Authors Note: Hello, people, how are you all? I'm not so good at the moment, in fact I am quite frustrated. As you all might know last chapter I said that I was having internet problems and I thought they were gone…but, yeah seems that it wasn't. The problems started up once more in the middle of last week to now, at first it was just kicking me out once in a while but now it does it regularly. As a result, this chapter is—probably noticeably—smaller than my previous ones. I wanted to add much more to this chapter, however, ultimately I can't unless I want this to be published sometime later this week and I just wanted to give you all some content and maintain this schedule that I am in with my uploads.

Next chapter, will be much longer in order to compensate for the lack of material in this one. But before anything else I have something to ask of you all.

You see my collaborator has suggested the idea of putting the rest of the girls that were not selected from the polls into the harem. So girls like Grendel, Niohoggr, Tannin, and so on will get their shot at Issei. There are some people that are in favor of that happening, but I want to ask you all of your opinion. I won't make another poll, instead I will merely go off what I see in the reviews. If a majority of the reviews are in favor of doing so, then I will incorporate the remaining dragoness' into Issei's harem.

That is all I have to say for this Author's Note and hopefully when the technician comes on Thursday that they will be able to fix it.

Prologue Part 4

"Guh~…" Issei could only make a bitter smile at the blue-haired beauty known as Tiamat, who gave off a troubled groan. During the midst of her self-disappointment, he had carried the unconscious Great Red over to one of his spare rooms and returned back to the scene.

"Tia-chan, why don't you let me teach you how to cook." Tiamat looked back at him with comical teary eyes and sniffed a few times.

"Y-You…don't mind?"

"Hehe, not at all." He said with a slight chuckle and the Chaos Karma Dragon nodded her head and got herself off from the floor. It was then that she remembered the knocked-out woman he brought and looked at him pointedly.

"Who was that woman? It wasn't Ddraig since this one seemed more developed and not to mention the aura she gave off was ten times—no maybe more than what Ddraig can give off. You weren't in your room in the morning as well, so what were you doing. As a knight and a friend, I deserve to know." Issei smiled seeing her act of confidence and went over to her and patted her head. She ended up purring a bit as he continued to rub her head before pausing his actions.

"You're right. You should know since you are going to be travelling around with me. That woman was the Dragon of Dragons, Great Red or Red-chan as I call her. When I first came here, she was the one who found me and we were friends ever since. However, I made a deal with her that when I am strong enough, I will fight her—not for her title or monikers. If she won, I would become her mate. If I won, she will call herself mine—this doesn't make us mates in any way. As you can see by her condition…I won. Due to the results, I have asked her to come travel with us. There is no reason to be scared of her since she is just like you, a dragoness trying to make do with what the world is giving us." Upon finishing, he noticed that Tiamat was looking at him with widened eyes of astronomical proportions. Before he could continue though, she put her head down so she was looking at the floor.

"Great Red, huh…do I even have a chance anymore with you? I tried to cook you some breakfast and even that I can't do! First, the two girls you mentioned you saved, and then Ddraig and Albion, and now Great Red. Why did you even save me?! When you have women who are much stronger and better looking than me, all holding some sort of affection to you. Why didn't you just let me be taken by the de—ow!"

"Tiamat, if you ever finish that sentence I will personally beat you to the ground harder than I did the Biblical God." The Dragon King widened her eyes at both the slap he gave her on the head and the way he grabbed her shoulders roughly. Staring into his eyes, she noticed how the golden flecks swirled around much faster like they were agitated.

"Don't question my reasons for saving you. I saved you because I couldn't dare see a woman with as much beauty as you be harmed while I was around. I wasn't going to stand around and watch the devils have their way with you while you couldn't protect yourself. Sure, a part of me saving you has to do with my goal of unifying our species, but from then on it all has to do with you as a person. And don't you say that you aren't as beautiful as Great Red, Ddraig, Albion, and the others. You are beautiful! Do you understand that. You may not be as well developed as some, but compare yourself to other woman on this planet and I can assure you that you beat most with beauty alone. By the way, I don't care if you are beautiful or not. That is merely a bonus. The one thing I care about is your will as both a dragon and a woman. Whether or not you accept that answer, I will always find you as mate-material."

"…" She stood quiet with both blushed cheeks and also some unshed tears accumulating in her eyes. His grip got tighter as he gritted his teeth so hard she could hear them creak a bit.

