A/N. R+R. Pretty pretty please?

Valkyrie Cain spun round, lashing out a kick. Before she'd even finished turning, shadow knives whipped up and drove themselves into her target. She lunged forward, landing in three elbows and a punch before clicking her fingers to summon fire, which she threw at her opponent.

Valkyrie stepped back, breathing heavily. The fake dummy turned to charcoal.

"I'd say that's quite dead," a velvety voice remarked behind her, as Skulduggery Pleasant looked at the dummy. Valkyrie shrugged.

"I'll just make sure." She teased, and shadows rose, slashing the blackened remains into dust.

Skulduggery made a sound that might've been a laugh. "Yes, it's definitely dead now."

She grinned. "So, are we doing more combat?"

"We can't."

She frowned. "Why not?"

"Because that was the last combat dummy."

She glared at him. "You could've told me that."

He shrugged. "I could have. I chose not to."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "So it's magic then?"

He tilted his head. "You don't sound overly enthusiastic. I thought you wanted to learn magic."

"I do," she replied. "I was just hoping to see Tanith today."

"Tomorrow, I promise," he said as they walked to the other side of the… it wasn't exactly room. It was three times the size of Valkyrie's school gym. One area was for combat, with crash mats, a sword arena and step-by-step instructions on how to do different fighting moves.

Another area had treadmills, benches, and weights. It was for increasing her strength and stamina. Valkyrie hated going over there.

They were heading towards another area. This place had heat-proof mats, a small pool of water to manipulate and some stuff to push around. Fun.

Valkyrie couldn't help but grin as she flexed her fingers, and a tattered old sofa crashed into a wall. She turned around to ask Skulduggery which element they were doing today, and was just opening her mouth when she was hit from behind.

Taken by surprise, she dropped to her knees.

A skeletal hand reached out to help her to her feet. She swatted it away as she stood.

"What?..."

Then she saw that the sofa had moved. She frowned at it, then turned to glare at Skulduggery.

"Did you send that sofa at me?"

Skulduggery hesitated. "Technically, I suppose I did…"

Her glare deepened.

"I was expecting you to block it!" he protested.

Valkyrie scowled at him. "I had my back to it!"

He nodded. "So now you have learnt a valuable lesson. Never turn your back on a dangerous enemy."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, because sofas are such dangerous opponents."

Skulduggery tilted his head, and she just knew that he was smiling. "That one knocked you to the ground."

It took all Valkyrie's self-control not to throw something at him. He chuckled and turned away.

Still glaring, she followed.

A/N So there it is! I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading. Please review!

SapphireShadowgirl