I was lying in bed all morning, depressed that Uncle left me alone now too. This wasn’t the first time I’d separated from him, but it felt different for some reason. Any other time we were apart was accidental. But this time it was intentional.

  Samael tried his best to cheer me up by pressing the room service button on the phone and having them bring me breakfast. I had no idea how he managed to get them to do that as a snake, but those servants were quick to bring me a pretty big feast.

  Even still, none of it looked appetizing in this manic state. I much preferred to just lay down and sulk, squeezing my stuffed unicorn plushie.

  “Poor thing…” When Yamin discovered I didn’t come for breakfast, she began comforting me. It wasn’t making me feel much better, but it wasn’t making it worse, so I allowed it.

  “She’s just being weak,” Indena put a thumb to her chest and tilted her head up proudly. “Everyone needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning, even when they’re sad. For me, it’s training to get stronger. It should be the same for her, since she needs to protect people.”

  Surprisingly good advice, but usually Uncle and I would train in the evening, which just reminded me that he wasn't here right now. I sighed in response and covered my head with the covers.

  “I want Uncle back…” I curled up. “I want to see daddy again too…”

  Yamin’s hand brushed across the covers over my head.

  “Stop coddling her!” Indena ordered. “You think she has time to cry while those demons get stronger out there? If the government guys and mafia knew about her abilities, they will too. She has to one up them or she’ll get stomped.”

  Tinges of anxiety panged in my chest, threatening to explode into far worse concern as I considered Indena’s warning. It didn’t change my sorrow much, but I couldn’t lay still anymore.

  “Well, why not train her yourself?” Yamin said, looking at Indena.

  “Yeah, alright. The Shrimp and me will do some sparring. Be better practice than that stupid cat witch was, so I’m game.”

  Indena ended up presenting it as a command to me, which played on the Second Commandment. I had to do it now. But I wasn’t fully convinced on my own, not with my mind so out of sorts. A line of code could only take my motivation so far.

  “Look, if you beat me, you’ll have all the right in the world to sit around and mope like a bum, since you’d prove you're stronger.” She lifted a taunting finger my way, wiggling it back and forth to tease me. “But if you lose…” her finger pointed straight at me now, “you become my student.”

  “What?!”

  That evolution of Yamin’s plan seemed a bit extreme. I didn’t want to be sad the rest of my life, so why would she make that a reward?

  You know what? I think she was trying to say that there wasn’t a chance she’d lose!

  “I can beat you with my eyes closed,” I told her, jumping up from under my covers. “Remember how I beat a demon lord?”

  “Tch…” she clicked her tongue. “You call that a win? You must be dreaming. If you're so confident, let’s see you do it again.”

  “You’re on!” I pointed at her, now encouraged by my own will to jump into the ring!

  ~☆☆☆~

  There was a small sporting stadium next to the house that we were allowed to take over for a sparring match. It had some impressive magical safeguards, preventing any trouble from reaching the audience.

  Everyone was invited to watch. The ones that showed up were Yamin, Marek, Adalyn, Miss Cynthia, even Miss Lauri before she had to leave to hunt for a mana cave. A few of the other hired hands around the house were refereeing our match closely.

  “It’s cool of you to let them use this stadium, Adalyn,” Yamin said. "Not that fighting is my thing..."

  “Oh, it was nothing, my lil’ Yamy.” Adalyn launched at Yamin and took her in a tight embrace. “Anything to see all the smiles and entertainment on yall’s face!”

  “Save some room for me!” Miss Lauri joined her in the hug, effectively suffocating any chance of Yamin’s escape.

  It was almost like a little battle was going on in the stands over Yamin. She wasn’t a plushie they could squeeze whenever they got stressed!

  “Besides, I’ve wanted to see what that little sweetheart and her lil’ fireball friend can do. They look so strong.” Adalyn gave a thumbs up to the male servant acting as our ref, which he returned with a wink. “I love learning about strong people and all, you know?” she gave Marek some really flirty looks… He just blushed.

  “Ehem…” Miss Cynthia cleared her throat. “Lady Adalyn has a fondness for these sorts of battles and often sponsors mixed magical martial arts tournaments.”

