Darien started moving the moment he woke up, and it didn't take long to find some uncomfortable truths. No one needed to tell him he was crippled. He discovered within minutes that his legs didn't work anymore. Trying to get up and walk around made it very clear. He felt for his mana, and there was resistance for two seconds before his connection went through. It felt like a bubble popped when an enormous flood of mana started bubbling in his mana heart.

He quickly shut off his mental connection and brought his mana under control. No one seemed to notice. It looked like he lost his legs, but gained something from the battle after all. As he held his family in his arms he decided to spend as much time with him as possible while recuperating.

Darien spent the better part of a week with his wife and daughter, Ella. His son would spend his mornings and nights reading at the foot of his bed, but Darius spent most of his time training outdoors. The boy was only five. Darien thought it wasn't too healthy for a child barely older than a baby to be so serious. It's not as though he could stop him either.

Speaking of healthy, his wife, Elaine looked like an emaciated skeleton with all of the weight she lost. He practically had to force food down her mouth as she hadn't been eating much when he was in a coma. His wife used to eat twice as much as him, but now she ate less than half of what a crippled man bound to his bed ate. It unnerved him to see his family like this. He had a lot to rectify it somehow.

After learning 3rd circle magic, Darius went under intense training to get multiple spells mastered without an incantation. Over the course of a year, he had learned eleven 3rd Circle spells half of which he could cast without an incantation. He felt a strong desire to test out his magic and practice. His father woke up early and did some simple exercises pushing his body up and down on the floor. The first thing he noticed when he saw his father was his expression. There was no despair, self-pity, sadness, or even grief, just the same reliably serious expression he had seen a thousand times before.

Darius walked over to his father and asked, "Can I go to the Red Tower and see, uncle Tobias?"

He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. With one eyebrow raised, he asked, "Why do you really want to go to the Tower?"

Darius gritted his teeth, "I'm getting stagnant. I've learned a lot of spells over the year, but have no one to practice with. Tobias, Caspian, or even Linda only come by every few weeks. I'm itching to fight against someone more challenging."

Darien sighed, "Fine. Go with your mother when she gets back. I'll talk with her. I'll train with you soon when I'm a little better, but for now, we'll save that for another day. Get your things ready, and don't stay at the Tower too late. When you get back we have some things we need to talk about."

Darius excitedly yelled, "Thanks, dad!"

Darius' father and mother fought in the room alone for about two minutes before Elaine left the room. An expression wroth with anger, she started walking toward the stairway, "What are you doing, let's go!"

It had been a long time since Darius had seen Joseph. Joseph Keller Vice Tower Master was busier now than he ever had been. Darien and Elaine may not have been the best at paperwork, but they still did some. A lot of the structure and management relied on Darien, and now with him gone everything fell on Joseph's shoulders. The only possible blessing was the influx of new recruits growing the Tower-like and overfed chicken.

Darius looked Joseph up and down before saying, "Uncle, you've lost weight."

"And you look like an angsty five-year-old. Of course, I've lost weight. I never have time to eat. What did you come here for, brat?"

"Uncle, can I spar with you?"

Joseph froze for a second before looking at Elaine and then back at Darius, "As much as I'd love to spar with you. I can't. I have no time for anything, not even a break! When this war ends, and things go back to normal I'll have plenty of time to spar or go on nature walks or even play games, but for right now find someone else to pester."

Joseph was testier than he usually was. A lightning-shaped scar cut across his face, and his eyes had deep dark circles showcasing his lack of sleep.

I left his office and roamed the Tower, looking for prey.

Darius found Tobias reading in the cafeteria while eating. "Tobias! When you're done eating can we spar?"

Tobias looked up from his book and smiled, "Of course, beasty. I'll be done in a few minutes."

My mother reluctantly followed us to a private sparring room and said, “Alright, are you two ready?”

Tobias answered, “I’m always ready.”

I didn’t answer, I just sprinted forward. I had six wind steps spells activated below both of my feet at the same time. While firing three wind blades and five 2nd circle fireballs. Tobias quickly formed an ice shield in front of him, which blew up from the impact of almost ten spells. Using the steam from the destroyed ice wall, I managed to get out of his field of vision and sneak up on him from behind. I formed a wind blade extending from my two index fingers and leaped onto Tobias' back, my two fingers threatening his neck. “Yield!” Tobias shouted.

Tobias formed an exasperated smile, “What the hell was that? You sneaky little bastard.” Darius smiled while waving to his mother, “Did I do good?”

