As Michael stepped over the circle, Mindi asked Barti something. Whatever he said had her face plastered with one hell of an evil grin. Before I could think about why, Michael turned and touched the circle. The bell to start the match went off at the same time forcing me to focus on my opponent lest I miss an attack.
Mana poured out of me and into my environment. It wasn’t enough to fill the full range that I could do with my Mana Sense, but enough to give me at least an inkling of a warning of any approaching spell. As the skill expanded and started to pour information into my mind, I cast a limited version of the enhancement spell. Keeping it limited to my legs in an effort to keep the mana use down.
Not seeing a reason to wait for my opponent to do anything, I took off to my right. Circling around him and any spells he might have trained in my direction. Jeremiah didn’t turn or otherwise look like he was keeping track of my position. Instead looking like he was deep in concentration.
As I made it a quarter of the way around, a bullet of water shot at me. The clear water, coupled with the spell's speed, made it practically invisible to my sight. Too bad the mana holding it together wasn’t so well hidden.
With a small burst of will and mana, I formed a fireball in the path of the missile. The two smashed together, exploding into steam that blocked my line of sight of Jeremiah. As soon as I saw this, I pivoted and charged him. Pushing as much mana as I could into my legs as I rushed in.
Either he didn’t expect such a move or the speed at which it occurred, because he was wide open as my fist slammed into his gut. All of the momentum I had built up charging him driving the fist deep as my body came to a sudden halt. His body instantly doubled over. Going practically limp as his weight hung off my arm.
Before I could do or say anything, Michael called out, “STOP!” As I didn’t need either anymore, I ended the enhancement spell and canceled my skill. The world stuttered around me for a second before my legs suddenly screamed at me. It felt like someone was slicing my muscles open with a blade while using a hammer to crush my bones to dust. While I doubted that those things were happening, the pain was very real.
Whatever was wrong with them had me seeing stars and hearing a loud ringing for quite a while. It didn’t end as fast as it started. The ringing was the first to go, followed slowly by the pain in my legs. “Ah, there he is,” Linda said softly from where she sat. Her hands roaming up and down my legs.
“What happened?” I asked as I looked up at the cloudless sky.
“You’re a dumbass is what happened,” Tindi said without a care for how she sounded. “You pushed your body beyond its limits and had to pay the price.”
Turning my head in her direction, I asked, “What do you mean?”
“Have you ever heard of someone ripping their muscles when they pushed their body too far?” Michael said from where he stood near the rest of the group as they turned to face me. Whatever they had been talking about suddenly stopped as they focused on me.
“Sure, but I have never experienced it. Why?”
“Whatever you used to give yourself a boost at the end caused your muscles to tear themselves apart as they strained to supply the force needed. Unfortunately for you, the force they exerted was enough to even break your bones.” He shook his head.
“It isn’t the first time I have used that spell so why now? Why not during the last fight?”
“Because you have been using it so frequently,” Linda chided as her hands started to move over my arms. “From what I can tell, every single one of your muscles has been damaged to one extent or another. Even your bones have microfractures. Each of which would heal, given time, but not if you keep pushing your muscles.”
“But how can I keep up if I don’t push them? Everyone here is stupidly faster than me.” My tone was probably verging on whining but I didn’t care. That spell was the first and most useful spell I had learned so far.
“For now, you can’t.” She stated. Her tone of voice not allowing for any openings to argue. “At least not today. After today I would recommend limiting the use of that spell until your muscles and bones have time to grow and strengthen.”
“And what do you expect me to do for the rest of today? Sit around and watch?”
Barti and Michael laughed while Linda smiled. “No, you are going to still be training. In fact, up and at em.” Michael held a hand out to me. “Time for your first multiperson fight.”
I let him pull me up as I groaned. “Against who?”
“Patric and Victor against you and Tindi.” As he said this Linda gave me a final pat before getting up and joining the rest of the group as they started for the edge.
“Any rules or restrictions?” I called after him.
“Don’t kill anyone?” The way he said that made it seem like he was asking a question rather than telling me. Before I could ask anything else though, Tindi grabbed my bicep.
Pulling me in the direction of our starting position as she spoke. “We need a plan.”
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“Well,” I sighed, recalling my last fight with Patric as I continued. “Seeing as I only have one spell I can use at the moment, I don’t see how we are meant to win.”
“Have you really not managed to create any other spells?” She shot me an annoyed look. “And what about all the skills we have been teaching you?”
“Sure, I can fight with a sword but I cannot close in on either of them in time to do anything.” Though, there were always my sword’s skills. Surely one of them would be able to close the gap. Quickly looking through them I found a few of them that would work. Too bad I would have to learn to use them in simulated combat. Then again, it could be worse.
Taking a second, I opened my Chisa Katana’s skill screen and dumped eighteen points into purchasingn four skills. Going so far as to upgrade the two most useful looking ones to level two in the process. Before I could try any of the skills, the bell rang out, signaling the start of the match. Tindi took off. Her body so low to the ground that it looked like she was climbing a steep slope. Across the arena, Patric vanished into the shadows as Victor let loose arrow after arrow at Tindi.
