Lexa's Secondary Training [Private]

Lexa had woken up with the sun blasting her in the face. Feeling amazed at how well she slept in that position, she looked around at the world. "Nope... not a dream." Lexa said with a hint of an attitude in her voice. Getting up, Lexa found herself a little bit dizzy feeling from having gotten up to fast. Holding her head to make sure it was the world spinning and not her head, she waited for the feeling to pass before going down to see where Altsoba was so they could continue their training. When she arrived to the main entrance of the castle, Lexa saw the large man who brought her here standing in front the doorway to the castle with two swords drawn. He told her that the objective wasn't to kill him, but to defeat him. Lexa was provided her swords and told her that she needed to defend herself as though her very life depended on this one fight. Lexa smiled and grabbed the grips of her blades, lighting the magic circuits on her body to display a vibrant golden glow.

"You feelin' sour about me hitting you yesterday Niyol?" Lexa said with a big smile on her face, eager to enter a fight with the skilled swordsman. She altered her stand to a balanced one, placing the larger katana in a reeled back position so as to be ready to strike, and the smaller katana in front so she could block and parry quickly. Even though Lexa was looking confident, she was very unsure what the soul wizard had up his bag of tricks, and without Taranis here, she had to rely on her own ability to heal which wasn't much. Lexa's biggest hope was that the man before her was also like her, without their traveling companion for this fight. She'd also heard of opponents who were skilled enough to have large sums of spells, also hoping this was not the case with her opponent.

'You sure about this wench?' One said to Altsoba using his telepathic bond to the demon of war. 'Yes. If the girl can land just five hits on you, then I'm more than confident in her ability to handle it on her own.' Alstoba responded. The plan for this came up over night, when One tried to go to a different room after his little chat wit Lexa. While he was going down the hall, he suddenly found himself being held like a butler's towel, being slung over the arm of that gargantuan metallic man Altsoba was so fond of. He took One to Altsoba's room where they discussed a plan to test Lexa's ability with already known magic. He objective was to hit Seikatsu a total of five times, a task that only sounded easy. Seikatsu had prematurely activated his meditative state, allowing him to sense the girls movement, and time his blocking perfectly. If the girl could over come One's increased defense against her attacks, then she would have proven that she is ready to teach herself.

One took his stance, which was the same as Lexa's, surprising to him to find another balance fighter. One's blades were the same length, so he put his heaviest sword, The Heart of War, in the striking position, and his lighter sword, the Thorn of Betrayal, in the blocking position. He modified his stance by shifting his weight slightly, and lowering his arms so he could readily block any attack of normal speed thrown at him. The only way that Lexa could possible hit him five times, is if she activated the magic Altsoba taught her, and adding her own spells in the mix. Even still, he was extremely smart, and a tactical genius when it came to swords. Against another unconventional fighter like Lexa, blocking attacks was every bit as easy as being blocked due to the similarity in combat styles.

Lexa came at Niyol with all she had, not holding back anymore than necessary. She moved at full speed, and attacked, swinging both her blades at her opponent with vigour. She was shocked as he stopped her blade, not having estimated the man was fast as well as strong. She pushed off his sword and jumped backwards, sliding a few feet while standing up, and she went back in for another attack. Lexa saw as the man stood there, his swords positioning was slightly confusing... they were too high to be defensive, but too low to be offensive. 'A balance of the two? Or leaning more to one that the other?' Lexa thought to herself, focusing on the blades. She didn't see Niyol try to attack her, 'Maybe he's waiting for me to get in close...' Lexa thought. She immediately activated her shadow burst, becoming a shadow and appearing behind him and slashing with her two blades by spinning like a top. Niyol had blocked it by pressing the back of his swords, against his own back and using that as a shield, or a piece of armour of sort.

Lexa saw one of the blades coming at her throat and immediately brought one of her weapons up, using it to block. The power of the white sword was amazing as it shattered Lexa's single blade after only hitting it one time. Reduced to nothing but her shorter katana, Lexa had no choice but to jump back a few times to avoid being hit by the second blade. The man's just standing in that one spot was pissing Lexa off to no end. It was like she was being taunted by the man, him saying that he was better than her on all levels, and her attacks were meaningless. Lexa felt that gut feeling coming, that one she gets when it feels like her fighting is useless cause she'll never win.

Lexa was about to give up, the fact that no matter how she attacked, the large man was able to block made her feel so hopeless that she was on the verge of falling into a bottomless pit of despair. 'DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP ALEXANDRA!' The heavenly voice exploded in her mind. 'YOU'VE COME SO FAR! YOU'RE NEARLY SET FREE WITH A NEW MAGIC! IS THAT NO YOUR REASON FOR BEING!? IS THAT NO WHY YOU UNDERTOOK THIS!?' Gabriel screamed, coaching her to keep fighting, to not quit. Lexa's eyes flew open and she realized that she was going about it conventionally. "You're right." Lexa admitted, gripping the single remaining sword of hers.

Lexa charged at her opponent, swinging her blade to attack his front. Right as the blade was about to contact her own, Lexa used her teleport to get behind him and slash his leg. After she felt the blade shift from hitting something Lexa switched to Dark Evade, moving to the man's left and making an attack there. Immediately transferring to her Trick house by placing her hand on the floor when she entered. Using the trick house Lexa disappeared, and reappeared between Niyol's legs while spinning, feeling two objects tap her blades she transferred to the last move Altsoba taught her before the reverse world event. Using the triple step technique, Lexa disappeared from under his legs appearing on his left in the air, and slashing at his face, and then a second on his right slashing at his arm. The final teleport put her between his legs, with her on her knees where she slashed the bottom half of his leg. She saw Seikatsu become a shadow himself and move to another part of the room where he flicked his swords and sheathed them. "But... wha?" Lexa said, absolutely puzzled. She knew that he hadn't been defeated, so she couldn't imagine why he was ending the fight.

The man saw the spark of determination in his pupil's eye. He prepared himself to block another feeble attack, but what he was hit with was for more than a mere failed swing of a sword. In the blink of an eye, Lexa had disappeared, reappearing to make a small cut and vanishing again. He saw a black pillar rise from the ground and her disappear again, and the three rapid attacks withing three short bursts. The adventurer was dumbfounded by her ability to piece together her spells to create a combination so effective that his years of swordsmanship was little more than air compared to the speed of her attacks. One felt more than five cuts made into him, and used his Shadow Sneak to get out from the onslaught of attacks. He saw the look of puzzlement and confusion on the girls face as she asked a fragmented sentence. "Defeating an opponent doesn't mean beating them to the point where they can't fight. All you need to do is show superiority in battle, and that is exactly what you have done here." He said with a strong voice and a smile on his face. "I give you permission to use my true name, if you remember it." Niyol said. For him, that right is a major privilege, and a step forward for him since he would normally behead someone for even thinking of doing that.

Altsoba walked down from the second floor where she was watching the fight saying "You've proven yourself able to use my magic. While you didn't master the meditation to use Reverse World, I'm sure with time you will find closure and with that, you will find peace. You have permission to leave through the door at anytime."

The cloaked mn left before Lexa was given permission, and saw her on the outside at the top of the mountain where they'd met. "Have a safe journey." he said, having already assumed the mediation position. Lexa went on her way after saying her farewell, no longer needed his escort to Era, and the two took with them new insight into the magical world.