Lincoln feels his sweat running down his back. His forehead beads of the salt that touches his lips, and his body screams of surrender, but Stephan is not letting up. He comes at him with one furious swing after another, each with a full extension of his arm. His eyes scream of the bloodlust that he carries within his eyes.
The day begins with him nearly catching up Stephan's movements but the weight behind them tires him quickly. He signals time out, but Stephan ignores this.
A hard thump hits his back. He panics as his back has hit the wall. His eyes grow wide as Stephan's scythe comes down from above. He can hear its screams for his blood, but it misses him wide.
He looks up, his eyes examining Stephan. Time carving a smug smile on his lips.
(He missed on purpose)
Their eyes hold each other's stare and try as he can, Lincoln loses in intensity and making the difference in their skills and their strength apparent. He feels death reaching down his throat causing him to notice Shinyo only after the gush of breeze blows by him.
"You alright?" Shinyo consoles him.
Lincoln does not answer him straight. He only stares at him; his eyes freeze where Shinyo stands. His vision zooms past him as his adrenaline still racing from narrowly missing death.
"LINCOLN!" Shinyo's voice clearer now, shaking him out of his stupor.
"What?!" he snaps, even more when he sees Shinyo is the one shaking him out of his trance-like stupor.
He shakes Shinyo off aggressively.
"Of course, I am alright," Lincoln argues, "I already had him if you had not shown up."
"Were you hit too hard? You were inches away from being murdered!"
Lincoln knows Shinyo is right, and it is frustrating him that he cannot come up with a come back strong enough to shut him down.
He grunts out of bitter frustration and storms off.
"COME BACK HERE YOUNG MAN!" Shinyo, raising his voice.
Lincoln ignores him and continues to take one step after another, but the heat from his piercing stare burns his ears too much that he cannot ignore it anymore. As he turns, Shinyo greets him with a look so wild that it imbues him with darkness that coats him in black. This frightens Lincoln so much so that he cannot stand up straight. His legs shake until both give way.
"HE CODDLED YOU TOO MUCH!" Shinyo starts, his booming voice echo throughout the arena, "SO MUCH SO YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY ATTACK AT SOMEONE WHO LUSTS FOR YOUR DEATH! SO DO NOT COME TO ME AND SAY THAT YOU HAD HIM ON THE ROPES!"
Lincoln wants to prove him wrong. To defend Dirkan's way of training. That it is enough, but he cannot tell him. He cannot even whimper, much more move. He musters every ounce of strength he has left to push himself up and limp away from Shinyo.
"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" Lincoln hears him ask, and before he knows it, after a streak of black catches his peripheral vision, Shinyo stands in front of him. A cowl of black aura coating him. His sudden appearance sends Lincoln's behind crashing to the ground.
"Wh-what is it to you?" Lincoln asks, putting as brave of a front as he can.
"I am going to train you!" Shinyo answers, his voice calmer and the dark cowl that envelopes him slowly dissipating.
"I don't want to!"
"With that performance? You should, otherwise, you would not know how to push back killing intent directed at you and fight back yourself!"
"I was about to!"
"A child to the very core!"
"You could have died several times over already if Stephan was not holding back!" Shinyo adds.
Lincoln's stare follows Shinyo as he walks past him.
"Come fight me!" dropping his trench and throwing away his fedora as soon as he stands in the middle of Center Court, his dark, cross-like sword at the ready.
In spite of the unstable ground that Lincoln stands on as his legs continue to be weak and shaky, he musters all the strength he has to put one foot in front of the other until he is only a few feet away from Shinyo.
Lincoln extends his arms as far as he can, his practice sword in hand.
Without warning, Shinyo attacks. First with a sword thrust. Then, a downward swing follows. He comes one slash after another, Lincoln parries them, barely protecting his vitals from the precise attacks that Shinyo launches.
(All I can do is defend.)
Lincoln's arms could barely hold up against every strike, and each one drains the strength out from them.
(Two more. That is all that is left of me)
And like clockwork, Shinyo deals two more quick strikes launching Lincoln's sword into the air, digging itself into the sand behind him.
(This is it for me.)
This runs through his head repeatedly as the handle leaves his fingertips. He concedes to fate his death with his eyes closed, and his arms spread wide like an eagle, he feels the cold steel of Shinyo's blade fall from above cut him.
He feels the slow trickle of blood run down his neck and onto his chest, but the killing stroke never comes.
Lincoln peeks. One eye pop, then comes the other. Shinyo stands there with his blade hovering just above Lincoln's artery enough for him to feel the gravity of what it feels like to have death's door creak open in front of you.
"That is what it feels to have death right at your door," Shinyo explains, staying his blade back to its scabbard before it minimizes back to the cross that he has normally hanging by his neck.
The awe overwhelms Lincoln enough that he forgets the fear of death that he concedes to. This admiration stems from how Shinyo is precise in his strokes. No wasted movement. Every stroke can kill unlike Stephan's that flails to cause as much damage as possibly can, to tire you. To exhaust you. To embarrass before he decides to land the final blow.
Explosive, but not something that you cannot do anything about.
None of this he admits.
"How do you feel about me teaching you now?" Shinyo suggests, turning his back to pick up his trench and fedora, dusting the sand off them but Lincoln vanishes as he turns around. Without a word. Not even a sound; leaving a trace on the sand that spells YES.
A smug smile carves on Shinyo's lips. His eyes full of delight.
"Impressive," he whispers, admitting to himself.
(He has your gift of disappearing.)
A strong gust blows in from the tunnel sending Shinyo back against the opposite wall knocking him out.
(Lincoln!)