Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"You alright? You look kinda worn down."

"Huh? Yeah, I'm okay...just exhausted. Tacitus's training yesterday evening was just a little over half as long as Colt's training was, but I felt like I was about to die by the time it was over...and also at the beginning, and throughout the entire session, really," Sighed Raven wearily.

Unlike Colt, Tacitus didn't give him a single break, he just kept attacking for about three hours straight, before deciding he'd worked hard enough and called it a day.

It took about an hour for Raven to heal himself, Tacitus had taken care to somewhat soften any blows he was about to land in order to avoid breaking any bones, but like he'd said, he wasn't very good at pulling his punches...by the time it was over, he'd left Raven severely bruised and battered from head to toe. The only reason he didn't end up breaking anything was thanks to the durability of Raven's body.

For the third day of his training, Celia was in charge of overseeing this training session, and given how the previous day had gone, Raven felt a sense of dread about this.

"Yeah, he's a lot stronger than he seems at first glance. He's actually the second strongest in our group, only Aster is stronger than he is," Celia informed him, before adding, "Okay, let's discuss today's training...we will be doing a bit of sparring at the end, but I'll mainly be helping you with your Spellcasting. I'm pretty good at Mana control, I'm the fastest Spellcaster among The Irregulars, though I'm still working on mastering Level 3 Spells. With my help, you should be able to learn new Spells faster, and cast your Spells more efficiently. Here, sit down and follow my instructions."

"Yeah, okay," Nodded Raven, feeling a bit relieved.

"Alright, so, one of the most important aspects of Spellcasting is visualization. But that isn't limited to just visualizing the Spell itself, you also need to visualize the flow of your Mana, you need to have a sense of clarity and understanding in how to channel your Mana for each specific Spell," She explained with a smile.

"Wait, you mean it's different for every Spell?"

"Well, it depends on the Magic Class. For example, most Attack Magic Classes, particularly the Elemental Magic Classes, are more simple, you just need to visualize the element, so the Mana channeling for each Spell won't be that different, except for the more complex, high level Spells. My Explosion Magic is similar, there isn't much complexity to it. But Recovery Magic is different...take the Spells you can use so far, they all have very different effects, which means you need to channel your Mana in different ways.

Of course, even if you don't focus on your Mana channeling, you can still cast the Spells, but if you clearly visualize the entire process from start to finish, you'll be able to cast each Spell much, much faster. The key to this is repetition...keep casting your Spells over and over, and get a feel for how the flow of Mana feels for each one. And then, once you've got a good feel for it, you visualize it, and that'll make the process much more efficient. Are you with me so far?" She asked him.

"Yeah, your explanations are clear and easy to follow," He replied with a thumbs up.

"Great! If there's anything you don't understand, don't hesitate to ask, okay?"

"Sure. Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Oh, don't mention it, happy to help. Okay, let's move on, there's another important aspect of Spellcasting you need to work on...and that's how you view Mana. You need to think of your Mana as a part of your body, in the same view you perceive you own limbs, blood, bones and so one. They're not separate, disconnected parts, they're all elements of one whole; your body. You need to perceive your Mana in the same way, that it's a part of your body and not a separate thing.

A lot of people have trouble with this because they live the first ten years of their lives without being able to use Mana, so after they awaken their Magic, most people tend to see it as a separate addition, and not something that's a part of them. Changing your perception like that can be tricky, and on top of that, it's something that isn't easy to confirm. So my advise to you is to just keep working at it, don't view Mana and Magic as a weapon, but instead as an extension of yourself, because that's what it is," She explained, as Raven nodded thoughtfully.

"She's really nice, and cute too. After the pervert on day one and whatever the hell yesterday was, this is a breath of fresh air," Raven thought to himself.

"Now, then, let's try putting it into practice. Let's start with making your Spellcasting more efficient, you're going to need to cast each of your Spells over and over...I know you already did that with my brother, but the difference this time will be the visualization part. Start off slow, visualize it step by step, and once you've got the hang of that, start visualizing faster and faster, but without letting it get sloppy or rushed," Instructed Celia, before taking out a small knife and inflicting a shallow cut across her forearm and holding it out towards Raven, "Let's begin with Heal, since that's the Spell you have the greatest mastery over."

"Okay, here I go...," Nodded Raven, closing his eyes and visualizing, before chanting, "[Heal]."

"Good, now do it again. If you fully master Level 1 Spells, you'll be able to cast them instantly. Make sure to focus on the feel of your Mana flow...your instincts are superhuman, so you should be able to pick up it much faster than normal. But even if that isn't the case, don't worry or get impatient...staying calm is important when casting a Spell, if you aren't calm the Spell will be sloppy," She advised him, as she cut her arm again and gave him a nod.

