“Tsk. You’re still too slow, Aurelius.” Mr. Tona criticised.

  “You’re fighting against a senile old man like me, and getting your ass whooped. You should be ashamed of yourself kiddo.” He continued, faking a yawn as he dodged another half-assed attempt from Aurelius.

  Aurelius had already been forced to spend an hour on basic techniques, and another hour on his swings. And they were now engaged in their usual duel.

  “I am giving you all that I’ve got right now. AND YOU CAN’T EVEN LAND A HIT?” Pultris screamed into Aurelius’s brain.

  “Indeed. I would never have guessed that there would be someone who surpasses even my trainees in terms of mediocrity.” Mr. Tona chided, nodding along with Pultris’s sentiment sympathetically.

  Mr. Tona had been getting increasingly frustrated with the slow rate of Aurelius’s progress, with him pushing Aurelius to his absolute limits out of his own pocket.

  Aside from the relief potions that was given out to him at the end of the session, Mr. Tona had gone out of his way to get him recovery potions.

  Recovery potions were basically stimulants that also acted like the middle child between healing and relief potions. They did both jobs… poorly, but enough to effectively bring improvements in condition during battles.

  The only issue was… it tasted worse than all other potions.

  “Blep.” Aurelius burped unceremoniously, feeling the taste of monster shit in his nostrils.

  “Disgusting. Where are your manners?” Pultris commented irritably, sending another pulse of songs ringing through the gym.

  “You are totally useless. Why can’t you do more physical magic?” Aurelius spat back furiously, cursing his luck at being paired up with this dastardly, immoral and whiny angel.

  “Hoho, you shouldn’t fight with your contracted spirit during battle. We usually save that for later, Aurelius.” Mr. Tona declared, appearing next to Aurelius’s face, exploiting opening that Aurelius exposed in his furious complaints to Pultris.

  “You know, contractor, this is not comfortable for me either. It’s hard work to keep the contract in effect, especially when my contractor is a complete buffoon without even a shred of knowledge on wind magic.” Pultris roared out, as Aurelius was splashed in his face with another jet of water.

  “He’s completely right.” Mr. Tona nodded approvingly, flicking and teleporting away another cigarette butt.

  “The fact that he can use 1st layer physical form of wind magic in his restricted state is an angelic feat in itself. And I doubt that you would be critical of him if you saw him manifest fully.”

  “As a 3rd tier angelic spirit, he wields both the physical and abstract applications of wind magic. Even his weakest abstract application of wind magic should be able to kill you on the spot.” Mr. Tona explained.

  “The geezer is correct.” Pultris declared proudly at the shivering Aurelius, who was still recovering from the sheer cold of the water that had been splashed on him.

  “And abstract magic and physical magic are both dangerous if used applicably…” Mr. Tona declared, noticing Seraphine and Sage Yeltz approaching from the corner of his eyes.

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  “Hello, ladies.” Mr. Tona greeted enthusiastically.

  “Cut the crap old man. I want Aurelius to duel Seraphine.” Sage Yeltz replied flatly.

  “...What.” Aurelius responded fearfully.

  It had been two days since he had learned the reason that he had been sent off early from training. Seraphine had become a 2nd layer mage.

  He had become cautious and respectful of her quite a healthy amount after their time at the coffee shop, especially given his experiences involving powerful people around him.

  It seemed to him that no one, ranging from Sage Yeltz to the Fae Queen could give him any slack in the slightest. And he had identified a possible reason why this was the case.

  Normal people didn’t become powerful. It was either crazy people becoming powerful or powerful people going crazy.

  So the equation Seraphine = Crazy was a rather fair output from his ingenious algorithm.

  And he had zero desire to fight against another crazy person.

  “Well, I’m afraid that you might be disappointed by the result. But sure. Please beat some sense into my little friend here.” Mr. Tona responded heartlessly, ignoring the subtle, but vigorous shaking of Aurelius’s head.

  Seraphine waved happily at Aurelius, smiling widely in anticipation for their ‘battle’. And Aurelius just… kind of stared warily.

  “What are you waiting for? Year 314?” Mr. Tona asked irritably, clapping his hand impatiently as he blitzed far away from the two of them.

  And Seraphine didn’t even hesitate.

  “Wa-” Aurelius yelped, dodging a… fist towards his face.

  …A fist?! Aurelius thought in panic.

  “PULTRIS!” Aurelius called out desperately as Seraphine bent down for another strike.

  “Useless prick.” Pultris grumbled, sending an enchanting melody through his spear and causing a beautiful echo to surround himself in battle.

  Aurelius felt his body empowered by the alluring taste of song, as he leapt backwards as far as he could.

  “The girl is not even using her familiar, and you cannot even dodge without my help?! And stop running away!” Pultris complained, yelling into Aurelius’s brain very unhelpfully.

  Seraphine observed this with irritation, as she reached into her pockets for two simple metal balls.

  And much to Aurelius’s shock, they expanded immediately into platforms as large as her feet on the air, floating gently as Seraphine hopped onto them.

  “I can’t deal with this right now! Tell me why she’s using her fists to attack!” Aurelius cried out desperately, seeing Seraphine apparently… floating towards him.

  “The girl’s only reached the second layer recently. She’s unable to properly control even her first layer right now.” Pultris explained unhappily, leading Aurelius away from Seraphine.

  “Even those golems that she’s using were probably a lot more difficult to make than it had been just a week before.”

  “I would assume that she believes that her fists are more reliable and consistent for her, given that she’s a user of abstract earth magic. She can’t create golems on the fly yet after all.” Pultris finished.

  “DO SOMETHING!” Aurelius yelled at the disgruntled angel.

  “Eh. Fine.” Pultris replied unenthusiastically, changing up his music into a slower, more dramatic sound. One reminiscent of an old turtle crossing a busy road…

  Aurelius visibly saw Seraphine falter then, even her blinking slowing down to a crawl just then. It seemed as if she were moving with chains binding every part of her body.

  With gritted teeth, Aurelius swung his spear towards Seraphine, leaping off the ground to meet the opportunity.

  However, as he approached within a single meter from her, he felt a chill creep down his spine.

  Seraphine was smiling.

  With a flick of her finger, her metallic ‘golems’ fell to the ground, and expanded, flinging up a large quantity of dirt in the air.

  Just as Aurelius was about to hit Seraphine, he felt the rough pebbles pelt his face and dig into his ribs like small, annoying bullets.

  And as a slightly large chunk of dirt made its way towards him, he saw it… twitch with a small, insignificant glow, almost as if it were alive.

  “Bam.”

  The dirt blew up, spraying Aurelius with another round of dirt which got into his every orifice.

  And when Aurelius looked up again, he saw himself face to face with a… single, unassuming mole.