Chapter 74 Autumn Training [5] - Veronica

Feeling the strings that locked him in place, Lloyd could not help but gnash his teeth with a hint of anger.

He should have known. Everything pointed towards Lachlan being someone who fights at a range, yet since he didn't have a bow, gun, or staff, and he wasn't a mage, it must have meant that his class had to do something with summoning or getting something else to fight for him.

He was also very good at dodging, and his coordination and ability to manipulate his opponents' movements to push them into a corner made it obvious that he did not partake in hand-to-hand combat, and instead was more of a support class than anything else.

"Surprised?" Lachlan asked with a grin.

"I should have seen this coming." Lloyd simply replied before relaxing his body, retracting his shadow, and sighing while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Not really. I know that you probably suspected that I probably didn't fight at close quarters much, but there are many classes in which the user doesn't need to fight in hand-to-hand combat. I could have been necromancer for all you knew, so don't beat yourself up about it." Lachlan explains before letting Lloyd go, who quickly collapses onto the ground out of exhaustion.

After letting Lloyd rest for around 7 minutes, Lachlan stood up again, followed by Lloyd, who groggily stood up from where he sat while looking at Lachlan like he had stolen his favorite sword.

Lloyd was exhausted beyond belief, and the exhaustion was written on his face in the form of lines that formed a frown on his face. He was a void walker, he didn't get eye bags or wrinkles, or at least that's what he thought for the time being since that theory made the most sense.

"Overview... Your control over your shadow has increased at a good rate. You must have a pretty high star-talent to be doing this well despite it being your first time having proper training." Lachlan smiled, and Lloyd copied him despite inwardly praying that Lachlan would not find out about his star talent after they left the dungeon.

'Now that I think about it, I'm kind of screwd when we leave this dungeon. They all know about my [Flame Control], and I've shown many more abilities in this dungeon than I would usually have done outside.

However, I'm pretty sure if things keep going at this rate, I might even have to use abilities like [Shadow Clone] to keep up with these guys... Maybe that's why Hime made the training regiment so air-tight? To pressure me into getting as strong as the rest of them?' Lloyd inwardly thought before throwing the thought to the back of his mind and looking up to stare into Lachlan's eyes.

"You'll make a good warrior." Lachlan gave a thumbs up, and Lloyd thanked him for his training.

"Are you guys done?" Veronica's voice entered both their ears, and while Lachlan simply smiled at her and spoke with a tint of pink dyeing his cheeks, Lloyd felt a shiver down his spine when he heard her voice.

He didn't know why this was the case, but for some reason, no matter the situation, Veronica had always seemed a little off, to the point that it was almost creepy.

Maybe it was a her creepy smile, or maybe it was her pair of soul-piercing eyes that made even his soul cower in fear.

He knew she was the most powerful one in the group, yet none of the others gave the same aura as her.

On the other hand, it felt like all the men on the team had a crush on her. She might have been pretty, but instead of feeling the need to make her like him the same way Roderick seemed to act around her, Lloyd wanted her to stay as far away as possible from him.

"You can go now. It's my turn." Veronica waved Lachlan goodbye before turning back to Lloyd with a warm and genuine smile on her face."

"What are you going to teach me..." Lloyd asked with a tinge of wariness in his voice.

"Oh, don't silly." Her smile widened.

BEst

"I'm not going to teach you-" Suddenly, she disappeared from where she stood and appeared right in front of Lloyd in an instant.

Her blood-red vampiric eyes stared right into his violet ones, and before he could even think about backing away, he felt a powerful knee slam into his stomach, sending him back a few meters before forcing him to roll in a violent and brutal way.

"I'm going to train you!"

"Bitch..." Lloyd muttered as he slammed his hands into the ground before flipping out of the roll and landing gracefully.

However, right before his feet could touch the ground, he felt wind brush past him before a surge of mana formed behind him. A surge so powerful that he could see the mana particles in the air become visible and move towards it, simultaneously activating all of Lloyd's danger senses.

With his hair standing up and goosebumps shooting through his skin, Lloyd spun on his heel, barely avoiding the attack by the skin of his teeth, yet instead of stopping there, he went a little further.

Grabbing Veronica's wrist, Lloyd turned just in time to throw her slightly off balance, yet before she could react to the sudden pull on her wrist, something came toward her face at lightning speed, zooming through the air and appearing right in front of her face in what felt like a blink of an eye.

[Tactical Taekwando - Windbreaker kick]

*Smack!*

Lloyd's kick smacked Veronica right across the face before landing it on the ground; however, by using the same momentum Lloyd spun on his toes and threw a round-house kick toward her face again.

"That was pretty good. I was almost shocked haha." Veronica laughed while catching the foot and disappearing from where she stood.

'Shit...'

Appearing right in front of Lloyd, Veronica's face had come uncomfortably close to his as she slowly cocked her fist back.

Mana surged out of the air once again while the torrents of wind circled around her fist.

Seeing no other way out of his situation, Lloyd also cocked back his fist before shrouding his entire right side with flames and his shadow.

*BOOM*

It took less than a second for Lloyd to feel the ground again, yet instead of brutally rolling like before, he had simply slammed into it, creating a crater as cracks slowly moved out from it.

"Are you okay?" Veronica asked with a warm smile on her face.

"F*ck you... Bitch" Lloyd sneered.

"Such hurtful words. Do you know how many people would have paid their life's fortunes to have an hour with me?" Veronica asked with a humph.

"Do your sentences always have to be so misleading?" Lloyd sneered

"What do you mean?" She chuckled before kicking Lloyd.

"Anyway, I just wanted to see how weak you were. No hard feeling, right?" She asked, yet all she received was a middle finger from Lloyd.

"After watching all of your battles, I think there are a few things that I need to train you in. First off, you have an anger problem that you need to fix. A warrior must be able to control his emotions and not lose his mind to rage whenever something doesn't go his way." She explained with a raised index finger.

"Secondly, your killing intent is pretty weak, so I'm going to have to force you to increase it a little." Her grin widened slightly while Lloyd's pained expression turned into a confused one.

'Was she temporarily blind or did she not see my aura, ever?' Lloyd thought to himself.

"I know what you're thinking, but your aura was not the same as killing intent. I'm sure Rex already explained to you the difference between a magical aura and a spiritual one, so I won't have to explain it myself.

All I'm going to say is that the aura of yours that you used earlier was just a branch of your spiritual aura capable of amplifying the power and intensity behind things such as your will, your killing intent, and even your bloodlust if you are capable of entering such a state without losing your mind." She explained.

"And finally, your pain tolerance is disgustingly low. It felt like I was looking at someone who had just awoken a few months ago and had never been truly hit before." She chuckled, making Lloyd slightly unhappy at the fact she was laughing at his dismay.

"Alright then, get up and let's begin your training then."