"When I put all the pieces together. When I think about everything that's happened with you it looks like a remarkable coincidence that you've made it so far."

  Grammarian Tyler was a tall man who looked like he'd been through his paces. He wore thick black spectacles that obscured his face. His tunic was fitted and his toga was loose. His no nonsense manner of instruction didn't leave room for error.

  Ludere also knew that the man was hopelessly jealous of his position in society. Two times, he had been able to stop a demonic incursion something that no other citizen of the Empire could. At that precise moment, he was dodging tiny rocks one by one that the grammarian was throwing at him using his own willpowers. This was not helped at all by the fact that he was wearing a blindfold and he was supposed to detect each Rock using the will signature on it. It was an exercise, both in frustration and in sweat equity. The more that he did this with the grammarian the better he felt about his prospects of actually doing well once he returned to the academy.

  "You just happened to know when a demonic incursion was happening. Now I understand. It's like the gods chose to make you the will of the people or something."

  "I can assure you that it's not that case," Ludere said. "It is absolutely the farthest thing from my thought pattern and even if they chose me I would quickly deny it if I could."

  That seemed close enough to the truth that he could get away with it. The gods had chosen him and they hadn't sworn him to secrecy so much as made him keep reliving the same set of days over and over again. His first loop had been the same two hours of demonic invasion into the arena he worked at. It had taken him more than fifty loops to figure out how to break free of that, using his skill swap ability to pick out the best way to get out of the situation he found himself in.

  Once he had finally broken free of the time loops, he found himself in and interesting political situation. He'd saved a sitting Senator, someone who had come to the arena during the holidays and had seen what he'd done. The small matter of killing an elite demon and closing down a gate to their world.

  Ludere had seen what was on the other side of the gate.

  He'd seen it burst through and kill hundreds of people.

  "Stop thinking about boys and concentrate."

  "I'm not thinking about boys," he said, dodging two pebbles. Two was new.

  "That's not what your friend Erebus said. He said something about a rental contract, or are you telling me that my information is wrong?"

  The pebbles stopped. Then three came at him all going high.

  Ludere ducked and rolled.

  His prowess in rolling had improved alone with his physical fitness which was due for an upgrade. It had finally reached forty after stagnating for some time. Despite weeks of training, he couldn't just make numbers go up.

  More than anything, having as many skills as he had had meant that he could choose to be good at something, unlike his peers that only got two or three skills in their lifetime.

  "You've got the skills for it. Now, make them shine."

  Three more pebbles came at him. This time, they went low. He had to jump and dodge to the side.

  He cleared the space easily. Tyler stopped.

  "That's enough of that for now."

  "Are you certain?" Ludere moved to untie his bandana.

  "No, keep it on. Your friends asked if they could spare you like that so we'll be doing that next."

  "My friends?"

  Ludere immediately activated his soul magic looking around for someone approaching.

  "Gia. Of course it had to be you."

  "Prepare to be thrown." She walked in calm and confident.

  She had the ability to throw him across the room if she got both of her hands on him. His job was to avoid getting thrown. Once she had them on the ground it was all over. She had taught him striking how to punch and kick but her shrink wasn't getting some under the ground and then painting them or breaking their arm or leg. He would be useless with a broken arm. He could at least still take notes with one.

  "Did you get unarmed combat to thirty yet?"

  She started walking around him in a circle. As she moved he continued to turn to face her. She was spending more energy to walk around him before the fight than he did stating in place.

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  She floated about, every so often stepping in to feint a jab.

  He adopted the easy ready stance. Only one foot moved at a time as he waited for an opening. He knew that she was doing the exact same thing. And read your body language as well. But from the way that her spirit felt, she was itching for it.

  He wanted to give her the experience that she had always wanted. She'd been training in unarmed combat since she'd received it.

  "Okay do something." Now he was irritated that she hadn't actually come and attacked him. He knew that she was slower than him but speed only mattered so much when she had the technique. Or was she keeping him at a spears length for a reason?

  She darted in and grabbed him by his arms. It fell swoop, he was over in mid-air. Mid-air. It was tempting to think that he could stop there if he wasted enough willpower. He didn't need to do it to show off but it would have been really cool. Gia didn't have bad appreciation for how much cooler he gotten since these timelords had begun. She had a chorus benefited from him. His excursions because she acquired all of his skills thanks to his swapping skill. He'd a card all of hers, giving him a special skill that he'd use to make it himself as handsome as possible.

  Using clam as an active skill wasn't really something he could do. It was passive and it was just a part of him. It was either on or off. He would have appreciated not being thrown around but this was the way that she got her training in when he was gone. Gia wasn't going to be turning to the academy with him. Neither was his friend Erebus. Both of them had been with him when it mattered and he wanted to do right by them. Hate seeing both of them die dozens of times.

  His whole goal now was to make sure that they could live as long as possible. To that end to, he was probably going to ask the the Senator that had sponsored him if he could take care of his friends though he was away.

  " You know for such a handsome looking guy you're just so throwable. I can throw you all day. I've had the Oracle says the same thing all the time."

  He would have laughed if he wasn't being thrown across the room again.

  "Even if you can throw me out all the time. I would appreciate it if you didn't. I'm a tender soul and now I am a lover not just a fighter. Even if before all this I was just..."

  The sand cloud from him getting up was familiar by now. He wished it wouldn't get into his mouth but before he knew it, Gia was above him, pinning him down expertly. Her black hair was long enough that he could feel it, with her in the mount position.

  He tried to stop her, but it wasn't even a contest. Just because she had taught him didn't mean that he had the time to catch up.

  "Blindfold off. Spears!" Tyler's words were executed immediately.

  The spear he had become accustomed to using regularly was getting a soul evaluation at that precise moment. He grabbed a loaner spear. It had the right balance for what he wanted with a blunted tip.

  Gia brandished her spear. She had taught him footwork for unarmed combat before he had learned how to use a spear. Then he had gotten spear Proficiency as a skill. He had given the skill to her.

  This was the first time they had sparred since he had left for the academy.

  She feinted.

  The thrust looked inexpert, as if she hadn't handled a spear before.

  He knew that wasn't true, right? If he was going to feel overconfident he wanted to earn it. He feinted in trying to test her range but she didn't respond.

  She always responded.

  Battles with a spear were generally not one on one in his experience. They were controlled retreats with lots of piercing blows against ones enemies as one gave up as little ground as one could. If he could form a proper shield wall with his spear that would have given him more survivability, but it was only him the whole time.

  It was always him.

  She continued to not do anything that made sense to him. She wasn't giving anything away either.

  She had been training in his absence. With whom?

  That momentary thought was the end of his match. She found his throat with the tip of her spear.

  He would have died in a real fight.

  They reset. This time, she came at him and he finally had a target. Finally he could stretch his arms and...

  "Stop. Ludere, lose the spear."