The next morning came quickly, but thankfully, with no dreams, and Axel was not the first one up for once. Aria was not in the room, so Axel got up, went to his room, and grabbed his showering things. After a quick cleanup and change later, Axel went to eat something, and the food tasted better than yesterday. Axel followed this up by checking with the desk to see if Jareth left any messages, but there was nothing.

With nothing else to do for another hour, Axel decided to go to the training room to warm up and work on his power. The room that was normally used by his group was in use by other people training, so Axel moved to a gym that had basic training gear. After a quick warm-up, Axel started lifting and using his power to try and refine how much power he was putting in. If he got the weight too heavy, he used the gravity points to lighten but not completely pull.

This drained his core quickly at first, but Axel began to get the hang of it, reducing the drain and still getting good physical training in. When it was getting close to time, Axel stopped and reactivated his regeneration, as today was going to be a combat-heavy day and he knew he was going to need it.

The simulator combat room was empty when Axel arrived, but he was not alone for long as Sky was the next to arrive. She skittered across the floor happily and moved up to Axel in almost bouncing steps.

‘Axel, I am so glad you seem to be better,’ Sky sent to his mind while circling him. ‘Even your mind is brighter than yesterday.’

“I am feeling better, Sky,” Axel said while giving up trying to follow her with his head as he was getting a bit dizzy. “I needed to work through some things, but I think I can move forward now.”

‘Great!’ Sky said enthusiastically to Axel and stopped in front of him again. ‘I have started to repair everyone’s gear plus trying to upgrade it. Aria stopped by this morning and asked for several things. They are going to be so fun to make!’

“Oh? What did Aria ask you to make?” Axel looked into Sky’s many eyes and asked.

‘Many things, but they are to surprise you with later,’ Sky replied with a happy tone. ‘I should not have said anything.’

Sky’s whole body drooped as she said that, and Axel could even hear her slight mumblings coming through the mind link that would be disconcerting if he did not know who was talking.

“It’s fine, I won’t ask anything else and won’t mention it to Aria,” Axel promised the now depressed-looking Sky. This was something Axel did not want to see, as Sky needed to be happy to be Sky.

‘Thank you!’ came Sky’s reply while bouncing back up. ‘You will love it!’

“I know I will, Sky,” Axel said and smiled at her.

It took another fifteen minutes before Lyra and Aria arrived together, looking out of breath like they rushed here. Both were adjusting sets of new leather armor, reminding Axel that he needed to replace his as it was shredded by the Shade and was not very repairable after everything that happened in the trial.

“Sorry, are we late?” Lyra said while finishing a strap on the chest armor. “We were spending the morning replacing gear at the store in the tower and lost track of time.”

“Aria also bought Axel a replacement, but the quality here is not the greatest as most of what they sell is for people doing their first trial,” Aria added while messing with some straps as the armor for her kind had to be put on up and under the wings then locked in place. Axel walked over and helped with the difficult strap and could tell that this was not beast leather but likely a domesticated animal product that could deflect or reduce the damage but would not survive long in any real combat.

“I hope you didn’t pay a lot for that,” Axel said behind Aria as he helped her get the strap over the shoulder and through a loop in the front piece.

“They were cheap, only a few bronze, but it is better to train in armor than not as you get used to moving in it while fighting,” Lyra said after she finished her armor and started testing the movement with a frown. “Though this may be worse than no armor. The mobility is crap, and I don’t think these straps can hold through all of training.”

“I remember that quote, Lyra,” Axel then moved to look over Lyra’s armor to see if he could help her with it, but it was not very quality work. With a bit of work plus some emergency crafting from Sky for new buckles, it allowed the movement Lyra wanted.

It was now a good twenty minutes after the start of the training session, but Rex had not arrived. Not knowing what to do, Axel picked one of the harder training simulations that they had done before and got the group going.

Axel learned an interesting quirk of his power: it could not attach to light constructs. Axel improvised by using his ability to launch Aria into the sky with a short burst for her to dodge an encirclement when she tried to flank and worked on his anchoring tricks for more leverage on swings.

