Sparring

3rd person POV: 

"Stacy, what did you do?!" Shouted Luca 

"I'm sorry… I… I didn't mean to." She stammered.

"Come on, we gotta go help him!" Shouted Colt as he tried his best to pick himself off the ground.

"What are you talking about? No one is going anywhere. He can deal with himself. Besides, he deserved it anyway." Said Noa as she crossed her arms.

"What the hell are YOU talking about?! Who do you think you are?! Everyone let's go, we're going to look for him." Commanded Alex. 

Noa was surprised by this sudden comeback from Alex. He wasn't usually one to beret her. She couldn't refute this as Alex had a higher position than her in the hierarchy. All she could do was grit her teeth and take it.

"We aren't going anywhere. He fell into the red zone, it's too dangerous." Said Aaron.

"Well then you can stay, we're going," Luca said as he used his sword to pick himself up.

"You can't, I said we're staying. I'm the leader…" Before Aaron could finish he was cut off.

"I don't give a damn about this bogus hierarchy you've tricked everyone with!! We're going. Stop us if you can." Said Luca as he had enough of him.

"Let's go." Luca, Alex and Colt started making their way to the forest before they heard "Wait." Shouted Stacy, wiping the tears off her face.

"I'm coming to. This is my fault, I'm going to help." She said as she made her way to them.

"Stacy," Liam called out.

"HEY!! I SAID STOP!" Shouted Aaron. He's had enough of people ignoring him and making a fool of him.

"If you leave now, none of you are coming back. Even if you survive, you have no place here anymore. I won't allow you to come back in." He stated.

"Shut up, Aaron." Said, Alex. This was completely out of character for him. He and Aaron had been good friends before this. He would never challenge his authority or speak back. Most of the time he'd back him when Aaron was making unfair rules.

"You're a terrible leader. You're the reason for most of the conflict and you're the one who led the missions that got most of our people killed. And let's not mention how you're easily seduced by whatever vixen that comes along. You're a disgrace." He said looking at Sophie in that last part.

Aaron's veins were visibly popping, he was at his limit. He was raging.

"What the fuck did you say?!" He said ready to fight as others such as Noa and Johan were backing him.

"I said you're a fucking disgrace." He said with an equal amount of aggression while being backed by Luca. 

Colt and Stacy were unsure of what to do. They didn't want to pick sides and get in the middle of this. But they had a feeling that had already taken care of itself.

"Alright alright. That's enough." As they all looked at the hill, they saw a familiar man with a fox mask.

"Mirage!" Shouted Luca.

He didn't say anything as he walked up to Stacy. Liam tried to interfere but was stopped by Johan.

She was visibly intimidated as her quivering lips and teary eyes made it evident.

As he raised his hand he gently tapped her head.

"Well done. You're the first one to somewhat touch me. I'll consider us even now since I did throw you out of a window." He said with a slight chuckle.

She stared at him dumbfounded, till she started crying again and jumped into him, hugging him.

"I'm sowwy I'm sowwy. I'm so so sowwy." She said as she cried up a lake.

"Alright alright, enough of that." He said as he tried to get her off him.

After he finally got her off him, he told her to heal Luca and Colt, as they were barely standing.

"Alright everyone, take the rest of the day off."

Mirage POV: 

As they were leaving I carefully observed Stacy.

The falling out of the window and using sorcery, and now this. Her sorcery seems to be connected with her emotions. The stronger her emotions are, the stronger her sorcery.

As the two more days passed I kept training them in the same way. Colt trained his core strength and burst, Alex and Luca kept sparring, while Stacy and the rest of them carried on circulating their ichor. 

A new day started to start. The others came out at the expected time. They had never been late these days. I was kinda hoping they would be. Some windows were looking particularly lonely.

"Luca, Alex, Colt and Stacy come with me. The rest of you start circulating your Ichor." There seemed to be some huffs and sighs as they seemed like they were sick of this.

"Why are you playing favourites? You're giving them special training while you have us stuck here doing this. What are they even doing?" Complained Noa. I was no longer annoyed when she complained. I had pretty much gotten used to it. 

Like a certain bald man who couldn't kill a mosquito.

"Stop complaining about your training. It's more useful than you think. You have it easier than these guys. If you want I can take you to the mud pool I made Colt train in." I said teasingly.

"He's not lying, it's terrible." Nodded Colt.

We started to walk away and left them wondering what I was talking about.

"Alright, Alex and Luca, you guys have new partners today." 

They looked at the newcomers and smiled. They were thinking they would have an easy spar today. Think again.

"Alex you're paired with Stacy and Luca is paired with Colt," I said as they walked off.

"Ready? Begin!" 

As soon as I said this, Colt zoomed from where he was standing and swung a kick aiming for Luca's face.

"OH, SHIT!!" Exclaimed Luca as he hurriedly brought his wooden sword to protect his face.

