"Remember what I told you," Aeriella said to Colonel Irio as she walked out of the command tent.
She strode through the camp, condensing a red ball of mana with black streaks in it into her palm. She attached anchor points between it and her index finger, and she dropped it down almost to the ground, letting a string of Mana spool out from the two points. Once it reached her shin, but before her ankle, she arrested the downward movement and pulled it back up by reducing the length of the Mana string.
She did this over and over, mimicking a silly toy she had seen one of her younger siblings get their hands on back home. She had enough Stats to brute force the exercise, but she lacked the control to create a working device entirely.
It had been over a year since she had idly played with the concept, but her wounded pride demanded she resume. She had thought that she was Skilled enough that she could take it easy on this expedition, but who would have guessed that two people slightly younger than her would upstage her so much with their Skill Levels?
Back home, she was the pride of her family. She was the most talented of the younger generation by a landslide, nobody even coming close to catching her coattails. Her master had told her it was perfectly reasonable to accrue more Experience and push into Tier 4, and she was already a dozen Levels into her newest Class.
Then she had fought against that young commander, and if she hadn't had superior Stats, she would have been embarrassed. His Skill with his sword was, frankly, frightening. There had been a couple of close calls where she wasn't sure if she was going to have to eat a large hit to her Health in their little duel while she was suppressing her strength, but luckily, her Stats had allowed her to avoid anything like that in front of her troops.
What would those gossipy cretins back home say if it came to light that I had been knocked on my backside in front of all of my soldiers? Aeriella clenched her teeth at the thought.
Not only had that young man, who was from a Tier 3 desert kingdom of all places, been far more Skilled in melee combat than she had been, but her Inspection Magic Tool had informed her that he was Tier 2, Level 28. Tier 2! One might think it was some kind of saving grace that he was only as good as her with his magic, but that was also a punch in the gut. She was Tier 4, and he wasn't even halfway through Tier 2!
Then his little girlfriend had shown up, and that was an eye-opener. Not even the Transcendents had the ability to effectively use Space and Time Mana. That could be explained away by her being uniquely gifted with those particular Affinities, but her mastery over her Spells and repertoire showed that she was leagues ahead of her in that aspect as well.
Aeriella was held on a pedestal for having a Tri-Soul talent, and she never slacked off on her training, yet that Tier 3 girl had shown her up as well. She had never gotten close enough to engage her in hand-to-hand combat to see what her level of expertise was in that regard, but even if she wasn't great at it, Aeriella had no doubts that she wouldn't be bad.
She continued to play with her make-shift Mana toy, trying to perfect the object by adding the proper spin to the orb. So far all she could do was let the Mana string wrap around the orb as it spun down and up, but the next step would be to create a groove in the center of the orb so it would flow more naturally. It was considerably harder than it appeared to not-quite cut the orb in half and keep it whole.
She bit the thumbnail of her other hand as she thought more about the fight with the two anomalies.
They have to be from some other kingdom, she thought. They might even be from the Tier 4 Empire above this one. What was it called again? Wishin? Wishpen? Doesn't matter. Those two are definitely not locals of this desert kingdom. The lack of resources in a desert climate almost always ensures that the residents are more of a half-step between the other Tiers than a full promotion from one below it. I'm not being arrogant in thinking that they couldn't be from here.
She stopped in place for a moment.
Or am I? Nah, I'm not.
She continued on her journey around the camp.
Getting her pride hurt hadn't caused feelings of anger or jealousy. Far from it. Sure it was confounding, and a bit embarrassing, but it acted as fuel to motivate her to not laze about.
It also created a burning desire to recruit the two of them to her side.
He said that she was his girl, but I don't mind. Daddy has three wives, and if this Reivyn character progresses on the same trajectory as he's currently on, then he'll be miles above anyone else by the time he reaches Tier 4. There's no shame in attaching myself to such a powerful man in the future. He's bound to have women flock to him, but if I wait until he gets there, my opportunity will be gone.
My biggest hurdle, right now, is I don't know my new sister's name. I have to figure out a way to get closer to them.