  “Indeed I do!” she uttered proudly.

  “I never would have taken you for that type,” Marek said.

  “And how ever would I see handsome fellows bare their muscles and wrestle out their differences otherwise?” She revealed. “Now, why don’t we get this battle on!”

  While they were conversing up there, Indena was teaching me a few different types of stretches to loosen up before a fight. She very clearly expressed that no matter what sort of being I was, preparing for a battle was a must unless I wanted to cramp up or get sore.

  “Respect your body and it’ll respect you back,” she said, stretching her arms out and twisting her body from side to side.

  “Right!” I followed her motion, slapping my cheeks to psych myself up after.

  When she claimed to be done showing me, we both took positions at opposite sides of the arena.

  “Oi!” she announced. “This is a real fight! Don’t hold back on me, give me your all!”

  “Same here!” I threw a fist in the air.

  As long as I didn’t kill her, this fight was totally within my ability. The excitement I felt was such a rush, like I really needed to get my blood pumping.

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  Before we began, Indena bowed. I followed the same motion. Then the ref raised up a flag and held it up high, ready to signal the start of our match.

  Things got quiet with anticipation. Then finally he lowered the flag, signaling the match to officially start.

  My wings blasted me forward fast, launching me toward Indena, who stood there with a smile on her face.

  I reeled back my right fist for an inner punch on her to finish this in one hit, but the moment it was meant to collide with her, she vanished!

  “Huh?!”

  Her left foot suddenly connected hard with the back of my neck, forcing me toward the ground. I crashed into the stadium floor, kicking up dust and eating stone tiles.

  “Oh no!” Yamin shouted. “Don’t hurt her, Indena! She’s just a kid!”

  “Yamin…” Marek spoke up. “Don’t forget that she isn’t just a normal child. Yalda is an exceed, no?”

  “Yeah, but…” Yamin uttered with deep conflict, clinging closely to her backpack. “I can’t help watching a kid get hurt, I guess…”

  Despite her worry, I certainly wasn’t going down that easy.

  “Shrimp, am I too much for you already?” Indena snickered.

  I rose back to my feet, dusting myself off and preparing for more.

  “You hit like a lizzarat!”

  “Then I guess it’s time to turn the heat up a notch!”

  With our taunting, the fight was back on. This time Indena was the one to race forward and send a left fisted strike.

  I was all ready to block the punch and use it as an excuse to retaliate with my own, but a wave of instinctual fear forced me to dodge instead, just in time too.

  The force of her punch sent a pressured blast of air forward. The magical barrier protecting the stands lit up as her focused force struck it.

  I grit my teeth as I realized how outclassed I was just with that punch alone. Incredible.

  “Hey, are you paying attention?” she snickered, flipping into the air and bringing a kick down on me while I was looking the other way. My forearms raised just in time to catch the attack.

  This time I couldn’t dodge, taking all the nasty force of her hit. It felt like a wave of pure devastating energy just blasted straight through my arms and tore up the rest of my body. Had my bones not been indestructible, they would have surely been dust.

  A natural grunt of pain released from my mouth, preventing me from responding to her with words.

  I used my forearms and my wings to shove Indena forward and get distance. Then once the terrible sting of having my insides scrambled faded, I went into a wobbly karate stance to prepare for more action.

  I sent out a right hook, but she evaded it by quickly sliding behind me, shooting a right fist uppercut to my jaw. My left arm made a weak attempt to block it, but just tapped her forearm, unable to match her speed or power.

  That punch to my jaw sent me up in the air. She followed it up by combining fists and slamming them down on the back of my head, folding me forward. With a roundhouse kick she launched me again, allowing me a little distance to collect myself.

  How is it possible I suck this bad?! I fought a demon lord!

  Her once cocky smirk turned serious, almost crossing the line into boredom.

  “Is this really all you’ve got?” she grumbled in disappointment. “Pathetic. Some angel you are, trying to play it off like you can save humanity. You can’t even beat a measly human like me! Maybe you should just go crying to daddy to fix all your problems.”

  Now I was angry. She was touching nerves that were best left alone.

