Something unusual had happened. Emilia had received a letter, and not a threat of some sort from someone who she had angered through various means, no, this letter was of an altogether different nature.
The redheaded warrior grinned. The letter was from her father. She anticipated a test like this of some sort was coming, but she had no idea what sort of test this would be. Touching unusual gems wasn't generally the style of test her father used, but she'd roll with it. It was a long journey, but she was able to complete it. The fact that the tower was fairly close to the Sabertooth guildhall meant it wasn't too far. Still, climbing the mountain and tower did take a lot of time and energy. She finally reached the top and looked around. Most would have probably ogled at the view for a good long time, making sure to take in every bit of it, but not Emilia. She was here for a reason. She shrugged off the view and touched the gem. Her vision flashed white, and she suddenly found herself in her home. Not the Sabertooth guildhall, but her true home, her first home, the company hall of the Dawn City Union. In front of her stood her father, dressed in his full plate armor, the tip of his longsword stuck slightly in the floor and his hands resting on the pommel. He looked young, no older than 35, when he was at his peak, just before he had lost his leg in a mission gone awry.
“Abou' time you got here. I better 'ave won 'cause of the mail, 'cause if a cripple with one leg can bea' you up a mou'ain, then we migh' as well jus' skip this little test and take back mah mace.” He chuckled “Anywho, welcome t' the Time Gem, Emilia. Pretty crappy name, eh? Bu' name's ain' so impor'an' now are they? The impor'an' thing is tha' i' lets ya 'Learn with your master once more.' Well here I am. Now le's see if you're worthy of using tha' mace.”
“Yeah, whatever. Let's get this over with dad.” She said, drawing Trauma. “I can beat you, even when you were in your prime. Your force magic has always been weak as hell!” She raised the weapon.
“Maybe, but I be' I'm still a better figh'er than you. Besides I never was your only master, was I? Sure, I taugh' you a lo', bu' so did the others. Don' worry though, they're all here.”
“They?” Emilia paused for a moment, then charged at Jax, who simply stood his ground and grinned as the floor collapsed beneath Emilia. She tried to propel herself out of the hole with a spell, but found herself unable to use magic. She tumbled into the abyss, flailing in frustration at her father's refusal of a fight. Though the anger was soon replaced by confusion as she found herself in a training room, without armor or weapons, just simple training clothing. In front of her stood a man she recognized. “Zwei, the hell are you doing here?”
“Heh, not quite sure. Pretty sure I died years ago. Something something Time Gem, I'm your old mentor. Blah blah blah, now I'm here.” He smirked. “And as your first teacher, I'll be the first to fight you.” He cracked his knuckles. “Now missie, let's see if you remember anything about fighting with your fists since you got that fancy mace of yours.”
((Fight theme))
He rushed at her to grapple her. At 6'7”, he was over a foot taller than Emilia, and much wider. He certainly had a size advantage, but Emilia was faster. She ducked under and sidestepped him, giving him a hard elbow to the ribs as she did so. He grunted and turned to face her again. “That all you got?” He swung at her and she ducked again to punch him in the gut, but he gave almost no reaction and brought a fist down onto her back hard, flooring and winding her. She had no time to recover though, having to roll as he aimed to stomp her while she was on the ground. She managed to get back up to her feet. Zwei grinned at her. “Not bad, Missie, but you barely even touched me.”
Emilia grunted and moved herself into a defensive posture. Attacking Zwei head-on would be fruitless. She was faster than him, but he had far too much reach for her to get past. No, she would have to wait for him to strike, then counter. He was coming closer to her now. He swung his leg out for a kick. She stepped back to avoid it. He advanced further, aiming for her with a quick jab that she ducked under. She landed three swift hits on his stomach as a counter, giving her another moment to strike as he reacted, she landed an uppercut square to the bottom of his jaw, sending him staggering back. Before he could react further, she jumped at him, delivering a powerful kick to his chest, knocking him back against the wall. He coughed, winded. They both rested now for a moment, catching their breaths after the hits they had both taken. Zwei spat out a tooth and looked at it in his hand. “Damn, girl.” He chuckled. “Just when I'd gotten it back tha- UUH.”
While the sentimental idiot had distracted himself with his tooth, Emilia took the opportunity to run in and strike, driving her elbow hard into his stomach. She did so again swiftly, though with a bit less force. She landed a right hook against his jaw. She had him against a wall now. With nowhere for him to back out of her flurry, she connected hit after hit, landing several more punches in his gut before he grabbed her by the shoulders, simply trying to distance her from him. She raised her feet and kicked him square in the chest, pushing herself out of his grip and onto the ground, where she hopped back up. Zwei was coughing now. Emilia knew she could win this. She grinned with satisfaction. “Had enough?”
“Enough? Girl, I'm just getting warmed up!” And so he ran at her again, seeming completely revitalized. After what seemed like hours, possibly days of exchanging blows, the two were getting tired. Their wounds seemed to hurt more, and it was then that Emilia realized that something about this place made battles move more slowly. Injuries were less severe and one didn't fatigue as quickly. But it was slowly accelerating. The longer they went on, the less protection they each had. Suddenly, an opening. The two had separated for a moment and now Zwei charged at her. Reckless. She dodged out of his attempt to tackle her. “You're slow, old man. You can't keep up.” She waited for him to try to strike at her again. When he threw a punch, she took hold of his arm. It was time to end this. She smashed her other forearm into his elbow, pulling his hand in the opposite direction to break the limb. Zwei groaned in pain and tried to swing at her with his free arm, but she ducked under it before stomping on the side of his knee, bending it to the side painfully. She grabbed onto his shirt now, pulling him in to headbutt him in the nose. He staggered back, barely able to stand. She ran up and kicked him down with a powerful kick to the chest.
Zwei now lie on the ground, utterly defeated, rolling and groaning in pain, yet no exit appeared. She growled and walked over to Zwei, kicking him in the ribs and stomping on his stomach. “Where's the GODDAMN exit?!?!” He coughed. “Gettin' a little mad there, Missie, ain't ya?” He chuckled. Having none of it, Emilia straddled him and began punching his face and bashing his head against the ground. Suddenly, with one hit, the floor cracked. With another, it cracked more, and with a third, a gaping hole now broke in the floor. Zwei, barely conscious, managed to cough out. “Ya' did it, Missie.”
