Lia strode toward the weapon racks and picked up a sword. It was fairly new and pretty much unused. She picked it up and began haphazardly swinging it through the air. After a few swings, she frowned. She had deduced that the sword felt off balance and was nearly impossible to use.
"Hysteria. Come here." Lia spoke in a sisterly, seemingly caring tone.
Hysteria unsheathed herself and quickly turned into her humanoid form, leaving Sisha speechless.
Hysteria swiftly grabbed the mediocre sword from Lia and carefully placed it back. She spoke in a childlike tone and was clearly annoyed. "No. No more swords. You have two, and that's more than enough."
Lia sighed. "Fine fine. I'll just wield you, but you're going to have to seal most of your abilities for this fight."
She smiled and said: "Okay!", with an almost gleeful expression. Saro interrupted their conversation.
'Ah. Well, that's not great. Hysteria has developed a curse called: "Jealous weapon". Other swords will feel strange and oddly off balance. They'll be much more difficult to use.'
Lia mentally nodded as she drew Hysteria and walked onto the makeshift arena. "Sorry Shino, I think my weapon has developed a curse. She doesn't like me to use other swords anymore."
He chuckled. "That can happen with sentient weapons. It's not entirely uncommon, most of the time it can be removed. Yours has much more personality than the others I've seen though."
Lia nodded as she swung Hysteria a few times to loosen her muscles. "Let's get started. I assume you're on offense first."
Shino nodded and Lia entered her sword stance. It wasn't anything like Shino's. She just kind of stood there, entirely relaxed. Her sword was held in one hand and hung low, pointing at the ground. She took a deep breath as Shino moved forward, swinging his sword down at his signature 45° angle.
Lia swung Hysteria, and the blade moved fast, colliding with Shino's sword. With the utmost precision and relatively effortlessly, Lia parried his swing. The parry left his body almost entirely open, and she swiftly moved her blade into position and thrust it toward his stomach.
Lia's eyes were unable to follow the exact movements, they were simply too fast. Somehow, Shino had twisted his body to avoid the thrust. Looking to her left, the sword was moving toward her, almost in slow motion. It was a horizontal slash.
Reflexively, Lia reached toward her back, drawing the blood-red katana. It was drawn swiftly and blocked the slash. Shino jumped back, and Lia looked at her left hand holding the katana.
"Are you a dual wielder?" Shino spoke with curiosity. He didn't seem to be phased by her sudden burst of inhuman speed.
Lia looked at her hand for a moment longer. "Err....no, I've never done anything like that. Drawing it felt almost like a reflex. I don't intend to use two swords. I like to keep an open hand in case something unexpected shows up."
Shino nodded. "Extremely well-trained swordsmen sometimes carry an extra weapon for situations like what we just saw. In rare cases, the body will react on instinct alone and use the extra weapon regardless of training. You should consider using two weapons. It might fit you better. I can tell your red sword is much lighter than Hysteria though, so, as is you'd probably feel very unbalanced."
Lia nodded. She could tell that much. The blood-red katana was emitting a slightly red pulsating glow when she resheathed it.
Shino continued. "Well, your defense is pretty impenetrable, so I'll go ahead and test your offense." After finishing his speech, he entered his sword stance.
Lia stretched a bit, swinging Hysteria in wide arcs, and rolling her shoulders. She smirked and lunged forward. Her feet didn't touch the ground as her wings flew her toward the instructor with the speed that an above-average human would find impossible to match.
Her sword was moving straight down, and Shino moved his blade to intercept. His eyes widened when the trajectory suddenly shifted. It was almost too fast, and Hysteria was thrust toward his lower abdomen. Thinking quickly, Shino moved the hilt of his blade into position and flicked his wrist.
Lia was caught off guard as the attempted follow-up to her feint was deflected by the hilt of his weapon. She used the horizontal momentum Hysteria had gained to perform a roundhouse kick.
Shino brought his left arm up, bracing for the kick to land while inwardly smiling. He had deduced that Lia Darkova was indeed a rare sight. Her battle thinking and quick planning were beyond anyone he had ever seen for that age group.
The kick landed with a heavy *Thud* against his forearm and shoulder, and he leaped back afterward. "Alright, yeah you're not gonna fit in this class. Honestly, I'm not sure you'll fit in next year's either. I'll have to test you again if that's alright."
Lia nodded. "If you ever have any free time feel free to find me for a spar. I feel like I could learn a lot by merely sparring with you."
Shino nodded. "If I have the time, I'll do that."
Lacey was cheering on the sidelines during the whole fight, and Sisha looked somewhat embarrassed. Lia saw the two of them and shook her head as she approached. It seemed like, although she and Saro had effectively shoved Lacey into a life of fighting, she still held a lot of her original personality.
Saro thought that with time, she would lose some of her softness and become much more like her, like Saro. She had seen it before. The more people she was forced to kill and the more deadly situations she was put in, then the more her mind would be forced to adapt. She could only hope that it would happen at a natural rate. She'd seen what happens when it doesn't. A lot of people don't end up sane after that kind of situation.
She kept this much to herself though, she knew Kova would understand that line of thinking. They were like identical twins in a lot of aspects. However, Saro didn't see the need to tell her. Nothing could be done about it, so why bother?
.....
Lia looked at the two other girls. "So, where should we head next?"
Sisha seemed to think for a moment, and Lacey nodded. "I kind of want to go sign up for the summoner class."
Lia nodded. Currently, she has only signed up for two: the "War", and "Time, Space, and Soul" classes. She wanted to have six for sure, five at a minimum.
"Perhaps we should go check out forging first. I have some extremely strong weapons, but it'd still be a relatively nice skill to have. It could give me an idea about this other sword. Checking out the adventuring class wouldn't be a bad idea either." Lia spoke her thoughts. Sure, the summoning class would be interesting and definitely worth taking. However, she wanted to see some of the others before deciding on a skill she may never end up using.
All three of the girls nodded to each other before heading to check out their next elective.