Aeriella's steps led her around the camp, and she looked up after her contemplations to see that they had subconsciously taken her to the temporary drill field they had set up. She nodded her head with determination and strode into the field, seeking out the officer in charge.
The man overseeing the training of the Tier 3 Deathsworn was an imposing bear of a man. He had bronze bands around his biceps, and not a stitch more clothing on his torso. His hair was wild, and his eyes were fierce. He used his piercing glare to bend the Tier 3's into submission without even having to strike them, though he did do that. Quite a lot, actually. Pain Resistance was one of the staple Skills for any successful army, whether it was the Tier 1's or the Tier 4's.
Even Aeriella still had to maintain her training in the Skill. She was just privileged enough to be able to do it in private with a Magic Tool. There were some hardships that a commander could suffer with their troops to instill confidence. Lying in the fetal position while crying wasn't one of them.
"Lugius," Aeriella addressed the man as she walked up. He turned his head to see who called his name, and he immediately turned about and went to one knee, head down, when he noticed it was her. "No need for formalities, Lugius. I'm here to train."
Lugius raised his head, eyebrows following suit.
"You want to whip the soldiers into shape personally?" He asked, surprised.
"No. I mean to train myself," she answered. "You will be my partner, and we'll train with our swords."
"Have I done something to invite your ire, My Liege Lady?"
"Of course not. I'm not here to teach you, or anyone else for that matter, a lesson. I'm here to be taught a lesson. We will suppress our Stats to a standard, and we will train with Skill Level, only."
Lugius's eyes shown brightly with excitement as he stood up. He clasped his hands together with a simple bow and instructed one of the assistants to fetch his sword.
"I would be honored, My Liege Lady."
Aeriella nodded her head like it was to be expected. Lugius was from a lower Tier Region, and that ensured that his upward mobility in the Empire was limited. His current position was probably as high as he would ever go, officially, but the prospect of becoming the personal sparring partner for Aeriella was a huge chance.
Lugius was a Skilled melee combatant in a wide array of weapons, and he was several decades older than Aeriella. His Level might be considerably higher than hers, though still in the Tier 4 range, but he lacked a sufficiently powerful Bloodline and opportunities for Achievements. Her Stats outclassed his in every way. That being said, his Skill Level with his weapons was definitely above hers.
"If I may ask, My Liege Lady, what prompted this decision?" Lugius asked. It was not normally proper behavior for one in his standing to ask such a question, but on the sparring field, her answer might be able to give him some insights on how to train with her in the way she was envisioning. She didn't hold it against him, especially since she had already told him to drop the formalities.
"There was a Tier 2 local who was a better swordsman than me," Aeriella replied simply.
Lugius's eyes widened in shock. It was understandable that it would be difficult to believe. Aeriella had spent her entire time since gaining her first Tier 1 Class mopping the floor with everyone around the same age as her in the capital, and they were a particularly martial civilization, even considering the fact that most of the world had a large number of Combat Classes due to the nature of the Realm.
"So your goal is to best him in the field at his own expertise, thus instilling fear and panic into the heathens? Or do you just want to prove something to yourself while you send the assassins to erase any evidence of a more talented foe?"
"Absolutely not!" Aeriella swished her sword angrily, taking a step forward before mastering herself. Lugius visibly swallowed his saliva, and Aeriella could see beads of sweat break out on his forehead. "Talent like that must be captured. He must serve me (by my side). I won't allow any lasting harm to come to him. That being said, his presence has reminded me that I can't take it easy as I thought. I must continue to improve myself at all times."
"A lofty goal, My Liege Lady," Lugius nodded. "I believe I understand your purpose enough to show you the way."
The two readied their swords and began their sparring match.
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"I know we've actually done a lot of training in various ways since we met, but never really together," Kefira said to Reivyn. "It's time to get down to business."
Kefira had summoned Reivyn to her tent via Serilla, and that was the first thing she said to him upon his entrance. He eyed her up and down, taking note of her form-fitting clothes and armor. Gone were the robes that typically signified a Caster Class. She was outfitted for hand-to-hand combat. She had a sword strapped to her side, and with his Skills and experience, he could pick out a couple of daggers concealed around her body as well.
