It was next day after class. Leo asked his parents if he could join the Physical Training Program after the combat class was closed and despite a bit of hesitation from their side, in the end, they agreed.

He and Mary were following the vice-principal to where the lessons would take place.

“How are your mana circuits, Leo?” asked the vice-principal as they were going.

“It’s more or less okay now. But doctors said I shouldn’t use them too intensively for at least a month. And I can say that my hold on mana feels off somewhat.”

“I hope you will be okay soon.” said Mary. Today too she was much more lively then she used to be. She even made small conversations with other girls in the class. When before she tried her best to ignore everyone it seemed like if some weight was taken off her shoulders. Leo felt happy for the change but it felt quite sudden for him.

“I hope so too.” said the vice-principal. “Otherwise it may be hard to participate in the club activities.”

“What does that mean?” asked Leo.

“You will learn soon.”

They were currently going down the stair. Leo was perplexed, he knew that all that was down there was a basement where school kept it supplies and other things, like desks and chairs. It was also where janitors had their room.

They walked down a long corridor with many desks and chair stuck next to the walls. At the end of it, there was a door and behind it a big underground hall.

White light brightened the whole place. The walls were made of concrete and the floor was made of wooden floor panels but that was not all. In the middle of the room, there were 10 circular arenas at least 10 meters long in radius but the fence that was around them seemed to be some kind of device.

In one of them, there were two boys fighting. Both of them were older than Leo, at least in 10th grade. The spar seemed fairly standard till one of the boys shoot a fireball at the other one which missed.

As the ball got closer to the edge of the arena it was stopped and absorbed by a blue light.

Leo looked behind the arenas and at the far edge, he noticed few students practicing magic in practice areas that were made of the same devices that arenas were made of.

“Why are they using magic!?” asked Leo. “Wasn’t magic forbidden in spars!?”

“In real combat, nothing is forbidden.” said Mr. Etan. “We were preparing to open advance combat class this year but unfortunately that happened. So we are proceeding with this in secret allowing students that showed promise to continue developing their talent.”

“But I heard that magic was forbidden because the shields we use are not able to protect from it completely.” said Mary.

“That is why we have created a new device.” Answered the vice-principal pointing out at the wall in the far corner of the room. There was a shelf filled with some kind of metal bracelet and chockers. Each of them had crystals inside of them in different colors. “With them, you will be able to be protected from both magic and physical damage.”

“For now we are still waiting for more students before the class will begin but it seems that some are already having fun.”

The blond haired boy looked around. Only small part of students here was sitting idly. The rest was already training. He counted only 20 students other than him and Mary and all of them seemed to be older than him.

Leo laid his eyes on a weapon stands next to the wall. He looked at the stands looking for an axe but he couldn’t find any. Looking over the room he found a person practicing with his favorite weapon.

He couldn’t describe him by anything other than huge. The boy was at least 6 feet 2, and his muscles were very well defined. He had short brown hairs and eyes.

The young boy walked over to the vice principal that was now sitting at a desk while enjoying a tea. “I wanted to ask? Is there any other battleaxe?”

The principal scanned the area and noticing the problem he said. “No there isn’t one. I will order one to be made but it will be here tomorrow at earliest.” He said marking something in his holographic screen coming out of his portable computer. It was a small device in shape of flat cuboid that could fit in one pocket. “You also can’t practice magic… hmm…” Mr. Etan thought for a while.

“I will get it.” said Mary moving to the weapons stands and taking from them a short sword and a buckler. She then moved swiftly to the boy, her brown hairs fluttering behind her. “I want to challenge you for your axe.”

“Eh!? Mary, there is no need to. I can wait until tomorrow.” said Leo.

“It’s school property and everyone has right to use it.” she said.

“Hmm? You want to challenge me for an axe?” He said looking down at the young girl quite perplexed. “I guess I don’t mind. Just don’t complain when you lose.”

He moved to the shelf with the protection devices and took one bracelet and one chocker and put it on himself. Mary followed after him.

