I took a few steps back, watching as Billy rolled his neck with a slow, deliberate motion. The lamps had done wonders to make the butcher's room appear less sinister but now, standing across from the monster of a man that was Billy, I was once again feeling like I had stepped into a villain's den. Despite the fact that it was a spar, I felt a facsimile of what I imagined his victims had felt in the past.

It was clear that Billy was planning to up the ante now that I had landed a solid blow, and a trickle of fear ran through me at the thought of what might happen. Fortunately for me, that trickle of fear was suppressed by overwhelming excitement. The thought of someone with his skill taking it up a notch was absolutely thrilling. Yes, I'd get hurt but with my magic, that wouldn't be too big of a deal.

A smile bloomed on my face as I adjusted my stance. I wanted to be ready for whatever he was about to throw at me. From what had happened so far, I didn't think I actually would be, but this was the ideal whetstone for growth. Pushing myself to the edge of my capabilities was where I'd seen the most improvement in my life. I'd experienced it when Dillon, Morgana and I had run some difficult jobs. The ones where a single step wrong would spell doom. There was something about the pressure that made me perform. Knowing that it was do or die and I didn't have room to error. The thrill. The rush. It shot through my veins like lightning. Billy was going to show me why he was feared, and I was going to show him who I was.

We made eye contact and I could tell Billy was seeing something within me. An understanding A small smile turned the corners of his mouth as he recognised the look in my eye. I had a feeling I'd just raised the ante even further—but that's what I wanted.

Without any warning he was on me.

Unlike the initial attack, I wasn't caught unaware by his speed this time. It was still a close thing because all I could manage was to take his punches on my guard. And they were heavy. I didn't know how many of them I could take before my wrists broke, so I began preemptively channelling mana into them.

Billy was relentless. His attacks came in a constant, punishing rhythm that gave me no room to counter, and no space to breathe. Every retreat I attempted was chased down in an instant, and any thought of launching an attack was swiftly shut down by a fist thrown at whatever opening I'd dared to leave exposed. We fell into a pattern with me defending and him advancing, and I started to catch glimpses of opportunities. Little windows where, if I could just buy a second, I might land something meaningful.

My plan was to outlast him. I figured that my mana would be able to keep me arms together, and being younger, I probably had the stamina to go longer than he did. The power and speed of his punches had to be taking a toll on him after all. This thought lasted up until I went to block a left hook that didn't come.

He'd been leading with the same sequence for the last few exchanges. A jab, a feint, then a heavy left hook. I saw it coming again, braced for it, and moved to block. Only this time it wasn't there.

Instead, a kick slammed into the side of my hip, sending a jolt of pain through my leg and knocking me sideways. I staggered, trying to recover my footing, but Billy wasn't giving me even that.

A second kick came in from the opposite side, this one crashing into my ribs and spinning my torso. Before I could adjust my guard, he was there, and a brutal hook caught me flush on the jaw. I felt the joint pop out of place with a sickening jolt but I didn't go down. My body screamed at me but I forced my hands back up, relying on my healing to right the ship. Not that I had much of a chance to win at this point. Billy was too good and I was too damaged. The only thing I could do now was scrape out as much learning as possible.

Going into damage protection mode, I did my best to block the blows coming my way but with him incorporating kicks, and my already devastated defence, it was a futile endeavour. Smelling blood in the water, Billy pushed on with a flurry of hits. Blow after blow broke through my guard. I did my best to block what I could, but his flurry was overwhelming. It wasn't just his strength. He was precise. Each and every shot was placed like he'd studied the blueprint of my skeleton and knew exactly when where to aim.

Finally, one more hit than I could handle landed and my legs gave out beneath me forcing me to collapse onto the floor, the cold stone pressing against my cheek. I tasted blood. My jaw throbbed. My ribs burned. My limbs felt like dead weight. Despite all this, I felt weirdly invigorated.

I'd been shown in no uncertain terms that even with magic, I wasn't undefeatable. A thread of cockiness had inhabited my mindset since the fight on the train. Sure, I'd taken some beatings in that time but the odds were always against me anyway. That had made it easy to rationalise the losses. Just holding my own for any period of time in them was practically a win. With each fight since, an insidious thought had been worming its way into my head: I could take on anyone in a one on one fight. Billy had just torn that illusion apart. He'd shown me that there were fighters out there I still couldn't handle. Now I knew how far I had to go and, hopefully, I had a willing mentor to show me how.

