Chapter 126
The morning sun rose slowly over Lucas's estate.
Lucas stood near the center of the training grounds with his gravity weights already strapped across his body. The runes engraved into the metal plates glowed faintly beneath the early sunlight while invisible pressure spread outward from the equipment.
Beside him, Aris stretched slowly.
His burned arm still remained stiff despite the progress of his recovery, but the constant cultivation and training had already accelerated the healing process.
A third figure approached from the direction of the manor.
Kaya walked calmly across the grass with her black hair tied into a high ponytail that swayed lightly behind her. She wore dark training clothes that allowed unrestricted movement, and several kunai rested at her waist more out of habit than necessity.
She stopped several meters,"You are early," Lucas said.
"You told me to come at dawn," Kaya replied evenly. "It is dawn."
Aris tilted his head slightly while his Ore senses swept toward her instinctively.
He could feel the density of her mana core immediately.
Lightning pulsed beneath her skin like a restrained storm waiting for release, and her pathways felt stable and refined in ways his own still were not. She stood at the Peak of the Iron Stage with her third pathway already opened, and the pressure radiating from her body alone made Aris unconsciously straighten his posture.
Lucas gestured toward her casually.
"Aris, this is Kaya," he said. "She is my girl."
Kaya froze for half a second.
Then warmth rushed visibly into her cheeks.
The words themselves were simple, but the directness behind them caught her completely off guard.
A smile slowly spread across her face despite the heat building beneath her skin.
"It is nice to meet you," she managed while trying to maintain composure.
Aris inclined his head respectfully while continuing to observe her aura through his Ore senses.
"She feels beautiful and terrifying at the same time," he admitted honestly. "The lightning inside her feels like a storm moments away from breaking."
Kaya laughed softly at that. "I think that counts as a compliment."
Lucas reached toward the storage scroll attached to his belt before withdrawing two weighted training harnesses similar to his own.
Leather straps supported several smaller metal plates etched with gravity runes, though unlike Lucas's equipment, the runes carved into these sets were less dense and significantly weaker.
He handed one harness toward Aris and the other toward Kaya.
"These are weighted training sets," Lucas explained. "The runes amplify the effective mass of the plates. I adjusted each set according to your current physical capabilities."
Kaya turned the harness over in her hands while examining the glowing runes carefully.
"How heavy are they?" she asked.
Lucas smiled slightly. "Heavy enough. Put them on."
They strapped the harnesses onto their bodies before tightening the belts until the weight distributed evenly across their frames.
The moment the runes activated fully, both of them felt the difference immediately.
Aris grunted as pressure settled heavily onto his shoulders and hips, while Kaya's knees bent slightly beneath the sudden increase in weight.
"This is going to be terrible," Kaya muttered.
Training began immediately afterward.
They moved through basic warm-up forms while the weighted equipment dragged against every movement they made.
Even then, both of them were already breathing harder than normal after only a few exercise cycles.
"Do you actually train like this every day?" Kaya asked while wiping sweat from her forehead.
"Every day," Lucas answered calmly.
Aris released a long sigh. "I have accepted my suffering."
Kaya looked toward Lucas again.
Despite wearing equipment far heavier than either of theirs, he moved smoothly through every form with almost unnatural control. His strikes carried enough force to distort the air faintly, yet his movements never became wasteful.
"This cannot possibly be easy," Kaya said.
Lucas laughed softly while finishing another sequence of movements. "It is not easy. I simply enjoy the intensity."
"You are insane."
"Probably," Lucas admitted without shame. "But there is a difference between pain and challenge. Pain only hurts. Challenge forces growth."
The three of them continued training for over an hour while moving through combinations of strikes, kicks, defensive forms, and footwork drills.
Sweat soaked through their clothes.
Muscles burned.
The weights constantly pulled against their limbs, but none of them stopped.
Lucas corrected their posture whenever their form weakened and forced them to repeat movements until they performed them correctly.
"Again," he would say calmly.
Or:
"Your footing is unstable."
Or:
"You are wasting movement there."
Eventually, once the warm-up phase ended, Lucas led them toward the center of the field.
"No spells," he said. "No mana reinforcement. Only physical technique."
Aris drew his katana slowly while sunlight reflected across the polished steel.
Kaya pulled her kunai free before spinning them once between her fingers and settling naturally into stance.
Lucas drew his own katana.
The three of them faced one another silently.
Nobody moved immediately.
Wind brushed through the grass while tension slowly tightened between them.
Then Aris attacked first.
He stepped forward sharply before driving his blade toward Lucas's side in a low horizontal slash. Lucas intercepted the strike smoothly before redirecting the impact away from his body, but Kaya was already moving at the same moment.
She lunged from Lucas's opposite flank while one kunai flashed toward his ribs.
Lucas pivoted backward just enough for the blade to miss him before shifting his footing again to avoid Aris's follow-up thrust.
The three of them separated briefly before circling one another once more.
Steel rang repeatedly across the field as the spar intensified.
Aris attacked with disciplined sword strikes while Kaya pressured from blind angles using quick footwork and short-range knife combinations. Lucas defended calmly against both of them at once, constantly repositioning himself so neither could fully trap him between their attacks.
When Aris thrust toward his chest, Lucas guided the katana aside before lowering himself beneath Kaya's incoming slash. He rotated immediately afterward and swept his leg low across the grass, forcing both of them to jump backward to avoid losing balance.
They landed several meters away before attacking again almost instantly.
The exchange continued without pause.