"Are you sure we can come along?" Crystal asked Mari.

  "Sure! I don't see why not." On Sundays, Alex and Mari would regularly meet up at the Academy gym and train together. However, this time Mari invited Jack, Crystal and Sera along so she could get some practice fighting other people. The plan was to meet up at the train station, pick up Alex at his house and then head straight to the Academy. It was only when they were a block away from Alex's home that the trio learned that Mari hadn't informed him that she was bringing them along.

  "Really? I would have thought you two would have wanted to spend time just the two of you." Jack commented. Mari slowed down, turned to look at him and tilted her head in confusion.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I just thought you two would want some alone time."

  "Why would we want that?" He raised a brow at her question.

  "Don't you two have a thing for each other?"

  "Jack!/ Jack!" Crystal and Sera shouted at him.

  "What? We were all thinking it."

  "Yeah, but that isn't something you just ask someone out of nowhere?!" Crystal scolded him.

  "Ptht!" They were interrupted by the sound of Mari trying and failing to hold in her laughter. "Hahaha! Alex and I, together?! Hahahaha!" The trio just watched in confusion as Mari calmed herself down. "Hehe, I don't know where you got that idea from, but Alex and I aren't like that." She turned around and started walking forward again with her hands behind her head. "We're just two good friends who love to fight."

  "Really? But you two are always together." Jack asked.

  "That's mostly because we like to train with each other. Alex is a durable training partner with a fighting style I can admire, while I'm someone who isn't afraid to go all out and get my fists bloody in our sparring sessions."

  "I see?" He muttered. Before any of them could say anything else, Mari stopped walking, causing the other to as well. "Why did you stop?"

  "Because we arrived at Alex's house." The trio inspected the house. It was a beige coloured two-story house with a grey roof. The house had a large window at the front with two smaller ones on the second floor. The lawn was neatly trimmed with a recently painted brown fence enclosing it. Opening the gate, Mari confidently walked in, followed by the other three, with Sera closing it behind her. Arriving at the door, she knocked on it and knocked on it again when there was no response. "Odd, he usually responds right away when someone knocks."

  "Maybe he's still asleep?" Sera suggested.

  "Hmm, maybe." Mari reached into her shorts pocket and took out a key ring. Flipping through the keys, she stopped at one marked with an A and inserted it into the door. The door opened with a muted click, and after taking out the key, Mari walked straight in.

  "You have keys to his house?" Jack asked, followed after her.

  "Hmm, oh yeah." She pocketed the key ring. "He gave me them, so I stopped breaking down his door when he doesn't answer."

  "I thought you said he would respond right away," Crystal asked while entering the house with Sera, closing the door behind her.

  "I said he usually responds right away; when he doesn't, I like to invite myself in, just in case something happened to him."

  "Was that ever the case?" She asked with a skeptical tone.

  "No, but you never know. Better be safe than sorry." Mari answered indifferently.

  "How many times did you need to break down his door for him to hand over the keys to his house?" Jack couldn't help but wonder.

  "I think it was after the fifth time, he came to me with the keys, saying something about his neighbour complaining about noise or whatever." She answered with a dismissive wave of her hand. Looking around the house, the trio followed Mari as she headed up the stairs. The house was sparse with barely any furniture or personal items.

  "Did Alex move in recently?" Crystal asked, noting the lack of any pictures or memorabilia.

  "I think he mentioned moving in several months ago," Mari answered before stopping in front of a room. "Ah, here it is." Opening the door, she peeked inside. "Alex, wake up!" She frowned, opened the door wide and walked inside. Inspecting the room, the trio saw that it wasn't as empty as the rest of the house. Beside the bed and nightstand, the room also had a PC, several machines that the trio didn't recognize, two large chests and a one-meter cube covered in carvings at the center. "Huh, he's not here." Turning around, Mari exited the room, closed the door behind her and walked back down the stairs with the others closely behind.

  "Maybe he isn't home?" Sera suggested.

  "Hmm, I'm sure he's here; we just need to find him." It didn't take long for them to explore the entirety of the two floors. They were about to give up when Mari caught a scent of something. Following the trail led them to a door tucked away at the back of the house; opening it revealed a set of stairs leading down. "A basement? Wonder what's down here."

