The scar across his neck and throat was a dull, yet livid purple. It leapt out to Clash's eyes as he discarded his metal armor chestpiece, leaving the leather padding beneath it. After that, he removed some of his leg armor, leaving the knee and shin guards, and snapping off metal coverings for his boots. Clash was no good at age, but even she could tell the man's hair had gone prematurely grey, a grey that matched the steel-like blue of his eyes. Consulting a wall, he eventually removed a broadsword; the weapon still seemed small compared to Clash's massive length of deadly metal.
"Normally, I'd ask you to go through an exercise, but it strikes me that you are moreso a woman of action and learning on your feet. I can do both, fortunately." The somewhat de-armored knight settled into a combat stance. "Let's leave out those auras my niece told me about, just for now. Otherwise, attack me."
"Take him as seriously as you would fighting me, Clash! Heck, more!" Athena said, sitting on the ground nearby, carefully balancing twin buckets of water attached to a rod laid across her shoulders. Even talking made it jiggle, and she sucked air in through her teeth.
"Okay, sure thing! Get ready!" Said Clash, raising her sword and holding it in the ready position. She was dressed in a red t-shirt and black leggings; her hair was in a loose ponytail. She looked more fulfilled, much less the awkward scarecrow she'd once been. The time here with Athena had been everything she'd hoped for and more. Her pupil narrowed as she shifted her hips and swung.
The first blows weren't quick, but they were steady; Clash hammered the gap multiple times before she swung from her opposite side, the length of killing metal hurtling in a black arc. She was putting oomph into her attacks, and with her reach and range, looking to batter the grey knight's defenses.
She seemed to be doing well for herself...for the first minute or so. He was staggering a bit, the hits being blocked but the impact rattling him.
Then Clash found her blows were not impacting with the same OMMMFFFFPHHH. She was still hitting, but the man's stance and blade were shifting, ever so slightly, blunting the attacks. That continued on for another two minutes.
And then she found she wasn't even hitting at all. Her sword blows were deflected or just avoided entirely, and unlike Aggie, who did dodging with lots of flips and dramatic movements, the older knight barely moved at all. If she didn't see the focus in his eyes, she'd swear she was being toyed with.
It was different than Ko. Ko was also a blade master, but she was all about advance, aggression, close ranks and crack heads. Clash wasn't sure if the man could also blunt Ko's offense if she was here. Maybe. She'd just met Sir William, Knight-Valiant Of The Realms, an hour ago.
"Hmmm. You've been forged by some real battles, I can tell. Yet there's still a lot of excess movement...though you are better at guarding your openings then the average berserker." He barely sounded winded.
That was when Aggie threw the rock at him, even as Clash swung.
William Ward snapped up a hand, grabbing the stone and dropping it even as he deflected Clash's blade into the ground, still with one hand. The man's battle awareness was astonishing; it was pretty clear he'd told Athena at some point to throw the rock on purpose.
"Okay, hold." William said, dropping his sword and rubbing his wrist. "Not as young as I used to be...You hit with immense impact despite your slim frame. How fast do you heal, may I ask?"
Clash blinked confusedly at Aggie, before she knelt and tugged her sword out of the floor. At the question, she brightened, smiling a sharp smile with her blade across her shoulder. Her blood was a little up, and her eye was bright.
"Thanks! You're pretty fast- that's neat! I heal quick." She glanced at the arm holding her sword; the surgical scars running across her had faded to nothing but marks. She mostly just wore her eyepatch for the look. "Minor wounds don't really bother me, and whatever doesn't kill me, I can usually fight through. I actually think I heal better if I'm fighting a lot..."
"My sword heals too, actually. All it takes is a night, and then- poof! Good as new!" She said, holding out the blade one-handed and smiling fondly at it. "I never get sick, either. I just burn it out, the same with a poison or a curse."
"So. Modification." William said.
"From birth. Like, total birth."
"I see." William said. "All right then. Athena, something to restore her vigor, could you please?"
"Yes sir." Athena headed over to a chest and began poking around. William winced, and caught himself before he stumbled.
"Clash? Can you come over here, please?" Athena said, fishing some mushrooms out of a bag when the girl did so. "You need to chew these thoroughly."
Athena lowered her voice. Clash was vaguely aware that the older man was putting his armor back on.
"He's cursed. He can't take his armor off for long without starting to get sick and weak. He wanted to be a knight, and well...that was the downside to getting to be one. And as he's gotten older, it's gotten worse. Just so you know."
"Oh... Oh. That's awful, I'm sorry." Clash muttered, in between bites of mushroom. She smiled at Aggie before turning back and holding her sword at her side, waiting for Sir William to re-armor himself. While he did, she jangled her chain and then looked up, less excited and more grave.
"Uh... Yeah, I was engineered for War. They used magic and science to make me a killing machine. I think I was really good at it... But anyway, my Aura is only the most obvious part of all that. You can probably see, but all my actual training was either by myself or patchwork from others. I'm not a berserker, though! Uhm... Most of the time. When my blood starts boiling it gets hard not to break everybody, but that hasn't happened in awhile."
