The opponents for the spars had been settled; with me against Satti and Naviri fighting Zath.

Me and my opponent would go first while Naviri and Zath would take a break for the time being.

Satti and I stood in front of each other, breathing ragged from the exercise we just finished and yet, we were also wearing energetic expressions, clearly excited for the spar- I called my Pledge and a rapier appeared in my hand, I swung it back and forth to get some blood pumping into my limbs.

Satti stood in front of me, a confident and reassuring smile on his face as he called on his Pledge: a black and blue chest plate that reached his stomach and ran down to his hands to form clawed gauntlets- it was tough enough to withstand most blows, even those that I could offer- and that's without involving Techniques, - but the open areas that aren't protected by the Pledge was its main weakness.

Satti has been training evasion to mitigate that type of weakness but from his resigned expression, he knew that it would never work against me since between the two of us, I've always been the faster one.

I started jumping in place to get my heart racing.

I felt Zath's stare bury itself at the back of my head and I turned to her before giving her a smile, “it's gonna be your turn next but I'm sure Naviri is gonna go easy on you,” at my words, the girl in question raised her hands to give me a shaky thumbs up, “see? And Naviri, what's up with your hand? But Zath, look at you! You have already recovered enough to move! You're gonna be fine- and besides, this is just a sparring match so nothing bad's gonna happen,”

Zath nodded before closing her eyes with an unreadable expression and I faced Satti, he smiled before bowing, “I hope that I'm capable enough to block your strikes this time around, your highness,” as an answer, I smirked and slashed forward in a speed that far surpassed my previous attacks, he stared at it with a good natured smile, “I… you have gotten faster,” it wasn't a question, but worded as fact, I nodded and the guy's eyes went to Fafnir, “hm. I should've expected this,”

My smirk grew, “I'm not gonna go easy on you, you know?”

“I don't expect you to,” he bowed in respect before going into a stance that slowly moved until he was dancing, he hopped from left to right, his feet extending and shortening in an erratic manner, his arms followed and he gave me a nod, “shall we start?”

Quoketh stepped forward to act as our referee as I eyed Satti's dance routine, the martial arts should have a name… and all that time I spent scouring the internet in my past life did tell me as much but I don't remember much about it other than the fact that the slaves created it because they didn't want their masters to think they were practicing how to fight, hence why it looks like a dance.

Quoketh raised her hand, “you sure you’re ready? Satti?” The guy nodded and our instructor faced me, “Neo?” I nodded.

Her hand slashed downward and I didn't waste time- my foot went forward and I tensed my legs before throwing myself towards Satti, I moved fast enough that the guy didn't have time to react to my advance and before he knew it, the blade of my rapier struck the bottom of his ribs, it was armored, but that didn't mean that the strike wouldn't do anything- the impact made him gasp and he looked up at me with wide eyes, shock evident in his face before he schooled his expression and threw a punch my way.

I dodged, taking a step back before moving my body downward, and weaving along the hit, I moved to the right side of his punch before executing a quick slash toward his neck- which he blocked without looking.

I took another step back when he pulled his arm in preparation for another punch.

“Good instincts, as always,” I complimented before slashing at his face and forcing him to block, canceling his punch before my sword proceeded to trail along the surface of his gauntlets, going down until the blade struck his elbow, I saw him grit his teeth and I prepared to kick his stomach but stopped- this is a spar and I'm not Bismuth.

I backpedaled and repositioned myself, giving Satti some room to breathe- he gave me a grateful smile, “Thanks, your highness,”

“Don't mind it,” I replied, knowing full well how getting caught off guard with a move you didn't agree to execute would feel in a spar, “we're sparring and besides, this entire thing is pretty unfair for you,”

“I suppose,” he smiled shakily.

I nodded before diving back in and doing two slashes aimed at his sides before slashing up to his armpit, he failed to block each strike and a hiss of pain came out of his mouth as the last one connected before his right hand went limp from the hit to his joint.

I didn’t let him reorient himself and started slashing, now, with his adrenaline going on overdrive and the ability of his Pledge activating, the guy managed to block each and every single one of my blows with just one hand, and each successful block somehow caused him to become faster and faster until he was moving before I even slashed.

And now that he's properly set up, there's no risk of me accidentally damaging him so I didn't allow my attacks to waver and continued slashing relentlessly, I never stopped moving and just made my mouth take in lungfuls of air, it kept the dull ache in my head from the lack of oxygen away.

Then, suddenly, his right arm recovered and is no longer limping, using the limb, he threw a punch aimed at my gut, I dodged, bending my body and getting my stomach away from the hit.

“Huh,” I said, “that would've stopped me, wouldn't it?”

He was starting to calm down now, the blue on his Pledge receding as the color went back to being black, “thanks for the flattery but I know that it wouldn't have taken you down,”

I smirked, “eh, you're right-” I slashed again.

