An hour later, the capsule stank of sweat and rubber.

  Kai and I circled each other like tired wolves. Our movements had slowed; exhaustion had taken over. But something had shifted in me. After sparring for so long, it seemed my body finally understood what it was doing, and I was bridging the gap between thought and instinct better than before.

  I stepped forward with a lunge.

  The step that put me off his centerline, but Kai was quick to retreat a half step back, dodging my attack.

  I advanced with my spear, chasing him down, but just when I felt he tried to bait me into overcommitting, I held my position. The longer our exchange went, the more the spear felt like an extension of my arm.

  Text flickered at the edge of my vision.

  [Spear Mastery has increased.]

  [Sevenfold Strike has increased slightly.]

  [Basic Footwork has increased.]

  I ignored it. Kai pressed forward again, and I angled the spear to force him wide. His blade deflected the spearhead, and I got into position.

  We traded another Sevenfold sequence, steel rand against steel in rapid percussion. My arms burned. Kai's breathing deepened, controlled but laboured.

  Then an odd burn in my lungs pulsed. I could feel the heat crawling up my throat. My spear dipped low. Kai took the chance, and his sword slid along the shaft, pressing it aside. Instead of striking, he stepped close and yanked my arm.

  Kai jutted in and flipped me over, a wheeze left my lungs as my back struck the floor.

  I raised my free hand. "I'm Done."

  Kai lowered his sword.

  I coughed and planted the spear's butt on the floor, dragging air through my throat in harsh pulls.

  Kai wiped the sweat from his brow, his collar dark with perspiration. He looked as wrung out as I felt.

  "You're quite something," He rolled his shoulders.

  I made a sound between a laugh and a cough. "Really? Not the nicest thing to hear after I lost all five spars."

  Kai looked at me like I'd missed something obvious. "Yes, but. You adapted and learned really fast. There's a day and night difference between you in the first fight and this one."

  I let out a groan and struggled up until I sat on the floor while leaning my back against the dome's wall. The surface felt cool against my back. My arms hung uselessly at my sides.

  -

  [CONDITION] Exertion: 85% threshold exceeded.

  -

  A helpless chuckle escaped my lips, 'So this still wasn't my limit?'

  Even though I could see my condition, I still couldn't wrap my head around it. Doing anything beyond 50% exertion felt damn near impossible.

  I let my head fall back as my chest rose and fell in measured breaths.

  Another notification appeared.

  [Endurance has increased greatly.]

  [Stamina has increased: F → E.]

  Kai slumped beside me, sword across his knees, staring at the ceiling.

  "Dawn's still hours away," I muttered. "Four, maybe five."

  Kai nodded. His stomach growled in the silence.

  He coughed, embarrassed. "I'm not missing breakfast like last time."

  My own stomach answered with a hollow ache under my ribs. "Same."

  We sat quietly, letting exhaustion settle into our bones.

  Footsteps echoed outside.

  They didn't sound like wandering steps, but rather deliberate ones, measured and purposeful.

  'Who the hell is here except us?'

  Kai's head turned. I pushed myself upright.

  We stood and cracked the capsule door open.

  The dome's white arcane lights blazed overhead. A figure approached down the main walkway, the blond boy from Alexander's class, hands in his pockets, moving with casual confidence.

  He slowed when he saw us, taking in our weapons, sweat-stained clothes, and heavy breathing.

  His expression soured as if we'd personally ruined his night.

  "Didn't expect company at this time," the boy frowned.

  "Neither did I," I replied evenly. "What brings you here?"

  He shrugged. "Couldn't sleep, so I decided to do some exploring." Then his eyes sharpened. "Never mind that, what are you two doing here?"

  I scratched my head, and the boy's eyes drifted to the capsule. He pointed his chin at the capsule. "Sparring?"

  "Somewhat," Kai replied, unsure of what to make of the boy.

  Elias looked back at me, then at Kai. He held a pause for a brief second. "You guys got room for one more?"

  A restless eagerness lurked in his eyes as he asked the question.

  'Is he feeling competitive?'