His mother nodded before saying, "Next time, cast a defense in case your attack fails. Sneaking up on another mage is an all-or-nothing gamble. If you close the gap like that, it's nearly impossible to dodge or block a point-blank spell. Keep that in mind."

"Ok, mom."

Elaine looked at the two of them, before saying, "Get ready." They moved across from each other again and she called out, "Go."

Tobias was completely prepared for the second match. When Darius snuck behind him a sheet of ice was blocking his back and neck while multiple ice arrows flew at Darius, predicting his momentum and speed to accurately strike his position. He waved his hand and used Air Flow to divert each arrow's course before sending out several fire arrows of his own. Tobias brought his hands together, and a circular dome surrounded him.

The fire arrows exploded, but his spell held strong. Spikes began proliferating from Tobias' circular dome of death before spinning. Darius panicked. He wasn’t sure if he had anything to stop the spiky ball of death in his current spell arsenal. Punching through it with his fist would be too hard to explain. Darius charged a little bit of Qi to the tips of his toes before casting a few Wind Step spells at the sole of his feet. He jumped toward the ceiling flipping his body right before touching the top. An earth spike spell pierced the ceiling, connecting Darius as if he were standing upside down.

He casually looked at Tobias while placing one hand across his chest and the other holding onto his face as he thought. Tobias began chanting something below when Darius came up with an idea. He started by conjuring multiple fire arrow spells before using Qi to mesh them all together into one thick mass of flames. He then used Air Flow, Wind Steps, and the 2nd Circle magic Earth Guide before sending the dense mass of magic flames at Tobias’ icy dome of death.

Darius' magic crackled in the air as it shot at astonishing speed. Tobias used the time it took Darius to form his magic to set up multiple earth walls. The hyper-dense ball of flames tore apart the Earth Walls, and the Dome exploded with tremendous force. When the smoke cleared there was no one there.

Darius was shocked. He yelled, “Tobias!” Wind gathered under Darius' feet before shooting him toward the ground. Darius got overzealous since he hadn't had a serious spar in a while. “Tobias! Are you ok!” Darius was on the verge of panicking, but his mother didn’t seem to react at all. Before he could figure out why his mom didn't care the earth erupted underneath him, and Tobias grabbed his ankles.

“The floor in the training room is made from hard fortified stone. To manipulate it like this and travel through it requires an extraordinary amount of mana and skill. I’m drained from traveling just 2 meters in the thick magic stone, but this is a well-practiced tactic. It’s common in Elion, it’s common in Argon, and even the Merchant Republic. It would be hard for an experienced mage anywhere to easily fall for this tactic.”

Tobias was lifting me upside down before winking at me. “I’m just happy I didn’t kill you in an accident.” Tobias laughed, "Haha! I'm glad you didn't kill me either!" Darius gave Tobias the toothiest grin he could muster before he was set down. My mother sat us both down and said, “Alright you guys need to rest. Both of you take sparring way too seriously.”

I was starving after training and was ready to eat something. “Let’s go, Tobi! I’m hungry!”

“Alright, Alright we’re going. I already ate though.” Tobias picked me up and set me on his right shoulder before walking to the cafeteria. “You’re a terrifying monster, you know, but it took too long to set up your attack at the end there. I could have inundated you with attacks to disrupt your magic and knock you down, especially if there were more than one mage attacking you.” Darius smirked, “Your defense was too strong, so I needed something a little stronger. I’ll get faster with practice eventually.”

“I’m sure you will. Make sure you are paying attention to your surroundings as well, that’s how you’ll end up getting hurt.”

What Tobias didn't know was that Darius was always paying attention to surroundings, to a degree that was difficult to mimic with magic alone. Darius was more surprised he didn't hear or feel Tobias' presence from within the earth. It means his senses aren’t even in the same plane as they used to be. Sometimes he forget he was only in the Foundation Establishment realm.

Knowledge might have passed over from his life as the Beast King, but he'd become painfully aware that knowledge in the mind isn't the same as knowledge learned from the body. He needed to practice his martial arts from their foundations.

His thoughts were interrupted when they reached the cafeteria once more. Darius ate a bunch of meat and cake for lunch. Darius gorged himself before Tobias started dragging him around the Tower. They started passing by the sparring rooms when Tobias whispered, “They are sparring right now let’s not disturb them they won’t be able to go all out if we bother them.” Tobias nodded his head to himself as if giving himself affirmation.

"Is there anything you want to practice in particular, Darius?"