  "H-hey, Mari, maybe we sho-" Completely ignoring Sera, Mari immediately headed down the stairs, with the other three reluctantly following behind her. As they walked down the stairs, the trio began noticing the scent as well. They didn't have to wonder what it was for long, as it quickly became clear what the scent was upon reaching the bottom of the stairs. "I-i-is t-that blood?!" Sera recoiled away from the drying pool of blood on the stone floor. Looking around showed a room covered in blood, chunks of meat of various sizes littered the floor and a strong metallic smell in the air.

  "Ah!/ ALEX!/ My god!" The trio screamed at the sight of the blood-drenched teen draped over the metal chair. As for Mari, she just let out a tired sigh and calmly walked towards the body. "M-m-mari?" Sera stammered. Stopping right next to the body, Mari stared at Alex as she loomed over him, her hands on either side of her waist. Raising her hand, Mari suddenly slapped Alex's face with a loud smack.

  "Wake up!"

  "Mari! Wha-" Crystal was interrupted by the sound of Alex's groaning. Blinking his eyes open, Alex slowly looked around him.

  "Mari? How did you- Oh yeah, I gave you keys." Sitting up in the chair, Alex let out a loud yawn as he stretched his stiff body. "-Yawn- what are you four doing here?"

  "It's Sunday, and I figured it would be a good change of pace to invite them to our weekly sparring session." Alex tiredly blinked at Mari as he slowly processed what she had said.

  "What time is it?"

  "If your clock upstairs isn't wrong, then around eight."

  "Ah, hmm. Yeah, sorry." He cracked his stiff neck. "I must have been more tired than I thought. Let me freshen up, then we can head over to the Academy."

  "Wait, wait, wait!" Crystal interjected. "Are you two just going to ignore all of this?!" She motioned to the blood and gore all over the room with her hands. Alex looked around.

  "Ah, yeah, don't worry, this is all mine. A simple DNA test or Scan spell will confirm that fact in case you want stronger proof than just my word." He tiredly reassured with a yawn as he stood up.

  "That's good and all." Said Jack. "But I'm sure she meant to ask why the room looked like a slaughterhouse?"

  "Ah, that's easy to answer. I was experimenting on my body." He answered with a shrug. "I can't reliably make use of my regeneration if I don't know my limits."

  "Is this something he does a lot?" Jack asked Mari, who gave him a so-so gesture.

  "Well, this," She motioned to the room. "It's new, but Alex experimenting on himself isn't. Sometimes he gets me to help. My favourite was when we tested how many buffs his body can handle before limbs start exploding."

  "The answer was that they don't," Alex spat.

  "You want your limbs to explode?" Jack asked with a raised brow.

  "An exploding limb is a potent weapon that an enemy isn't likely to expect. But instead of that, you get a limb that refuses to work, which is just dead weight." Mari nodded in agreement, as if he was stating the obvious. Alex picked up the bag from the stairs and was about to stuff his enchanting tools inside before realizing how dirty they were. "I'll just get them later," He muttered to himself while heading towards the stairs.

  "Is that a knife?"

  "What were you doing that required enchanting tools?"Asked Jack and Sera, finally noticing the several blood-covered tools on the table.

  "I was testing how my regeneration affects how my bones heal from precise damage, and the knife was needed to get access to them." He took a step on the stairs. "You guys coming or not?"

  "A-are you just going to leave all of this?" Sera asked with clear disgust in her voice. Surprised by her tone, Alex froze mid-step and looked at her. "Y-you're just going to leave this mess?" She continued. He looked around the room.

  "Hmm, yeah." He said. "This kind of mess isn't something I can clean up easily. I might even need to torch it all down. But that's something only I need to worry about."

  "You sure?" Jack asked.

  "Positive," Alex answered before turning around and heading upstairs with Mari following closely behind. The other three, realizing that he wasn't going to do anything about the room, chose to move on from the topic. After a quick shower and change of clothes, Alex, with his backpack in hand, was ready to go. The group of students went straight to the Academy and towards the training grounds Mari had reserved ahead of time.

  "So how are we going to do this?" Jack asked while playing with the practice sword and sheath he took from the storage room.

  "Mari and I typically just fight until one of us collapses, but unless you all want to try a five-person free-for-all." Jack and Crystal shook their head.

  "What? Why not?" Mari wined. "A free-for-all sounds awesome!"

  "It does, but I think we should do a few one-on-one fights before we do anything that intense," Jack answered.