Raven obliged and healed her again, taking his time to visualize the process and get a feel for the flow of his Mana.

The two of them then began repeating it over and over, and it wasn't long before Raven began to make progress. As he got the hang of the visualization process, he was able to steadily heal Celia's cuts faster and faster.

With that done, he moved on to trying to cast the Spell faster, by visualizing it more quickly. This part was trickier, as he needed to get through the visualization process faster but without rushing it, otherwise the effectiveness of the Spell would drop.

He kept plugging away at it, aided by Celia's patient and friendly guidance. After a while, she decided to move on to his other Spells, which he had less mastery over than the Heal Spell.

By the time he'd gotten the hang of the visualization processes for each of his current three Spells, well over two hours had passed.

"So, for every new Spell than I master, I'll have to do this each time?" Sighed Raven, feeling mentally worn out.

"Not quite...you will have to for a while, but once you get used to doing it for a wide range of Spells with different effects, eventually, it'll become part of your instincts and intuition, and you'll be able to visualize and cast Spells as naturally as breathing, and you'll be able to master new Spells more easily. Of course, there's always room for improvement, but even getting to that point would be a pretty high level accomplishment. Alright, I think that should do for the Spellcasting part of today's training. Make sure to keep working at everything I taught you, okay?"

"Got it, I'll keep practicing," Nodded Raven affirmatively.

"Great, make sure you do. Now, then...let's have a couple of quick sparring session to wrap things up, shall we? Well, it's less sparring and more evasion training, I suppose. You won't be attacking me, instead, I'll be launching explosions at you, and your job will be to evade them. This should help sharpen your reaction time and battle sense. I'll count down from ten, and I'll begin attacking on zero...best get some distance if you don't want to get blasted. Oh, and no going beyond the trees, and no flying up beyond the treetops, let's try to simulate this being in an enclosed space, which is generally a lot more difficult than fighting in an open space. Alright, here we go...ten, nine, eight...," She began counting down as she stood up and stretched her arms out.

"Wait, what?" Responded Raven, before quickly getting up onto his feet as he realized that she was serious and backed away as fast as he could.

"Three, two, one, zero...now, [Exploding Arrow Scattershot]!"

Raven's eyes widened in alarm as a barrage of rapid, narrow explosive projectiles came shooting towards him, before he twisted his body across to evade the first one that neared him, which flew past the front of his chest before exploding fiercely across the ground behind him and triggering a small but intense shockwave, sending him stumbling forward before he hit the ground in a rush as the other projectiles closed in on him, narrowly evading them before a chain of explosions erupted behind him as they whizzed past the top of his head and peppered the ground a few meters behind him, bits of dirt and grass flying out.

He then quickly scrambled back onto his feet as several more explosive projectiles came shooting towards him, before opening his mouth and unleashing a sharp, high pitched sonic screech, slowing down the projectiles before they exploded several meters ahead of him.

Celia then fired off more explosive projectiles at an upwards angle, which then arched down and plummeted towards Raven, before he spread out his wings and took off into the air, avoiding the incoming explosions right in the nick of time, which erupted across the spot where he'd been standing, a cloud of dust bursting out as chunks of dirt flew out upon impact.

As more explosions came shooting up towards him, he zipped across the air, the projectiles erupting in midair and triggering small but intense shockwaves, which made it difficult for Raven to keep his balance while flying.

"Okay, good start! I'm going to ramp up the intensity now, so keep it up!" Celia called out to him, before firing a wider, faster barrage of explosive projectiles up at Raven.

"You know, what, I take it back...maybe she's not so nice, after all..."

...

...

"-...ake up. Hey, wake up," An impatient voice echoed out, as Raven felt a hand on his shoulder, shaking him.

"Hm...? What time is it...?" He muttered groggily, his eyelids fluttering open before widening in alarm as he saw a sharp edge plunging down towards his forehead.

He reacted as quickly as he could, raising his right arm as fast as he could, the edge piercing through the scales over the back of his hand and drawing out a trickle of blood.

"Not bad, your reaction time is at a passable level now. And it looks like Colt was right, your flesh is really tough...I barely managed to break through your scales, and even then, I only pierced through about a couple millimeters into your hand."

"Lexia? What...what the hell are you doing!? You could've killed me!" Exclaimed Raven, as he sat up with an indignant frown.

"Oh, don't be a baby, I was going to stop short if you failed to block or dodge it. Not to mention, I was nice enough to wait until your eyes opened before attacking...I won't be so nice next time. And you can easily heal an injury that small, so quit your whining," Shrugged Lexia indifferently, before a slight, sadistic smirk spread out across her lips as she pulled the tip of the bone blade out of Raven's hand with a sharp twist and shook the blood off.