Emilia stood, staring into the abyss once more. “Well, first level of hell done, then? Let's find out who comes next.” She jumped down the hole, her wounds vanishing as she did so. She fell through a black emptiness for a time before landing in another training room only to immediately be greeted by a staff flying towards her. She caught it just in time to realize what was going on and block an attack from a new assailant and respond by kicking the woman in the chest, staggering her. It was only now that she recognized the woman. “Aisha...”
“Heard you use Valkyrie now, let's see if using her has improved your skills.” The woman grinned at Emilia, knowing full well that Emi had never beaten her before. Spears and staves were never really Emilia's strong suit, which is why she asked for Valkyrie, wanting to practice with them since they were very effective weapons. “Well come on then, let's see what you've got.” And so the fight began.
((Fight theme))
Emilia circled Aisha cautiously, whirling her staff a bit to get a feel for its weight before moving in for a strike. Her opponent easily blocked it and countered, sweeping Emilia's legs from under her, toppling her. She grunted as she landed, but grinned. Aisha was all about technique, and was likely expecting Emilia to be more restricted to technique as well, giving that Aisha had taught her, but even with the weapons she was weaker with, improvisation was key to her fighting style. She kicked Aisha in the knees and rolled away to get up again. Her magic may not work in here, but her muscles and bones were still adapted to the massive forces they normally experienced, still making her stronger than most humans.
“Unorthodox...” Aisha said before charging at Emilia, hitting her with a flurry of blows. Emilia parried some, but was unable to counter. Instead, she struck Aisha through the flurry of blows, hitting her in the ribs. She then cross-checked her in the chest before catching her across the jaw with another strike, sending the woman sprawling. This fight was going better than expected, though Emilia had no trouble figuring out why. Aisha was fast and light. She focused on avoiding blows while Emilia had trained herself to be able to take them easily. Aisha was expecting her to parry and counter, not to simply strike through her attacks. Additionally, because Aisha focused on parrying and countering, she was rather bad at taking a hit, so each hit that did connect did a lot of damage. They were still fighting with staves for now, giving Emilia the edge, when they switched to spears it would be a different story, since the stabbing and piercing was a lot more effective against flesh than the bluntness of the staves. For now, Emilia would have to push on Aisha's weaknesses and hope that this place wouldn't heal them when they switched to spears. They fought for some time, trading blows here and there. Still, this place had its effect on them, though less so than in her fight with Zwei. The rush of battle made Emilia grin as she charged at Aisha, battering at the woman's defenses and soldiering through her counters for the last time. She fought finesse with force, her attacks bludgeoning through Aisha's guards after only a few strikes.
Aisha was unable to counter when faced with the fury of Emilia's blows, they quickly brought her down, but Emilia did not relent. She had to crush her opponent completely, ensure her victory. After a moment of Emilia beating Aisha, the woman cried out “ENOUGH!” And suddenly they were standing across the room from each other, each holding a spear.
“Your method of using staves is crude, yet effective. Though now we'll see how you fair with something that requires a little more finesse.” Her wounds now healed, Aisha advanced on Emilia, thrusting with her spear. Emilia sidestepped and slashed at her leg, but Aisha parried with the butt-end and countered with a downward swing. Emi tried to step back to avoid it, but it caught her across the chest. She grunted in pain. Aisha grinned smugly at her as she advanced once more. She thrust again, but Emilia battered her spear to the side and charged straight into the woman, her shoulder colliding with Aisha's chest. “RAAAAAAH” Emilia screamed as she carried the smaller woman along until she rammed into the far wall at nearly full speed, painfully bashing the woman against the wall and driving her shoulder into her chest. She headbutt her, then shifted herself and threw Aisha onto the ground before stomping on her weapon hand, pinning it and the spear to the ground, she leveled the spear tip on the woman's throat, she had her pinned and with her weapon on a vital area that even the magic of this place couldn't protect so effectively.
“You dance to much, go back to ballerina school.”
Aisha growled at Emilia. “Well, I guess you can use spears effectively, if in an uncivilized manner.”
“Nothing about fighting is civilized. That's why I like it.” Emilia grinned.
“Very well, you may go on.”
Emilia stepped off of Aisha's hand and allowed the woman to stand. She through her spear into the wall, opening another portal. “Go on.” Emilia smiled at Aisha tauntingly before stepping through the portal only to be greeted by a rubber duck bouncing off of her head. “What th-” Her question was cut short by a grape placing itself in her mouth perfectly. She spit it out and sighed. “Doug...”
“OI! That's Doug, the Magnificent Master of All Things Thrown to you!”
“God damn it Doug.” Emilia facepalmed. This guy had been amusing when she was a kid, but by now his antics were just plain annoying. Despite this, Emilia had a genuine fear of this battle. Doug was indeed skilled, and Emilia had not practiced her thrown weaponry at all, preferring instead to get up close and personal, and her magic was still cut off, so she had no good means to close the distance.
“Now then, you ready?” He asked as she looked around, getting her bearings. There were various tables to use as cover and platforms to jump and climb onto if one was quick enough in order to avoid melee. All around the sides of the room, on tables and hanging on the walls were tables of various thrown weapons. Spears, javelins, throwing stars, chakrams, throwing knives, almost anything one could think of. In the center of the room there stood a pedestal, atop said pedestal lie three bombs and a lighter. Those would be necessary to beat this guy.
((Fight theme))
“Aye.” Emilia answered, and with that they both dashed for the nearest table. Emilia was faster, picking up a knife and throwing it at Doug. He avoided it and responded with two, thrown in such a way that they had no rotation, and as such could be deadly at almost any range. Emilia ducked below them and ran to cover. She probably would have to use one of the bombs to kill him. Drive him behind cover and then toss a bomb over. She looked out from behind cover to see Doug moving towards the bombs. He clearly had the same strategy. She threw another knife at him and he jumped back, returning fire once again. Emilia dodged it again, grabbing a spear as she did so. This could come in quite handy. He threw another, but she deflected it with the spear. Still holding a knife, she threw it at Doug. He took cover once again, avoiding the attack.
Emilia had an idea, then. She examined the tables that were used for cover. All the same. None too thick, a knife could still pierce one through the cover if he stuck too close to it. She better be more careful. She picked up some shurikens and waited, slowly approaching the bombs. Doug stood up to try to take aim, but Emilia quickly sent him back down with a hail of stars.
“Damn girl, your aim needs improvement. Then again, you were always one to use the strategy of 'Throw more so I can hit more,' weren't you?” He stood up again and threw another knife, Emilia moved to dodge, but it clipped her shoulder cutting it. He threw another that caught her in the ribs, but luckily didn't go between them. She pulled it as she took cover once more out so it wouldn't get in her way. Sure, she would bleed, but she intended to end this fight before she bled out, as did Doug.