  “You jerk!” I shouted.

  “Just because you beat a few weaklings before, that doesn’t suddenly make you the greatest thing ever,” she continued. “I’m cocky on the surface, but I know when I’m out matched and need to push my limits!”

  She was absolutely right. I’d been letting my prior win against a demon lord carry me forward, not realizing that memories of victory wouldn’t be enough to give me more. If I wanted a win here, if I wanted to protect humanity, I needed to focus and get myself together.

  -Combat Mode : Active-

  I clenched up my body and let out a groan as my main combat systems activated. All my muscles swelled up, being supported by incredible amounts of mana flowing through my veins. All the senses of my body heightened, allowing me to be at my best state.

  My eyes and heart were glowing brighter, along with my body becoming ever so slightly bigger to account for the increased muscle mass.

  Her smirk returned, but only in the ever most slight form.

  “Now are you serious?” she asked.

  “Affirmative,” I replied in a robotic tone. “I’m always serious!”

  I dashed forward and dished out a flurry of blows. Within the span of a blink she was pressured by the sudden onslaught and coiled up her arms in a full defense. The first few strikes hit across her torso, landing me my first damaging touches, but she quickly found the resolve to block the rest with less stress. It got to the point that she was even able to just dodge them now.

  To take off a hint of the pressure, she ignited her flame aura and caused an explosive wave to repulse me backwards.

  “There we go!” she lowered her head and gave a confident grin. “Now things are burning up!”

  Her flame aura turned focused and began to quickly rise around her body like a powerful bonfire. She went into her own combat stance and stood proud, ready to continue our fight.

  Both of us were back at it in seconds, this time closer in power, but me still lacking the edge. Unlike before it wasn’t as one sided, but the closest I came to actually dealing a good hit was a punch to her left shoulder that she failed to vanish away from. She wasn’t the least bit phased, likely because her fire aura absorbed the damage.

  Seeing as she was focused on that part of her, she used her left arm to reel back for a punch. I was ready to high block, but was shocked to find her left foot in my gut instead.

  “Got you!” She barraged me with flame fueled attacks all over in the confusion. I was suddenly at her mercy.

  “She tricked her, making it look like she was going to punch!” Yamin stomped her foot. “That’s not fair!”

  “Oh, is it?” Miss Lauri said. “Nobody ever said you couldn’t fake out like that.”

  Yamin was baffled, letting her jaw fall and her eyes judgmentally stare at her mother. “Mom, you can’t tell me you're okay with her beating up Yalda.”

  “Indena was right about something…” Miss Lauri said. “If Yalda wants to protect the world, she can’t be weak. She needs to taste reality or give up her birthright.”

  Indena had me good, kicking me around like I was nothing more than a punching bag. There had to be an opening in her attacks I could exploit.

  Lines of light appeared all over my vision, tracing out and predicting paths that Indena’s attacks were likely to strike from. Realization set in that my body hadn’t just been absorbing hits, it was actually paying attention and learning about her fighting style on its own.

  My arm raised up and blocked her high punch, finally breaking her combo of hits. She was surprised, but not the least bit slowed enough to halt her aggression. My combat systems weren’t perfect, but they were accurately predicting about thirty percent of her attacks.

  The more I was able to block, the more I saw what she was capable of… And the more I knew she could do, the more I could block. It was a very quick learning cycle. Openings were revealed in her assault. Whether from exhaustion or from flaws in her technique, I had options to finally deal out damage.

  As advised by my combat systems, I flipped to the side with my wings to avoid her, then sent a kick into her face as I passed by, dragging her along and sending her down to the ground.

  Catching herself, she landed and did a series of flips back to her starting point.

  Although her aura held strong, a tiny hint of blood dripped down her nose, rewarding me with the sight of visible damage for my efforts.

  “Not bad,” she wiped away the blood. “Watch your enemy. Find their mistakes. Punish them for it.”

  “I’m sure there’s plenty more mistakes I’ll find in your technique,” I smirked, letting a little emotion spill into my normally analytical combat mode.

  “That’s the spirit,” she grinned. “But let's see if you can back those words up with the same fight!”

  -A Painful Lesson-

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