10. Grind II

Chapter 10: Grind II

Picking up form were we left off, our protagonist, Galahad, has been out and about, killing demons and mastering his newly acquired energy blast ability. After defeating the giant, his battle power reached the 9560 mark.

At this point he had come to the conclusion, that the more he fought the stronger he became, obvious to some…here is the twist. His pace further increased the more he pushed his body to its limit. For example if a normal human, would fight to the extreme and recovered, his body would sustain permanent injuries and lose some of its potential. This wasn't the case for Galahad.

It was as if his physique adapted to the ever-increasing stress of battling. The stronger the opponent, the better the result. He guessed that when that bald demon almost managed to kill him, his B.P. must have been around 3000. Recovering from a near death experience had, at the very least, doubled his energy levels!

"Should I just let them beat me up?…Nah…that's stupid…right?" Galahad wonder to himself, while picking off the chunks of brain off his body. Indeed such a strategy wouldn't work, what if they managed to land a lethal blow.

"Yeah…anyway, maybe I should head back and grab a set of new clothes." After his battle with a ferocious opponent he lost his pants and his tank-top got ripped from the attacks of the giant.

"Buuut…I would waste precious time! I will return in a few days at most, as for food and water, I can just hunt some zodeers." Having made up his mind, picked up speed and went ahead to find his next prey.

---

Back at Galahad's old base the familiar purple demon was standing outside the cave. He looked around and sniffed, like a hunting dog did when it searched for his target.

"...He hasn't been here for a while…Let's see for how long you can hide from me you bastard!" With no results, yet again, S'ym stormed off, even more furious.

---

"What is that?" Back to our main man, he had stumbled upon a peculiar sight. On a small clearing, a disturbance in the space could be observed, the light was refracted around that particular area giving it a jello-like appearance.

Galahad curiously approached the affected area and stepped just a few inches away from the barrier. Hesitating for just a moment, he moved his hand inside…nothing, except that the weight of his hand significantly increased.

Soon his whole body was inside and the feeling spread all over his body, it seemed that inside this space the gravity multiplied at least 10 times! This was a magnificent discovery because he could…

"I can train inside here! Lucky!" Exactly, with the increased gravity, his training would reap better results. Practising in the outside space would probably do nothing for Galahad, as his weight wasn't enough to challenge him and he didn't have any lifting equipment.

"Let's try it out. Hah!" He powered up...*VOOM*…in response the space around him started producing a humming sound, in proportion to Galahad's energy output. The more energy he released, the faster it got absorbed and in return…the gravity increased even further!

"Shit!" To the point where he was struggling to stand, if he had to guess the gravity now was around 20 times the normal. Not only this but his aura got completely absorbed, leaving him trying to manage to withstand the pressure with just his physical strength.

Galahad went out for a moment and after making sure that no demons were around, he went back in and initiated his training. Calisthenics and shadow-boxing, simple yet effective under these circumstances.

This unexpected treasure, would produce even better result when paired with his mysterious ability to recover at an increased pace and become even stronger. He was determined to abuse this place to the extreme!

And so for a week Galahad did nothing but eat-sleep on the ground and train.

---

"Where did that man go…It can't be that he got himself killed…No then the signal from the bracelet would get lost." In the sanctuary, Ororo was wondering to herself. After all he was missing for a week, not even returning to rest.

From her words it seemed that the band that Galahad was gifted, wasn't just a measuring device but also a tracker as well! Leaving some to wonder, if she had any trust for the man…honestly anyone would have done the same thing.

Who would trust a person whose character changed with the flick of a switch, in his case being his anger. For all she knew, he could go bonkers and decide to join her enemy, Belasco. Better safe than sorry.

Ororo wasn't slacking either, in the span of seven days she had developed a set of defensive spell to enhance her and Galahad's clothes with. They would protect them from Belasco's magical attacks, just enough to rescue Illyana.

