Donovan wiped the sweat from his brow as the tablet he had set up on a stool in the middle of the courtyard began to ring. One hour was up, and already people were falling to their knees. Wall sits were a nasty exercise to do before a run, but that was the point. Endurance was a physical attribute, but his men also needed to be strong willed. They needed to be able to fight through fatigue in order to win.

"Phew, good run guys. Sanna, Len, Wall, you are dismissed for the day." Donovan himself was breathing quite heavily. Ultimately he was also limited by physiology, and he was coming up on his limit.

He did have some questions though, questions that he wasn't sure should be answered. He had noticed that he seemed to have a bit too much stamina, certainly more than the historical norm for Terrans, but Arc had repeatedly assured him that what he was doing was not beyond the realm of Terran physicality. Nevertheless, his suspicions festered, the focus on his status as 'lab-grown' and a certain entity that reconstructed his body.

"Thank you for the water." Donovan shook his head as he grabbed the cool glass of water, both to shake some sweat off and peel his thoughts from the more disturbing topics. Lifting his head to gulp down the water as quickly as possible, he noticed Diana approaching silently from the side. "You're home early. Is everything alright?"

"The god damned professor cancelled the class for the day, just because he felt like it."

Donovan slowly nodded. Such occurrences were no longer surprising, she had come back from the university with a new complaint almost every day. "So what did you do in the mean time?"

"I went to a café with the Librarian and the Scholar and talked about stuff. Probably learned more during that thirty minute conversation than I would have in that torture chamber."

Donovan nodded in solidarity, he could understand the sentiment. "Any big news? I can't imagine we would be fortunate enough to have some peace and quiet in our lives for once."

Diana took a look around, making sure nobody was listening in on them before speaking. Speaking in English. "The Arboreal Maiden is coming along with Mercedes tomorrow. They said there was something she would like to talk to us about."

"I can't imagine she would just come over here for leisure, now would she?" Donovan responded in kind, more comfortable without that little thread of split crossing his esophagus. "Any idea about what exactly she's coming her for?"

Diana shook her head. "They didn't say anything specific, public place after all. I'd imagine it's got something to do with our progress using split, but I can't rule out that she might just want to make good on her promise to give us time with Mercedes." Diana moved in closer to Don, approaching his sweaty body without risking her clothes. "Can you make some time tomorrow? I can't imagine her schedule would be too terribly busy, but still."

Donovan leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips. "I've already told everyone it'll be a lighter workout tomorrow. There should be plenty of time."

Diana blushed, just a little, from the kiss in full view of everyone in the courtyard. "That's good, that's good. Are you still going to participate in the tournament?"

Donovan looked into her worried eyes, wishing he could hug her right then and there to assuage her fears. "Absolutely. I need some actual combat experience, against someone who isn't holding back. Do you think you can make it to record the match?"

"Well, I'm not learning anything anyways, so I might as well . . . Do you think you can win a match or two?"

"That really depends, I suppose, but there is little doubt that I am going to get my ass kicked by somebody."

"That's exactly what I'm worried about." Diana took the next glass of water from the maid, sipping it before handing it over to Donovan. "Is that . . . lemon?"

"Something like that. I told Gretts about how refreshing a little bit of fruit juice can be in a glass of water, and now it looks like all the staff are obsessed with it." Donovan took a swig before continuing. "I told them not to spread that info of course, it seems like something we might be able to make money with, but it didn't seem like they were all too keen on letting the secret out anyways."

"What about Rize?"

"As per our agreement, he can do what he wants with the info. Seems to me like he wants to keep it secret too." Donovan downed the rest of it. "It beats me how nobody else has figured that shit out yet, though. I mean, it's literally just squeezing a fruit above a glass of water. They have fruit juice don't they?"

Diana sighed, not entirely certain whether she should be suspicious or disappointed. "It really is a mystery, isn't it? Some stuff just seems so obvious to do."

"That's the bias of prior knowledge, I guess."

Diana nodded, frowning. Being in the enviable position of knowing what everyone else didn't was not nearly as useful when you couldn't tell what they did know. "I'll get out of your way now, so get back to training."

- - - - -

"Feet too close together."

Titanyana's blade came in towards Donovan's head from below, blocked at the last moment by Donovan's own. The impact was still enough to make him teeter though, and before he could mount a sufficient defense the follow-up was already at his torso. Donovan braced himself for the inevitable impact, hoping to reduce the damage to a manageable level.

"You can't be putting your feet together like that, Donovan. It's too easy to knock you off balance that way. If you need to, it is acceptable to disengage to rebuild your form." Trebar was coaching Donovan from the side, shadowing Donovan's stance to show him what he should be standing like at a given moment. "I know you were on the offensive there, but against the higher skill level opponents you aren't going to have a chance to land something with a poor stance."

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"Mm. Be careful that you don't get drawn into that sort of stance either."

"Yeah, I would have imagined that went without saying, but it should probably be reinforced when he's this new."

Donovan sheathed his sword, the sign he was ready to restart their spar. "I'm still having trouble maintaining my form in motion. How exactly should I go about fixing that?"

"Practice." Titanyana sheathed her sword as well.

"It comes with experience. Just take it slower for now, make sure that you are doing everything right before you do everything fast." Trebar looked Donovan over for flaws. "I'd suggest squatting a little deeper. Titanyana is a lot smaller and faster than most of the opponents you are going to fight, so you need to be in a position where you can get closer to her level and more easily defend your legs."

"Like this?"

"A little less, perfect. See what you can do from there. Remember, do it right before you to it fast."

