Stanis writhed on the ground. He had already circulated the entirety of his remaining mana towards his arm, in order to stop the spreading darkness, but it was a slow process.

The instructor seemed in no rush to help Stanis out, instead standing still all the while watching him with great interest.

After close to a minute had passed, Stanis finally stopped squirming and lay still. His teeth were clenched and sweat was dripping off of him, making a dark silhouette on the ground.

"About time. You, go fight him next," the instructor said while pointing at number one.

It took a second for the words to reach Stanis, and he wasn't humoured by them. He was to fight again? He was in pain from his battle with Jen and had less than a quarter of his mana on top of that. But it as if no one else had heard the cruel joke as number one walked from the instructor towards Stanis, stopping when she was only a few metres away from him.

Stanis groaned and got to his knees, before standing at full height. He walked past number one to pick up his sword, before looking around for his dagger. It was after a good scan of the ground that he glared at Jen, who turned her head to the skies in response.

He could feel the anger building up inside of him, and decided to turn that towards his current opponent. He took a good look at her and realised she had no weapons on her body, meaning she was most likely a magician. Considering the fact that he currently didn't even have enough mana to create a decent mana shield, this fight was most likely not going to go well.

She had sharp, green eyes which were slightly slanted, raven-black hair tied in a ponytail, and creamy skin. Stanis guessed she was most likely a mix of Caucasian and Asian.

"Your name?" she asked after seeing he was ready.

Stanis was caught off-guard by this question. He had expected to just get into the nitty-gritty of fighting and be done with it. "Stanis," he eventually replied. "You?"

"Keiko,"

Stanis felt his sword shaking in his hand. His body was cooling down; he was getting cold, the danger of fighting was finally getting to him.

"Are y—"

He shot off his feet before she could finish her question. She didn't seem surprised by his response as she instantly cast her mana-shield. He slashed at the barrier and was thrown back in response.

The mana-shield wasn't as thick nor strong as Jen's, but it wasn't far off either.

He felt a premonition and immediately fled from his spot. Out of the ground sprouted multiple sharp, mangled up vines. He felt the premonition once again and ran. Behind him followed sprouting vines.

He ran around the dome-shaped barrier whilst also dodging the bolts of fire she was shooting. It was obvious she was taking it easy on him as she stood casually inside of her barrier, fully aware of the amount of energy he had left. In fact, anyone would be able to tell by the fact that he was running slower every second.

Stanis eventually felt the pressure build up too high. He had been running around, hoping for an idea, only to find none come. His anger got the better of him at that moment as he decided that since he had been set up to lose this match, he might as well go out with a bang.

He turned around and leapt over the vines that attempted to latch onto his ankles, before tumbling past the fire-bolt. Keiko seemed surprised but not by too much as she merely strengthened her barrier in response.

Stanis grinned as he frontloaded the rest of his mana into the sword. Thunder clapped as he slashed at the barrier, before being thrown back. But he immediately caught his feet and ran forwards again, slashing the barrier in the same place again.

Not being a fool, Keiko immediately caught onto what he was doing and formed several roots around that part of the barrier, casting a dozen fire-bolts for good measure.

He dodged the first four fire-bolts but then began to get hit by the following ones, struggling to stand his ground every time he was struck. He took one last hit which threw him off his feet, the fight coming to a closure as he collapsed onto the ground, his chest heaving up and down.

"Not good enough. You next," the instructor said while pointing at the 14-year-old girl.

She looked half-concerned about her opponent and half enraged that she had been chosen to fight such a weakened opponent but obliged anyway.

"I'm Berry. You wanna a rest?" she asked while dropping her hammer and shield onto the ground. She wore thick, layered clothing with a thick set of metal armour on top. The armour was clearly not enhanced with mana but looked tough nevertheless.

