It was a deeply humbling experience to realize that the girl James thought was younger than him was actually multiple decades his senior.
Talia certainly didn't act like she was in her fifties; her behavior was closer to a high schooler—or even a middle schooler—and yet, she was easily the older of the two.
Is that what immortality does to people? James wondered.
Before he could ponder the thought for long, Mira decided she had waited long enough.
She stepped forward, a massive, eager grin spreading across her lips.
James had no clue why she looked so excited, though if her earlier comments were any indication, it probably had something to do with whatever she had witnessed while he was passed out.
As she drew closer, James noticed her canines were ridiculously sharp—easily four inches long and an inch wide at the base.
"Let's see what that newborn Alpha biology can actually do under pressure," Mira purred.
For some odd reason, James felt his blood begin to pump like crazy.
But just as his magic started to flare up in response, Talia stepped directly between them, crossing her arms defensively.
"Hold on a second, no-brain!" Talia snapped, clearly fond of the nickname.
"He hasn't even learned the basics of aura stabilization yet. Calm your tits and let him learn."
The two women locked eyes, looking ready to clash right then and there.
James sniffed the air as his heightened senses picked up a rapid spike in alpha-pinene and pine-resin undertones—scents naturally associated with territorial grounding and shielding behavior in the pack.
Mixed with the subtle, static-like ozone smell of her active darkness magic, Talia's scent lost its casual, sweet edge, turning crisp and unyielding.
"Move!" Mira barked.
In response, Talia's body was instantly engulfed in a thick, defensive shielding aura.
Is she actually protecting me? James thought, bewildered. He couldn't think of a single reason why she would look out for him like this.
Mira and Talia engaged in a tense stare-down. Mira paused, calculating her options.
Sure, she could probably beat Talia in a straight fight, but it would be an absolute nightmare of a match.
Mira had raw strength, but Talia had pure speed.
If Talia wanted to play keep-away, Mira would never land a hit.
And since force equals mass times acceleration, someone with Talia's base strength—which could already uproot trees and crater mountains—punching you at the speed of sound was going to hurt.
So, Mira did something she rarely did: she used her brain.
"You heard what Caius said," Mira argued, leaning back.
"The kid has a ridiculous evolutionary curve. He adapts while he's actively fighting. What better way to force his spiritual essence to the surface than a real, practical threat?"
James immediately noticed the change from pup to kid…was he being demoted.
She was openly using the excuse just to get the fight she wanted.
Talia paused, actually considering the logic.
James had been adapting incredibly fast during his recent bouts.
Meanwhile, James just stared at Mira in disbelief.
That is the most textbook, unscientific piece of shonen training bullshit I have ever heard in my entire life.
Unfortunately for James, the simple logic worked perfectly on Talia.
"...Actually, that kind of makes sense," Talia agreed.
Of course it makes sense to you, James thought wryly. But he didn't actually mind.
He wanted to see exactly how strong he was now anyway.
Up until this point, everyone he fought had either been completely out of his league or way too weak.
"Sure," James said, stepping out into the middle of the clearing.
He stretched his limbs, feeling a lingering tightness in his muscles, and cracked his knuckles before rolling his neck.
He let out a small yawn, trying to shake off the remaining fatigue. I can do this, he told himself.
I'm pretty capable.
He looked across the field and smiled. "Give me your best."
"I was planning on it," Mira replied.
Before the final word even left her mouth, she vanished.
The ground where she had been standing a millisecond prior shattered, leaving a foot-shaped crater in the dirt.
James felt the displacement of air rushing at him from the front.
Driven entirely by instinct, he threw his arms up in a cross-block.
BOOM!
Mira's fist collided heavily against his newly formed guard.
"Not bad," she grinned, immediately transitioning into a lightning-fast jab aimed directly at his throat.
James parried the strike, attempting to grab her arm to pull her inward for a knee straight to the gut.
But Mira anticipated the move, using his own forward momentum to pull him close instead, driving a brutal kick directly into his chest.
The impact sent James skidding a few meters away.
He managed to keep his footing, but before he could even reset his stance, Mira was already rushing him again like a gale-force wind.
He caught her incoming right hook. He tried to counter with a punch of his own, but she ducked under the blow, sweeping her leg out to take his feet out from under him.
James leaped into the air to avoid the sweep, but that was exactly what she wanted.
While he was airborne and defenseless, Mira anchored her fingers firmly into the dirt to stabilize herself, flipping her entire body weight to drive a rising kick upward.
Shit, James thought.
The kick connected, launching him several feet through the air. As he hit the ground and rolled back to his feet, his mind raced.
How the fuck does someone even move like that? That wasn't normal martial arts.
She had ducked a hook, dropped low for a sweep, and somehow anchored herself to the earth so tightly that she could leverage her entire body weight to launch him while upside down.
"Not bad at all," Mira praised, her fists suddenly coating themselves in a dark, swirling energy.
Yo, is that darkness magic? James swallowed hard, realizing the stakes had just gone up.
If those blows landed clean, they were going to absolutely wreck him.
Mira began to sprint in a circle around him, leaving nothing but a blur of motion in her wake. The sound of her footsteps echoed from every direction.
James turned his head left and right, his eyes straining to track her speed, but she was moving too fast.
A sharp breeze grazed the back of his neck.
Activating his instincts, James leaped away immediately just as Mira's heel slammed into the earth.
BAM!
James's eyes widened at the collateral damage. Her kick had blasted a massive crater into the solid ground.
"Sharp senses, huh!" she cheered, her voice completely giddy.
"Yeah, comes with the job," James replied wryly.
She rushed him again, unleashing a relentless barrage of punches and kicks.
James focused entirely on defense, reading her movements as fast as his brain allowed, blocking and parrying every incoming strike.