Lyra was switching between lightning until she was half empty, then switching to shatter and reflex to move through the light construct humans like a ghost. Sky was using her control for barriers, creating weapons, and sending Lyra an extra weapon when she lost control of her shatter, which destroyed her new sword that she apparently bought with the armor.

Rex still did not arrive after the first simulation, so Lyra led everyone to the physical training room to put everyone to work. She checked everyone over and gave out training based on each person’s needs, as this was a big part of her training as a Goddess-blessed healer. When the physical training was over and Rex still had not shown up, everyone started to worry.

Aria headed to his office, but he was not there. When she came back, no one knew what to do, so they decided to keep with the training plan they had last time and went to the obstacle course where Sky worked the panel for a while to set up the track. Sky set it to one level higher than what they trained last time, and everyone put on the gravity-increasing gear and ran.

What Axel did not realize was Sky set the training for ten times what they had last time, and everyone fell to the ground unable to move. It took a lot of effort and healing before Sky fixed her mistake, and even longer to get Sky to stop apologizing, as she had hit many buttons at once with her manipulators. Everyone finished this training on the correct level and did not know what to do now.

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At this point, they would normally spar with Rex as he helped them fix errors he saw in their styles, but since he was not here, each of them paired up for spars instead. Aria took the lead here, seeming to know most of the problems everyone was having, and worked with Lyra. Axel worked with Sky, as even now he was still trying to get used to the slight increase in strength becoming Novice Two gave him.

Just before the end of the sparring, Rex arrived looking like he was going to murder someone. He did not say anything for a time as everyone wrapped up their workouts. When he was sure they were done, he motioned for everyone to come over.

“So we have a problem,” Rex started in a very slow and deliberate tone. “Someone in management decided that I have been giving your group too much special treatment, and it looks bad.”

“Are you in trouble?” Lyra asked with a slight frown on her face.

“No, every instructor can do what I am doing by tradition, but it is not written in the rules,” Rex explained, still in his slow tone. “I think someone is trying to flush your group out and paid someone just high enough on the ladder to try and shake you all loose.”

“I spent most of my day running this up the chain, but this manager is the cousin of someone high enough to be annoying.” Rex continued and took a breath. “Since you just completed your second Cycle, you are allowed to train for this week, but as I explained to by that manager, ‘If they can afford the cores and meat to Cycle within the first week, they can find lodging elsewhere.’”

“I did get this solved, but you are being watched now by several staff, and I am not sure if your abilities were leaked by the manager.” Rex finished and punched a wall, leaving a dent in the reinforced metal surface.

“Alright, that is bad but not unsalvageable,” Axel said. "We were planning to leave in just over a week at this point anyway.”

“Yeah, and once we are gone, this pressure will be off you,” Lyra continued while healing Rex’s now bloody hand. “Also, next time, please don’t break the bone. This will take a while since you are much stronger than me.”

“To be so young again,” Rex muttered. “This means that anything you train in here is likely to be leaked to your hunters. Your hunters will be more prepared than your last ambush, and it will be much harder to get you out of the city if they can afford to bribe that waste of breath.”

“We understand that from your first explanation, but Aria does not see how to get around this with having to wait for Jareth and all,” Aria said in her normal tone. “We also won’t show more than the basics here in training and save the big surprises for later.”

‘Sky will only need a day or two to finish my projects if I skip training,’ Sky sent to everyone. ‘I am not a front liner, and my powers are more synergetic than everyone else’s. I can also practice while I work in the forge.’

“Sky, you will not be skipping all training,” Rex looked at her. “Your combat reflexes are not very honed, and that means you are likely to die in a fight. Lyra, I am sorry, but you are on reflex and shatter for now, but when Sky goes to forge, work on lightning in Sky’s lab as it is separate management for that area, and Sky earned her privacy.”

