"200?" Claire guessed, annoyance obvious in her voice.
And Aaron didn’t retreat from making more of it, smirking as he shook his head, pointing a single finger upwards.
"250?" She gave him a blank stare.
"Soon." Aaron smiled, making her stare to falter and eyes to widen.
"W-Wait actually? What the fuc–" She panicked, "What about heavenly restriction!? No universal clauses?! Threshold?"
Confusion was clear on her face and it amused Aaron to no end, "I am above all that stuff." he smirked.
"My foot! If you were above it you would’ve reached 300+ by now." Claire scoffed, making Aaron’s smirk twitch.
He didn’t expect that she would be able to get the maths done so fast, not that it was hard in any way.
She seemed satisfied by his reaction, placing her hands on the bed and slowly crawling towards him.
She was still nude, her body glistening with sweat as she moved like a cat out for a hunt.
Aaron believed that if Claire was born a beasthuman, cat species would’ve really suited her.
Lean figure, sexy style, confidence... it just matched.
Though, he didn’t have the time to worry about those fantasies as Claire had already reached him, placing her hands on his lap as she climbed up his chest.
"So, tell me properly, love." She climbed higher, pressing her palms on his chest, looking at him with a wide smirk that made his blood rush and hormones go out of control.
"Uhm–" he coughed, trying to maintain eye contact but being unable to control himself from her sexiness, "My 10x became 5x, kind of."
"Oh?" Claire hummed, sliding her hand on his naked chest, "That’s so bad. So what are you at right now, hmm? 245?"
"Yes." he nodded, feeling lost in the intensity of her deep, blue eyes.
"At level 10?" she smiled.
"Yes."
Claire’s sexy smirk twisted into a scowl, summoning a huge amount of force against his chest which sent him stumbling backwards.
He was caught off guard, not expecting to get thrown away as he flailed his arms in an attempt to grab the bed and stop.
"You–" was all he managed to speak out before his instincts took over, with both arms he clutched the bedsheet, pulling it as hard as he could to prevent himself from falling off the bed.
"Oh shi–" Claire yelped when the bedsheet was pulled from under her knees, making her fall backwards on the mattress, while Aaron managed to slide himself to a stop.
His head was hanging off the edge, just a little more and he would’ve gone tumbling down.
"Why would you do that?!" he cried out, feeling wronged.
"Ask that yourself!!!" Claire snapped, "You bastard, you broke through the fucking heavenly restriction at level 10, and you have the nerve to cry?!"
Aaron gulped, "It’s not that, but I didn’t think something like that would exist." he replied with a sigh, releasing the bedsheet from his grasp and sitting back up.
Claire did the same, kicking up her leg before jerking herself upright in an instant, as if she never fell.
"Of course, it does, duh." she scoffed, "If it didn’t exist, many high level rankers would have been destroying planets with their punches or something."
"Are they that powerful?" his eyes widened. Of course, he knew that they weren’t strong enough to destroy planets.
But the way she compared them, they must be at a sufficient strength that if they were given a chance to, they could.
Claire sighed, "They can even clear impossible labyrinths, love. Tier 0, as we call it. They’re no joke."
Aaron gulped, feeling dread just by imagining such a scene. He had no clue how strong they were supposed to be, but considering that even tier 3 were no walk in the park, tier 0 must be impossibly hard.
And tiers only grew exponentially in difficulty, not linearly.
Claire sighed, "I didn’t want you to get entangled in this shit, you know?"
"I am now. There’s no way I am settling at the staircase or the bottom. I need to reach higher, high enough that I can feel secure about the future."
"Do you not feel secure with me protecting you?" Claire stared into his eyes, confidence dripping from her tone.
Aaron looked back calmly, closing his eyes before opening them and flashing a soft smile, "You were defeated by the sanguini quite badly, no?"
Her confident smirk faltered, her mouth parting slightly as she gazed at him with shock and speechlessness.
"I–"
She tried to speak but found herself unable to, it was one of the most embarrassing moments of her life.
She felt ashamed of even thinking that she overdrank so much that she fought. And not only fought, she was defeated too. Ending up in a hospital in a condition where she had to be carried in his arms like a weakling.
Aaron smiled warmly, "Clay," he said softly, attracting her attention, "I am not trying to demean you, love. I am saying that I trust you as my protector, but we aren’t at the level where we can be confident about ourselves. Completely."
Claire nodded softly, registering his words but her mind felt distracted.
Aaron slowed down as well, letting her process her thoughts and arrange them.
After quite a long streak of silence beats, Claire finally spoke.
"You’re right."
That was all she said, biting her lips very subtly, frustration appeared clear on her face as she was too bad at hiding it.
The only way she could hide it was by adopting her mastery over the poker face, but alas, this wasn’t a time to be so... defensive.
There was nothing to feel defensive about, no need to hide. But, she did feel slightly worthless.
"Cheer up." Aaron chuckled as he pet her shoulder, running his palm over the shoulder blades, making her breath hitch slightly.
"I have an offer for you, would you like to join me in a nice, warm bath?" He grinned widely, making her chuckle softly.
"You know," She smirked, "If I were to ever say no to that offer, I will let you call me your toy."