I stand across the field from Jack, my feet planted on the ground, as we face off. In a flash, he disappears from my vision, reappearing to deliver a blow to my gut, knocking me off balance and launching me backwards. Tucking into a quick roll, I return to my feet just in time to deflect his follow-up punch.

"Hah, your learning only took you a couple weeks!" Grinning Jack spins, aiming a kick at my stomach. With a quick side step, I launch a punch into his face. "Hah, far too early to let you hit me yet, lad!" With a slight tilt of his head, my punch sails past him as he turns and hits me with a glowing backhand, my mouth giving a sickening crack and sending me flying across the field.

"I'm pretty sure this is what a toddler feels like versus a pitbull named Princess," I thought before coming crashing to the ground. Despite the pain in my jaw, which is now definitely broken, I quickly got to my feet. Jack showed me the first few days that no matter the injury, he would not stop.

- 2 weeks ago -

"Right now we are in the magical barrier I have set up to train you; time goes slightly slower in here and keeps unwanted spectators out," Jack explains, standing across from me in some sort of robe I've never seen before. Imagine a martial arts robe, and you're pretty much there, except he's still got his cap on.

"While we are in here, I'm going to teach you how to fight in melee and how to use internal magic first." He begins by holding up his hand as a glowing blue light runs up his hands, almost like veins. "This is reinforcing magic; it enables you to strengthen your body to easily take blows without them leaving a scratch, but it can also be used like this." launching a fist into the tree, a small, fist-sized hole appears in it. "This is without it, and this is with it." With a grunt, he strikes the tree again, but this time the tree completely breaks and falls over.

Open-mouthed, I look at Jack and say, "Damn, that's cool." Inspecting the base of the tree, I can see that it was blown off, leaving a stump on the floor. "While that's cool, why am I learning this first? Would it be better to keep things out of combat range?" That's the whole point of mages? backline fighters and all that.

"Most new mages never focus on self-defense, falling into a nasty habit of thinking that as long as they can learn damaging range spells, no one can get them." Scoffing at the idea, Jack continues, "If they don't die from this, they soon learn that those who don't use magic always have wasy to counter those that keep their distance. For example, the blue glow goes from his hands and flows down to his feet." Moving the reinforcement magic down to your feet lets you go from being at normal speeds." faster than my eyes could track, he disappeared only to reappeared next to me. A small shockwave followed, whipping the air around me into a craze before settling.

"Now, luckily for you, you seem to have inherited your dad's frankly scary ability to control mana as some sort of bloodline, hence why your eyes have changed color to deep purple. It wouldn't surprise me if, in your history, you had a powerful mage ancestor." Listening to the explanation, I take mental notes, and a small part of me is happy to have something to share with my dad.

"So I can use Mana easier? What do you mean by that? I'm guessing I can't just point and do whatever I like," I question.
"You have an inherent affinity for mana. It's easier for you than most people; at least it's easier to control it." he elaborates, "But no, you need to have some understanding of what you're trying to accomplish. You can't just point and do whatever you want." Continuing on, he takes his hands into mine. "I want you to try to feel for yourself, close your eyes, and feel inside yourself. Imagine going back to the night with the devil and focusing on the emotions you felt.".

I closed my eyes and focused on the night I almost died. I can feel the fear and pain, the helplessness and anger, all combining to form a raging inferno. I can feel something rising to the top, but Jack's words come to me. "Focus on the emotion... Don't let it control you. Look below the anger. Where does the power come from? What do you see?" I concentrate once more, focusing on the rage and anger, trying to see past them to the cause.

"There you go." As my mind is filled with images of space and endless galaxies and solar systems, a strange and surreal feeling washes over my body. It feels as if I'm standing in the midst of the universe, surrounded by an unfathomable vastness and mystery. It's a powerful and indescribable sensation, like nothing I've ever experienced before.
Opening my eyes once more, I see my hands glowing faintly purple, as if imbued with the power of the stars themselves. When I attempt to move the power around my body, I encounter resistance, as if trying to push over a mountain. "Guide it." Jack had said, "Do not push it. It's part of you, like breathing... You don't force yourself to breathe." I tried to allow the power to flow naturally, like one's breath, in response to my intention rather than my will.

Grinning, I let out a laugh. "HAHA, I'm doing it; do you see Grandad?" With childlike joy, I hop around, moving the flow to parts of my body. Shaking his head, Jack looks at me with a strange smile.

