Getting stronger [1]

Waking up, my body was in shambles. Every single muscle was sore, and even the smallest of movements made me just want to stay in bed, letting my overworked body lie.

'Maybe I overdid it yesterday... No, even if ended my day with some mana practice, it shouldn't have too much of an effect on my physical body.'

This had all been the result of my training with the Gorilla, forcing myself to continually move with my all for hours without any semblance of rest.

'And I'm supposed to do it again today... I'll just have to trust Mike's judgment, I guess.'

Dragging myself to the shower, I let the warm water start to gently loosen up my stiff physique and give me some relief.

****

"Focus! Don't imbue your element until you are executing an attack, don't waste your mana!"

Standing in front of my nemesis, even showing up during the first part of my training today, I felt a bit sick seeing its appearance. Thankfully, it didn't try to block or parry my attacks yet, instead, it let me fully strike it however I wanted.

Taking a stance, I made myself ready to unleash a flash of lightning, intending to horizontally cut through my enemy.

Trying to time the application of electricity was difficult. If I applied it too early, I would waste precious lightning mana, too late, and it would not gain enough power.

Swinging my arm, I tried to time the imbuement following my movement. An electric line was produced on the dummy's chest, but it had been a shallow attack without enough elemental imbuement.

"Too late! Without enough time it won't be strong enough. Again!"

Mike was continuing to sternly, but fairly, guide me just as he did yesterday. Uttering no unnecessary words, and being as objective as possible, he held a pretty impressive personality during our practice.

Repetition is the base of mastery, thus I repeated the attack over and over, with Mike's shouting as the trigger.

"Again!"

*Shiing*

"Too early, again!

*Shiing*

"Still too much waste, again!"

*Shiing*

Finally, I ended up on the ground, my mana fully depleted, breathing harshly.

Seemingly somewhat content with my performance, he sat down on a chair he had brought after handing me a mana potion.

Switching to a softer side of his personality he praised me, "It's only the second day, and you already have an idea about as to what timing is needed to execute your attacks with potency, while at the same time conserving energy."

My teacher carried two different ways of instructing, which complemented each other beautifully.

When I was immersed in the training, going through the movements and practicing the mechanical skills, he was blunt and unconcerned. Only acknowledging what needed to be improved upon at the moment.

During the breaks, he was more gentle and had no qualms highlighting one's strengths, although he also discussed one's weaknesses as well.

'He is a good instructor.'

This was my honest opinion. Mike seemed to be incredibly well dispositioned to guide others in improving their combat prowess, noticing even the slightest of mistakes and correcting them as they showed.

He leaned back a bit in the chair and opened a discussion, something he did a lot the day before as well. Likely it was to help nurture a better foundation for future growth.

"Now, why do you think we aren't just practicing imbuement like a swordsman, who tries to keep a general level of energy contained in their weapons at all times?"

Although I had some thoughts on this, they were not grounded enough for me to have confidence. As such, I decided that I would, for once, let the answer come to me.

"I'm not entirely sure, would you mind explaining it?"

The man started to chuckle a bit, "Haha, I don't think I've ever heard you utter those words before. Even now I suspect you might have some very accurate thoughts, but very well then."

He prepared himself a bit and spoke, "It's because their intentions are different. A swordsman wants to keep a steady but lower application of their energy to be able to exchange blows repeatedly. A tanker also generally fits this type of application. An assassin-type is of the opposite."

"Meaning they want to apply their energy explosively to deal damage in shorter bursts?"

Happy with my thoughts, Mike let out a smile, "Correct! The physical endurance of an assassin is a lot of the time too lacking to even want to think about extended trades of blows, and in your case, it's even more so."

Standing up, he took out a dagger and walked to the dummy to show what he meant.

"Bear in mind, this isn't my forte, but something like this is what you want to go for."

Three sharp slashes, all quickly charged up and exploding with flames upon impact, making the dummy shake like a leaf in the wind.

Turning around, he added, "When you get the timing down, you will need to learn how to efficiently make your energy explode. In the case of multiple hits, you will need to learn how to quickly charge and eject the mana consecutively. Just like with your double step."

Being impressed with his show of expertise, as I knew by now that he was in contrast a greatsword user, I couldn't help but let my mouth open a bit.

Unconsciously, I had even raised myself to a sitting position to see his demonstration better.

Having noticed I had gained a bit of energy back, my instructor moved us into the second part of our sessions. Learning how to kill.

****

After three hours of torture, I had managed to raise my lethal accuracy by almost ten percent, leaving me to be able to deal a killing blow two exchanges out of ten, instead of the previous one.

*Hu, hu, hu, hu*

'Ah floor, I wonder if you love me as much as I love you these days...'

It had been the same story as yesterday. As soon as I let my body relax, I crumbled.

'Just one more day until I will practice with the principal instead, hopefully, he won't be as unreasonable...'

"Now, our original plan was for us to spar now, but after yesterday and today, I have decided that we will have to wait for a couple of different reasons."

Sitting in his chair, he had a slightly disappointed look on his face, making me feel forced to ask, "What reasons?"

A sad look emerged and he spoke, "Because your body isn't accustomed enough with the training as it is. First of all, you don't have enough accuracy with your blows, and secondly, if we try to force your body to move even more than this you might sustain damage to your ligaments."

Taking a second to think, I inquired, "This means that, because the technique practice and the training to execute more effective attacks are of a higher priority, we will wait until my body is used to them first?"

"That's right. Now, instead of just wasting the last bit of time we have during our sessions you can just circulate your mana."

...

'I was thinking more in line with, let's end the sessions earlier than we thought as we wouldn't be able to physically train anyway...'

"Yes sir..."

****

Same as yesterday, I was sitting in the cafeteria with a mountain of food on my plate, even appearing to be a bit more than previously.

'Did they increase it even more?'

Having no other choice, I began eating the massive amounts of pasta I had received, alternating with energy bars and a protein shake.

"Are you really sure that's healthy Miren?"

A concerned Sarah questioned the plan of me eating half my weight in food every day. As it had also been the same story at lunch, filling myself to the brink with beef and potatoes, she didn't seem to think it looked all too healthy.

"It's fine. I can do it!"

A childish answer, more so trying to convince myself, than the girl at my side.

"Miren! Why are you so.."

"Stop, you know he doesn't like it."

The knight in front of me had come to stop the succubus from talking about stupid things.

"By the way, Miren. Would you like to join me in the gravity room tonight? I was thinking we could spar a bit if you wanted, it would be like training using weights!"

Sarah's low voice came out, "Miren and James sweating together, under extreme pressure..."

Disregarding the stupid, sexy girl, I respectfully declined his suggestion.

"No thank you, I would probably die if I tried to train under the gravity you would. Moreover, I have to spend an hour in the time capsule every night, which doesn't leave me with a lot of time."

This was the truth. Because my sessions with Mike ended around 6 pm, and it took at least an hour to shower and eat, that only left me finished at 8 pm after being in the capsule.

I also didn't want to die.

"That's too bad... Then Brad! You always train in the gravity room, why not do it together tonight?

"Me? Why would I want to spend time sweating alone with another guy? A man should train alone!"

As the conversation continued, I managed to force down my food and ended my mealtime by rewarding myself with a nice cup of coffee.