"...Disgusting. Er, not you, young lady. Just such a process. Ignore this old man, he has his ways and likes them dearly, and I don't like the sound of that. Process. If only because it snarls potential. Why be a machine of death when you can be akin to a force of nature? Anyone with a blade can butcher meat. But no matter, no matter. I just need to get a full measure of how you act if I'm going to give you some lessons. Where you are strong and where you may be weak. Now then...attack me again. All out. Like I'm your mortal enemy. You hate me."
William closed the helmet, sliding some metal into place.
"In the Honorbound garb, I can endure it. And I will not tire. I need to see when you reach a level where even you cannot fight any more. Even if it lasts into the next sunrise."
"He ain't kidding. I fought him for two hours straight and literally keeled over, unable to move. He didn't even seem to break a sweat. Though that's also due to this place being his turf. It's set up for this sort of stuff. If you two walked down the road a mile, things would be different, but that's training for later."
"Athena. Grip strength training."
"Yes, sir." Athena headed over to a set of bars and began doing a salmon ladder routine.
"If that's what it takes, then I'm ready! We might be here awhile, but I'm ready!" Clash said, delighted. She gripped her sword and gathered herself before coming in like a wave, her enormous blade a bolt of lightning as it cracked and snarled against it's opposite's metal. She kept her aura from activating, but still attacked ferociously.
She would never be truly quick; Her sword was too much to move fast, other than in swings. But her stamina and her dexterity with the blade made up for it, as she chained together blows, switching in thrusts and overhead chops when she needed to. She stabbed, the tip of her sword slapping the ground before she hauled it up hard with her shoulders.
Clash attacked and blocked, circled and fought; she whirled on her heel and brought her sword through with bone-crushing force, hard enough to rattle the weapons on the walls. She threw out a pommel strike and then reversed her grip, the black sword swinging like a pendulum before she brought it down again.
Later, after many more blows and cracks in the floor, her eye was glowing; around her, it was warmer. Brief flashes of fire backlit her throat, and she was sweating. She was still unbowed; her breathing was heavier, but her shoulders were still pert, and she didn't seem tired at all.
"-All-out All-out?!" She asked excitedly, the air around her crackling like baking tinfoil.
"...yes."
"UH oh." Aggie said. Even SHE was uncertain if her uncle could handle this. Maybe if he was ten years younger...
Better get some sleeping gas just in case.
Clash's aura sprang to life, the angry red energy flowing around her knees in a large circle and bathing her in it's light. Her sword burst into roiling flames, the tongues of fire crawling up it's edges. The light of her own internal flames made her look almost demonic, even as she braced herself.
"Okay!"
The chain rattled and shivered as the blade grew great and bigger; Clash hefted the burning sword up, her grin huge.
"OKAY!"
The impact of the first blow made the walls shake, not just the weapons. Clash wielded her sword the same even at it's larger size, and threw out strike after strike that would've cleaved through houses. Cuts from retaliatory wounds bubbled and hissed, the blood sizzling in droplets along the ground; Clash swung, her aura burning before her sword grew sharper. Sharper and more on fire.
...To his credit, the Knight-Valiant held out for another twenty minutes before his sword broke. The next slash sent cleaved metal flying.
"CLASH STOP! DONE! ABORT! ABORT!"
"...interesting...disable...makeup..." William said on the ground.
"HAAAAAAAAAA- oh! Sorry! Okay! Sorry!" Clash said frantically, her aura sizzling off like a grill shut down; Her sword shattered down to it's normal size, although her eye kept glowing. "I'm in check, I'm in check! I just... You're so good at this, Sir. I just wanted to tire myself out faster... are you okay?"
"I guess you can... Uhm, see the point where I start to lose it. The longer I go full power, the harder it is to turn off..."
"You cut through my armor. That has not happened in...a considerable amount of time." The old knight was back on his feet swiftly and without effort. "So, that is what happens if you invoke power."
"...One can work with this. You should probably also go see Valse, spend a few weeks with him, but not yet. There's immense potential in you, and I want to draw it out. I'm getting too old to venture out and save the world any more. So the more I can make other people do it...
"You talk about being a killer, but it is not difficult to make an opponent fear death. I would like to make your opponent fear YOU. Because in some ways, the greatest victories are the ones where no one fights.
"But, I can see you wouldn't much care for that, so...I'll also teach you the very best ways I know to introduce someone to a blade until they stop being an issue."Ino
"How long do you think that will take, sir?"
"...eight months? Fourteen if we take a more relaxed pace..."
"Well Clash, it's up to you. I have noticed you can get a little antsy, but I'm telling you its worth it. You think I'm a half-decent swordswoman, I just got three months of training with him."
How things change. Clash suspected three years ago, had she managed to actually knock down a supposedly invincible warrior, it would have prompted rather...negative reactions. Here, she was being offered lessons on how to knock him down even easier. And she suspected that if he HAD reacted that way, Athena would have sided with her and dropped the obedient respect she showed. Though him reacting that way said a lot why she showed him such deference.