I groaned as I settled onto the floor, letting my magic go to work on the bruises, sprains, and dislocations. My chest rose and fell as I sucked in air, grateful for the momentary pause. Across from me, Billy was doing the same—breathing heavy, sweat glistening on his forehead. It was a small victory, but I'd take it.

"You alright?" He asked, as he looked me over. "Didn' over do it, did I?"

Talking with a dislocated jaw was painful and difficult so I opted for a small shake of my head instead. Not wanting to waste any time, I took my jaw in hand and moved it back into position, accelerating my mana use as I did so.

"Ach—ow!" I grimaced as the rough reset gave way to the familiar, burning thrum of magical recovery. "That was worse than I expected."

"I figured you could 'andle it," Billy chuckled.

"Not you—though, for the record, you hit like a runaway carriage. It was resetting the jaw that hurt. I think the pain comes from forcing it back into place. You'd think healing powers would make things easier, not more painful," I moaned, rubbing my face.

"So you 'ave a dedicated 'ealing power? I did wonder but then I thought it was just standard mage stuff. Marky was always better off than me after a big scrap so I just thought you were like 'im."

"Did you not piece it together in the infirmary? I thought that was why you were warning me about what they'd do to me."

"No lad, I was just warnin' you cause I know 'ow badly they treat any mage that isn't a noble." He ran his eyes over my fading injuries. "Just 'ow good is your 'ealing anyway?"

I jumped to my feet, grinning. "Good enough for round two."

"Whoa, 'old on a sec," Billy said, raising a hand. "Just 'ow many more times do you reckon you can fully recover like that?"

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I shrugged. "Maybe two or three more. My capacity keeps increasing, and honestly, that last round didn't do as much damage as it could've. It wasn't as taxing as it might have looked."

Billy rubbed his chin, clearly considering something. "In that case, 'ow about we try somethin' different?"

"Oh yeah?" I asked, curiosity piqued. "Like what?"

"I'll attack. You defend. Let's see what we can do about your weaknesses."

"Why does it feel like you're just trying to use me as a punching bag?" I asked, eyes narrowed.

Billy waved me off. "Nah, I wouldn't do that. Now, lets see if you can last a little longer this time."

He launched into a flying punch as I retreated out of range, not wanting to fall for any bait openings this early in the round. He followed up with a combination of jabs before trying to sneak a knee to my chest. I was ready for the switch up this time though and managed to parry it away.

"Not catching me with that," I teased, my eyes focused on his movements.

"We'll see," he replied, diving back into his assault.

I blocked, parried, and dodged as many blows as I could but eventually I was caught out by him yanking my hand forward. We'd again settled into a rhythm and as soon as I got complacent, he switched it up on me. I'd been telling myself the entire time that I wouldn't be caught by his tricks but him opting to grab and pull my guard rather than outright attack wasn't something I was expecting. A heavy punch burst my nose and I felt blood rushing down my face. Billy didn't give me a break to sort it though and I was once again taking a torrent of abuse.

Using this as the learning opportunity it was, I made a risky move and opened my guard to receive a blow in exchange for landing a kick on Billy's torso. The manoeuvre gained me some much needed space as I once again sent mana to my injuries.

"Not bad. Took you long enough to chance it though," Billy said. "You've got the ability to recover from injuries, Brandon, you should be using it."

"What do you think I'm doing," I said, pointing to my now fixed nose.

He rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. You can afford to take bigger risks if you have mana left in the tank. Take openings that others wouldn't. If you take a blow or two for it, who cares? You'll 'eal up in a moment or two."

What he said made sense. I wasn't under the same restrictions as others so in theory, I should be able to make the riskier play. It would be especially valuable against people that didn't know about my power.

I barely had time to reset my stance before Billy was on me again. He led with a high right kick, and even though I managed to block it, the sheer force of the blow sent me staggering backwards. There was no time to recover as he followed with a sweeping left kick that crashed towards my midsection. I dropped my guard to shove it away, but now he had the momentum. I was scrambling to stay upright as he pressed forward, driving me back step by step.

I knew I couldn't let him keep pressing the advantage. If I stayed reactive, I'd end up flat on the floor again. So I took two big steps back to gain some distance in the hopes of resetting the space. Billy wasn't having it though.

