Sick burn, brah [Hannah/Kokuto]

Exactly as Hannah had wanted him to do, he exerted a mass amount of energy overcoming Hannah's vastly superior spiritual potency, pushing him much closer to exhaustion. What she did not expect was the shockwave when the sub-zero air rapidly heated up by such intense heats. It would fortunately not be lethal, though still crack with a kick like a mule.

"Eesh, are you ok, Kokuto?" Hannah would ask, ignoring the training for the moment, it was hard to listen if you cracked your ribs.

At first, he was confused as to why there was a sudden shockwave. Ice didn't explode when it was heated up, even if it was as quick as it happened. But, then he remembered he was dealing with a Shinigami who could repair his ugly mug like it was nothing, and cast spells that probably could swarm entire cities. It likely wasn't out of the realm of possibility for her to make something like that happen.

Nevertheless, the sudden kickback wasn't exactly a light shove. But, he still had his Devil Steel up, and a loud crack resounded across the training grounds, a sound not too dissimilar to glass breaking as the red energy flared to life again. Innumerable visible cracks were scattered along the shield, with the energy flickering in and out of visibility.

Kokuto held his arms raised to his face, an instinctive move to protect his head and face. He had confidence that it would hold up, but he certainly wasn't going to leave that up to chance. Even with him still having his defenses up, he had still been forced back quite a significant amount, imprints of his heels as they dragged across the ground.

"Yeah. I ain't that easy to take down...but, fuck me if that didn't almost do it."

"A Circumstantial lesson, none the less" Hannah would reply as he was ok enough to comment. "Paying attention to what is in front of you is good, but forgetting what is around you in the meantime can lead to danger. The extreme cold of the ice chilled the air, and even though the ice itself was dealt with, the extremely rapid heating of air molecules made them go from tightly packed to very loose in a heartbeat, pushing the molecules next to them out of the way at high speed, leading to a faux-shockwave"

She'd pantomime it all out, complete with splaying her hands wildly outwards in the explosion. And then turn to Kokuto.

"But seriously. You, are far too aggressive. Just barrelling forward and smashing your head against the thing at a hundred and twenty percent every moment. That is not very effective and not very sustainable. Works decently when against people weaker than you, but equal or stronger will easily attrition you into the ground. It matters not how grand your opening move is; the only move that matters is the finishing move"

In truth, he was only partly listening to her explanation as to why there was a sudden shockwave that kicked like a coked up zebra. He didn't really need it, but, a little science lesson here and there never hurt anyone -- did more than classes did when he was still alive and attended school, after all.

But, when she started delving into criticisms, that's when his attention became more focused. Yeah, he had been pretty aggressive -- but, that was in part due to having to compensate for the range.

"I don't care much about my moves bein' super flashy, I just care about effectiveness and results, that's what matters in a fight. As far as aggressiveness goes...yeah, that's pretty accurate. I'm a wall that hits back like a train. I've been thinking of some modified versions of my abilities to cover more bases and keep people guessing, but, they're still just a working theory right now."

"Mmm. The problem with being a wall" Hannah would say, holding out her arm and obliterating the nearby wall with a compressed blast of air. "Is they tend to become quiet fragile at higher levels"

Hannah would then hold out her hand, softly speak, and begin to heal the wall.

"Build up to your aggression more slowly, as you learn more about your opponent. The irony of a Fire Man burning himself out is amusing, but you will not be laughing when they take advantage of that. All Fuel All The Time is just a waste, and one the enemy can easily take advantage of in several ways"

"I mean, yeah, I kinda see your point, but inanimate objects aren't constantly getting stronger and more durable as time goes on, the opposite happens. The world moves on, the materials erode, shit like that."

He raised an eyebrow at her repairing the wall. How far did that magic of theirs go? Healing people was one thing, repairing destroyed objects was another. His attention quickly turned back to her, however, when she started offering advice. A slow burn, allowing serviceable offense and defense while learning about the opponent.

That...actually gave him a few ideas. He put a hand to his chin, thinking for a bit as she finished.

"Noted. That gave me a few ideas, on top of some other stuff I want to try. Mind indulgin' me and lettin' me try out somethin?"

"It's a metaphor, numbskull" Hannah would reply, pushing her Anima Mea to give him a light donk on the head with her Force. "Eighty percent of the time, scale wildly outweighs durability when you are facing someone of my echelon"

As she was going to show him. Because it was good to see what you were up against in that.

"But yes, certainly. Trying things out is the whole point of this exercise after all"

He didn't react to her bonking him on the head, instead rolling his eyes slightly. Those numbers seemed pretty off, but, that wasn't here or there. He took a few steps away, before the red energy flared up across his body again, activating Devil Steel. He held out a hand, using his power to alter the properties of the ability.

The red energy slowly trailed down his body, focusing at his hand, spreading out across his palm and fingers, shimmering bright and clear. He was more vulnerable than he usually was when he activated Devil Steel, but, by channeling the ability like this, he hoped to be able to center it on a single point, giving it further defensive power than normal, but at the cost of making him more susceptible to attacks with bigger range.

"Alright, I think I've got it down. Hit my hand with somethin'."

Hannah would wait, watching his thing for a moment. And then he asked to hit him, which first made her think to have some fun. But, decided against hitting him with a Musu, and instead just pointed her finger at him.

"Belior Goldoreza" she spoke, shooting a beam of coherent light out of her finger to burn into his hand. And hopefully, it's defensive properties held up against Hannah's raging potency so as not to shoot through her friend. Not that that was a problem, she could practically kill him and still heal him quickly enough. But, still..

He doubted that this was going to be a resounding success immediately. He wasn't even sure how successful this little theory was going to be, but, he still wanted to try and expand on this ability. He wanted to be a sword and shield for the Vandenreich, and if he were to do that, he needed to make sure that what he had were at the best they could be.

So, holding his hand ready, he braced himself for the attack, half-expecting Hannah to send something impossible to defend against. But as it made contact, Kokuto was admittedly surprised that he wasn't blown away immediately.

He could feel the strain against his arm, a tad worried that his wrist would give underneath it, but he kept his resolve and strength firm, not letting it for a moment. He could see cracks slowly forming, but he kept his eye on it for a little while longer, before suddenly throwing his arm to the side, pushing the beam of light away.

For a moment, he held that position, before finally bringing his arm back, and looking at his hand. There were noticeable cracks, and if had held it there for too long, it probably would have broken through. But, the theory had worked.

"Fuck yeah! It works! I was right!"