Seeing his possible opportunity, Doug made a dash for the bombs, but wasn't fast enough, Emilia sprang up with shurikens once more, hitting him with a few and forcing him back again. It seemed to be a stalemate, with both of them hiding behind cover, a few knives being thrown here or there, but with the magic of the time gem, they didn't seem to matter much as their wounds healed quickly. Emilia considered bringing out the big guns: spears and javelins, but the time didn't seem right. She couldn't keep this up though, in the long run, Doug would win, since he was getting more hits on her than she was on him. If she couldn't out-throw him, she'd have to outsmart him. She glanced at the bombs. The fuses were fairly long. One would have to let them burn for a bit to ensure that the other person couldn't throw them back or away. She grinned as an idea came to mind. Doug was behind cover for the moment. They had moved a few times, and now several tables were pincushions of knives, shurikens, and a javelin or two, and were mostly falling apart. She ran and grabbed some javelins and spears, keeping them next to her.
Doug came out from behind cover and threw some more knives at her, but she dove back behind her own table. Now came the real test. Doug ran over and grabbed one of the bombs and a lighter. Emilia came back up and threw a knife, catching him in the leg, but he managed to still run back behind another table. With the room situated the way it was, one couldn't run up to one of the tables being used for cover without being seen by the person behind it, as they were elevated such that one would have to climb a small wall to perform a frontal approach, but Emilia had no intention of going into melee. She vaulted over her cover into the open, landing at the base of her wall with a dull thud, spears in hand. Doug was lighting the bomb, but she knew he would wait to throw it. She saw a small amount of smoke rise from behind one of the tables and moved so she was facing it straight on. With that, she threw a spear with all of her might a few feet below the smoke to be answered by a shriek of pain and the dull thud of the bomb falling from Doug's hands. Doug seemed to have forgotten how thin the tables were, and had forgotten Emilia's strength. “Surprise!” She threw another, and was answered by another yelp. The put one more in her right hand, then raising both, she took a step and threw the final two spears at the table, impaling Doug from behind once more. He was a skilled thrower, but couldn't take a hit very well, and probably didn't have the strength of body nor will to pull the barbed spears out of himself. Emilia cackled sadistically. “So long Doug, I know this place brought you from your grave, and it's about time you went back there.” Emilia said, starting to walk towards one of the stairways up the wall as the bomb exploded, scattering bits of spears, the table, and Doug about a small area. A hole was blown in the wall as well, revealing, of course, another portal to her next mentor. Who would it be? Cestus, her axe tutor? Ulfr, the one who trained her to use a mace or flail? Her mother? No, she would probably be one of the last ones, and for that she would likely have her magic... and be using daggers. She scowled, that was not exactly a good mix for her, but still, she would be able to fight her mother fairly well, given her fighting style. It tended to be thrown off a bit when explosions were introduced. This was getting tiresome, though, she wanted to fight her father and get this over with. She stepped through the portal.
No surprises greeted her through the portal, no combatant ready to fight. In front of her stood her mother, in plain clothes, just as Emilia was. She smiled to her daughter. “You've grown... well a bit anyway.” Emilia said nothing, but made a face of disapproval over the comment about her height. Her mother just chuckled. “Come now, sit down and have a rest.” She gestured to a chair nearby. “You've been fighting for over two days now, and the time gem can only do so much to prevent damage,” She grinned, “and we know you're going to need its protection when fighting me.” Aysen sat down, not waiting for Emilia to sit. “Go on, I'm not going to fight you yet. You need time to recover. Patience never was your strong suit, was it?” Emilia looked at the chair a moment before sitting down.
“So, did you have a good time with Zwei, Aisha, and Doug?”
“Yeah, I suppose. Doug was annoying as always, but it was still good to see him again. Still, I don't get why the hell Dad is making me go though this crap. There's more to it than making sure I'm 'worthy'.”
Aysen smiled knowingly, “You already know our plans for you.”
“Yeah yeah, revive the Union and all that.”
“This will help. There's a lot you have to learn.”
“By beating my old tutors? And when they're barely trying?!?!”
“Ah, so you realized it.”
“Realized it? Aisha was a pushover. This bullshit is just pissing me off.”
“Good. Keep that anger, you'll need it for your father.”
“But WHY aren't you guys trying?” Emilia demanded.
“Well, some of us are.” Aysen winked at Emi. “Aisha was, Zwei wasn't, and Doug wasn't, he was just forgetful regarding your strength and the thickness of those tables. I probably won't, since you'll have your magic for this fight.”
“Good. I'm eager to have an actual fight.”
“You will soon enough, eat for now, rest. Zwei, Aisha, and Doug will join us. We'll have a nice meal, get caught up, and then fight, sound good?”
Emilia just grunted in affirmation. That sounded okay, though she was getting impatient. She came here to fight, not tell stories to dead people. Soon the others arrived and sat down with them. A table appeared, damn this place was trippy. They had some dinner: steak, mashed potatoes, beans, and of course, beer.
“So, go on Missie, tell us what ya've done.”
Emilia sighed, she hadn't done a whole lot. “Well... let's see, I saved a puppy from vulcans, stopped a vulcan and a goblin from holding up the train to clover town, got my passport, aaand fought some weird monster thing that tore up a troop of Rune Knights. A few other jobs here and there, not much really. Being in a guild ain't all people crack it up to be. Still, they give me room and board for free, so I got that going for me, which is nice. I suppose part of the reason for the insignificant jobs is my eh... lack of focus on magic. They always go on and on about how you need to be a more powerful mage to handle certain jobs. I call bull, you guys did plenty of mage's jobs without any magic. Bah, whatever.”
“Don't worry about it, Emilia, just practice magic, then you can smash their faces in.” Aisha reassured her with a rather unexpected smile.
“Says the one who held back in a fight against me.”
“A spear and staff only fight. We both know you're not so good with those. At least not the way I taught you. You're far better off with a spear and shield, but you learned that on your own.”
Emilia grunted again, not having much else to say. “So... how long do we have to wait here?”
“A few more hours.”
