"Huh"

"Ha"

"Hargh"

Yils punched out, followed by Stanis who was trying his utmost but still failing and Zelgard who made a crude effort.

"Stop bending your arm so much as you push"

"Huh"

"Ha"

"Harrrghh"

This time his punch followed a similar motion to Yils's but was also just as crude as Zelgard's.

"And explode out with force at the end of the push while twisting your forearm."

"Huh"

"Ha"

"Hargargh"

This time his punch followed the same motion as Yils's but was even cruder than Zelgard's, who was now half distracted by the overhead clouds. The motion wasn't difficult, instead it was the mana flow that he needed to control at the same time that fared tough. As he punched, he was supposed to make his mana flow in a specific channel, for this punch the channel being from his chest to his arm, all within the punch's lifespan.

Stanis's points invested in intelligence finally proved their usefulness as well as uselessness as he practised. He could control his mana flow, but only by closing his eyes and focusing could he move it quickly. The fact that he had to move it quickly, while simultaneously punching fared far too difficult for him as he struggled to breathe after punching. However, Stanis quickly figured out that Yils was not the compassionate type as she allowed no breaks, his body breaking down from fatigue after ten minutes.

"You're shit. Don't worry though, you'll be half-decent for your level once I'm done with you!"

Luckily, Stanis had a personal cheerleader who did care, and any negative feelings he had for Zelgard were gone as he was brought a drink of cool water. They were back as he realised this water had a mana density much stronger than usual, lurching onto the ground as he clutched his stomach. It burnt…

His negative feelings reversed once again after lying there for ten minutes as he remembered the effectiveness of the water. His fatigued body was already healing up, boundless energy filing him up.

And his feelings ended on "it's complicated" for Zelgard after 10 more bouts of training that day. The water half-acted as a natural revitaliser and half as an artificial one. This meant that he was wracked with pain after he had finished, able to do nothing other than lie in his bed. The gruelling days passed very slowly, much in contrast to the carefree days he had hastily thrown away.

Stanis's mind screamed and shouted at him to quit her training because even his high points in tenacity couldn't deal with this. It was literally akin to torture he had asked for. And due to how broken his mind already was, Stanis wholeheartedly agreed and instantly tried to reverse Yils's decision. It was much to his anguish that she refused, smiling as she told him there was no escape.

And there wasn't…

One day, he tried to run away from the house in the dead of night, only to hit an invisible shield as he was about to jump off the mountain. Minutes later, he admitted that there was no way past this barrier and forced himself to come back to the house, but not without tears streaming down.

Now that his path of escape was closed up, Stanis's mind went into breakdown as it began adapting to his lifestyle, his life depending on its very change. He went about mindlessly, no thought in his head as he practised the punches and kicks, mana accurately moving through his body at all times.

It was about a week into training that Yils said that he was now half-decent for his level and that he would no longer need her to teach him how to practise. He wasn't embarrassed to break into tears at this, an iron weight lifted off his chest as he finally got the chance to breathe. Apart from the tinge of amusement across her face, Yils stayed impassive whereas Zelgard rejoiced with him. Hugs and cheers later, she finally carried on.

"But I'll be fighting you from now on every day, so I recommend that you don't stop practising by yourself."

The first thought he had of her when he had first seen her was fear of this vicious monster and that was the very same emotion he felt now, finally realising that she had tricked him. He would only have to train harder if he wanted to survive against her in a fight, only this time he would have to willingly and consciously make the effort to train.

Days passed and Stanis only managed to get through them by Zelgard's help and support. The pale man might not be strong like Yils but he sure was compassionate. One thing Stanis figured out during the time was that his attribute points were actually naturally going up; he hadn't received enough experience to level up despite all these days of training and yet his attribute points kept going up.

He had been confused when the apocalypse had started, at how the system actually worked. You started out with attribute points depending on your initial power in those areas but they would no longer increase if you trained, only by levelling up could you increase them. Only now did he realise that he was wronger than wrong, rather it seemed mana was the missing key for natural growth.

