Chapter 244 – Evasion Training

Chapter 244 – Evasion Training

“That’s right! I mixed in some stamina potions.” Amisha landed beside them.

“You girls should be thanking Vasida and Lilith’s Sorceress Magic! Otherwise you’d have collapsed even faster!”

The young witches seethed but didn’t dare voice their complaints.

“I know what you’re thinking—that I confiscated your wands and took away your broomsticks, and that you wouldn’t be in such a sorry state otherwise.

But who can guarantee they’ll always have a wand in hand, a broomstick at their side, or enough magical power to go around?”

Amisha continued:

“This combat techniques course is designed to teach you how to protect your lives to the greatest extent possible in extreme situations—when you have no wand, can’t fly, and don’t have enough magical power.

We witches excel at magic, but we can’t rely on magic alone.

Compared to other magical races, physical fitness has always been our weakness.

Though Vasida and Lilith’s Sorceress Magic has given us the opportunity to shore up this weakness, we still can’t neglect training in this area.”

Mo Lan nodded silently. Honestly, even after learning so many spells, she still felt that strengthening the body was incredibly important.

After all, one’s mana bar was finite, and the situation Lady Amisha described wasn’t impossible.

However, Mo Lan had Card Magic. The Gem Coins she earned could be converted into energy stored in her Energy Storage Cards, allowing her to quickly restore her mana.

Magic cards could also serve as her means of attack.

As long as there was still energy in the Book of Cards’ Purple Gemstone, she could never find herself in a situation where she had no magic to use and had to resort to hand-to-hand combat.

The other young witches weren’t so fortunate.

“This course runs for one month, with only one training exercise: water ball evasion training.

Through this, you’ll train your stamina, endurance, reflexes, pain tolerance, and combat skills.

There are no techniques to learn. How much you get out of it depends entirely on your own abilities.

From here on, you may use fists, weapons—anything other than magic—to attack the water balls.

Each time you hit a water ball, it will be frozen in place for ten seconds.

Don’t worry, I’ve prepared plenty of stamina potions—enough for all of you to complete each day’s training.”

As soon as Lady Amisha finished speaking, a huge swarm of water balls appeared on the field.

This time it wasn’t like before, with one water ball per person chasing them around like some kind of game.

Each young witch had at least three water balls bearing down on her from the start.

The faster and fitter you were, the more water balls you got assigned.

Vasida, Mo Lan, and Sylph—the three wealthiest who had invested the most in enhancing their bodies—received the most water balls.

Sylph had ten, Mo Lan twelve, and Vasida started with a whopping eighteen.

Every single water ball emanated an aura that set one’s teeth on edge.

“Training begins!”

At Lady Amisha’s command, the water balls charged forward.

The young witches scattered in every direction.

Mo Lan had never imagined that combat techniques class would be conducted like this!

It was practically no different from a battle royale.

Except the punishment wasn’t death—just the threat of a sourness so awful it made you wish you were dead.

While running, Mo Lan pulled out the butcher’s knife from her Mobile Kitchen Card.

She had practiced her flying dagger technique and sharpening spell with this knife for a long time. It felt the most natural in her hand, and it was the most lethal weapon she had.

She ran while looking for opportunities to stab a water ball.

The Outdoor Training Ground was fairly flat, without any major obstacles, and offered a relatively open field of vision.

But the ground was covered in sharp-edged gravel. Running wasn’t much of a problem, but taking a fall would really hurt.

If not for her Vampire rapid healing, that earlier fall would have left Mo Lan’s face black and blue. But the pain when she hit the ground hadn’t been any less for it.

So while running, she also had to watch her footing on the gravel to avoid tripping.

Having at least consciously trained in close combat before, Mo Lan ran for a while, observed the water balls’ pursuit patterns, and then attempted to counterattack.

The results were quite good.

The twelve water balls didn’t rush her all at once. If they had, there would have been no way she could fend them off.

These water balls pursued at varying speeds, maintaining certain distances between each other, giving her the opportunity to counter them one by one.

On her very first attempt, she managed to slash all twelve water balls to a halt.

“Looks like just running isn’t the answer—counterattacking is the real way to go!”

Mo Lan took advantage of the water balls being frozen to put as much distance between them as she could.

But before she could celebrate, ten seconds later, three more water balls joined the fray.

Fifteen water balls, all surging toward her at once.

This time, they really did come at her together.

They were blindingly fast, surrounding Mo Lan in an instant.

They didn’t all slam into her at the same time, but the attacks were extremely dense.

Mo Lan couldn’t handle them with the same ease as before. She could only take it one step at a time, prioritizing the water balls that posed the greatest threat.

Out of nowhere, a water ball ambushed her from behind.

“Hss!” Mo Lan stumbled with a cry of pain, and other water balls seized the opening. Both her left arm and right side of her waist were struck.

It threw off her attack rhythm completely, and she made mistake after mistake.

Even the knife in her hand missed its mark.

She was surrounded by a cluster of water balls as hard as rocks, beaten until she was howling.

But painful as it was, it didn’t cause Mo Lan much real damage. After a moment of panic, she gritted her teeth through the pain and broke free of the encirclement.

This time she’d discovered her weakness.

Her pain tolerance was terrible. The moment she was hit, she could no longer maintain her previous level of offense.

Applied to spellcasting, wouldn’t that mean that once she was hurt badly enough, she’d lose focus and be unable to cast?

That wouldn’t do at all!

After breaking free, Mo Lan didn’t use her Super Speed to shake off the water balls. Instead, she charged right back in to meet them head-on.

She had to overcome this weakness!

Just as Mo Lan shifted from desperate survival to active training, cries of pain rang out from every corner of the training ground.

The other young witches hadn’t learned any close-combat techniques and were still mostly running and dodging, only occasionally lashing out on instinct.

The water balls had deliberately separated them so that each witch had to deal with her own water balls alone.

Vasida was struggling mightily against eighteen pursuing water balls.

She could only rely on stamina and endurance to hold on. Every time she tried to punch a water ball, the others would punish her for it—it was better to just keep running.

Sylph didn’t have the stamina either, and counterattacking was equally difficult. She too could only run for her life.

Amisha had no intention of just watching them run around in circles. She called out a reminder: “Think about what you’re supposed to be learning from this class!

Counterattack! These water balls are the vital points of your future enemies—pierce through them!

If all you do is run, you’ll be caught eventually!”

For the witches who still did nothing but dodge, Amisha simply had the water balls split into two groups and cut off their escape routes, forcing them to fight back with everything they had.

The young witches were in utter chaos, miserable beyond words.

One could say that in all their lives, today was the first time they had ever been beaten this badly.

The water balls were impossible to destroy and impossible to outrun.