"In my other home, I had no one. The only person I had was my mother and she is dead. And it's all because of him. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for her and the joy I felt every day of my growing life was indescribable. When I came here to this dimension, I saw the conditions that my fellow species were in. Unlike in my previous home, you all were not the conceited and haughty bunch that I was accustomed to. So I thought, if I help them out then maybe I can share with them the same joy that my mother made me feel. I'll never forget the lessons she would give me since I couldn't attend school. I'll never forget how we talked about mundane things, simply enjoying each other's presence. I'll never forget the warmth and love she gave me, even if at times it was a bit more than I expected. That's why if I can make you feel cared for then maybe you can finally start enjoying life instead of being the trophy of accomplishment that the world as made you out to be. Do you understand now?"

"I…I…" Gulping down a lump in her throat, she nodded her head rapidly as a lone tear shed from her right eye. Launching herself onto him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and quiet, muffled sobs could be heard from her. Smiling fondly, he encircled his arms around her waist and nuzzled her hair with his cheek.

"Don't say that you are not worth my time, because you always will be. I may meet other girls and you all may want the same thing…but if I can make you all happy then I can say that I did a good job. Also, you will always have one thing that none of the others have…and that is that you are my knight. A knight is only as strong as there blazing will towards the one they are protecting. And you can expect me to fight by your side when you need it."

"I…" After a few more minutes, her sobs quieted down and she withdrew her face from him. "I understand now…thank you, Issei-kun for everything."

"Oya, Tia-chan, you already said thank you enough."

"You're right. Maybe I should try to express my thanks in a more appropriate manner." Leaning forward, Tiamat deposited a chaste kiss on his lips that last about six seconds, but the passion that she put into it made it feel much more powerful. Issei, who was surprised at her abrupt boldness, didn't hesitate to recuperate the kiss. Breaking the kiss, Tiamat grinned sexily and winked her eye at him.

"What do you think? Should I do it more often?"

"I definitely wouldn't complain."

"Hahaha! I anticipated you wouldn't. Now, you said 'my previous home' and 'when I came to this dimension', you really aren't from here are you?"

"No, I'm not. I came here about three thousand years ago and during that time I was training. Are you upset?" He frowned a bit at the possibility of her rejecting the fact he wasn't a natural born of this dimension, but to his relief she shook her head.

"Nope. It works out for me since without you I wouldn't be able to keep my freedom. Who else knows?"

"Red-chan knows and now you do. I haven't told the other girls I met since I am a bit worried that they may not accept that I wasn't from here."

"You should tell them. I think they would want to know; I know I would. Anyway, you and your mother were very close, huh?"

"Yeah, she was the only one that was both a mother and a friend. I would do anything to have her with me."

"Haah…you have a mother-complex don't you?"

"…I don't know what you mean…"

"You do?! Wow, you perverted man~!" Issei couldn't help but smile seeing that Tiamat has finally brightened up. Her voice was in a teasing tone and her blue-green eyes seemed to shine in happiness.

"*sigh*, I was a growing dragon back in the day. She was a very gorgeous woman. It was natural that I would think about her in that way. Now that I think about it, she was more affectionate with me than what I thought a mother would be with her son."

"Wow, talk about incest…"

"I wouldn't go that far. I say she is my 'mother' but in reality she isn't. But, I didn't learn about that until the end of my time at my previous dimension."

"What?"

"It's complicated and in order for me to fully explain it to you that you would understand would be too much of a hassle as of right now. We should focus on making breakfast and I will help you." Walking to the kitchen, Issei was followed by Tiamat who upon seeing her chance took his arm and put it in between of her large bust while hugging onto the appendage. He briefly glanced at her, but he just got a smile in return so he didn't think much of it. Going into the kitchen he was met with pans and pots of burnt food. Seeing this the Dragon King on his arm flushed in embarrassment until she felt him rub his cheek on her head and looked up to him giving her an encouragable smile.

Releasing his arm from her hold, she watched as he went and got some eggs from an appliance that she didn't even know existed, but if she could guess it would be that it kept the food fresh. Issei went to the counter and got some spices and then turned on another appliance that Tiamat didn't know what was.

"Issei-kun, what are those things? I never seen anything like it before."

