Hour 2
"Your stance is wrong," Mist said for the fifteenth time.
Krad adjusted his feet again, trying to match the position Mist had demonstrated. "Like this?"
"Worse. Now you look like a drunk penguin."
[ System Buddy: He's not wrong! You do look kinda wobbly! ]
"I'm trying!" Krad protested.
"Try harder." Mist walked around him, examining his posture with critical eyes. "Your center of gravity is too high. You're standing like you're waiting for a bus, not preparing to fight something that wants to eat your face."
Krad lowered his stance, bending his knees slightly.
"Better," Mist acknowledged. "Now, when you throw a punch, where does the power come from?"
"My fist?"
Mist sighed dramatically. "Stars above, we have so much work to do."
Queen Hania watched from nearby, occasionally offering gentle corrections that Mist immediately translated into harsher language. It was like having a good cop and a drill sergeant cop.
"Power flows from the ground, through your legs, up your spine, and out through your arm," Mist explained, demonstrating with a slow-motion punch. "Your fist is just the delivery mechanism. The real force comes from your whole body working together. Watch."
He threw a full-speed punch at the air, and Krad actually heard the sound of displaced atmosphere cracking like a whip.
"Now you try. And remember... whole body, not just arm."
Krad planted his feet, focused on feeling the connection between the ground and his fist, and threw a punch.
It was better. Not good, but better.
"Again," Mist commanded. "And this time, rotate your hips more. The hip rotation is what really adds power."
They practiced basic strikes for over an hour, punches, kicks, elbow strikes, knee strikes. Each one broken down into its component parts, analyzed, corrected, and practiced until Krad's muscles remembered the movements even when his brain was too tired to think.
"You're still telegraphing," Mist said eventually. "Your shoulder moves before your fist. Any fighter worth their salt will see it coming."
[ System Alpha: Analysis: User's strike initiation time is 0.3 seconds slower than optimal. ]
"How do I punch without moving my shoulder?" Krad asked in frustration.
"You don't." Mist grinned. "You learn to make the telegraph look like something else. Fake with your shoulder going left, strike right. Or better yet, make every movement look like a telegraph so your opponent can't tell which one's real."
He demonstrated, his shoulder twitching in three different directions before his actual punch came from a fourth angle entirely.
"That looks impossible," Krad said.
"It's not. It just takes practice." Mist's expression turned serious. "And that's what we're doing. Building muscle memory so that when Liyab is trying to burn your face off, your body knows what to do even when your mind is panicking."
---
Hour 8
"Again," Mist commanded.
Krad picked himself up from the ground for what felt like the hundredth time. His entire body ached, but Kora's healing had left him with deep reserves of stamina he hadn't possessed before.
"This is ridiculous," he gasped. "How is learning to fall supposed to help me fight?"
"Because you're going to fall a lot," Mist said matter-of-factly. "Liyab is faster than you, stronger than you, and more experienced than you. You will get hit. The question is whether you stay down."
He demonstrated, allowing himself to fall backward and immediately rolling back to his feet in one fluid motion. "See? Momentum maintained, defensive posture restored, ready to counter."
Krad tried it. He fell backward, started to roll, and somehow ended up flat on his face.
[ System Buddy: That was... special! ]
"Your weight distribution is off," Queen Hania observed gently. "You're thinking about the fall instead of the recovery."
"How very zen," Krad muttered into the dirt.
"She's right though," Mist said. "Stop trying to control every part of the movement. Trust your body to know what to do."
"My body wants to stay on the ground and cry."
"Then your body is a quitter." Mist hauled him up by his collar. "Again."
By the thirtieth attempt, something clicked. Krad fell, his body automatically curled, and he rolled back to his feet without consciously thinking about it.
[ Skill Acquired: Basic Recovery ]
[ Effect: Reduces fall damage by 25%. Faster recovery time when knocked down. ]
"Finally," Mist said with approval. "Now we can move on to the fun part."
"Fun?" Krad asked warily.
Mist's grin was absolutely evil. "Dodging practice."
---
Hour 14
Three versions of Mist attacked from different angles, their swords moving in perfect coordination.
Krad activated Moon Step, launching himself vertically to avoid the strikes. Thanks to Kora's healing, his mana flowed smoothly, the skill activating without the strain he'd felt before. He came down behind one clone, his fist glowing with silver light---
The clone dispersed into mist and reformed instantly, its blade already swinging for his exposed back.
"Predictable!" all three Mists shouted in unison.
Krad activated Evade again, dodging sideways. His mana was dropping, but not as desperately fast as before.
[ Mana: 680/1000 ]
"Better stamina management," the real Mist called from where he sat watching. "But you're still relying too much on your skills. Every time you use Evade, that's mana you can't use for attacks. Learn to dodge normally first, use skills to enhance, not replace, basic movement."
"Normally?!" Krad yelped as a clone's sword whistled past his ear. "They're trying to kill me!"
"No, they're trying to teach you."
Krad didn't see much difference as he desperately scrambled away from another coordinated assault. The clones moved like they shared one mind, which, technically, they did. Every gap he tried to exploit closed instantly. Every counter he attempted was parried before he fully committed.
"Stop thinking so much!" Mist barked. "You're giving yourself away!"
"How do I stop thinking?!"
"By doing!" Queen Hania called out. "Let your body remember what your mind hasn't learned yet!"
Krad took a breath, trying to clear his thoughts. The clones attacked again, and instead of planning his dodge, he just... moved. His body twisted sideways, not Evade, just pure physical movement, and one sword missed by inches. He ducked under the second, felt the wind of its passage ruffle his hair. The third came from behind, and he dropped into a roll that took him between the clone's legs.
For ten glorious seconds, he avoided all three clones without using a single skill.Then he tried to get fancy with a counter-attack and got smacked in the ribs by the flat of a blade.
[ Damage Received: 120 HP ]
[ Health: 880/1000 ]
"Better," Mist said, and genuine approval colored his voice. "That instinctive movement, that's what you need to cultivate."
"The part where I got hit?"
"The part before that, where you stopped trying to be smart and started trusting yourself." Mist dismissed the clones with a wave. "Take five minutes, drink some water. Then we work on offense."
Krad collapsed onto a broken pillar. Queen Hania approached with a waterskin and what looked like a slightly less sad piece of dried meat than yesterday.
"You're improving rapidly," she said. "Kora's healing did more than restore your body, it seems to have cleared some kind of blockage in your mana pathways. You're channeling power more efficiently."
[ System Alpha: Confirmed. Mana efficiency increased by 23% post-healing. ]
"So she didn't just heal me," Krad said slowly. "She... optimized me?"
"In a sense." Hania smiled. "Blood Transfer doesn't just repair damage, it restores you to your ideal state. Every fighter has small inefficiencies in how their body processes mana. Kora's technique smoothed those out."
Krad looked toward the alcove where Kora lay sleeping, Dani keeping watch beside her.
"I have to make this worth it," he whispered.
"Then stop resting," Mist called out. "Five minutes are up! Time to learn how to actually hurt something!"