Emilia sighed. They had talked about everything they wanted to already and apparently she was just supposed to sit here for “A few more hours”. This was bullcrap. She wanted to fight now. More importantly, she wanted to fight Jax, not Aysen. Zwei, or any of her other mentors. She wanted to beat her father here and now and watch him hobble all the way down the mountain on that peg leg of his. She fidgeted impatiently as they waited, evoking a smile from Aysen, who knew full well that this impatience was a good thing. Not in regards to her being able to defeat Emilia, but in regards to Emilia's future. That impatience, that lust for battle would be needed if she was to unlock her full potential. She would learn to use it somewhat in this fight, the way of the berserker, though a different sort of beserker than one might think. The technique Emilia would learn would be to use her emotions to tap into her soul to grand her strength. But that was only the beginning, her father would have to take it further, to teach her not only to use her own soul, but to use her enemy's soul as well. Still, that was for him to teach her. For now Aysen had to elicit a strong enough emotional response from Emilia for her to tap into its energy. It shouldn't be too hard. That really was the wonderful thing for this magic technique, Emilia was such a hothead that it should work perfectly.
Aysen rose from her seat, her armor and knives appearing in her hands.
“Well, I do believe it's time.”
((Aysen's armor, Emilia's armor, Fight theme))
“Finally.” Emilia responded, rising as well. Leather armor took the place of the clothes on her body and a dagger appeared in her hand. She felt the weight for a moment before taking a ready stance. The tables disappeared and the walls narrowed, leaving them in a close-quarters fight. Her other mentors disappeared as well to god knows where. She felt her magic return to her as well and grinned. The close quarters would make it difficult for her mother to avoid her spells. She waited for her mother's approach now. The woman took a few steps and was gone. Shit... Emilia knew where she was. She didn't have time to turn around, she simply cast a Force Pulse from her back and heard a satisfying grunt as her mother was launched away from her. She turned and grinned at the woman. “You didn't think you could get behind me that easy, did you?” She and her mother began circling each other now. Both held their knives forward, taking an offensive stance. Aysen because she was never defensively focused, and Emilia because she knew this about her mother. The woman's weakness was in defense, and as such, pressing the offense would be the best way to beat her. Emilia went in for a slash, feinting, but using Projection to still attack. The small blue wave of force magic took Aysen by surprise, cutting her across the leg, eliciting a groan of pain from her. The two continued to dance around each other, making feints and testing each other's defenses. Aysen lashed out, cutting Emilia twice before Emilia could grapple her. Neither were able to get any stabs or slashes in during their grapple, but they were able to trade punches and kicks, though Emilia's were more effective given her increased strength. Still, they both recovered from the attacks quickly, given the nature of the Time Gem. It wouldn't let any fight blow over quickly, that's for sure.
Emilia attacked again, feinting, then charging into Aysen with Bullheaded, sending her flying into a wall. She followed up with Ricochet, bashing into her again before charging in on her stunned mother, getting two good stabs in, but she was able to retaliate with attacks of her own. Emilia stepped back after the scuffle, both of them were bleeding, but grinning, not in pain, but in a mixture of adrenaline, excitement, and bloodlust. They moved in on each other once more, the pace of their fight accelerating. Another slash, another stab, another feint. Her mother teleported and used her shadow magic to fakeout and strike at Emilia several more times. An hour or two of fighting later, they stood across from one another, grinning and bloodied. The more injured Aysen was, the harder she seemed to fight, and better she could withstand the wounds. The respite was brief before they began circling once more. Aysen was taking the offensive now, trying to push Emilia against the wall. The Force Mage wouldn't let that happen though. Again, she used Force Pulse, blasting Aysen away, who responded by teleporting back into position, only to take a bullrush from Emilia's bullheaded spell. With Aysen on the ground, Emilia took an opportunity to deal a good bit of damage. She ran and leaped, landing on top of Aysen with her 200 lbs of weight, painfully striking her stomach, and leaped off before the woman could react. Aysen was quick to get back up though, despite the damage that had been done. She spat out some blood from biting her tongue and wiped her face. “Is that all you've got, my girl? I must say I'm disappointed in you.”
“Less talking, more fighting.” Was Emilia's only response as she slashed with her knife, projecting it with her magic, moving in just behind it. Aysen took the hit in order to properly defend herself against Emilia's assault, ducking and dodging around her and creating shadows to block her blade. Emilia was a bit too aggressive now, and left an opening. Aysen took it, aiming to slide her knife neatly between Emilia's ribs and into her heart, but as the blow landed, the knife stopped dead, not penetrating in the slightest. Emilia wasted no time in grabbing hold of Aysen's arm and headbutting her, utilizing the force of her own attack against her through Redirection. Emilia tried to stab her mother in the stomach, but she managed to teleport out of it, leaving a shadowy copy of herself that struck at Emilia with a set of claws, tearing at her face before disappearing. Aysen stabbed Emilia in the back now. With a growl, Emi reached behind her back, her arm tightening around her mother. She leaned forward and threw her down onto the ground in front of her with a painful thud. She dropped to her knees now and raised her own to try to bring it down into her mother's chest, but her mother intercepted it by raising her hands and creating spikes from shadow. Emilia's arm was impaled on them as she brought it down. Emilia groaned before punching Aysen hard in the face with her other hand after empowering it with Power Play. She smashed her again and again before getting up and staggering back, then reaching behind her to remove the knife, having dropped her own.
They both rested for a moment, both too injured to want to take any risks. Aysen spoke up. “How about we call this the end of round one?”
Emilia scowled, but nodded. “Fine. I suppose I could use a rest.”
Their armor and weapons disappeared. Emilia sat down on the floor, resting and waiting for her wounds to heal, and her mother sat across from her.
“Not a bad fight. You still have a lot to learn.”
“I'd say I'm holding my own pretty well.”
“Explosions make it easy for one to hold her own.”
“Oi! I did fine without them... mostly.”
Aysen just blinked and shook her head. “Fine, whatever. How are your wounds? Mine are almost healed.”
“Getting there.” They waited a few minutes before Aysen stood up. Emilia stood up after her mother.