She dismissed the thoughts of him off her mind and continued reading her books, while sipping on some beverage.

…*BAM*…"Oops. Too much power…I am back!" Only to be disturbed by a familiar figure bursting in. It seems he had trouble controlling his strength, leaving an indentation on the metallic door.

"...where are your clothes?" Ah yes, the man was completely naked, covered in mud and grime. Even worse than the first time he came here. Her eyes landed on his private parts, that hung proudly and swung with his ever step.

"Cover yourself up! I don't want to see your…thing swinging around, you idiot!" She too hasn't seen a man in a while and even if a little, she was flustered at his carefree attitude of leaving his body exposed.

Galahad too, seemed to remember that he was butt-naked and zoomed out of the room, he returned fully clothed. She had already prepared a few sets of extra clothes for him.

"Sorry about that…nature is unrelenting. Its a pity you didn't come along." Crushing on the couch, he let out a breath of satisfaction and relaxed his body, letting it sink in.

"You were gone for a week. You know that a demon, several times stronger than you is out there hunting you…your sense of danger seems to be non-existent." Ororo sighed to herself, the man clearly didn't understand their circumstances.

"How about you check my B.P. and after you start your scolding." With a smug smile Galahad replied. At this she lifted an eyebrow…I mean how stronger would he had become in span of just a week.

"...You…how did this happen. 28400?!" Yes ladies and gentlemen, not only did this beast get stronger, his strength even tripled at that! This body of his was clearly built for combat and training purposes.

At this Galahad lifted his shoulders and his face took on an expression of I-don't-know-what-to-tell-you, having fun teasing her. She rolled her eyes at this and looked at him with a deadpan expression.

"Okay…so I was actually extremely lucky! I found this place where gravity increased when I fed it energy, so I just trained inside there, killing a few demons that bothered me. Simple right?" Expecting her to marvel at his discovery, he tilted his head high in the air, full of himself. Her reaction though was outside his scope of expectation...

"You…are you a complete idiot? You are not lucky you found that place…its lucky that you survived it! That was a forming temporal rift!" Instead of congratulating him, she got angry. Shutting the book in her hands with a loud thud, she shook her head. Galahad was clueless as to what this rift was about.

"You even fed it with energy…Pff. You should ask me before you do something like that again. If that thing formed you would be sent to different timeline of Limbo." Ororo explained, to which the man got even more confused. For her this man was the only ally she had in years, the prospect of losing him and diminishing the chances of rescuing Illyana from the clutches of Belasco made her snap at him.

"This place, Limbo, is actually a broken off dimension of larger cluster of dimensional planes called Archipelago of…you know what, that doesn't even matter. Just know that space here is unstable and spacial disturbances are common. Those portal can form out of thin air and can be life threatening to someone who is unprepared." Having said that Ororo stood up and motioned Galahad to follow.

He understood that what he had done was stupid and risky, possibly life threatening. Still on his brain a scale appeared, on one side the word Risk while on the other the word Gains. For a moment they balanced, only for the Gains side to come crushing to the ground…

'Gains were made. I regret nothing!' Spoken like a true aspiring chad, a smile forming on his face. Ororo looked back suspiciously, only to see Galahad looking down with a sullen expression…almost got caught there.

They went into his room and she pointed on an empty corner, there was nothing there. Confused at this Galahad was about to ask her what she meant, before he had the chance her hand glowed and an array appeared on the ground.

Mystical symbols formed a circle, that shone with orange light. Its size was decent, enough for a man to train inside…wait a minute.

"If you wanted increased gravity, you should have just asked me. As a sorcerer its quite simple actually. It functions the same way as the temporal rift. Just feed it energy and the gravity will increase. The limit is 100x."Before Galahad had the chance to thank her, she left the room. Probably still angry at his actions.

Galahad shrugged his shoulders at this and stepped inside the circle. Channeling his energy, he increased the gravity to 30x and took off his top, showing off his macho body.

"Time to grind some more!"