When those azure eyes fluttered awake, she started her search through hazy vision, analyzing the environment she'd been slumbering in for the whereabouts of anyone. Unfortunately, she was alone, for there was only the sound of the fire's crackling accompanied by the orange light formed by the element illuminating her white-skinned face. Exhaling carefully so the breath inhaled could gradually expel out her lungs, Katie pushed her fingers to her chest.
Flashes of a past she experienced long ago she recollected within her mind's abyss, the teachings slammed into her bones, engraved like subconscious instinct within her mind, the same as natural breathing. At the peak of that mountain, the Temple that held the nostalgic feelings of familiarity, she remembered being taught in robes that had no sleeves, legs exposed too.
The sun has barely risen into the blue skies, the Master stepped into the dojo with arms behind her back, the sound of grunting jerking her further awake. Hana tilted her head to the right, squinting, there stood the feminine muscularity of her black-haired student. The Blackened Blade's white grip tightened within her tanned fingers, sweat secreting out each indistinguishable pore hidden on her pale complexion. Her breathing calmed as she sheathed her father's artifact into the snowy cover, grip clicking against the hide with one hand, she took one final exhalation as the blackened steel of her parents' blade hid.
Touching her finger to her chin and analyzing the way that chest that procedurally started that cycle of breathing, Hana watched as Katie tiredly made her way to the corner of the wooden environment. Picking up the water bottle then popping off the cap so she could put it to her lips, the Master began her analysis as her vision switched from that of the normality that humans witness with the naked eye. Everything from her bones to the way her organs moved to the soul within her ethereal being, her eyes widened at the sight of it.
'What immense potential... in just four months, she's trained her body to the ultimate height of human limitation. That muscle strength of her physical form, mixed with her soul's dark prowess, spells out disaster for any enemy she meets in the future.' A single sweaty tear appeared on her forehead to drip down her face, Saiai closing her eyes as her arms uncrossed, elegantly retracting them to her back as they previously were.
"Ms. Karlo. And here I was under the impression you'd gone to bed early last night. How are you, on this fine, winter morning?" Kate turned at the sound of her father's surname mentioned, chuckling lightly, Hana couldn't help but smile the same way she was,
"Heh- you know, my name's not Karlo, Miss. Officially, my last name on my birth certificate is Moon," She replied, turning her back, sorting through her belongings, and scrolling through her phone's feed, exhaling as the timeline of the app started to load... for a minute, "Ugh, fuck!" She cried frustratedly.
"I think it's time to teach you something you're unaware of, yet you witnessed. A fundamental aspect of battling opponents and defending your way of life. The 'Core of your 'Being.' After all, hadn't you wondered how you or the ginger Rivera's able to do the things you do?"
Back in the present...
She couldn't describe it fully, but it was like being stabbed in the chest and crushed under the boot of a dominator, someone obliterating the essence of your soul with just a stomp; unimaginable to think. Despite such a presence, not signature to her white-haired cousin nowhere to be seen, there was something else mixed with it. When she first showed up at her father's front door maybe half a year ago, there was a certain aura pouring off his soul. It made sense to her, after all, her father was an Old World resident and this was his reincarnated soul, just without the Elden memories of what occurred before.
But now it reappeared. This scent, she couldn't help but recognize, either way, she summoned the white sheathe of her father's Blackened Blade, sliding her left leg back- letting the wind whisp her hair back to flow.
"Tch," Simply slashing upright as she unleashed the Blackened Blade from the sheath, a streak of light followed the trajectory of the sharpened steel to the point it clipped at the chin.
Clenching her teeth as she irritably unleashed a grunt of frustration, her hands moved at the speed of sound, forming two blades at roughly normal length. Black hair cut shorter, Blossom took a duo of steps backward, spinning around her swords, so the pointed ends could aim at the ground. Katie couldn't help but turn her head, pointing the edge of the Blackened Blade ahead for energy akin to darker lightning surrounding the honed weapon.
