4-07: Tournament Training I

'Should I bring my armor?' Veronica asked to herself, gearing up for some training. She had on some light, form fitting clothing, and her axe by her side.

"Well, that depends on the training. Though, overall, I would suggest wearing armor so you can get used to the weight of that."

Veronica nodded, agreeing to Lilith's idea, and put on her armor, finally leaving her room. Sadly, she was the only person left in the apartment, so she had no one to say goodbye to.

Cassidy was out practicing her own magic with proper trainers. Aviris was going to a Liafi to get her blades maintained. Eleanora was having lunch with her sister. And Tisha, since she was a teacher, had papers to grade.

So, Veronica was going to be alone for her training. She sighed, and left the apartment, going outside to test her mettle on some training dummies.

It was a bright sunny day, perfect for some training. The dummies were close by, in a small little training yard. Even with the amount of students who were training themselves for the same reason, none were here.

At least Veronica wouldn't look stupid in front of strangers while practicing.

She did some basic stretches and then went to attacking the dummies. Though, there laid one key issue. The dummies don't fight back. So, what could she do? It's not like she had a training partner readily available.

"You training?" A voice came from behind her.

Veronica turned around to answer the voice but could help but linger on her appearance.

The girl, or perhaps young woman, was as tall as Cassidy, if not slightly taller. Her fair skin was excentuated with the dark clothing and light armor she wore. There happened to be a sword and something else that was hard to make out on her back. The woman had short light brown hair and hazel eyes.

"Uh, y-yeah. Trying to get whatever practice I can for the tournament. Hard to do when the... things you're practicing on don't uh... fight back." Veronjca chuckled nervously.

"Haha! I know! If only we had training dummies that gave even fake movements. Want some help?" She asked with a smile.

"Yeah, sure! My name's Veronica. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Seraph, it's nice to meet you too!" She responded, taking Veronica's hand to shake it. "Now, let's get started." Seraph said, moving back a bit and unsheathing her sword, readying it.

Veronica breathed, and quickly wondered to herself on whether or not she should, but since she already accepted Seraph's offer, she may as well.

So, Veronica charged at Seraph, and before she knew it, Veronica was on the ground, axe a few feet away from her. She didn't even have the time to process what happened.

"Fiest step, don't rush towars the enemy. Slowly close in unless you're certain you can beat them quickly." Seraph started giving advice while offering her hand to help Veronica up.

"Right. That was fast." Veronica responded, taking Seraph's hand and standing back up.

The two stepped away from each other and went back into their combat stances, ready for another go.

This time, Veronica approached slowly, and was thusly immediately grounded once again.

"What was that about not rushing your opponent?" Veronica questioned.

"Your guard was sloppy. So I took advantage of it." Seraph continued to advise, picking Veronica up off from the ground.

In their spots once again, Veronica tried to keep her guard up and approached slowly. She finally saw an opening in Seraph's defense and went in for the attack! Only for Seraph to use the shape of Veronica's axe, and her own sword, to her advantage, locking the sword in the crevice between the hand and blade of the axe, and threw it out of Veronica's hands. And then promptly put Veronica on the ground.

The two continued their sparring session, Seraph giving advice whenever and wherever she could. But Veronica still couldn't get a single... anything in her! Seraph wasn't just good, she must've been one of the best.

Veronica kept trying over and over, and even thought that at this point, she should just use Charm on every opponent.

'Wait... my skills! Let's see if I can put her to sleep.'

Veronica closed in and got into a bind. She quickly tried to use her sleep spell, but she was, surprisingly, too slow to use it, and ended up on the ground again.

"That was good thinking, Veronica. I have to admit, you almost got me there. But you we're just a bit too slow." Seraph played off. Veronica wasn't close at all!

One more try. The two got back into their positions and readied for another round.

Veronica went in low, to swap up her usual. This was a good start, until Seraph kept backing away and sidestepping around the place.

Needless to say, Veronica's plan was worthless if she didn't know what to do. And her minimal thinking, once again, put her on the ground.

"What were you even trying to do there? I thought you were going to go after my legs there, but you never really did anything." She was left standing there, scratching at her head.

"I don't know either. I just thought I could get to you by getting in from below... Can we go one more time? Maybe conrinue tomorrow later as well?" Veronica said, trying to think of what she was supposed to do.

"Sure thing. I've got nothing else to do anyways." She answered with another smile.

Right, one more try. It was getting late after all. So, one more shouldn't hurt.

The two returned to their positions one last time. Combat positions ready. And they went at each other.

Veroncia tried to start off with a feint, but, even though Seraph initially fell for it, she was still able to block the real attack.

Throughout this whole fight, Seraph hasn't attacked a single time. Allowing Veronica to keep swinging. Her unrefined movements being the main thing leading to so many defeats.

Veronica went in for another attack, but not only did she over extend her attack, but Seraph early dodged it with a sidestep. Veronica's last line of defense was to block against Seraph's incoming attack! However, it came down too quickly for Veronica to react time. Meaning, she was on the ground, again.

"Hm... alright, so, we'll need to work on refining your combat style. If only you used a sword, then I'd be able to teach you better. Perhaps later, right?"

"Maybe. Depends on if my skill allows it."

"That's true. Well, it's starting to get dark. Wanna call it a day and continue this tomorrow? At dawn, perhaps?"

"Yeah. That'll be good. More training, the better."

The two laughed a bit before giving each other a firm handshake and going their separate ways.

Veronica wanted to get back home quick, otherwise Cassidy might be a little bit upset.

Finally back, Veronica opened the door and was met with... calmness. Everyone was just doing their own things.

"Welcome back, Ver!" Cassidy greeted from the couch.

"I'm back! I'm going to go take a shower, any one need to go first?"

"Nope, we're all good, I think." Aviris responded, as everyone was doing just fine.

Veronica nodded, put away her gear and took a shower.

After her shower, she ate Eleanora's cooking, which was fantastic, then went to sleep, while a princess and Cassidy snuggled with her.

She was surprising comfortable with all these girls. Maybe she should get a bigger bed...