"... So, why exactly is SHE here?"
Waking up for another day of training, Lisa didn't find Tom near her and went to the training ground where she found Tom waiting for her with a smug expression on her face. This she had expected, it would be strange for him to have anything other than that strange smug smile on his face, what he had not expected was Tom to be accompanied by Mari of all people.
"Because she's one of the people we'll be working together with, and she, like yourself and all other people of this world, have no idea how I fight so having her observe you learning will be invaluable for both sides."
"Logical as always…"
One thing Lisa hated more than Tom's ever present smug smile when he knew he was fucking her over in some way was the way he turned overly logical when he really wanted to force his hand.
Staring back and forth between Mari's nervous face and Tom's smug smile, Lisa found herself increasingly more irritated by the second.
(Wow she really doesn't like this huh? 10 seconds from blowing a cylinder so I can wait a bit…)
While Tom appeared smug and calm he was aware of the risks involved with what he was doing, if he fucked things up royaly here there was a good chance Lisa would never speak with him again.
Still, Tom knew how determined Lisa was to free her mother, so he counted on her stubbornness outweighing her hate of Mari.
"FINE!"
Coming to a solution she hated but knew would be better for her in the long term, Lisa agreed to have Mari observe.
"Then where do we start?"
"Warm up with CQC, let's work on your blocking."
As Tom's instructions fell into a familiar rhythm, Lisa immediately put up her hands and Tom attacked not a second later. Having stepped in almost faster than Lisa could react, Tom aimed to knock her out with a left hook to the head while preparing a backup right to her gut the second she became distracted. While Lisa saw Tom's left hook, she knew focusing on that too much would lead to her getting knocked out so she stepped back as she deflected the left hook, then following Tom's eyeline she blocked his right arm. As Lisa blocked his second hit, Tom continued his advance and went in for a grapple.
"Shit…"
Finding herself on the ground, Lisa reached out and took Tom's already extended hand to get back on her feet.
"Let's go again, you're still forgetting your spacing."
"Right, ready."
(... That can't be right?...)
While the two of them started to spar again, Mari sat on a nearby log in awe of what she was seeing. Even though Tom was fast to an almost inhuman level, with instincts honed to a razor point and he was lethal; if he wasn't trying to outright kill his opponent in the least amount of moves, he would try to irreparably disable them instead.
Although Mari was sure Tom had greatly slowed these moves down and made them more obvious for Lisa to keep up, he didn't hold back too much and every time he landed a hit it did damage, yet Lisa got back up.
(What the hell is going on?)
Focusing on her centre, Mari started moving the mana inside her body to weave a spell together around her eyes. Activating it right as Tom hit Lisa on the shoulder, Mari visibly flinched when she saw a spark of light shoot off of her cousin's shoulder as Tom's hand hit.
(Wait, it can't be!?)
Getting hit, Lisa automatically started healing, reinforcing and enhancing her own body, precisely localising on whatever area she was injured.
After getting back up and restarting the exercise, Lisa continued to employ magic to strengthen her entire body, amouring her bones and muscle structure in her right as she deflected one of Tom's punches aimed for her and undoing it the second it was no longer needed before she switched to her footwork, sending a pulse of mana into the ground below her and temporarily linking the dirt beneath her and using the extra mass to absorb the block she pulled off next.
(Weaveless magic!)
What Mari saw almost made her dizzy as she struggled with the ramifications of what Lisa was currently doing. As the term suggested, waveless magic was a technique which allowed for almost instant spellcasting, often at the risk of permanent, lethal injuries to the user. Although the instantaneous activation time of this reckless way of creating spells was appealing, the very act of skipping the 'weaving' or stabilising was necessary to avoid adverse effects or misfire of the spell. If Mari attempted to strengthen her arm at the speed Lisa had, she was sure it would fail, and she would most likely lose her arm as the strengthening spell would instead snap her bones, rip her muscles apart and 'peel' off her skin.
Yet in the time it had taken Mari just to consider the possible ways that singular spell could misfire inside her arm, Lisa had used at least 30 more of them, all with the minimal amount of mana needed and no unnecessary waste.
