It turned out that Mary’s new party wasn’t that bad. But they weren’t perfect either.

“Come on. How do you expect me to jump around wearing all that?” Mary couldn’t believe someone could be that unreasonable. There was no way she could dodge anything in all that metal.

“So you plan to take it off before every dodge on the battlefield?” For whatever reason, the Creep seemed amused - and he had unusually many eyes flying around him…

“Well, no… but this is just insane!”

“Bwahahahaha! But no, seriously, you’re dressing up properly. You have to train the way you’ll fight.”

“Come on, Mortimer. Surely she can wear traditional armour like every other heroine ever?” Paolo asked, and Mary finally shut it. She’d rather be humiliated in her full plate than in whatever it was that Margaret was wearing… that day. She shuddered at the memory. And that still wasn’t all of it.

Since the Glorious Party (yeah, apparently Nicolaus’s idea) was already a few years old, they were much more advanced in many subjects. And one of them was Mixered Martial Arts… Turns out, all that mattered was the party continuity, and you could replace all the members without losing progress.

It was pretty efficient in that no one would have to redo much of the material. The downside was that Mary found herself looking at the whirling blades, spikes and hammers in the third level of the MMA arena. Well… maybe the armour wasn’t that bad after all.

A loud bang announced a clear hit of marble against Mary’s helmet. The effect was deafening even in the cacophony of destruction that surrounded them.

“Come on, Ms Oceanrunner, we don’t have the whole day!” professor Zuzurrizal was somehow balancing upside down on pointy contraptions protruding from the ceiling. “The rest of your party is already halfway there!”

At least she wasn’t supposed to fight today - she only needed to get to the other side of the arena. And, to her surprise, her team was making progress. The boys wore their armours too, although now she understood why they never sported anything as heavy as she did.

It was clear that Mortimer had trained here a lot. He all but flew through the obstacle course, sidestepping enormous hammers (with protective rubber covers) barely inches from where they struck and deflecting (dulled) blades moving too fast for Mary’s eyes to follow. He even pushed away from the flickering specks of light of his in mid-air like from tiny hovering platforms.

However, Paolo gave her a pause - he wasn’t that far behind. The boy was selected alongside her, so he couldn’t have much time advantage over her. It must have been his powers then - but anyway, it was obvious she had no way to match him. Mary watched him run on a steep wall, then jump away with a spin to avoid a swinging pendulum. Mary saw trails of blood glinting along his arms and legs as he went into a roll and pushed himself back to the sprint.

Unfortunately, Paolo noticed a dart flying towards his face a second too late, and the awkward dodge caused him to stumble. One of the swinging axes didn’t like finding the boy on his way, and with a diagonal blow, sent the boy flying back. Sprays of crimson liquid showered from his torn armour as he landed - still within the machinery range.

Mary cried and broke into a run, barely avoiding the strongest blows and taking glancing hits from everything that didn’t seem too dangerous. She couldn’t lose another party member, not now again, not now!

She reached the boy and grabbed him by his stained armour. Her hands slipped on blood-covered leather. Pulling him away, Mary tried to stay close to the ground to avoid most of the hazards, even if it made the work significantly harder. She was almost impaled by a hidden spike she noticed too late for her comfort, but that wasn't important.

“Mary, I-” Paolo started to say but, ended up only coughing blood. Mossie flew in front of her and collided with some flying dart - Mary mentally thanked whoever designed it to be so clumsy.

“Stay calm, e-everything will be a-all right,” the heroine said, panting from the effort. The boy tried to respond, but that only caused more of that bloody coughing. He needed medical attention, and he needed it now.

Suddenly, she heard a loud whizzing and cracking noise close behind her. The heroine turned to see one of Mortimer’s eyes blocking a (probably dull, as if it made any difference) sawblade inches above her helmet - she doubted the thin sheet of metal would protect her from the contraption. She glanced at her team leader, who was somehow still running the course as if nothing happened.

“Faster, Ms Oceanrunner, you can go lie down after the class!” Who thought that letting that guy teach was a good idea… Still, the man had the perfect voice for the job - despite the clanks, whizzes, and moans of the tormented metal, the professor was still audible.

Surprisingly, Paolo wasn’t just lying and being hard to tow - the wounded hero was trying to crawl with his own strength. Maybe Mary probably should have told him not to exert himself, but damn, he was heavy… Every muscle of her poor body was screaming about the violation of its rights, but the brain was a ruthless dictator. She’d have to deal with the revolution later.

Once they left the immediate danger, Mary knelt next to the bleeding boy. Her back ached, her heart had beaten her ribs to a pulp from the inside, and she was otherwise thoroughly bruised as well, but Paolo’s wound looked way worse than anything she felt. She looked around his armour and tried to find some piece that could stop the bleeding, and…

Wait… wasn’t the top also covered with blood just a few seconds ago? She looked at her trembling hands and saw in amazement that the blood covering them was flowing away before her very eyes, leaving clean, fair skin. Well… clean illusion covering her true skin, but you get the point. She looked back to the boy and saw that the rest of his armour was already dry, and his wound was closing. A small trail of blood was flowing towards him from the training run.

“What the…?”

“I tried to tell you earlier,” Paolo said. “I have close to insane healing factor.” He winced. “The pain is still a nightmare, though. I haven’t figured out how to shut it down yet.”

“On a side note, nothing here is truly dangerous. At least, not on my watch,” Mortimer said behind Mary’s back, and the girl jumped.

“What are you doing here!”

“I’ve finished my first run.”

Paolo rose to his hands and knees and coughed one more time. Mary watched mesmerised as the droplets froze in mid-air and separated, with the blood rushing back into his mouth as other liquids fell downwards.

“Eh, and I thought I had already figured that fragment out,” Paolo muttered. He rose all the way and took a deep breath. “Well, repetitio mater studiorum est.”

He ran back toward the obstacle course, leaving Mary standing openmouthed until another marble hit her.