The muffled sound of wooden impacts against the mystical barrier echoed through the training courtyard, marking the exhausting rhythm of our routine. Sweat ran down my face, mixing with the controlled humidity of the environment, while my muscles protested against the invisible resistance of gravity and the simulated pressure of that underwater courtyard. Every step required twice the usual effort of the surface; every thrust seemed to cut through an invisible wall of dense mud.
Scarlett advanced with impressive speed, spinning her treated wooden training sword in a perfect downward arc. Her movements, although slowed by the density of the submerged air, carried surgical precision. I channeled the new bluish mana I had been learning to master, shaping a compact shield directly at the point of impact. The mechanical collision vibrated through the bones of my arm, pushing me two steps backward across the limestone floor.
"Your stance is too high, Takumi!" Scarlett warned, rotating her body with agility and using her own momentum to deliver a low sweeping lateral strike. "If you don't sink your base into the same line as the current, the weight of the blade will throw your body off balance before you can counterattack."
I bent my knees, allowing the weight of my torso to align with the base of my legs, and used the viscous energy of the environment to my advantage, cushioning Scarlett's approach. Instead of blocking directly, I used my left palm coated in mana to deflect the trajectory of her wooden sword, opening her guard for a fraction of a second.
Before I could take advantage of the opening, a golden shadow crossed my peripheral vision. Rai'kanna entered the battle with an imposing leap, landing with both feet firmly on the ground before throwing a direct punch toward my chest. Her raw physical strength, enhanced by continuous training beneath the ocean, displaced a heavy mass of air that nearly suffocated me even before contact.
I raised both arms in a cross, concentrating the flow of mana from the inside out, just as Elara had instructed the previous day. Rai'kanna's fist collided with my forearms with the force of a battering ram. The impact generated a shockwave that caused the courtyard's wall runes to flash in shades of violet, but this time, my legs planted firmly on the polished stone did not give way even a single centimeter.
"Excellent stabilization!" Rai'kanna exclaimed, displaying a broad smile of satisfaction as she took two steps back to regain her stance. "You finally stopped fighting against the density of the sea and started using it as a supporting armor."
Away from the central combat area, the other girls watched the technical evolution with focused attention. Elara kept her eyes fixed on the movement of my feet, mentally noting the balance corrections. Liriel remained with her staff resting on the ground, sending small pulses of mystical diagnostics through the floor to monitor the strain on my internal energy channels. Beside her, her assistant followed every collision with enthusiasm, transcribing the dissipation speed of the blue mana onto her leather scrolls.
Lyannis, leaning against one of the coral support columns, spun a small blunted dagger between her fingers, wearing an amused expression. "His muscular coordination has visibly improved since yesterday. The hero's rhythm now follows the movement of the tides outside in an almost poetic way."
Vespera remained behind Lyannis, her eyes half-closed as she focused specifically on my reaction time. "The defense is solid, but real battles do not allow time for static preparation. He needs to learn to transition from containment to offense without breaking the flow of his breathing."
Accepting the implicit challenge in Vespera's words, I took a deep breath, allowing the mana accumulated in my reserves to circulate continuously, without interruptions or sudden surges of strength. I looked at Scarlett and Rai'kanna, signaling with a firm nod that I was ready for the next level of the mystical simulation.
Both advanced simultaneously from opposite directions. Scarlett delivered a rapid sequence of three linear thrusts aimed at my vital points, while Rai'kanna attempted to surround my escape routes with low sweeping strikes. I moved with unprecedented lightness, gliding across the limestone floor as if I were floating upon the tide itself. I dodged the first blade with a slight rotation of my shoulders, used a pulse of compressive mana to deflect Scarlett's second strike, and intercepted Rai'kanna's low kick by firmly stepping onto the base of her leg before the movement could gain full force.
At the same instant, I expanded the bluish energy to a radius of three meters around my body. The controlled explosion was not intended to hurt them, but to create a hydrostatic dragging wave that destabilized both of their balance, forcing them to retreat so they would not lose their footing.
The courtyard fell into absolute silence, broken only by the sound of our heavy breathing gradually stabilizing. Scarlett lowered her wooden sword, looking at her own hands and then at me, with a glimmer of deep respect in her brown eyes.
"The evolution was clear, Takumi," Scarlett declared, sheathing the training weapon at her waist with a clean gesture. "You absorbed the essence of this environment in record time. Your physical strength and reaction speed are far superior to what they were when we crossed the kingdom's gates."
Liriel approached the center of the courtyard, deactivating the diagnostic flows from her staff while her assistant closed the heavy journal of notes with a firm snap. "The mystical test confirms the result, my lord. Your mana channels have expanded their retention capacity by thirty percent due to the underwater compression effort. Your strikes on the surface will be devastatingly faster from now on."
I felt the residual energy settle in my chest, filling my body with a sensation of firm, controlled power, free of fluctuations. I looked at each of my companions gathered there, seeing in each of their eyes the same certainty that the exhausting effort of that morning had brought us to a completely new and indestructible level of military readiness.