"You smell kinda weird, Bro."

  "That'd be the weed."

  "Oh, I see……it's kinda sour-smelling. And pretty strong too, I feel like the scent is choking me."

  Well, I did just spend a significant amount of time in a hotbox, or coldbox, with plenty of buds' worth of smoke lit up, so it was inevitable that some of the smell would linger on my clothes. I was currently on the way to a training facility with Mika, and based on her expression, she was finding the smell of weed kinda overwhelming.

  Oh, I'd made the suggestion to Erhtaph that we should make some training facilities outside of the Academy and Guild training rooms, so that Adventurers and aspiring Adventurers would have more options when it came to training. He took my suggestion and implemented it, and now, there were plenty of building you could book training rooms in.

  Mika had gotten pretty powerful lately, she was thirteen years old now and was already good enough to match most A-Ranks, and with her Lightning Boost mastery upto x2.5 now, she could keep even me on my toes, in my normal state anyway. She was living with Persia and I, and while she'd been pretty depressed for a couple of weeks after her parents died, she bounced back soon after that and started working even harder on her fighting skills.

  Anyway, we reached the training facility that I'd booked a room in and walked in. We headed for the reception desk and I took out the form that confirmed my booking, handing it over to the receptionist, who looked it over and verified the booking. She then instructed us to head for the training room I'd booked, apparently another group was still using it, but they'd be done in a few minutes.

  We reached the room and opened the door, walking in and shutting it behind us. There were four people in here……oh, it's some of the current third-year students, Prato, Arts, Riefe and Kusu.

  "Oh, sup, Kuro? What are you doing here?" Greeted Arts, as they noticed us.

  "I booked this room for the timeslot after this. You guys training too?"

  "Yeah, we tend to be low on confidence whenever we fight you, this is how we usually build our confidence back up," Remarked Riefe half-jokingly.

  Maybe I should have gone easier on them.

  "Wait, there's only two minutes left in our session……man, where'd the time go?" Remarked Arts in surprise, looking at the clock in the room, "I'm still good to go for a while longer!"

  "Really……? I'm……so……tired……," Sighed Prato, who was panting and sweating profusely.

  His attacks use more Mana than most, so it was probably more than he was running low on Mana than stamina……that's exactly why I'd advised him to carry Mana Orbs.

  "I can probably go on a bit longer too, but it's a moot point, our time is up," Said Riefe, heading for the door.

  "Well, let's not be so hasty……maybe we can help each other out," I suggested with a grin, "Hear me out……"

  Here's what I proposed……each of them could take turns dueling Mika, that way, they get some extra training time, and she gets to fight against different fighting types, since she'd gotten pretty used to going up against my fighting style. They agreed to it, though Prato was a bit reluctant, so I let him go last……he hadn't brought any Mana Orbs with him, so he needed a bit of time to recover some Mana. Arts went first, though he was a bit skeptical.

  "Hey, I don't mean to offend or anything, but I don't know if a little girl can handle fighting again us," He said with a doubtful look.

  "I'm not little!" Mika retorted indignantly.

  "Don't worry, she's stronger than you might think," I remarked with a smirk.

  "Well, if you say so……," He replied, though he still looked pretty unconvinced.

  Had to say, I was kinda curious to see how this would go……my apprentice fighting my underclassmen……well, technically former underclassmen, but whatever. I activated a safety barrier around them and began counting down the start of the duel……

  "Alright, start on one……three, two……one!"

  Arts' arms morphed into hummingbird wings and he swiftly flew up, while Mika carefully watched him from below. Let's see how this goes……these days, I enjoyed watching others fight more than fighting myself, since there's no one against whom I can go all out against……and don't get me wrong, that's definitely a good thing, but it did make things kinda boring.

  Mika fired a bolt of lightning up at him, which he flew out of the way to avoid, before blasting wind down at her with those blindingly rapid flaps of his wings. She zipped out of the way using Lightning Boost, evading his wind effortlessly. Arts was a difficult target to hit for opponents who couldn't fly, since he could create some upwards distance to give himself more time to see any attacks coming and had the speed to react in time against most opponents.