  I considered it. Three-way sparring could be useful. But it could also turn dangerous when you didn't know someone's style, especially when both Kai and I were already exhausted.

  "Not tonight," I said.

  Surprise crossed his face, like rejection was foreign to him "Why not?"

  "I don't know how you fight. Besides, I don't even know you," I shook my head.

  He straightened, as if I'd questioned his honour. "Easy to fix."

  He tapped his chest. "Elias Rowan."

  The name struck me, but I kept my face neutral.

  He pointed at me. "You're Noah Reed." Then at Kai. "And you?"

  Kai hesitated. "Kai Ashcroft."

  Elias smiled like he'd solved a puzzle. "There. We're all well acquainted. Let's spar."

  "Still no." I sighed.

  His smile gained an edge. "Come on."

  My eyes narrowed. 'Elias Roawn was a battlemage. Going off of that, he'd primarily use magic. There's no way for me or Kai to fight against something like that.'

  "It's not safe. Except Kai and I, neither we nor you know each other's limits. One wrong move and it could be dangerous. That's how accidents happen."

  Elias stared at me helplessly. Then the competitive fire in his eyes shifted, hunting for another outlet. His face brightened.

  "Fine. Not sparring. But something else. I guarantee it'll be fun."

  Kai glanced at me questioningly.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Elias leaned forward like he was sharing a secret. "Trust me, you'll like it."

  I raised an eyebrow.

  "Simple. Fun. You'll like it. Come on." Elias urged again.

  There was an innocent fervour in his eyes and a bright smile that somehow I couldn't entirely ignore.

  I sighed, already regretting my next words. "Fine. Show us."

  Elias spun and walked deeper into the dome, past the sparring capsules, toward the dimmer back areas.

  The rooms back here were different.

  Not enclosed capsules. Open cages.

  Elias stopped at an entrance framed in dark metal, built akin to a domed steel cage. Inside, steel walls were riddled with narrow slits in staggered patterns, too precise for ventilation, too purposeful for decoration.

  I stepped inside. The air changed; it was cooler, drier, and sterile.

  Elias positioned himself in the centre, grinning. "This is where we'll do some target practice."

  Kai studied the numerous slits lining the walls in the domed room. "Do those launch projectiles?"

  "Clay discs. You destroy as many as possible. But if one hits you, you're out. Highest count wins."

  I pictured high-speed discs spinning through the air at unpredictable angles all around the domed room and instinctively hunched.

  Elias held up a finger. "They don't really hurt much."

  He paused, slightly worried. "Ah. But they do leave bruises."

  Kai and I shared a look; we were both surprised to see a room like this here, and we both also knew we couldn't just walk out now.

  "So who goes first?" Elias asked.

  Neither of us moved.

  "Agh. Fine. I'll demonstrate."

  Elias waved us toward the entrance. "Stand back. Out of the danger zone."

  We retreated and watched him take position, feet planted, arms relaxed. Bobbing his head like he was listening to music only he could hear. As Elias readied himself in the centre of the room, he raised his hand and released just a sliver of mana.

  A soft click came from the walls.

  The room erupted.

  Discs burst from the slits with sharp hisses, polished clay discs that flashed in the light. The first crossed his face, and he swayed aside without moving his feet. The second came low, and he lifted his heel just enough.

  The third ricocheted off the far wall at a wicked angle, and Elias smiled like he'd expected exactly that.

  He bobbed and weaved through the chaos.

  There was just a fluid precision to his movements, as more discs gathered and ricocheted across the walls. Elias's fists ignited.

  Fire coiled around his fists, not wild flames but controlled heat that wrapped his knuckles like molten gauntlets. He punched forward, arcs and beams of flame snapped outward, incinerating three discs at once. They burst into sparks and charred clay that chimed against the floor.

  Another volley erupted. Elias pivoted and swept his arm in a perfect arc, fire trailing behind, burning two more targets.

  The cage filled with the symphony of ricocheting discs and the smell of lingering embers. Elias kept his streak for a few minutes, exercising precise control with his magic. Each flame burst hit exactly what he aimed for, nothing more.

