got that?"

"Yeah."

"Ready to activate Training Mode?" Itzel activated her Implant and went straight towards the Rumble Circuit screen.

"Yeah."

Itzel turned her screen around. "Ready to Train?" read the big prompt.

Gurk leaned forward and tapped the “Accept” button. A catchy melody played. Itzel then looked at Janus who stared at them with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "If you bring up your Rumble Circuit page, you can see what all of our meters will look like," she said.

"Oh, good. I've been meaning to ask you more about what the fight display looks like and Special and Signature Techniques work."

"Perfect. We'll get Gurk a bit of training in while you learn more about how fighting actually works."

"Sounds like a win, win to me." Janus brought up the Challenge Display. The meters and bars looked identical to what he saw during Itzel and Enidri’s fight at Grub On save for one major difference. There was no timer. The usual number at the top of the screen that would decrease as the fight went on was gone and was replaced by an infinity symbol.

"This is Training Mode," Itzel said. “The usual rules apply, except there's no time limit on a match and no points or rankings are on the line. It's a great way to practice without having to stress out about losing some hard-earned Tokens or Rumble Circuit Points."

"Do attacks still hurt?"

"Of course they do. Part of fighting is knowing how to take a hit."

"I thought the best plan in a fight is to not get hit in the first place," Janus said with a chuckle.

"The only person that can do that is someone who doesn't fight. Now, me and Gurk are going to have a friendly bout. Nothing too serious; we're just going to spar until one of us calls it quits. We don't want to knock each other out. That would be counter-productive if we were hitting each other so hard that the other lost consciousness."

"That can happen?" Janus asked.

"Yep. As you've seen before, Techniques hurt. A well-timed Signature when you're low on stamina can put you out like a light if you're not careful."

"Good to know."

Itzel turned towards the crocodile. "Are you ready Gurk?"

"Yeah."

Itzel took her usual karate stance. Gurk put his arms up, ready to block a potential Serrated Gale. Janus' eyes focused on the screen, becoming fixated on the empty segments that were on either side of the Challenge Display. "I know you two haven't even started your sparring yet, but there has been on thing that I meant to ask about but never got around to."

"Go for it," Itzel said without taking her eyes off the crocodile.

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"The two sets of three gray blocks that turn blue. I think it's called EV? How does that work?"

"Serrated Gale!" The projectile soared over the grass and hit Gurk in the hand. He was in a blocking position, so the attack dissipated upon contact. Janus looked down at Itzel's side of the screen and saw that she had gained a small portion of blue to her gray bars.

"That's the EV meter," she said. "You need that to use Enhanced Variant version of your special techniques. When one bar is full, you can use a single EV move. Here, I'll show you." Itzel looked at Gurk, getting out of her fighting stance and into a more relaxed. "Let me hit you a few times so I can build up some EV," she said to her partner. Gurk got out of his attacking stance and stood up straight. "Don't worry, I just need to land a few more Serrated Gales. Since we're just training at the moment, they won't hurt too much."

Itzel tossed out a pair of Serrated Gales, both of which connected on Gurk's chest. He reeled back from each attack. Janus kept his focus on the Challenge Display. After the second Serrated Gale hit, he noticed that the first block of Itzel's blue meter had been filled completely. Gurk's stamina meter had lost a small chunk while his first EV bar was close to being halfway full.

"You get EV meter both for attacking as well as for getting hit. But more so for being agressive. Now I have enough energy to perform a stronger version of Serrated Gale. Watch."

Itzel angled herself away from Gurk and performed the uppercut motion that always accompanied her Serrated Gale attack. The projectile formed in the air, except this time it was bigger than usual, roughly three fourths the height of Itzel. The Special Technique soared over the grass of the park, inches above the ground as it sent leaves and dirt scattering to the sides before crashing into the fence. The attack rattled the entire side of the metal perimeter, sending out a torrent of air once it had finally collided.

"How did you do that?" Janus said. He watched the fence continue to rattle and grass settle back down.

"You just have to think about it," Itzel replied with a shrug. "Kind of like how you can just do a normal Technique. You can do an Enhanced Variant just by thinking about it. Once you get used to fighting, you won't have to rely on looking at the EV meter either to see if you have the energy to perform it. You just... know."

"Right. That's why I wasn't able to perform Meteor Bang when I first learned it. My EV wasn't all the way up."

"Exactly! Now you're getting it."

"And that long gray meter? Right beneath each fighter's stamina?"

"Guard. You can't block forever. Just shows how much more that fighter can defend before their arms give out."

"I see, I see. One last thing. That big glowing yellow blip above EV?"

"Oh!" Itzel eyes opened wide. "That's your Defensive Technique!" With one hand, Itzel motioned for Gurk to come and attack her. She put her arms in front of her body defensively. "Come on and hit me Gurk. But with something simple so I can show Janus how to use a Defensive Technique."

Without saying a word, Gurk obliged. He stepped closer to Itzel and raised his hand high before lowering his claw in an overhead slash. The attack connected with Itzel's forearm. The instant it did, a massive gust of wind surrounded her body, pushing Gurk's arm back. With the demonstration over, Janus looked back at the Challenge Display and saw that the yellow blip above Itzel's EV meter had gone gray.

"It's different for each person," Itzel said. "My Defensive Technique is a counter. Gurk's is a roll. But once you use it up, it'll take a while before you'll be able to do it again."

"And I guess it's like every other Technique? I'll just 'know' how to do it?"

"I knew you were smart Janus! It's only been a couple of days and you're already getting a hang of things," Itzel replied, making her sarcasm more than obvious.

"Err... thank you. I think I've got the hang of how Rumble Circuit Challenges work now."

"You mean you know how to look at a Challenge Display. Just because you know what each of the indicators are showing doesn't mean you actually know how to properly fight. You don't even have a full set of Techniques to bring into a Challenge."

"And the only way for me to get more Techniques is to keep fighting," Janus said as he punched the palm of his hand with his fist. "I don't suppose trying out Training Mode will help me learn more moves, will it?"

Itzel shook her head. "Nope. Training Mode is more for strategy. If you're trying to learn more Techniques you've got to get them the old fashion way."

"Hitting something living as hard as I can?"

Itzel pointed one finger at Janus and gave him a wink. "You got it." She then shifted her attention to Gurk. "Now that you understand the basics of a Ranked Challenge, me and Gurk are going to spar for a bit. Nothing serious, but if he's going to take on Siergi he's going to need all the practice he can get."

"Yeah," Gurk said.

"I want to see you beat him Gurk. Your defense is pretty good, but you'll definitely have to work on your offense if you want to give Siergi a run for his Tokens. Understood?"

The crocodile nodded.

"Alright," Itzel took her karate stance again. "No more delays."