Yui was the next of the three to go. She passed Damien, still struggling to hide the surprise on her face, and stood across from the hulking Corrupted monster. The flickering red runes on its collar faded away and the chains vanished as Dredd released it.

Before the monster even had a chance to rise, Yui sent a large ball of flame hurtling toward its head. It struck home and billowed up around it with a loud fwoosh. The giant rose to its feet with a roar of pain, ignore the fire as it licked at its rocky skin and sizzled against acid. It extended a huge hand and lunged for Yui, trying to grab her.

She summoned a thick pillar of jagged ice in its way, impaling the creature’s palm. It ripped itself free, splattering acid across the ground, and lurched for her once more. Yui’s training with Dredd reared its head and she shot back, not letting the Corruption draw near to her as she barraged it with attacks.

The flame enveloping the creature’s head faded away, leaving entirely undamaged stone. Any injury it might have caused healed as soon as the magic faded away, and the rest of the spells she tossed at it were having similar results.

Yui’s face was creased in concentration, and from the sweat trickling down her brow, Damien could tell she was trying to grab the monster and restrain its leeching strands with her mental energy. He could also tell that she was having a lot less luck than he had.

Every time the giant swung at Yui, her concentration was broken and she was forced to put more distance between herself and the monster. Even though she’d been holding her own at the start, she was going to run out of Ether, while her opponent had no such difficulties.

“Not bad,” Dredd said from beside Damien, drumming his fingers on the head of his staff.

“But not enough. She’s not cutting off its source,” Damien said. “If she can’t cut it off soon, she’ll lose.”

Dredd raised an eyebrow. “Of course she will. Only you would think this is a task that can be accomplished by a single student. Well, perhaps Sylph as well.”

“You could do it on your own, could you not?”

“I’d certainly hope so. I’m a mage that’s been on the frontlines,” Dredd drawled. For the first time, in the dry sarcasm of Dredd’s words, Damien saw the resemblance between him and his brother. “But I’m also twice your age and have far more experience. I would hope I can do more than a student.”

“So you’re setting the other students up to fail?”

“Not to fail. To learn.” Dredd raised his staff as Yui stumbled, her Ether spent. The giant froze mid-swing, grinding to a complete halt as chains erupted from the air and bound its limbs. They dragged it back to the ground and the runes on the collar lit once more.

Yui pushed herself upright and took a moment to catch her breath before she walked back to join the others.

“That was horrible. Damien, how did you take that thing out? I remembered what you taught us, but there’s a difference between a few little strands to bind and a blasted forest.”

“Elania,” Dredd said, gesturing to the Goldsilk girl. “You’re up. Go.”

“Seriously? I just heard what you said to Damien, you know. You expect us to fail!”

“I would be a fool not to. But I don’t believe I said it was time for you to defeat the monster. I said it was your turn. I trust you see the subtle difference in those two phrases.”

Elania’s golden magic lit around her and she swiped a panel to the side, glancing up at the glowing orb that she formed above the clearing. “Just making sure.”

The monster’s roar shook the clearing as its bindings were released once more. It scrambled toward Elania, loping on all fours to reach her faster. It smashed through the trees and stumps in its way, acid dripping from its cracked mouth.

“I get the feeling the other groups are having similar difficulties,” Damien guessed as half a dozen glowing shields formed in the air before Elania. The giant’s cragged fist crashed through the first few, but slowed to a stop by the time it reached her. She fired several golden bolts into its face and it flinched, hissing in pain.

“Astute.”

“I feel like I might have been able to do it if the thing wasn’t permanently an inch from crushing me,” Yui said, trying and failing to brush some of the dirt from her clothes. “Damien, how are you able to hold your concentration while you cast other spells and avoid attacks? It seems impossible.”

“Get your psyche shattered a few times,” Damien replied, only half joking. “When you squeeze the fragments back together, you’ll get a bit better at multitasking.”

Yui squinted at him, trying to tell how serious he was being. “Just what have you done to train yourself?”

“Not something you can replicate. Sorry. I think Dredd’s got the right idea, though. Just stick with what he teaches.”

“Thanks,” Dredd said dryly. “I’m glad to have your approval.”

Yui chewed her lower lip and turned her attention back to Elania. The Goldsilk girl was dashing around the monster, desperately trying to bind it in thick strands of light magic. Her efforts hadn’t completely failed, but with every new binding she enveloped the Corruption with, another one snapped and frayed.

Her magic grew weaker with every pass, but Elania didn’t relent. Her fight came to an end as several of the strands snapped at once and the giant tore an arm free, bringing it down toward her with the force of a mountain.

Dredd vanished through a portal, appearing beside Elania even as ethereal red chains enveloped the monster’s body. He raised his staff, a glowing circle forming above it, and the giant’s fist crashed into it. His magic shuddered but held firm, and the giant was restrained an instant later.

“A fair attempt,” Dredd said.

Elania let her arms drop and sighed heavily. “How are we supposed to stop that thing? It doesn’t take damage. It doesn’t get tired. I can’t even see how we’re supposed to cut it off from the Ether if we’re one small slip away from getting crushed at any moment. Is there a trick to this, Damien?”