“Now let's see how you do with something a bit more advanced.” A smile stretched across her mother's face as a short sword, about two feet in length appeared in her right hand and a smaller dagger in her left. A similar pair of weapons appeared in Emilia's hands. “Less grabbing this time.” Her mother teased, knowing full well that grappling was part of the reason Emilia was able to hold up so well. She and Emilia both raised their weapons and waited a moment for the other to move. It was Aysen that made the first move, stepping closer to Emilia, who then thrust with her short sword, using Projection to transmit the force at her mother, but she managed to sidestep it. Aysen was unable to capitalize on the movement, though, since it was swift and simple, Emilia was back into a defensive position before the woman reached her. She swung at Emilia anyway, who parried with her dagger and tried to counter-attack, though this was blocked by her mother's own dagger. Emilia quickly brought up a foot, giving her mother a firm kick to the stomach, sending her staggering back. She followed up on the opening, attacking with both the short sword and the dagger, but her mother teleported behind her to avoid it, forcing Emilia to block her attack with Redirection. She attempted to slash her as she turned around, unleashing the force she absorbed from the attack, but her mother moved backwards to avoid it. The two circled each other once more. Emilia had to use the force she stored soon or it would detonate on her. With this in mind, she took the offensive with both weapons once again, slashing at her mother several times. She parried or dodged each strike, and went to try to counter Emilia. As soon as her mother's blade made contact with her, she released the force she had absorbed. With that force being approximately equal to her current strike, the blade stopped dead. Caught with her arm extended, her shortsword harmlessly pressed against Emilia's side, Aysen tried to defend herself, but was unable to properly do so, as Emilia brought the dagger up, cutting a deep gash into Aysen's arm. Emilia thrust forward with her short sword, but her mother managed to barely dodge out of the way. She was on the defensive now, as Emilia immediately followed up with strike after strike from her short sword and dagger. She drove Aysen against the wall before detonating a Force Pulse, blasting her back against it and breaking what little defenses she could keep up, she slammed into the wall with a grunt and looked up at Emilia, a sly grin on her face as her daughter moved to deliver the killing blow as she invoked their bloodline: The Curse of the White Witch. A pulse of white chaos energy burst from her eyes, slamming Emilia in the chest, stopping her in pain as the unstable mana wreaked havoc on her body for a second or two, but that was all Aysen needed to get back in the fight. She blinked behind Emilia and slashed at her as she tried to turn around. The tables had turned, Emilia was now being pressed against the wall. Strike followed strike from Aysen, Emilia's defenses were barely able to keep up with her attacks.
Her mother laughed as she continued her relentless assault, relishing in the thrill of battle. “Come on, Emilia, aren't you having fun?!” She cackled again as she began to use more of her magic, creating disembodied hands with weapons or claws to attack in addition to her own, breaking through Emilia's defenses and giving her multiple lacerations through her leather armor. “Are you just going to sit here and take it?” She punched Emilia, sending her staggering along the wall before continuing her assault. Emilia growled viciously, angry that she couldn't defend herself properly, and had barely gotten any good hits on her mother. “That's right girl, get angry!” Aysen said as she swung at her daughter, slashing her once more. Emilia tried to cast Force Pulse to get out of it, but it was now that she realized, under her mother's assault, that her blades were not the same as Emilia's. No, the weapons she used were her own in life, and specially enchanted to help her to kill other mages should she enter a drawn-out fight with them. They accomplished this by sapping their magical power with each hit. Emilia managed to parry most of the attacks against her, still, the few that had landed were enough to sap nearly all of her mana. She didn't have enough energy left to get out of this using a Force Pulse. “You... bitch!” Her mother cackled again as she went in for a stab that was barely deflected by Emilia. She had been expecting a relatively fair fight, with equal equipment. Granted, she shouldn't have. No one in her family was known for fighting fair. Still, she seethed with rage over it. Her mother knew just how advantageous Emi's magic would be in their duel, so she chose her weapons to counter it. “Fuck YOU!”
And then she did it. Emilia cast a spell. With almost no magical power left, she cast Bullheaded. This spell wasn't powered entirely by mana. Some other source of energy fueled it. Something from her soul, not her body as rage clouded her thoughts. And that was just it, just what her mother was trying to teach her. The energy of the soul, harnessed through strong emotions. This was the way of the berserker. With no room for Aysen to react, Emilia slammed into her mother, the impact almost equivalent to being in a car accident, without a seat belt, hitting a tree at around 60 miles per hour. Emilia's rage-empowered spell sent her mother flying backwards as she continued on with a small amount of momentum. Her mother slammed into the opposite wall with a sickening thud. Emilia wasn't done though, in her frenzy, she followed after her mother with Ricochet, aiming to crush her between her own body and the wall, or impale her with her blades. As she charged at the wounded woman, she disappeared. Emilia expected Aysen to appear behind her to try to take her by surprise again. She quickly shifted herself to bounce off the wall, flipping over in midair only to see her mother was gone. She landed and looked around, but she saw nothing. The room they were in had suddenly gotten a lot darker. “You learn quickly. I guess I'm going to have to really step up my game.”
Her mother's voice spoke from all around her. What the hell was this? She'd never seen Aysen do anything like this. She looked around, readying her blades, adrenaline pumping through her system, sending every nerve alight with activity. Her muscles were tense, ready to spring at even the slightest signal. She heard her mother again, now laughter echoing in the dark corridor. “What's the matter, never seen me use this before?”
Suddenly, the darkness itself lashed out at Emilia, slashing and bludgeoning her with blades and club-like tendrils. She staggered back, but luckily no followup came. She tried to slash out at them, but her blades simply passed through harmlessly. More laughter. “You didn't really think I was going all out on you, did you?” Beads of sweat dripped down Emilia's face. Her mother was never this powerful, was she? If she was then... then just how strong was her father really? Nevermind that. She could deal with that later, she had to deal with her mother right now. Where the hell was she? Was she the darkness or somehow hiding inside of it? Or was she just farther away controlling it?
The shadows struck again, but this time Emilia attacked the tendrils that moved in, her blade deflecting them instead of just passing through. It seemed when they solidified to attack, it also meant they could be blocked. Both attacks had come from the same direction. She looked and noticed that the shadows coming from her other side were separated from the other by a small amount of light, while everything now in front of her was connected. That must be her limit, and the direction she teleported in. Emilia grit her teeth and charged, bellowing out her rage a she did so. The shadows congealed around her, trying to hold back her movement, but she had become a rage-filled juggernaut. It would take more than enchanted shadows to keep her at bay. The darkness quickly went from binding to grating to cutting, but the battle-euphoric pain-train that was Emilia could not be stopped. By now she was bleeding from many cuts along her face and body, but she did not mind the pain, no, it only fueled her to fight even harder. She reached her mother now. The foolish woman was still trying to use her shadow technique to stop Emilia. Her eyes were closed, channeling the spell. Emilia didn't even think, she simply acted. She threw her knife and short sword at Aysen, who only now opened her eyes and tried to dodge them. The sword nicked her arm while the dagger buried itself in her leg. Emilia pounced, tackling her mother. Knives were no longer necessary. The much heavier, stronger daughter easily toppled her slim, agile mother, knocking the wind out of her. Her head slammed against the floor with a sickening crack. Emilia raised a fist and brought it down on Aysen's face. Again now, with her other hand. Her merciless beating did not last long, however, as Aysen's own rage-fueled vigor left her able to somehow tolerate it. Her dagger still in hand, she raised it and plunged the blade into Emilia's side, slipping it between her ribs with expert precision. Emilia paused a moment as her lung was punctured by the dagger before it slid out of her, then back in, puncturing the lung a second time. The knife remained inside as Aysen's hand released it and curled into a fist to reach up, striking Emilia in the face, knocking her off. Emilia's rage was spent. Only fatigue remained as the true extent of her injuries seeped into her. Aysen stood up. “Not bad, for your first blood rage.” She said. “But still not enough.” She raised a foot to take a step towards her short sword, then another, staggering in pain, dizzy from blood loss and concussion. She took one more step before collapsing somewhat. She held her upper body up with her hands. Her head lolled around for a moment “Damn... you hit me harder than I thought.” Her arms gave way now and she collapsed completely.
