Within a stone courtyard surrounded by old, wilting vines and other various browning foliage, two figures danced to the tune of death in an endless melee. Blood and limbs splattered across the ground with great frequency, but would disperse into smoke and leave no traces less than a minute later. 

*Ptu-HUK!* 

“Dead. You’re still putting too much weight on your front foot. Again.”

*Slick!*

“Dead. If you freeze every time you lose a limb then you might as well try blocking with your skull. Again.”

*Crack!*

“Dead. How are you supposed to fight if you just offer your knee up like that? Remember, while your body is in a whole new level of power, the playing fields you’ll be entering are even more so. Again.”

*Shing-Clang!*

“Good! I see Geralt’s training is paying off,” Forthencho said while smiling proudly from across their locked blades. 

“Apollyon, actually,” James grunted as he pushed off. “Geralt’s training shifted to a more non-human approach for the last few months, so he suggested I start sparring with her to cover more ground in this area.” 

The AI hummed in acknowledgement and nodded as he shifted his body’s proportions to a different build. He often did this, along with trying out a multitude of various weapon types, between rounds as it always kept James on his toes.

In an attempt to take advantage of his partner’s slip in concentration, the man thrusted his longsword at the AI’s shoulder as a feint, but the virtual being reacted instantly and adjusted his strength to far beyond reasonable levels for his designated race. He then proceeded to backhand the blade with such force, that it created an audible crack in the air and sent the incoming sword careening off into the distance.

The skin between James’ thumb and forefinger were ripped apart by the blow, causing him to let out a slight hiss at the pain. However, he simply abandoned the two-handed weapon without comment and drew his sidearm from its sheathe with a speed that would be impossible to match for even the most skilled regular humans. 

This training had been going on for over two years in the time dilation of VR and James had been becoming more skilled by the day. Alas, his teachers didn’t seem all too impressed by his skills yet and were determined to keep him with them until that changed.  

*Cra-Koom!*

Forthencho sent a punch his way with even more force than before. 

James knew he could neither block the blow, nor dodge in time and so he did the only thing possible and maneuvered his dagger into the path of his enemy’s fist. 

The AI grinned at his student’s quick thinking but continued nonetheless, his punch obliterating James’ torso into a bloody mist. 

Said man respawned a few seconds later, instinctually ducking and getting into a ready position, only to be surprised when no attack came his way. 

“[Simulation Ended],” an obviously artificial voice called out from overhead, leading to James collapsing atop the stone ground like a sack of rocks. 

“What template did you use for that last one?” he finally said after regaining his wits. 

Though James didn’t physically suffer anything inside the VR, the pain was very real and you could only die so much before your mind began to show signs of collapse. They were working on that though as, like everything else, it could be trained away. 

“Hmm,” the tall black man with distinctive white markings across his face hummed as he sat down atop the small stone wall encasing the yard. “I believe it was the one called Hulk. Lady Queen compiled a virtual profile of the man and uploaded it shortly after the Battle of New York. His strength is theoretically far higher than what I used, but based off the profile I read of the man, its unlikely to reach such levels.”

James nodded in agreement with the statement, MCU Hulk was really too much of a letdown. 

“Speaking of Queen…” James muttered before summoning her in his mind. 

She appeared a moment later, most likely just a small portion of her consciousness, and James called out to her with a lazy wave, “Alright dearie? Say, how’s my body handling the training its receiving through all this time dilation? I can’t recall if Supremacy Games had anything like this and I don’t want to fry my new hardware, so to speak.”

The AI rolled her eyes at his address, before getting a distant look in them as she peered out into the physical world through the UVR Pod. After a few seconds, a near instant without the dilation, she came back and answered her creator, “Everything is looking alright for now, but I’ll split off another portion of myself to watch over the matter, sir. 

I didn’t think of this before, but your right about there being possible side effects, especially to normal baseline humans. It’s good we caught this before the pods were released… I’ll need to run some simulations on this.”

“But he’s alright to continue, yes?” Forthencho asked his boss. “It’s only been a little over 24 hours in the real world and I was promised a whole week with him.”

Queen rolled her eyes once again in exasperation, before turning to her fellow AI, “Yes, his body is that of the Ancestors so he’s much sturdier than those normal humans out there. You can keep him for four more days.”

Seeing the Lord of Admirals stand and about to protest, she smirked, “What? Five days is still a week. A workweek maybe, but a week no less.”

Forthencho didn’t know how to reply to that, he wasn’t used to being played like this. He spared a glance over at James, who just shrugged, before sighing and returning to his seat. 

“Just, try to space your lectures over leadership and politics out a little more by frequenting them between your spars,” Queen continued, unbothered by the two men’s actions. “His body may be able to handle all that training crammed into such a small timeframe, but it wouldn’t hurt to give it a break now and then.

Also…” she paused for a moment, doing something via one of her many other bodies out in virtual space. “I just added a safety feature to shut off the Pod’s external stimulation in the real world after a certain point and you’ll now receive an update in VR when it does so. You can still train in here perfectly fine after that, it just won’t translate to any real muscle memory until the notice disappears.”

Both James and Forthencho nodded at the explanation, seeing the use in such a feature.

“If there’s anything else, sir?” Queen asked her creator while raising a questioning brow. 

James, now leaning back on his hands instead of just laying flat-out across the ground, thought for a second before shaking his head. It had gotten to the point where his main AI was getting better at running the VR than himself and while he’d expected such a thing to happen, it came quite a bit faster than anticipated. 

She’d even thought of things he would’ve never had and implemented them before their conversation had finished. Safe to say, he was proud of his creation and so he sent her off with a smile and a wave, “No, thanks Queen.”

The AI nodded and returned his smile with one of her own, before departing to complete her work for the upcoming tournament at the end of the week.

With the courtyard now silent, Forthencho glanced over at his creator and flashed him a grin that sent shivers up James’ spine.

“Well then, it seems we have less time together than I’d initially thought,” he said while stretching out his back and pushing off the wall. “Looks like we’ll have to crank this training up a notch to squeeze it all in.”

James groaned as he stood up as well. He eyed the newly added indicator at the corner of his field of vision warily, hoping that its tolerance was lower than he’d first thought. Nonetheless, he readied himself and got back into a stance as a steel longsword materialized in his hands. 

Looking into his teacher’s eyes and seeing the anticipation that laid within, he could only mutter out a few weak words before the blows began to fall, “Please be gentle with me, sir. I’m still just a maiden…”