Darius thought for a few seconds before looking at the sword at Tobias' waist. "Can we practice with swords?”

“Of course, a boy would ask that! Why don’t I give you a bit of a demonstration?”

Darius nodded.

“Dimitri is the best swordsman amongst the knights of the Red Tower. He’s even better than me. He’s a few years away from taking over my previous position though. Dimitri uses magic to enhance and strengthen his sword skills. I’m sure he will be a force to be reckoned with in the future, but he still hasn’t mastered any 3rd circle magic.“ Tobias walked confidently to a specific sparring room before opening the door. "Hey, Dimitri! I've got a straggler that'd like to see a demonstration."

Dimitri had long black hair and gray eyes. His brow was covered in sweat, and he had just been swinging a sword when they entered. He stopped what he was doing and walked to the two of them before saying, "Hello, little guy the name's Dimitri.” Dimitri waved a bit.

“I’ve got to go right after sir, I’ve got a mission waiting for me.”

“It’s fine, a little spar isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

They moved over to another training room where the two of them stood a set distance from each other. “Let us know when to start, Darius.”

“On the count of three, 1… 2… 3!”

They both drew their swords at the same time, but Dimitri drew his blade significantly faster. I could tell he was using Wind Steps and other wind magic before his sword caught on fire. His sword swept sideways striking Tobias' sword with a loud thud before his blade quickly retracted and struck out vertically above Tobias’s head. Tobias yelled, “Ice shield!” Tobias blocked his blade before returning a strike of his own. His blade covered in ice tried to gauge out Dimitri’s left side, but Dmitri's blade was faster. Dimitri blocked the blade while trying to return with a forward thrust, but Tobias managed to encase his sword with ice. The spar was over. “Dimitri, you’ve gotten faster.”

“What does it matter if I can't use magic as carefreely as you do?”

Dimitri looked a bit disappointed at the results.

“It’s fine you’ve just focused heavily on offense. If you don’t get the fundamentals of defense, you’ll end up a dead talented rookie instead of an alive one.”

“I’ll work on that, sir!” I couldn’t help but ask, “Can I spar with him, Tobias?” Tobias didn’t look surprised, his answer was an immediate, “Nope.”

"Too bad. I'd love to spar against someone new.”

“Still a nope. If you want to spar with anyone, I can’t permit you. Don’t try to sneak things by me little one.”

“See ya around Dimitri. Don’t get blinded by the offense, at least set up some defense, even if it comes from your sword.”

“I’ll keep it in mind!” Tobias lifted me again and hauled me on his shoulder.

“I’ll spar with you later, I can show you some sword moves later.”

“Really? I could probably show you a thing or two as well.”

"Of course.” We walked over to the knight's area, and he introduced me to some more people before we went back to the training room. He didn’t walk in for some reason instead he knocked a few times and waited. We stood outside for a few minutes before the door opened. Mother was waiting. “Are you ready to go home?”

“Lady Elaine, Darius would love it if he could spar a little bit more”

“Alright let’s go inside. You two can spar when you're ready.” I sent over a dozen spells as we started, and Tobias worked hard to block all of them.

“Big arrow! Fast!” I shouted out some commands, and the large spell I used earlier went flying at Tobias at an extraordinary speed. Tobias yelled, “Earth wall, earth wall!” He made two walls of earth to block the spell I sent. As my arrow burst through the two walls, a frost enveloped his sword and a wave of water erupted enveloping my arrow. In an upward slashing motion, Tobias cut the rest of the arrow in half. The spell exploded and sent him flying which let me take an opportunity to pin him down with a rush of wind.

I won the third match.

We sparred until I got too tired to continue. I won 3 of the 7 matches, and Tobias won 4. He managed to catch me off guard and developed a countermeasure against my big spell. He used two 2nd Circle spells where he encased my arrow in a mud mixture before using his sword to try and disperse the force of the blast. By the end, even my mother sparred with me for the first time in two years. It went about as well as the last time I sparred with her.

We packed our things and got ready to leave when Tobias muttered, “Damm, I’m not sure how long I can even be a sparring partner for you, Darius, you’re a ridiculous little monster.” I wasn’t the only one who was tired. Tobias seemed exhausted as well. My mother smiled at me and said, I'll start sparring with you again. Maybe we can try three times a week?”

“Yes!”

Tobias looked horrified as he said, “I might end up in the morgue at this rate.”

"Father said he'd spar with me soon when he's feeling a little better."

The atmosphere once again felt frosty. Darius realized it the moment the sentence left his mouth. Now he was sad.