He charged forward, covering the ground I'd made like it was nothing, before crashing a punch into my shoulder. I rolled with it, trying to turn the hit into a spin. I thought it would be like a pirouette, as if I was a dancer. I doubt any would be impressed by the flailing I ended up with though. I don't think it impressed Billy either because he grabbed my trailing arm mid-spin with an iron-like grip..

Before I could wrench free, he yanked me straight into another punch. I barely registered the blow before his stance shifted with him transitioning seamlessly into a grapple, twisting my arm for leverage and throwing me to the ground like I weighed nothing.

I hit the floor hard, the breath knocked out of me, and before I could recover, he was on top of me. He pinned me with his knee, raining down a barrage of fists and elbows. I tried to block, tried to turn, but each blow landed with enough force to scramble my thoughts and drain my energy.

I knew I had to get free. I couldn't let him keep raining hits down on me. They were too powerful, and even with my healing, it wouldn't be long before I was knocked out. Gritting my teeth, I shifted my knee up beneath his body, searching for any leverage I could find. With a desperate shove, I forced him upward just enough to twist my hips and start crawling away.

He wasn't letting me go that easily though.

I felt his massive hands clamp down around my ankle and he yanked me backwards across the floor before I could stop him. I tried to twist around and kick at him, but he was faster. He shoved me back onto my stomach, then straddled my lower back in a flash, one leg over each side to lock me in place.

A second later, his arm snaked around my throat, cinching tight. The pressure was instant. Not enough to cut me off completely, but enough to make every breath sharp and thin. He adjusted his grip, wrapping me in a chokehold and locking his legs around my front, turning my body into a makeshift restraint.

I clawed at his arm, kicked my legs, twisted left and right but it was like being held by a boulder. Every movement drained more of my energy, and panic started to rise. It lasted a moment longer before he released me, shoving me away as I collapsed catching my breath.

"Stupid. What did we say right before that round?" Billy asked, the disappointment clear in his voice..

"There wasn't a chance to take risks though! You were all over me," I protested, still catching my breath.

"We both know that's not true," he shot back. "You practically walked into the choke'old. Every move you made was almost the opposite of what you should've been doing."

"It's hard to think straight when you've got a walking tree pummelling you," I muttered, sulking a little.

Billy laughed, the tension easing just a touch. "Fair point. But that doesn't change the fact that you need to think straight. It's gonna take some getting used to but you've got a major advantage in a fight, Brandon. You can take damage most people can't. You need to incorporate that into your style so you can really use it."

I let out a long groan and closed my eyes. "Yeah, I know. You're right. I'll do better."

"Don't worry about it. It's not like it'll come to you straight away. But that being said—" He gave me a pointed look, "—you've got to do better than that last round. That was truly terrible."

"Okay, okay." I sat up straight, shaking out my shoulders. "One more round? I barely had to heal from that last one. Nothing broken, just bruised. I've got plenty left if you're up for it."

Billy pushed himself to his feet and nodded. "Alright. But this time? Don't be afraid to make the risky play."

The next round began with Billy sending jabs my way. I think he knew that his kicks were too much for me to handle and wanted to give me a chance. It would have left me feeling grateful but as I'd said: they felt like hammer blows.

I kept my mind focused on the goal. I wasn't here just to survive, no, I wanted to improve. I searched for an opening in his attacks, some small gap where I could finally put my regeneration to use, something that would let me fight back on my own terms.

Even after a few rounds, I still couldn't get over his speed. It defied logic. A man built like a stone fortress shouldn't move like that. If we weren't already in prison, I'd say he needed to be locked up just for being unnatural.

Knowing that I wasn't going to get much of a reprieve with him moving like lightning, I decided this was the time to take a risk. He threw a right hook, and I saw my moment. I dropped my guard and stepped in, close enough that I could smell the sweat on his skin. I drove a punch into his ribs, angling for the kidneys next. The plan was to eat the counter—let him hit me—then use the opening to land something heavier. Billy didn't seem to want to go along with that though.

A quick step backwards, and a dropped shoulder was all I saw before once again, he knocked me out.

"What happened?" I spluttered as I came to.

He let out a sigh. "A good effort but you left yourself open for a big blow and that's something you can't out-heal." He paused, giving me a curious look. "Or can you?"

I narrowed my eyes, not liking where this was going. "I don't think so. Maybe. I haven't tried." I caught the growing grin on his face. "Wait. Why are you looking at me like that? Stop smiling."

"I think we know what we're doing next time," he said far too cheerful.

I let my head fall back against the ground with a groan. "Fine."

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