Sera’s body was exhausted, and her breathing was rapid and uncontrollable, her chest felt heavy, and her breath steamed the air as she finished her routine once again. How many times was that now? She’d completely lost count and the time she’d trapped herself in this room was lost to her. How long had it been since the tour group visited and the others left? An hour maybe possibly two.

Sweat streamed down her face from places she never even knew she could sweat from. Her body felt numb, sticky, and disgusting but her mind was so distracted she didn’t even give it a second thought. How long was it until the ceremony and … her fight, maybe she’d missed it? wouldn’t that be fortunate.

‘No!’ she quickly reprimanded herself. She was Sera Elysi the princess of Elysia, heir to the throne and the future queen to the world’s most powerful country, she couldn’t get scared it wasn’t allowed nor was it suited to her rank. Would her father or mother get scared of this challenge? Her brother wouldn’t, he’d take it head on with his calm demeanour, Lewis would never get scared of this he didn’t get scared of anything he’d just flash his confident grin before taking on the world. Hell he was almost killed by an assassin capable of infiltrating and escaping Elysi and had still come to Atlas games a few days later. How could she hope to become someone like that. Maybe Ike or Lucina would be nervous Sera hoped ‘but that wouldn’t matter to them’ she thought, they’d still take on the challenge without a second thought.

‘Why should I be any different?’.

She walked over to the door and infused mana into the room’s control panel. After pressing a couple buttons there was soon a white marble training dummy in the rooms centre cladded in Thalassi’s national armour, it moulded itself up from the ground like it was clay.

Like she had all day she sheathed her sword and readied her stance. Infusing mana into her body she dashed across the room just like she had over a hundred times today. Her form and footwork was reminiscent of an elite Elysian knight commander and as elegant as a pro Thalasian water dancer. She advanced on the dummy and tightened her grip on her knight’s sword, Excalibur. With precise and efficient technique she drew the sword flooding it with mana as it flew from its sheath. Its silver blade was coated in thick white mana, and it drew a bright white arc into the air as it tore across the dummies chest. The air trembled as she completed her slash and with a fun, quick twirl she sheathed Excalibur. Analysing the dummy she could see her quickdraw had been effective, the stone chest plate and what would be the ribcage under it had been torn apart shown by a smooth laceration that ran deep into the dummy. ‘Not bad’ Sera considered but it also wasn’t good enough she had hoped to completely sever the dummy in half. What had she messed up on she wondered as she inspected the wound, she clearly didn’t like the power maybe her spacing? Should she risk getting closer to her enemy?

“You’re overthinking it” a voice said. Sera’s heart jumped out her chest and her head snapped to where the voice had emerged. Standing at the training room’s door was Lewis Athra, his emerald eyes staring directly at her almost as if they were glancing inside of her, like he could see her soul and read her thoughts. When they first met it terrified her to the point she couldn’t maintain eye contact but now it didn’t even bother her, well maybe it still intimidated her a little but only when he was angry and that was a rare occurrence and pretty much never directed at her.

“You’re alright” she said happily as he wandered towards her, but it came out more like a question. Seeing him in the flesh and seemingly fine took a heavy a load off Sera’s heart. If it wasn’t for Kate and Eric reassuring them all he’d be fine and he fact that he was still coming here, Sera doubted she’d even be able to focus on training. She’d never known Lewis to ever get hurt, she knew It was foolish but in her mind he’d became an unstoppable warrior who’d deal with any issue he was faced no matter how dangerous. She wasn’t stupid enough to think that he’d never lost a fight or been injured but if it had happened it had never got out, but now it had been announced he’d been sent to hospital and required immediate medical attention.

She quickly brought herself back to reality ‘there’s no point worrying about it now’, he was here in front of her now perfectly fine, looking exactly like he had before she left Elysi.

“Yeah I’m fine” Lewis said, he then tilted his head slightly “Why wouldn’t I be?”.

“Erm” Sera’s mind went blank as he thought maybe it wasn’t an appropriate topic to bring up and she felt her cheeks flush red.

However, he then grinned, and she knew he was messing with her ‘asshole’. “Oh you mean this news about me apparently having a near death experience”.

“Didn’t you?”.

“Eh” he shrugged “I’ve had worse”.

‘When?’ Sera thought, as she was reminded again even though she felt so close to him how little she actually she knew about Lewis, only ever what he wanted you to know.

He looked her up and down and raised a brow “Training hard?”.

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It then hit her what she must’ve looked like “Er yeah” she quickly said before trying to wipe away some the sweat accumulating on her with her sleeve, but quickly found out that was a mistake due to the fact that her sleeve was also drenched in sweat. ‘Gross’ she thought as she quickly removed the soaking sleeve from her face. Suddenly a blast of cold water smacked against her body and her body tensed in shock and her heart skipped a beat. She wiped the water from her eyes to see Lewis staring down at her with a mischievous smile that reminded her of Kate or Lucina, or maybe they reminded her of him.

“Better?” he asked innocently.