"That's because these are some things are from the other dimension. The large appliance that keeps things cool is called a refrigerator while this is a stove. The fridge keeps food fresh while the stove cook's food at a much faster rate than a fire. It also cooks much better than a fire. Maybe that is why you burned the food because you didn't know how to properly use the stove."

"That may be an explanation. What other ideas did you incorporate from the other dimension?"

"The bathroom for one as well as the sink right over there both use pipes that I installed. Indoor plumbing would be the term used. The pipes are connected to a large well of water that is under where we are standing. The doors have locks on them and the house has insulation to keep in the heat. The gold and silver is merely a coating to be honest. There is also the washer machine and drying machine to clean laundry."

"Um…uh..." Turning his head to look at Tiamat, he was amused to see that she was acting all embarrassed out of the blue. "D-Do you…have…a-anything for my, uh, my boobs?"

"Heh…" Letting out a small entertained smirk, she jumped up a bit and turned her face to the side while blushing furiously.

"L-Listen! I-I don't have anything to support my breasts and nothing to wear under my pants and…guh…" Hunching over a bit, she gave off a trouble groan while Issei quietly laughed to himself.

"You aren't wearing any underwear? And you call me a pervert, Tia-chan."

"It's not what…it's not…guh…huh?" Blinking in question, Tiamat looked at the box that appeared in his hands that was outstretched for her to grab. Taking the brown box from him, she looked at the opening of it to see some apparel that were of different colors and some sort of undergarments.

"Those are called bras while the undergarments are underwear. Try them on a find out your size. If none of them fit you, then let me know and I will make some of a bigger size. They should help with back support and to help keep your boobs from sagging…but to be honest yours don't seem to be sagging at all despite their size." Finishing his sentence with a smirk, Tiamat looked to see him staring at her chest and blushed before going out of the kitchen. When she was gone, Issei's aura subtly increased before a piece of it broke off and started to take form. When it was done another Issei stood in front of the original.

"I want you to go to the set coordinates of the nebula that I had in mind for a new sword. Go there and—you know the rest, don't you?"

"Of course I do. I am you after all." His clone smirked and disappeared in a black flash.

"Tch, since when did I become a smart ass."

"I-Issei-kun…" Tiamat poked her head through the opening of the kitchen in an embarrassed manner.

"Yes, Tia-chan?"

"I, uh, need a bigger size…"

"Really, now? What was the last size that the box went up to?"

"Ah, size D I believe."

"I'm going to guess you need a DD-cup size."

"A-Are you sure that this is right? I find it hard to believe that I am this big of a size." Issei created another box and walked over to Tiamat.

"I'm sure it is right. Like I said, if you look at yourself from your perspective you may not seem to be big. But, from another point of view say mine for example, you do have big breasts. Here you go and let me know if I am right." Taking the box from him, she rushed down the hallway and into her room while Issei waited for his clone to come back. After a few minutes of waiting in silence, a black flash appeared right in front of him and clone-Issei stood there with a sword in his hands.

"Here you go." The clone of Issei said as he gave the sword to his creator. Issei smirked and expected the blade in his hands. The sword was about three and a half feet long with a gold handle and a blue sheathe that had white markings decorating it. Taking the blade from its covering, the space around Isseia and his clone instantly cooled down to the point that a mist set in and ice started to cover the surroundings. The blade itself was a pristine silver with a single blue line going down the length of the blade, but if you looked close enough you could see that there was a blue liquid that was swishing back and forth.

"Hehehe," Issei chuckled to himself and sheathed the blade which caused the mist and ice to recede, "it's wonderful. Then again I wouldn't expect anything less from myself." The clone smirked in reply and turned into cosmic energy before joining Issei's aura. Creating a small portal, Issei placed the sword in it and closed it up. As if on que, Tiamat came walking in with a blush still evident on her face.

"Was I right?" The only response he got was the darkening of her blush on her face. "Ah, no need to be embarrassed. Now, let's wash our hands first." Going over to the sink, he turned on the water and removed his gloves before soaping his hands and washing them. When he was done, Tiamat took his place and repeated the process.

After completing the action, Issei took his time to ingrain the proper recipe and to teach Tiamat how to use the new appliances that she had no idea how to use. When the duo was done with breakfast, they went to the table and sat down with two plates filled with eggs, bread, ham, and different fruits.

