Nemo Gulliver, Tom and Jerry

The following day Maya came to visit Kaylus at the break of dawn. The two would then go to the isolated training grounds where Kaylus would practice the entire day.

In the morning, he would practice feeling his mana within his body. Kaylus had read plenty of fantasy novels, so he believed it was necessary.

From the afternoon till evening, he would practice fighting the dummy that Maya prepared for him. From the evening till late at night, Kaylus would train and hone his control over his telekinesis and slowly try to introduce his daggers into his combat style.

While Kaylus did this, Maya would spend most of the day merely watching Kaylus. The two would chat anytime Kaylus took a breather and could be seen out in the open eating and laughing together whenever the two became hungry.

This routine would go on for a few days, and it wasn't long before rumours about the princess of the Argenda being in love started to spread.

Kaylus and Maya were oblivious to the gossip and blissfully unaware of the danger said rumours would soon put them in.

While the two spent their days busy and happy, another individual within the clan grounds wasn't having such a grand time.

.

.

.

*SMASH*

"WHO DOES THAT BASTARD THINK HE IS!" Shouted a tall man. He had short ginger hair long enough to reach his chin. His eyes were like bright green emeralds.

He wore black trousers and a white shirt that was unbuttoned near the top, slightly revealing his muscular chest.

"Young master Nemo. You have absolutely nothing to worry about. They are just baseless rumours that will disappear the second you win the tournament." Tom said, trying to encourage his master.

"That's right! How could that kid from nowhere compare to our amazing lord?" Jerry agreed immediately.

These two were Tom and Jerry [2], loyal followers of Nemo Gulliver [1] and his left and right hands. Tom was the taller of the two by about three heads. He had darkish grey hair and bright green eyes, he was well-built and appeared to frown always.

Jerry, the shorter of the two, had light brown hair and pitch-black eyes. Unlike the strong-looking Tom, Jerry was lean and trim. The two were also known by another name, Tom the Cat and Jerry the Mouse.

Tom was a master of counter-espionage, killing any rats that may try to get close to Nemo or the Gulliver estate. On the other hand, Jerry was a master of infiltration, espionage and assassination disguised as accidents.

It would be an understatement to say that these two were the pillars that supported the foundation of Nemo's reign. If Nemo were to lose them it would be equivalent to losing both his hands. Thus he treated them decently so they would continue to bring positive results.

Hearing his loyal subordinates' words, Nemo calmed down and sat before pouring himself a glass of wine.

After drinking a bit of the wine, he started to swirl it around in the glass and contemplated something.

"You two are correct. But seeing some trash so close to my woman makes me feel sick." Nemo scowled.

He finished the glass of wine before telling Tom and Jerry his plan. "Even if I'm going to marry her, the two need to learn a lesson. I will kill two birds with one stone, by teaching Maya that I'm the only one who can protect her, and I will teach that punk a lesson when I torture him for the attempted assassination of the princess."

"Assassination?" Asked Tom.

"Yes. He is using one of the dummies unique to the Argenda clan. If that dummy was to attack and injure the princess while it's under my control, I could save her while pinning the blame on the worm she has been spending time with."

"Brilliant young master"

"That's an amazing idea, my lord."

The two exclaimed while clapping enthusiastically.

"Jerry, you know what I require from you. Correct?"

"Of course, my lord. Leave it to me." Jerry proclaimed.

If Tom was a muscle-brained killing machine, Jerry was a genius that could infer his master's will with the slightest bit of information.

"Good, bring it to me tonight and then find where they are training." Nemo smiled and poured himself another glass of wine.

"Soon, everything will fall into place."

Another day came and went. During that time, Nemo had put his plan into action, there was no turning back now for him, but even if he had the choice, Nemo would continue no matter what.

.

.

.

The following morning, Kaylus and Maya made their way to the training grounds as usual. However, Kaylus couldn't shake off the ominous feeling he had.

Despite the feeling he had, Kaylus went about his day as usual. He trained his mana control in the morning. In the afternoon, he planned to train with the dummy.

