Liv stared at the group Jade called her 'party'. They did not look anything like an elite fighting squad under the princess of a kingdom. A man sat chugging ale directly from the barrel, while other people cheered him on. There were multiple brawls going on, people fighting each other for no apparent cause. In the middle of this all, a single elvish woman sat, ignoring the chaos. When one of the brawls got out of hand, tables and chairs starting to break, she turned and glared at the brawlers, who sheepishly stopped and sat down, obeying her in their drunken state. Jade ran into the center of the room, next to the woman, and whispered into her ear. The woman nodded, flicking her blond hair back as she stood up. "Everyone, we have a new addition to our party. Treat her well," she said in a normal voice.

  All the people in the tavern turned to look at her, listening to everything she said. Then they zeroed in on Liv. She raised a hand and waved. "Hi?"

  The entire tavern converged on her position. Liv instinctively activated her lightning, disappearing from their view. She deactivated it next to Jade and the woman. Then she turned around to look at the confused group. "I am Liv. I will not brawl with you. I don't drink either."

  The group seemed to be saddened, going back to whatever they were doing. Liv sighed, relieved, and sat down. The woman looked at her appraisingly. "I'm the trainer for this party, idiots that they are. We're going to be training soon. Want to join?"

  Liv shrugged. "Sure. I don't have anything better to do."

  The trainer nodded. "Hopefully you can show these maggots something."

  She stood up, and her calm demeanor was immediately gone. Armor materialized on her, what looked like a halfplate set made of plain steel materializing. "TRAINING STARTS NOW! WORMS, START SPRINTING TO THE TRAINING GROUNDS IMMEDIATELY! IF YOU DON"T GET THERE WITHIN THIRTY MINUTES, I WILL KILL YOU!"

  Liv swore she heard someone in the crowd mutter, "Help me, mama," before she followed the trainer out the door.

  "I'm Zara," the trainer said, starting an easy jog. Liv followed, not even breaking a sweat.

  "I saw your speed there. Let's go a little faster," the trainer said, speeding up until it seemed like she was sprinting. Jade's party and Jade herself got left behind relatively quickly as Liv easily kept up with the trainer, not using any energy.

  The trainer nodded at her and Liv felt energy appear around the trainer. "Now, use your maximum speed. The training field is straight down this road. Don't turn."

  Liv nodded, activating her lightning body. After a little thought, Liv activated water too. She would be able to go faster in the end, if she perfectly controlled the speed she had.

  The trainer's eyes widened as Liv disappeared from even her energy-enhanced senses. Liv catapulted forward, flowing around any pedestrians. The shops and houses, randomly interspersed, flew by in a blur, as Liv came to a stop directly in the center of what she assumed was the training field. She turned slowly, examining it. It didn't look very much like a field, with how much of the grass was destroyed. She sat down to wait.

  After a few minutes, the trainer arrived, panting. She had obviously driven herself hard to get here. "Well, huff, you're faster than I expected," Zara said.

  Liv nodded. "How long until the party arrives?"

  "About an hour or so," Zara said. "I gave them the time limit of thirty minutes just so I can justify what we're doing today."

  "And what are we doing today?," Liv asked, a smile on her face.

  Zara turned to look at her. "You don't need any physical training, and as for swordsmanship... we should probably do that, in fact, until they arrive. When they arrive, we'll be doing a 1 v everyone. You probably know who that one person is."

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  Liv sighed. "I don't want them all angry at me."

  "You're our weapon against the enemy forces. They need to know you're stronger than them."

  Liv nodded, getting up. "So, about sword fighting?"

  Almost an hour and thirty minutes later, the trainees arrived. Liv finished the sword form, stabbing her sword into the ground afterwards. Zara glanced at them and looked back. "You're a quick learner. Only the masters can teach you now," she said, before walking to the trainees. "MAGGOTS! YOU GET TEN MINUTES OF REST. AFTERWARDS, YOU'LL FIGHT LIV HERE, WHO'S BEEN DOING SWORD FORMS FOR THE PAST HOUR AND THIRTY MINUTES. AND SHE WILL CONTINUE DOING THEM UNTIL YOU'RE READY, SO YOU GET A TINY ADVANTAGE."