  "Aw, fine."Her body deflated slightly. "Well, we could flip a coin to decide who fights whom."

  "How would that even work?"

  "Easy!" Mari perked up and took out a metal coin from her pocket. "We take turns calling either heads or tails. The first pair to call it right fights first. We flip again to make another pair, then the person who is left can fight whoever has enough energy for another round."

  "Do you just carry that around with you?"

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "Yup! It comes in handy when I need to make a decision I'm not sure about. So, everyone on board with my idea?" Seeing no complaints, Mari started flipping.

  1st Round:

  2nd Round:

  3rd Round:

  After three rounds of flipping, the pairs ended up being Alex vs. Sera, Jack vs. Mari, and Crystal as the extra fighter. With the pairs decided, they activated the training grounds' safety enchanements before the first fighters took their positions, while the others stepped out of the area. On one side, Alex was doing stretches with nothing but the clothes on his back, while on the other stood Sera, looking through her satchel, four storage pouches firmly secured to her side.

  "Sorry for not asking earlier, but are you sure you're up for this?" Alex asked, cracking his neck. Momemtrally surprised by the question, Sera quickly nodded with a determined expression.

  "Yes! I wasn't able to do much during the test besides handing out potions." Sera said through gritted teeth. "But I don't want that to be the only thing I can do, because I know eventually I'm just gonna be a liability and ruin things for others. So I'm going to get stronger, strong enough to fight alongside my friends! And that's not going to happen unless I push myself to the limit! So give me everything you got and don't hold back!" Alex paused, studied her expression and then nodded before walking over to his bag. Rummaging through it, he took out two chokers with runes on them. Putting one of them on, he tossed the other to Mari before walking back.

  "Awesome! Thanks, Alex!" Mari cheered while putting on the choker.

  "What's that?" Jack asked.

  "It's a more portable version of the rune I used that interferes with the arena's enchantments. With it on, I can fully make use of my regeneration without having to worry about the enchanments activating." He answered, securing two storage pouches of his own to his side. "Before you ask, I made one for Mari because she wouldn't stop bothering me about it. And yes, the instructor knows and is fine with it as long as I lower the threshold it can interfere with." Muttering something under his breath, Alex took out the centipede golem from his right storage pouch and manipulated it to wrap around his upper arm.

  "Is this all really necessary for just a simple sparring session?" Crystal couldn't help but ask.

  "Sera wanted my best, so I'm giving it to her." Alex took out a Mana potion, jugged it down and then turned to face Sera. "You ready?"

  "Y-yes!" She shouted with two potions of her own in each hand. "Jack, can you please do the countdown?" He nodded. Stepping forward, Jack let out a cough before taking a deep breath.

  "Today's first match is!" He shouted in his best McGaron expression.

  "Really?" Said Crystal in a deadpanned tone.

  "Alex Alveron Vs. Sera Gracefield!" Jack continued, completely ignoring Crystal's comment. "You two may begin when I say go. Three, two, one, GO!" At the sound of Go, Alex immediately threw the bottle in his hand at Sera's head, causing her to yelp and crouch down to avoid the attack. Remembering who she is fighting, Sera awadly rolled to the left just in time to dodge Alex's foot smashing down at her previous location. Quickly downing an Enhance Strength potion, Sera used her newfound power to leap out of the way of another attack. Quickly opening the other bottle in her hand, Sera threw its contents at Alex, who was charging at her. The liquid immediately froze into ice upon contact, freezing Alex in mid-punch in place.

  Seeing her chance, Sera tapped the front storage pouches on her side with the bottles, storing them away. "Shock! Acid!" Grabbing the two potions, Sera violently shook the bottles before tossing them at Alex. Breaking free with a burst of fire, Alex wasn't fast enough and was hit by the potions.

  "Agh!" He screamed as the potions exploded on contact, soaking him with their contents. Pushing forward, Alex stumbled when his limbs started seizing up, his muscles spasming with sparks of electricity. Taking advantage of his momentary inability to move, Sera continued chucking various offensive potions at Alex.

  He broke free from the ice freezing over him with bursts of fire all over his body. He took advantage of his Petrify Immunity to tank the Stone potions. He powered through the Static and Shock potions by enhancing his muscles with Boost. He relied on his Rengeration for the Fire and Acid potions, using the Restoration spell when needed. Sera felt a chill run down her spine as she watched Alex continue inching closer to her, her attacks only managing to slow him down. Figuring she wasn't going to overwhelm him through sheer damage alone, Sera quickly decided that it was time to change up her strategy.

