“Sensei! These results I cannot accept! If the two warriors were to fight, Claire would definitely win!” Crayford complained to Sora. Complaining went against Crayford’s pride but compared to the blow his pride took on Claire’s defeat – it was nothing.

“You…” Sora muttered angrily. He was annoyed with Crayford – if Crayford couldn’t accept his defeat it showed how thoughtless and stupid he really was. “Even though you are six hundred years old, you have the brains on an insect. In a real battle she would have died.”

“In a real battle, he wouldn’t be fighting naked!” Crayford argued back.

“Heh! Naïve!” Sora countered. “If the circumstances required him to fight naked in a real battle, then he would have to!”

“That is not the point I am making here! How many battles require warriors to fight naked? One in a million? One in a billion? You gambled that Claire would react like that!! If it was a proper fight then she would win!”

Anger flashed in Sora’s eyes. “Too foolish and too arrogant! You want to fight against the Empire, but are afraid to gamble!”

“You are talking about gambling lives here! A single mistake can result in hundreds if not thousands of deaths!”

“If you are so afraid of people dying then maybe it better if you don’t wage a war!” Sora sneered back at Crayford. “Enough! I don’t want to help an idiot!”

“Hah! You were just looking for a way to escape! You didn’t really want to help!” Crayford rebutted.

Sora ignored Crayford and walked away. “Think what you like….” Saying that much Sora walked away.

Seeing Sora walk away, Crayford was left with nothing but an empty feeling. Crayford couldn’t explain it but he knew that even in this argument it was his defeat….

but I am not wrong! This match proves nothing….

Even though Crayford thought like that, he could not help but feel that he had lost.

“Master.” Tulda called out.

Seeing the two Masters shouting at each other, the four disciples quietly approached them to watch the outcome. Now that the Masters had paused from arguing, Tulda decided it was best that he spoke up – after all he was the centre of the storm.

All eyes rolled over to stare at Tuldam to see what he had to say.

“What is it?” Crayford asked irritatedly – he did not know how to face his own students now that they had seen such an ‘uncool’ side of him.

Tulda struggled to put his words in a diplomatically correct way. “He wasn’t gambling. He had calculated many possibilities.”

The other three disciples had ashen looks on their faces – Tulda was defending him???

Ignoring his fellow comrades difficult expressions, Tulda continued to speak, “When we were discussing our battle strategy, he told me not one way of winning but at least five.”

Everyone now had a shocked look on their faces – not one but five ways?

“It is as Master teaches us – know your enemy better than you know yourself. It was within his range of possibilities that Claire would react the way she did. Maybe if it was a monster or another man – she would have been able to control herself but seeing me, a familiar face, she could not hold back her reaction. He even explained that Claire would not take this match seriously…which is why it would work.”

Claire tried to defend herself but stopped – how could she possibly be serious against Tulda? A friend and someone weaker than her. Even though she did not do think this consciously, it was there in her subconscious. This is why when she saw him naked – she reacted as she did. As Claire understood her weakness better, the pain became greater. She had been completely read by the opponent. Claire’s shoulder drooped and tears began rolling down her soft cheeks.

The other four wanted to console her immediately, but what could they say? There are some hardships which one must overcome on their own.

“Even if Claire did not react as expected – she would hold back to avoid injuring me.” Tulda continued to explain – hoping to make Claire feel better. “He said the very possibility of risking hurting me, would subconsciously make Claire holdback.”

Crayford nodded – this was one of the strategies he did understand. Being an otaku in his previous life, he had seen ‘One Outs’ and was familiar with the concept of psychologically engaging the opponent. In the anime, they had specifically pointed out to fantasy research where a world-class shooter hit the target with near 100% accuracy. Then, he was asked to hit the target again but this time a national treasure had been placed left of the target. Even though the vase, the national treasure, was not blocking the target in any way, the shooter’s mark was off the target by a large margin. Subconsciously, the fear of damaging the vase resulted in the marksmen aiming more towards the right. However, all this was purely anime gibberish. Crayford never thought something like this would work in real life.

“And?” Crayford impatiently asked. He was now curious to know the other three ways, after all Sora did outwit him.

“He also said that you wouldn’t notice other changes in me if I were naked as you all would be distracted….”

Everyone carefully scrutinized Tulda and then gasped in shock; Tulda wasn’t wearing his power limitor.

“No ways…” Hem whispered. None of them had noticed it till now.

“You removed your limitor?” Crayford asked in shock.

“Yes Master. He hinted that you would not think of this. So while Claire fought with a limitor on, I would be fighting without one.” Tulda replied honestly.

“But I would remove her limitor as well!” Claire angrily replied – she was angry at herself for not noticing that Tulda had fought her without limitors.

“Yes…but since it was a single strike competition, it would have ended before you would have had a chance.” Tulda meekly retorted.

“I see…that is why he made the rules as such…. it was to avoid harming each other…but what he aimed for was this…. It never crossed my mind that he would have Tulda remove the limitor… I apologize Claire…it was my mistake to assume that Tulda would fight with his limitor on. I have truly been careless…” Crayford murmured as he hung his head low and fell on his knees. This was his mistake and he had no excuse to offer for it.

“Master should not have to apologize! Claire too would have removed her limitor and won….”

“But that is not what happened….Tulda what else did he tell you?”

Tulda hesitated. “He said, if all of the above failed…then to create a weakness in Claire’s mind and use the opportunity to attack her…”

Everyone looked at Tulda – what weakness?

“Black heart pattern lace…” Before Tulda could complete that sentence, Claire had kicked him several feet away.

The other three men were stupefied. What is black heart pattern lace? And why does it have Claire so agitated and flustered…..ooohhh…

Just then realization dawned upon the three men, but they were still left with one more question.

How did Tulda or Sora know it was black heart pattern? – however that was one question they did not dare to investigate in Claire’s presence.

***

“Sensei! I apologize.” Crayford spoke while bowing. “You are right. This disciple of yours is naïve and foolish. So please forgive this disciple and continue helping us.”

Sora looked at Crayford. He was in no mood to help them now.

But before he could say anything, the four disciples also bowed and pleaded together. “Please Grand Master!”

“If you bow like that for another ten minutes I will reconsider….no even two minutes…” Sora feverishly replied as he stared at Claire, who was also bowing. It must be explained that because Claire was now wearing normal loosely hanging clothes – when she bowed an exotic valley was exposed.

This was something Claire took notice off – she could feel a very strong lustful intent directed at her. When she realized what Sora was staring at, she gave Sora high kick – lodging his skull into the ceiling.

“GO DIE HENTAI SKELETON!!!” She screamed.

***

“So to begin your special hell’s trainin…I mean special advanced training! You must defeat the monster in this room with your right hand behind your back. Also you are permitted to use no more than 5% of your full strength.” Sora explained as the stood outside the Gate keeper’s chambers. "Also, you are not permitted to kill this monster....or scar it...or deeplu wound it in anyway..."

Then how are we supposed to defeat it?

Master save us!! – The four disciples wore worried expressions across their faces. If Crayford’s stories were anything to go by, this was going to end very badly for the four disciples. Having seen the goblin’s emotionless doll-like-responses, the disciples were now absolutely terrified of Sora!