Elissa dragged the reluctant Tasha towards the new Arena on the school grounds. Not even giving her a moment to ask any questions. It had been a tacit agreement amongst the instructors that they would not let the others know what training they were each planning.

Elissa had, at best, given a small clue to Mimi regarding the training by requesting the use of her mage unit while she was out of the city training Bea. Arriving at the new arena that had been built after the old arena had been reduced to a ruin by Apophis during his years as a student, Tasha finally asked a question.

“My Lady, why are we here?”

“Simple, we are going to be using the recovery array so you can stay alive,” Elissa casually replied.

“Stay Alive?” Tasha repeated, looking confused.

“Yes, the healing array here is outstanding, and Mimi lent me a whole mage unit so we can keep it running for the whole week.”

“I get that… I more meant about the-” Tasha was unable to finish her sentence as Elissa closed the distance between them and delivered a punch to her chest. Tasha heard the distinct cracking of her ribs as she fell backwards.

“I am going to train you in a few things,” Elissa explains as Tasha lay on the ground gasping for breath.

“Pain is the enemy to survival in a fight. You are on the floor, unable to move due to the pain, yes?” Tasha was unable to respond, only groaning in pain. “I ASKED IF YOU CAN’T MOVE BECAUSE OF THE PAIN!!!”

Tasha nodded her head as fast as she could as the pain began to dissipate. Looking down at her chest, she could visibly see the bruise that had formed where Elissa had struck her vanish. Now able to breathe easily, Tasha took in a deep breath.

“WHAT THE HELLS WAS THAT?!!”

“It was a friendly love tap.”

“A Love Tap?!!!”

“Please, honey, if I actually punched you, your spine would be over the wall behind you,” Elissa replied with a chuckle as she pointed to the wall on the far side of the arena.

“My goals here are manyfold. First, you will become resistant to pain that would debilitate anyone else. You get debilitated in a fight; you will die.”

“But… the biology professor said that pain tells us where we are hurt… isn’t stopping pain bad?”

“Stopping it is yes… but we won’t be stopping it. We will be raising your ability to endure it and to recognise specific injuries.”

“I thought I was going to learn how to fight?”

“This is all part of the process… Alongside pain endurance training, you will be learning a few tricks for fighting. Not your pathetic flailing about. Seriously Alison fights with more technique when it's bedtime.”

“Fine, but what if I get seriously injured?”

“That’s what the healing array is for,” Elissa answered, gesturing to the viewing box where a crowd of mages in military uniforms were sitting.

“Those lovely lads and lasses will be supplying energy to the array. It is a very thirsty system, but they can work in shifts. What it means, though, is as long as you don’t die instantly, you will recover fully within ten minutes.”

“I didn’t know it was that powerful…”

“Yeah, used to be a lot weaker. They haven’t even updated the guides and textbooks about it yet. They upgraded it after my heart and stars brutalised his school bully beyond recovery.”

“So about fighting?”

“Ah yes… show me your strongest punch. Get revenge for the three ribs I cracked.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, don’t worry anything you could do would be laughable.” Tasha began to feel her blood boil. It was clear to her Elissa was still holding a grudge and was using this instruction as a chance to get some extra revenge.

“Fine, I will hit you!” Tasha roared as she ran at Elissa and swung her fist. Elissa easily sidestepped the strike grabbed Tasha’s arm and tugged her forwards while jabbing her free elbow into Tasha’s face. An audible crunch sounded out as Tasha’s nose broke.

“Too open,” Elissa muttered, looking at the girl who was now clutching her nose.

“You have to keep your form tight while also defending your body,” Elissa explained, showing her the form.

“A solid core like this will make you far harder to move,” she explained as she lightly squatted.

Tasha felt her nose pop back into place as she mimicked the form. Elissa walked around Tasha and adjusted her arms and legs till she was satisfied.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Now see,” Elissa began as she pushed against Tasha, forcing her back only a few steps. “If you didn’t have that form, you’d be flat on your back and an easy target.”

“Can I use magic?”

“Of course,” Elissa replied with a big smile. “I may be a pure physical combatant, but you don’t need to limit yourself.”

“Very well…”

“Oh, also, there is a baffle-field over the stands, so feel free to use Alex’s method all you want,” Elissa added. Having been given the go-ahead, Tasha began her attack.

“Lumus-” Tasha wasn’t even able to finish the chant as Elissa closed the distance and jabbed three points on the arm she was casting through. All at once, she felt the mana flow seize up.

“What did you do?”

“I stunned your mana channels—a trick many combatants know how to do. A skilled fighter can disable a mage the moment they get close enough,” Elissa answered.

“Big problem when casting magic is that a small delay can become an opening to the right fighter. The real strength of this technique, though, is it can also block enhancer spells.”

“It can?!!”