Jack's words were encouraging, and I felt a certain sense of optimism despite still being in unfamiliar territory. "You've learned the basic way to feel and move your mana, and it will be up to you to train it. You can try to get it moving faster—but that will require practice, training, and dedication." calming yourself down, but still keeping a smile that won't go away, I run to Jack and ask, "So how do I do the reinforcement magic?"

Jack stood straighter and held out his hand, explaining the steps of reinforcement magic. "It's simple in concept yet challenging in practice," he stated. "Like the control method I've taught you, you must use intent to guide the mana to the desired area of your body. The process so far is straightforward." He paused before continuing. "But it's the final part that is so frustrating and demanding. To truly enhance the desired body part, you must use your will and command the mana to take shape."

Jack holds out his fist once more, allowing the blue light to envelope it once again. "Now the mana is in place, and you have to enforce your willpower upon it." He explains. "Think of a concept, something you wish to embody, be it steel or anything else; what matters is what you believe to be strong." He paused, letting the blue light continue to fill his hand. "Then strike!" and like that, another tree met its end at his fists.

"The process remains the same for each part you wish to reinforce." He continued, explaining how the concept of "fast" can be subjective and how the reference points could differ depending on the individual. "The more you practice and experience, the more references you can draw from. With time, you can even combine them to achieve even more powerful results.

In an attempt to put Jack's instructions into practice, I failed miserably, leaving me confused and uncertain. I turned to Jack for help, my expression changing when he smiled. "That's the even tougher part for you," he explained. "I'm going to make sure you can reinforce it in your sleep, if necessary."

Shivering at the sight of Jack's sadistic grin and his unexpected words, I couldn't manage to respond in time before my stomach exploded into agony, and I went flying backwards. I lay on the ground, curled in a ball and clutching my stomach, gasping for air, and when I looked up, I saw a foot coming at my face. "I'm going to beat the shit out of you until you learn to protect yourself."

-present time -

With nothing but a grunt, I attempted to brace myself as the old man-shaped missile was coming at me. Thinking of something unmoving, like a mountain, I focused all my intention on my stomach, envisioning it as something that would remain unshakeable, a mountain that would not budge. "I WILL NOT MOVE." I silently commanded the power, refusing to give an inch. NOW!

My eyes snapped open as Jack suddenly reappeared and delivered a powerful punch to my stomach. The blow hurt, but it didn't send me flying, only knocking the wind out of me. Instead, it felt as if I had simply received a normal punch.
I was just about to move when an unexpected headbutt knocked me back to the ground, and I tried my best to stay conscious as the world started spinning.
"You did it," Jack praised me, "but you were so shocked, you lost focus and allowed me the opening to hit you again." He continued to explain. "Losing focus like that can get you killed in a real fight." He paused, looking down at me with a smile. "But I have to admit, you've learned this faster than most others could. You have a bullshit bloodline for sure."
As I attempted to reply, I realized my jaw was broken and managed to get out a garbled mess." Gesturing to it, I silently prayed that Jack would understand what I meant. Rolling his eyes, he began to cast strange glyphs and symbols, which began floating around me before a green beam flowed into my mouth. Realizing it was Jack's healing magic, I winced in pain but felt grateful nonetheless as it began to mend my broken jaw.

"Your lucky it's me training you; with my bloodline, you can train for longer and more effectively than the vast majority of others, which is mixed with yours for learning at an astounding rate," he explains. Rubbing my jaw "Yeah, so lucky. After endless hours of being beaten to a pulp, I'm just pouring out luck."
With a hearty laugh, Jack helped me to my feet. "At this rate," he continued, "in a few more weeks, we can move onto some other spells and reduce sparring to every other day." His words were encouraging, even if tinged with some sarcasm.

I attempted to go through the motions of casting the enhancement spell once again, this time successfully managing to reinforce my stomach. Looking up at Jack, he places his hand on my stomach, fliching as I expected to get slapped to the moon. Nodding, "Well done; with more practice, youll be able to shrug off some decent hits," giving a little fist pump and victory dance.
Freezinga's hand grabs my shoulder. "However, now you need to work on both the reinforcements and quicker, effortless casting." Jack's voice gently cuts down on any excitement I feel. "Think fast"—quickly trying to cast reinfcoement on my back, I was lauched by a kick once again.

Grinning and with a sigh, "Back to it, I suppose..."