  "Ice! Ice! Ice!" She first started by pelting him with more Ice potions, making sure to target his limbs so he couldn't move. "Chill! Shock!" To better ensure he couldn't free himself, Sera would occasionally toss in a Chill potion to weaken any fire spells Alex would cast and Shock potions to disrupt his muscles. After a few minutes into the fight, Alex was struggling to move, with his arms and legs fully encased in ice. While Sera was desperately trying to catch her breath, her arms were sore from all the throwing she was doing. At this point, the rate at which Alex was casting spells has greatly slowed down, with him forgoing using the Restoration spell altogether and just relying on his regeneration to heal his wounds. Not wanting to waste any more energy, Alex stopped moving and, with a blank expression, slowly turned to look at Sera, causing her to shiver as another chill ran up her back.

  "G-give up!" Sera shouted from a safe distance from him. "I've seen how reliant on Mana you are! You've been casting a lot of spells, so at this point you should be almost out, if not completely out of mana! And, and, and I still have plenty of potions left!" She shook her sachlet in front of him to emphasize her point.

  When she started fidgeting under his gaze, Alex moved his head to look around the training area and at the three students specating the fight. Jack had a small smile on his face, enjoying the show the fight was giving him. Crystal was giving the fight her full focus, making sure to analyze and not miss a single moment. As for Mari, she was less invested than the other two, with a small frown on her face and a glare directed at Alex that was all but demanding that he make the fight more interesting.

  "A word of advice," Alex said out loud to Sera, turning to face her. "Talking isn't a free action."

  "W-what? What does that even mea- Ack!" Her hands shot to her neck, where Alex's centipede golem had wrapped itself around. While Sera tried to pry the centipede off her as she started choking, the golem slowly tightened its hold on her neck. Falling onto her side, Sera desperately gasped for air when she began feeling lightheaded.

  "Make sure the fight is over before starting any speech, or at least after you secured your victory." Alex continued, fire erupting from his body that was slowly melting the ice trapping him. Glaring at Alex with a defiant gaze, Sera dug her right thumb underneath the centipede and managed to lift it enough to allow her to breathe a little. She then moved her left hand to the storage pouch to her side.

  "Sta-tic," She managed to wheeze out while flopping onto her back. Gripping tightly on the potion with her pinkie, ring, and thumb, she used her free fingers to open the bottle before dumping the contents all over the centipede. Feeling the grip around her neck weakening, Sera wrapped her hand around the centipede. Gritting her teeth, she ignored the painful shock coming from the liquid flowing down her neck and pried the centipede off her. Shakily getting up from the ground, Sera tossed the twitching golem far away towards the side of the arena. Taking deep breaths, Sera stored away the half-empty Static potion. "Health, Mana." Ignoring her sore throat, Sera barely managed to down the Health potion before a heavy impact smashed into her guy, sending her tumbling across the ground. Pushing her body up, Sera glared at a now free Alex. His training outfit was almost completely torn, with burn marks of various kinds littered on what little was still intact.

  "Another tip, even if you think your opponent is immobilized, never take your focus off of them." He crouched and picked up the Mana potion she dropped when he punched her. "Especially if you know they can free themselves from whatever they are trapped in." Opening the potion, he downed the whole thing in one gulp. Only to devolve into a coughing fit soon after. Dropping to one knee, Alex stared down at his shaking hands as the bottle slipped out of his weakened grip. 'Silk! Status on my body!'

  -Scria!-

  'What!? What do you mean we're out of mana!?' Alex looked up at Sera, who at this point was back on her feet with a potion gripped tightly in each of her hands. "What -Cough- did I just -Cough- drink?" Alex asked while trying to endure his swirling vision and developing headache.

  "A Mana potion," Sera replied with a frown.

  "What? That can't be, then -Cough- why am I still out of mana?" She crossed her arms while glaring at him.

  "Well, I'm sorry my potions can't be as high quality as the ones you're used to." Sera pouted. "Your body must have immediately burned through the mana you gained from my potion." Alex grimaced, realizing what had happened. He's sure that he didn't burn through the mana that quickly, definitely not to the point where he would be left in this condition.

  'Silk, how much mana did you get when I drank the potion?'

  -Skac-

  'I thought so.'