  But that goes both ways, if his opponent had any significant level of speed, then they can see his attacks coming and react accordingly too. And if his wind wasn't going to be enough to defeat his opponent, his only other offensive option was swooping down on them with the metal claws on his boots. And that's exactly what he did.

  He swiftly swooped down at her, she flung one of her daggers at him, which he deflected with a swing of his left foot, the dagger deflecting upwards, as he drove his right foot towards her head. At the last instant, she blocked his claws with her other dagger and sprang over his foot, firmly placing her hands below his knee as she jumped.

  He spread out his wings, attempting to ascend again, when she suddenly formed a compressed spark of lightning in her mouth and let it burst, creating a blinding flash of light.

  She then twisted herself up rapidly and swung her foot across as her first dagger came plummeting back down, kicking the back of the handle and sending the blade shooting towards his throat, to which he couldn't react to since his eyes were closed……

  He got teleported out right before it could pierce through, reappearing outside the barrier with a wide-eyed expression on his face. Looks like that surprised him……that, and the fact that that flash blinded him a bit.

  "Woah, she's really fast," Remarked Kusu with a wry smile……looks like she could tell that Mika could use Lightning Boost at a higher level than she could.

  "I lost, huh……wow, that was really unexpected. That's one strong little girl."

  "I already told you, I'm not little!"

  Riefe went next, with a cautious look on his face……guess that was to be expected after the first round. I took down the barrier and reactivated it as he stepped forward, and then signaled the start of the fight.

  Riefe immediately sprang away to get some distance, firing a smoke bomb using his slingshot, to create a smoke screen. The instant that Mika zipped out of the smoke, he swiftly fired a couple of spiky metal spheres at her, which she deflected using her daggers.

  She was closing the distance between them rapidly, and as he fired an explosive ball at her with the slingshot and continued to run away, she fired a bolt of lightning from her mouth at the bomb, making it explode before it reached her.

  She was now too close for him to use smoke or explosive bombs, since he'd get caught up in them too. He fired three consecutive shots of spiky metal balls at her, she deflected two of them, while the third grazed the side of her face as it shot past her. She swiftly closed in and flung one of her daggers at him, which he narrowly avoided, the blade leaving a cut in his armor.

  He wasn't very good at attacking at close range, but he was extremely good at evading, his reaction time and flexibility were both pretty high level. He needed to work on his close range combat, because if an opponent who's got speed on their side managed to get close, he'd lose. Mika was slashing and driving her dagger at him, which he was dodging narrowly, but it wouldn't be long before she'd get him.

  Suddenly, she seemed to slip a bit and her balance wobbled……he immediately sprang back and pulled back his slingshot with a spiky metal ball loaded on it……but before he could fire, she swiftly and rapidly jerked her left arm across, and the dagger she flung at him earlier zipped towards him, slicing through the air.

  Before she flung it at him, she'd connected some wire to the handle of it, and the current trajectory of the blade would slash across his throat……I see, she pretended to slip as soon as she got him in position……near the edge of the barrier, which minimized his options when it came to evasion.

  She lured him there and then pulled on the attached wire, giving him almost no chance to avoid it. He hurriedly adjusted the aim of his slingshot towards the incoming blade, but it was too late, the blade reached him before he could fire, and the barrier's teleport function kicked in just in time.

  "Heh……I feel like I didn't even stand a chance," Riefe sighed wistfully.

  Actually, I thought he did okay, considering the current limits of his capabilities……

  "Train with one of your classmates who's good at close-range combat. If you can get some half-decent combat skills, you'll be much more of a handful to deal with," I advised him.

  "Right, got it……I'll keep that in mind."

  Kusu went next, though she looked very unconfident……after all, her fighting style was close range with x1.5 Lightning Boost, and Mika had both better combat skills and greater speed too. The fight ended in less than five seconds, Mika swiftly closing in on her opponent and slashing at her before she could react. In terms of raw potential, Kusu was among the weakest in her class, right now, I'd see her becoming a B-Ranked Adventurer or just barely an A-Rank at best.