“Yep, any enhancer spell still requires mana flow. Stun the channels, and the flow will stop, and boom, a once strong opponent becomes far weaker.”

“Out of curiosity….”

“Hmm?” Elissa replied, looking at her charge with a focused gaze.

“W-what grade enhancer are you?”

“What grade?... Oh, I see… I’m grade zero.”

“Of course, grade ten makes- Did you say grade zero?!!”

“Yep, I don’t use enhancer magic.”

“But you are so strong!!”

“I sure am!” Elissa replied with a smug look as she flexed her slender arms. “Alex says that if I actually learnt how to use enhancer spells as my base strength is already monstrous, I would probably shatter mountains just by bumping into them.”

“Surely he was joking?”

“Hard to tell with Alex… Anyways how are your arms?”

Flexing her fingers, she could feel the warmth as mana began to flow back through her channels. Creating a small arc between two fingers, she could visibly see her mana had fully returned.

“All back now… I think I can cast-” Elissa shot at her like a bolt, and rather than using the tips of her fingers, she used the middle knuckle jabbing the same three points on the arm she had previously.

“AGHHHH!!! WHAT THE HELLS?!!!” Tasha cried out as her left arm went entirely limp.

“The same trick to disable mana flow can also stun the limb itself… Oh, don’t give me that look; this one will be healed in less than a minute with this array.” Tasha refused to not glare at Elissa.

“Fine…” Tasha began through gritted teeth. “Why not just break the limb?” Elissa looked bemused at this question.

“Tasha… if a fighter is determined enough, they will fight even on shattered bones. That is something if you become wholly used to pain even you could do. Take Alex, for instance, he had a leg blown off, and he was not thrown off nor stopped. He stopped his own bleeding and dragged himself to get help. A lesser mage would’ve bled out in a blind panic. But that trick stuns the nerves themselves, and no amount of willpower will move that limb.”

Tasha could see the logic in that though she was loathed to admit it with the way Elissa had been behaving towards her.

“Tasha…” Elissa began before sighing.

“I am not doing this to be mean. In a week, the best I could do is teach you the basics of basics when it comes to combat. Even a prodigy would struggle to master all the forms. In a week, however, I can utilise the nature of this place and get you so used to pain that your opponent will become terrified of why you won’t go down. This will let you use that wild flailing fighting method you currently can do.”

“What about those blocking strikes?”

“Those are simple enough that you can practice them. They don’t take skill, only precisions and a reasonable level of strength.” Tasha could now see the full logic of Elissa’s training. Though it didn’t mean she would like it.

“Arm, ok?” Tasha gave a flex of her fingers and confirmed the limb had regained sensation. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Elissa begin to move.

All of a sudden, time seemed to slow down as she focused on Elissa approaching her. Trying to move to react to the coming strike, Tasha found everything around her felt thick, like tar. No matter how much strength she put into her body, it refused to move as fast as she wanted it.

Feeling the frustration boil over, Tasha roared and moved her arm just out of the way of Elissa’s strike and delivered a punch to her shoulder. Recoiling from the punch, Elissa spun backwards and away only to stare at Tasha with an Alex-level grin.

“What just happened?” Elissa eagerly asked.

“I don’t know… I just knew you would try hit me again, and I saw you move, then everything became slow and-”

“It felt like swimming through tar?”

“YES!!!”

“That was a natural use of fast think… to think you could gain access to it by me beating you… I wonder if-”

“MA’AM, I HAVE BEEN ADVISED BY GENERAL AMELIA TO LIMIT THE ABUSE YOU DEAL OUT!!! PLEASE REFRAIN FROM TOO INTENSIVE TRAINING; YOU ARE ALREADY TERRIFYING A NUMBER OF THE SOLDIERS!!!” An officer shouted from the viewing box the unit was seated in.

“Damn… ok, I won’t beat you till new skills fall out like a pinata. But that doesn’t explain how you could move to avoid my strike… What else happened? It can’t just be everything going slow?”

“Yeah, I got very angry at you for constantly hitting me, and suddenly I felt like I could move more easily.”

“A berserker?” Elissa muttered as she stared at Tasha with wonder.

“Beserker?” Tasha parroted.

“Yes, very rare, even amongst Ironwood elves. They gain absurd power in combat when they get angry enough. You must’ve triggered the skill when you got angry at me for hitting you.”

“What about the punch I landed?”

“That? Oh, you shattered my shoulder,” Elissa answered as she rolled her shoulder. “All healed now.”

“I shattered… but you are so strong?”

“Strength and durability aren't synonymous. Anyways I now know what we can focus on. You will learn to endure so much pain; even a shattered bone means nothing, you will learn to master the stunning jabs, and finally, we will explore your temper, little lady,” Elissa explained as she vanished from Tasha’s view.