  -Skii Skaa Scria?-

  'No, it's not your fault. The blame is all on me for this.' Silk is a creature that needs to feed on mana to live. Of course, she can last several days without it. But unless the situation requires it, Alex makes sure Silks is always fed by letting her constantly siphon a portion of his mana. As part of that arrangement, Alex likes to redirect a chunk of the mana he receives from potions to her. However, due to that and the fact that the Mana potion he drank wasn't as strong as he was used to. He accidentally redirected all the Mana he got from the potion to Silk, leaving none for himself. With him already being pretty drained at this point and without the injection of mana he was expecting, his body started rapidly eating through his energy reserves to fuel his regeneration and the spells he was keeping active. -Though, can you please transfer some mana over?-

  Feeling his body regaining some of its strength, Alex stiffly stood back up. The amount of mana Silk had given wasn't as much as he would have gotten from the potion if he hadn't redirected it to her in the first place. But he can't do anything about the loss of Mana that always occurs when you manipulate it, especially when it comes to moving it from one being to another.

  Realizing she had the advantage, Sera sprang into action before Alex could fully recover. Knowing he couldn't rely on his regeneration to tank attacks or else he risked running out of Mana, and thus ending the battle due to the arena's enhancements detecting his injuries. Alex rolled to the side, dodging the Ice potion Sera had thrown. Every time Alex attempts to retrieve a Mana potion from his storage pouch, he is interrupted by Sera throwing a barrage of different potions at him. Feeling his energy levels rapidly dropping, Alex decided to change up his strategy and charge straight at Sera. Startled by his sudden change of action, Sera tried to take him down before he could get too close, but only managed to hit him with some of her weaker potions.

  And before she knew it, Alex was right in front of her, arm pulled back, a boosted heymaker aimed directly at her face. Panicking, Sera did the first thing that came to mind, raising both her hands to block the punch, momentarily forgetting that she was currently holding two primed offensive potions. Alex's eyes widened in surprise when he saw what Sera was doing. He tried to redirect his empowered punch, but wasn't fast enough and still ended up clipping the potions hard enough to set them off.

  --BOOM!--

  A black, thick cloud of soot, embers and electricity engulfed the two combatants along with a large chunk of the arena. When the cloud of soot finally dispersed and the dust had settled, it revealed Sera on one side of the arena, slowly getting up from the ground while occasionally coughing out black smoke. A thin shimmering barrier that the trio watching recognized as the training grounds' main safety enchantment covered her whole body, protecting her from the main brunt of the explosion before fading away. Leaving her drained and, besides a few small cuts and bruises along her arms, physically unharmed.

  On the other side of the arena stood Alex, desperately gulping down a large Mana potion with one arm. His other arm, the one he punched with, flopped uselessly on his side with patches of large burn marks, bruises and gashes all over it. What was left of his training outfit barely hung on his soot-covered body. Finishing the mana potion, he put the bottle back into his Storage pouch and then brought his hand to his chest. With a pained grunt, Alex pulled out a finished weave from his body before activating it, transforming the woven mana threads into a fiery whip.

  Snapping the whip in the air, Alex didn't waste time and immediately slashed at Sera. Yelping at the sudden attack, Sera leaped out of the way before rolling under another attempt at hitting. This repeated several times, with Alex slowly getting closer with each attack, before Sera couldn't muster up the energy to move, causing her to stumble and get hit by the Flame Lash. Feeling the last of her stamina flow out of her, Sera fell to the ground with a soft thud. Knowing Alex was approaching her, Sera tried to push herself up, but kept collapsing onto the dirt. Noticing the shadow, Sera, while struggling to catch her breath, looked up to see Alex looming over her with an Icicle Spear pointed at her face. "Do you forfeit?"

  Using everything she had, Sera tried once more to get up but couldn't even muster the strength to lift her body off the ground. "I forfeit." She said with a defeated sigh.

  "You did well." Looking up, Sera saw Alex leaning down at her with his hand stretched out.

  "Thanks. It was a good learning experience." She replied with a weak smile. Taking his hand, Alex helped Sera pull herself up, and with her slung over his shoulder, the duo limped their way towards the others.

  "And that ends today's first battle!" Announced Jack, still using his best McGaron expression, once the duo exited the arena. "With the winner being Alex Alveron!" Chuckling at his antic, Sera got off of Alex's shoulder and collapsed onto the floor.