On the second floor of the Protocol. Far away from the rooms belonging to the healers, a ring of students surrounded two men…

  Only one of them was a human, though.

  Julius was watching the show with visible glee. Meanwhile, he kept the kids from getting too close to the fight. A few nurses and healers passing by, shot curious glances as well.

  Elyas was currently facing a giant hairy man, almost as tall as the sadistic trainer who brought him here. The monstrosity had the fangs and claws of a wolf, the face of a man, and the speed of a nimble warrior.

  Despite Elyas's incredible speed, that deadly combination led him to be in a rather sorry state.

  Backed into a corner, He ducked under the claws of the beast. Using his speed, he made another dodged the first. Then came another, then another. He was barely surviving the rapid assault of the abomination.

  Raining down on Elyas were four vaguely humanoid hands, clawing and punching furiously. It's intention of ripping him apart, was evident by its bestial, mindless attacks.

  Elyas wasn't complaining though, the same mindless behaviour was the reason he could still keep his head. Dashing to the side, he left the furry giants's attacks behind, creating a large distance between himself and the Figment.

  “Wasn't today's lesson supposed to be theoretical?!”

  Managing this single question directed at Julius, Elyas became distracted. Enough for the beast to close the gap in a few seconds and land a single hit, sending him flying several metres away. Children retreated back wards, keeping their distance.

  “Keep your head in the fight. And to answer your question, it is. Just not for you. After all, what can a True Legacy like yourself learn from our humble D.E.B' theoretical class.” Julius sneered, watching Elyas struggle after making him lose three months of earnings was nothing short of exhilarating.

  “Don't you think it's a better use of your talent and experience? You know, to demonstrate for the children?”

  Julius continued his teasing. Meanwhile, Elyas was lunching an assault of his own. Using accumulated momentum, he lunches himself forward, hitting the Figment right in the face.

  Elyas's face paled as he discovered that he could no longer feel his right hand. His wrist had been dislocated, flapping in the air along with his torn shirt. Despite the heavy, costly blow he delivered, the monster showed no sign of slowing down.

  The amount of pleasure Julius was getting from seeing Elyas in this state made all of his efforts of training him worth it.

  But it was starting to become boring, if not a bit tragic as minutes passed like that. After all, there were only so many ways a man could be beaten up.

  Pitying the poor Legacy a bit, he sent a few kids to get a healer and shouted: “You should thank me, isn't this good exercise for a rusty tool like yourself?”

  Elyas opened his mouth to retort, but a sudden attack of the monster changed the man's mind. More importantly, Julius was right. Elyas was in dire need of actual combat experience.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  ...

  Although this past week he had learnt to control his speed with the help of Julius; he still had a long way to go. He needed a lot of time before he was able to actually use his speed in combat.

  Firstly, besides some basic grappling technics from his days as an officer, he had no idea how to fight in and hand to hand, or any close rang encounter. Secondly, his speed although very fast, could not be used to its fullest extent. Mainly because after a certain point, his mind would just stop registering the world around him, which wasn't ideal in combat.

  So he could only use his speed partially, he had no idea how to fight with a human hand to hand, and he would most likely face Figments twice his size... He was basically a walking corpse

  And on the enemy side…As much as Elyas's pride hurt to admit it, this one wasn't strong.

  He could see many wounds inflicted on its back and abdomen, both deep and shallow. Its jagged claws were cut short, and in place of most of its long fangs, were its sickly pink gums. The once formidable opponent had been weakened to a comical degree, yet, he was struggling.

  Julius tapped his temple a few times. At the same time, a silver earring he had never worn before, inlaid with a dark, ominous black gem began to shine.

  [Hey dummy, the left arm and right leg stagger. Attack from there.]

  Momentarily startled by Julius's voice inside his head, Elyas was forced to face another unavoidable attack. The claws of the furry man, although cut, hit him with the weight of the giant beast.

  His shirt had already been ripped and torn from the start when Elyas was trying to understand the Figment's pattern.