It's not like he's actually wrong, a single hit wouldn't have taken me down because my intense exercise has built up my pain tolerance over the years, allowing me to take hits without reacting to the pain. I'm pretty sure every single one of my sparring partners in the past knew that, including Satti and his wife.

I did another slash, “- but it probably would've slowed me down,”

Another punch, I ducked before sending a low kick to his shins, Satti fell and stayed on the ground, his breathing ragged while mine was stable, his eyes moved to look at my face, “not even winded huh?”

“Nope.” I replied, popping the ‘p'.

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He sighed, “That Pact really made all the difference,”

Naviri walked up to us, her hand on her hips, she rolled her eyes at Satti as she bent down and picked up her husband, “come on, get up,” she said with an exasperated tiredness, but the fondness was clear in her eyes, “even without the Pact you would've loss to our battle crazed lesbian princess,”

Lesbian? “Lesbian?” I asked, Naviri smirked. “That's not-” I frowned, “I hate you.”

My friend only stuck out her tongue in response.

All three of us walked back to Quoketh's side, with Satti immediately sitting down for a rest the moment that we reached the instructor while his wife walked forward and nodded in Zath's direction, “I know you don't have any training in combat staffs yet, so I'm gonna go easy on you,”

Zath sighed and walked forward, her expression told me that she was reading way too much into Naviri's words, “Go easy? Like how Neo did with your husband?”

Naviri shrugged, an answer in of itself from my battle crazed friend, who smiled and added- “sort of,” she admitted, “but your highness’s lowest level is already pretty strong, and that's before she made a Pact with an adolescent dragon,” Zath and her shared a pained look, “I meanwhile-” my friend's Pledge got called and eight floating daggers started floating around her, “- am pretty weak since I'm not as crazy as Neophyte for training,”

…

Naviri took her stance, one reminiscent of boxing rather than her husband's capoeira, both her fists were raised high, elbows bent, and muscles tense like a coiled spring- ready to be released into powerful piston punches that'll send her opponents to the ground knocked out cold.

In front of her, her opponent looked tense but Naviri knew that was only on the surface, Zathania had always been good at acting, and she didn't know if Neophyte noticed- with how smart she is, Neo most likely did but as always, when it comes to her “friend” she is purposefully ignoring it in favor of playing along with Zathania, - it or not but Zathania, no matter how calm or aloof she looks on the surface, is actually pretty observant, eyes always wandering, watching and passively observing all and anything that she could land her gaze on.

That was Zathania Schema Phagea; a silent girl whose actual demeanor starts to show the more you went deeper, turning more… cunning at the deepest layers. The reason why most don't know about it is that it's hidden behind a facade of calmness- not Naviri though, Zathania has never been able to hide anything from her.

The maid's Pledge was already called, held stationary by two hands that didn't waver at the sight of her 8 Daggers, usually, her opponents would feel overwhelmed by her Pledge, but not Zathania and… definitely not Neophyte.

But, as always, the princess is an exception to the rule- most rules really, - she always has been, and her uncanny ability to know the weakness of the Pledges of other people at first glance is proof of that uniqueness.

Her first battle with the princess had been an eye opening experience for Naviri, that despite all her training and naturally powerful Pledge, there is always someone at the top and she knew she could never reach the princess because to this day, no one but Neophyte managed to disable her daggers.

Even she herself didn't know that her daggers can actually disappear when struck in a certain spot.

And if Neophyte is so prodigious, then that should mean those standing beside her should be as well- and she's about to know if Zathania is capable of standing side by side with the Redeemer or not.

Naviri took in a deep breath before exhaling it, the girl in front of her needed to be worthy of the princess’ love, Naviri would make sure to let her know of that fact through this spar- “Okay, to make things fair,” she started, “I'm not gonna attack in range and will only use my daggers to slice in melee,”

Her Pledge's ability to switch range at a whim is one of the reasons why her mother picked her to fight against Zathania, who, much like her, can pick whether or not she wanted to attack from a distance or fight close combat.

In response, the maid simply nodded before spreading her footing into a stance, Naviri eyed it, deeming that Zathania would be on the defensive- a good choice given that she didn't know how to fight with her Pledge yet, though she hoped that won't be the case for long.

Naviri's mother stepped forward, raised her hand, looked between the two of them, then threw her hand down-

Naviri moved, immediately breaking the first thing that she said as she silently commanded two of her daggers to go above Zathania's shoulders before stabbing down- her weapons moved, now completely out of her control as Zathania rightfully predicted their path before moving out of the way, she met Naviri halfway and bashed leftward, the ruby tip of her staff heading for her opponent's head- Naviri dodged and commanded one of her remaining six daggers to attack.