Stanis shook his head and stood up. It was clear that the instructor wanted to run him into the ground. He had no mana left and was far too beaten up to actually fight, and yet he had still been chosen to fight. If this was merely a steamrolling exercise, then it was best that he just got it done and over with.

"Fine," Berry said while picking her hammer back up. She charged towards Stanis without any further comment, wildly swinging her hammer just as she was an arm-span away from him.

He saw the flying hammer and grimaced, almost willing himself to get hit, before thinking otherwise. He ducked below the hammer and punched her elbow. In contrary to what he had been wishing, the hammer didn't go flying out her hands. Instead, she merely corrected her form before hammering at him once more.

He stepped back and deflected her strike with his sword. The second the two weapons met, Stanis knew he had fucked up. He was forcibly thrown to the ground by the force. He waited for Berry to finish him off but was surprised after a while as he felt no crushing force against his back.

"Come on," she said. "Get up and fight!"

Stanis got on his feet, his cheeks the colour of roses. What the fuck did she know? She hadn't been beaten senseless two times in a row. She hadn't been forced to fight a third time after that. The utter fuck did she know? His anger, which had been building up over the course of the two fights, finally came to its peak as it erupted.

He madly ran towards Berry, who grinned before swiping at him. Stanis punched out at the hammer in response. He knew his arm would get crushed but all he wanted to do was drain out his anger. The hammer melted through his arm. But as it was half-way through bending his forearm, Stanis twisted and threw the hammer of balance, flinging it to the ground.

Berry was surprised by this and reactively lifted her hand in defence, before realising her shield wasn't there. She had dropped it a few metres back in the knowledge that this fight would be as easy as pie.

Stanis paused for half-a-second before uppercutting Berry with his good fist, throwing her off her stocky feet and onto the ground. Both his arms shook with pain but he wasn't over with just yet; he might not know any martial arts but Yils had done well to teach him the accompanying movements to the mana circulation. While they weren't ideal to be practised in battle, they were also movements that he was proficient in and could adapt for his use.

Berry rolled away from Stanis in an attempt to get on her feet, but he wasn't just going to let her get away. He followed her and kicked her in the stomach as she rolled over. She vomited out air in response. Just as he was about to punch her face, she cast a skill.

<Hardened skin>

Stanis punched and recoiled back in response; it felt like he had just punched a slab of stone! Berry used this moment to begin her counterattack, starting with a swift kick towards his balls. Without any mana or skills to protect himself with, the fight was done with after that attack. What followed was Berry pelting Stanis's body with her hardened fists while he lay there squirming and crying.

A good beating later, the instructor finally called an end to the fight.

"That's enough. Now you go up," he said while pointing at the pony-tail man. The pony-tail man seemed reluctant to go and fight someone who already looked half-dead, but in the end complied.

"I'm Jonny," he said as he stood a few metres away from Stanis. Stanis merely lay on the ground in response: his face bruised, his fists broken and his whole body exhausted. There was no way he could move, let alone stand up.

"Stand up and fight," the instructor commanded. His words were infused with mana and would have convinced the injured Stanis to get up and fight in most instances, but not this one. He was far too spent to actually be able to fight.

Seeing no response from Stanis, the instructor walked over.

"I'm going to kick you," he said. While this didn't sound very threatening, the sheer intensity of mana collected in his foot would have been more than enough for most people to get up and run. But even as he kicked out, Stanis didn't make a move; he couldn't.

The instructor stopped at the last moment, before taking out a canteen which he hid by his waist.

"Drink this," he said while putting it to Stanis's mouth. After one sip, Stanis was already struggling to get away but the instructor firmly held onto his head, only letting go after 10 seconds had passed.

Stanis collapsed over the ground after this, his eyes open and wide but in an illusioned state. Mana coursed through his body and burnt into it, tearing up any impurities and creating strength where there was none.

"This is what all of you will go through," the instructor said while pointing at Stanis, who was now violently shaking.

"You and you fight now," the instructor said. It was going to be a long day…