Davi’s work as an assistant in the laboratory was prematurely interrupted, just as Morrigan approached, calling him. He hesitated a bit to leave Ange alone, trembling at the chaos she could cause, but still followed the redhead.
She led him out of the alchemy departnt, then into a restricted area closed to the general public under Enki’s jurisdiction. Morrigan made sure to inform the guards to allow Davi passage in the future.
Finally, they descended an apparently endless spiral staircase. Until at last, they arrived at a portal that granted entry to a rift area.
Upon entering through the portal, a vast space illuminated by torches fixed to the walls was revealed. It was a training arena, with a dirt floor marked by concentric circles and wooden targets scattered everywhere.
At the center, there were so worn-out training dummies and a set of weapons on a rack.
Davi looked around, impressed by the size and apparent purpose of that underground place. He had never imagined such a facility existed at the academy.
Morrigan turned to him and finally explained, "From today on, every night, I will help you train here."
"Train?" Davi asked, confused.
"It was Alia’s idea," the maid began to explain. "Normally, a regular person knows their abilities like the back of their hand and can train gradually and safely."
Morrigan walked over to one of the walls, where swords were mounted on a tal rack. She grabbed one for herself and threw another to the boy.
"But in your case, the academy’s standard training program is hardly ideal. That’s why we thought of training you through simulated battles."
The logic was simple: during a real battle, he would learn to understand and use his abilities at a faster pace. Especially considering the natural talent he had for combat.
"This place was unused, so Alia asked to prepare it and turn it into a combat arena."
"I see," Davi scratched his head. Adding another task to his day ant he’d spend the entire day studying and training, but it wasn’t like he was lazy. "I’ll do my best."
Davi smiled with determination, but his smile faltered at the woman’s next words.
"However, I won’t be responsible for your training today, since my mistress decided she wants to test you herself."
And before Davi could say anything, a woman appeared in the middle of the arena with a confident smile.
Alia looked Davi up and down, seeming amused by how intimidated he seed. Then she said:
"No need to worry, I’ll go easy on you, now let’s begin..." Hardly had those words escaped her lips when Alia had already appeared in front of her opponent.
The sword that Morrigan held appeared in Alia’s hands, who brandished the weapon aggressively, aiming at her opponent’s neck.
Almost instinctively Davi reacted, managing to defend himself at the last instant. But if the woman hadn’t intentionally slowed her movent, Davi’s head and body would no longer be connected.
The boy opened his mouth to protest, because she had attacked him without so much as a warning, but the words caught in his throat as he suddenly caught sight of her foot arcing toward him in a swift, unforgiving kick.
At the last mont, he managed to block the blow with his arm, but was still forced to take a few steps back. It was a strong kick, so much so that it would have broken the boy’s arm if she hadn’t reduced the force at the last mont.
Then, after exchanging a few blows, Alia could already understand her opponent’s strength and how hard she could attack without killing him.
For his part, Davi quickly emptied his mind and focused only on combat. At that mont, he saw Alia as an enemy to be defeated; when his mind understood that, the rest of the world vanished.
That being said, the way she confidently left her guard open was oppressive; it was almost as if she was saying, ’You can co at , but know that you will die.’
A cold sweat ran down the boy’s back, but he wasn’t the type to give in to a little fear.
"What do you think of your life at the academy? How were the classes?" Alia asked in a friendly tone.
That being said, even as she spoke, her body moved quickly, trying to attack her opponent.
Her speed was impressive for soone with a class related to magic. And, to make matters worse, she could teleport, appearing anywhere at any ti.
Davi knew that he wouldn’t even be able to touch Alia if she got serious.
"Things were going well, until a crazy woman tried to assassinate in a supposed test," Davi said with an ironic tone.
Then he tried to use a firestorm to hit his opponent. He wanted to at least hit Alia once, and an area attack was the only thing that seed possible.
"Don’t be an," she said in a cute way, pretending to be offended by Davi’s words. "I only wanted to help you develop," Alia smiled, while observing the fire around her.
She wasn’t caught off guard by the sudden attack, but she also didn’t bother to dodge. After all, all the fire surrounding her disappeared a few centiters before touching her skin.
To make matters worse, all the fire that disappeared was teleported to where Davi was, surrounding him with his own attack.
’Is she seriously able to do that?’ Davi thought in shock. That power was simply too broken.
He knew that Alia could teleport any item around her, even when it was in soone else’s possession. But doing that with an attack directed at her was almost like being invincible.
"What’s wrong, are you impressed by how powerful I am?" Alia appeared in front of the boy who had escaped the fire and smiled.
Then she brandished her sword, but this ti the boy was waiting.
Since his opponent wasn’t used to using that weapon, he managed to deflect her blow skillfully. Then, for an instant, he strengthened himself to the maximum.
His muscles scread in agony, but with a swing of his sword, he managed to make Alia drop the blade. Then he accelerated even more, wanting to land at least one hit.
But she disappeared.
The next thing he saw was her fist approaching, as she punched him from behind. And soon ca a flurry of punches.
That being said, the blows were a bit predictable. Alia had experience in hand-to-hand combat, but she had trained mainly to defend herself and push her enemies away. She was a mage and didn’t need to defeat anyone with physical blows.
Besides, she was holding back a bit. And it was only because of all this that Davi was able to defend and dodge continuously, avoiding being hit by a very powerful blow.
Throughout the whole ti, he used his ability in the most efficient way possible. But he still couldn’t reach the level of the fight against Sherazade, when he instinctively strengthened and weakened each part of his body separately.
In any case, that’s how the boy got through the first part of the test relatively well. Enduring for 5 minutes while being attacked by soone much stronger was a good result.
Furthermore, Alia was satisfied to see that Davi had entered a kind of flow during the combat. That was exactly what she wanted.
The woman had interrogated Sherazade and heard very interesting stories about the fight between the two. Davi’s ability to control his skills with such impressive precision only proved that he had a unique talent.
Moreover, it was precisely because of this talent that awakened in monts of crisis that she believed that those battles were the best possible training for the boy.
He was soone who didn’t need to be taught how to fight, he simply reacted on instinct and found solutions that couldn’t be taught.
His stamina and ability to keep fighting for so long were also comndable. He still had many limitations, but there was nothing to be done about that, it was simply how his class functioned.
Even so, Alia was a bit disappointed.
"There’s nothing special about you. Honestly, it’s kind of disappointing," she said in a cold tone. "Everyone said such great things about you, I ended up developing high expectations."
"Don’t you think you’re asking too much?" Davi complained. "You’re insanely strong—just holding out this long is an achievent in itself!"
"Yes, but it’s not enough. After that firestorm, you didn’t even try to attack . If you just keep defending, you’ll never truly evolve," she said with a provocative tone.
"What do you expect to do? I can’t even think of an attack that could work against that damn teleportation of yours!" Davi complained again.
"Then keep thinking, until you show sothing truly amazing," Alia said, then charged at her opponent once more. "But I’ll make things easier for you."
With a snap of her fingers, Alia teleported a small patch of earth around her away, drawing a circle on the ground.
"How about this, if you manage to make step outside this circle, I lose."
Davi still thought it was impossible, but his expression changed after hearing her words. He had accepted her challenge, and so he decided to stop just defending.
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