Wind pushes Aki back, her attempts to keep her ground wasted as she gets dragged over the wooden boards of the sea-faring ship, far out of bounds of the training ring on the ship's forecastle.
Opposite her, Dent expertly spins his sword and holds it with a ready stance. "Do you know what the difference is between us?"
He takes a clipping step forward and sideswipes her, meeting Aki's axe directly and knocking her down without ceremony.
She lands with a thud and yelps. "Uh, you're taller, stronger, and faster?"
"While you're reactive and more flexible. No." Dent frowns faintly and helps her up. "You've shown more than impressive dodging manoeuvres this past week and a half. But your combat style is non-existent."
"Non-existent? But you just said I'm good at dodging. Plus, I've been able to keep up with my axe and cloak." Aki wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, a thin strip of blood .
"I know." Dent steps away from her, resetting their distance to begin training once again. "There is something you and Winter fail to account for."
He steps forward and performs a horizontal slash. Aki's arm twitches, ready to block the attack but stops. She didn't need Precognition to know the sword wouldn't reach her.
Dent returns to form and immediately follows up with another horizontal swing from the opposite direction. Once again, even if Dent overextended himself, his sword would not reach. Still, Aki raises her guard, unsure of what he's doing exactly.
[Gift Activated: Precognition]
Aki feels the mana shift in the air slightly and a swirl of wind collects at the blade's tip. Surprised, she takes a short step back and barely manages to block the spell. The force of the wind throws her arm to the side instantly and knocks her off balance. She spins in the air forcefully to the right from the blowing wind.
(Tactician Lv. 2 - Insight granted)
She follows the momentum and swings her left arm down onto the wooden boards and takes control of her direction. She rolls into the fall and springs up, leaping backward and landing a safe distance from Dent.
"Nice recovery. I see your own form of training is not something to scoff at."
"Well, I was a cheerleader but it's been years since I've done any of that. Muscle memory?" Aki taps her lip, the details of the memory stabbing at the edges of her mind.
[Gift Activated: Precognition]
"Huh?" The vision overlaps dozens of futures with no one more clear than the other.
While seeing dozens of possibilities was normal, at least one option would always solidify as the future became the present.
Dent's foot strikes Aki's chin before she can rationalise. The force of the blow rattles her brain, doubly so as she falls flat on her back against the mat of the ship's training ring.
"...What was that?!" Aki curls in pain and slowly sits up on her knees.
"You rely far too much on your Skills and Gifts rather than your own natural abilities." He turns to look at Winter who is currently stuck in a barrel, the wooden weapons spilling out and over him. "And your confidence is sorely misplaced. You are Winter, but you are not that Winter. That's why you have been unable to best me."
"I was wondering how far games and manga could take me…" Winter groans weakly. He falls out of the barrel and rejoins the training ring. "That can't be the only reason, right? Is it because you have more MP?
"Having more MP is not the end all. Control, understanding, and potential have greater value than arbitrary numbers." Dent disappears, reappearing behind Winter and hitting him with an axe kick.
Winter barely manages to block with shadow magic but Dent doesn't leave it there and strikes at Aki, who dodges the flurry of blows. She doesn't realise Dent lead her to Winter and the two knock into each other once more.
"Skills, Gifts, and numbers only amplify your baseline self." He sheathes his sword and helps the two up again. "Learn to fight without them as well, and the two of you will become extremely powerful in the future. I'm certain of this."
The ship's bell chimes, alerting everyone of the approaching midday. Dent looks up, his thoughts unreadable against his ever-serious expression.
"Our journey nears its end. Take a break and we can resume training in the evening. We can take advantage of these last few days at sea by using all our free time with training. Especially you, Winter, as Cosm Island will be our stop. Whatever your counterpart experienced is surely dangerous one way or another."
"Thank you?" Winter and Aki speak in unison.
"And keep your gear on you!" Dent calls after the hobbling duo.
Exhaustion overwhelms them and the pair use each other as a crutch to walk back to the cabin they'd been using. While at first there was some conflict, the constant training and crew work they'd been doing left them too exhausted to out-polite each other within a few days.
Winter falls flat on the ground as soon as the pair enter the cabin. Aki manages to keep her balance long enough to careen onto the small bed.
"I was worried the Star Sea would take after the RPG when I saw how armed the crew was. But it's been two weeks of mostly peaceful sailing."
"The game you incarnated from? I didn't think it would come this far from Caalcia." Aki's voice is muffled against the mess of blankets. Being in the shadows, however, allows Winter to perceive her voice well enough.
"Yeah." Winter rolls over to face the ceiling, his body spread-eagled to maximise stretching out the muscle aches. "Remember how Winter is a superboss at the beginning of the game and the 9th love interest? It wouldn't be all that fair if you only had one chance to get him."
"That's true. So the Star Sea has something to do with it?"
Winter nods. "Yeah, at one point, the heroine and her party are investigating and end up in Winter's old village. It's overrun by monsters and the land is polluted. You get little story details about Winter's family and how the villagers thought it was their fault everything was getting bad."
Aki holds her pendulum over her head and a gentle, healing light illuminates the cabin with a soft red glow. Then she extends her arm to do it for Winter only to roll off the bed. Still she continues and casts the spell on him too.
"I'm guessing it was the monsters that polluted everything behind the scenes and blamed his- er, your parents." She says after sitting up properly.
"Yeah. For the quest, the heroine has to purify the land. To do that, you have to fight a boss monster in an underwater temple that woke up from the pollution." He shakes his body, aches relieved. Still he remains on the floor, the wood of the cabin quite comfortable even as he turns to lay on his belly. "But since I stopped the monsters and made the village thrive, it shouldn't even be awake."
Winter rolls over again, suddenly nervous. His eyes quiver and his mouth shaped into a pout. Somehow the appearance is strange since the physical body is of a boy but the soul is of a 30 year-old.
Aki arches a brow."What?"
"You don't think an army of Dead that completely isolated the Estril territory counts as pollution, do you?"
"We only ever saw one Drowned…" Aki rubs her wrists. If anything were to happen, then her Gifts would alert her before they happened after all. "So why can't I shake this feeling?"
The ship violently shakes, the wood and metal rattling as if struck by a powerful force. Winter and Aki are flung from their respective spots against the wall. Luckily for them, their recent training prevents a painful crash and they bounce off the walls back to their feet.
Winter chuckles, his awkward smile and scrunched brow clearly displaying the multitude of curses he's telling himself. "Got it. Jinxing things is a totally real and valid thing in this crazy world."