"Ow...you're kind of a jerk, aren't you?" Muttered Raven saltily as he healed his hand, before thinking to himself, "Well, this sucks...I'm stuck having to deal with another sadist. Hm, come to think of it, she's an Assassin too, same as Colt...are all Assassins like these two?"

"Yeah, whatever...now, then, get up, it's time to train," She replied with a slight huff.

"Huh? I thought my training sessions were supposed to be in the evening?" He responded in confusion.

"I decided to shake things up. You're going to skip breakfast and train. In a real fight, you're not always going to be at your best, so you'll be sparring against me while hungry," She explained, before adding as she began to head out the room, "Well? What're you waiting for, an invitation? I don't have all day."

"...I think you might be my least favorite of the group. And that's saying a lot."

"Tch, stop running your mouth and get up already."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming..."

...

"Okay, so here's how we'll be doing this. I'll attack you, but you can't block or counter with physical attacks. For defense, you're only allowed to use evasion, and for offense, you'll be using your plasma-based attacks. So, no punches or kicks, no claw slashes, no using your tail, and no flying either. Got it?" Stated Lexia, as she cracked her knuckles.

"That's, uh...that's a lot of handicaps. What about my voice modulation ability?" He asked her with a sigh.

"Hm? Oh, the sonic screeches and deafening roars? Yeah, no using that either. Fire, lightning and eye beams to attack, and evasion to defend, that's all you're allowed to do...we'll change up the handicaps as we go through, the end goal of my training is to make sure you don't end up being too heavily reliant on just one or two of your many abilities," She replied, as a pair of daggers made of bone extended out of her palms, before she took hold of the handles as they finished forming and stated, "Okay, ready or not...here I come!"

She swiftly shot forward, flinging one of the daggers at his face, which he evaded by quickly tilting his head across to the left as he fully tranformed, the dagger deflecting off the scales over his cheek before his eyes widened as Lexia closed in on him and got low, slashing at his stomach with the other dagger.

In no position to dodge it, Raven reacted instinctively, extending out his claws and swinging them across to deflect the slash.

"Hey, what did I say? No blocking! That wouldn't have done much damage anyway, with how tough your scales are. Do that again, and you'll regret it," She warned him, before backing away a few paces to start over, as she raised he hands and pointed her fingers out towards him, chanting, "[Bone Bullet Barrage]!"

Raven raced away as several small, rapid bone projectiles came shooting towards him out of Lexia's fingertips. She chased after him as he evaded her bullets, before forming a couple more bone daggers and flinging them at him with rapid spins.

He evaded the first one, which narrowly whizzed past the back of his neck, before the second one zipped towards his left eye, as he quickly swung his left arm across to deflect it.

"Tch, you blocked again...I told you you'd regret it if you did, and now, I'm going to prove that I'm true to my word," She warned him icily, a chill running down his spine before she shot towards him rapidly, before extending out a bone sword from her right hand and slashing it across the ground as she closed in on him, knocking up bits of dirt towards him eyes, briefly blinding him before he fired out intense beams from his eyes.

She vanished from his sight as she rapidly got low to evade the beams, before he stiffened up as he picked up her scent behind him. He quickly spun around as she slashed at his back with her blade, the tip dragged across the front of his chest as he spun around, before he sprang back with a grimace and fired out a blast of flames from his mouth towards her.

"[Bone Gauntlets]!" She swiftly chanted, a thick, dense layer of bone forming over her hands and forearms as she crossed her arms in front of herself, blocking the flames before sliding across to her left and getting low before leaping straight towards Raven as she extended out bone spikes from her right knuckles and drove her fist towards his side.

As her fist closed in on him, he quickly coated his entire body in intense, crackling purple lightning, a stifled hiss of pain ringing out from Raven as the bone spikes dug in a few millimeters into his side, before Lexia let out a sharp, stuttering yell as she got electrocuted.

"That really hurt...," She growled, as Raven quickly backed away nervously, a murderous gleam in her eyes as she added seethingly, "I'm gonna tear you apart and beat you within an inch of your life...do your best not to die, though by the time I'm done with you, the notion of death will look real appealing to you. [Bone Spear]!"

Raven quickly turned his body across as Lexia rapidly formed and flung a spear at him like a javelin, narrowly evading it as it zipped past the front of his chest, before turning forward and flinching as he met Lexia's gaze from a few centimeters in front of him, a dark, bloodlustful look in her eyes...

"You know, maybe I was too harsh on Colt...as it turns out, a sadomasochist is a hell of a lot easier to deal with than a pure sadist...this is gonna hurt a whole lot, isn't it?"