Kefira noted where his eyes roamed, and she gave him a slight smile as she struck a pose, one hand on a cocked hip.
"So, you want to practice the sword?" Reivyn ventured. Kefira nodded her head. "I have two questions, then: One, what's your Skill Level? And two, why not just do it with Serilla?"
"Well, I have two answers," Kefira replied. "One, my Swords Skill is at 24, just about to break through to 25. And two, I don't want to." She stuck her tongue out with one eye closed. Serilla, standing behind her, just rolled her eyes.
"What prompted this decision, by the way?" Reivyn asked, genuinely curious.
"Well... Jezebel was very proficient in both Martial and Magical combat. I've only ever really focused on my Caster Skills, and I've worked to gain the minimum requirements necessary to not embarrass myself in court with my Swords skills. Not only her but there's you, too. I've seen what being good at both can accomplish."
"Is that what you're going to keep calling her?" Reivyn chuckled. "You know, you referring to her in that way besmirches my honor, too."
"Hmph!" Kefira turned her head to the side, closing her eyes and crossing her arms. She had the perfect "petulant child" look down to an art. "Not necessarily. Who knows how many taken men she's tried to snatch? We know there's one, and that means there's a greater than zero chance that there's more than one."
"I guess I can see the logic in that..." Reivyn quirked an eyebrow. Kefira opened one eye and peeked at Reivyn.
"And you should stop trying to defend her."
"But it's so fun to tease you."
Kefira's face turned red, but she refused to open her eyes or turn to face him.
"Ok, back on track," Reivyn said. "Do you want to do it privately, or publicly?"
Kefira stopped playing around and looked at Reivyn.
"What do you mean by that? It would be better if we were alone."
"No, I get that. What I mean is, do you want to, like, go off somewhere where nobody could accidentally stumble upon us, or do you just want to seal off a place so people don't go there? Where are we going?"
"Hmm, yes, I see. Well, even though I can easily jump us a distance away, I can only take one person with me at a time, right now, and there's no reason to take any stupid risks. I've already told Serilla to inform the Major to block off a part of the camp for us to train in."
"Gotcha, and I agree. Though, I would have done what you wanted," Reivyn gave a one-shoulder shrug. He started to turn to exit the tent, Kefira stepping forward to follow him, but he stopped and glanced back at her with a frown. "Is it me, or did you have a much more powerful aura around yourself when you came to rescue me the other night? I had thought that you had gained a ton of Levels or something while we were separated, but you're mostly back to how you were."
"Oh, you're talking about this," Kefira fished out an amulet from her neckline. It was a sparkling emerald set in a silver chain. "I've worn one of these the entire time you've known me, but I destroyed the other one. Sera keeps a spare on her in case I have to do that."
Reivyn threw an Inspect at the obvious Magic Item.
Soul Suppressor
He didn't get any other information out of the System other than the name.
"Ok~ay... but what does it do, exactly?"
"It suppresses my soul," Kefira answered.
"Yes, I saw that, but what does that mean?"
"It's... complicated. There are a lot of intricate details into how it works, but it basically makes me operate at just above half of my power. There are reasons other than just gaining Life Experience for wearing it, and I'll explain it to you some other time, promise."
"Ok, I trust you," Reivyn smiled.
Kefira smiled back and placed the amulet back inside her shirt. Reivyn was distracted as Kefira patted her neckline where it disappeared. Her breastplate concealed anything interesting from view, but the little action still drew his eye, and he could remember what it looked like without the constraints. Kefira's smile turned into a grin.
"Hah! Take that, Jezebel. I'm not just better at magic than her," Kefira pointedly looked down and then back up at Reivyn. "There are other things that are superior about me."
To be fair, Aeriella was wearing armor, too... Reivyn thought. He wisely kept his mouth shut, though.
The two exited the tent and headed in the direction that Kefira pointed out to him, and they quickly reached a circle that had been artificially made by combining the tents of the officers in the command area into a circle. Most of the enlisted soldiers would have no business coming to this part of the camp, and even if they did, it was difficult to see what was going on because of the wall of tents.
