Lyn walked into what had been her training field for the last two weeks and abruptly stopped.
She looked at Reed, who was sitting on the ground in the middle of the open space with his eyes closed, facing her.
She activated her eye trait and looked around, trying to see if there was something that she should be careful of accidentally setting off.
Suddenly, a grey bird flew by her, startling her.
The bird flew to Reed and perched on his shoulder.
Reed opened his eyes and looked at her.
"What is this?" Lyn asked. "What are you doing?"
Reed did not respond, but the bird suddenly flew at her.
She dodged it, but it turned around and tried to get to her again.
She didn't attack it, just in case it was something important, and just stood still to see what it wanted to do.
It just perched on her shoulder and let out a cawing sound.
"Lyn, meet Four."
Lyn looked at Four and raised her hand to its head.
The bird cocked its head to the side as it watched the hand approach.
"A pet?" She asked as her fingers rubbed its head. "I thought you didn't want emotional attachments."
"A test subject." Reed clarified. "And it's not that I don't want emotional attachments, it's that any made now could prove detrimental in the future due to lack of ability."
"Uh-huh." Lyn knew that to be true but wanted to poke a little fun at him.
"What are you experimenting with?" She asked, curious about what he had been doing the past two weeks.
"Effects of mana on a living being, meridian formation, blood magic, puppeteering, etc."
Lyn blinked, surprised.
"That's... more than what I was expecting."
"I was a part of the scientific community back in our old world, still in the learning process, but I was part of it." Reed brought out a book and noted something down as he spoke.
"I know." Lyn turned back to Reed. "You told me that before."
"Just reminding you," Reed remarked as he put his book away. "How has your training been coming along?" He said as he got up and dusted himself.
"It has been going well." The bird on her shoulder flew off.
"Come on," Reed raised his hands and took a combat stance. "Let's see what you've learned."
"Alright." Lyn did not show it, but she was a little excited.
She equipped her combat gloves and boots and walked forward.
She walked as Reed watched her coming towards her.
As she drew within three meters of Reed, she shot forward.
Reed's mind went into overdrive as he perceived her movements, and a moment later, his knee met her jaw as his right hand held her left, and his left blocked her right.
Reed fell on his back and Lyn flew over him, thrown by the force applied by his leg.
"You forgot that I know that you can fly." Reed chided her as she got back up. "Your approach was not bad, you wanted to catch me off guard with your flight, am I correct?"
Lyn rubbed her chin as she nodded.
"You knew that I would block your attack, but you didn't anticipate that your face was left open due to that, I guess you got carried away." He shook his head. "You'll have to do better than that."
He took his stance again.
"Come on, let's do this."
Lyn grimaced but charged at him without complaint.
She flew at him at a relatively fast speed.
Reed slapped her first swing away as he stepped back, and blocked her other arm as he raised his leg to launch a kick at her, only for her to fly back out of reach of his attack, making him stop mid-motion and pull back
'That was close, I need to be careful.' Lyn looked at Reed as she floated above ground a few meters away.
'Playing defensive, are we?' A grin appeared on Reed's face. 'Let's how much you can handle.'
He suddenly launched himself at her.
Lyn moved out of the way, but Reed's hands seemed to slam into an invisible wall and he pushed himself back at her, legs first.
Lyn did not have time to think as she hurriedly dodged out of the way of his attack, only for him to land on nothing and jump off the air towards her.
This time, she wasn't fast enough to dodge, and could only block.
'WHAT IS THIS??!!' She mentally screamed as she was pushed into the ground from the force of Reed's attack, with him landing on top of her.
She suddenly flew up, and flipped her body a full hundred and eighty degrees, trying to throw Reed off of her.
But it seemed like Reed had anticipated that, and the next thing she knew, there was a pair of hands wrapped around her throat, and she couldn't breathe.
She looked at Reed, trying to pull his arms off, but they didn't budge. She made eye contact with him as she pulled her legs in and kicked at his chest, trying to kick him away from her, only for her kicks to hit nothing but air, as Reed somehow wrapped around to her back, his legs now wrapped around her stomach, just the other way.
In a desperate move, She flew higher as she tried to pry his hands off, then stopped her flight.
Now they were both plummeting to the ground, with Reed below her.
"Not bad." She heard Reed whisper. "But not good enough."
Suddenly, she was the one closer to the ground, but his hands were no longer on her neck.
She slammed into the ground with a loud thud.
She got up as a thin transparent film of mana disappeared.
"Looks like you still need to get used to your flying abilities." Reed spoke as looked at his arm. "but it looks like your physical capabilities have increased well, good to see that you've been using the bars I gave you. Let me know when you run low on those."
He walked up to her and held out a box.
"You should be running out of them soon, so here, an early resupply."
"Thank you." Lyn stopped rubbing her neck and took the box.
"Now, let's see how far your magic training has come."
Lyn sighed but did not complain.
She walked a few meters away and readied herself to dodge.
A moment later, she suddenly jerked forward as she cast an ice spell.
Reed jumped over the white wave of mana, only for Lyn's other arm to come forward and throw a wind blade.
The blade shattered and Reed threw a blue colored projectile at her.
She easily dodged it, but a moment later, she realized her mistake.
The ground around her suddenly moved and wrapped around her legs, holding them in place.
She looked as the fireball got closer.
'Shit.'