005

Irina made the first move, jumping from halfway up the stairs. She drew her rapier midway down, and pulled her arm back for a strike. With how simple and telegraphed it was Shu had no problem just stepping to the side and kicking the girl in her side.

"Is this a first hit first win type of duel or whoever stops moving first type of duel?" He kept his voice quiet and mocking. "If it's the first one then you've already lost."

"Shut up!" His foot had hardly done any damage to her body but it still knocked her over. She got to her feet and began to prepare another easy to read attack.

This time instead of side stepping Shu drew his sword then knocked her out of the way. Normally even a candidate could easily overpower him but Irina was flustered and upset. "No wonder you're just a candidate, a normal human is beating your ass."

"Would you stop talking?" The attacking, swating, and dodging continued for a minute to the point where it looked like she was getting fed up.

Irina laid her hand below the tip of her blade as a small gust of wind began to circle around the blade. Enhancement magic, adding elemental damage to a weapon by enveloping it.

She burst forward much faster than before, faster than Shu could have reacted but when she came to a stop her weapon had completely gone.

"What did you do?" She whipped around seeing that Shu was unharmed aside from a few cuts over his body. The problem with enhancement is that it only works if the tool is in good condition. It was used pretty often in construction to shape materials.

So he used [Recycle]

"I'm not dumb enough to stand there for five seconds and wait for you to hit me." He drew his sword holding it to her neck with one eyebrow raised. "Feel like you've lost yet?"

To his surprise Irina just nodded her head and seemed to have given up.

"Good good." He put his sword away then left her there to head up the stairs, he was a little suspicious of how easily the situation was resolved but he wasn't the type to complain about a problem ending easily.

"Oh, Shu what brings you here?" Scarlett spoke to him as he walked past the gate to the academy. "Didn't expect to see you today I assumed you'd be book worming."

"Ah well, the books have locks on them and I haven't been able to get them open just yet. The few without locks I just haven't read yet out of frustration." He chuckled a little then looked around questioning why she was just sitting on this path.

"Gate guardian. I'm here to catch the late ones and give em hell for it." She answered his question before he asked it, having seen the look in his eyes.

"So you do have something to do in the day. Well that puts a stick in the trail." He scrunched his lips deciding whether he should continue or not. "Well, you mind training me?"

"Train you huh?" She paused for a moment, but grew distracted by Irina slugging her way through the gate. She looked fairly depressed. "What happened?"

Irina stayed quiet and pointed at Shu as she continued on down the path.

"She called me a creep and challenged me to a fight on her own. I won." Saying it out loud it sounded like he was lying, it was rare a Valkyrie was beaten by a normal human. So much so that it's considered a myth to have happened.

"Mmm, I believe it." Scarlett turned her head to the now gone girl. "That girl, she's inept at doing this. She's good only at academics and anything that doesn't require her to be physical."

"I can't say that I couldn't tell, my only experience with fighting so far is the street fights that would happen often. Which isn't enough to defeat a Valkyrie."

"My training is going to be hell you know? Just because you're a normal person doesn't mean you'll be getting it easy." Scarlett laughed an evil laugh before slinging her arm around Shu's shoulder.

"I'm fine with that, the blacksmith apparently kept up with the Valk- huh? We're going already?"

"Gotta start early and fast if you want to get something done right. We will be busy."

She dragged him all the way to an open field with a full length soccer field in the middle. A path had been created around it almost like a barrier.

"Don't get your hopes up, we're not playing any games to make you stronger. While I said I won't go easy on you, you aren't physically strong enough for the training yet." Scarlett pointed to the track around the field. "You'll run around it thirty times."

"Thirty?" He doubted that he could even hit it twice.

"Don't worry, I have something prepared for you in the case you drop dead." Scarlett smiled, and the hand she put on his shoulder was suddenly very heavy. "Good luck."