Rito's training was rough, extremely rough, Rito had the belief that practical experience taught 10 times more than any textbook or manual, so most of Loren's school day was spent being thrown into the ground, beaten senseless. Most of the class felt their envy fade watching Loren's torment. Aside from the torturous sparing, Rito also increased Loren's physical training by twice what he did before, but this didn't trouble Loren too much since he already continued training himself once he went home. So Loren's school day became 1 hour of training, 1 hour of sparing, 2 hours of getting beaten by Rito and 1 final hour of actual learning.
*SLAM*
"Again. I told you, a sabre is best at slashing and cutting, stop trying to thrust at me."
"Haa... Haa... I'm thrusting because no one expects a sabre user to! It works on the others..."
"That's because they're all inexperienced brats, don't try to deviate from my technique, you're not good enough yet to try different tactics. Focus on copying my swordsmanship."
"Yes sir Rito Rito sir." Every time Loren felt angry at Rito he always referred to him by his full name, much to his displeasure.
"Just call me teacher."
As much as Loren hated the training, he admitted he was suited for him. He was improving quickly, every day he felt his skill in the sabre improve, his swordsmanship looking more like his teacher's. Rito had a thorough understanding of Loren's talent, he was great at absorbing what he saw and copying it. He noticed in every spar they had, that Loren's eyes always followed the movement and trajectory of his sabre, trying to replicate him, he even changed Rito's stance to one that better fit his small body.
"Durkson, he's broken again."
"Got it sir!"
A towering blonde man who stood 190cm walked over to Loren, he raised his hand as a yellow light covered Loren's body, causing his fatigue to fade and making energy fill his body. Durkson was a light elementalist employed by the school, he was the only one as healers were rare, but he had almost exclusively been Loren's personal nurse for the last 2 weeks due to how often he was injured.
Having a healer was one of the biggest allures that the school had since healing omitted the need to wait for one's muscles to heal naturally, allowing students to have a week's worth of training in a single day. Loren felt this ability the most in the last few weeks, as the constant beatings and healing thereafter gave him a quantitative increase in strength.
"Don't worry Loren, this will all be worth it by the end, I've never seen one of Rito's students not become the top of the class." He consoled Loren.
"I'm more worried about my mental state than how strong I'll become. Thanks though Mr Durkson."
"Don't coddle the boy, it's been 2 weeks and he still can't beat Trina let alone the others in the 1st stage."
"That's because their teachers all actually teach them mana arts! How do you expect me to beat them when I'm only at the starting point of the 1st stage?"
Loren could now defeat most of the students in class in a spar thanks to being able to move his mana, but the top 5 students were still elusive to him, he wasn't able to make up the difference in mana arts while still learning how to use the sabre. In duels without mana, he still was in the lower half of the class.
"You leant dynamic mana movement yourself, didn't you? Why not learn other arts on your own? Alright, the other students are done working out now, go eat before sparing with them."
Rito ignored his student's cries and walked away, making Loren spit on the floor. Durkson chuckled at their dynamic.
"You can ruin the rest of the day but you can't ruin lunch."
Loren ran to the school cafeteria and loaded his plate with food, the pile of meat and vegetables reached his head. He walked over to a table and slammed his plate down in annoyance.
"Rough day again?"
"It's always rough with that guy."
Sitting next to Loren was a 13-year-old boy with silver hair, Loot, the 2nd best in the class. He was the best in the class before Carol joined, though he didn't let his falling rank get to him, while he did spend a year longer in class than her, Carol was already in the 1st stage at the start of the year and her father paid for a personal tutor for the girl.
All students at the 1st stage sat at Loren's table, thinking to spend their lunch discussing different mana arts and ways they've thought to implement their mana. The only boy that didn't was Revold, a teen who hadn't left the school for 3 years since he joined.
"Maybe if spent less time chiding Rito he'd be more gentle, we all know you call him 'Sir Rito Rito'."
"I'm telling you he has it out for me Loot! He acted like that long before I called him that way. And what's wrong with calling him by his full name." Loren said in between stuffing his face.
"You know exactly what's wrong with that." Loot said with a chuckle.
"I for one don't understand why you're complaining, each of us would die to have Rito as a personal teacher."
"Then we can switch if you want Tory, I'd rather have Lory teaching me any day."
Trina's face went red. "It's Trina, Triiiiina. And stop talking while you chew it's disgusting."