"I'd be honored! I want to learn whatever you'll teach me." Clash said eagerly, still feeling a little guilty for unloading on Sir William. "I need all the training I can get. I mean, I do okay with what I have-" she grinned. Her eye flicked to Aggie. "But I could be better, and I need to be. I'm really grateful just for all this..."
"I love killing, but I don't want to just clear the fields. I want to make a real difference! The others- The ones I'm going to be fighting have way more experience and skill than me. I think that if I can't beat them, then I won't be able to free them." Clash said, wiping her face with her shirt's hem.
"I don't know about saving the world, but I know I want to try and do some good. Especially if I get to fight enemies!"
"When can we start? Or are we going to keep fighting? I'm ready!" She said, happily raising her sword again.
"Ah...enough for today. These old bones can't go on and on like they used to..."
"UH oh." Aggie said.
"Tomorrow, I think we'll just test your general endurance limits."
"...Hope you like running in mud with your legs chained together, Clash."
"And you can join her for some refresher courses, Athena."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."
-----------------------
"I double-checked just to be sure, Clash, but...yeah. I can't go back with you. Even if I hadn't ruffled so many feathers...I'm being watched like a hawk, AND well...going back would be testing my luck, our luck, in a lot of ways. Gambling was never my strong suit.
"But, I didn't spend all the time you were being trained idle. I might have hit my limits when it comes to magical learning, but fortunately, you don't need a spark to make an Emotion Engine. Just the will, and the way."
Aggie produced a large box with a smile...which she tried to open dramatically.
Which failed. The lock was stuck.
"...AND THE WAY."
Second try, same as the first try, Aggie spent a minute struggling with the box before she finally slammed it down on a table, finally popping the semi-stuck mechanism open.
"I swear if it's empty...no, good."
Inside were two items. A metallic black gauntlet, and what appeared to be some kind of metal box that was slightly smaller.
"I didn't name it. You can. Try the gauntlet on. Should fit near perfectly." Athena said. "Your whole fighting style is big, wide, sweeping...the gauntlet will help you out a bit if someone somehow gets right up in your face and your aura isn't enough, whatever rare chance THAT might happen. You can use it to block. And smash someone across the face if need be. It's pretty tough...might not hold up to something like Pteron biting down on it as hard as he could, but still, pretty tough.
"And this, is for any time that you want to hit something and for whatever reason running up and introducing them to your sword isn't an immediate good idea."
Athena slapped the boxy object on top of the gauntlet, and it unfolded like a flower, pieces snapping into place to unfold into a mini-crossbow.
"Only has four shots, but it self-loads and turns any metal put on it into ammo. Like, normal metal. I wouldn't fool around with fancy stuff, might break it. Fire by flexing your wrist down. It has a LITTLE course correction, but only a little. Nice sharp little bolts, has a range of about eighty yards, pierces through some armors...it doesn't hit with much impact though. Consider it jabbing someone with the end of your sword from very far away. And trust me. Very few things can just ignore you shoving something pointy into their eye. Or throat. Or genitals."
"Aw... I know, I guess I just hoped something would magically happen and it would be okay." Clash said wanly. "Last year was really special for me, and you were a big part of that. I know some of the good was because neither one of us really knew what we were getting into, but... I don't know, I just wish you weren't right..." She frowned.
When Aggie pulled out her labors, it was like someone had flipped a switch; Clash smiled wide before she gasped with joy and slipped the gauntlet on. She clenched her fist and then waved her fingers while her eye widened.
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!! Oh my-" she gasped, delighted. No one knew her better than Aggie. Carrying and using a shield would've been cumbersome and off-balanced her, as well as actually making her less lethal; Aggie had given her one that took nothing from her- if anything, just made her more dangerous.
Slotting the box-bow onto the gauntlet, she sighted and aimed at the wall, before turning it and looking down at the sharp metal points. They mirrored her happy smile. The idea of utility and suddenly having options other than Sword Them To Death nearly made her giddy.
Undocking the crossbow, she reached out hugged Aggie tightly. There were many layers to it; Being grateful for the gifts, thankful that Aggie was her best friend, happiness that she'd come so far, and an undertone of sadness she pushed down again, as she had every time she realized it was getting closer and closer for her to leave.
She'd cross that bridge when she came to it.
"Thank you, Aggie! You're, you're really the best. No, no, no- what's better then the best? THAT'S you!" She crowed, smiling down at her and glancing at the gauntlet again, like a kid with a new toy. When she let go, she looked pensive.
"I mean it, though. You're the best sister I could've ever asked for. I love you!" She said, grabbing her sword and hefting it up, admiring the play of light on the armor's surface. "I can't wait to punch some evil jerks right in their dumb faces!"
"I'd say the same, but then Sunny and Cypress would complain. So, uh...you're in good company? Grand company, really." Athena said. "Though that reminds me...
"Once you get back, the processes will have been finalized...you'll be adopted into the family. Just in case you needed any more motivation. But don't let that stop you from making any new friends. Or taking any risks. That ain't you, and a Clash that ain't Clash is...I don't know. Clsh? That sounds suitably weird.
"Whatever happens, this will always be your home, if you want it to be."
Clash hugged her again; Everything she wanted to say was caught in her throat, so she just did the best she could.
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