Relentless Flames

Irina leaned against a wall of a vacant lot each of her sword leaned against the wall in their sheaths with the exception of Nemesis which was wrapped in cloth rather than having a scabbard. In the middle of the lot was Nova who had set up a small picnic for herself as she ate lunch, Irina would have joined her but as it stood she had already eaten her share of the meal. The two of them awaited the arrival of some members of Black Rose. The intention was to officially form a team with these few members, but Irina had other intentions as well. She looked over to her pupil who was still eating her lunch, Irina had been training Nova for months yet she had shown zero improvement in her sword skills. Irina's secondary intentions were along the lines of figuring out what exactly was the problem and why Nova was learning at an extremely slow rate, and she was going to demand the assistance of her new team to do so.

Irina turned to Lexa who looked as though she was pulled through a pig sty. "I was just waiting for Nova to finish her meal, and I was waiting for you." She announced to her would be partner as Nova started to fold up the blanket she was eating lunch on previously. "I have a serious question to ask you, would you be willing to follow me as a leader, as someone who would fight along side me, and as a friend?" Irina asked with a stern tone and face, it was one of the few times she actually revealed emotion. "Also I need someone to help me with Nova's training, I wouldn't suppose you'd know anyone?" She asked finalizing her questions and awaited Lexa's response.

Irina placed a hand on Lexa after her answer to her question. "You're wrong, I don't use the term leader as in someone who would give their life away for the team, and to guide them not order them, you will find I am quiet lose, but if just being equals is what you want then I will allow it." She reached into her pocket and took out a bracelet of sorts, it was thin made of real silver with some sort of red stone snaking its way through the silver all the way around. "Do you like jewelry? These are a symbol of our partnership, so you never forget the bond that we have made here today." She said as she revealed an identical one on her left arm.

She turned to Nova as she sat on the ground waiting for her training to begin. Irina turned to Taranis and nodded as she took out a wooden sword and handed it to the creature. "Nova is hopeless in a fight, it isn't safe to use real weaponry with her, so we have wood swords for that very purpose, yet she still manages to hurt herself." Irina said with a stern expression. Today she wasn't intending to train Nova but instead to find her flaws, she couldn't do this while focusing on actual training. She was going to find Nova's flaws and figure out how she truly should be fighting.

Nova looked up at the tower of an alien man before her, she could barely hold a stance he looked so intimidating. Then he spoke, it actually seemed funny to her at first with him sounding like a child. She tried once again to take up a stance that Irina had tried to teach her but instead she found herself instinctively taking up a stance that Irina usually took up personally causing Irina to narrow her eyes from the sidelines. "I see, so that's why she hasn't been successful in her training." Irina thought allowed so that Lexa could hear as Nova and Taranis began their little duel. At first Nova seemed to know exactly how to fight like Irina did except she made several fatal mistakes right off the bat, as she began her first move she tried to blitz around the tall man to slash him in the back with the wooden sword only to twist her ankle severely with the strain of the step yet she still continued through. Due to her attempt at one of Irina's moves and her apparently injury in doing so she ended up traveling too far and ended up swinging for a miss instead of actually hitting her intended target. "It seems she's been trying to fight too much like myself, yet how I couldn't see it when her and I spared together is impressive." Irina once again stated her thoughts aloud. Once again Nova attempted to mimic Irina's own moves as she faked a slip falling backwards and attempted to throw the sword like a spear passed the giants ear only she dropped the wooden sword instead and couldn't recover from the fake slip either sending her tumbling down to the dirt bellow. "That's enough!" Irina announced as soon as Nova made contact with the ground ending the spar in a little over a minute after Nova made two moves leaving no room for Taranis to make moves, she was quite fast but her stance was completely off leading to injuries.

Taranis watched as the girl took her stance, a strange one at that, and simply placed the sword in front his body. He would allow the girl the first move, and neglect even trying to block the resulting attacks. As Nova had fallen over, Taranis uncoiled one of his tentacles from around his waist and extended to to the girl on the floor, offering to help her up.

Lexa quickly trotted over, kneeling down to Nova's leg where she saw her twist it, and began casting her Heal spell to cause the wound to heal. Ultimately, it would be Nova's choice whether or not to accept the healing from Lexa. Should she choose to reject the spell, it would backfire and send Lexa flying into a wall. Should she accept it, he wound will be healed accordingly. Lexa would also tell Nova "You're doing great Nee-san! Keep practicing, I wanna see you get even stronger!" with her super energetic, child-like voice.


((OOC: Taranis doesn't have a childish voice... his is quite deep... and scary to certain people.))

"She wont be getting stronger!" Irina announced quite abruptly as Lexa healed Nova's leg. "Though she appears to have talent that is not what she is truly exhibiting." Irina glared down at Nova looking quite disappointed. "What she is actually doing is inhibiting her own talent in order to copy someone else's talent, in this case my own." She explained as Nova looked up in shock and almost on the brink of tears, did this mean the end for her. "I can no longer teach you." Irina said turning around to leave. "WAIT! I can try harder I wont let you down!" Nova tried to protest as she almost took off after Irina only for her to stop from her still throbbing ankle. "No, you need to develop your own style, it's not that I wont teach you, it's that I can't teach you any more than you already know." Irina said as she reached a wall and leaned against it. "You will only progressively hurt yourself if you continue to copy me, but you are continuously inhibiting your own talents out of admiration, you can't even use magic." Irina grumbled in a rather glum tone. "If you find your own style you will become someone far more formidable that almost everyone else." Nova stared wide eyed, she didn't want to make her own style she wanted to use the same beautiful style that Irina had used the day they met. "But I..." She was swiftly cut off by Irina. "You wanted to learn from me cause my style was beautiful, but yours can be far more prettier than the petty tricks I employ." Irina argued as Nova continued to stare on in tears.

Irina stood by the wall for a moment contemplating her actions as Nova received a scolding from Lexa. Nova had been hopeless for far too long cause she was always watching Irina and attempting to mimic her, in truth no one could mimic Irina but rather Irina mimicked other people in order to create a style that threw all sorts of styles together. Surprisingly enough her and Nova were a lot alike yet held a fundamental difference, Nova had joy, a luxury Irina had never felt in any walk of life she may have had, all Irina had was purpose.

As if vanishing from her point at the wall she seemed to move fast enough to appear behind Lexa and place a hand on her shoulder without anyone ever seeing her do it. "That's enough, November needs to follow her own path now." Irina said leaving Nova shocked, not because she had been told to follow her own path but because Irina had used her full first name, in fact she had never told Irina her first name which was only known in personal documents.