The two fighters now lie on the ground, panting with exhaustion and pain. The bloodlust spent within both of them, the fury that had kept them going far beyond their normal capabilities as not only humans, but mages as well, had died down. Both of them lost consciousness, their world going dark. Emilia awoke slowly, Aysen with her. They both stood up, their weapons gone. Her mother grinned at her. “You technically haven't beaten me.”
“Fuck you.”
Aysen just grinned and chuckled. “You came close enough, though, so I guess I'll let you pass. Besides, you learned what you needed to from me. You can go on. You won't have your magic for your next opponents, but you'll still have what you learned here, well some of it. Rage isn't entirely magical. Now go on, and good luck. You might be better with the other weapons, but the other guys are gonna be less of pushovers than I am.” Emilia nodded, she knew what was coming, well not what was coming immediately, but what would come eventually. She guessed she'd have three people to fight before her father, three more mentors. The one that taught her to use an axe, the one who taught her swordsmanship, and the one who taught her to wield hammers and maces.
A portal opened up behind Aysen, appearing exactly the same as the ones she had gone through before. These upcoming mentors would be for weapons she focused on more, and as such, would have more to talk to her about. They also knew her style better, and were more skilled warriors, despite the fact that they didn't have any magical abilities, Emilia would likely need her own magic, or her newly found rage to defeat them. She wondered which would come first: Tristan, the swordsman, Cestus, her axe mentor, or Ulfr, the man who taught her how to use blunt weapons. She took a deep breath and stepped through. Her wounds were healed as she did so.
As she stepped through the portal, she was greeted by a young man, only a year or two older than her. His brown hair was cut short and he had some scruff on his face, a short, though somewhat poorly trimmed beard. It was Tristan, the one who first taught Emilia to use a sword. He wasn't nearly as skilled as her father, and fought with a different style. He preferred to be lighter on his feet and more lightly armored, unlike Emilia and Jax who dressed in full heavy armor, preferring to be able to better take hits rather than to simply dodge and block. “Your mama give you some trouble, Emi?” He asked with a grin. “You were in there for a while.”
“Well, she had me rest, first. And you know her, she's slippery. Wasn't too hard of a fight, she was just annoying to catch.”
“Heh, right. Well, let's see what you've learned. I hope she taught you something new, if not, then I'll have to be the one to do that, and you know how shitty of a teacher I am.” He rocked back and forth on his heels. His hands rested on the pommel of his longsword, the tip of which rested in the ground. Emilia looked around the location. They were in a town, Dawn City to be exact. Her home, and the home of the Union. They were just outside the company hall, in the dirt ring in its back yard. “I figured most people were having their fights indoors. I decided to let us get some fresh air... or whatever the hell it is inside this crystal thing.” He chuckled. “So, are ya ready to get started or do you need rest? Maybe need me to rile you up first?” Tristan said with a grin, knowing what Aysen had taught her daughter. He moved a hand from the pommel onto the hilt, then tossed the sword up in the air to flip it before catching it and swinging quickly before falling into the Vom Tag guard. “Oh right, you need a sword, don't ya? Maybe some armor? Done.”
((Fight Theme))
Emilia looked down at herself as she was now the sort of armored clothing , similar to the clothing she wore around normally or on an easy job that didn't require her to wear plate. She twirled and swung her sword a few times to get a feel of the weight, then raised it into the Ochs guard. The two circled each other slowly, making a few feints towards each other, testing their guards. Emilia swung first, stepping forward as she did so. Tristan easily blocked it, swinging his sword not to block, but to strike at Emilia in such a way that it would also intercept Emilia's blade: a master stroke. Emilia responded by half-swording, gripping the blade of her sword and pushing Tristan's blade back. She jabbed at him as he himself went half-sword to block and respond. Emilia parried, moving to grab her opponent's blade to try to disarm him. Having none of this, Tristan thrust their weapons out of the way and ran into her: big mistake. He collided with her harmlessly before she headbutted him in the face, then brought the hilt of her sword up to strike him in the stomach with the guard. He staggered backwards, but quickly righted himself. “Not bad. Now let's see if you can keep that up.”
Emilia,
Go to the Sky Tower and touch the gem at the top. I'll see you there. It's time to see how worthy you are to carry that mace of yours.
-Jax
The redheaded warrior grinned. The letter was from her father. She anticipated a test like this of some sort was coming, but she had no idea what sort of test this would be. Touching unusual gems wasn't generally the style of test her father used, but she'd roll with it. It was a long journey, but she was able to complete it. The fact that the tower was fairly close to the Sabertooth guildhall meant it wasn't too far. Still, climbing the mountain and tower did take a lot of time and energy. She finally reached the top and looked around. Most would have probably ogled at the view for a good long time, making sure to take in every bit of it, but not Emilia. She was here for a reason. She shrugged off the view and touched the gem. Her vision flashed white, and she suddenly found herself in her home. Not the Sabertooth guildhall, but her true home, her first home, the company hall of the Dawn City Union. In front of her stood her father, dressed in his full plate armor, the tip of his longsword stuck slightly in the floor and his hands resting on the pommel. He looked young, no older than 35, when he was at his peak, just before he had lost his leg in a mission gone awry.