I started jogging forward, my sword at the ready as I expected Patric to target me. Not because I was strong or anything but because it would put him in the perfect position to take Tindi out while not leaving himself exposed. A stutter in the shadow of one of the larger shadows along the ground was the only warning I got as a knife came for my neck.
Hopping up and back to gain a fraction of a moment, I managed to block the tip of the knife with the flat of my blade. The rebounding knife hit the ground before vanishing back into its shadow as another blade targeted my leg. I blocked it only for yet another knife to strike out.
Again and again, over and over. I blocked knives as they targeted my arms, legs, chest, and everything else they could. While each strike didn’t hit me, they did force me back. A bit annoyed, I put as much force into a jump back as I could.
The motion was hopefully enough to give me a few feet of extra space. Feet that he would likely cross in moments, but those were moments I could use. With a force of will and a bit of mana, I swung my blade at the nearby shadows. The tip glowed as it moved through the air in an arc. Behind it trailed a line of red. A line that sped out from me. A line that, upon contact with the shadows, burned them away.
From the shadows came a loud yelp of pain. Many of them visibly shook and moved as, if I had to guess, Patric retreated. Taking that as a good sign, I looked over to Tindi. She was throwing punch after punch, kick after kick at Victor. He was using his bow and arrows to block each strike.
Burning pain lanced up from my calf. Looking down, I found a knife sticking out of the muscle just below the hem of the dress. Blood trickled down my leg and onto the ground, dying it a rust color as the dust and dirt absorbed the liquid. Not thinking, I activated Mana Slice again. Sending yet another sweeping wave at the nearest shadow.
Other than the shadow vanishing as the rock was obliterated, nothing else happened. No one screamed. The nearby shadows didn’t move. Nothing.
The burning suddenly redoubled as the blade in my leg was yanked out. Screaming in pain, I swung back just in time to strike the blade. Still, it vanished into the shadows. Fed up with this opponent and needing revenge for last time, I covered the ground in flames. As the fire burned through the shadows, I used one of my other new skills.
Mana flowed from me and into the blade. Vanishing as something happened. A couple of seconds later, the blade glowed a dull orange. Taking that as a sign that the spell was active, I sliced out at all the shadows below me. As I started to feel the mana drain, Patric shot out of the shadow just to my left.
Releasing the spell and the skill, I activated another. As soon as it activated it felt like something was tugging my sword at an upward angle. The path of which crossed with Patric’s body. His eyes widened as he saw the strike coming but he did nothing. He didn’t have the time. Seeing this, I pulled the strike. Forcing it above his body.
He planted his feet into the dirt and stopped. His face was resigned to the fact that he was done. At nearly the same moment, Michael called out, “STOP!” Both of us looked over to see Tindi standing over Victor. Her fist looked like it was millimeters from plowing into his face. “Not bad, but not all that good. Victor, Patric, what do you think you could have done better?”
“Worked as a team to take one person down at a time?” Victor said.
Patric shook his head. “With these two, we would have had to split them up. Maybe if we had another person we could gang up on one while the other keeps their teammate occupied, but we didn’t.”
“True,” Barti agreed with Patric’s analysis. “Then what should you have done?”
“Seeing as Tindi didn’t use any magic, I should have gone after her while Victor kept Kyren at a distance.” I thought about that and had to agree that he was right. We wouldn’t have stood a chance if they had done that.
“And what about you?” Michael asked, looking at both me and Tindi. “What do you think you could have done differently?”
“I should have targeted the shadows as soon as he attacked from them.”
“If you had then you wouldn’t have taken that knife.” Michael said, nodding. Linda walked over to me and gestured at the wound. The muscle felt like ants were crawling across it as the spell knit my flesh back together.
Tindi shrugged, “I could have tossed some dirt or something to distract my opponent.”
“Good,” Michael gestured for us to vacate the circle. As I started to walk in that direction, he stopped me. “Now, Kyren, you and Mindi will be facing Lance and Jeremiah.”
I tried to not growl as I said, “But I am nearly out of mana.”
“Good,” was all he said as he made his way out of the circle.
Mindi tsked at me as she spoke up. “Did you forget about rule three and four of magical combat?”
“Don’t use more mana than you need to and everything costs mana.” I quoted back to her.
“So why did you waste so much mana in the last fight?” I didn’t answer her. She was right and we both knew it. The fights continued like this for the rest of the day. Each of them was followed by some group reflection before we moved on to the next combination. Not once repeating any of the matchups.
We only stopped as the sun started to set. At this point, I wasn’t the only one with mana issues. Linda seemed to be flagging. Not that I blamed her. She had been healing everyone throughout the day. In fact, I was surprised that she was able to keep going for so long. Out of the two groups, Michael and Barti were the only ones that looked like it had been nothing.
As we started back for the city, Michael spoke up. “Our group needs to go out tomorrow for a quest. So we won't be able to join you guys for training.”
“That’s fine,” Barti said. “We need to work on some of the basics anyway.” I groaned but otherwise didn’t say anything. I already knew that I couldn’t change the damn elf’s mind. If I tried then it was more likely that he would make the training worse, not better. Chewing on a piece of jerky and some sort of sports drink Linda offered me, I made my way to my room to shower and fall into an exhausted sleep.