In the middle of a field, Derb was getting his ass handed to him once more by Deitre, Tiffany watching on with a bored expression. The difference was that they weren’t just throwing punches anymore. Once Derb had read up on the little incubus he wanted to test out how its spells worked. He called out the blacksmith who grudgingly came out of his workshop. Apparently, he had been working on something very important and thought we’d have been out for much longer. Teacher hadn’t notified anyone about our return so his coming back had been a shock.

He swiveled to one side, dodging the boot coming at him. The ground tore apart as he positioned the sword and swung with all his strength, hitting nothing as Deitre casually ducked under the sword. The sword came hilt first into Derb’s forehead, knocking him to the ground. Tiffany ran over, thinking he was down for the count. It was quite surprising when Derb stood up, rubbing his head as if he hadn’t just got bludgeoned.

“That’s… quite an impressive spell. Mind telling me how it works?” Deitre asked, walking up to him and analyzing the damage. “I know I didn’t cause enough to hurt you, but it’s still impressive for someone your age.” Derb smiled, despite the raging headache he had. “It’s a spell from the imp, he’s gotten a lot more useful now.” He wasn’t going to explain to Deitre the whole thing that happened with Connor, he’d leave that for later.

The spell his incubus gave him was impressive, though a bit tricky to use. All he was using now was the pig, which made him tougher and a little stronger. The strength buff wasn’t as pronounced as before but the fact that he could even take a half-assed hit from Deitre now spoke volumes. He could feel the core of his body strengthen, he even felt heavier which was a little concerning. The exchange now meant he didn’t have to be so scared in taking a hit from the blacksmith.

That didn’t mean they didn’t hurt, though. Tiffany had helped him with a bit of magic and he was set to start the training again. “I’m going to use something else, Deitre. Let’s go again.” He took a stance and tried activating the rabbit emblem, the same way he’d used the orb before. The mana it used was minuscule, even Derb could keep it going nonstop for a while. He assumed it’d make him faster or something, or give him a lot of leg strength- “Whoah!” As Derb took a step his balance failed him and his face slapped the floor. He tried to pick himself but overestimated his strength, throwing himself up.

As he fell he gathered one thing. The stupid spell had made him lighter. That’s it. He stood up, getting used to the feeling of weighing a lot less. He cleaned himself off and looked at the rather amused Blacksmith. “Still not used to that spell? Are you sure you don’t want to practice first?” Derb scoffed, picking the sword up once more. “This is practice, it’s my first time using it.” He tried placing it in a stance but it just caused his body to fall over at the gruesome weight of the sword.

“I can see that.” The blacksmith said, still amusedly looking at his student fumble around. “At least get used to moving without the weapon first, I’m sure that’ll be challenge enough.” Derb narrowed his eyes at the snarky remark but put his weapon away anyways. Jumping side to side he slowly got used to the weird floaty feeling in his stomach. He raised his fists in the air and attempted a swing, trying his best to follow through with the motion.

He realized this probably wasn’t used for fighting, especially not with the weapon he was using. “Hey, Deitre, do you know how being lighter can help in a fight?” The blacksmith was thrown back at the question, and then realized why it was asked. “You can do that? What a neat trick, let me just...” He grabbed Derb’s face, picking him up with one hand. While he was weighing him Derb’s muffled screaming could be heard while he struggled to free himself. “Around 47 pounds? That’s acceptable.” He released his grip and Derb fell to the ground, gasping for air.

“Don't… do that again. Wait, how do you even... know how to do that?” Derb said between pants. The blacksmith scoffed. “Once you get to my age in the forge you learn a few tricks.” Derb tried putting his ruined hair back to normal while the blacksmith walked over to Tiffany. He couldn’t overhear the conversation they were having but he knew it wasn’t good once they both began to laugh. “Boy! Get over here, I think I know a good use for that skill.”

Derb couldn’t help but feel concerned over what he heard but continued to make his way over. If there was a way to make use of this spell he’d take it, it had to be more useful than just- All thoughts went out of his head when the blacksmith suddenly picked him up by his armpits. “Wait! what are you doing!? Don't I get a say in this!?” All he saw was the sly grin of the two as he was launched obscenely high into the air. His entire life flashed before his eyes, though he admitted it wasn’t as pretty as the view he was looking at right now.

The forest stretched farther than he could ever hope to reach, the only solace being the small village that seemed so full of life. It was like a single lily pad amongst the ocean, something that despite not belonging fit right in. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as he realized he was almost 50 feet into the air. He could see the smirking blacksmith and tiffany crying out in shock, in so much vivid detail.

And then he began to fall. The scream finally came out as he started plummeting down so… fast? It was sorta slower than he’d expect. He had time to strengthen his thighs and positioned himself correctly. The fall was only a couple of seconds but it was enough. He looked down to see where he was going to land. He realized Tiffany was there. The idiot had her hands up in a stupid attempt at catching him. He had no time to react or call out to her before he smacked straight into her.