The morning went by as normal. After a brief break to eat, the two came back. Kaylus started to train with the dummy set to the third level. Kaylus managed to defeat both the lower levels without as much as losing a single hair already.

Now it was the time for the final test of fighting against someone who uses both magic and a weapon simultaneously.

He had no plans to train on the 4th hidden level. To him, this was just for fun, and he had no intention of possibly losing his life. It didn't matter to him if the dummy could be controlled and stopped. To him, it was an unnecessary risk.

Kaylus proceeded to go a few rounds against it and eventually started to get the hang of the difficulty. It was starting to get dark, and Kaylus decided to give it one more try before stopping. Tomorrow he had to fight in the tournament, so he chose to rest early tonight.

The fight started slow, but as the two battled, Kaylus gained the edge, eventually knocking the dummy down and sending it flying a handful of meters.

Having lost its weapon and been knocked down, the training dummy reset and stood at attention, waiting for Kaylus to inject his mana and start the fight again.

Seeing Kaylus had finished his fight, Maya grabbed some water and planned to give it to Kaylus. But the second she walked a couple of steps onto the platform, red lightning erupted around the dummy.

The next second the training dummy charged with a blade in its hand straight at Maya. The distance between Maya and the training dummy was roughly the same as the space between her and Kaylus.

Since Kaylus came to this world, he was on edge, constantly watching for potential dangers. He still didn't know much about himself or the vast world around him, so in his eyes, caution was the key to his survival.

The second Kaylus felt the sinister energy coming from the training dummy, he knew that something was wrong, and the second the training dummy started flying at Maya, he jumped into action.

His brain jumped into overtime, analysing the situation in less than a millisecond. 'It's moving so fast. It must have used some sort of physical enhancement magic. I won't be able to make it in time. But I can stop its attack if I throw my sword and use my magic to control it.'

Having made his plan, Kaylus put it into action right away. He threw his sword of choice and used levitation magic to speed it up. Simultaneously he tried doing the same to himself to lighten himself.

As the training dummy neared Maya, it slashed its sword at her. But just in time, Kaylus's blade made it and blocked the attack. Having bought himself some time, Kaylus felt at ease.

He kept control of the sword, continuing the block the training dummy who struggled to exit the bind. In the meantime, he appeared behind the training dummy and kicked the left side of the training dummy's head.

Kaylus felt furious that someone tried messing with him and put Maya in danger. He could remember what Maya had told him about the fourth level and knew that it wouldn't target Maya unless someone played a trick.

Unknown to him, thanks to his rage, he enhanced the power of his kick exponentially. So much so that the training dummies head cracked.

It wasn't enough to stop it, and it got back up a moment later. Having lost its sword, it chose to fight using its fists and magic.

Because of the damage Kaylus had dealt it, it decided to take care of him first and rushed at him with red lightning sparking around its fists.

The fight was uneventful now that the training dummy had lost a third of its fighting potential when it lost its weapon. The battle didn't last long, and soon after, the training dummy was fully immobilised.

It didn't mean that Kaylus came out of the fight unscathed. The lighting fists proved challenging, thanks to his sword being a great conductor. A few times he was hit, charring his clothes and tenderising his muscles from within.

For some reason, Kaylus didn't feel like he had taken much damage. 'It could be because my body is naturally strong. Or maybe training so much has improved my endurance.'

Kaylus could have stayed in his little world forever, but then he remembered the original target.

________________________

[1] Gulliver comes from Old French and means "glutton" or "greedy person." (Nemo's full name is supposed to mean Greedy Nobody. Alluding to the fact that he is greedy but all in all, he is a nobody.) ←– Imagine if your parents named you a nobody at birth lol

[2] I loved Tom and Jerry as a kid, and I thought these would be fitting names for the pair. One is a muscle head with sharp teeth, while the other is a small crafty bastard.

A/N: Hey, thank you for reading this chapter. Make sure to add it to your collection if you don't want to miss any new chapters, and vote with your power stones, if you'd like to see more and want to help support me/motivate me to continue this novel. I have other novel ideas so if this proves to be unpopular I might move onto another idea.