“Abou' time you got here. I better 'ave won 'cause of the mail, 'cause if a cripple with one leg can bea' you up a mou'ain, then we migh' as well jus' skip this little test and take back mah mace.” He chuckled “Anywho, welcome t' the Time Gem, Emilia. Pretty crappy name, eh? Bu' name's ain' so impor'an' now are they? The impor'an' thing is tha' i' lets ya 'Learn with your master once more.' Well here I am. Now le's see if you're worthy of using tha' mace.”
“Yeah, whatever. Let's get this over with dad.” She said, drawing Trauma. “I can beat you, even when you were in your prime. Your force magic has always been weak as hell!” She raised the weapon.
“Maybe, but I be' I'm still a better figh'er than you. Besides I never was your only master, was I? Sure, I taugh' you a lo', bu' so did the others. Don' worry though, they're all here.”
“They?” Emilia paused for a moment, then charged at Jax, who simply stood his ground and grinned as the floor collapsed beneath Emilia. She tried to propel herself out of the hole with a spell, but found herself unable to use magic. She tumbled into the abyss, flailing in frustration at her father's refusal of a fight. Though the anger was soon replaced by confusion as she found herself in a training room, without armor or weapons, just simple training clothing. In front of her stood a man she recognized. “Zwei, the hell are you doing here?”
“Heh, not quite sure. Pretty sure I died years ago. Something something Time Gem, I'm your old mentor. Blah blah blah, now I'm here.” He smirked. “And as your first teacher, I'll be the first to fight you.” He cracked his knuckles. “Now missie, let's see if you remember anything about fighting with your fists since you got that fancy mace of yours.”
((Fight theme))
He rushed at her to grapple her. At 6'7”, he was over a foot taller than Emilia, and much wider. He certainly had a size advantage, but Emilia was faster. She ducked under and sidestepped him, giving him a hard elbow to the ribs as she did so. He grunted and turned to face her again. “That all you got?” He swung at her and she ducked again to punch him in the gut, but he gave almost no reaction and brought a fist down onto her back hard, flooring and winding her. She had no time to recover though, having to roll as he aimed to stomp her while she was on the ground. She managed to get back up to her feet. Zwei grinned at her. “Not bad, Missie, but you barely even touched me.”
Emilia grunted and moved herself into a defensive posture. Attacking Zwei head-on would be fruitless. She was faster than him, but he had far too much reach for her to get past. No, she would have to wait for him to strike, then counter. He was coming closer to her now. He swung his leg out for a kick. She stepped back to avoid it. He advanced further, aiming for her with a quick jab that she ducked under. She landed three swift hits on his stomach as a counter, giving her another moment to strike as he reacted, she landed an uppercut square to the bottom of his jaw, sending him staggering back. Before he could react further, she jumped at him, delivering a powerful kick to his chest, knocking him back against the wall. He coughed, winded. They both rested now for a moment, catching their breaths after the hits they had both taken. Zwei spat out a tooth and looked at it in his hand. “Damn, girl.” He chuckled. “Just when I'd gotten it back tha- UUH.”
While the sentimental idiot had distracted himself with his tooth, Emilia took the opportunity to run in and strike, driving her elbow hard into his stomach. She did so again swiftly, though with a bit less force. She landed a right hook against his jaw. She had him against a wall now. With nowhere for him to back out of her flurry, she connected hit after hit, landing several more punches in his gut before he grabbed her by the shoulders, simply trying to distance her from him. She raised her feet and kicked him square in the chest, pushing herself out of his grip and onto the ground, where she hopped back up. Zwei was coughing now. Emilia knew she could win this. She grinned with satisfaction. “Had enough?”
“Enough? Girl, I'm just getting warmed up!” And so he ran at her again, seeming completely revitalized. After what seemed like hours, possibly days of exchanging blows, the two were getting tired. Their wounds seemed to hurt more, and it was then that Emilia realized that something about this place made battles move more slowly. Injuries were less severe and one didn't fatigue as quickly. But it was slowly accelerating. The longer they went on, the less protection they each had. Suddenly, an opening. The two had separated for a moment and now Zwei charged at her. Reckless. She dodged out of his attempt to tackle her. “You're slow, old man. You can't keep up.” She waited for him to try to strike at her again. When he threw a punch, she took hold of his arm. It was time to end this. She smashed her other forearm into his elbow, pulling his hand in the opposite direction to break the limb. Zwei groaned in pain and tried to swing at her with his free arm, but she ducked under it before stomping on the side of his knee, bending it to the side painfully. She grabbed onto his shirt now, pulling him in to headbutt him in the nose. He staggered back, barely able to stand. She ran up and kicked him down with a powerful kick to the chest.
Zwei now lie on the ground, utterly defeated, rolling and groaning in pain, yet no exit appeared. She growled and walked over to Zwei, kicking him in the ribs and stomping on his stomach. “Where's the GODDAMN exit?!?!” He coughed. “Gettin' a little mad there, Missie, ain't ya?” He chuckled. Having none of it, Emilia straddled him and began punching his face and bashing his head against the ground. Suddenly, with one hit, the floor cracked. With another, it cracked more, and with a third, a gaping hole now broke in the floor. Zwei, barely conscious, managed to cough out. “Ya' did it, Missie.”
Emilia stood, staring into the abyss once more. “Well, first level of hell done, then? Let's find out who comes next.” She jumped down the hole, her wounds vanishing as she did so. She fell through a black emptiness for a time before landing in another training room only to immediately be greeted by a staff flying towards her. She caught it just in time to realize what was going on and block an attack from a new assailant and respond by kicking the woman in the chest, staggering her. It was only now that she recognized the woman. “Aisha...”
“Heard you use Valkyrie now, let's see if using her has improved your skills.” The woman grinned at Emilia, knowing full well that Emi had never beaten her before. Spears and staves were never really Emilia's strong suit, which is why she asked for Valkyrie, wanting to practice with them since they were very effective weapons. “Well come on then, let's see what you've got.” And so the fight began.
((Fight theme))
Emilia circled Aisha cautiously, whirling her staff a bit to get a feel for its weight before moving in for a strike. Her opponent easily blocked it and countered, sweeping Emilia's legs from under her, toppling her. She grunted as she landed, but grinned. Aisha was all about technique, and was likely expecting Emilia to be more restricted to technique as well, giving that Aisha had taught her, but even with the weapons she was weaker with, improvisation was key to her fighting style. She kicked Aisha in the knees and rolled away to get up again. Her magic may not work in here, but her muscles and bones were still adapted to the massive forces they normally experienced, still making her stronger than most humans.
