Blood Bond [Exam]

Cirven didn't bother trying to talk back to the guildmaster as he spoke about how he shouldn't protect his sister. Not like he really could anyway with the pain shooting through his body along with the exhaustion from his new form. He felt like he understood where the guildmaster was coming from but it wasn't the same as the guildmaster thought with them. They had planned for Cirven to deal with Zenshin close up while Aalya backed him up from a distance. Aalya was not that great at fighting close quarters anyways so it only made sense for her to keep away.

Either way though Zenshin saw it as something different like that Cirven kept saving her when really it was their strategy falling apart. He laid there somehow still staying conscious when Zenshin started to heal his pain. The pain practically all went away but the exhaustion was still there for him due to the demon form he had involuntarily used.

"I get it.." He used what strength he had to talk while still laying on the ground. "She is strong enough to take hits on her own and I should let her fight with me and not be her human shield. I'll try to work on it..." He spoke through slight grunts of pain that he still felt.

Her breathing slowly steadied and regulated itself once Zenshin put his hands on her to heal her wounds. At first, the girl didn't wake up due to the trauma inflicted on her body, even with healing, her body was spent, and the damage done would take more time to heal, than what a quick spell could offer.

When she did finally open her eyes however, nothing made sense... the world was still spinning and threatened to make her sick. She groaned as she attempted to move, gasping again before staying still and instead attempting to focus on getting her senses back... her sight, her hearing, even her sense of smell.

She could tell that Zenshin was nearby, but the words he was speaking were hard to understand, even after he addressed her, she took full minutes before she could even whisper anything out.

"I... I can't keep rely...ing on o...others... gotta fight... for myself... my own strength.... t...to protect..."
She couldn't at all finish what she was trying to whisper out, every breath hurt, less than before, but with every sharp jab of pain came more black dots in her vision, causing her to groan and lie her head back down against the ground. What she had to say probably didn't make much sense in her state anyways...

Zenshin simply nodded at the girl as she gave her answer. She was right. She did need to become stronger if she was to protect others as opposed to relying on her team. In the end, as much as her brother promised her and as much as her own team assured her that they would be there, she could only really rely on her own skills. Sure, they would probably stick together a lot, but what happens when she really feels as though there's something she needs to do on her own or if she gets separated from the group during some high priority operation? The water dragon slayer would fall is what would happen. All alone. No one to help her. This was one of the guildmaster's greatest fears for any of his guild members that were too comfortable to reliant on their peers to assist them. "Aayla. Congratulations, you have passed your examination as well as your test to become a Knight of the guild. Though I will test how your progress has been coming along at random points, so don't you even think about not trying to get stronger. Think about if you have any requests for your title and tell me once I'm done speaking to your brother" he asked before looking over to the other opponent he had faced.

"Think of what I'm trying to get you to sought after, not what you're seeing. This has nothing to do with you protecting your sister, but it does have something to do with your state of mind." the man clad in the blue coat said to the injured demon slayer, hoping that he would get the point soon of all of this. Get the point of everything he's been saying up to this point.

Cirven still wasn't able to move himself yet from the exhaustion. Steady beats of pain coursed through his body from the effects of using his demonic form for the first time. Words pounded their way through his ears worse than they usually did, almost as if they were echos bouncing off the walls of a cave. This didn't stop him from hearing that his sister had passed her part but heard that he had not.

Even in his state of helplessness he felt a sort of anger shoot through him. There wasn't much else he could say over what he had already said to the guildmaster. It was like he didn't want him to work with his sister and the o-. It hit him. He had been too worried about one thing and didn't see the grand picture of everything.

"I need to not just work with and fight with my sister and help her grow into someone who can protect herself. I need to do that for the others too. They need to grow themselves or else they won't ever be able to protect themselves or fight for their own beliefs, right?" Somehow he managed to speak through his exhaustion clearly enough for Zenshin. He couldn't help but smile as he felt that the guildmaster had helped him see things in a different way. He needed to help others through getting them stronger along with himself not by getting himself alone stronger.

There was a long pause between Cirven's answer and Zenshin's response, giving the man clad in the blue coat time to look deep into the eyes of the clearly exhausted knight. He meant what he said, and Zenshin approved. "Congratulations, you two are now the newest Knights of Sabertooth. Wear this title with pride, for you have earned it" he said approvingly as he turned away and headed for the lacrima that would teleport him back to the entrance of the guild hall. "You need to set an example for the others in the guild, I truly hope that I didn't make a mistake in making the two of you exemplars" were his final words before heading back. They had just become Knights, but this is where their story would begin as far as the guild was concerned. This was a new chapter and Zenshin was more than happy to help them write their story.

[Thread End]