“Come on, get up~”

Marnie's lively voice reached my ears. At the moment, I was lying supine on the ground due to her vigorous sweep which had sent me flying belly-up.

Two weeks had already passed since the start of Marnie's special training. In this period of time, no incidents whatsoever had occurred. I basically spent all of my time in her company, except for when I slept or when I went to visit my classmates, to keep them in check and receive Mrs. Poole's biscuits. I had no time to follow the lessons, so I had resolved to study a little bit before going to bed. After all, there wasn't much else to do in my free time, and I could study together with Erik.

The special training wasn't that special at all. It simply consisted of prolonged sparring in a reserved training area located in the part of the academy main building carved into the mountainside. It resembled more a one-sided beating than a proper spar. Day after day, for twelve hours a day, I fought bare-handed against Marnie while she beat me up with a metal stick. Initially she had tried using wooden ones, but they broke each time they hit my head. Now, the stick simply bent, but it also hurt a lot more. Fortunately or unfortunately, I could endure such a training regiment due to my abnormal resilience. A good night's sleep was enough to recover and start it all over again.

The reason behind these peculiar workouts was, according to Marnie's words, "There is no one here who can teach you properly. You are of a different kind. You'll have to learn by yourself: I can only create the right conditions for your talents to bloom". I had tried asking if she could teach me some kind of martial art at the very least, but she had refused, explaining that the ancient martial arts were suitable only for normal humans and the modern ones had been developed to fit the modern-day archs. Apparently, ancient archumans learned how to fight by themselves, so I had to come up with my own way of doing things.

Initially, I had thought she was simply being lazy, but in time I had come to know the truth hidden in her words. With each passing day, I could feel myself grow more accustomed to my body and had started to move differently. Moved by curiosity, I had read some books about martial arts and had discovered I had instinctually started to implement in my movement patterns similar principles to the one contained inside of them, from how to punch properly to how to correctly plant my feet on the ground, but I had also started to manoeuvring my body in unconventional ways, which felt more natural and comfortable to me than the one addressed in the books. Although there was still much to refine in that area, I partially made up for it with my enhanced physique.

Returning with my mind to the present situation, I stood up, stretched my legs and I got into a fighting stance. We were in the middle of our spar in the reserved underground training area. I hurled myself towards Marnie and threw my right hand towards her head. With calculated movements, she diverted my attack with her left hand, avoiding it by a narrow margin, and whipped the stick against my lower abdomen. I intercepted it with my right knee, blocking it.

A surprised look appeared on Marnie's face. Before I could continue my attack, she let go of the stick, grabbed my arm, spinned and threw me away. I flew in the air, before rolling on the ground and standing up once again.

“Well done~” she said, signalling me to stop.

I immediately relaxed my muscles and wiped the sweat on my forehead with my arm.

“How did I go?” I asked.

“You are improving at an incredibly quick pace. You are almost at the level of your classmates~”

I frowned.

“Didn't I already beat the two "kings"?”

Marnie addressed me with a smile.

“I'm talking in terms of technique, silly~. Remember, you overpowered them, you didn't actually outclass them”

As she was saying, I had obtained victory against my peers only due to my peculiar condition.

She clapped her hands and her expression turned more serious.

“Anyhow, you are really improving at an amazing rate. Well, it's probably related to the fact you train from morning to night with no rest. I had planned to start in a month's time, but I think we can anticipate it a little bit”

I sent her a curious glance.

“What are we anticipating?”

“Weapon training” she answered.

After these words, she guided me in a room adjacent to the training area. There, neatly arranged armament stands housing numerous weapons could be seen, ranging from knives to spears. Noticeable was the complete absence of firearms, but I knew the reasons: in the first place, firearms were considered too dangerous to be freely distributed inside of the Perimeter; secondly, firearms were basically useless to archumans, and archs were the only ones who underwent weapon training in the academy.

As a matter of fact, while melee weapons could be infused with aura, highly enhancing their properties, there were no known cases of archs capable of infusing bullets. Aura infusion was strictly linked to the image of the self: while it was possible to reach a certain degree of mastery and perceive a melee weapon as an extension of your own body, it was understandably more difficult to do so with something so disconnected from it like bullets. The enemies archs had to deal with were vulnerable only to aura infused attacks, and so naturally firearms had fallen out of use.

My eyes sparkled at the sight in front of me. Excited, I ventured between the stands, looking for my new partners.