"Shouldn't we make some for Great Red?" Tiamat asked as she took a bit of her eggs with a 'fork' as Issei called the utensil. She gave an involuntarily hum of approval as the different herbs that were placed on the eggs practically exploded in flavor on her tongue.

"That's not necessary. Judging by how quickly she is regaining her power, she will probably wake up mid-morning tomorrow."

"So what is the agenda for today then?"

"Let's see," Issei picked up his cup of tea and took a sip of the contents, "after breakfast we are going to start your training. I have the whole day free so we can train until the early afternoon, take a break and have lunch before doing training some more until dinner."

"…Is that how you trained?" She asked accusingly, but Issei grinned at her while popping an apple slice in his mouth.

"No. I actually didn't eat for a whole month and trained without break for most of my time here. A millennium ago is when I slowed down my training; mostly since my body needed to constantly improve if I wanted to unlock my true potential with my powers. Granted, I did train with them during that time."

"*cough*, *cough*, n-non-stop?!" She choked on her food and gave him a bewildered look. "What about eating? Sleeping? Going to the bathroom? Bathing?"

"Going to the bathroom and bathing goes without saying. As for sleeping and eating, I didn't need to. I technically don't need to eat every day, but I want to since it tastes really good when done right. Anyway, your powers are over ice and water, right?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Your aura. One of the things I will expand upon is your detection of other presences. Mine is to the degree that I can see the color of your aura and by extension your life. I knew where you were when you were in trouble a few days ago because your aura was 'damaged'. The dragon-slaying sword is what caused it." Issei looked around Tiamat and saw an ethereal blue aura that was encircling her in a calm manner. However, it was also fast—a torrent undertone that told him of the destructive properties of her powers.

"Water in itself is both a blessing yet a curse to humans. It provides nourishment and at times can be the deciding factor between life and death. But, it also is the cause of some calamity such as floods and typhoons that destroy civilizations. Ice: Beautiful in appearance, it can also take away that beauty in a second. A simple touch can cause the one thing you worked hard for to shatter into a million, tiny pieces."

"You got all that just from my aura…?'" Tiamat asked with a slight blush on her face before shaking it off. "That explains why how you found me, yet what why were you around my area?"

"I was working on a project, actually."

"Project?"

"Yes. I was making a…pocket dimension of some sort. Similar to how the devils have the Underworld and the angels have Heaven, this pocket dimension is a hub for our kind. While smaller in size compared to Heaven or the Underworld, it is still big enough to be classified as a city worthy of being a capital of country."

"Wow. How many more are there?"

"As of now, only six. Two on this island, two in eastern part of China, and two in Europe. Although, none of them are reachable as of now. That is until I get in contact with the other dragons."

"Huh?"

"Tomorrow, we are going to Europe. The Northern part of the continent to be exact. I want to begin my recruitment with my old friend. She was the second person I met after Great Red. Since we are meeting her tomorrow, I may as well tell you who she is…it's Midgardsormr."

"The Sleeping Dragon? She's a girl? Wait, actually how did you get her to pay attention to you." Tiamat asked with interest and Issei smiled a bit from the reminiscent of the first time meeting the lazy dragoness.

"It was about seven hundred and fifty years since I came to this dimension and I was travelling without a place in mind. I stumbled upon Asgard and it was there that I saw a battle between Midgardsormr and her father, Loki. Back then I was still sort of skeptical, so I didn't interfere until another man clad in dark grey armor came to confront the two. At first, I thought he was going to help the dragon but he actually attacked them both. Loki managed to hit the man—Thor as I would later be told—and was in the midst of imputing magic onto Midgardsormr in an attempt to control her so he could raze Asgard to the ground. It was then that I intervened and stopped the final phase of the controlling magic to finish. I didn't waste any time to attack Loki and forced him to retreat; Thor came back and attacked me for conspiring with 'conniving serpent' as he called her. Long story short, I beat him and just as the rest of the gods came, both Midgardsormr and I fled the area. Following her back to the depths of the ocean, we talked about what happened and she told me about how the Norse gods dislike her since they thought she was an impending doom that loomed over their heads. Soon after, I left but not before promising to come back and talk to her. We have met about four times since then."

"What did the Norse gods do? And what about her constant sleeping?"

