Mindi asked Michael something as he stepped over the circle. Whatever the guy said had split her face with one hell of an evil-looking grin. Before I could think about why, Michael turned and touched the circle. The bell to start the match went off and forced 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 if any spell moved in my direction. As the skill expanded and started to pour information into my mind, I cast a limited version of the enhancement spell. I purposely limited the spell to my legs as I tried to minimize my mana usage.

  Not seeing a reason to wait for my opponent, I took off to my right. I circled 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, he looked like he was deep in concentration. Likely casting some spell or other.

  A quarter of the way around him from my starting point, 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 that held it together wasn’t as hidden to me.

  With a small burst of will and some of my own mana, I formed a fireball in the path of the missile. An explosion of steam filled the space between us. The moment this happened, I pivoted and charged directly at him. Mana flooded out of my pool and into my legs as I pushed myself ever faster.

  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 drove the fist deep. He doubled over as we came to a stop. His limp body hung off my arm as I stood there. The match was over, he was done.

  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 I realized just how much pain I was in. My legs had been screaming at me this whole time yet I had somehow ignored the pain.

  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.

  The pain was bad enough that I could see stars and dark spots come and go across my vision. It wasn’t until sound started to return that I realized I could not hear what was going on around me. Thankfully, it was the first to go, quickly followed by the pain in my legs. “Ah, there he is,” Linda said softly from where she sat. It felt as though her hands were roaming up and down my legs.

  “What happened?” I asked as I stared 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.”

  My head swiveled in her direction as I asked, “What do you mean?”

  “Have you ever heard of someone ripping their muscles when they pushed their body too far?” Michael spoke from where he stood near the rest of the group. As one, 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. The force exerted was even enough to break a few 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. Many of your bones are riddled with 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 territory but I didn’t care. That spell was the first one I learned and it had proven itself to be the most versatile.

  “For now, you can’t.” She stated. Her tone of voice brooked no arguments. After a moment, her voice softened as she continued. “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.”

  Ashamed about being so limited, I muttered, “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 pulled me to my feet. “Time for your first multiperson fight.”

  I groaned at the thought of fighting so soon after being healed. “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.

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  She pulled me in the direction of our starting position as she spoke just loud enough for me to hear her. “We need a plan.”

  “Well,” I sighed as I recalled my last fight with Patric. “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, I could always use one of Arashi’s skills. I mean, it should have at least one that would be able to close whatever gap there was between me and our opponents.

  I took a moment to scan through the list and found a few that might work. Not that I would have time to test any of them. Then again, it could be worse. With a mental shrug, I dumped eighteen points into four skills. Going so far as to upgrade the two I felt would be the most useful of the lot.

  The sound of the bell captured my attention just in time to see Tindi take off. Her body was so close to the ground that she 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 to jog forward while keeping my sword at the ready given that Patric was likely 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. The only warning I got before a knife sliced toward my neck was a stutter of a nearby shadow.

  Thankfully, I had enough time to hop back and block the knife with the flat of my blade. The knife vanished into a shadow the moment it hit the ground. I didn’t have time to think as another blade shot from another shadow and toward my leg. When I blocked it, yet another blade flew at me.

  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 as I moved away from the cluster of shadows.

  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 that sped out from the tip. A line that, upon contact with the shadows, burned them away.

  From the shadows came a loud yelp of pain while many of the shadows visibly shook. They moved as Patric retreated. I took that as a good sign and took a moment to look over at Tindi. She was throwing punch after punch, kick after kick at Victor while he used his bow to block.

  A sudden, burning pain lanced up from my calf. I knew what I would find before I looked down. When I did, I found a knife embedded into the muscle just below the hem of the dress. A slow trickle of blood made its way down my leg and onto the ground. The drops slowly dyed the dust red as rust. Without thinking, I activated Mana Slice a second time as I sent a sweeping wave at the nearest shadow.

  Other than the shadow vanishing as the rock was obliterated, nothing else happened. No one screamed. None of the shadows moved. Nothing.

  The burning suddenly redoubled as the blade in my leg was yanked out. I let out a scream as I reflexively swung back just in time to strike the retreating blade. Not that it mattered. The thing still 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. It vanished into the metal as if I was filling a never-ending bucket. A couple of seconds later, the blade glowed a dull orange. Out of time, I took that as a sign that the skill was active and sliced at all the shadows below me. As I started to feel woozy from the mana drain, Patric shot out of the shadow just to my left.

  Without hesitation, I released both the spell and the skill while activating another. Suddenly it felt like someone or something was tugging my sword up. The blade moved faster than I could have done so without my enhancement spell as its path crossed with Patric’s body. His eyes widened as he saw the strike coming. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have time to react. At the last moment, I pulled the strike. Forcing the blade to cut just to the side.

  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. She stood over Victor with a fist millimeters from 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 the first attack came from them.”

  “If you had then you wouldn’t have taken that knife,” Michael said with a nod. Linda walked over to me and gestured at the wound. Suddenly it felt like ants were crawling across my skin as the flesh knit 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 have a good answer for her. Not when 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 did we repeat 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. Even 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 all of this work was nothing to them. That they could go forever.

  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. Instead, I chewed on a piece of jerky and sipped at some sort of sports drink Linda had offered me after the last match.

  The moment we got into the guildhall, I made my way to my room to shower and fell into an exhausted sleep.