Dangerous

The class went by quite fast, mostly due to the fact that Ardere had missed most of it and partly due to the fact that she had done absolutely nothing for the entire class.

She hadn't said another word, made another move or had responded to anyone's words.

"Ardere?" Melodi said trying to get her to go to the changing room since everyone was already clearing out of the class.

Kenji waved his hand in front of the Demon nobles face, trying to get a response.

"Yeah, I think we broke her." He said.

Melodi looked at Kenji with worry plastered on her face as Sandra had left the trio to do their thing.

"Twelve days." Ardere muttered underneath her breath

"Oh, shit maybe not." Kenji replied at the first words Ardere had said since she first got into class

"I wasn't asleep, or recovering. I was in a coma." Ardere continued to talk in a low monotone voice

"I mean....in a way you were asleep, just kinda....not" Kenji said

Melodi felt she should help Kenji explain in some way since he never seemed to be the best at putting out fires, just throwing gasoline on them....or more fire.

"Ardere what he means to say is that your rest was necessary for your recovery. You were pushing yourself to your limits and it damaged your mana pool." Melodi spoke in a low calm voice with her hand out, she seemed to know how to be gentle and talk to people who weren't in the right state of mind

Normally Ardere would have calmed down, but then she remembered how long she was in the infirmary again.

"Twelve days" she whispered to herself again.

"Aaaand we lost her again." Kenji said

Melodi looked to Kenji as he shook his head with his arms folded. Obviously Ardere was very upset, Mel had never seen her like this before.

"Alright well you had your time to sulk, go get dressed or I'm dragging you along in that." Kenji said, gesturing towards her skin tight battle uniform.

Ardere had been facing the ground, with her eyes seemingly focused on nothing, but finally she looked up and could see the room was nearly completely void of students and she was still in her uniform.

Ardere squatted to the ground and cradled her head in her arms as she sulked some more.

"why did this have to happen." Ardere said through muffled arms.

"Alright I'm sick of this, are you gonna get ready or not? we got crap to do and you're already way behind"

Like throwing fire on fire.

Ardere looked up from her arms with a fierce look in her eyes and what Melodi could only describe as a pulsating vein on the side of her head.

"The reason I am in this mess is because of YOUR training!" Ardere said, emphasizing the fact that it was Kenji's idea to strain her mana pool.

"Hey, I've had worse ideas before. trust me some of my other bright ideas have put people into a coma for a lot longer than Twelve days."

Ardere winced at those words, wondering if there was any truth in Kenji's words

"The point is, I am already almost TWO weeks behind on all my classes at the beginning of the year. How am I supposed to make up for all the classwork I missed? Even if I do then what will my marks look like for turning it in so late!?" Ardere said

"Is that all this is really about?" Kenji said.

Ardere felt like she was talking to a wall sometimes when she had a conversation with Kenji. A good chunk of the time she didn't understand half of what he was talking about the other half was him telling her what to do, being condescending and making threats.

"Ardere" Melodi said

"Kenji took care of all your classwork for you while you were recovering."

Those words actually managed to confuse Ardere, as a matter of fact she almost tried cleaning her ears to make sure she had heard it correctly

"What?"

"While you were having your beauty sleep, I was out and about and doing your work while you slept, I just told the staff you were too bedridden to come to class." Kenji said.

Kenji? do work???

It was the sign of the apocalypse, she felt she should start praying to the Demon king of slaughter, to have him fend off the human race again.

"It was a pain in the ass because I had to translate a bit, but with Mel's help and a bit of back and forth, we managed to get everything turned in." He said

Melodi relished the time she had spent with Kenji, though she wished she could spend more alone time with him she did miss their little trio.

Ardere was too stunned to speak, all her magic circle classes and history and mathematics and magic class, he did everything!? It shocked Ardere to her very core.

Perhaps the most unbelievable part was that if Kenji and Melodi had put their heads together, it was still difficult to believe that they would be able to get a good score on her work, that is unless Kenji had actually paid attention in class since he couldn't read their language too well.

"Hurry up, get dressed, then get out of my classroom, I have other issues I need that need my attention." Alice had said to the trio interrupting Ardere's thoughts.

Ardere and Kenji rushed to their lockers to get out of their uniforms and once they left the room Alice had locked the doors

************

Alice opened the familiar door, the soft hinges made almost no sound as she swung the door open and peered inside. Her dark gaze scanned the room until they met Vincent's eyes.

"Miss Black, how good to see you again." Vincent said with his soft smile.

Alice entered the room and closed the door behind her placing a charm over the door knob, runes flashed around the handle for a moment before becoming invisible.

It was a familiar spell to Alice, she has used it plenty of times, it wasn't anything too special, just a simple locking charm that also blocked out noise.