The silence of the room already littered with destroyed furniture had signaled the challenge Blossom had silently brought to Katie's face. For the half-second it took for the Crow's daughter to kick herself off the ground, sprinting ahead leaving nothing but dust in her wake, Blossom gasped. Raising her blades to block the Blackened Blade's malicious intent, she could feel… the katana's grey-shaded sharpness digging into Blossom's dual-wielded weapons.
Cracks formed in the swords to the point where her stabilization wobbled, effectively losing her grip, the blades touched the ground. Katie spun around her waist and kicked at her stomach, saliva riding out Blossom's tongue to infiltrate the air.
"Haven't you ever wondered why you're able to so ably use supernatural abilities only when you collect artifacts, bonding them to your soul? It's because of the life force surrounding the body, granted once obtaining an artifact. The eyes of Scarlet Divergence or Emerald Convergence can manipulate the size of their auras' natural energy into something akin to offensive or defensive abilities. It's something like… transmutation, for them. For you, however, you're more of an 'enhancer."
The Blackened Blade had shined with the moon peeking through the skylight ilium airing the darker steel of the katana, Katie exhaled carefully. Despite the enjoyment of a thrilling battle she experienced within her mind's eye, her face spelled nothing but apathy on her features, for the dark-azure pupils of the young woman… were dead.
'That kick wasn't infused with any energy, but it still felt like a battering ram slamming against my ribs and shattering them to pieces. Did she hone herself to such a peak she hit like a fucking hammer?' Blossom's deductive thoughts erased as the battle continued once she returned to a standing position, raising her hands, clenching her fingers to form two fists.
Even still, with the power of a Karlo in front of her eyes, she dared to challenge her in an inaudible trial of strength. Maybe she needed something real to inform her of how insane she was to even attempt fighting the Daughter of the Crow. And so, the ant would be crushed under the insurmountable stomping power of the malicious human.
Katie vanished in the blink of an eye, her body spinning at such swiftness that her frame turned to a coupling of afterimages. A circular cartwheel was what she'd transformed her body into, the sword, too, spinning with the way she moved her body. Slamming the tip of the blade right down at her face, Blossom's fists blocked the overhead slash. Following that, witnessing the failure of the offensive, Kate kicked off her body and went to normal slashes while continuously rotating her body, dancing on her toes.
Stabbing at the feet, knees defended with hardening her life force; then Kate going at her chest, Blossom stepped back, and kicked at her face. Weaving to the right so just the side of her foot would whisp by her face, Kate threw her katana's grip against the floor. Eyes following this odd direction as it went soaring above, the next thing Blossom knew: she was coughing up spit and dirtying the atmosphere.
'Damn it! She distracted me with the blade and got me when I was looking at it… fucking amateur move. C'mon, Natalia, you can do better than that!'
Kneed in the stomach then getting yanked by the throat so she could pull closer, a headbutt ensued to break the nostrils of the enemy. Katie grit her teeth at the abrupt agony her noggin experienced at just the touch of two skulls slamming, stepping back, she instinctually caught her katana in her hand. Momentarily throwing it into the air to spin it in hand so the pointed could face the ground, Moon swept at the legs and cut at the tendons.
Watching as Blossom helplessly started to descend with a bloody nose and cut tendons oozing more gore from her insides; the finishing touch was a piercing shot to her chest to stab her against the floor while the night roared quietly, going on as morning threatened to rise with every passing second. Mouth wide open, a stream slipping out her lips' sides to pollute the ground below, Blossom could only witness the light beyond. The warmth of the hand of God steadily invited her into his kingdom so she could rest her soul, however… someone had other plans.
"You're one of the ones who fought my cousin, aren't you? But I doubt he fought ya... I don't sense any of his scent on you. If all of you were THIS week, he didn't even need to train for two months. Anyway, Nuff chit chat, where can I find your boss? He and I have a score to settle…"