The vice-principal simply looked, smiling. He seemed to be okay with it. “I will explain the rules. The fight ends when the protection device detects a hit that would put someone out of a fight normally. Every kind of attack is allowed until the fight ends. After both of you enter the arena I will activate the absorption shield to make sure no attack magic escape it and hit someone outside. Afterwards, you can start the spar.”

Mary and the boy moved into the arena. The shield was activated and blue light shone for a while before turning transparent. Despite it no one moved and looked at Mr. Etan. “You can start now.” he said.

Mary was the first to attack, hiding her sword and arm from her opponents view using a buckler she started running at her enemy. After she got in range she performed a thrust to the boy's stomach.

He dodged it to the right fluidly and performed a diagonal slash at Mary. She barely was able to duck under it and this time she slashed with her sword at his knees.

Reacting swiftly he jumped backward. When he was floating through the air it seemed as if he was weightless and after landing he jumped right back at her with amazing speed. He was clearly using some form of magic to move like that.

Mary jumped backward barely dodging a slash from the axe and before she could even reposition herself for next attack the axe was coming at her again. Despite this, she smiled and pointed her hand at the boy releasing three ice cones at his chest.

He turned himself on one foot and as if dancing he simply moved around them and slashed again. This time Mary was only able to put her buckler in the way. As the axe touched her defense she felt a strong gust of wind hit her picking her up in the air and only stopping against the wall of the arena. She felt unhurt but her chocker started beating and flashing red.

“That was a nice show. Good job.” The vice-principal turned off the device and moved back to his seat.

“You are good!” complimented the boy to Mary.

She has already brought herself up already and ignoring the boy she moved to Leo. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get the axe.” She hung her head.

“Don’t worry about that but you were amazing back there, I knew you were skillful previously but the way you used magic was amazing too. I wouldn’t be able to do that!” Leo said.

That made Mary smile a little.

“Oh, you are the one that wanted to use axe? You shouldn’t make a girl fight for things you want, you know?” He said.

“He didn’t make me do anything!” protested Mary.

“Haha! Cute. I was just joking. My name is Jerry.” He introduced himself. He looked at Leo. “Hmm, do I know you from somewhere? Ah, right you are the one that gave my younger brother so much trouble in the last year tournament in second round. He complained how he nearly needed to push you out of the arena to make you stop dodging his spear. I remember that you used axe too, right?”

Leo nodded. “Yes, it’s my favorite weapon! I’m Leo.”

“It’s mine too! If you want I can show you few things with it, what do you say? I can show you how to deal with a spear.” He said happily.

“Yes! Please!”

Both boys moved to the weapon stand and Jerry took a spear from there and begun showing Leo some tricks on how to close a distance when his opponent had a reach advantage.

Mary sat next to the wall and watched Leo. Despite the fact that she was annoyed with herself looking at the blond haired boy smiling and failing, again and again, put her in good mood. She knew she liked him even if she didn’t really know the reason.

After everyone arrived at the place, 30 students were standing in front of the vice-principal. In the end, Leo and Marry were the youngest ones in the group.

“I’m happy that you decided to take this class.” He said looking at everyone. “As many of you may have learned during what happened last year the world isn’t always a safe place to live in. That is why we want for you to grow stronger so that one day if by some misfortune you are put in a situation like this again you will be able to do more than cover in fear. Though we don’t want foolish bravery.” He said looking at Leo. The boy winced. “You should always consider the danger and act accordingly. Now let’s begin with the lessons.”

The rest of the day turned out to be pretty normal, they performed a routine exercise that consisted of a jog around the hall, push up, sit up and squats and other similar exercises.

Afterward, everyone was given instructions what to train and how. Mary was said to practice her magic and Leo as he neither could use magic or had a weapon to practice with, used gym equipment that was placed left of the entrance to the room as he was instructed by the vice-principal.

Finally, after a long time of what felt like doing nothing, he was able to tiredly lay down in his bed after returning home, satisfied with himself and the day he had.