Das.h.i.+ng forward with all his might, his sword left a trail of light behind him as s.h.i.+ro only smiled. Flicking her wrist, she whipped the chains towards him at moderate speeds.

If she used more strength, it may seriously injure Raoul should it hit.

Pivoting on his right foot, Raoul gritted his teeth and started to dodge the chains.

*CLANG CLANG!!!

Colliding against the ground, the chains left a thin layer of ice on the surface.

"Watch out behind!" Jonas called out since he could tell that Raoul's focus was in front of him rather than behind.

Hearing the shout of his instructor, Raoul quickly turned around just in time to see two blunt spikes stabbing towards him.

Swinging his sword, he barely managed to deflect them which caused him to slide backwards.

"Ssss!" Taking a sharp breath in, he could still feel the vibrations travel through his body from that one attack.

"You know, if you have any skills that can enhance your performance, as long as it's not a berserk skill, I'll allow you to use it." s.h.i.+ro called out while swinging her chains once more.

Nodding his head, Raoul did just as he was told. Stomping down with his right foot, his aura flared outwards as he charged towards her once more.

Just as the chains were about to hit, his body flickered for a moment, resulting in what seems to be the chains phasing through his physical body.

'Hou? Interesting.' s.h.i.+ro thought with a smile.

Snapping her fingers, magic circles surrounded him as blunted ice spikes pierced towards him.

Furrowing his brows, he stabbed the tip of his sword into the ground and drew a circle around him.

"Burst!" He commanded as a wall of pressure exploded out with him in the centre.

Redirecting the spikes for a short moment, he took this opportunity to get closer to s.h.i.+ro.

"Only 15 more meters to go~" s.h.i.+ro teased with a soft chuckle.

Snapping her fingers once more, her ice chain shattered into pieces before morphing together once more into daggers. Naturally, they were all blunted as to not hurt him too much.

Flicking her fingers, the daggers swarmed around him, stopping his advance.

'Hmm… figures. I was wondering about his restrictions in regards to that skill. Seems like he can't phase through too many objects at once.' s.h.i.+ro smiled after figuring out his skill.

Sending the daggers to attack him, s.h.i.+ro made herself an ice chair to sit on for now and crossed her legs with a casual smile.

As for Raoul, he quickly twisted his body and swung his blade at the incoming daggers.

Deflecting some of the daggers back at s.h.i.+ro, he had to retreat a few steps since most of the daggers were unharmed.

"Wind Walker." He commanded before das.h.i.+ng back in. Using the gaps between the daggers as places where he can use this skill to advance towards s.h.i.+ro, he soon arrived within a 10 meter range of her.

"Good job on getting this far. However, you should know that mages have strong counter measures for things like this." s.h.i.+ro smiled.

Flexing her finger, chains appeared in the air and wrapped around Raoul. Since there were more than 5 chains that wrapped around him, he wasn't able to phase though it as he had hoped.

"I suppose that's the end of that."

Standing up, she thawed the chains before lending him a hand.

Pulling him up, s.h.i.+ro walked over to Jonas.

"You might want to work on his gap closers. For mages that are more proficient with their element, it'll be very hard for him to actually land a hit if he can't get close enough. His skill timings need to be worked on too since I would have been taken by surprise should he have used his phase through attacks trick a little better." She evaluated while giving Raoul a side glance.

"I see. I figured as much. In the end, it's just a bunch of combat experience that he needs." Jonas nodded.

Talking for a little longer, s.h.i.+ro noticed that Raoul took a moment to think about the fight outside.

'Hmm… I might just be nosy but I also want to give him some more advice and see what's up.' s.h.i.+ro mused to herself.

{So that's just you being nosy then?} Nimue chuckled.

'Oi.'

Excusing herself for a bit, s.h.i.+ro went to look for Raoul.

Seeing him sitting on a bench while looking up at the sky, s.h.i.+ro raised an eyebrow before sitting down next to him.

"You seem a bit down, what's up?" She asked with a soft chuckle.

"Ah did I? Sorry if I seemed that way, I'm just thinking back to the fight." Raoul smiled and rubbed the tip of his nose.

"I see. Since I'm here, tell me what you're struggling on and I'll give you some help." s.h.i.+ro offered.

"It's ok, trust me. I'll be fine after a while." Raoul shook his head since he didn't want to take up too much of her time. To her, he was just a weirdo that offered her a bed after all.

"Are you sure? I'm staying here for a day anyways so I'm not really losing much. Plus, it's not everyday that I come back to New York so it might be the last time that I talk to you ya know? You sure you don't want to capitalise on it?" s.h.i.+ro asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Haha, if you put it that way, how can I not?" Raoul chuckled.

"See? So what's on your mind buddy?" s.h.i.+ro asked.

"Well it's just that compared to when I first saw you, you've made such a huge leap in strength while I went from a random bed giver to a person that can swing his sword relatively well. My improvement seems so stagnant compared to yours." Raoul replied while looking down on his hands.

"Hmm… I understand that and I won't give you something conceptual like don't compare to others and just compare to yesterday's version of yourself. What I will say though is that the best thing for you to do is to just constantly go into simulation battles in the fighters guild or something. Since it's a simulation, even if you lose, you gain something out of it. h.e.l.l, you can also go to the mages guild and fight some mages so that you can widen your horizons." s.h.i.+ro suggested.

"Because in the end, it's really just experience that you're lacking."

"I see. By the way, what did you think of my previous action offering you a bed? It's a little embarra.s.sing but I've always wondered about that. After all, it was just an impulse on my side." Raoul asked since first impressions were important.

"What do I think? Well it's definitely left an impression in my head haha. I'll be honest with you, while I do remember every one that I've talked to, there are few that leave more than just that. But you left quite the impression hence why I still remember it quite vividly to this day. h.e.l.l, the party even talked about you when we came back to New York because of the impression you left. Don't be dissuaded because you're a little unique because I'll tell you what, I've never seen anyone else give a girl a bed haha." s.h.i.+ro chuckled.

"Also, it was quite cute that you offered me a bed. So don't let it bother you too much."

After hearing her impression of him, Raoul seemed to have a weight lifted off his heart as his face brightened up by quite a bit.

"I see. Thank you very much." He replied with a bright smile.

'Aiya~ That smile's quite blinding isn't it?'

{How pure. He's a sweet boy.} Iziuel nodded.

{To think a bed giving boy has grown up so much, I feel like a mommy bird watching the chicks fly for the first time.} Nimue nodded.

'But you weren't there when he gave me the bed.'

{I can imagine ok?} Nimue rolled her eyes.

Talking to him for a bit longer, s.h.i.+ro bid him goodbye before flickering away into a nearby room.

"You seem to be quite hostile to me. I don't believe I've done anything to you?" s.h.i.+ro asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Grrr… you're that woman Raoul likes aren't you." A girl replied while glaring at her.

"I suppose so. I don't have an interest in him that way, so don't worry. You can go for him if you want. I suggest starting with combat training. If you're a mage that's better since that is what he needs right now. If you do combat training with him for an extended period of time, some feelings may develop between you if that's what you want. If anything, the only feelings he has for me are probably admiration so you don't have to worry so much. But anyways, good luck~" s.h.i.+ro replied after understanding her situation.

". . . Ah?" The girl paused in confusion. While she may have expected s.h.i.+ro to not give a d.a.m.n about her, she didn't expect her to start giving tips on how to get Raoul.

Seeing s.h.i.+ro flicker away after saying her piece, the girl could only stand there, dumbstruck at her strangeness.

"What the f*ck just happened?"