"It's been a while, how have you been? and what brings you here?" Vincent said.

"It has been a while indeed, but you and I have had our hands full quite recently, and it seems there's been one person who has been the prime reason for that." Alice glared past Vincent as she thought about Kenji.

"You seem to have quite the vendetta towards the boy." Vincent commented

"I didn't come here to speak about the boy Mr.Locke"

"Please Miss Black, it's Vincent, and if you aren't here about him then what's this about?" Vincent continued to smile as Alice approached slowly.

"You know what I'm here for." Alice said in a low tone as she closed in on Vincent

She leaned in close and grabbed his white coat, pulling him close as she pressed her soft caramel lips up to his and she kissed him

She pulled back and sat on his lap as she whispered in his ear.

"And you should be calling me Alice."

The two spent a great deal of time together kissing and caressing each other all on Vincent's stool, which was quite difficult for the Demon, but he'd rather not have the guilty conscience of putting a sick student in a bed that held the two staff in it, especially without a change of sheets.

Alice and Vincent had known each other for a long time, they actually grew up in the same town.

"Have you really missed me this much Alice? I thought I annoyed you?" Vincent said with a smug undertone

"You annoy the absolute shit out of me" She said, going in for another deep kiss.

"Especially when you don't know when to shut up"

"I can't help it, it's just too fun to see you get angry when you kiss me." Vincent replied with a bit of humor in his voice.

Alice narrowed her gaze as she went in for another kiss, then stood back up.

She tried to hide her euphoria, but it showed through her rosey red cheeks and heavy breath. Vincent was less fazed and kept his composure while he straightened his white coat.

"You do know Albeon knows about us, right?" Vincent said

"I figured the Head Master knew, he always had a great legacy to claim so despite his personality he is clever." Alice said

Alice had gone quiet for a moment, thinking.

"What do you think of the Summon?" she said suddenly.

Vincent stood quiet for a moment, thinking while avoiding eye contact with his childhood friend.

"He's unstable, but not in the way we might first think. I think he means well, but he can't express it in a way we can understand on a fundamental level."

"He seems to know customs much different from ours and if I had to give a professional opinion I think his mind is quite fractured. I personally cannot say where his morals stand, but there is someone who possibly can."

"Do you mean his master?"

Vincent nodded

"She may very well understand him better than anyone at the moment and he seems to be protective of her. I think they might be able to bring some change to this place. What do you think about them love?"

Alice flinched and turned away from Vincent, attempting to hide her face.

"I....I don't know what to think about those two. The girl seems too ordinary and weak to have someone so violent and...."

Alice thought for a moment back when she first stared down Kenji in that field. His blue eyes sending a shiver down her spine as she rubbed her throat

"Vicious" Alice whispered that last word as she turned back to Vincent.

"Those two might very well be the most dangerous Demons I have ever encountered, I don't know what kind of change they might bring, but I pray to the Demon king it won't bring any pain."

*************

Ardere had decided to try to take it slow when controlling her mana, she no longer felt any drain and needed little concentration to move the warm serpent-like spell around her body. It was a peculiar feeling since it almost felt like the spell had a mind of its own as it slithered up her arm, around her shoulder and down her torso.

Since Ardere didn't need to concentrate as much she watched Melodies training. Ardere was shocked at what she saw, in the little time she was asleep Mel had managed to grow by a decent amount. She lasted longer in fights and no longer relied heavily on Luna, her summon.

Melodi was facing the doll in its hand to hand combat mode and it quickly moved forward to close the distance it had with melodi and she dodged a strike aimed at her midriff.

She quickly rolled away, making sure to face the doll when she stood up again, but had little time for a break as the doll rushed her once again.

Melodi conjured a large water ball in one hand and splashed it on the floor in front of her and in her other hand she quickly froze it. Melodi had jumped out of the way and before the doll could stop its momentum it had already ran into the icy patch and slid forward, losing it's stance and hitting the ground

"LUNA!!!" Melodi screamed and the white Vanis had struck his own master with three white hairs and melodi conjured the strongest fireball she could and hit the doll with it.

[LEVEL 2 HAS BEEN COMPLETED]

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE TO LEVEL 3?]

Melodi collapsed to the floor and let out a sigh. She was sweating profusely and was taking big breaths.

"I....*HUFF*....finally did it.....*HUFF*"

Kenji slowly walked up to Melodi and offered her a hand up. Melodies face flushed, she thought about how sweaty she was and how she might look to the Summon. Eventually she pushed her worries aside, despite her anxiety about it and Kenji lifted her to her feet with ease.

"Take a break and then you can fight it again when it has magic as well"

Meldoi walked to the benches wiping the sweat from her brow as she sat and rested.

