Quick Learner

Vermilion was looking down upon Isle. Both metaphorically and physically. Isle was on the floor, He was sweating on the ground. He laid on his back looking back at Vermilion.

"Get up stupid student."

About 13 days had passed in the odd realm that Isle had found himself in, It was impossible for Isle to tell how much time had passed in Pandora.

In the few days that passed in this realm Vermilion had decided he would teach Isle how to fight.

Isle had already improved his skills significantly but Vermilion wasn't going to stop until he felt like Isle was ready.

Isle stood up, He was visibly more muscular than before he entered Shattered memories, He was also covered in several bruises and a few scars from training with Vermilion.

The scars formed by forced healing via Vermilions mana. The bruises were left simply because Vermilion didn't care to heal them.

"Can't I have a break? It's been 3 days of this…"

Isle was sweating as he slowly got up.

"You can't have a break until you're worthy of one, Now get up."

Vermilion looked exactly the same as he did before he started fighting Isle, His shirt had repaired at some point in time, And he wore his cloak once again.

"You really think I'll lose when you're wearing that?"

Isle stretched his arms then he stretched his legs. He rustled his hair, It was still flowing in the air from his contract with Caeruleus.

"If anything I'm stronger like this, Calamitas."

Isle was confused as to how that would make sense but he didn't question it further. He got into a stance.

Isle was in a stance for one second and the other he was instantly down to the ground, He had kicked Vermilions legs in an attempt to sweep him.

Vermilion was standing casually as if Isle

had hit him with a pillow, Vermilion had a blank expression as he punched Isle in the gut.

Isle couldn't block it in time so he used mana to enforce his skin. When Vermilion's hand made contact with Isles skin it hadn't caused much pain to Isle, So he tanked it and countered with another kick.

The kick was easily blocked with Vermilion's hand.

"Hm… Decent."

His hand slowly moved back under his cloak, The cloak opened once again, Vermilion's hand was out, His palm was wide open.

Isle looked surprised as he raised his arms to block what was to come, Unlike he thought Vermilion didn't use any magic. He rushed towards Isle and grabbed his arms.

Isle was surprised for a second before he attempted to break away from him by kicking him. Vermilion had no reaction to Isle's kick then he slammed Isle into the ground. Isle coughed as he laid sprawled out on his back.

He was gasping for air when Vermilion scolded him.

"Pay attention Calamitas, You'll just die if you don't."

He offered his hand to Isle, Isle looked up at Vermilion, He breathed heavily due to his teachers earlier grab. He frowned at Vermilion then smacked his hand, He got up by himself.

"Use mana the way I taught you, And maybe you won't get your ass beat"

He spoke condescendingly to Isle. But how was Isle supposed to just "Use mana" it's not like he could just make it happen.

Learning to use mana is typically a process that revolves around slowly pushing mana into different places in your body to slowly form mana routes.

Instead of the normal method that most went through, Isle was being forced by Vermilion to send all his mana to one place at a time to quickly form mana routes.

This method had several negatives and only a few positives. Through this rough and outlandish method, Isle had damaged his body, His whole body was sore.

He also lost a majority of his mana, He would need a while before he could have the same amount of mana as he had before.

There were more negatives that would be revealed later on. But for the positives, Isle had more mana routes than the average person, This came from the amount of mana he had used at once in one area.

Due to him using a large amount of his mana while forming each mana route some of the mana couldn't be contained and it broke out to make more precise mana routes.

This by itself isn't anything crazy as higher level demons had many mana routes, What made it crazy was the fact Isle was a level zero human.

"I know that," Isle's fists were clenched, "So don't say it like I'm stupid, For fucks sake"

He got into the same stance as before

"You should be happy I can use mana at all without reverie…" He grumbled unintelligibly. Isle wasn't wrong, After all most people forged mana routes after gaining reverie.

"What was that?" Vermilion asked as he calmly started to barrage Isle with strikes.

"As if I can answer while you're trying to kill me!" He said through gritted teeth while blocking Vermilion's strikes, He attacked when he could.

"That's what I thought" Vermilion smiled smugly.

Vermilion's style of teaching pissed Isle off. He would completely ignore blows or just deflect them without breaking a single sweat, It made it hard for Isle to tell if he was growing or not.

Eventually Isle found an opening in Vermilion's assault and he punched him in the chest. He would've used mana to enhance his hand, But he didn't have enough mana to spend on offense, He'd much rather save his mana and use it for defense.

Like before his punch hadn't done anything to Vermilion, He was still under a harsh barrage from his current teacher.

"You're a horrible teacher, Can't you teach me some other way…?"

He had expected a response back but Vermilion had only intensified his already lethal barrage. Isle was starting to falter, He barely blocked each of the strikes in time, And the rare openings he could find before had vanished.

Isle was going to collapse if this kept on, If he was even going to get close to winning he'd have to think of something, And he'd have to think of it fast. Vermilion didn't look like he had any plans of stopping.

Isle thought if he could disengage for even a second, He could recover. Isle forced mana into his feet and calves, In an attempt to escape from Vermilion's attacks. His muscles in his calves and his feet ached and he jumped back as far as he could manage.

His plan had worked and he had broken free from the merciless attacks of his teacher. He used his quantum, He felt some of his mana being consumed. A simple dagger appeared in his hand.

"Good enough" Isle said as he rushed towards Vermilion, Clutching onto the dagger tightly.

Vermilion's eyes pryed at Isle, Reading into what he planned. He stood while he was patiently tapping on his arm. He was curious as to what Isle was now planning.

Isle stopped just in front of Vermilion before he vanished from Vermilion's sight, Or so he thought. He instantly appeared behind Vermilion and stabbed him.

The dagger went through his cloak but stopped almost immediately after. Isle's eyes widened slightly as he saw it.

He tried to jump back, but without mana he didn't make it very far. Vermilion swiftly turned around before he dashed towards Isle.

Isle threw his dagger at Vermilion, Vermilion knocked it away as effortlessly as usual.

Isle ran towards Vermilion and directed the rest of his mana into his right leg. He tried to kick his teacher in the chest before he could retaliate.

Isle's kick was about to land when he was shot away by a gust of wind. He was still sliding across the floor, He slammed his right hand into the floor and slowly came to a halt.

'That was the last of my mana…' Isle thought.

Isle's fingers were bleeding. Flowers bloomed on the floor as usual, He shook his hand and looked up at Vermilion. Vermilion was slowly walking towards him, His lips curved down slightly in a frown.

Isle was completely out of mana at this point. He tilted his head down to look at his arms, They were both bruised and bleeding. He had known that his arms were damaged but he had no idea of just how much they really were.

Isle got back into a stance when he felt as if something was watching him. The once blue sky had became dark and the rose petals and roses around him were withering.

His legs had given out and he was sweating profusely. Vermilion glanced at him then shook his head.

"He's awake,"

Isle's eyes widened as he stared at Vermilion searching for any answer to his anguish.

"Your way out of here I mean."