As Mari was lost in thought and awe, Tom suddenly increased his speed and swept Lisa's legs with a low kick.
"Sh!-"
Instead of letting Lisa fall hard, Tom caught her arm and kept her upright before setting her down slowly as he started speaking.
"Did you see it coming?"
"... Yeah… I fucked up. Sorry."
Realising her mistake, Lisa admitted she had seen Tom's eye shift but didn't react to it as she had gotten used to only blocking or avoiding his punches for all this time.
"No need to be sorry, you just forgot that I am an asshole for a moment; just like your enemies."
"Sure…"
Making a prudent point that Lisa would do well to remember, Tom made sure Lisa was on steady feet before letting go of her and padding her on the shoulder.
"Now that we've warmed up let's get to something different… Grab your rifle and let's see if you still remember everything."
Watching Lisa head off to the nearby tree where she had her M-507 rifle, Tom addressed Mari.
"This is my old world's 'magic', pay close attention."
"Right?"
Not quite sure what Tom meant by magic, Mari looked at the 'stringless crossbow' Lisa had picked up with a bit of curiosity as she knew it was a weapon blessed by the most graceful lady of the hunt.
Or that's what she thought at least.
"How's the maintenance holding?"
"I've been clearing it regularly, take a look."
While Lisa very much wanted to start shooting practice, Tom had drilled into her that when she fought against the gobs and almost died due to a weapon malfunction it was because she hadn't maintained her weapon properly. Kneeling face to face, Tom accepted Lisa's rifle before he ejected the magazine, cleared the action and charged the rifle a few times before checking the barrel for build up residue.
"Great, then for your target."
Reinserting the magazine and chambering a round, Tom stood up together with Lisa as he glanced around the area for something vaguely human torso sized the right distance away.
"Hmm… Mari, could you place a rock about the size of a person out by that tree?"
Not finding anything that could serve for a target, Tom turned to Mari who wordlessly started doing what he asked as she closed her eyes to focus.
After a few seconds of weaving a spell together, Mari stomped the ground as a shard of rock roughly the size of a person appeared next to the tree Tom had pointed at.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Then start with a mag, at your will."
Quickly getting instructions and parameters set by Tom, Lisa sat down and started aiming as she put her M-507 into semi-automatic and started engaging the block of rock about 20 metres out.
"... You're a bit high, also no need to adjust for wind at this distance."
Having seen the top of the rock target break at Lisa's first round, Tom called out adjustments as Lisa continued to fire, placing about 1 shot on target every few seconds as it had been a while since she shot.
"Watch your groupings, your breathing is all over the place."
"Right."
Adjusting her shoulder and cheek weld to the rifle, Lisa got her breathing under control and started shooting in between her heartbeats like she was supposed to while Mari was more confused than anything else.
(... This sure is strange and 'magical', but not really that impressive.)
While these weapons were indeed special, Mari didn't see what all the fuss was about, as she wove together a simple spell and enhanced her eyesight she saw the impacts on the rock target.
(At most they're going halfway through it, so with enough punishment a defence of that calibre will eventually fail, still in that amount of time I could create a dozen or so more potent defences and launch a counterattack at the same time.)
"I'm out."
Having emptied her 20 round magazine, Lisa confirmed the bolt was open and the chamber was empty as she lowered her rifle and waited for Tom's assessment.
"... Hmm, for a static target at point blank range your grouping is barely passable, but the biggest issue is your fire rate."
Handing Lisa another magazine, Tom showed a slightly sadistic smile as he relayed her next set of parameters to hit.
"Time for full auto fire, keep it to bursts but I want you to empty the entire mag in under 7 seconds… And if you don't hit with at least 15 of the rounds you're going to be sorry~"
"... Shit, okay… Give me a second."
Just glancing at Tom's face, Lisa knew that it was no use arguing as he was being pushy for her sake, not just because he was being an ass.
He was still being an asshole, just a reasonable one for once.