"They didn't do anything after that, but from my last talk with her, Thor challenged her to a fight. Fighting back in self-defense she ended up being cast onto shore and smashed a section of Asgard. Either way, he wouldn't have won; she was much stronger than the last time they engaged in combat. Upon my first departure, she slept in order to regain the power she lost. Seems like she enjoys the activity now, hehe." Finishing up the last of his breakfast, Issei waited patiently for his knight to finish hers.

"I see; I never would have known what she went through if you hadn't told me. But, I am curious about how the 'hubs' work."

"In them there are places to rest, food, social gathering areas, and some books that involved tips about fighting and survival. Naturally, if dragons want open up their own stores they can as long as they let me know and all six of the hubs—as of now—are all connected so if you wanted to you could cross a portal and arrive in a hub that is in Japan when you were originally in Asia. The books include some fighting styles, magic spells, etc."

"What about if a devil or angel gets their hands on the book?"

"They won't since it will only respond to a dragon, no matter what. This is the first step: Give them hope such as a place where they can go without dread. Let them get comfortable with each other and then they will eventually unite. Though, if I want to keep this idea spreading I need to reach more dragons which is why once we visit Midgardsormr we are going to go around the world and hand out these…" A foldable booklet appeared in his hands and when he opened it, the booklet floated away from his hands before opening up fully. A holographic image of Earth appeared and focused in on where they were on the map.

"This will only operate with dragons and only our kind can see the image if someone else sees them open it. It will alert you of the closest hub which is right here…and we are right here…" Two blue dots appeared on the map which represented Issei and Tiamat while a red dot appeared about two hundred miles from their location in the southern direction, and this represented the nearest outpost.

"Right now, you will have to travel a fair distance to get to the hub, but I am planning on increasing the number so you wouldn't have to go as far. Once you get there, you will be transported to the outpost upon your permission."

"Looks like someone has been busy, huh?" Tiamat said with a smile as she finished the last bit of her food. They both took their plates and washed them in the sink and Issei smirked at a bit at her.

"I try, Tia-chan." Getting struck with an idea, Issei let out an evil smile and scooped up some water in his hands. Looking over to the unsuspected dragoness, he threw the water at her which got a surprised yelp.

"Ah! Issei-kun! What was that for?!" She asked with a glare although it didn't look threatening at all.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all. Just thought you wanted a bit more water." Taking another handful of water, he let it out straight at Tiamat who tried to dodge but the water seemed to track onto her and splashed her face.

"Hey! That's cheating!"

"Well, then consider this your first lesson. Try to stop water from being splashed onto you but use your powers to stop the water mid-flight." Using his index finger, he motioned for the water in the sink to come to him. Tiamat watched in fascination as the water from the sink formed a tendril and went over to him. She made the mistake of blinking and at that moment, a small pool of water was sent her way.

"Gah!" She yelped and looked down to see that her shirt was wet and the bra she just recently put on can be seen from her damp shirt.

"Light blue…it suits you very well, Tia-chan." Issei said with a wink and she blushed madly while crossing her arms over her chest.

"D-Don't look! It's embarrassing!"

"Ah, but Tia-chan you look very cute like that."

"Issei-kun—gah!" Getting splashed once more, she gave an annoyed look at him who smiled gleefully.

"Don't get distracted so easily. If you want to succeed in using your powers, you need to keep a calm head. The power over water requires someone with enough willpower to guide the flowing rapid to whatever direction you want it to go." Propelling another blob of water at her, he was impressed to find that the velocity of the water slowed down a bit. But, ultimately Tiamat was only able to dodge a little of it and in turn got splashed once more.

For the next few minutes, Issei continued this process over and over again—much to Tiamat's not so hidden ire. Whenever she tried to fully dodge the attack, he would increase the speed of the attack to counteract her evasion maneuvers. However, overtime he noticed that his attacks were getting increasingly slower and Tiamat noticed this which fueled her to keep on continuing the task. The whole kitchen was soaked and he didn't hide his chuckles whenever she slipped and fell on the ground while cursing profusely at the inanimate floors.

"Come on, Tia-chan. I know you can do better than this. How about I make you a deal? If you can do this and survive the training for today, I'll let you sleep with me tonight. How does that sound?" Issei asked with small smirk as he swirled a ball of water in the air.

"Really?" She asked in surprise as some indecent thoughts filled her mind, but she quickly banished them. Either way, that didn't stop the blush from rising to her pearly cheeks. He nodded his head and a determined look appeared in her eyes. Taking a stance, she looked at him with a hardened look in her eyes.

