As Brandon took off his torn shirt and put it on the wooden floor, Mika walked towards him. "Brandon," she asked, her eyes full of concern, "do you really want to punch Long?"

Brandon nodded. Mika never liked watching her friends and loved ones fight each other, even in a sparring match, but her worry right now stemmed from him. His knuckles would break upon hitting Long, and he probably wouldn't have enough blood to fully restore the broken bones later on.

"I'm sure that you'll be really strong once you've learned to use Scutum's power."

Smiling, Brandon placed his hands on Mika's shoulders. "Mika, Scutum's power is all about creating barriers. It's good for dragging out a fight, but this fighting style doesn't suit me." He took a deep breath. "My body cannot produce blood by itself. If I don't end a fight quickly, I'll lose."

With a long face, Mika nodded. "Don't push yourself too hard, okay? When you can no longer regenerate, just stop the training."

"Actually, I have thought of alternating between several forms of training." Brandon let go of Mika. "Remember what I told you when I taught you how to fight? Strong arm muscles alone can't make a powerful punch. You need strong body and leg muscles as well."

"Whoa, you sure know a lot about hand-to-hand combat for a gun nut," Jyuji chimed in.

Brandon looked at Jyuji, his face an impassive mask. Well, he certainly knew a lot about hand-to-hand combat; back when he was still a human teen, Brandon had always watched boxing and MMA matches on the TV to refine his street brawling skills. Occasionally, if he could save up enough money from pickpocketing and salvaging the slum's dumping site, he'd buy magazines about fighting.

"But I doubt your 'strong' fists will get you far." Jyuji chuckled. "Your range of attack will be absurdly short, bro."

Brandon shrugged and walked out of the gazebo. People always said, "You'll never know until you try."

As he strode along the bridge, he spotted Katrina and Fenghuang in the distance. Billy hovered beside them, his guitar in hand. Brandon sighed; he had taken the loss so personally that he wasn't even aware of Billy's absence when he first arrived at the gazebo.

Smiling, Billy streaked towards him. "Training time?"

Brandon stopped in his tracks and nodded. "Where have you been?"

"I hid somewhere in the garden to compose some peaceful tunes. Then Katrina heard them and dragged me outta my hideout."

Brandon grinned. Rabbit ears...

"Billy," Katrina began, "one way to improve your combat skills is by watching how others fight. You can save those tunes for later."

Billy looked at Katrina. "But they're no ordinary tunes, ma'am."

"They did make me a little drowsy, but the monstrosities that await at the misty capital cannot be put to sleep."

"Brandon, you should watch the video, too," Fenghuang suggested. "It will help you identify your weakness."

Shoot! He'd better think of a reason to avoid watching the video and reopening the wound in his heart. Good thing he could still keep his face expressionless as he racked his brain.

Rabbit ears.

Brandon shook his head. "I already realized it." As he continued his walk towards the pond, he added, "Stunning Katrina by shouting at her ears only worked early in the duel. If I've had the power to knock her out that time, I must've won."

Fortunately, Fenghuang simply said, "Very well." Brandon couldn't shake off the feelings that Fenghuang had detected something wrong with his reasoning, though.

Brandon halted before Long, who levitated above the pond. The humongous jade dragon loomed over him, his head lowered to the undead man's eye-level.

"Would you like to test your punching power now?" he asked.

Brandon nodded. Bending his knees a bit, he readied his fists.

In a flash, he stepped in and launched a straight punch at Long's snout. A crack echoed.

"That did not even tickle me."

Brandon pulled away. As expected, his punch left not even a scratch on the dragon's snout. However, he hadn't thought that his hand would swell and burn; hell, he couldn't even clench it now. Luckily, the swelling and burning sensation vanished a few seconds later.

"Would you like to try again?" Long asked. "With your other hand?"

Brandon stepped in and threw another fist at Long. Another crack echoed, and his hand swelled and burned. Just like his other hand, it took a few seconds for the swelling and the burning sensation to disappear.

"You need a lot of training, Brandon." Long pointed at his tail with a clawed thumb. "Head to the third segment. I will let you train with my tail."

Pulling away and lowering his hands, Brandon quirked an eyebrow. What kind of training that house-sized thing could offer? It was too big for him to lift properly!