"Alright, let's start off by you showing me your forms," Reivyn said.
Kefira frowned as she stood with her sword out.
"My Skill is above Level 10," she said. "I'm at the threshold of breaking through to the next tier of mastery."
"Uh huh, but if you have any small bad habits, those might be holding you back without you knowing. You did say that you hardly focused on your Swords Skill, so there was less opportunity for any of your tutors, or whatnot, to find any of these mistakes. Who knows? If you do have some bad habits, and we iron those out, you might hit Level 25 before we even start to spar."
"That makes sense," Kefira conceded. Serilla nodded her head from her position watching the pair.
Kefira spent the next several moments going through the drills that she had learned from her imperial tutors. The forms were slightly different than what Reivyn was used to, but not enough that he couldn't instantly pick up the similarities and figure them out for himself.
He drew his sword, and keeping his eyes on Kefira's form, he performed the moves in tandem with her. One of the reasons he did so was to gauge how his body should move and feel while doing the actions. His Skill Level was high enough that he only needed to see it once to perform the movements properly, and his body itself told him whether it was perfectly executed or not.
He took some time to go through the moves independently, marginally adjusting it here and there until it felt completely right. Once he had it down, he stopped the exercise, and he told Kefira to go through the motions once more.
He immediately spotted some discrepancies, and he held out his hand to stop her. Kefira held her position as she looked at Reivyn, waiting for him to say something.
"Your body movement is slightly off... here, and here," Reivyn pointed to a couple of points on her legs and arms. "You should move, ever so slightly, this way." Reivyn tried to convey his meaning to Kefira, but she wasn't quite moving her arms and legs the way Reivyn wanted her to.
"I think you're going to need to put me in position," Kefira said, staring Reivyn in the eye.
Reivyn swallowed his saliva as he nodded his head. He stepped forward and reached out to reposition the slight errors he had seen.
"What are you doing?" Kefira asked. Reivyn pulled his head back, confused. Kefira shook her head. "Get behind me so you have the proper perspective, and you can move me where I need to go better."
"Ok~ay..." Reivyn said.
He walked around her, and because of how she was standing, he had to sidle up close to her in order to be able to reach around both sides of her body. His body pressed into hers, and he didn't avoid it. He placed his hands on her hips, adjusting her center ever so slightly, before running his hands up her sides, onto her arms, and then down to move them into their perfect placement.
"Are you sure this is how you want me to correct you?" Reivyn whispered into her ear. His position placed his face right next to hers, and he saw her neck and face turn red from feeling his breath on her skin.
"I'm pretty sure this method will sear into my brain better than any other way," Kefira's voice came out raggedly.
"Uh huh. I'm sure it will."
Reivyn ran his hands back up her arms, down her sides, and past her waist to tweak the positioning of her legs. Kefira's breathing came in gulps, and Reivyn finally stepped back to appreciate - ahem, inspect - Kefira's stance.
"Good," he nodded his head. "Do you got a feel for exactly how your body is positioned?"
"Perfectly," Kefira answered.
"Ok, start over, and try to get into this exact positioning while going through the motions this time."
"Ok, but I think you might have to help me get into position a couple more times before I can get it down while moving."
"That won't be a problem," Reivyn smiled.
The duo worked on Kefira's form for over an hour, Reivyn stepping in to adjust her body multiple times for each form. Despite how close and sensual the exercise had turned into, Reivyn could tell that Kefira was taking it seriously, and it was putting quite a bit of strain on her muscles as she performed the movements.
Once they had gone over all of the moves separately and Kefira performed to Reivyn's exacting standards, he had her do the entire routine all together. Kefira's face lit up when she was done, and she turned and leaped into Reivyn's arms, careful not to stab him with her sword still in her hand.
"You were right!" She said, looking up at him from below. "As soon as I completed the movements that last time, my Skill ticked up to 25!"
"Congratulations!" Reivyn said, hugging her back. "Now we can get to the real thing."
"Good, though I don't think it's going to be nearly as fun."
"Yeah, you're probably right."