Daniel adjusted his robes as he entered the Conrad training hall. Whenever he wasn’t trying to amass a small fortune on Earth or spending time on the beach with Adam, he was here learning how to fight. Other students who were being sponsored by Lord Albert Conrad were training too, but there was one in particular who’d reserved the fighting platform for sparring today. Dain was in his early twenties, with olive skin, short hair, and several tribal tattoos around his neck. He frequently gave off an angry, intimidating air and was considered by most to be at the top of the class.

At the end of their first meeting, Dain had brutally beaten Daniel in an effort to get him to give up his Spirit weapon. Daniel had refused and vowed revenge, but at the time, was distracted by greater threats. His teacher Brant had made Dain Daniel’s sparring partner in order to train for a duel. Even after the duel was over, the two of them had decided to continue the sparring practice despite not speaking about it to the other. The pair had become rivals of a sort. Neither wanted to kill the other, though. Daniel wanted to beat Dain in a fight which so far, he never had and Dain wanted to get Daniel to admit that he didn’t belong here and to give up.

“I almost thought you weren’t going to show up this time,” said Dain, referring to Daniel’s many absences as he teleported back and forth between Earth and Alarstardes.

“Why? Worried that you’d be training alone? It’s not like the others put up much of a fight against you and you still, for some reason, refuse to spar with Caspian.”

Dain smirked and adjusted his grip on his Bo staff. “Because as far as I can tell, he’s the only real Spirited around here.”

Daniel selected a wooden training sword off of the rack and held it in his left hand. Brant would kill him if he saw him wielding it in his right hand. Daniel had only been sword training for a few weeks, and it still felt awkward to use in his nondominant hand. He’d voiced this opinion to his teacher, and Brant had responded by saying that getting run through with a blade would feel more awkward. The choice of sword hand had stemmed from the Daniel’s previous duel when he had to swap the sword to his other hand in order to use his gauntlet. After that, Daniel was to use a sword mainly in his left hand.

He stepped onto the platform and summoned his Spirit weapon, the Army of One, which formed a black metal gauntlet around his hand and stopped halfway up his forearm. The fingertips ended in razor sharp points that could be used to cut through almost anything as well as a host of other abilities.

Daniel approached his opponent slowly before quickly striking out with his sword. Dain parried with one of end of his stick before swinging the other end towards the side of Daniel’s head. Daniel ducked under it and tried to punch with his gauntlet, but Dain had already retreated out of reach.

After so many sparring sessions, they were finally starting to predict the others patterns and movements. Daniel smiled. He was improving. It also meant that one of them would need to do something new in order to break the routine. Luckily, he had more than a few ideas.

Daniel pressed forward and focused on using his sword. Despite how much he wanted to win, this was still just training for him, and he desperately needed the sword practice.

Dain didn’t appear happy with this arrangement and swung the staff low with a strike that caught Daniel in the shin. He winced, but didn’t go down. When Dain followed up with a swing to the head, Daniel brought up his gauntlet. The Bo staff slammed hard into Army of One, but the Spirit weapon absorbed the force of the blow to the point where Daniel barely felt it. Daniel lashed out with a sword lunge that caught Dain in the chest. His opponent grunted and slapped the sword away before retreating.

Both of them burned essence to dull the pain of their injuries. That was one of the great things about training here. There was the abundance of essence potions that allowed users to fight until their cores were depleted, have a drink, and then get back up and start all over again.

Still, Daniel would have to be careful. Neither of them allowed the other a break during sparring. You enter with one full core and that was it. The one match per day rule also applied, which had angered Daniel in the past when he’d felt close to winning. But Brant had told him that quantity didn’t always beat quality and that he should focus on analyzing past fights to look for ways to improve.

“You’re holding back,” accused Dain.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Daniel launched into a series of sword movements that Brant had drilled into him. They pushed Dain back across the platform, but then he countered with a series of lunges and swings that put Daniel on the backfoot. Dain’s Bo staff had a much longer reach that gave him the clear advantage in a fair fight.

“I saw you fight in the duel,” said Dain, in between blows. “You barely use your gauntlet when we spar.”

“Maybe I just don’t want to hurt you,” said Daniel honestly.

Dain’s face twisted into a snarl. He spun the staff in front of him, building up momentum for the heavy low swing that from past experience Daniel knew would knock him on his ass. Daniel jumped over the attack, but Dain had anticipated this and switched directions mid-way by swinging the staff up. The weapon hit Daniel’s inner thigh, but part of it also connected with his testicles. Daniel almost blacked out from the pain. His vision swam with red.

He yelled in pain and anger.

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“Invictus!” Daniel roared, punching out towards Dain. A blast of compressed force lashed out of the gauntlet and hit Dain squarely in the chest and knocking him off his feet.

Daniel, with a burst of speed, was upon him a moment later. Dain brought up the Bo staff in defense, but Daniel sliced through it with the gauntlet before punching Dain in the face.

“You want to know why I don’t use the gauntlet? Now you know,” said Daniel.

He got off Dain and went to leave the platform when he stopped. Dain had gotten up, wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve, and held up the two halves of the Bo staff like fighting sticks.

“The fight’s not over,” said Dain, before he spat blood onto the ground. “Unless you used up all your essence with that last move?”

Daniel raised his sword and inclined his head for them to continue.

The blows from Dain came faster this time. Daniel barely had time to block. He used the sword to protect his left side and the gauntlet for the right. There was no room to maneuver or fight back. The sticks were like lightning.