  'He's treating the fire more like an extension of his punches. Almost as if he's bending it to his will.'

  I was shocked by his display of skill. Despite being exposed to various feats of mana and odd magic, this was truly the first time I had seen magic being used solely to fight.

  The floor around him glittered with fragments of the broken discs; the room was beginning to clutter. But despite spending this long at the centre of the chaos, Elias's breathing remained steady.

  A final disc slipped through at shoulder height, too close to dodge.

  Elias caught it bare-handed.

  His fingers closed around it with casual brutality. Fire tightened around his grip, and the disc glowed cherry-red, then white-hot, before crumpling and disintegrating to dust in his palms.

  Silence rushed back.

  Elias opened his hand, letting the last fragments fall, then turned toward us with a grin while shaking off the pain.

  "Fifty-three," he said casually. "Your turn."

  He stepped aside and gestured toward the centre, eyes bright with challenge.

  -

  Kai and I shared a look at the cage entrance.

  Elias lounged against the doorframe like he owned the place, sweat still gleaming at his temples. Behind him, the steel floor sparkled with disc fragments—broken metal catching the dome lights like scattered glass.

  Kai's grip shifted on his sword. Silent question in the way his eyes met mine.

  I stepped forward with my spear. "Can we move around in there?"

  Elias blinked, then rubbed his neck as if he'd never considered the question before. "Yeah, of course. I just prefer staying put. Personal style."

  "Good," I walked in and took a deep breath.

  The first disc hissed out low, and I stabbed down. The disc shattered into pieces that skittered across the floor. A second shot high, bounced off the far wall, and ricocheted back at a sharp angle. I pivoted and speared it mid-flight.

  The spear was perfect for this. Reach meant I could intercept without risking my body. I didn't need to get close or make wild movements.

  As more discs came, I swept the spear in a tight arc to clear the low threat, then snapped a thrust into the higher one. Vibrations travelled up the shaft to my wrists, a steady pulse that made my grip feel connected.

  But as the room slowly filled with ricocheting discs, I stopped trying to track everything.

  Instead, I focused on using [Insight] when it truly mattered.

  Insight didn't flash warnings or pop up displays. It just made the dangerous threats heavier in my awareness. Discs that would actually hit me stood out like bright lines. Everything else became background noise.

  I moved economically.

  Taking small steps and snapping into pivots as I let the harmless ones pass. Only intercepting what mattered.

  My score count climbed steadily.

  Ten. Fifteen. Twenty.

  However, then the slits sped up.

  The discs launched weren't just faster, but also sometimes staggered launches that punished commitment. Discs arrived exactly where I'd just been or where I planned to go. One almost grazed my face as I felt the air brush past me, and another clipped the spear shaft and careened away with a mocking ping.

  The room felt smaller.

  A dense volley of discs shot towards me, forcing me to plant my feet. I dropped my centre of gravity and used [Sevenfold Strike].

  Seven rapid thrusts snapped out in sequence.

  'Twenty-five'

  But just before I could pivot again, a disc came low from my right, sliding under the spear's arc. I stepped away, but it clipped my calf with a sharp, flat impact.

  Hot pain flared up in my leg.

  "Damn," I hissed, stumbling.

  The rest of the discs stopped immediately.

  "Twenty-five," Elias called out cheerfully. "Not bad for a first try."

  I limped out, jaw clenched, already feeling the bruise forming. "I'll take what I can."

  Kai brushed past me without comment.

  He took centre stage with his sword already raised and a relaxed stance.

  Elias and I flanked the entrance. Elias looked relaxed, almost bored, like he expected Kai to perform slightly better than me, but nothing spectacular.

  'Of course, that's because he's never seen Kai at full speed.' In a room where movement was unlimited, and the only rule was survival, I couldn't imagine anyone beating him.

  As the slits clicked and shot out discs, my eyes flicked to the centre again.

  Kai didn't wait for them to ricochet.

  The first disc emerged, and his blade intercepted it instantly. The second disc couldn't even complete half a rotation before he'd smashed it. The third never made it past the wall opening before the steel shattered it into pieces.