  Liv spoke up. "But I'm not even winded. I can do these for like another eight hours before I start getting tired."

  The trainees looked at her, taken aback, before Zara spoke again. "TRY NOT TO DIE," she shouted before walking away.

  Liv shrugged and started the sword forms once again.

  After ten minutes, most of the trainees were at least a little rested. The got up, forming into ranks in front of her. Jade stood at the front, wearing studded leather, and holding a longbow. Liv raised an eyebrow. "If you have a bow, shouldn't you be in the back?," She asked Jade.

  Jade blinked. "I guess I should," she said, running to the back of the formation. Zara walked up to Liv. "I was waiting for her to attempt to aim that longbow at you and get torn apart. It would teach her to stay in the back."

  Liv shrugged. Zara walked to stand between the teams. "FIGHT!," she said, walking away from the line of fire without any ceremony.

  Liv stepped forward, watching the group slowly advance. The archers attempted to shoot her, bur kept missing. Only Jade had any semblance of accuracy, and Liv simply stepped out of the way of the arrows, her energy-enhanced reflexes giving her more than enough time to. The group eventually got to her, the soldiers in the front, holding shields, attempting to push her back.

  Liv didn't budge, simply standing still in the face of the shields. Spears poked out of the gaps between them, attempting to stab her, as the line stopped moving. Liv frowned. "Shouldn't you be trying to surround me now?"

  The group started surrounding her without a word, the shieldmen in the front moving to encircle her, as if they'd planned this the entire time. Soon, Liv was in a circle of thrusting spears, dodging without breaking a sweat. Zara shouted to Liv, "TAKE THEM APART ALREADY!"Liv nodded to her.

   She unsheathed her sword, stepping away from a spear strike, towards a shieldman. She feinted a blow high, but suddenly dropped, kicking out their legs. A spear whistled over her head, striking air. She stood up, stepping forward and starting to lay into the group. She defeated the spearmen almost instantly, tapping them in the neck with her blunted sword, disqualifying them. Stepping out of the lines, Liv strode towards a group of people with mismatched weapons stood. Liv stepped to the swordsmen first, taking them down without needing to block a single strike. She jumped, landing on a halberd's blade, running down the length to strike its wielder. The rest of the group fell apart as Liv turned to the original line of shields, which had reformed, now shorter. The archers started shooting arrows again, having a line that wouldn't hit their friends, but once again, their lack of aim prevented them from hitting her.

  Liv ran directly towards the shield line, employing a different tactic this time. She waited for a moment, until a spear scythed towards her. She jumped, landing on it, before jumping again, arcing over the shield line. She landed directly behind the spearmen, and they all fell to her blunted blade.

  She turned to the shield line, and simply stuck her sword between the gaps, disabling their arms and legs, and then, when they had to drop the shield, she struck their necks. The archers were a simple target to deal with now, as Liv simply stepped over and tapped their necks, one by one.

  Soon, the entire group was done, standing at the side of the training field, 'lethally' hit by her training sword. Liv stepped forward. "I used no energy during that fight, except for when I dodged Jade's third arrow, the only one that came close to hitting me."

  She stepped back. Zara looked at the group. "MAGGOTS! IF YOU WANT TO TRY AGAIN, SHE'LL BE USING ENERGY."

  Liv looked at her and nodded. Deciding to give a small demonstration, Liv whispered to a nearby wind elemental. A tornado spun out of the ground, molded by Liv's energy. It swirled towards a row of dummies, demolishing them all. Liv then called a wood spirit from a nearby tree to recreate the dummies.

  She turned. "Want to try again?"

  The group quickly shook their heads. Jade ran up. "I never knew you were so amazing!," she squealed.

  Liv looked at Zara. "Is this the best squad in the kingdom?"

  Zara nodded. "All the better ones were lost to the dark elves and the corrupted dryads. Jade's squad, here, just started."

  Liv nodded. "Where's our first battle going to be?"

  Zara smiled. "Now that you ask..."