Zaleria opened the demi-plane door and looked inside. BAM! She saw Cain punch Sofia in the face, and she spun in place and kicked him in the ear.

As he flew away, Alice flew at him with a slash with her holy sword. Cain's tentacle extended from his legs and grabbed Sofia, smacking her onto Alice.

Thwack! Selena grabbed him by the head, smacking his body on the ground. Gracie took the chance to try stabbing him. ZON! Cain teleported Selena away and kicked Gracie's hand, disarming her.

Sofia opened her mouth, [Fire Breath]

A blast of crimson flames gushed toward Cain. The ground cracked, and the whole place flashed bright red.

Thud! Cain stomped down, holding his hand ahead. "Inanna!" The sword flew to his hand, and he swung down. His slash cut the breath in half.

"What?" Sofia gasped. Immediately charging a [Lightning breath]

Cain sheathed his sword [Thuder Flash]

Cain flew directly into her breath, swimming till he reached her. Sofia expected him, so she swung her fist forward.

CRACK! She hit him in the face just before he could hit her.

Thwack! His face bounced off her fist, and his whole body kept moving in a straight line.

BAM! He smacked into a rock at the back.

Just as he stood, Alice appeared by his side and swung her cursed blade. Cain easily deflected it, but she slashed with her holy sword immediately.

CLING! CLANG! After a brief exchange, Cain felt that he was holding the advantage. Alice smiled, a vile grin on her face.

CRACK! Cain suddenly felt a sharp, throbbing pain across his whole body. A brief look at his HP made it obvious. Alice was rotting his flesh with cursed decay and then healing it over and over.

[Teleport] With keeping a distance as his only option, Cain teleported away. Thud! As he landed, Swosh! A golden arrow landed at his feet. He looked toward Alice in the distance, and she was holding a massive golden bow.

PEW! PEW! PEW! She started firing at an extreme rate. Cain wanted to cut them all down but quickly changed his mind. Some of the arrows were black, filled with cursed decay. He shouldn't touch those.

As he was dodging, Selena rushed him.

Dodging all the attacks became an impossible task. But what fascinated Cain more was that the arrows magically missed Selena. Alice can control her shots.

CLING! CLING! BAM! Selena was quickly dominating the fight. Cain started getting multiple scratches, and she didn't stop aiming at his left side. He wasn't good at protecting that.

"You only aim at my side," Cain said, leaping backward.

"Most of your openings are there-nya," Selena replied. BAM! BAM! A headshot and a liver shot, sneaking that punch to his right side.

Cain seemed to stumble back, Selena rushed to give him another hit, but he smiled. "Just kidding."

He is an abomination. No one said that his liver was on the right side. "CRACK!" He countered her with a punch to the guts. [Thuder Burst]

KA-BOOM! With a shock wave exploding, Selena got blasted away.

CRACK! Something landed behind him, and as Cain turned around, he saw death approaching.

'Dodge!' Morena yelled in his head, forcing his body to bend over.

FWOOSH! KA-BOOOOM! A fiery fist passed right by his head, exploding in an eruption of a violent inferno. The ground melted to lava, and the blast blew away a crater.

It wasn't Sofia. She was Zaleria. "Let me join as well."

'Why does her fire always seem hotter than Sofia's?' Cain couldn't understand why it was like that.

'It's the formula. Sofia learned fire sorcery from you, and you learned it from Zaleria. As the original, you two are but coping her magic.' Morena tried to explain as fast as possible because Zaleria's claw was already heading for Cain's head.

CLANG! Cain deflected the hit with Inanna, but the flames were too hot to stay close to Zaleria.historical

BAM! She immediately kicked him away. As Cain flew with his guts almost crushed, he understood the difference.

He and Sofia were ordering magic to work, creating a formula, and passing mana through it to create magical effects. Zaleria wasn't doing that.

Zaleria dominated her flames, and her formulas were created on the spot, ever so changing. Each spell is volatile, which heated them more. Usually, when the magic fails and explodes, it burns. To put it shortly: Zaleria's spells are a spark of genius created at the spot, which fails upon contact and explodes with more heat than they were supposed to have.

Her spells fail successfully and deal more damage.

Cain flipped and pointed his hand at Zaleria, "Let me try it." [Fire Burst] He sends a flying Orb of blue flame toward her.

Zaleria swung her fist up to deflect the Orb. KA-BOOM! The spell exploded, but she was unscathed.

BAM! Sofia flew to his back, trying to kick him toward Zaleria.

Cain disappeared before the impact. "Where did he go?" Sofia gasped.

"Behind you," Cain replied, touching her back. [Teleport] But he set the spell to fail.

Sofia teleported only half the distance before falling to the ground. Her head was spinning her body felt numb.

"It works!" Cain scratched his chin. They say failing magic is the most dangerous, but is he the first to think of weaponizing it?

All the girls charged at him.

***

As the training ended, it became apparent that Cain was the one who benefited the most. He learned to use magic failing as a weapon.

Selena learned to distinguish spell tiers by instinct. She dodges spells of seventh-tier or higher and tanks the lower.

Sofia learned that her breath lacked control. She needs to refine it.

Alice learned that keeping her aura active gives her an advantage. So she will use it to create openings. She also discovered that she could shoot cursed arrows from her holy bow, which makes them unstable.

Gracie learned that she is still weak to sleep spells. She also found that she could use shadows to absorb damage. An example would be Like sucking the flames of a fireball into her shadows.

Zaleria learned a crucial thing about Cain. He isn't powerful, but he is exceptionally annoying to fight. That is because of all the spells and his learning speed. He also doesn't seem to get tired or run out of MP, so fighting his is a draining task.

"What now?" Cain asked, Laying on the ground beside the girls.

"Dinner, probably." Replied Sofia.

"I hope so-nya," Selena added, curling up to Cain while purring.

Zaleria stared at them, "Your training is extreme. Can't you pull your punches?" she was a bit surprised seeing them punch each other like that.

"I can always heal them," Alice said with a smile.

"Aren't you supposed to get hit in training?" Gracie asked while staring at Zaleria.

"Not like this."

"But, we get hit in an actual fight. What's the point of training if you don't get hit?" Gracie asked. She was serious.

"In training, you're supposed to learn the basics. Practice your moves and memorize them." Cain was the one to reply. "But that won't help when you face something unexpected." He added.

"Like what?" Zaleria asked.

"If you learned to fight with swords and then faced a mage that surprised with a nasty smelling spell. You won't be able to deal with it." Cain replied. "But if you have enough experience, you won't be surprised. Retain your cool and think of a way to work around it. That is the goal of sparring and our training."