  And that left Prato to go last……while the main reason I chose him to go last was because he had clearly used up more Mana than the others, but also because he's the strongest of the four here, even if his lack of confidence and unimposing appearance suggested otherwise……he might even be the strongest in their class, along with Lusk.

  "Um……this barrier can't contain my attacks, they burst through it," He spoke up, before I could activate the barrier around them.

  Makes sense, given how intense those heat rays of his are, these safety barriers aren't going to be sturdy enough to withstand his attacks. But I have a barrier that can withstand it……

  "I'll put up my own barrier around it, though I'll only be able to maintain it for a maximum of thirty seconds. If the fight lasts that long, both of you stop immediately as soon as my barrier fades, got it?"

  "Yes, okay," Nodded Prato, taking a deep breath to try and calm himself……he was almost always nervy or flustered, his lack of confidence was second to only Siert, though he was definitely a lot more put-together than that nervous wreck, that's for sure.

  "Yeah, alright," Responded Mika affirmatively.

  "I won't do a countdown this time, start as soon as my barrier materializes……it'll first appear as a red outline for half a second, and then it'll materialize as a red barrier, that'll be your cue to start," I explained, before entering Soul-Eater Mode and activating Absolute Defense around the safety barrier.

  The outline formed around it first, and then, the barrier manifested. The instant it did, Mika shot towards Prato, who fired a barrage of heat beams at her, which she narrowly evaded……given how much he concentrates those flames, they shot out much faster than regular fire attacks, and one good hit was all he'd need to win.

  I had previously wondered why Fire Magic users couldn't fly by using their flames in the same way Propulsion works, but now that I had Fire Magic myself, I understood why……

  Blasting out Fire Magic attacks is like firing a gun with no recoil……sure, if you blasted intense flames below you, it might give you some upward lift of about a few inches or so, but beyond that, you'd need to generate so much flames at such drastically increasing levels of intensity and scale that it'd drain your Mana in a matter of seconds, even for someone who had an exceptionally large Mana capacity.

  Anyway, back to the fight……Mika had closed in and was keeping an eye on Prato's hands, while slashing at him with her blades. He was blocking and evading her strikes impressively, but……while his technique was pretty good, Mika was a fair bit faster than he was right now.

  In other words, while he was able to keep her attacks at bay, he wasn't fast enough to counterattack, and my barrier would disappear in five more sec……suddenly, as he evaded the thrust of her dagger towards his face, he opened his mouth, revealing an intense yellow light, the air in front of his mouth shimmering.

  He fired it out at her, and she was way too close to evade it……before the beam could melt a hole through her face, the barrier teleported her out……as he instead melted a hole in the ground. I had tried to copy the way he fires his flames, but I couldn't generate anywhere near that level of intensity, and as far as I knew, no one else could either……he has S-Rank potential, though I'd say he wasn't quite there yet, he could stand to get faster and polish his close range skills a bit more.

  Anyway, with that, the duels were over. Honestly, I'd kinda expected Mika to beat all of them, but a three to one win-loss ratio wasn't too bad.

  "Hey, thanks for letting us intrude on your training session, Kuro, but we should get going now," Grinned Arts, tapping me on the shoulder as he headed for the exit.

  "What he said……though I don't know if I should thank you, since my confidence is sort of crushed now," Remarked Kusu half-jokingly.

  "Yeah, thanks, that was more informative than I thought it'd be," Added Riefe, as the others also headed for the exit.

  "Um, see you later," Mumbled Prato with an awkward wave.

  "Sure, see you guys around, and don't mention it, it was mutually beneficial, after all."

  "Thanks for training with me!" Mika called out after them, as they headed out the door and shut it, before she walked over to me, "Huh, except for that last girl, they were pretty weak, weren't they?"

  She really doesn't mince words, does she……I'm so proud.

  "I think it's more of a case of you being strong for your age. Oh, and that was a guy, not a girl."

  So, she was fooled by the trap……looks like she needs more training.

  "Wait, really? I didn't even consider that he wasn't a girl."

  "Well, anyway……now that you're all warmed up, what do you say we begin training for real?"

  "Yeah, I'm ready!"

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

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