It was November 28, 2021. At this point in time, there stood two people opposite of each other.
One was a 17 year old teenager boy and the other, a full grown adult woman.
Their was no protective equipment, but only wooden weapons. The woman held a large strange looking spear. It had had a spike at the tip of it, but somewhere below the metal, there was a strange small scythe-like blade. Of course, there was no metal. This was just the design she was used to and it appeared to look like that with some good craftswork.
The boy simply held a wooden shield and a short wooden sword.
To make it slightly more fair and safe, the shield was made wooden although both parties really wished to hold the real weapons.
Although any other person seeing this would expect a win from the spear holder, the woman, Ms. Hibberts didn't at all underestimate the enemy standing opposite of her.
This was a child that grew his strength through blood and sweat. To not encounter one spear wielder and not know how to counter them would be a tragedy for fighters like them. It would mean one more weakness stacked on top of one they may not know yet.
Their gazes landed on each other's slightest movements. The accidental twitch of a single muscle could mean an advantage for the other in some situations.
They stood a mere 5 feet from each other as the woman's spear could reach 8 feet with the length of her arm included.
As they both warmed up before their fight to some extent, they were well-prepared.
The woman swinged her strange spear and attempted to lure a reaction out of the boy, but seeing no reaction, she swung it back around her shoulder into the same position it was before.
At the moment she was swinging around her shoulder, Tashiro advanced forward slightly as if going for an attack.
With the back of the spear, midway through the swing, she stabbed straight to Tashiro's forehead.
With a block, Tashiro tried sliding against the edge of it to stab at her when at some point of time, Ms. Hibberts threw out a kick from the side to Tashiro's waist.
The small time it took for Tashiro to try to block it allowed Ms. Hibberts to fully swing his spear around to slash at Tashiro's neck.
Tashiro blocked with his sword and kept advancing forward, which the woman kept pulling back.
Similar exchanges of Ms. Hibberts attempting to land a hit yet Tashiro blocking it played out to make what looked like a repeated loop. Tashiro fended off any attack of hers with ease, slowly advancing closer and closer even as she tried pulling back.
He eventually stabbed the sword an inch away from her neck hovering before that vital spot as if threatiningly.
Ms. Hibberts dropped her weapon and put her hands up helplessly. "You win."
Tashiro didn't let down his guard before he kicked the weapon away and assured she was truly at a loss.
This caused the woman to laugh. "You did good at the end there."
Tashiro shrugged as he plainly said, "Habit."
He continued, "Also, you're a bit rusty."
Ms. Hibberts nodded in agreement as they walked. "Haven't touched that weapon in, what, almost a decade? What can I say?"
Tashiro didn't respond as he stood in his spot. He had a crazed expression on his face that looked like he was excited and bloodthirsty.
Ms. Hibberts didn't speak anymore and jumped back to pick up her weapon again, wary. She got in a full on ready stance, ready for another battle.
Tashiro was staring at the floor in front of him, heaving heavily as if he went through a huge marathon.
He pulled his head up and stared at Ms. Hibberts with eyes that almost turned red.
He dashed to her and threw down a slash.
Ms. Hibberts wasn't idle as she immediately positioned herself to parry the attack.
As she tried to slide off the short wooden sword, she acutely noticed that both his speed and force increased drastically.
She corrected herself and tried parrying yet another attack, but Tashiro wouldn't have it as he moved into a spot he noticed with a swing of his sword.
Right now, Ms. Hibbert's heart was beating rapidly like an engine as if she was facing a life or death situation.
It really was such a situation as spars in the world they lived in were actually life or death battles that pushed out their capabilities to a certain extent.
That first battle was an obvious warmup.
She instinctively carried out a series of parrys as she sometimes hit Tashiro in certain places on his body.
The attacks were too weak to affect him as Tashiro barged through, making his combination of attacks look completely random as if he was swinging the shield and sword in random places.
He was precisely blocking attacks from attacks that weren't even swung yet. Once one of those attacks were swung out, Tashiro went for a swing to her wrist, but he was still too far from her.
It was another battle of Ms. Hibberts constantly retreating and swinging out to maintain a certain distance.
The problem of facing people who were skilled with long range weapons was that they could constantly throw out attacks and chip away at one's durability or stamina.
They both knew that this couldn't last forever and one of them were bound to fail at one point and it seemed like Tashiro would be that person to fail. With how much stamina he was expending from all of those movements, it was clear to Ms. Hibberts his chances of success.
Yet, despite the amount of time that passed, which was 15 minutes, he didn't stop.
There seemed to be something driving him greatly.
With her lack of physical activity in the past, Ms. Hibberts' arms were starting to get tired. Her pride didn't let her give up again though as the stalemate kept shifting between her loss of the will to continue and Tashiro's limit to his endurance.
They both had no lack of trump cards that could turn a situation like this around, but they were lethal and could kill the other which they tacitly agreed on not using.
Once again she lost when her weapon was broken as it was only wood.
The instant she was surprised by her weapon breaking, Tashiro took the oppurtunity to leap onto her and whack her in the head while sitting on her chest.
She had no lack of close ranged effectiveness, but the whack to her head with the edge of the sword forced her to be dazed. She couldn't help having blurred vision with such sheer force hitting her temple so as she tried to grab him in an arm hold, her motor skills failed her greatly. She missed her grab and got whacked in the head again.
She passed out as Tashiro stood up, instantly turning his head to the right.
He looked like he was sizing up a figure before he suddenly snapped out of his half crazed face. "Master, is that you!?"
He wasn't talking to anyone, though. There was nobody on his right and he was just speaking to thin air.
There was nobody there, yet the air near Tashiro's ear vibrated as it made a series of sounds that formed two sentences. "You did great. Train harder with her since the day will come soon."
Then whatever he was looking at disappeared as the red in his eyes slowly dissipated. He had an elevated expression at first, but then a sudden wave of exhaustion spread over him as he fell to the floor with his limbs spread out like a star.
Not too long after, Ms. Hibberts stood up slowly while rubbing her head with a slightly distressed expression. As her eyes glazed over the place she was in, she instantly recalled how she passed out when she caught sight of Tashiro laying on the floor.
At first, she wanted to attack him as her brain processed him to be a major threat to her life. She almost faced death a moment ago and she remembered it perfectly.
She eventually calmed the quiet sirens ringing off in her head as she went to Tashiro with an expression that was more excited than scared.
To actually beat her, Grey Angel, and do it so overwhelmingly was an incredible feat. Doing it twice was even more surprising, despite her lack of training in recent years.
When she went over to assist Tashiro, she found him with an elated expression as if he arrived in heaven.
She was taken aback at first, but then she reasoned, 'It's likely because he was a given a chance to fight against such a renown figure.'
She couldn't help but nod at the reason in thought.
Catching Ms. Hibberts looking at him, Tashiro instantly tried standing up, but failed with fatigue in his body denying any such actions.
She helped him up as they both looked at each other with excited eyes for a few seconds.
They both spoke out at once as they caught that excitement.
"You're strong!"
"Teach me!"
The one asking to be taught was Tashiro and as Ms. Hibberts was puzzled over it, he continued, "Please teach me and make me stronger!"