Grind [2]

'What did I just do?!'

I fucked up, badly, letting my emotions get in control of my actions. There was nothing for me to gain by sticking my throat out at this point in time, but now the die had been thrown.

After Suzuka had left the room, I was left with my teacher who was wearing a huge grin.

"Little hare! You have a lot more spunk than I thought!"

He walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder, "Yes! This is how a man should be, don't let someone walk over you and look down on you!"

'That's exactly what I should have done though...'

"So what's your plan now then? Do you have any combat experience since earlier?"

Standing with his crossed arms, he waited for my response with suspense.

"No, I've never thought anyone except for maybe one or two spars at the orphanage..."

"Huh? Then why did you challenge her? Weren't you confident in showing Suzuka her place?!"

Exasperated and dumbfounded at my stupidity, Mike was standing with his mouth open.

"No, I just... I just... I don't know. Something about what she said got to me, and my temper got the best of me. Should I just talk to her and explain the situation?"

"NO!"

A cold swept the room, and Mike exuded some insane pressure.

"You do not go back on a challenge, no matter what. Duels are not just fights, it's a show of honor and pride. If you try to go back on your words now and it gets out to the other teachers, there will be no going back. You have to go through with the fight."

Almost catching himself getting too riled up, he relaxed, and the atmosphere regained its tranquility.

*Cough*

"What I mean to say is, you're not getting out of this. Instead, let's take this as a way to make you even stronger. Challenges create progress. Take out your daggers, let's begin training right now. We will start sparring now."

A bit shocked at the sudden turn of events, I couldn't help but blurt out, "Right now? But weren't you supposed to only train me the first three days of the week? It's the weekend you know?"

Waving his hand, "No matter, this is a lot more fun than just running around bars! Now come at me!"

Suddenly our spar had begun, and as shocked as I was, Mike took the initiative, "If you're not going then I'll start."

He rushed at me, covering the distance in a split second, and threw an uppercut right towards my stomach. Even before touching me, wind pressure started to accumulate, and a sense of death emerged. My mind switched on, and my body automatically reacted to avoid the pain.

With a thundering step, I moved back my maximum of ten meters and readied Khanda and Nandaka. Mike raised his body and spoke, "Not bad, but now, stop sleeping. If someone had been serious there, you would have been dead. Now, come at me!"

With some slight pain in my legs after using my skill, I dashed toward him. Mike lowered his stance and prepared himself to defend against my incoming strike.

'I can't just attack directly, I have to create an opening first.'

Two meters away from him, I lowered my body, making myself even smaller and more elusive. Now in striking range, I imbued Khanda with lightning and made a quick slash towards his throat.

Mike reacted as expected and put up his guard like a cross, creating an opening at his side. Instead of continuing my slash, I stopped the attack and instead jumped to drive a stab in his neck with Nandaka. The gorilla didn't appear to have predicted this sort of attack.

"Shit!"

Having found my chance, the purple and green dagger quickly made its way to victory, but suddenly, my body stopped, falling back to the ground.

Not missing this chance, the gorilla caught my wrist and threw me away like a ragdoll.

*BAM*

With my back slamming into the wall, I blacked out.

****

I woke up, my whole body feeling like shit, lying on a bench in the practice room.

"Oh, you woke up!"

Mike was sitting in a chair next to me, reading a bodybuilding magazine. Seeing as I was now awake, he stood up, "Sorry about that lad, I just got a bit too excited, and angry."

Forcing myself to sit up, I was a bit confused at his words, "What do you mean?"

"Your attack was nearly perfect, and although it couldn't scratch me because of the difference in our M.G. it was impressive. Even if you didn't manage to enhance it before with your element, it was a good attack."

'Then why is he angry? Ah, it's because of what happened to my body...'

"So, you got mad because I stopped the attack?"

With an awkward smile, he explained, "Yes. Wasting such a sequence because you got afraid of hurting me was incredibly frustrating to me."

'Ah, so that's why I stopped. I unconsciously didn't want to hurt my teacher. That's... That's not good. I'm supposed to not just have a duel next week but also do a dungeon dive, and I can't even bear to hurt my enemy?!'

"So, how do I fix it?"

'No use in dwelling on my flaws, that's time better spent fixing them!'

His expression immediately brightened, and he laughed, "Hahaha, that's right! Let's fix it instead of being sad!"

Sitting back in his chair, he said, "You need to get used to fighting to win, not to escape. The easiest way to do this is to teach your body that it is a matter of life and death. If you run away or hesitate to kill, either you or your party members might die. Thus we will be sparring as much as possible, without neglecting to practice your technique."

Looking at his DAD, he finished his little sermon, "Oh, it's already quarter to twelve. I take it that you haven't eaten yet right?"

"That's right."

"Then if you go for a quick meal, we can meet here at half-past twelve and continue sparring."

This would have been great, if not for one small problem, my body was already messed up from his earlier attack. Even if I could easily endure the pain, thanks to me getting used to [Overclock], it felt like it would be hard to move.

"Teach?"

"Yea?"

"I'm not sure I can move, even after a small break."

...

The air got a bit awkward, and we both knew the cause.

"Right... I forgot that your physique is inherently weak because of your low strength... Even if I put in a little more power than I was planning to, most students wouldn't have fainted after all..."

'Sorry for being weak...'

He continued, with his chin resting in his hand, "This might be a problem. Even if our spars would focus more on you getting used to attack, you will still need to endure some hits to ingrain a sense of danger in your body. And we can't just use potions, they would lose potency too quickly for us to get good practice in."

Letting a couple of seconds pass, he had found an answer, "We need a healer! Someone who can heal you when you get knocked out or sustain damage. This could also help you continue to use your martial skill."

Although this sounded like a great plan, there was still an issue. Who would accept to just stand in the practice room for hours to heal the weak little me?

Looking up at my teacher, I asked, "Do you have someone in mind?"

Smiling brightly he answered, "As a matter of fact I do. A certain student that you already seem to have a friendly relationship with?"

"You mean we should ask Sarah? But doesn't she also have lessons to attend? Wouldn't it be bad if we just obstructed one of the most promising mage students from attending her courses?"

"Haha, it will be fine. We will just have to limit our sparring to an hour or so, she will also get to train by healing you."

A bit skeptical about his simple-minded approach, my eyebrow lifted, "Are you sure about this?"

Not skipping a beat, he retorted, "Of course! Now, we will probably not be able to start this kind of training today, as we will still have to ask her, but hopefully, we can proceed tomorrow. Let's use the rest of the day to practice against the dummy after you've got something to eat."

Having no choice but to trust my instructor, I struggled to my feet and started to limply walk out of the room, with the cafeteria as my destination.