The ice around Shiina intensified as she looked at Celeste with a small smile.

Waving her hand, ice walls appeared around Celeste as her charge was halted. Even with her flames being empowered, the ice was barely melted.

Snapping her fingers, the blizzard started to increase in intensity as Shiina's body faded away, not to be seen.

With her opponent disappearing from sight, Celeste furrowed her brows as she could only look around in confusion.

Gritting her teeth, she didn't know what to do other than sending out attacks everywhere.

However, the lack of response and the growing storm only seemed to annoy her more as the flaming aura started to flare with hints of purple.

"Don't get too angry now Celeste. I believe this spar is your loss for now." Shiro called out with a smile as Celeste frowned.

Glancing up, she came eye to eye with Shiro who wasn't smiling anymore and shrunk back. Dismissing her aura, she sat there obediently as the blizzard disappeared, revealing a somewhat tired Shiina.

###

While the fight between Shiina and Celeste was happening, Glen was holding his sword and narrowed his eyes at Akhess.

Right now, Akhess had a dagger in hand and seemed rather relaxed.

"How do you want to do this? First hit then give up or are we going until her highness calls out the winner?" Akhess asked as he twirled the dagger around his fingers.

"Up to you, I don't mind." Glen replied while sweat dripped down his face.

Despite his relaxed state, Akhess felt like an unsheathed sword that could attack at any moment.

"Well it's no fun for the first strike. We'll wait for her highness to announce the winner then." Akhess smiled, taking a step forward.

Reaching top speed immediately, he closed the gap in an instant as Glen widened his eyes.

Quickly drawing his sword, he slashed horizontally, as Akhess reached out with his arm and allowed it to be cut.

Watching the blood spill from his wounds, Glen was confused for a moment since he was expecting that strike to miss so he didn't put too much force behind it. Now that his attack landed, he wasn't able to move into his next stance.

As this happened, the blood suddenly solidified into the shape of a blade as Akhess twisted his body.

'SH*T!' Cursing in his mind, Glen quickly ducked down in a panic and narrowly dodged the blood blade before adjusting his stance.

Cleaving up with his sword, he rolled back and quickly flipped himself back on his feet as his strike managed to cut Akhess across the chess.

However, the wound was shallow and healed up instantly.

"I'm not sure why her highness picked me to be against you but melee matchups against me are at a disadvantage." Akhess smiled.

The blood that had soaked his coat started to twist as it formed into a bracelet on his wrist.

"Senior is quite confident." Glen narrowed his eyes.

"Of course I am." Akhess nodded.

Suddenly, blood spikes erupted out from the floor as they pierced Glen's foot.

Flinching from the pain, Glen stumbled back as he noticed thin streams of blood flowing through the tiles of the training hall.

Right now, he was akin to a fly on a spider's web. It didn't matter where he went since he was walking on the web.

Furrowing his brows, he ignored the pain on his foot and condensed his mana.

Unleashing it in a single burst, he disappeared from his spot and appeared behind Akhess.

Cleaving down with his blade, he watched as Akhess' body was split in two.

"So that is your little gimmick. You condense mana and use it in a single burst." Akhess' voice rang out as his body threaded itself back together. Snapping his head back 180 degrees, Akhess smiled as blood spikes exploded out from the body.

Widening his eyes, Glen tried to block the strikes but it still pierced parts of his body.

"Paralysing Blood." Akhess' voice rang out as Glen felt his body tense up.

With Glen unable to move his body, he watched as Akhess' body collapsed into a pool of blood.

From the corner, the real Akhess revealed himself as he was currently wearing some light red armour. His hair was black with streaks of red.

True Spirit Nature – Blood Atrax

Flexing his fingers, all of the blood returned to him.

"A little surprising even on my end. Well done Akhess." Shiro smiled since she didn't think that he'd be able to retrain Glen so well.

"Thank you, your highness." He bowed slightly as he dispelled the effect on Glen's body.

Standing on his two feet, Glen felt a little bitter but understood that there was a rather big gap between the two of them.

"Right then. Celeste, I wanted you to fight against Shiina since you rely on your flames. I wanted you to see your own weakness so that you understand what you're weak against. As for you Glen, I wanted you to fight against Akhess for the same reason. With the inability to use mana for magic, you must be careful with how you fight. If you could use magic, charging in and fighting is ok but you cannot so you have to keep that in mind. For someone like Akhess who uses tricks to corner his opponents, you need to be patient. Plus, he excels at close quarters so you can get some tips from him." Shiro explained, healing everyone in the process.

"Since all of you five have been taught by me personally, I expect you to help each other. It may be a little unfair to put you against your natural counters but I wanted you to experience this kind of fight. For now, you five can talk to one another. I got other matters to deal with." Shiro smiled, teleporting away.

Seeing this, Shiina sighed and walked over to Celeste.

"Sorry about that. Are you feeling ok now?" Shiina asked with a small smile as Celeste pouted for a moment before nodding her head.

"I'll give you a little secret though. These two don't force me to use my true spirit nature even when they're fighting me seriously. So in that regard, you're better than them." Shiina smiled while pointing at Akhess and Oran.

"She's telling the truth. We can't hit her at all." Oran sighed and shrugged his shoulder.

Shaking his head, Akhess looked at Glen.

"Are you unhappy about the outcome?" Akhess asked as Glen nodded.

"I'm just annoyed that I can't use any spells. If only I could use spells, maybe I could have done better." Glen replied while looking at his sword.

"Life is often unfair. My magic used to make me pass out from just making a sword. Hell, if I don't prepare properly, I can't even make a sword without passing out in a fight. That's why I have all of these blood bags prepared." Akhess smiled.

Pulling open his coat, he revealed several vials of blood. These vials had enchantments carved at the base which made them act similar to storage bags so that he could store quite a bit of blood in them.

"I had to study under one of Miss Aarim's subordinates to learn how to make these with enchantments. Every day I'll go over to the healers guild and constantly pour blood in this while getting healed so that I can be ready for combat at any moment." Akhess explained while opening one of the vials.

Tipping it upside down, blood started to pour endlessly as Glen watched in shock.

During the fight, Akhess was quite sparing with how much blood he used when one vial could easily cover the entire floor.

"You never know what might happen so you have to be sparing with your resources. Especially for you. Though had you been against Oran, you would have easily destroyed his defenses." Akhess grinned as Oran furrowed his brows.

"Bullsh*t. Just because you can't defeat me and Shiina doesn't mean you can slander me like this." Oran huffed.

"I'm not slandering you. His offense is impressive so he'll be effective against people like you. But against me and Shiina, he has to play the waiting game and be patient." Akhess shrugged.

"It is true. If it makes you feel better, Akhess is in the same situation against me. Even if he uses his blood, I'll just freeze it." Shiina shrugged since she didn't even need to use her true spirit nature against Akhess.

"Then what can I do? I can only condense mana in my body and release it in a moment. Anyone can do that." Glen asked.

"We'll figure that out as a group. If you are only good at one thing, then hone that skill." Shiina encouraged as Akhess and Oran nodded their heads.

###

Seeing the five talk to one another, Shiro smiled since it seemed like they'll work nicely as a party. While Glen may seem like a fighter, it was better to call him an assassin with the skills that he's been born with. After a certain period of time, Shiro was planning on sending him to be trained under Chen Yu while Celeste will study under Madison.

However, that was something to think about in the future.

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