"Pfft, you know he does it on purpose Trina, he's just teasing you."
"Yup, you're the first I gotta beat, have to get in your head for that. Also, I get his training works, I just hate how much he looks down on me, I don't care about how hard it is."
The group continued to talk throughout the lunch period, talking about how each of their instructors taught them. The above-12 class had 5 teachers, 3 more than the under-12 class since each teacher would have to take in personal students as the year went on.
Loren didn't explicitly say it, but having this group of friends made him very happy, he still vividly remembered spending years on end by himself in silence, filling the room with laughter and banter brought a smile to his face.
***
Lunch had ended and sparing class began, Loren immediately paired up with Trina, eager to join the top 5. After 3 rounds of losses, Loren still refused to switch to another partner, making Trina impatient.
"Tsk- seriously! You can't beat me, just train with the others! Sparing with you is just a waste of my time."
"C'mon, just... One more Tina." Loren gathered his energy and stood up, readying his sabre. He had an idea he wanted to put to use, a trick that could help him win the match.
"Fine, but I'm not holding back. You can stop calling me by the wrong name, I'm not going to get flustered by it." Trina grabbed her daggers and went into a stance.
"Haha, worth a shot." Loren laughed but quickly calmed himself, formulating a plan.
'Create my own mana art huh?'
As the spar began, Trina instantly threw one of her daggers, clearly trying to end the fight as soon as possible. Loren was surprised but didn't get too worked up, it was only a wooden dagger. He lifted his free arm and swatted away the knife, wincing from the pain.
Trina had already arrived in front of him, holding her remaining dagger with both hands, lowering her body to directly stab at his side. Loren twisted his body and tilted to the side causing the blow to narrowly miss, he swung down his arm, catching and locking Trina's wrists between his arm and torso. Grabbing her forearm, Loren smiled as he lifted his sabre.
"Got you!"
[Expulsion!]
A torrent of mana pulsed out of Trina's arm, blowing Loren away and leaving him off balance. Not giving him any time to recentre, Trina unleashed multiple slashes interlaced with stabs, chasing Loren as he clumsily ran backwards. Loren knew it was now to never.
Dodging a final stab, Loren focused mana into his leg as he lifted it backwards, blue wisps flowing out his foot. Trina leaned back and crossed her arms, anticipating a kick, but the kick never came.
*Tap*
In an awkward position, Loren threw his sabre down and bonked Trina's head. Trina tripped in confusion and looked at him, her mouth agape.
"Hehe, I win! I call that mana art 'Look Away', you like it?"
"T-that was NOT a mana art, it was just a cheap trick!" Trina exclaimed with a flushed face.
"Call it what you want, doesn't change that I won."
Loren had finally won a round against Trina, albeit his trick wouldn't work again as there were many factors contributing to his victory.
Trina had won consecutively against him, so she'd been slightly arrogant, and while she said Loren's teasing wouldn't bother her, she did get annoyed. The largest factor though was 'Look Away', using the fact that his abundance of mana caused his mana to flow from his body, Loren feinted with a kick.
He didn't think the trick would be useful in a proper battle, Rito showed him that when he tried to use it on him, but it perfectly served its purpose in his fight with Trina.
Loren rushed to Rito to tell him the news.
"Sir Rito Rito sir! Your humble student has just bested Trina Rito in battle!"
Entering the top 5 was never the prerequisite to learning mana arts from Rito, beating the top 5 once was. Well, beating Carol was the prerequisite, but he hoped defeating Trina would give him something.
"I saw." Rito said nothing else before walking away.
...
"He's a bastard man he is."
"Don't be impatient Loren, you'll beat Carol one day..." Salrie patted Loren's back with pity.
"Loren! Rematch! I'm going to tear you in two."
***
Loren half expected Rito to ignore his win, so he wasn't too sad, going off to spar with the other students.
Finishing his final class for the day, Loren stretched his back in exhaustion and prepared to leave. But while walking out the door, he was stopped when Rito stood in front of him.
"Follow me."
Beckoning him to follow, Rito walked down the hall. Standing still and wondering what Rito planned to do, Loren felt a palm on his shoulder, it was Loot.
"I knew he'd kill you one day. Sorry Loren, it was only a matter of time."
"Run Loren! We can't die yet!" Salrie cried, worrying that Loot was right.
A shiver ran down Loren's back.
'He's not that mad I call him 'Sir Rito Rito' is he?'