It turned out he was the idiot, as the girl jumped up and in one graceful sweep took him safely down. He’d have been grateful if he wasn’t so embarrassed at how they landed. He looked like a princess in how he was carried. Honestly, couldn’t you just have carried me like a sack of potatoes or something? “Are you ok?” Tiff asked, her voice thick with worry. Derb answered simply, by trying to jump out of her grasp. “Yep! Yep! Completely fine could you let me go now?!” Goddamnit, why were they all so strong? It was a princess carry so how did she have such an iron grip on him?

“That was quite the spectacle, kid. I didn’t expect her to be so... bold.” Deitre caught up to them before he could escape tiff’s clutches. He covered his face with his hands in shame. He didn’t want to feel ungrateful, but this would probably keep him up at night for a while. Tiffany realized how they looked and snorted in derision, dropping poor Derb onto the ground. “You know I wouldn't have let him fall. I mean, look at him.” They watched him as he struggled to get up. In their eyes, almost every male in the village was almost as big as Deitre himself, Gerald, children, and other elderly being the exception.

Derb wasn’t big even by normal standards. He’d finally stopped looking skeletal a while ago but he was still skinny to almost anyone other than him, even more so considering how he seemed to grow taller and taller as time went on. It was mostly his fault and they both knew it. He wasn’t eating nearly enough compared to the amount of training he was doing, especially with the imp fueling him beyond his limits. Now that it had become an incubus who knew how’d terribly he’d push himself.

It was a wonder he could pull his sword along as much as he did, let alone swing it for so long. Just a little work and he was able to grow so fast… yet he was still so weak. It was annoying to see someone so gifted in front of them, especially when that “someone” complained every ten seconds about how weak they were. Tiffany had gotten used to it and honestly saw him as someone more worth pitying than envying. She’d seen the hellish training he’d put himself through, meanwhile, all she had to do was… watch him? It was a win-win relationship but she couldn’t help but wonder if he knew just how much she was getting from this.

Healers really only grew in times of war, where serious injuries were almost everywhere. A healer could reach their prime in almost half the time than in times of peace. There were even cases of healers personally buying and killing people and creatures to be able to heal more effectively. Such monstrous actions were quickly put down and punished since humans were precious and healing non-humanoids could be problematic to a healer’s energy.

It was hard for a healer in times of peace, and yet she had been progressing massively thanks to Derb, and in an indirect way, Deitre. The blacksmith knew just how much damage Derb could take without him being too far gone for her help. This led to massive amounts of broken bones, torn muscles, and hemorrhages. It was horrible to realize what was happening to Derb, and she had tried talking him out of training multiple times. After multiple arguments, it had come to her surprise that Derb actually seemed to enjoy fighting and getting hurt despite his protests.

That part of him had frustrated her to no end, it was like he thought this was all just fun and games. Like the pain was just another small obstacle to overcome to him... Eventually, enough time had passed and she had grown jaded to his hypocritical complaining. She had to promise herself not to get pulled into his idiotic antics or else she’d start acting more and more like him. She was already a far cry from her past obedient self, and she couldn’t allow herself to be corrupted any longer.

Derb was still on the ground, no longer trying to get up, “You could have put me down gently you know… it’s not like I bite or anything” He was hurt at how little she reacted to the situation, meanwhile he was acting like the pure maiden. She smirked before kicking him in the sides. “I’d trust your dog to not bite me more than I trust you, you know.” He rolled with the kick, making it seem more powerful than it was. “Hurtful but technically true, I guess? She isn’t allowed to hurt you so-” He shrugged, already up and ready to go once more.

He cleaned himself off before noticing some small red scrapes on his elbows. Tiffany watched in jaded disappointment as he flinched and hissed when he touched the small wounds. He looked at her with expectant eyes and she almost socked him. Healing such tiny wounds did nothing to help her grow and were a huge waste of mana, but she owed him for getting so mutilated for her so she healed him every time he asked. The problem was that he was getting more and more annoying the more she enabled him. He’d once asked her to heal his headache heaven’s sake!

She hadn’t even known it could cure that before, albeit at a huge amount of mana, almost 1/12 of her mana pool. She’d since used it for her own headaches whenever she had to deal with Derb, quickly stopping when she realized she had run out of mana for the first time in years. Derb was already off testing whatever power he had suddenly attained from his newly evolved incubus. How fortunate of him to have such a powerful familiar. She’d say that if she hadn’t already been aware of how annoying the stupid beast was. It had played pranks on her and Hannah in the morning and was told by Derb to stop harassing them. It had gotten so depressed that Derb, that big softie, allowed it to be mischievous to him only.

He was excluded from this trip to allow Derb to become more acquainted with the powers according to his own mana. Fortunately, it seemed the power wasn’t too mana intensive or they’d have to spend a rather large amount of time seeing him collapse from mana exhaustion. She sat down under the shade of a small tree. Watching as Derb was thrown into a tree and barely had enough time to duck the mighty fist of the blacksmith. Only for him to get a knee in the face. She sighed, at least the show was fun to watch.