"Ardere!" Kenji suddenly called.

Ardere stood up with the spell still active and walked towards the doll as it stood up, staring blankly

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE TO LEVEL 3?]

"You're going to fight it next." Kenji said as he nodded his head towards the doll.

"Kenji, I think I'm supposed to take it easy after all this time, I was in a coma and haven't fought in a couple of weeks. Also I don't have the kind of stamina that Melodi has." Ardere said as her eyes drifted towards the doll. Though its appearance was very basic and not very intimidating, Ardere knew what the doll was capable of, and that alone made her shiver.

"I'm not asking, and if you're walking around just fine then you can do it, plus I'm sure you had plenty of rest in that bed.

Ardere looked Kenji up and down, his bruised body and injured flesh was still making her curious as to what could have happened. usually Kenji didn't get hurt to this extent when he got into fights and he always healed fast, so these wounds had to be fresh.

*SNAP, SNAP, SNAP*

Kenji snapped his fingers in front of her face as he spoke

"Hey, my eyes are up here. hurry up and prepare yourself cause I don't want you slacking."

Before Ardere could get her bearings Kenji walked up to the doll.

"Level 3 magic."

[LEVEL 3 MAGIC TRAINING HAS BEEN SELECTED]

[BEGINNING BATTLE SEQUENCE]

Kenji got out of the way and the doll summoned a slash of water at Ardere.

Ardere panicked for a moment, but she quickly focused and realized it was too late to dodge the attack so she used the only spell she had ready at the moment.

She fired her fire serpent in the same arc as the water and the two spells collided in an explosion of hot steam, of course the fighting drew the attention of everyone in the training hall, but no one could see what was happening; however, they could still hear fighting and see the occasional stray spell appear from the thick steam cloud.

As the steam began to clear everyone could see a single figure standing over the other. Once the steam completely cleared they could see Ardere, covered in what was either condensation or sweat; standing over the doll as it spoke

[LEVEL 3 COMPLETED]

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE TO LEVEL 4?]

Kenji smiled as Ardere walked back to Kenji, she was shaking, but she wasn't afraid and she wasn't cold. she could not describe this feeling in any other way except excitement.

"You really clutched up there, better keep that up if you want to survive our Hunt."

"How did I do that?" Ardere said

Kenji's smile was smug as he explained.

"When someone is put in a difficult situation, one where they become desperate, they very quickly adapt and try to overcome something that seems impossible. As long as you have the will, then it will always happen."

Ardere wasn't sure if Kenji was speaking the truth or if he had gotten it from some motivational speech, but she felt what he said had some credit behind it. She was desperate to get into the school and so her mana pool passed the minimum amount required, but she had never worked harder than she had before Kenji showed up. She was desperate to finally be going somewhere with her magic after all the heart ache and distraught she had faced at the school, she finally felt things were going right.

"How did you manage to fight the doll in the steam like that? it was so thick I couldn't even see you two moving?" Melodi said from the bench

"I could feel it's mana. I don't know how, but when I lost my sight I could feel the mana condense in one spot and I knew it had to be the doll. so I kept moving and kept it confused until the time was right."

Ardere was improving and the goal Kenji set for the two seemed to actually be within reach.

"Alright don't get too cocky now, you had a clear advantage, but a win is a win so go ahead and try again."

Ardere didn't take long to recover her mana since she used very little of it during the previous fight, once she was recovered enough she fought again.

As to be expected she had lost, but the fight was a close one, closer than she thought it would be. Her stamina was her biggest issue at the moment and she knew she would have to work on that next.

"Tactics mean a lot in a fight, as a matter of fact it's half the battle. That smoke screen wasn't intentional, but it gave you an advantage where the doll had none and could only blindly fire and search for you. This time you fought without a tactic and on pure instinct, it was a close one, but in the end you still lost. Try coming up with a plan while fighting and adapt to the situation, then when the time is right use whatever means possible to win. There is no such thing as a clean fight and anyone will take any advantage they can get so hit hard, hit fast and don't be a gentleman....or...gentlewoman, if you're in a tough spot, don't be afraid to hit them where it hurts."

Kenji always lectured the two on what they did wrong in their fights and how they could fix their mistakes. If Ardere didn't know better she would think Kenji had fought in wars to obtain this knowledge.

"Mel, get over here and try to fight it with magic." Kenji said

Melodi stood up and walked up to the doll.

[PLEASE SELECT A MODE]

"level 3 magic." Melodi said

[LEVEL 3 MAGIC TRAINING HAS BEEN SELECTED]

The doll said in it's robotic voice

[BEGINNING BATTLE SEQUENCE]