Nonetheless, Brandon hopped onto Long's snout and ran all his way up to the top of the dragon's head. Then he jumped onto the next segment and ran across it. It reminded him of his journey from Metaslica to Gatou, in which he had to run across the roofs of multistory buildings and jump from one rooftop to another.

Reaching the end of the second segment, Brandon leaped and landed on the third one.

"Let us begin."

With that, Long's pointed tail segment detached itself from his body and shot into the sky. It came down on Brandon, who raised his hands to catch it.

Crap!

Brandon's elbows and knees bent at the sheer pressure. His palms burned. His heart pounded. Beads of sweat rolled down his face and body. Funnily enough, the house-sized object wouldn't topple to the sides. Must be some alien witchcraft again...

"Try pushing it back up," Long told him.

Falling to his knees, Brandon hissed through his gritted teeth. His mouth and throat felt dry. His heart thumped so hard and fast as if it wanted to rip out of his chest. More moisture trickled down his face, some of which got into his eye and made him blink.

How would Empowering Scar trigger this way? The ungodly weight was ripping his muscle fibers apart, while he didn't have any time to recuperate.

Soon, Long asked, "Would you like a break?"

Amid his ragged breathing, Brandon muttered, "Yes."

The segment slid away from Brandon's palm and returned to where it used to be, and Brandon collapsed. Surprisingly, Long's scaly body didn't feel too rough on his bare skin at all; instead, it felt rather hot. However, the soreness across his body might have messed up his senses a bit.

Brandon tried to wipe the sweat off his face, but both of his arms refused to move. A few moments later, he could finally move them, although they were shaky as hell.

Gentle breeze blew against him, soothing his body. His heart and breathing rate calmed down. His mouth and throat no longer felt dry. What luck.

He could still feel the refreshing wind as he stood up. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Long waved his arms slowly and gracefully like a talented dancer.

Long's arms stopped moving, and the breeze stopped. "I apologize, but I will not cool you off with my wind during the training. You need a harsh environment to exploit Empowering Scar to its fullest."

Brandon nodded.

"Let us resume the training."

Once again, Long's tail segment rocketed into the sky. Once it reached the middle segment and cast a shadow over Brandon, it dropped down.

Brandon caught it with his palms. Just like before, his elbows and knees bent at the sheer pressure. However, he could swear that he sweated much less this time, and his heartbeat and breathing remained slow and steady for a longer time than before. His palms took a longer time to burn, too.

I can do it this time. He gritted his teeth in determination.

The struggle went on for a few seconds, and the chunk of jade metal kept pushing Brandon down. His heart and breathing rate became erratic again; it felt as though his muscle fibers were tearing apart and screaming for a break.

Brandon eventually fell to his knees. However, he kept struggling to rise, even though his body could barely move now.

A moment later, the segment slid away, and the breathless Brandon collapsed. As he recuperated with the help of Long's refreshing breeze, he wondered how many tries it'd take until he could push the segment back up. Maybe ten? Twenty? Fifty? He couldn't guess.

But that's how Empowering Scar works, isn't it? I'll get stronger every time I fail... If I can't succeed, I just have to keep trying until I succeed.

When soreness had left his body, Brandon stood up and resumed the training. Unfortunately, the segment triumphed over him again. After another break, he gave it another shot. And he failed again.

He didn't know how many times he had fallen and gotten back up, but his vision was blurring in this try. Sweat covered his trembling body. His heart was beating so fast that he almost couldn't breathe. All the handicaps sparked a question in his mind: would he last long enough to succeed?

Hmm, failure wasn't the end of everything, was it? However, he wouldn't give up on purpose; it'd prevent him from knowing how much he had grown.

The segment had almost brought Brandon to his knees, but the undead man powered through all the handicaps and sprang. The force generated by all of his muscles, starting from his feet to his hands, sent the house-sized block of jade metal rocketing into the sky.

He did it!

As his limp body thudded into the scaly terrain, he smiled broadly. He wished he could train more, but with his blood supply running low, he'd be better off testing his punching power. Also, the springing motion that made him succeed sparked an idea in his mind.

What if he sprang and launched a fist?