Scarlet

By the time I reach the training hall all three of them are already inside, along with Sylver for some reason and some random dude. One that I don’t recognize.

Each of the five are wearing the very same type of armor – just like what Allen wears for combat – but with varying colors and different cores at the center. Which I believe is the regular magi-tech armor available to the members of the Association for a very large discount.

“Ah, looks like she’s here!” Michael says, bringing the unknown guy’s gaze to me, Sylver’s having already been locked on me from the moment I opened the door. And judging by the mana I can sense from the unknown guy, he is stronger than Sylver but still weaker than Allen.

Class III maybe?

“You’d be correct,” Tar answers me.

Cool. I think I’m getting better at this sensing stuff.

Michael gestures to the guy and introduces him, “This guy is an instructor from Lion’s Heart. One responsible for tutoring us. And he heard that you’d be here today, so he decided to stop by and watch.”

Oh.

I give him a brief nod, “Hello.”

He nods back without a word.

Guess if he won’t be giving his name I’ll just call him instructor guy.

I hear Tar snorting in the back of my mind, but I ignore him as I glance at Sylver, only for him to wave me off and say, “I’m here for your training. Not theirs. You can thank your parents.”

Oh, right. I almost forgot that Allen pushed the training me job onto him on account of work.

“First I think we should go ahead and show off what we can all do,” Michael begins as he steps up to the instructor, who is now somehow standing inside of the training ring without me having even so much as noticed him leaving his earlier position. “And I’ll start first. We can have Scarlet go last.” He glances back at me after entering the ring and standing across from instructor guy and adds, “Assuming that’s alright with you?”

“Knock yourself out,” I tell him with a light nod of my head.

He smirks before turning to the instructor guy and taking a deep breath. Then he raises both of his hands while a glowing green energy begins to cover them, following which the energy moves into a large ring in front of him before filling the ring.

I lift a single eyebrow as I watch a tree walk out of the circle. Yes. Walk out. A tree.

“Huh,” I mutter, not sure what I’m seeing as the tree steps up in front of Michael. Then another tree walks out. And some sort of falcon. And what looks like a marshmallow.

The marshmallow – which had originally fallen to the ground right after passing through the portal thingy – suddenly stops falling and begins floating in the air.

Oh. My mistake.

The floating marshmallow.

I glance at Emily to find her blushing and staring at the creature, making me wonder just what is on her mind right now. Then I look at Denise to find her grinning with a rather wicked grin on her face. One clearly meaning to do evil.

Wonder what that’s all about?

When I turn my attention back to the nature magic user and instructor guy, I find the instructor simply standing there, not bothering to use any skills or anything. Which makes sense in hindsight. He’s probably strong enough to pretty much shrug off most if not all of Michael’s attacks as a Class III.

The marshmallow – which really is just a floating ball of white fluffy stuff – begins flying around really quickly whereas the two trees stand guard in front of Michael and the hawk flies into the sky with the marshmallow. Then my eyes widen as I see the marshmallow shooting out random bolts of what looks like green lightning that strike wildly at the ground, startling the instructor who instinctively begins to dodge them. Meanwhile the hawk suddenly coats its entire body in some sort of green energy and flies in at an incredibly fast speed to attack instructor guy who is still distracted.

Or at least, he looked distracted. But the man just bends his back over, dodging the hawk with ease before grabbing its taloned foot and throwing the thing at Michael, knocking him to the ground in the process.

Guess the instructor guy isn’t holding back.

The guy suddenly swipes his hand horizontally in front of him, sending what looks like an arc of wind straight at Michael, likely to test out Michael’s defense. And the arc is effectively blocked by one of the trees before a green energy covers the creature and the instructor guy winces slightly with a vague look of surprise on his face.

“Thorns?” Sylver mutters, somehow having gotten close to me as I find him standing right next to me as we watch the fight. “Interesting. Don’t see that every day.”

“Thorns?” I ask, hoping for more information.

He answers without looking at me, “Thorns is a type of effect where when damage is done to something, it is magically returned back to the one who originally dealt the damage. Although in this case, Artorius is just too strong for the thorns to have mattered.”

Oh. Interesting.

And instructor guy’s name is Artorius?

I focus on the fight again to find Artorius once again sending an arc of wind, albeit this time a much stronger looking one, at Michael. And this time it cuts straight through the arm – or rather branch – of the tree used to block it and strikes Michael in the side, sending him flying a few meters in the process. He then immediately begins to heal his wounds with the same green magic he used on me once before getting back up without any problems.

Interesting.

Certainly some rather versatile skills there. Although I very much prefer my own up close and personal method of fighting.

He shows us a couple other skills such as one to wrap himself up with an armor made from tree bark, which doesn’t look very pleasant, along with one to do something that I have no idea what is doing. Just that his eyes and the eyes of the hawk are both glowing green.

Maybe some sort of shared sense skill between him and his summon? Or something like that?

After that though, the bout ends and he begins walking back to us, with Denise rushing over to the ring after him.

Time to see this inferno magic then.