"Come on, fight back!" Mira yelled, leaping over him and throwing a spinning back-kick aimed squarely at his head.
James ducked beneath the lethal kick, sweeping his leg out toward her landing spot, hoping to catch her before she could anchor herself again.
But Mira simply adjusted mid-air, landing directly on top of his outstretched leg. Using his limb like a trampoline, she bounced off his leg and flipped safely a few feet away.
"I'm trying, you're just not letting me!" James countered.
"Try harder!"
Mira launched a straight strike at his throat. James deflected her hand away with a swift parry, exposing her flank, and drove a perfectly placed punch straight into her liver.
BAM!
The force of the blow sent Mira skidding backward across the dirt.
"You mean like that?" James asked, letting a smug smile slip.
"Yes… exactly like that," Mira purred.
James immediately regretted the smugness.
The look of pure, unadulterated joy on her face was genuinely terrifying.
Over on the sidelines, Talia watched the exchange with wide eyes.
"He's adapting incredibly well." While Mira was clearly dominating the pace and putting a beating on him, James was holding his own remarkably well for someone who barely understood his powers.
"He is," Caius murmured, his eyes never leaving the pages of his book.
"You're not even looking!" Talia huffed, annoyed.
"Just because I am not looking doesn't mean I am not paying attention," Caius replied smoothly, turning a page.
"Even though it looks like Mira is dominating, she has only actually landed two clean blows."
Talia raised an eyebrow, skeptical.
"The hell do you mean? I counted at least six from here."
Caius turned another page.
"I said clean blows. I am not counting the ones he blocked."
"He still got hit four other times, then."
"No, those weren't clean either. They looked like they connected, but in reality, they merely grazed his shirt."
He paused, turning another page.
"Look closer."
Talia turned her attention back to the battlefield, focusing intently.
Now that she was looking for it, she saw it. Almost all of Mira's strikes were being deflected at the last second.
Even the ones that breached his guard never landed with full force; James was either rolling with the momentum of the impacts or shifting his body just enough to let the punches slide harmlessly past him.
Realization dawned on her. "Wow. He's doing much better than I thought."
Caius nodded slowly. "He is."
Talia recognized that specific tone. There was a catch.
"But," Caius added, "Mira hasn't gotten serious yet."
Talia looked over at Mira's ecstatic expression and felt a wave of sympathy.
She had completely forgotten to warn the newbie that Mira was an absolute battle maniac.
Back in the center of the field, Mira's smile widened. "Let's see how you handle me at my best."
The ambient temperature in the clearing suddenly spiked.
The air grew stiflingly hot, as if an invisible fire were rapidly consuming the surrounding oxygen.
Brilliant flames erupted around Mira's body, engulfing her completely.
Then, with a deafening crack, she vanished.
James raised his arms just in time to catch an incoming punch, but the force behind this strike was entirely different.
CRACK!
BOOM!
The sheer kinetic energy sent James flying backward.
The bones in his forearms shattered under the pressure, snapping completely, though the intense heat of her shroud instantly cauterized the bloody wounds.
Before he could even process the pain, Mira vanished again, reappearing directly behind his airborne form.
She raised her heel, preparing to drive a downward axe-kick that would cave his spine in.
James knew he couldn't stop his momentum in mid-air, but he refused to just take the hit.
Channeling his energy, a thick wall of darkness manifested directly between them.
"You think a wall is going to stop me?!" Mira roared, her heel smashing violently through the dark barrier.
"Wasn't planning on it," James grunted.
Though the wall shattered instantly, the brief displacement altered the trajectory of the strike.
Mira's foot missed his back completely, crashing into the empty air.
James's body continued its trajectory, skidding across the dirt before slamming hard into a nearby tree.
Mira gritted her teeth in frustration.
Over on the sidelines, Caius finally raised his eyes from his book.
Oh, that was clever.
Talia, meanwhile, was completely dumbfounded.
"How the fuck did you miss that?!" she shouted toward the field. "Mira, how do you mess up an easy combo like that? We learn that shit as kids!"
Against a heavily overpowered opponent, that specific three-to-five-part combo was designed to maximize damage—shattering the arms with the first hit, breaking the spine with the second, followed by an uppercut to rattle the brain, and a final downward strike to break the ribs.
It utilized all four limbs in perfect sequence. Yet Mira had completely whiffed the second step.
"How the fuck should I know?!" Mira snapped back, visibly irritated by her own mistake.
"Never knew you were that loose," Talia taunted.
"I'm not loose, you bitch!"
"Why else would you miss a stationary target in mid-air?"
Talia smirked, loving how easy it was to bait her.
"She missed because of the wall," Caius interjected lazily.
"What?" Talia blinked, confused.
Mira, utilizing her superhuman hearing, paused to listen closely.
"The wall was made of darkness," Caius explained, turning another page.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Tell me, Talia, what is the primary property of darkness magic?"
"Well... it gravitates and pulls things toward it," Talia answered, her brow furrowing until the realization finally clicked.
"Ah! I get it!"
"Exactly," Caius murmured.
"The wall wasn't built to block her kick. It was positioned to pull her leg just high enough off-course to make her miss the follow-up."
"Ding. You win a cookie," Caius said, tossing a small treat toward Talia, who caught it with a proud grin.
Hearing the explanation, Mira turned her gaze back toward the tree line.
"Ow... okay, that actually hurt," James groaned, dragging himself out of the shattered wood debris.
He looked down at his arms, watching as his advanced biology forced the broken bones back into place, fully healing the tissue within seconds.
Thankfully, his gamble had paid off.
He looked back across the clearing at Mira, bracing himself for the next round. But as he caught her expression, his stomach dropped. Why the hell does she look even happier now?