Leo turned back and looked at his new instructor. “Why is Mr Hunter not wearing armor?” he asked his group. He wanted to take a step but nearly fell down as he tripped on something. Looking at what it was he saw Black in his armor laying down on the ground.

“Sorry!” Leo kneeled down to Black but he didn’t even move an inch.

“Leave him be. And Hunter probably doesn’t think he even needs to use armor. Which from what I heard is probably true.” Said Jennifer.

“If I needed to wear armor you would have already been assigned a mission. Don’t worry, I will hold back appropriately.” said Mr Etan.

Leo looked doubtfully, he knew Mr Etan was strong but there were four of them. Though he didn’t know how much he could count on Black when he looked at him.

As he was thinking so Black brought up his arms and stood up. It may have been the first time he saw him standing up on his own, even if it looked as if he was going to fall back on the ground any moment.

“Oh, are you willing to try today?” said JJ.

“I feel like I’m going to get killed if I don’t.” said Black, his voice sounded tired.

“Your intuition is usually good in those matters. As to when you can be lazy.” Said Jennifer.

“Now, enough talking. Just come at me.” Mr Etan beckoned to them.

“Leo for now just follow behind me. Use it as a chance to see how each of us fights.” said JJ facing him. “If you see any chances take them.”

Leo nodded, he didn’t expect to be in full coordination with everybody but he hoped he wouldn’t hold them back because of it.

“Now JJ we are ready when you are.”

He nodded and activated his weapon. A long blade made of blue light appeared in his right hand. Leo did the same and gathered mana to activate his spell at any moment.

“Now!” JJ jumped forward. Jennifer already was doing something with mana and he couldn’t see Black anywhere.

He strengthened himself and jumped forward behind JJ. He caught up soon and overtook him. Looking behind, he hesitated he didn’t plan how fast should he run. He just used his full speed as usual. He wondered if he should slow down but he was already few steps away from Mr Etan who was smiling at him.

He decided to keep going forward but as soon as he took next step a mass of rock flew by him. Looking at it it had a humanoid shape and held JJ’s weapon and swung it as it flew past him it at the instructor.

Mr Etan in a swift movement moved away from the blade and it hit the ground causing it’s to split. Leo looked weirdly at it, he was starting to doubt if it was just an illusion.

Their instructor didn’t stand idly though, soon he moved and before any of them could react he kicked the golem in a stomach. It flew in the air and was heading for Leo.

Suprised he couldn’t react and was hit with it bringing him to the ground it didn’t hurt but it felt heavy and he could only lift it a little. Some of the rock fell off and he saw armor through it.

“JJ?” he asked.

“Yes… my body feels numb a little.” he said as he brought himself up. “Why did you jump ahead so much?”

“I didn’t plan for speed.” He said looking where Mr Etan was. Right now he was dancing around balls of light. There were too many to count but despite it he didn’t seem to have much of a problem with avoiding them.

“What are you doing?!” he heard Jennifer shouting. She was furrowing her eyebrows from the strain her spell caused on her it used quite a bit of focus and mana.

“For now just look.” said JJ before restoring his rock armor and jumping forward back into the fray.

Leo stood there and watched as the balls of light moved around and JJ swung his blade at their instructor. Mr Etan didn’t make much of it and dodged all of it.

Then few balls of light hit the ground behind their opponent and they grew in size. Leo didn’t know what they were made of but he was sure no one wanted to go inside them.

It looked as if Mr Etan was going to get hit by JJ blade with nowhere to run when he suddenly ducked under it and moved around JJ kicking him in the back making him fall into the ball of light.

When the light disappeared JJ stood there his rock armor fell off him and he too soon fell to the ground. He didn’t look harmed but his eyes were white for some reason.

Mr Etan turned to him then. “Will you just stand there?”

Suddenly Black appeared out of nowhere and was kneeling next to JJ and touching his head. Their instructor turned around and seeing this jumped forward at him. Black stopped his kick with a shield of blue light and moved away to avoid next one but the kick still connected and Leo expected for him to be thrown away but the leg just passed through him.

Mr Etan looked annoyed and soon jumped in what looked to be an empty spot and swung his palm forward. Then in that spot, Black appeared and was thrown into the air.

He flew in a straight arc and soon fell off the cliff with nothing to stop him. Black simply closed his eyes and let himself fall.

Leo tried to use this chance and swung his axe at Mr Etan back but he avoided it and kicked him back his stomach causing him to fly away. As he hit the ground he felt his body going numb and he could move well. He expected that the armor protected him from magic.

