"Such a worthless waste of talent."
Those words struck Layla's heart, the person who she had looked up to all her life suddenly turned against her the moment her enigma was finally made public.
"Everyone becomes your enemy the moment you possess the gift of shadows." Her sister had told her when she was very young. She didn't understand why and even now she still didn't know.
'How can relationships change so suddenly just because of something as measly as an enigma?' She had wondered.
In truth she doubted her sister's words up till the very end, up till everyone began to turn against her. Initially she was sad about it but now… she couldn't care less, they were all a waste of her time.
"You know it's always the useless types like you that keep whining and whining about their enigma."
"What?!" Veralt yelled his face contortions in anger.
"You never see the truly strong ones whine and complain, but the useless ones in the class. Yup…." She spun the kunai in her hand. "They always have something to say."
Veralth moved with rage his katana moving with the full force of his fury, Layla moved swiftly completely evading the blow and apearing right behind him.
She landed a kick right on his shoulder blades sending him down to a knee but he quickly rose up and swung at Layla, his katana dancing in the air.
He put his strength into his foot and moved at an incredible speed towards Layla his sword extended. Layla blocked the blow but her first kunai was knocked out of her hand.
'Damn it!'
She spun around trying to strike Veralth's feet but he jumped into the air, evading her strike.
He came down with his foot extended but no one was home and his foot slammed into the concrete sending chunks of cement around the room.
Layla was right in front of him, her blow catching him right in the stomach.
She wasn't extremely strong and right now she wasn't even working at maximum capacity because of her training but even with all these circumstances the punch still stung.
Veralth immediately dropped a smoke bomb and cowardly retreated into it. Layla was about to step into the smoke but if he swung that katana while they were both inside it things could get nasty.
'He will have the advantage there.'
She ran over to where some of the kunais were placed, quickly picking a second one and tossing another into the smoke.
The kunai went straight through it.
In the sky, Veralth came through the air aiming for her head but his shadow betrayed him and Layla easily evaded his strike.
Just before his feet touched the ground she placed a kick right in his back with enough force to send him into the wall.
"Not bad, not bad." Veralth said as got up and wiped the blood from his lower lip taking a glance at it just for a moment to confirm that ie was indeed blood. "You have improved."
"And you seem to have gotten weaker." Layla replied, her face stoic.
"Petty insults. It looks like your old side is beginning to leak out of the facade you put on daily," he spat.
"I wonder though, how long can you fight before the exhaustion comes up?" He asked, a wicked grin on his face.
"I can go all day," Layla replied, but they both knew that she was lying.
She always had a problem with stamina and even without her training she could only fight for so long before she tired out.
Add that to the training and lack of sleep? She was already practically exhausted but she couldn't let him know.
In a battle she would always try as much as she could to find out the weaknesses of her enemies. But as for her secrets, she had to guard them as much as she could.
The problem was that Veralth was formerly her teacher so he already knew a lot of them.
She steadied her breath and focused on the goal in front of her.
Defeating Veralth.
When her sister first discovered her stamina issues she taught her a breathing technique to help her maximize her stamina, now she was able to fight for longer periods.
It was effective but it wasn't magic.
During normal evaluations the instructor could have ended the fight by now but not Veralth and definitely not when it was her.
He would probably keep going until one of them was either unconscious or seriously injured.
She needed to knock him out before he used his enigma and she had to do it soon.
Both Veralth and Layla charged at each other, one of them bearing only two kunais while the other had an arsenal of weapons at his disposal.
They went at each other in a fury of blows, dancing like shadows as they engaged.
At a point during the fight Veralth distanced himself from Layla and once again concealed himself in a cloud of smoke just before he unleashed a storm of kunais and shurikens in her direction.
This time the sheer quantity of the projectiles made it far to difficult to block. They cut through the air making a whistling sound as the progressed, each projectile capable of doing severe damage alone.
She had to quickly evade them paying attention to the direction each one of them went to avoid getting hit but that brief distraction cost her.
Veralth was behind her and he drove his sword towards her back.
Layla managed to spot it in time but could not completely evade the strike.
The katana tore through her side dragging blood along with. Veralth did not slow down, he quickly pulled back his katana and went for another strike but he was too anxious to see her bleed and moved too soon.
This time Layla was ready. She twisted her body, narrowly escaping the blade, pushed the flat side of the blade against her side and drove her Kunai into Veralths hand forcing him to surrender the weapon.
Now the tides of the battle had changed, she was now with a weapon she at least knew how to use well while he was now the one with a kunai in his hand.
"I think we can consider this evaluation complete." Layla announced, her sword pointed in his direction. She was exhausted but still tried to appear unfazed while she attempted to end the fight.
She already proved to herself that she had improved.
If she could perform this well while she wasn't using her enigma and without her full strength then she could definitely defeat him once she had all her cards.
But Veralth seemed to have other plans.
"Hahahahahahahaha!" His loud obnoxious laughter boomed. "You really think this is an evaluation?!" He asked mockingly.
Layla cocked a brow.
"This is just an excuse for me to do what I couldn't do years ago. Removing a stain that has plagued the clan for so long."
"Maybe I'll get to break a few bones in the process." He said, his smile wide.
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[A/N]
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The fight continues.