Pheonyx was experienced at hiding it well, but he was fuming. He had, in fact, not taken any jobs with the guild to hold him over until his potential team-up with Melantha’s party. If he had, he'd probably have been ignorant to what had him so upset behind his mask. Instead, he'd seen it.

He had assumed someone in her life would take the effort to take care of Mel. And yet, when he'd stopped by a tavern for a drink after changing out of his armor, there she was—alone. She was practically throwing herself at strangers, just for a bit of temporary comfort. Nyx couldn't get the memories out of his mind.

He was quite grateful to have stumbled across a specifically designated training area so he had somewhere he could redirect all the fury he felt deep inside. How could those people neglect her while she was like that? The solid wooden post he'd been striking with the practice sword was really starting to show damage. How could he be friendly working alongside people he knew had abandoned one of their own in such a state? It was honestly a question of which would break first, the post or the fake sword.

The sword lost and he started walking towards the racks of training weapons for a new one. Maybe he should switch to the straw stuffed dummies. They were probably easier to replace than another wooden sword.

It was while he was redirecting his steps towards the dummies that he heard the chuckling. “Lun… I'm seriously going to hit you if you keep dancing into the target area at the last second.”

“It's extra practice for you. You never know what unexpected things will happen around you while in the middle of a fight.”

“Fine, but a round of drinks is on you if your antics cause you to get injured. Aiming these is hard enough as it is.” At least she sounded like she was feeling better than the other night…

Pheonyx started walking towards her voice without much thought or plan. He just wanted to talk with the only person he'd consistently interacted with—and was friendly with—since first being summoned. Despite not even having the same face during all their interactions, she managed to make him feel the most like himself whenever they talked or did anything together. She was his sense of normal in the flames of craziness that surrounded him.

“Hello…” he managed to say as he got closer.

Mel turned towards him. “Oh, Ember, right? Odd running into you here… Are you stalking me or something?” He could tell she was teasing, but that didn't stop him feeling a little flustered by it.

“Maybe… I mean, I was here doing my own thing before I realized you were here too. I'd like to think I wouldn't be so easily caught stalking you if I didn't want to be.”

“So then what were you doing here at the same time as us?” Mel asked.

“Killing a wooden post… or I guess more accurately, the wooden sword I was using against the post. Probably just worn out from overuse, if I'm being honest. What about you?”

“Aillun here is teaching me how to best utilize throwing knives. I've proven myself kinda useless in a fight recently, so I want to improve…”

Said twin tailed cat… person… was grinning as they sauntered closer to the conversation. “Next step will be learning to hit a moving target… Maybe mister strong here would volunteer to be your practice partner so I can focus on giving you pointers.” It was a tempting offer. He would likely prefer to fight Aillun—if only to have the opportunity to strike one of the people that wasn't there for Mel the other day, under the guise of practice. But it seemed like Mel wasn't upset with them about it, so maybe he didn't have the full story… Plus, being her practice partner would give him an excuse to continue spending time with her.

“I'd be happy to help however I can.”

Mel gave a smirk. “Even if it's willingly letting me torture you?”

“Whatever I can do to be of help to you, My Lady… I aim to please.”

“I'm sure you do…” She gestured to a more open area. “Then come along, Human Pincushion Ember. I'm hoping to master an entire fighting style within a week.”

Nyx followed her. “Is that why you said you guys wouldn't be taking any jobs the rest of the week?”

“Sort of… We went into our first job under prepared. So we're trying to correct that oversight before taking any more.”

“That's pretty smart and respectable of you. Sounds like the inside matches the outside quite well…” He easily managed to dodge a knife. “Oh, I didn't realize we had already started.”

“You shouldn't be so quick to judge that what you see is what you get when it comes to me… I could actually secretly have a horrible personality, or be hiding my true intentions in all sorts of twisted ways.”

“I could say the same to you, little Missy.” He raised his wooden sword. When the next knife flew his way, he swung at the perfect angle to send it flying past.

Nyx took a step closer. The point was helping her practice using those knives in a fight, so it would be even more helpful if he treated it like an actual practice match, right? He'd just make sure not to hurt her.

Mel fell into a predictable attack pattern, throwing a knife and then using the time he spent deflecting it to move farther away. Well, she was still just learning how to use the weapon, so he could give her a bit of a break in her lack of diversity with strategy.

Though not too much. It wouldn't do her any good if she got in the habit of assuming real opponents would go along with such an easy to interpret—and disrupt—pattern. He started to mix up his reactions to having knives thrown at him, and closed the distance between them faster.

Before long, she was within striking reach. He just needed to remember not to put too much strength into his swing. He raised the wooden sword higher and…

He suddenly found he couldn't move at all. “What the…”

“I warned you to not underestimate me, Cutie.” It was only looking at her wide grin that Nyx realized that he hadn't heard Aillun give any advice during the whole fight.

“...You purposely made it seem like your attacks were overly simple to trick me into underestimating you.”

“A fast brain along with brawn. Definitely a good mix… That's right. I used more than just the daggers you were deflecting. There were strings attached to each one, just thin enough for you to not notice if you were focused on avoiding the flying objects that you could see. The objective wasn't for any of them to directly hit you, but instead have them get embedded in the ground surrounding you.” Now that she mentioned it, he realized that despite thinking he'd been following her in a relatively straight line, the knives she'd thrown at him were all different directions around him. “So~ how do you feel being all tangled up?”

“I definitely wouldn't mind doing this again, whenever you want or need to practice your techniques more. However, you'll need to get more creative now that I know not to underestimate you.” Despite losing, he found he'd had fun and was enjoying himself. “Could you release me now, though?”

“Hmm…” She looked at him as if considering it. “I don't know. This pose might be a good look for you… And I would know where to find you.”

“I'd prefer to be free so I can train more and be a better match for you next time.”

“I suppose that would be a good enough reasoning to allow you your freedom.” He didn't see what exactly she did, but he felt the threads holding him in place loosening.

“Thank you.” His blood flow hadn't been restricted while tied up, but he still stretched his limbs as if encouraging blood flow in them once he was sure he was free. The lack of real damage was actually quite impressive. It would have been easy to leave indents, or worse, from the strings. It took an insane amount of control to have held them tight enough to restrain without leaving any marks once let go.

“Did you want to go again today? We were planning to be training for a while longer.” The invite sounded lovely but… If Nyx was being honest, all that running around combined with his thick armor was starting to make him really sweat.

“I would be honored but I think I need to take a break and grab a few dozen cool drinks. I had been at it for quite a while before running into you two.”

“I understand… Until next time then?” It might have just been his own wishful thinking, but she almost seemed disappointed that he had turned her down.

“Definitely…” Mel started picking up all her knives as he left. Or at least he was starting to leave the training area when Aillun stopped him. 

“It's not really my business, but I think you should tell her the truth. Mel is my friend so I don't want her to get hurt by your lies, Pheonyx.”