Enchark: Painful combat training

It has been 4 days since Mimi forced Karlyle into a rough training schedule. Every now and then, Foster would join him in training so Karlyle gets experience with fighting other kinetics rather than just Mimi's.

Foster's kinetic was something completely else. By simply looking at Karlyle, he could inflict mental pain on him. Of course, the pain level wasn't anything excessive as Foster didn't want to hurt his friend too much.

Karlyle's immediate reaction the first time he had succumbed to Foster's mental pain infliction was: "WHAT THE F*&$ UGHHH STOP IT YOU F%$!^) SON OF A B£&^" and multiple other curses while clutching his head and falling down to the floor.

Foster's kinetic naturally outclassed Karlyle's by ability but the limitation Foster had made it hard to do this for prolonged amounts of time. More specifically, Foster's concentration must remain on his targets and he can not blink or look away from them.

Using his odynokinesis helped him to learn to keep his eyes open for amounts of time that are longer than the average. It easily made it hard to beat him in staring contests.

"I sure hope I don't go up against a kinetic like yours."

"Hopefully you won't have to but you'll manage if you do."

"I didn't win against you once, literally not once."

"I meant you'll manage to keep your rankings."

"Hmph."

"This was the last time we can train together before the 2nd round. Since it is coming up, my shifts will be way longer. I don't know why but Enchark's defense protocols have like doubled when the tourney's duration got increased."

"Probably something to do with the enchantment malfunctions."

"I guess, I wonder what happened."

Foster passed Karlyle some water and a towel.

"Now I have a headache because of your kinetic."

"Heh sorry, I tried to limit myself."

"Guess I just lack mental durability then."

Foster chuckled before leaving the training room. As he left, Mimi came in.

"Your 2 hours with me start now."

"Foster is, truly, way worse to fight."

"The pain he causes is only mental, mine will be physical."

Her lips curled into a horrid grin after she made that slight threat. The devilish smile made her look like an unfortunate lovechild of the Grinch and the Cheshire Cat.

"Can you at least let this headache pass first?"

"Hmm fine."

The Mimi that was excited to fight with Karlyle was forced to endure another 10 minutes of waiting before she could start to beat her friend up guilt-free. Fighting with Karlyle was an enjoyable activity for both her and Foster but that joy manifested from different origins.

For Foster it was the only way to spend time with Karlyle without interrupting his training so he looked forward to every fight. However, for Mimi it was just her urge to fight someone. Sure she didn't want to participate in the tourney or even be in the tourney arena, but she still enjoyed fighting people, if we were to be more specific, she enjoys defeating people.

"You ready Lyle?"

"Go all out this time."

"You sure?"

Mimi's left eyebrow naturally raised, questioning if Karlyle was an idiot or a masochist.

"Yes."

"Alright then, let's go!"

Karlyle shot his hand forward to release a fireball but his hand was pushed up to the ceiling, causing the fireball to fly to that instead. Punches and kicks from all sides stormed Karlyle's body. He couldn't even see where they were coming from. The force applied to his limbs was rough and prevented him from fighting back. Karlyle felt like nothing more than a punching bag.

Once the barrage ended, Karlyle's body fell limp to the floor. He could barely move a muscle without it hurting. Mimi's body finally appeared in front of him. She rolled her shoulders and watched the helpless fool on the floor.

"Did you forget my rank is over 250,000 above Foster for a reason?"

She slightly tilted her head to the right and grinned, no helping hand was offered by her.

"I'm sorry for underestimating you."

"You should also be sorry for overestimating yourself. Doing that in the tourney would've definitely caused a similar outcome to this."

Mimi walked away from the beaten body on the floor to drink some water. The healing enchantment of the training room kicked in as it sensed Karlyle's physical pain and helped him to regain enough strength to stand up.

"How quickly did your tourney rounds go?"

"Only one lasted longer than 30 seconds and it was because the guy had super speed so he managed to keep up with me, but in the end I won anyway."

"You were that adamant to win?"

"Nah not really. I just enjoy fighting people and I couldn't hold back."

"Would've never expected to hear those words from you."

Karlyle was referring to the former part of the sentence as he definitely believed the latter. The few days he's known Mimi were enough to show her energy was not something she could control. The fighting part though? He did not expect that from someone as kind as her.

"Do you have a name for this teleporting barrage technique you use?"

"I don't since I'm not 12 anymore and I don't obsess over that stuff," the realisation hit, "do you name the things you do with your pyrokinesis?!"

Mimi was visibly on the verge of laughing for god knows how long.

"What? No! I was just asking sheesh..."

"Yeah sure. Are you healed up now?"

"Think so, rematch then?"

"Obviously, we still have over an hour and a half to fill. Want me to not hold back?"

"No, please no. I don't want to feel that ever again in my life."

Mimi laughed at his pleading.

"Alright alright I'll hold back. Are you ready?"

Karlyle got into a fighting stance.

"Yeah."