  'Ruthlessly efficient. He is eliminating variables before they can develop. The discs don't have a chance to ricochet at all.' My eyes narrowed. 'Of course, something like that is only possible when you have inhuman speed.'

  My gaze flicked to Elias. His eyebrows climbed as his confidence flickered for the first time.

  Kai darted around the room, easily weaving through a frenzy of discs while simultaneously breaking them down.

  He'd managed to progress beyond Elias. To the point that the slits had started shooting two discs simultaneously. Then three.

  Kai's blade became a blur. He flowed through the tiny gaps between the discs' launching and continued to break them when he could. After a few minutes of frenzy, a disc barely grazed his upper arm, just a tap that made his shoulder twitch.

  Everything stopped.

  Kai lowered his sword and exhaled once. "Eighty. Look's like I win."

  Elias stared, dumbfounded. Then his expression darkened. "That doesn't count."

  Kai looked genuinely confused. "Why not?"

  "I was going easy earlier," Elias snapped, already moving forward. "I was in demonstration mode, so I didn't try hard enough. Let me show you how it's actually done."

  Kai glanced at me, wordlessly asking if this was worth the trouble.

  I shrugged, and he stepped aside awkwardly.

  Elias strode into the cage wearing a grin with teeth. "Now for the real performance," he announced.

  The slits clicked. First discs launched.

  Elias moved, and fire bloomed around his hands immediately, controlled flames wrapping his knuckles like molten gauntlets. However, this time, wind followed, creating pale distortions around his forearms as air itself bent to his will.

  He punched forward, and a spinning cone of fire erupted outward, a fierce gust of wind shaping it into a controlled tornado that incinerated three discs the instant they appeared. Fragments burst into cascading sparks.

  'He's copying Kai's strategy by killing targets at the source instead of letting them ricochet.' My eyes widened, 'Except he's using his magic to reach them instead of speed.'

  Another volley emerged. Elias swept his arm, and wind dragged fire with it in a perfect arc, clipping the discs simultaneously.

  Kai's eyes narrowed, attention sharpening. Even he looked impressed.

  So was I.

  Elias had serious range and even better control than I'd expected. Beyond that, he had an impressive raw output.

  'Mastering two elements at once is already stretching the limits of talent.'

  However, Elias wasn't satisfied. It seemed as if he was absorbed in his own magic.

  Gusts began spilling outward, tugging at our clothes from the entrance. Heat rolled out in waves, making the air shimmer. Steel walls of the cage began to glow where flames lingered too long.

  I could tell that Elias' breathing had changed, not from exertion but from excitement.

  He wasn't targeting the discs anymore. Rather, He was chasing the rush of power, responding perfectly to his will.

  "Elias," I called out, shielding my face from the wind.

  No response.

  Another volley. Elias laughed softly and pulled wind into a tight spiral around a growing fireball between his palms. The flame swelled as the wind compressed it, creating a miniature rotating inferno.

  It shuddered.

  Not in his hands, but in the air around it. Like the room itself couldn't safely contain that much unstable energy.

  Kai's hand slammed into my shoulder. "Get down."

  We dropped instinctively as heat spiked to dangerous levels. The fire-tornado bucked like a chained animal trying to break free.

  I felt the heat singe my face, and Kai yanked me back through the door as the flames almost licked my brows. But just as the two of us jumped out, I saw a puddle of shadow from the corner of my eye shoot forward.

  'What?'

  A figure obscured in darkness jumped out and flickered towards the cage, hands still in his pockets as he closed the distance to the centre without apparent urgency. Then the shadow delivered a precise kick to the back of Elias' neck.

  Elias collapsed instantly, body going limp, hitting the floor like a puppet without strings. The unstable magic died with him. Wind vanished into nothing. Fire snuffed out in a rush of heat that dispersed outside.

  As the chaos settled, I rubbed my eyes.

  "Nico?"

  Nico stood over Elias' unconscious body. He glanced toward the entrance, eyes briefly meeting ours.

  Then he sighed.

  "Honestly," Nico muttered, voice thick with annoyance. "What a drag."