“There is,” Dredd said before Damien could respond. “Now, who wants to go next?”

“…are you going to tell us the trick?”

“Not yet,” Dredd replied, almost sounding cheerful. Almost. “Yui, you look like you want another go. Drink some water and get out there.”

“What about Damien?”

“He’ll have time later,” Dredd replied. “I don’t want the monster to get too tired before you and Elania have your practice against it.”

“You care more about the monster than you do about us!” Yui exclaimed in exasperation.

“Correct,” Dredd said. “It is a very valuable training tool. You are students, and we’ve got a lot of those.”

Yui’s eyes widened in shock. “Excuse me?”

“He’s joking,” Elania said, rolling her eyes. “At least, I think he is.”

“The world may never discover. But I will be unsealing the Corrupted monster shortly, so I suggest you prepare yourself. If you can’t match it, then we’re returning to training with me instead. And, if we do that, I can promise you will not enjoy it.”

Elania held out a flask of healing water and Yui took it, upending it into her mouth and splashing the last bit over her face. She gave it back to the other girl with an appreciative nod, then ran back out to meet the Corruption as Dredd released its restraints once more.

Well, if he was going for team building, it’s certainly working. Elania and Yui are treating each other like friends.

“Yui usually treats people like that when she isn’t pulling the princess card,” Henry replied in his mind. “But Elania is certainly more cordial with her now than she used to be.”

The ground shook and all of them winced as the giant narrowly missed crushing Yui. She’d managed to shove herself to safety with a pillar of ice, but the monster was right on her heels.

She hopped around, avoiding the massive strikes crashing into the ground around her, while she peppered the giant with spells, trying to restrain its movement with ice for long enough to bind its connection to the Ether.

The fight didn’t last as long as the first. Dredd had to intervene once more, and Yui trudged back to swap places with Elania. In that manner, they continued training throughout the rest of the day.

At night, while Elania and Yui went to bed, Damien met Dredd at the edge of the clearing. Neither of them had to say anything. Dredd just nodded and released the bindings on the monster.

Damien wasn’t worried about waking Yui or Elania up. After all the work they’d put in that day, he was pretty sure they’d sleep through a thunderstorm, and what he had planned for the Corruption probably wouldn’t be much quieter.

Throughout the night, he and Henry trained against the monster. Neither of them were worried about failing to bind the monster – that was simple. Instead, they focused on speed. Damien pushed himself, trying to find ways to take it out as quickly as possible while using as little Ether as he could.

Dredd supplied him with healing water between rounds, and he trained until only an hour was left until sunrise. Every fight, he got just a little faster. His movements became a dash more optimized, and he and Henry found ways to cut the Corruption’s connection to the Ether around it just a bit sooner. When he was finally done, he collapsed into bed to take what little rest was still left in the night.

The following morning, Damien awoke to the sounds of training. He emerged from his tent, wiping his eyes, to find Dredd and the girls already at the clearing, practicing. Yui’s Ether ran dry and she threw herself to the side to avoid a strike as Dredd ended the fight.

The sun had already made its trek into the sky and it was several hours past daybreak. Damien walked over to join Dredd as Elania swapped with Yui and the fights resumed. The rest of that day and the next were the same, with the girls training throughout the sunlight hours and Damien taking over at evening.

Dredd started calling out suggestions for the girl’s fights, pointing out weaknesses in the monster’s movements or flaws in their own. Their battle prowess continued to improve, but neither Yui nor Elania managed to bring the monster down on their own. The growing frustration was evident in both of them, but they pressed as hard as they could to try and meet Dredd’s expectations.

On the third day, as Damien emerged from his short hours of sleep to meet with the others, he was surprised to find that the monster was still bound and none of them were training.

“You slept in again,” Yui observed.

“Late night.”

“Why haven’t we started yet?” Elania asked. “Damien is awake now, so could we get to it? I feel like we’re getting closer.”

“Closer, yes,” Dredd agreed. “But, as I said on the first day of this training, you’ll never reach the goal. We don’t have the time for you to continue to incrementally approach.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yui asked with a frown. “You’re giving up?”

“Giving up? No. This portion of the training is complete,” Dredd said. “You and Elania are both more than capable of performing the tasks required of you.”

“But we haven’t even beaten it once,” Elania protested.

“That’s what the teams are for,” Yui said, realization finally dawning on her. “We’re regrouping with them, aren’t we? You were showing us that nobody could take the Corrupted monsters out on their own.” She glanced at Damien, then cleared her throat. “Almost nobody.”

“Very good,” Dredd said. “And correct. The rest will be explained once we’ve matched back up with the other students. It would be a pain to go over everything multiple times. And thus, we wait. This clearing was the largest of the ones we have, so the others will be joining us here.”

“Couldn’t you have just told us that at the start?” Elania asked.

Dredd looked down the bridge of his nose at her in complete confusion. “Why would I do that? If you believed that the others were performing just as poorly as you, you would have been less motivated. There is no room for us to take such liberties. Besides, didn’t you have fun?”

Yep. He’s definitely Delph’s brother.