JJ stood up and swayed a little. “I hate your spells.” He said looking at Jennifer.

“Talk later.” She said and readied her spell again. This time a white ray of light came out of her hand at the instructor.

At the same time, earth came out under Mr Etan feet trying to prevent him from moving.

“I’m disappointed a little.” He said. He didn’t move and let the earth move around his feet and placed his right hand in front of himself. It cracked with electricity.

When the beam connected with his hand the light disappeared, doing nothing. Jennifer looked surprised at this.

JJ jumped forward and covered himself with stone again. He lost his weapon somewhere and used his fist attack.

Mr Etan brought up his other hand and stopped it with it then brought him up in the air and threw him. Nothing could stop him and he flew off the cliff.

Then he jumped forward at Jennifer. She used her light balls again but Mr Etan simply went around them and struck her with his fist causing her to meet the same fate as the two before her.

Leo in the meantime slowly gathered himself and stood up. He still felt a little numb but Mr Etan jumped at him without waiting.

Leo used all mana he could to empower himself more and swung his axe. Mr Etan sidestepped making his attack useless and swung his fist to punch Leo in the stomach.

The boy used both of his defensive spells and braced himself.

The fist connected and the force of it caused him to be pushed a few steps distance backward but he was alright.

Mr Etan looked at him and the grimace he had on his face was replaced with a smile, then he jumped forward again and this time he moved with such a speed that Leo couldn’t even react.

When he was struck by the fist, he felt a force a few times bigger than before. He could feel it even despite the armor he wore.

He was flying and as he flew by the edge of the cliff he started falling down. He didn’t know if he should scream or if it was just an illusion but he didn’t feel too well about it.

He didn’t see anyone else as he went down. He looked around and noticed that despite the fact that he was falling along the mountain and he could no longer see the top the ground was not getting closer.

This continued for few minutes before the ground beneath him shifted and he saw the floor of the room he entered a while ago again. He landed on the ground with his head first but thanks to the armor he didn’t get hurt.

He tried to stand up but he felt dizzy from all the falling and fell back to the ground.

Leo looked around and saw his team laying on the ground too. Mr Etan was standing in front of them.

“That was simply bad. There is nearly no coordination between you. Black why didn’t you help earlier if you used your shields to distract me it could have gone better and don’t move around too much when hidden. Even if you move quietly I can still hear you.” Then he turned to JJ.

“And using stone to create armor is not a bad idea but you should change the material you are using. Simple stone is just bad and mostly useless.”

“But I don’t know how.”

“Don’t worry about that I will provide material for you and teach you.” Then he turned to Jennifer. “Your attacks have too much pattern to them. After a while, I knew how they move and could dodge them with my eyes closed. At least make it feel random a bit.”

“And Leo… I know you enough so we need to train both your close quarter combat skills and your power output. Don’t worry I know how to train those things well and now I don’t have to hold back on your training.”

Everyone slowly stood up and looked at him. They hoped if they didn’t talk back it would end sooner.

“Now. Understood?”

“YES!” everyone other then Black shouted.

“Good. Now take those.” He said throwing eight bracelets at them. Everyone had a pair under his feet.

Leo tried to pick them up but he couldn’t as they were too heavy for him. He looked at Mr Etan with a question in his eyes.

“Use your spell.” he said simply.

Leo did as he was told and brought them up. Everyone already had put their own on themselves with some difficulty.

“Now, I set them so that their weight will be more or less of the upper limit of what you can take.” He said and then their scenery around them changed. It looked as if they were back in mountains. “Your objective for today is to get to that peak or faint trying. Don’t worry water magic will bring you up if you do.”

Looking in the distance they could see a big mountain at least 12 miles away and the way to it didn’t feel welcoming, going up and down all the time.

“Now go don’t force me to make you do it.” He said.

JJ and Jennifer started running. After them Leo who was still setting his weights on his wrist and finally Black started jogging behind.

Leo caught up to Jennifer and asked “How does this place even works?”

“It’s like a simulation but in 3D. The ground beneath us is generated with force fields and made look certain ways with illusion. Now it’s more or less working as a very advanced treadmill. Now be silent we will need every amount of energy we can get and don’t expect for it to end anytime soon.” she said. After that everyone was silent and only roughed breathing could be heard.

In the end, Leo couldn’t finish the run as his mana ran out and he fell to the ground because of the weight. He gasped heavily. He ran around 6 miles before falling down.

Still, he was not the worst as Jennifer fainted at 5th mile. JJ fell down just a mile before the peak and Black made it to the top.