“Yeah” she grumbled while pushing her drenched hair out her face “Thanks”.

“Happy to help” he smiled before swiping his hand through the air and instantly a wave of warm wind passed through her, completely drying her body.

“Thank you” she said again but this time it was a lot more sincere. He gestured over to the wall which they then relaxed against it cold marble surface.

“You seem a little stressed” he asked.

“No” she lied but instantly she cracked, “maybe … but just a little … yeah” she sighed “is it that obvious?”.

Lewis let out a little chuckle “I was being nice by saying a little”.

“What do I do Lewis?” she asked, she was trying to go for a calm, inquisitive tone, but it came out with a hint of desperation that made her recoil inside.

“What do you mean” he asked slightly confused.

She remained silent for a moment as she argued with herself trying to decide whether she should speak her mind. An exhausted sigh escaped from her, if she was going to tell anyone Lewis was the best person for it.

“I’m nervous, and a little scared” she admitted “about this ceremony fight”

“That’s good” he said, with a little too much happiness for her liking.

“It is?” she asked confused, that not what she was expecting or wanted. She was hoping to be told she is being ridiculous and be given slap on the back so she could suck it all up and get on with it like she always did with these things.

“Sera you’re about to fight in the worlds’ greatest coliseum in front of around half a million people, that’d make anyone nervous if it didn’t they aren’t human” Lewis told her.

“That doesn’t make me feel better” Sera told him, “also you forgot to mention my opponent”.

“What Kira Tepish?” he questioned with a creased face like he was confused on why she was concerned about that “that’s a good opponent to get”.

“Oh yes how fun” she responded with fake enthusiasm, “Also known as the assassin vampire, the prodigy of the Tepish family”. Tepish is the name of Uralis’s royal family,. They are believed to be the last vampiric family whether that is true or just a rumour Sera didn’t know, but she’d met them a few times and they always sent shivers down her spine especially Kira and her mother.

“She’s not that bad” he said.

“Have you met her?” Sera asked in disbelief.

“Yes” he said bluntly “a few times actually”.

“Oh… Well I find her terrifying” Sera told him. In the past she would always get shocked after Lewis would reveal all the people he knew but now it didn’t even surprise her. She doubted she’d be shocked even if he revealed that he knew every royal family here.

“I can see that” he admitted “But she’s nice when you get to know her she’s just a bit awkward. Is that the right word? I don’t know”.

“Any tips on fighting her?” she asked.

He instantly started laughing “I’m not going to give you any tips as much as I want you to win”. Instantly her heart sank a little. “However” he continued “I haven’t come here for nothing”.

As soon as he finished Sera stared at him inquisitive eyes. “Please anything, all I’ve doing is training to try and calm down”.

Instantly he frowned “Oh yeah before I forget stop that”.

“What?”.

“You’re going to wear yourself before the damn fight. If I was here earlier I would’ve stopped you training today completely, all you needed today was a good warm up as the fight approached” he told her sternly “All the training that mattered was the weeks before the event”. He was right, as soon as he finished speaking she realised the mistake she’d made. Her body and mind were completely exhausted from training for hours non-stop. She’d completely sabotaged herself and she hadn’t even realised the reason her last reps had been failing was because she had overloaded her mind and body. Her brain began to hurt as she contemplated what she’d done however, suddenly a hand ruffled her hair and snapped her back to reality.

“You’re overthinking it again, stop worrying so much because it doesn’t matter”.

“Then what should I do?” she blurted out drained and slightly annoyed.

“Have fun” he said casually. His words completely stunned her.

“What?”.

“Look don’t take this in a bad way, but this isn’t as much of a big deal as your making it. Yes you’re fighting a strong opponent infront of a lot of the worlds ‘most important people’ but the outcome doesn’t matter, it changes nothing. However, in the future especially futures like ours there will be times when our victory matters so don’t go worrying about times like now and instead use it as practice and to instead have fun. I want you to go out there later and give it your all and have a great time fighting to your absolute limit, no holding back” a reassuring smile spread across Lewis’s face as he finished. It took a while for Sera to realise he’d finished and to realise how in awe she’d been, all the tension, anxiety and tension that built up inside had seemingly faded away. This whole time the idea of fun had never even crossed her mind and it was starting to fill her with excitement and her heart started racing. When had she ever been allowed to go all out discover her magic techniques full potential. In instant she’d made a complete one eighty and instead of dread she felt anticipation and eagerness.

“Thank you Lewis” she told him.

“Don’t mention” he said casually like he hadn’t just saved her from having a complete breakdown. He left the wall, and she did the same “now you’ve got a couple hours until your match I’d suggest you go get a shower, some food and some rest”.

She nodded and headed towards the door “I’ll see you later”.

“Good luck princess” she heard him say and she stopped and glared at him, he had a childish grin on his face, he knew exactly what he was doing “good luck Sera” he corrected himself.

“Thank you” she said happily before leaving the training room.

‘If the world wants a show, I’ll give them a better show than they could possible ask for’.