However, it didn't do much as the sword just slammed into his face breaking in half and sending him flying.

"Hey Colt, calm down with that burst, are you trying to kill him or something?" I shouted.

"Oh, my bad." He said helping Luca up. 

"Wow, you've gotten strong haven't you." Said Luca as he got up.

"Yeah, I guess I have," Colt replied feeling a little embarrassed.

Meanwhile, Alex and Stacy were just staring at each other. 

"Umm, so we gonna do this or what?" Alex asked as Stacy was standing before him empty-handed.

"Oh. I'm sorry… what exactly do you want me to do?" Said Stacy with a nervous chuckle.

"Hey, Stacy," I called out.

"Yes." She said, turning her head.

"I saw Alex use the last bit of first aid when Luca really needed it." 

"..." 

As she slowly turned her head, she revealed a sinister smile that made Alex jump a little.

"You… did… what?" She said

"Hey, that's not…" before he could even finish what he was saying the ground started to shake. 

A giant tree root, similar to the one that sent me flying emerged from the ground and swung toward him.

He just stood there as if he had something planned. Right as the root was about to hit me, he made a shocked face as if he remembered something. He then tried to block the root with his staff, but it was too weak and broke apart.

"Your personal aspect doesn't work on elements, it works on energy dumbass. Solid attacks will still hit you." I shouted as the dust settled.

"Yeah, I figured that out, thank you very much." He said as he got up.

I threw him his original weapon since if I gave him another wooden one, it would just break again. 

Colt and Luca watched this, as even they were scared of the timid Stacy, giving off this killing intent.

"You two. Carry on." I shouted to them.

They snapped out of their imagination and got back into their fighting stance.

Luca made a familiar gesture in the sky as he spoke.

"Check this out." 

OOF, Who's going to tell him? I guess he'll just find out for himself.

As dark clouds started to form, a Lightning bolt dropped down from the sky, striking Colt.

But nothing happened. As Colt started to open his eyes as he had his hands up in an x position, he started to speak.

"Did you strike me with lightning or give me a warm shower?" He asked as his clothes were torn and burnt from the lightning.

"Colt has the Elemental Resistance aspect. Things like that won't work on him." I shouted out.

"Are you kidding me? When am I going to properly test out my lightning?" He complained.

"Whatever." As he said this a thick fog started to form. 

Colt could tell this was his personal aspect again and braced himself. He looked into the mist to try and spot Luca.

All of a sudden he saw something coming toward him, as he thought it was Luca, he spun his body around and elbowed this mysterious object.

It shattered and fell to the floor. He looked down dumbfounded.

"Ice?" He said.

"Not ice, hail." He said as he jumped out of the mist and struck his wooden sword into Colt's stomach, sending him tumbling back a few steps. As he did this he leapt back into the mist.

Hail is ice, but cool sentence nonetheless.

As I was observing them, I heard rustling behind me. 

"I gave you guys something to do. Why are you here." I said without turning around.

"We heard…lightning? We came to see if everyone was OK." Said Aaron, which was a lie.

"You came here because you're nosy and aren't enjoying your training. Just say what you're thinking and stop wasting my time." 

As I said this they witnessed Colt shout "ENOUGH!!!"  He jumped into the sky and slammed the ground using his burst, cracking the ground as the mist dissipated.

Luca looked dumbfounded as he slightly stumbled due to the miniature man-made earthquake.

The others couldn't believe their eyes. They witnessed Stacy using sorcery amazingly and Alex avoiding them with such precision. They also saw Colt smash the ground, reminding them of a giant green man that was never happy. And judging by the lightning they heard and Colt's clothes, they put 2 and 2 together and figured out that lightning was Luca's doing.

"We want you to train us. Properly." Said Aaron, to which the others seemed to nod.

"I am training you properly," I answered

"Then why are they so much stronger than us?" Said Lia. She was already one of the weakest in the group before Mirage showed up, now she wasn't even able to compete with the others.

"Because you guys decided to get greedy with your sorcery and ended up wasting 3 days. In that time they made exceptional progress."

"They did their share of Ichor circulation too. That's why they're so good at their respective elements." I continued.

"If you don't like the way I teach you then go find another mentor. For the rest of you, get back to ichor circulation."

They gritted their teeth and turned around to go back. 

As we carried on for another hour, everyone was at their limits. After the first 15 to 20 minutes, they realised that they had to cool it on the ichor being spent and use it effectively. However, for someone like Stacy, who only used sorcery, she was exhausted after 20 minutes.

"Let's end it here today," I said as Stacy went to heal Luca and Colt who had a few bruises and cuts.

After we were done, we got back to the others. And to my surprise, they were Ichor circulating.

"You guys start Ichor circulation and after 20 minutes, go get some rest." 

I walked to the others as they perked up their heads. 

"Everyone pay attention. Go into your status and learn your personal aspect."