The three of them moved to an open area beneath the awning. Pete rolled his shoulders and grinned at Olivia. "Ladies first?"

"Sure, but don't come crying to me when I make you look bad in front of the new guy." Olivia bounced on her toes, and her ponytail swished from side to side with the movement.

Alex stepped back to give them some space and felt his own shoulders begin to tense at the idea of seeing them fight.

Pete lunged forward with surprising speed for his size, and his fist cut through the air right where Olivia's head had been the moment before. Alex watched as she ducked and weaved with fluid movements. Pete pressed his advantage, though, and threw calculated strikes that looked like they would hurt a brick wall.

But Olivia was too quick; she slipped past his guard and landed three quick jabs into his stomach. Pete grunted but didn't slow down; his next punch carried enough force that it made a different sound as it displaced air in the empty space where Olivia had been a second before.

"See how he telegraphs?" Olivia called out good-naturedly to Alex. "Watch his hips and his shoulders. They tell you exactly where the punch's coming from." She spun away from another punch.

Pete changed tactics and dropped low for a leg sweep. But Olivia anticipated it and jumped over the leg; however, she didn't anticipate the follow-up strike in midair that caught her in the chest and sent her stumbling backward. She recovered with a graceful roll and popped to her feet, laughing.

"Not bad. Did you put more points in Agility? Your ham fists feel like they're moving faster today." She winked at Pete before darting in close again.

The match didn't last much longer and ended with Pete pinning Olivia after she overcommitted to an attack. Both were breathing hard, but they bumped fists after the spar.

“I thought you might use your [Stealth] to get the drop on me,” Pete said with a grin.

Olivia shrugged. “It doesn’t really work like that. It wouldn’t work in a straight-up spar like this. I’d have to set up an ambush or something and use the shadows.”

“Fair enough,” Pete said with a nod. “And I didn’t want to break out [Strike] and risk actually hurting you with a weapon.”

“Aw, you do care,” Olivia teased.

Alex stepped forward as his curiosity got the better of him. “What’s [Strike]?”

“It’s a skill that enhances my attacks with a weapon,” Pete explained. “It just helps add some extra oomph behind my attack. It’s not exactly friendly for sparring, though.”

“Yeah, and [Stealth] lets me kind of… blend into the background. It works a lot better if people aren’t aware that I’m there to begin with, and shadows help a ton,” Olivia said with a grin. “Makes it harder for enemies to notice me. Pretty great for getting the first hit in.”

Alex nodded and filed the information away. It was fascinating to hear about the variety of skills that people had.

Olivia turned her grin on Alex. "Your turn," she said as she patted him on the shoulder and passed off the mat. "Don't worry, Pete's house-trained."

Pete laughed and made a growling sound. Alex swallowed hard and stepped forward despite the dry feeling in his mouth and the sweat he could feel on his palms. "I've never really fought before."

"That's why we're here to learn." Pete shrugged and settled into a loose stance. "Ready?"

Alex nodded and did his best to try and mirror Pete's stance. He remembered Olivia's advice about watching his hips and shoulders, but everything happened way too fast. One moment he was standing, and the next he was flat on his back, staring at the heaters overhead.

Pete's hand appeared in his vision. "Not bad for a first try. Let's do it again; this time, keep your hands up."

"You can do it, Alex! Don't overthink things," Olivia called from the sideline. "He's going to—"

The rest of her advice was lost as Pete closed the distance again. Alex managed to stay on his feet for a few seconds longer. After the fifth time of hitting the ground, frustration began to build in Alex's chest. Pete closed in again, and this time, Alex felt his mana move through his body on instinct. It flowed through his arm as [Mana Infusion] activated, and his fist cut through the air with significantly more force than normal. It allowed his punch to fly much faster than normal as well, and he only missed Pete by an inch or two.

Pete's eyes widened and he stepped back as the displaced air made a cracking sound in the air. "Whoa."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Alex froze and felt his heart drop into his stomach. "Sorry! I didn't really mean to. I should've asked if skills were allowed. The frustration is kind of building up."

"Are you kidding?" Olivia bounced on her feet and pumped her fist into the air. "That was awesome! Keep going, just no lethal skills. That's the only rule. I'm sure Pete can take a punch to the head, even if it's got some magic in it. They've got a few potions on standby that will help if we get an injury, but we still want to avoid that if possible!"

Pete nodded, and a grin spread across his face. "Now it's getting interesting."

Alex barely had time to process their approval before Pete was on him again. This time, Alex channeled mana through his arms, and it helped enhance his blocks by just a bit. He was surprised it wasn't more, given the amount of power he could get when he enforced a punch or kick with the mana; however, it didn't seem to do nearly as much with the block. His movements were still clumsy, but at least the few punches that he did get through to Pete were enough to cause the larger man to give some distance.