The blade dashed forward and immediately, two other daggers followed after it- the maid dodged her attacks with a twist of her footing before carefully sidestepping Naviri's punch and retaliating with a kick towards Naviri's stomach.

Naviri dodged, taking a step back before telling her last four daggers to slice in an X with Zathania at the center, the maid took a step back and the daggers missed but Naviri moved forward and started punching- her fist connected and that was it, Zathania had been caught-

The maid pushed back and readied her Pledge-

Naviri continued even as her opponent's Pledge was raised to block her fists, then, with one dagger now back at her side, she commanded it to fly down at Zathania just as the rest of the daggers she threw at the start of the spar were coming back to her.

As expected, the maid dodged it before sending the blue side of her staff at Naviri's chest, she dodged, then commanded her dagger towards her own hand before issuing a second command- to stab forward while she was holding it.

Her body moved just as her dagger did and Naviri let it control her, moving herself in a way that got her body to twist alongside the Dagger's arc- her opponent tried to dodge but Naviri was faster and she personally changed the course of her dagger and stabbed it at the maid's hand.

The strike connected and Zathania hissed in pain but kept going.

“It's fine if you can't handle it Zath!” Neophyte yelled from the sidelines, cheering her lover on.

“I'm fine, mistress,” Zathania's reply made Naviri smirk from how sweet they both acted.

Said smirk disappeared the moment the top of her opponent's staff came her way- She dodged but was too late to block the kick that followed, she gasped and eyed the staff before commanding her daggers to pin the girl's calves but she was too late again and before she knew it-

She wheezed when Zathania's foot found her stomach- Naviri pushed herself, well, the girl is plenty capable, why did her mother tell her to hold back?

Three daggers- that was all she had in her arsenal at the moment but that was fine, she'd made do with less in far more threatening spars in the past.

Taking a step forward, Naviri started a small sprint that gave her enough momentum to sidestep a heavy blow of Zathania's staff, Naviri eyed her, the maid was holding the other end of her staff and was using her Pledge as a club rather than the proper combat stick that it is- good to do when Naviri was far away like a moment ago but bad when she's close.

Like right now.

Naviri dashed forward and sent a punch aimed at the girl's ribs, it struck, pushing her back with a pained expression- Zathania tried to retaliate but a dagger aimed at her hand stopped that, and as she backed away, Naviri's body followed and she punched- it connected for the second time and Zathania once again attempted to retaliate but another dagger aimed at her head canceled her attack.

Five. She now had five. And with how close her recently thrown daggers were to her, it wouldn't be long till she had all eight back to her.

Naviri commanded her three daggers to attack, one aimed at the girl's ankle, one at Zathania's hand, and the remaining one straight at her opponent's chest.

All three daggers dashed forward and the one aimed at the chest went first and Zathania was forced to dodge to the right- and it was then that the dagger aimed at her ankle found its target and struck true, and with her feet now pinned, Zathania had no choice but to block the dagger meant for her hand with her own Pledge and that was when Naviri moved forward.

She wouldn't use her other daggers to attack alongside her fists, not for now since this was just a simple spar and she only went slightly harder on the girl but that wouldn't mean that she wouldn't bombard her opponent's body with piston punches.

Zathania faced her strikes head on, some were blocked, most weren't and when Naviri finally stopped, the girl's face paled from the hits to her chest.

Naviri took a step back and held back a wince, “Okay, maybe I overdid it.”

She heard a sigh and turned to Neophyte, “you think? You were striking her chest and gut with your punches without caring for damage!”

Naviri sheepishly smiled, “sorry?”

Another sigh came out of the princess’ lips, “It's fine, Zath's a Pledge Bearer now so she'd be fine tomorrow morning but you still went over the top,”

She offered another sheepish smile, “I really am sorry your highness,”

Neophyte stared at her dryly, “I know. Nav. I know.”

She let the subject rest.

Naviri recalled her Pledge and faced her opponent, whose feet were now free and healing, “sorry,” she said to her.

“It's fine,” Zathania shook her head, “it just means that I have a long way to go to catch up to you guys doesn't it?”

Naviri heard a laugh, “hell no,” Neophyte said, “Naviri's way too talented,” everyone stared at her dryly- did she… think that- whatever- “And you lasting that long against her when she's slightly serious, it means that you have a pretty decent chance on the physical side of the Academy's exam,”

That got Zathania to sigh in relief, and to soothe her even more, Naviri added a bit of consolation, “yep.” She agreed, “The dummies that the Academy uses are kind of weak, I didn't even break a sweat, just threw two daggers at its head and it was dead. You're gonna be fine fighting those things,” She clapped the maid's shoulders, “if Satti passed, then you can too!”

Her husband looked hurt, “hey, I'm pretty good?”

Naviri smiled fondly at his confused expression, “nope, no you're not.” She teased.