"AGAIN!"

Alex shot a lightning bolt at a target made of hay and red pain.

"Good shot, Alex." Ghost said to cheer him on.

Alex took a breath before preparing to continue his training. He had cuts all over his body; he was drenched with sweat, and he felt as if he didn't have any more energy. He had been training for only two hours, yet Ghost's training was way more intense than Alex thought. His mother's training was hard and difficult, but it didn't compare to Ghost's training. Ghost didn't take it easy; his training went from weapon combat to martial arts, magic casting, and into all three at once when Alex was to duel him. It was nonstop, causing Alex to exhaust himself.

"Can I take a five-minute break..." Alex pleaded with Ghost.

"No." Ghost said plainly. "To first build you up, I must break you. I must push you past your limits until you become a new person."

"But...I can't..." Alex tried pleading.

Ghost raised his voice. "There is no such thing as can't; that word is only used for excuses." 

Alex sighed before Ghost gave Alex an ultimatum. "Okay, how about this? If you manage to land one strike on me with your sword, even if it barely hits me, You get a ten-minute break. However, if I manage to keep you from hitting me for five minutes, you will restart today's training from step one.

"Really?" Alex said, looking upset.

"C'mon, you only get stronger from learning from your failures." Ghost said.

Alex drew his sword and took his stance.

"Begin!" Ghost said.

Alex immediately charged Ghost. He used his mother's training and tried to get Ghost to get off balance while dodging his strikes. The problem was that Ghost dodged every strike from Alex with perfection. Alex then decided to use an area attack by sending his lightning around the ground near the two, but Ghost jumped up and flipped a distance from him, immediately making Alex's attack useless.

"You're nimble for an old man..." Alex said, sighing.

"Comes with decades of fighting, three minutes left." Ghost replied.

Alex ran towards Ghost again, constantly launching lightning attacks at him in order to keep him off balance. Alex launched himself at Ghost but was dodged by Ghost, who was standing on top of a rock in the ground.

"You're impatient; focus. Two minutes." Ghost said.

"Kinda hard to be patient with a counting clock." Alex said.

"Then that's something we're going to have to work on." Ghost replied.

Alex spent the next two minutes missing every attack he could throw at Ghost; Ghost didn't even get a scratch on him as he dodged every single attack from Alex. Alex was on the ground, exhausted from his assault, while Ghost was completely fine.

"Do you know why you lost?" Ghost asked Alex.

Alex responded "Because I was impatient?"

Ghost chuckled "That's part of it, yes, but there is a more systematic reason why you lost."

"And what's that?" Alex asked.

"Experience. You're strong; there's no question about that, but you haven't been in nearly as much combat as myself. Experience in a fight is more important than strength alone. Strength only gets you so far, but it's your ability to adapt in combat that will make you stronger, and only experience can give you that ability enough for it to become second nature." Ghost explained. "Adaptability is survivability."

"So is that the main goal of this training?" Alex asked.

"It's one of them; now c'mon back to step one." Ghost responded.

For the rest of the day, Alex continued his training, which completely exhausted anything he had left, and he fell asleep next to a tree. When he woke up, Ghost had left, and he was alone. Alex looked at the sky and noticed it was now in the evening.

"Mom is going to kill me..." Alex thought to himself.

Alex made his way back home, and like he thought, his mother chewed him out for nearly missing dinner and coming home bruised and dirty.

"What were you ever doing, Alex? How did you get these bruises and cuts?" Anna asked extremely upset.

"I was training, and I may've pushed myself too hard. I was exhausted and took a nap under a tree. I'm fine, mom." Alex tried to explain.

Anna put a hand to her forehead before sighing "Just take a bath; dinner will be ready soon."

"I will, Mom; I would hug you, but..." Alex looked down at his dirty clothes. "Yeah..."

Anna chuckled "Well, hurry and get clean, and then you can hug me."

"Sure, Mom." Alex said before going into the bathroom to wash himself.

Anna was standing in the kitchen, thinking "Alex didn't even get that hurt when fighting the mercenaries a few years ago...what kind of training could he possibly be doing?"

Anna looked over and saw Kaede, who was preparing the dinner table. "Kaede?" Anna asked.

"Yes ma'am?" Kaede answered quickly.

"Follow my son tomorrow; I want to know what he's doing to get that hurt." Anna said.

"Of course, ma'am." Kaede responded.

Alex got his bath and went back to his room, where Raven was waiting outside.

"Hey sis?" Alex said this upon seeing her.

"Alex!" Raven said before running up and hugging him.

Alex smiled. "What are you up to?" he asked.

"I was learning how to cook with Eve, and I wanted to ask you something." Raven said, looking slightly nervous.

"You know you can ask me anything." Alex said, smiling at his sister.

"Would you be willing to try something I make this weekend...?" Raven asked.

"Absolutely." Alex said plainly, which caused Raven's eyes to light up.

"Really!" Raven said in a happy reaction.

"Of course, you know I'd try anything you make." Alex said as he patted his sister's head.

"You know I'm supposed to be the older one, right...maybe I should pat your head" Raven said, blushing.

"Go ahead." Alex said, and it looked like he was waiting.

Raven raised her hand before taking it back and saying "Well, as your older sister..."

Alex interrupted "By less than a year."

"AS YOUR OLDER SISTER...I want you to keep giving me attention.

"You don't have to order me, you know; I will always give you attention." Alex said once again, causing Raven to blush.

"Why can I never win against you?" Raven said, sighing.

"Because I know you better than anyone." Alex said it with a proud smile.

The two walked towards the kitchen to eat dinner, and the night continued like usual, but in another city, other conversations were taking place.

*Elsewhere*

"Do we know the whereabouts of any more of the origin users?" A man with long black hair asked.

"We are getting close to tracking down one of them who's hiding in the mountains, but there are rumors of the lightning origin user hiding out in the western part of the Lycia Empire." a woman said.

"Hmm... Send Alexander and Asher to check out the Lycian Empire. I'll tell Violet and Sylvia to start narrowing down where the user in the mountains is. Once we have actionable intelligence, we act as soon as possible." the man with the black hair said. "Things are going to start getting interesting; it's about time to put our plan into action."

"Understood, we'll act as soon as we know anything." the woman replied. "Wish we knew exactly which origin users they were so we could strategize better..."

"That can't be helped...

The man sitting alone in the room after the woman left thought to himself. "Once we get the origin user's powers...there will only be unlimited potential."

-------------------------------------------
If you guys want to to support me check out my patreon, it's as cheap as a dollar!
 
Patreon:
https://patreon.com/Alex_Blackwood628

Discord:
https://discord.gg/97ejzvAGKb