The morning went by quickly. Xavier wasn't allowed extra time to sleep to make up for the time he'd lost. His parents sent him straight to his lessons.
His teachers weren't forgiving at all. They became much tougher on him after his parents informed them why he was so tired. Clearly, they didn't think his achievement was worth the risk of over using his magic. Many of the lectures became seemed to come around to the dangers of pushing limits too far.
Finally, after hours of grueling lectures Xavier was released to the training grounds. His mother was waiting there as usual. Xavier was hopeful that his mother would at least take some pity on him. He couldn't have been more wrong.
"Actually, this is an ideal situation. There are often times when combat mages cannot choose the condition which they fight in. Training this way may well be a boon. We'll look into changing your schedule to put you under varying forms of stress." His mother smiled sardonically at him.
Xavier was stunned into silence. This wasn't what he had been hoping to hear. His mother's words proved to be true. After his combat training that day his entire schedule was altered to put various forms of stress on him. After several weeks of this he was quickly becoming accustomed to sudden bouts of combat training. There were even times when he'd been woken in the middle of the night to be sent into combat against his mother.
What was worse was that his mother slowly increased the difficulty every time. She also began to urge him to incorporate his magic into the combat. Slowly but surely, he became more and more versatile at casting his magic while in combat.
His hard work finally paid off when in the latest sparring match, he was able to knock his mother off her feet. Before he could celebrate his victory, his mother sprang to her feet and swept his legs from under him before closing the gap and ending the match by holding her hand to his throat.
"You should learn one more thing. Always finish the opponent off. You can never give them a chance to get up and plot against you. You should have moved to finish the match as soon as you knew I was about to hit the floor." Her voice had a stern tone to it unmatched so far.
Xavier was stunned. There was a bloodthirstiness to his mother right now that was frightening. He had never known that his mother had this much malice.
"Something has been confusing me mom. Why worry about these techniques? They could never harm any of the demon creatures of the second tier or higher." Xavier was curious why he had to learn these martial arts that seemed designed to harm humans.
"This world changed in more than one way when the spacial cracks appeared. Mankind slid backward a bit. Laws began to not matter so much as strength. One rule became prevalent, if your magic is strong enough you can do whatever you want. Most mages are terrible at close combat so if you can master these moves, you'll have an advantage against them." His mother's entire demeanor had changed.
"Where did you learn all this, mom?" She looked at him intensely.
"That is a story best told when you're older." His mother refused to even discuss the subject with him after that.
For the rest of the week Xavier was put through intense sessions of training. Fatigue began to set in on him. At the end of the week, he was given blessed rest. For an entire day he was allowed to rest without lessons or training.
The next day when Xavier woke up, he channeled the star path for telekinesis and brought the glass of water on his nightstand to his hand. Xavier nearly spilled it as he started in surprise. The star path had been completed with just a thought. There hadn't been any trouble at all. Before it had taken him a few seconds to complete but now it was instantaneous.
Xavier shared the good news with his parents at the breakfast table that morning. Both were impressed and shocked by his progress. His father nodded approvingly. "That's well-done Xavier. With that level of ability, it can really be used for combat now." His father looked at him speculatively, "Now that you've mastered the spacial star path it's time to focus on your other element. It's time for you to summon your first creature."