"Bring it on, then." Issei sweat dropped at the sudden change in demeanor at the mention of her sleeping with him. Huffing in amusement, he threw the ball of water at her at a slightly increased speed from his other ones. Noticing her pointed look, she gave at the oncoming attack and also how her blue-green eyes flashed brightly for a second, he wasn't surprised to find the water attack to stop just inches away from her face. Smiling to himself, he dispelled the remaining water that he had in the air and began to approach the Dragon King.

"Not bad, Tia-chan. See, I knew you had it in y—oh?" Hearing a cracking sound, he slightly widened his eyes as the water Tiamat stopped in mid-flight began to freeze over in ice. Without warning, the ice broke apart and fell to the floor. Looking at the her, he found that she was smiling happily and immediately went up to him with a skip in her step.

"Issei-kun! I did it! I mainly focused on using fire, but now I get the basics of my other powers! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Wrapping her arms around his body, she jumped up and down in glee while he chuckled and rubbed her head.

"I'm proud of you, Tia-chan. Now that you understand the basic understanding of how to manipulate water, it should come much easier. Remember that you need a strong will in order to control water and ice. Speaking of which, nice job on the freezing the water. I hope you know that I'm going to expect much more of you after that little stunt you just did." Nodding happily, she snuggled into his chest even more and now he could clearly feel her boobs pressing straight into his chest. Upon doing so, Tiamat let out a breathy sigh and began to subconsciously rub her upper body into him. That was until she seemed to notice what she was doing and leaped away from him with a reddened face.

"Sorry!" She yelped in embarrassment, but he laughed at her actions before summoning up a small orange flame that had an assortment of colors flickering in it. Before she could notice what was happening the flame expanded until it encompassed the entire room and she closed her eyes reflexively. When she opened them, she noticed that her clothes were dry and the floor was dried up as well. Turning to Issei, she blinked as was already in front of her and grabbed onto her should gently until he teleported them away.

…

"Eh?" Was the first sound she made as her new surroundings became clear to her. The first thing she noticed was that the really enormous room she was in. It was about a thousand meters long and wide as well as having metal plating on the walls that had strange runic patterns on them. Lights lined up on the ceiling and on the left and right sides of the room were a fifty-meter doorway.

"Here we are. Tia-chan, I present to you the training room that you will become quite familiar with. This is where I trained for the past years."

"This place is incredible, Issei-kun. How did you make this?"

"Oh, well it is pretty easy when you can just think of something and then pop, there it is. As you can see this is the training room, the walls are metal that are several meters thick and are infused with sealing magic in order to repair any damage that is sustained to the room. On the left is the fitness room where you will work on your body and the right is a large indoor heated swimming pool for after training. Now I want to assess your abilities, so if you would." Nodding her head, she started to walk away from Issei but before she got out arm's reach from him, he slapped her rear. Giving a girlish cry at the sudden—but secretly welcomed—action, she looked at Issei with blushed cheeks and a glare.

"You know when you make a face like that, it just makes you look cuter. Anyway, I was just helping you get your pretty ass over there; think of it as an incentive to hustle. That is unless you are a masochistic…then it backfired."

"I am not a masochistic!"

"Okay then. So, if I did it again…what would you do?"

"N-Nothing…" She squeaked out silently, but he heard it and grinned at her.

"You're one of those submissive girls, aren't you? I didn't expect that, although it is understandable based on your reaction. Haha, I wonder…" He said with a smirk and took a step to Tiamat, who yipped but otherwise didn't move from her spot. "Just messing with you. Moving on, come at me whenever you are ready. First, we will test your hand-to-hand combat and then your swordsmanship. Finally, we will do your magical power which includes spells and such."

Nodding her head at him, Tiamat wasted no time in sprinting towards Issei. While he could see her movements clearly, it was still impressive to most dragon's agility. Shifting his head an inch to the left to avoid a jab sent his way and then taking a step backwards in order to evade a shot to his midsection. Tiamat didn't seem to want him to get space and thus charged at him while throwing a flurry of punches aimed at whatever spot was open in his relaxed stance. Throughout all of this, Issei would dodge the attacks at the last second which only served to irritate the blue-haired beauty. Deciding to see how one of her punches feel like, he deliberately neglected to evade the hook that was aimed at his face. The moment her fist impacted his face, a loud crack originated from her hand and she hissed in pain while drawing it back to her body.

