Vexion stood with her hands folded beneath her chest, her head tilted slightly as she observed Elric. He looked back at her with obvious caution, almost as though he were trying to read a puzzle before it attacked him.
After a few moments, Vexion couldn't help but chuckle.
"Why are you so afraid?"
Elric scratched the back of his neck.
"I already experienced fighting Lady Lexa." He paused before continuing honestly. "I don't know how to fight you. I don't know what your skill does. I don't know how you fight. I don't know your habits. I know almost nothing about you."
He laughed awkwardly. "The more I think about it, the less I actually know."
Vexion nodded approvingly.
"Good. The fact that you know you don't know already makes you smarter than most people."
She uncrossed her arms before walking a slow circle around him.
"Most people walk into battle believing they understand their opponent. They don't. They understand an image they built inside their own head. Those two things are very different."
Elric quietly nodded. Vexion continued.
"Luckily, I won't need to train you the same way I trained Lexa."
Elric blinked.
"You trained Lady Lexa?"
Vexion smiled.
"Naturally. Master gave her the knowledge. I simply helped him beat it into her."
She said it so casually that Elric genuinely wasn't sure if she was joking. Unfortunately, her completely serious expression answered that question.
Vexion continued walking.
"Master's training philosophy is simple. He doesn't want to keep retraining people. He wants to build foundations so sturdy that even years later those foundations remain. So the first training is always the cruelest."
Elric slowly nodded.
Vexion's eyes became slightly distant as old memories resurfaced.
Morning training. Night training. Blindfolded training. Training while starving. Training after going days without proper sleep. Training until every muscle screamed. Training until her mana was completely exhausted. Training after healing broken bones. Then training again. Sometimes Master would intentionally wait until she believed she was finished, before calmly saying,
'Again.'
She honestly couldn't remember how many times she had genuinely believed she was going to die.
Yet looking back, every single session had been worth it.
Vexion smiled faintly.
"There was a saying Master constantly repeated. 'If training feels comfortable, you're wasting time.' He believed people only truly changed once comfort disappeared. So every lesson forced us outside whatever we believed our limits were."
Elric quietly swallowed.
"...That sounds awful."
"It was." Vexion answered without hesitation. "But effective."
She laughed softly.
"I complained every single day. And then one day I realized I had stopped making the same mistakes."
She looked at him.
"That is Master's real training. He doesn't simply make you stronger. He removes bad habits. And once those disappear, the strength naturally follows."
She thought back to one particular lesson.
"The day Master finally said I no longer required constant supervision was the day he introduced mana exhaustion."
Elric frowned.
"Mana exhaustion?"
Vexion nodded.
"You fight until your mana is almost completely gone. Then you continue fighting."
Elric looked confused.
"How?"
Vexion smiled.
"Exactly. That was my reaction."
She copied Dante's lazy voice surprisingly well.
"'Just because you're out of mana doesn't mean you're allowed to lose. You still have eyes. You still have ears. You still have legs. You still have hands. Use them.'"
She laughed.
"I hated him that day. Now I understand."
She looked directly at Elric.
"Mana is only one resource. If losing one resource means you lose the fight, you were never actually prepared."
Elric lowered his head slightly. He remembered fighting Lexa. His mana had gradually disappeared. His movements slowed. His decisions slowed. Eventually he simply became reactive.
Vexion immediately noticed the realization.
"You understand now."
He nodded.
"I kept thinking about how much mana I had left. I stopped thinking about winning."
"Exactly." Vexion pointed at him. "You began fighting your own exhaustion instead of your opponent. Master calls that 'Losing before you've actually lost.'"
She shrugged.
"He has strange names for everything."
Elric couldn't help smiling.
"That... actually sounds like something he'd say."
"It is." Vexion smiled proudly.
She suddenly began walking through the air. Invisible vector forces formed beneath her feet as though solid stairs had appeared. One step. Another. Another. Soon she was casually standing nearly twenty meters above him. Then another force pushed against her body. She floated effortlessly.
Elric carefully observed every movement — every acceleration, every stop, every tiny adjustment. Vexion noticed.
"Good. Keep watching."
She suddenly accelerated sideways. Instantly stopped. Shot backwards. Rotated. Then appeared behind him almost before his eyes could follow. She landed gracefully.
"What did you notice?"
Elric frowned deeply.
"You don't fly. You redirect yourself."
Vexion smiled.
"Good. What else?"
"You never waste movement."
She nodded again.
"Better. What else?"
He closed his eyes.
"...You always stop before changing direction."
Vexion smiled even wider.
"There. Now we're talking."
She folded her arms.
"My skill isn't fast."
Elric blinked.
"...What?"
"My vectors are. I am not. My body still has to react. My thoughts still have to make decisions. If my thoughts become slow, my skill becomes slow."
She tapped her forehead.
"Speed starts here. Not here." She tapped one of the invisible vectors beneath her foot. "Master spent months forcing me to think faster. Not move faster."
Elric slowly nodded. That actually made terrifying sense.
Vexion floated back down before standing directly opposite him.
"Now. Let's talk about your fight. What do you believe was your biggest mistake?"
Elric didn't answer immediately. He replayed everything — every movement, every hesitation, every opportunity. Finally—
"I hesitated. I waited too much. I wanted perfect openings."
Vexion immediately nodded.
"Perfect. Exactly. You fought like someone waiting for permission."
Elric frowned.
"I was being cautious."
"No. You were being passive." She raised a finger. "There is a difference. Caution gathers information. Passiveness waits. You did too much waiting."
She slowly circled him again.
"You saw Lexa holding a sword. So immediately you assumed. 'Swordmaster. Close range. Dangerous.' So what happened?"
"I avoided approaching."
Vexion nodded.
"And what happened because of that?"
Elric answered quietly.
"She controlled everything."
"Exactly. You allowed her to dictate the pace." She smiled. "Master says something interesting. 'The first person forced to react already surrendered initiative.'"
She stopped directly in front of him.
"You. Never once. Made Lexa react. You reacted. Every. Single. Time."
Her smile disappeared.
"So—" She raised one finger. "—today's lesson. I'm going to teach you how to steal initiative. And by the time we're finished—" She smiled mischievously. "—you're going to hate me almost as much as I hated Master."
Elric suddenly had an extremely bad feeling.
"...Should I be worried?"
Vexion's smile somehow became even brighter.
"Very."
She raised a single finger.
"Now. Attack me. No planning. No thinking. No waiting. The first lesson Master ever taught me."
She smiled.
"'If you're going to make a mistake, make it at full speed.'"