"Time starts when you close the bolt, at your discretion."
Having inserted the fresh magazine Tom had handed her, Lisa took a deep breath as she steadied her aim and switched her rifle to fully automatic. Although she knew the M-507 could empty the 20 round magazine in a matter of seconds and easily clear the time constraints the issue was controlling the recoil while doing so.
Releasing the bolt, Lisa squeezed the trigger for the brief second it took to fire around 5 rounds, then steadied and recentred her aim before firing again in rapid bursts until her bolt was once again open and the mag empty.
"... How was it?"
"... You barely failed, 14 rounds on target, but the dispersion was pretty good."
Giving it to her straight, Tom told Lisa that she failed but made sure to praise her for what needed praising.
"So, what do I need to do now?"
Accepting her defeat with indifference, Lisa got ready to run until her feet were bleeding or endure a bunch of sadistic workouts, something like that anyways.
But what Tom had planned was far worse.
"I need to shake off some rust myself, so prepare a few targets together with Mari, anything from 20 to 60 metres away."
"Wait what?"
"You. Work. With. Mari. At least 9 Targets. Between 20 and 60 metres. No more wide. Than. A. Head. The. Hight. Of. A. Human."
Snapping his fingers like he was a snotty rich asshole ordering a server around, Tom sat down and pulled out his pistol before starting to take it apart to maintain.
"..."
Lisa knew what he was doing, there was no point discussing anything further, but she still really wanted to scream and shout at him, but she also knew this wouldn't change anything in the end.
"URG! COME ON!"
Starting to walk off to do as she was told, Lisa didn't turn around when she addressed Mari with enough venom and frustration in her voice to poison a medium sized nation.
"Y-yeah, sure."
Following her niece with a bunch of mixed feelings going through her head, Mari was on one hand glad Lisa was at least talking to her, but on the other hand she was sad Lisa so clearly hated working with her.
"Place one here, and here too, but make sure there's something in the way so this isn't too easy for him."
"G-got it."
Following Lisa's strict and somewhat cruel remarks, Mari felt a nervous smile starting to form on her face as her niece was actually speaking to her for the first time in years. With Lisa pointing, grumbling and complaining and Mari silently following her orders, 10 targets were quickly erected as Tom finished maintaining his pistol.
"How many targets?"
Still with his back to both Lisa and the targets, Tom placed his pistol back into his holster and stood up with his back still to the targets.
"10."
"Okay then, on your mark."
"..."
Not really sure what Tom was doing, Lisa felt at a loss for words but after a few seconds she spoke up to not let whatever this was drawn out even longer.
"Go."
At Lisa's words, Tom turned around as he drew his pistol, planted a foot forward and opened fire, empting the MPX-11A2's 21 round magazine into the targets in a matter of seconds with machine-like efficiency and accuracy. The second Tom emptied the Pistol's magazine he dropped it and instead a fresh one before the old one even hit the ground as he kept switching targets every 1 or 2 rounds. Emptying the first two magazines in a matter of seconds, Tom removed one hand from the pistol and continued shooting with the same speed and accuracy for another 3 magazines before he finally seized fire and holstered the pistol.
"Hmm… As I thought, the A2's still pull to the left slightly."
Finally snapping out of her daze, Mari wove mana into her eyes again and enhanced her vision as she checked the targets.
From the looks of it, Tom had hit every single target with only a few centirmetre's deviation right at the height their head would be.
(After Lisa gave the go ahead, he reacted faster than I thought I could… Is that weapon more accurate than what Lisa was using?)
Wanting to know more about the weapon Tom used and the difference between it and the one Lisa had used before, Mari hoped that Tom's somehow had helped him aim or done something else to aid him.
"... That weapon is quite a bit smaller than Lisa's, are there different kinds?"
"Yeah, this is a backup weapon, it's less accurate and has far less effective range compared to the rifle Lisa has. If I was using my 909 or even a 507 I could hit targets at this speed and accuracy out to 800 metres."
Needless to say, reality didn't quite agree with Mari's delusions.
"... Okay, I see."