"Oh…shit…" She cursed in pain, but otherwise took it extremely well. Taking her injured hand, he saw that it was already forming bruises on her skin but those simply disappeared as he applied some healing magic to her hand.

"There you go."

"Thanks…" She mumbled feeling a little dejected at the fact that she practically broke her hand from simply punching him. Shaking out of those negative thoughts, she caught a wooden sword with her hands that Issei conjured up. He too had his own wooden sword and he was already in a stance when she looked at him.

"Alright, let's move on to your next evaluation. This one is simple, just land a hit on me with your sword. Go!" As soon as the last word left his mouth, he was expecting her to charge head-on at him like she did previously only to see that she didn't and instead took a stance while studying him.

'Someone learns fast…' He thought to himself as he decided to take the initiative and slowly advanced to her. His eyes instantly pinpointed areas of weakness in her stance and the small center of gravity she had. Targeting one of her openings, he swung his wooden sword in a lateral fashion to which she managed to block. However, her hold on the block started to lessen so she quickly removed herself from the situation and sent a few fast strike towards his body. Parrying the strikes, he dodged an overhead swing from Tiamat before blocking a follow-up strike from the woman. Laying down some of his own strikes, he started to go forwards as Tiamat was losing ground due to the sudden assault from him. She tried to sneak attacks in the openings that were generated upon his attacking, but he always had some sort of counter when she did that.

Thrusting his wooden sword at her, he ran it along her own sword and successfully got the tip of the 'blade' to her wielding hand. Rotating his wrist in a three hundred sixty-degree angle and giving it a sharp jerk to the side, her wooden sword flew from her grip.

"Wha—" She started to say but stopped due to Issei snatching her airborne sword and placing the two sword against her neck in an 'X', so that her neck resting in between the two blades and one push or pull would slice open her neck. Smiling a bit bitterly at her lost, the feeling didn't last long when Issei smiled at her.

"Good. Now, this next test is easy. Just increase your magic power to the max and do a magic attack."

"Okay." She responded and her blue aura flared to life as it grew to the maximum output that she could handle. Her eyes glowed menacingly and Issei noticed that the temperature of the room dropped a degree or two. He watched her take a huge gulp of air before a large stream of blue fire erupted from her throat and reached the wall she was facing. The slight sizzling of metal was the distinct thing that he could hear and the flames continued to last for about half a minute till she couldn't handle it anymore. Looking at the damage, he was impressed to find that she burned away about half of the thickness of the metal walls although only in one spot. Due to the seals he had implanted, the newly created hole started to repair itself at a quick pace.

"Nice. Well done, I think I can get a feel for what kind of style you may progress fast in. Go into your fighting stance." Doing as she was told, she settled into her stance and Issei started to walk around her slowly. Going to her, he adjusted her arms and elbows so they cover up her head and fixed her hips so they wouldn't cause any decrease in potential damage that she may do. Lastly, he tilted her chin down a bit and finally he tapped on her legs in order for her to widen them a bit. Standing back, he observed his handiwork and nodded to himself in satisfaction.

"How does it feel?"

"Ah, good actually." Nodding at her response, Issei went over to her once more.

"Now if you are fighting with a sword, then you want to keep the same stance but this time have your unoccupied arm tense and ready to attack." Picking up one of the discarded wooden sword he put it in her hand and adjusted her to fit the proper stance. "You focus mainly on speed and quick attacks that still pack a bit of punch to them. Now you can still attack normally with a sword, but now you can use your other hand to hit you opponent. Now, let's go to the fitness room to work on your body."

"I…don't have a lot of magic left in me though. That fire attack took quite a bit more out of me than I expected."

"Magic? No, no today is just training on your body. Tomorrow is when we will begin your magic training. Now, get moving, Tia-chan." He said with a smirk while she gulped at the slight evil glee look in his eyes at the thought of training her.

"Also, don't forget that if you can survive this training, my bed is open for you tonight." Widening her eyes in remembrance, she took off to the fitness while he chuckled merrily to himself. If this is all it took to get her to progress quickly then he isn't complaining in the least. Either way, it benefits both of them at the same time. He can only imagine what Great Red would do tomorrow when she woke up from her sleep.