The three of them moved further into the spacious area of this building and Rin looked around in curious awe at how large it was. It was separated into a few quadrants specially designated for each type of Aura or physical types of training. In one section was an obstacle course designed with many different terrain scenarios. Another section was designed with group movement in mind and tactical scenarios. There, squads would hold mock battles against each other to improve their tactical understanding. This leaves the last quadrant to be more focused on personal training of one's combat technique, such as sword skills or fighting styles. This quadrant was the one they found Jae in, who looked more than ready to chew Rin out for taking so long until Shel gave him an irritated look. The man clears his throat but keeps a distasteful expression.
“Alright here’s the deal greenie.” His first words like sandpaper to Rins ears. “I personally don’t like the idea of a recruit being in this base for several reasons. I’ll put them aside though because there’s a due process for everything. The first step of course is to see if the Commander isn’t blind on his judgements.”
“Don’t trust our Commander, Jae?” Trisca asks with a smirk.
“Trust or not I have to test the new people to see where we can put them.” He scoffs. “Don’t get smart with me. The commander trusts me to be his second pair of eyes.”
“How are you testing me?” Rin was ignoring their banter with more focus on what they should be doing.
“A spar. I want to see what you’re made of kid, so I’ll be pushing you. I’ll be coming at you like you’re one of those damn demons.”
“Kraeka you mean.” Shel spoke up right when Rin was about to, clearly upset the man was using slurs about an enemy they still have to treat equally to humans.
“Kraeka. Sure. Call em what you will.” Jae spits to the side and picks up a wooden fencing sword for himself. “What’s your style recruit?”
“Two handed swords.” She takes off her actual sword from her side and carefully hands it over to Trisca before picking up a wooden sword similar to its curvature and length. Her heart was thumping loudly in her ears, nervous to be dueling an Officer. She takes a deep breath, a quick flow of her aura through her body to relax before she exhales. Rin gets into a defensive posture, a style taught to her by her parents. Her eyes lock onto her opponent to wait for his move patiently.
“Her eyes…” Shel leaned over to whisper to Trisca. “That’s a good focus.” She seemed to think for a brief moment. “Hey where have I heard the Kazashi family name from before?”
“The Kazashi family name? It’s not that familiar to me.” Trisca was studying the blade Rin had handed her, various insignias of chrysanthemums carved into the scabbard. She slightly pulled the sword out to reveal that the color of the steel reflected the nature of flames. “This sword is heavy in it’s ornate design though…”
“A defensive stance?” Jae calls out mockingly. “Confidence not that great? We’re a scout base, so I’ll teach you that aggression is needed here!”
The noise Jae has been making has grabbed the attention of some other Hunters nearby. With the crowd gathering around them, Jae launched an offensive at Rin with Wind pulsing around his feet. His approach had terrifying speed towards Rin and she was caught slightly off guard that he was coming at her with the use of Aura, but it wasn’t enough for her to falter from her stance. Rin, In a swift motion of her mind and body, cycles her aura to harden her defense with Earth and brings her blade to deflect his own. The training blades make a loud, wooden thud as Jae’s momentum is shifted and Rin frees a hand to tap his back and push Him to stumble slightly away from her to his surprise and frustration. The crowd around them collectively oohed until Jae glared at them.
“The fighter who acts with underestimation,” Rin quotes her father as she re-stances.
“Is the fighter that falters.” Shel finishes the quote along with Rin in a whisper. “Trisca I don’t think Jae knows he’s dueling a girl from the Kazashi family.” She watches in awe as Trisca looks at her confused.
“Big family on the mainland I take it?”
“Long history of Hunters. Mostly high officers and even generals.” Shel whispers over as the two of them refocus on watching the recruit. Jae resets himself for more combat in irritation.
“Don’t quote one of the old generals like some sort of bookworm!” His expression is a bit more serious as he gets into a stance. “Those demons out there won’t give you a second thought!”
The man repeats his dash again, but his stance for his approach seemed different. He almost seemed to come to a complete stop when Rin parried. Jae dashed back out of range before Rin could make any other move and then re-engaged his opponent. His footwork was quick but time and time again he never made Rin budge from her spot. The crowd around them had gone silent as they watched the duel happen. Blow after blow their wooden swords clacked against the other and Jae grew more and more impatient.
“Fight back like you’re trying to kill me damnit!” He increases the speed of his lunges until Rin finally is forced to make a change in her posture. A small victory to him, he smirked and prepared to feign a lunge so that he could instead kick her.
The feign was successful, though probably not in the way Jae had wanted. The way Rin moved defensively put her arm into a prime position to block his leg, and the moment his leg connected with her arm he began to feel rather drained. There was a brief moment of panic in Rins eyes as Jae’s aura began to feel sluggish and when he tried to retreat Rin changed focus to get on the offensive. Her swings were more powerful thanks in part to her sword being two handed and heavier, so Jae wasn’t able to parry her blows as well. She backed him up more and more until he tried to hop back from one of her blows. There was a glint in her eyes. She found an opening. A gust of wind burst forth from her own feet kicking loose dirt from the mock arena around. It was enough that Jae lost vision of his opponent and before he could prepare a defense once back on his feet, Rin was already stooped low before him with the wooden sword swinging up to his neck.
The dust settled to reveal Rin holding the sword at Jae’s neck. It simply rested there having not really struck his skin in a precise and practiced maneuver. The crowd around them was stunned for several moments before whispers began to spread around. Some of them wanted to cheer but the anger in Jae’s eyes convinced them otherwise. Rin stepped a few paces away from him and bowed before going to set the sword back where she had retrieved it.
“Who exactly is this kid?” Some of the whispers from the crowd had gotten louder as people got more excited. In a fit of anger Jae stormed up to Rin to spin her around and grab a fist of her collar.
“Who in chaos name do you think you are you little twat-“ He didn’t get further into his sentence when a Rin grabbed his arm with intense, aura enhanced strength. She spun Him around while kicking into the back of his knees and planted his face onto the ground to sit atop him, her eyes wide in fear.
“Apologies Sir.” She released her shaky grip from the man, his vision cloudy as he felt drained again.
“What... did you do to me, greenie?” His words slurred as he struggled to even try to sit up.
“I defended myself sir, as if you were an enemy trying to kill me, like how you were trying to teach me.” Rin walked in silence back over to Trisca and Shel, who were quite dumbfounded.
“Let’s get you out of here before you become more of a gossip topic.” Shel said quietly as she watched the crowd begin to hover around Jae as he lay unable to get up from the floor.
Comments (0)
See all