Mimi's body dispersed into dust and recollected behind Karlyle who felt her presence come back. There was an obvious difference now in her attack speed. Karlyle turned around sharply, punching away her kick with his left hand and releasing a stream of fire towards her with his right.

Successfully dodging the attack, Mimi dispersed into dust and recollected in the same location once Karlyle's fire extinguished. This time, Karlyle didn't have enough time to protect himself as once a kick was blocked, another one immediately followed.

Karlyle stumbled to the side and swung his arm towards Mimi, creating a sort of fiery whip that cracked when it hit the floor that Mimi was just standing on. She appeared in front of him, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it. This action released his control over the whip and caused it to fall to the ground and flicker before putting itself out.

With her free hand, Mimi punched Karlyle's ribcage causing him to fall to the opposite side. She teleported to Karlyle's other side and punched his ribcage on that side as well, pushing him back to stand upright. The pain from both sides of his torso was excruciating but Karlyle had to win. Even while holding back, Mimi was definitely a tough opponent but that didn't mean he couldn't aim for victory.

Karlyle somehow managed to burst flames out of his body without any physical movement. It was rare for him to do this as he always had to do some sort of movement to guide the flame.

"Wow, you managed to use your kinetic without moving? Good job!"

Mimi remained unharmed by the outburst as she just dispersed before it hit her and recollected after it passed. Karlyle's back was facing towards her so she karate-kicked him right in the middle. It caused his spine to arch forward and his body to fall forwards to the floor.

"Point down."

Mimi started to walk back to her side to get a sip of water, being around so much fire made her feel easily dehydrated.

"N-no," Karlyle objected.

He got up from the floor and extended his arm towards Mimi's back. From his palm, a tornado of fire erupted quickly moving towards Mimi. With barely any time to evade, Mimi managed to disperse but a piece of her outfit was burnt once she reappeared.

"Hey, that's playing dirty!"

"In the tourney I'll only lose if I get knocked out or surrender."

"That is true, till knock out it is."

Mimi teleported onto the floor in front of Karlyle and spun her body with her leg extended. Her leg hit Karlyle's ankles and caused him to fall to the ground. When his body hit the floor, it released another outburst of fire that Mimi, like previously, easily dodged. Karlyle used fire jets to quickly get up from the floor before Mimi could force him to remain down.

When Karlyle felt Mimi reappear near him, he released another outburst but this time he had to use his hands to do so. He pushed them out as if trying to force open a double door. Mimi was in the middle of attacking Karlyle so her reaction to the outburst wasn't quick enough, causing some more fabric to burn. She teleported to her side of the arena, inspecting the training outfit that she paid for. If Foster paid for it she wouldn't care about damages but this was hard earned money we're talking about.

"How is your body never burnt but your clothes are!"

"Why do you want to burn my body so badly psycho..?"

Mimi was patting the dust off her clothes that accumulated due to the burnt fabric.

"I'm pretty sure if not for the healing enchantments I'd be in the hospital throughout this entire month because of you."

"Fair enough."

"Before we continue, would you be able to beat Foster?"

"Of course, due to the speed of my teleports he would never concentrate on me, therefore he can't use his kinetic on me."

"I sure don't want to become your enemy."

"That's right! Now, can we continue? I'm having fun."

"That makes one of us... sure," Karlyle muttered the beginning part so she wouldn't hear him.

Mimi was about to teleport again but Karlyle quickly shouted, "WAIT!"

"What now?"

"How did you not get recruited into the Elite corps?"

Karlyle was simply stalling. His instinct to survive caused him to prolong the time before he had to fight such a monster again, but he was also curious to know the answer.

"I did, my mother however denied the offer and I didn't want to join them anyway. They kept pestering us for a few years after that but they gave up eventually."

"You like fighting though so why not join the corps?"

"Ugh, stop with the chit-chat."

"That's the final question and we can fight."

"The safety corps is too strict for me, and why should I bother with it if I would probably be on the same level as Foster right now even though I outrank him? They care a lot about seniority and there are certain requirements on how long you have to be one rank first before getting promoted."

"Oh I see, well we can begin now.."

"Great!"

Mimi didn't hesitate to teleport right in front of Karlyle's face and uppercut his chin. For the first time throughout their training, she teleported him with her to the ceiling and then proceeded to punch him back down. Karlyle slowed down the fall using some flames but it didn't break the impact a lot, causing some pain in his back.

"I doubt the healing enchantment will fix my spine if you break it," he remarked.

Karlyle shot a fireball towards Mimi who was holding onto the ceiling. She teleported before it could hit her and appeared standing on top of Karlyle's stomach. He quickly reacted with an outburst of fire causing her to jump off. While she was off, he quickly jumped back up.

She tried to teleport behind him to attack secretly but it didn't work out as he caught her in the act, conjuring a flowing flame out of his hands. The two continued to brawl for another hour. As expected, Mimi had won in the end but Karlyle was close to winning. If only he was more careful.