  Now, unobstructed by even soft fabric, the dull claws of the beast whistled through the air and cut Elyas's chest, creating a deep, ugly cut and launching him into a world of pain.

  [Get it together! Don't worry about the injuries, you're surrounded by dozens of healers. Just try to avoid its deadly attacks while enduring the lesser ones.]

  ‘Lesser… less deadly? What do you mean less deadly!? all of its attacks are deadly!’

  Elyas cursed inwardly while jerking his torso to the side, avoiding a powerful thrust of the monster and backing away. He used the opportunity to build momentum again, and rushed at the monster once more. Sliding down near its right leg, he punched up, hitting the furry man's reproductive system.

  The monster staggered in pain, the veins of its face popping in anger. But before it could react, Elyas jumped upwards, using the monster's back fur to climb its massive frame. Reaching the beast’s head, he locked the Figment's neck with his legs, stabilizing himself. Without flare, he raised his hands and thrusted them in the monster's eyes. ‘Now it's my turn to punch bastard!’

  Angelica, bearing her usual uncaring face arrived not long after.

  “Oh honey! You're here! Ely is one lucky bastard to have you twice a day.” Julius said as he turned towards his wife.

  She stared at Elyas with a hard to discern spark dancing in her eyes, before shifting her gaze back to her husband.

  “Why do you keep beating the guy up? Every time I see him after your classes, he's either on the brink of death, or has at least one broken arm or leg.”

  Julius chuckled and glanced at Elyas, who was now strangling the giant beast with a ripped part of his shirt.

  “...He needs it. This world doesn't accept weakness. You should know that better than any of us. And that guy got nothing but room for improvement.”

  Angelica stared at the spasming monster. Then she looked down at the crowd of children who were cheering him on.

  “Alright.” She replied and walked in. The students made way for the giantess. Soon, she was leaning over the now dead abomination and Elyas. one was grasping for air, the other not able to breathe anymore.

  “Nice to see you kicking.”

  Not letting the exhausted Elyas speak, she placed one hand on his chest.

  Immediately, her unbothered face contorted in a grimace of pain. At the same time, Elyas felt all the wounds on his body disappear, leaving only scratch marks, and soon, only lingering numbness and faint pain.

  “That… should be it…You know the rest by now.” She was out of breath, and slightly pale. She stared at Elyas, at the same time, the giantess touched her back, as if trying to find something that wasn't there.

  “I'm good, no headache, or particularly nasty lingering pain.”

  She nodded and left without wasting any time on formalities. She was a busy woman, the best healer of the city. Useful people tend to be the most overworked.

  Julius's eyes followed his wife with a stupid smile plastered on his face. After noticing Elyas staring at him, he cleared his throat.

  “Well, I hope you all learned something from Our True Legacy, Mister Mortalle’s demonstration.”

  “Yes trainer!” The whole class shouted in unison. Afterwards, that unity dispersed into a clamour of whispers.

  “Mr Mortalle is amazing!”

  “I heard he's a Bender too. But he didn't even use his Wish… such power…”

  “Yeah! I heard he destroyed half the D.E.B by accident.”

  “A Bender… I hope I can become as cool as the Red Maiden…”

  “In your dreams! Most True Legacies can't even compare, what advantage do you have over them? ”

  “Yeah, you're right…”

  The corners of Elyas's eyes twitched, watching Julius lie and mock him to his face was one thing, but lighting the flames of passion in his classmates was another level of evil.

  ‘And who told you I destroyed half the school?! it was just a single wall…’

  At the same time, he noticed that everyone was looking towards him. Dozens of the same unshakable, curious and now, mostly passionate gazes that he hated.

  ‘Damn it… guess I have no choice…’ Not showing his panic, Elyas was contemplating on if he should really run to the void or not.

  But thankfully, the man who put him in this situation came to rescue. “Everyone! Attention here! Now that you've seen what a Dreamer can achieve, let's learn how to act like one.”

  With that one sentence, Julius captured the attention of all the students present. He paused, trying to increase the impact of his next words.

  Surprisingly, It worked.

  “Because a week from now, you'll become one yourselves.”