"Yes sir."

Donovan unsheathed his sword and assumed a defensive position. Titanyana and Trebar had both agreed that starting defensive in the neutral position and responding to threats as they arose was a good idea for Donovan. He just didn't have the experience to press the attack, he would be far more likely for fuck something up.

"GO."

Titanyana shot towards Donovan at a far less bullet-like speed than she normally would in a fight. Donovan would never be able to contest that.

For the first few seconds, Donovan mounted what Trebar would describe as a passable defense. No strikes landed on his body proper, and the few that made contact were blocked by both his sword and whatever armor he was wearing. Trebar wanted to scold him for relying on that armor, it would not help in the long-term. However, for where he was at skill-wise it was something that he was absolutely going to need to have a shot at winning.

"Sword too low." A sudden downwards strike from Titanyana, blocked at the last moment by Donovan's cross guard. Realizing that his feet were now in an undesirable position, Donovan took a step back. It wasn't enough to build space between them, Donovan was too slow for that, but it would at least guarantee he had some power.

"Good, remember to keep the position of your feet in mind." Trebar praised Donovan for doing what he was told, letting him know he was doing something right was just as important as telling him he was doing something wrong. "Titanyana is far faster than the norm, so you will be better able to put up a fight against someone slower."

Donovan blocked two strikes from opposite sides and dodged a stab towards his shoulder before bringing his sword across towards Titanyana's waist. Just as she had many times before, she ducked out and away from Don's sword, following with a rush towards the new opening.

"I can't tell if you are already doing this, but it is fine to put a bit of heft behind your swings. At your current level you don't stand much of a chance of hurting her, and she can just up her output if she finds herself in danger."

Donovan barely managed to pull his sword into a position to intercept Titanyana's sword before it made contact with his shoulder, his ear ringing from the close proximity of the blow.

"Too extended." Titanyana delivered a brutal kick to the side of his torso before disengaging and sheathing her sword.

"Shit." Don dropped his stance, sheathing his sword before moving his hand to cover the victimized portion of his body. "That felt a bit stronger than normal."

"Mm. I felt the need to punish you for that one."

"I think you might have been too focused on your feet there. Your posture suffered as a result."

"What should I do to fix it?"

Trebar drew his own sword, holding himself in a position similar to the one Don found himself in before he screwed up. "Instead of pulling your sword up to meet her blade, as you did, you should instead drop your body down a bit to meet the sword. Block like you would normally, of course, but being in a more compact position like this gives you some options to deal with follow up strikes. That kick for example . . ."

Titanyana understood his meaning, going through the motions of what she had done to Donovan.

"You can drop your shoulder down a bit and protect the more squishy bits from taking a direct hit." Titanyana's boot landed cleanly on his upper arm. "Now it is still going to hurt if they kicked you like they mean it, but it isn't going to be debilitating. Being in this lower position also makes it easier to protect from weapon attacks, and you can jump away from an unblockable attack if need be."

Once again, Titanyana went through the motions with him, launching a series of follow up blows from a variety of angles. Each one of them was blocked with comparative ease.

Donovan was suddenly very interested what this would look like if they were serious. This was very clearly a level of intensity that didn't even warrant practice for them. "Could I see what that would look like with split? There's gotta be some difference there right?"

Titanyana's ears twitched as Trebar looked her way. "Is that something you are willing to do?"

"Mm."

"Then we will take it a bit lighter. Zhoie is still very excited to fight you, so I wouldn't want to tire you out. Come at me whenever you please."

"Mkay." Titanyana turned and took a few paces in the other direction, pausing once she felt she was a sufficient distance away. "Ready."

"Okay. Donovan, try to keep this distance we are standing at in mind. This is about the distance you will start from your opponent in official duels, so strategize your opening moves with that in mind." Trebar drew his sword. "I'm ready as well. Donovan, count down from three. We will start on go."

"Ah, okay. Three. Two. One. Go." Donovan had flashbacks to their first day of practice when as he observed Titanyana, shooting from her starting location at a speed Donovan almost couldn't track. Trebar, on the other hand, assumed the off balance post-swing position Donovan was in moments before he got kicked.

Titanyana's sword fell at the same angle in the same position as before, only a lot faster. Donovan barely registered Trebar's drop before the ring of metal clashing reached his ears, a sound which was then repeated at least seven times in the next second before there was anything resembling a pause.

This was only because Titanyana was twisting around, building power in her next strike. A strike which was destined to never land as Trebar shot back out of range and adjusted his position. As quickly as the intensity had ramped up, it died back down. Both parties sheathed their swords in unison.

Trebar bowed first, something which Titanyana returned. "Obviously that last strike isn't something she would throw out unless she had a decent chance of doing some real damage, but it was an excellent way of showing how you can disengage if your opponent gives you the chance."

Donovan nodded, he didn't really understand how they could fight at such speeds so casually, but he understood what Trebar was talking about. "I think I get it."

"Good." Trebar looked to the anxious Zhoie, who was staring desperately at Titanyana after having witnessed that clash. "If it is okay with you two, would it be okay if I took over Donovan's training for the rest of the day? I promised Zhoie that she would be able to duel someone new today, and it looks like she might implode if I make her wait any longer." Trebar swung an imaginary sword a few times, giving them time to think. "You only have to duel her if you want to though, Lady Strapper."

Titanyana looked over to Donovan, wanting a response. Donovan just nodded. "Then I would like to accept her duel request. I feel like I am getting rusty, and it would be good for Donovan to practice against someone with a more orthodox method of fighting. That is an area I will not claim to be proficient in."