"Good!" Pete called out between strikes. "But you've got to be careful if you're using up your mana. Make sure you're conserving it in between your punches."

Alex nodded and tried to follow the advice, only activating [Mana Infusion] in shorter bursts. He managed to land a single punch in the round before their last fight, where he managed to duck under Pete's guard and land a blow to his stomach. The other man grunted but otherwise didn't slow down too much.

In the end, the match finished predictably with Alex on the ground again, though this time, he did feel better as he lasted more than a full minute. Pete helped him up and clapped his hand on his shoulder. "You've got potential for a mage. Most newcomers stick to pure magic or pure physical combat. Mixing them up like that? Smart thinking."

"Thanks." Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead and rubbed his shoulder, which had blocked more than one heavy punch. "Though I feel like I got pretty lucky with that punch I landed."

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Olivia said as she stepped closer. "I think most people are just scared of getting punched. So after you got a bit more of a feel for that and knew that Pete wasn't actually trying to kill you, you loosened up a bit and stopped flailing your arms around."

Alex felt some heat creep up his chest. He didn't love the idea of anyone describing him trying to fight as "flailing his arms around."

"I never thought about using mana to enhance the body like that—pretty interesting. Usually, people use their whole body, but it just doesn't work at all. Targeting specific areas may be the key, though." She bumped his shoulder playfully. "Might have to steal that trick."

Heat crept up Alex's neck that had nothing to do with the exertion of sparring. "Feel free. They probably don't need to… You're already way faster than me."

"Speed isn't everything about a punch," Pete interjected. "Sometimes you need that extra punch, literally. Want to go another round?"

Alex looked between his two new training partners and felt a surge of gratitude for their encouragement. Despite the bruises he knew he'd have tomorrow and the sense of soreness he could already feel creeping into his stomach and arms, he couldn't remember the last time he had this much fun.

"Definitely," he said as he stepped back on the mat. "Show me what I did wrong with that last block?"

After several more rounds, Alex's muscles burned, and his mana was depleted to the point that he knew he was well below the 30% threshold. He improved enough to last almost three minutes against Pete, even though most of that was with Pete holding back and him staying mostly on the defensive.

"Thanks for all the help," Alex said as he accepted a bottle of water from Olivia. "I feel like I learned more today in just a few hours than I have since I got my trait."

Pete nodded. "You'll have to come back. I know Lena wants to make this kind of training a regular thing."

"I'd love to," Alex said and his eyes flicked to Olivia.

"Here, add yourself to the training group chat. We can invite you to the next time we're meeting up."

Alex's fingers fumbled slightly as he typed his number into her phone. He hoped his face wasn't as red as it felt.

Come on, dude, get yourself together. She probably doesn't even look at you like that.

Before leaving, he tracked down Elana near the house while she was sorting through some papers.

"Hey, just wanted to say thanks for hosting this." Alex pulled the mana stone from his backpack's outer pocket. "And I wanted to upgrade to the full membership if that's okay?"

"Of course!" Alayna took the stone with a warm smile and placed it on top of her papers. "I'll start the process shortly, and it should be finished tonight. You'll see the update on your end in the app in a few hours."

The drive home felt shorter than the drive there as Alex's mind raced with everything he learned. He hadn't imagined before that fighting, or at least practicing, would be so much fun. He appreciated that Pete took things slow and was willing to point out what he was doing wrong.

He knew that Olivia was probably just being nice, but beautiful women didn't often give him the time of day—let alone spend hours talking with him about magic and how to not get punched in the face.

Get it together.

When he got home, his apartment felt extremely small compared to the Voss Estate. He set his bag down and looked around the living room. The thought of going to work the next day made his stomach turn over, and he really felt the need to question his life. How was he supposed to care about client meetings and deadlines when there was real magic in the world, and he had the opportunity to learn how to use new skills and fight against monsters?

His phone buzzed, and he saw a message from an unknown number pop up.

Unknown Number: Great meeting you today! Don't forget the ice those bruises. I'll add you to the group chat later and send a contact request over in the AG app.

Unknown Number: This is Olivia, by the way.

Alex grinned at his phone like an idiot. These new life choices didn't seem so bad to him.

He wondered if he should call in sick the next day to take some time to process everything that had happened.

Henderson would understand, right?

Who am I kidding? He’d be pissed.

He decided he'd sleep on it. He had a ton of sick days that he hadn't used, and there were no pressing deadlines in the next week. He fell into bed, exhausted but happy. The last thought he had before drifting off to sleep was that he couldn't wait to make more progress and see if this was really something he could turn into his new norm.