Since Dain had asked him not to hold back, Daniel decided to unveil his second ability by bringing out Melos, the demonic spirit whose soul had become entangled with his own. Melos was invisible and imperceivable on Alarstardes to everyone except Daniel. He appeared to be a roguish man in his mid-thirties wearing a dark suit. Daniel’s first thought had been that of a predatory real estate agent or banker turned funeral home director.

There wasn’t time for a chat as Daniel’s sole focus was on blocking the strikes, but Melos quickly read the situation and understood why Daniel had awoken him.

The demon watched Dain’s movements and then, at the right moment, he used what little essence he possessed and stuck his foot out. Dain’s eyes widened as he stumbled over the invisible obstacle. In that brief window, he panicked and started to stumble forwards. Daniel capitalized on it and his gauntleted fist landed a brutal uppercut to Dain’s jaw.

Dain was knocked unconscious before he’d even hit the floor.

I’ve done it, Daniel thought. I’ve finally beaten him.

He was both amazed but also a little bitter at what ultimately felt like a hollow victory. Dain had wanted Daniel to utilize all of his abilities in the fight, but considering Dain could only use essence to enhance his natural body, it felt like cheating. Sure, he could move inhumanely fast for brief periods of time and likewise become incredibly strong, but the options Daniel had at his disposal to subvert those made it trivial. I mean, how does one counter an invisible demonic ghost foot?

A few of the other students stopped what they were doing and rushed over to check on Dain. Other than Daniel and Caspian, the rest of the class all lived together in a house on the Conrad estate property. They’d grown close and many of them looked up to Dain.

As they came over to render aid, there were more than a few accusatory and angry looks being thrown in Daniel’s direction. The group had closed ranks in a way. It was them, the essence users, against the two Spirited, though most of them chose to ignore Caspian, who was also coming over. He’d spent the entire morning summoning one shadowy Ghost Blade knife after the other and hurling at a target on the other end of the room. Caspian’s Spirit weapon allowed him to summon all shapes and sizes of blades, but he could only summon one at a time and near his person. He could then telekinetically throw the blade, but he’d lose all control over it once it was outside his sphere of influence, which was about a foot and a half in diameter around him.

By the time Caspian had made it over there, Dain was already starting to come to, which was a relief to Daniel. He hadn’t wanted to kill the guy despite disliking him.

“Sorry,” Daniel said to Dain as a couple of students helped him to his feet. “I got carried away.”

Dain nodded. “I asked you to use your full abilities. I guess I got what I wanted.”

A couple of students helped him walk to the healing baths that were below the training hall. These miraculous baths could seemingly heal almost any injury and if Daniel wasn’t mistaken, he’d likely see Dain back in here training in a few hours time after soaking in one.

“Got carried away, huh?” Caspian smirked.

“What?” Daniel asked in confusion.

Caspian smirk became a smile. “I saw where he hit you. If you ever want children in the future, then maybe you should get a bath too.”

Daniel had thus far been hiding the excruciating throbbing pain that he felt, but he figured there was wisdom in Caspian’s words.

“You know what? Now that you mention it, that blow to my shin was pretty bad. I think Dain might have fractured something. Better to be safe than sorry,” said Daniel as awkwardly walked away.

“You’re a terrible liar!” shouted Caspian after him.

Daniel passed the two glaring students who’d helped Dain on his way downstairs into the underground cave that hosted the healing baths.

Hilda, a tall blonde woman that reminded Daniel of a Viking, was the Conrad’s resident healer. He would find her down here at all hours in her office, doing what he could only guess. She frowned when she saw Daniel.

“They told me it was just the one,” she said, before summoning her own Spirit weapon. A healing Blood Rose of Sil grew in her hand. She plucked off one of its red petals and dropped it into an empty bath while Daniel got undressed. He slipped into the bath and suppressed the urge to make a pleased sound as the warm, magically enhanced water began to repair his damaged body.

“Even if you’re here, you still won. This time,” said Dain from the other bath.

“I never said I didn’t win.”

“Your face did. Well, it started with confusion, which is completely understandable when it comes to fighting me, but then it progressed into the frown you’re currently wearing.”

“It wasn’t a fair fight. I’m still miles behind everyone on my sword skills. It felt like cheating.”

Dain shrugged. “It was cheating, but we’re not training to get better at sparring or to engage in fair fights. We’re training to kill our enemies. I may have to fight Spirited one day, and if I do, I need to be able to expect the unexpected.”

“Huh, you are way less of a dick now than you were before.”

“That’s because you don’t understand what it took for me to earn a spot in Brant’s class and work for the Conrad’s. You cannot even imagine the rage I felt on the day that I learned that not only had someone just stumbled upon a Spirit weapon, but that they were also going to join the class because they were Caspian’s drinking buddy.”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

“I thought you were going to be a second Caspian dragging the class down with indolence, but even I can see that you’ve made improvements and have been applying yourself.”

“Thank… you?”

“I’m still going to beat you at sparring tomorrow,”

“I’ll remember to take it easy on you,” said Daniel.

He’d hoped to have a relaxing bath, but another student, Maria, came down the steps and said, “Brant wants to see you in his office.”

Daniel sighed. “Fine, tell him I’ll be right there.”

Maria shook her head. “He said both of you.”

Daniel and Dain exchanged a look. While there sparring had been intense, Brant had personally witnessed some of it and didn’t disapprove. Daniel had to assume there was something else going on that he was missing.