“Axel, your power speed and accuracy need work, so you will be on basics until you wish to die,” Rex then looked at Aria. “Aria, no fireball. You can practice intensity and generation but keep your combos under wraps.”

“Not even a little fireball?” Aria asked while pinching her fingers with a tiny space between them.

“No!” came Rex’s firm reply.

“I will also cut the obstacle course, and you will be doing more sparring with me. Sky, you don’t need to be here for all of these but at least three a day,” Rex began to slip out of his slow speech. “Let’s get started on the sparring as I noticed so many errors.”

Rex then began to beat each of them until they were lying on the ground exhausted. He then threw water on them and dragged them to the simulator area and forced them to fight several levels higher than before.

This was how the week went, but after that day, there was someone stopping by from time to time to look over their training. This was a taboo in their world, but these people did not seem to care as they made notes after watching for a while and left. Axel received the most attention as both Aria and Lyra went to Sky’s forge to practice their powers in secret, so Axel had one-on-one time with Rex during this time.

Axel could only think of the time his father spent a month of special training every time he got in serious trouble. Each night, even with regeneration, Axel needed to be helped to his room by both Lyra and Aria. There was even a time that Sky needed to make a floating stretcher as the spar got to the point where Axel shattered several bones to the point of needing about an hour to heal them to the point of moving.

When the time was up and Jareth sent a message to meet at what was called the station, something that took Axel a while to figure out where it was, Axel was ready to leave. It still felt bittersweet as from Jareth’s message, they would be leaving the city for another one as the heat from the bounty was rising. Apparently, the price on Axel’s head rose again in the Guild.

“You will take this tunnel in the morning as I have you scheduled for another training to throw off your pursuers,” Rex explained on the last day. “Aria, watch yourself out there as I don’t know when next we will meet but know that Sapphire and I will do what we can to help.”

Rex then handed a letter to Aria with writing that Axel recognized as Sapphire’s. Aria nodded and put it away. Everyone packed up and had Sky move their things to her lab. When Axel, Aria, and Lyra arrived later that night, Axel noticed that there were three racks with weapons on them. To the side, there was also leather armor with a grey metal armor attached in a way that Axel knew was to prevent obstruction of movement but give great protection.

Sky was bouncing again as everyone saw her creations. She then moved over and dragged everyone to change into their new armor and began to show off her work. Sky bounced over to the first set of weapons while she talked into all their minds.

‘I have made some progress with an infusion of powers into items permanently,’ Sky started. ‘Each of these armors has a power of inertia damping. While it won’t stop a hit, it should reduce the impact by a lot, but it can only take so many before you will need to use your core to fill it with power.’

Sky then handed Lyra a shield and sword. ‘The shield also has what the armors have but stronger as I could make a more complex circuit to hold more power.’

‘The sword is unpowered, but I found a way so that you can channel your shatter through it more easily without breaking it on hit. It is also made of a much harder metal than normal, so the edge is not the best, but you can make up for this with your power.’ Sky continued to explain while moving to the next rack that held Axel’s halberd.

‘I could not do the most with this as whoever made it was a master at power circuits and increased its durability greatly.’ Sky then handed Axel back his weapon and also several bandoliers of throwing knives. ‘These I also increased their durability using what I learned from the halberd. Not as good but should not shatter on a miss as often.’

Sky lastly showed a pair of short swords to Aria. ‘I did not have the time to work on a ranged weapon for you, Aria, but these blades should take your channeling of fire to give them more punch.’ Sky then handed the blades to Aria, and they lit ablaze with little effort from Aria.

“It uses so little energy to do this,” Aria exclaimed happily. “Thank you, Sky!”

Aria then hugged Sky, much to her embarrassment, if the twitching legs and manipulators indicated. Everyone got into their new gear, including Sky, who made herself a heavy-plate armor set that did not seem to hinder her even with its massive weight. She explained that she only used a little power to keep it up, and even without her power, she could move in it but slower.

Everyone then threw on cloaks to cover their gear and left through the tunnel Rex told them to.