He looked at his stats one last time before stepping forward to face Yils.

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Mana capacity: 48 (regeneration is capacity/4 per hour)

Level 26 (Progress to the next level is 74%)

Strength: 35 [26 -> 29]

Dexterity: 34 [26 -> 28]

Constitution: 36[25 ->28]

Intelligence: 33[17 ->19]

Wisdom: 29[16 -> 19]

Tenacity: 42[21 ->25]

Skills: Layman's Rush, Scout and Sense, Light Healing, Destructive Mana Recharge, Ice shot

Despite it already being his sixth fight, she was just as scary to face as she had been during the first. Her preying eyes watched him with unparalleled coldness, her movements fluid and yet sharp as she moved towards him.

Out of his hand formed a menacing icicle, growing to forearm length within two seconds. He hadn't been able to do this when he had first gotten the skill, instead taking fifteen seconds to grow an icicle half this length. His hand flickered and the icicle shot forth, piercing the air as it targeted Yils.

She calmly stepped over the icicle that targeted her knee, before continuing to walk at a casual pace towards Stanis.

This was the worst thing about facing her, how she would casually dodge his attacks and always walk at a slow pace towards him. His brain had been wracked when he had first felt the tension build up in this manner, but no longer as he shot out another icicle, and then another one. They targeted her chest and thigh respectively, although their target slipped past them like she was a ghost.

In rapid fire, he shot four more although none of them hit. She was now close enough to strike and Stanis knew that as he stepped forward, his fist severing towards her in an attempt to confuse. She blocked this with her palm but Stanis had twisted his forearm just before he struck, meaning the damage had already been done.

She kicked forwards, slicing air as it cut towards his head. He hastily dodged this while roundhouse kicking her hip. She caught this with open hands as she twisted, his ankle snapping with ease.

She was already too late to do so, however, as he activated his skill and bolted the remaining distance between them. His head struck like a hammer as head-butted her, although she had already hopped back and whipped him across the head while doing so. Bells were ringing in his head but they were easy to ignore as he pursued, using his left arm to try and grab her. He was mouthing the words before he even caught her.

His left arm suctioned all the mana around it with destructive force, the surrounding air growing stale. It was too weak though, not even close to penetrating the mana barrier Yils had around herself. Instead, she twisted her hip and kicked towards his wrist, striking with so much force that his hand bent back in a way it never should.

"ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" screamed Stanis, futile however as the heartless Yils kicked down at his shoulder, crushing the bone into paste. She would never stop at just victory: only at murder. He forced the pain down as he rolled backwards, his whole left arm now dangling bonelessly. He was chased as the ground behind him flattened under an axe kick, barely managing to dodge the next overhead strike.

He sucked in his breath before rolling to his left, onto and over his left arm which screamed with pain as he did so, but it was worth it as he managed to catch her a millisecond off guard, his right arm shining with blue light that shot out a hand length icicle. She allowed herself to be hit, the icicle crumbling against her beyond-tough skin as she couldn't react fast enough. How did he know she allowed it? Because she was actively keeping down her speed in order to make this a fair fight.

"A pathetic effort; you need more training" said Yils with a matter-of-fact tone as Zelgard ran forwards, forcing a cool drink down his throat.

A tremor ran through the female Hu as she checked the system notification. The past week had been torturous for the two of them to go through as more and more strong species invaded earth, no longer a training field but a proper A2 planet.

It was obvious what impact this would have on the Human population and so they had pleaded the Glory 8 to re-group the Humans, after all this was originally their planet. Something must have gone wrong as they actually accepted, the message in front of her telling her that they were allowed to re-group the Humans.

And so she did, repositioning all the Human Villages to closer proximity to each other. The Humans had originally been spread across all the land, but most camps were now destroyed or abandoned. This meant that the Villages themselves had quite a distance from each other. The male Hu next to her pointed to an Africa-sized plot of land and she followed, the Villages not in that area being teleported in.

Hopefully, this would allow them to salvage something out of the train-wreck this lucky finding had already become…