“Unorthodox...” Aisha said before charging at Emilia, hitting her with a flurry of blows. Emilia parried some, but was unable to counter. Instead, she struck Aisha through the flurry of blows, hitting her in the ribs. She then cross-checked her in the chest before catching her across the jaw with another strike, sending the woman sprawling. This fight was going better than expected, though Emilia had no trouble figuring out why. Aisha was fast and light. She focused on avoiding blows while Emilia had trained herself to be able to take them easily. Aisha was expecting her to parry and counter, not to simply strike through her attacks. Additionally, because Aisha focused on parrying and countering, she was rather bad at taking a hit, so each hit that did connect did a lot of damage. They were still fighting with staves for now, giving Emilia the edge, when they switched to spears it would be a different story, since the stabbing and piercing was a lot more effective against flesh than the bluntness of the staves. For now, Emilia would have to push on Aisha's weaknesses and hope that this place wouldn't heal them when they switched to spears. They fought for some time, trading blows here and there. Still, this place had its effect on them, though less so than in her fight with Zwei. The rush of battle made Emilia grin as she charged at Aisha, battering at the woman's defenses and soldiering through her counters for the last time. She fought finesse with force, her attacks bludgeoning through Aisha's guards after only a few strikes.
Aisha was unable to counter when faced with the fury of Emilia's blows, they quickly brought her down, but Emilia did not relent. She had to crush her opponent completely, ensure her victory. After a moment of Emilia beating Aisha, the woman cried out “ENOUGH!” And suddenly they were standing across the room from each other, each holding a spear.
“Your method of using staves is crude, yet effective. Though now we'll see how you fair with something that requires a little more finesse.” Her wounds now healed, Aisha advanced on Emilia, thrusting with her spear. Emilia sidestepped and slashed at her leg, but Aisha parried with the butt-end and countered with a downward swing. Emi tried to step back to avoid it, but it caught her across the chest. She grunted in pain. Aisha grinned smugly at her as she advanced once more. She thrust again, but Emilia battered her spear to the side and charged straight into the woman, her shoulder colliding with Aisha's chest. “RAAAAAAH” Emilia screamed as she carried the smaller woman along until she rammed into the far wall at nearly full speed, painfully bashing the woman against the wall and driving her shoulder into her chest. She headbutt her, then shifted herself and threw Aisha onto the ground before stomping on her weapon hand, pinning it and the spear to the ground, she leveled the spear tip on the woman's throat, she had her pinned and with her weapon on a vital area that even the magic of this place couldn't protect so effectively.
“You dance to much, go back to ballerina school.”
Aisha growled at Emilia. “Well, I guess you can use spears effectively, if in an uncivilized manner.”
“Nothing about fighting is civilized. That's why I like it.” Emilia grinned.
“Very well, you may go on.”
Emilia stepped off of Aisha's hand and allowed the woman to stand. She through her spear into the wall, opening another portal. “Go on.” Emilia smiled at Aisha tauntingly before stepping through the portal only to be greeted by a rubber duck bouncing off of her head. “What th-” Her question was cut short by a grape placing itself in her mouth perfectly. She spit it out and sighed. “Doug...”
“OI! That's Doug, the Magnificent Master of All Things Thrown to you!”
“God damn it Doug.” Emilia facepalmed. This guy had been amusing when she was a kid, but by now his antics were just plain annoying. Despite this, Emilia had a genuine fear of this battle. Doug was indeed skilled, and Emilia had not practiced her thrown weaponry at all, preferring instead to get up close and personal, and her magic was still cut off, so she had no good means to close the distance.
“Now then, you ready?” He asked as she looked around, getting her bearings. There were various tables to use as cover and platforms to jump and climb onto if one was quick enough in order to avoid melee. All around the sides of the room, on tables and hanging on the walls were tables of various thrown weapons. Spears, javelins, throwing stars, chakrams, throwing knives, almost anything one could think of. In the center of the room there stood a pedestal, atop said pedestal lie three bombs and a lighter. Those would be necessary to beat this guy.
((Fight theme))
“Aye.” Emilia answered, and with that they both dashed for the nearest table. Emilia was faster, picking up a knife and throwing it at Doug. He avoided it and responded with two, thrown in such a way that they had no rotation, and as such could be deadly at almost any range. Emilia ducked below them and ran to cover. She probably would have to use one of the bombs to kill him. Drive him behind cover and then toss a bomb over. She looked out from behind cover to see Doug moving towards the bombs. He clearly had the same strategy. She threw another knife at him and he jumped back, returning fire once again. Emilia dodged it again, grabbing a spear as she did so. This could come in quite handy. He threw another, but she deflected it with the spear. Still holding a knife, she threw it at Doug. He took cover once again, avoiding the attack.
Emilia had an idea, then. She examined the tables that were used for cover. All the same. None too thick, a knife could still pierce one through the cover if he stuck too close to it. She better be more careful. She picked up some shurikens and waited, slowly approaching the bombs. Doug stood up to try to take aim, but Emilia quickly sent him back down with a hail of stars.
“Damn girl, your aim needs improvement. Then again, you were always one to use the strategy of 'Throw more so I can hit more,' weren't you?” He stood up again and threw another knife, Emilia moved to dodge, but it clipped her shoulder cutting it. He threw another that caught her in the ribs, but luckily didn't go between them. She pulled it as she took cover once more out so it wouldn't get in her way. Sure, she would bleed, but she intended to end this fight before she bled out, as did Doug.
Seeing his possible opportunity, Doug made a dash for the bombs, but wasn't fast enough, Emilia sprang up with shurikens once more, hitting him with a few and forcing him back again. It seemed to be a stalemate, with both of them hiding behind cover, a few knives being thrown here or there, but with the magic of the time gem, they didn't seem to matter much as their wounds healed quickly. Emilia considered bringing out the big guns: spears and javelins, but the time didn't seem right. She couldn't keep this up though, in the long run, Doug would win, since he was getting more hits on her than she was on him. If she couldn't out-throw him, she'd have to outsmart him. She glanced at the bombs. The fuses were fairly long. One would have to let them burn for a bit to ensure that the other person couldn't throw them back or away. She grinned as an idea came to mind. Doug was behind cover for the moment. They had moved a few times, and now several tables were pincushions of knives, shurikens, and a javelin or two, and were mostly falling apart. She ran and grabbed some javelins and spears, keeping them next to her.
Doug came out from behind cover and threw some more knives at her, but she dove back behind her own table. Now came the real test. Doug ran over and grabbed one of the bombs and a lighter. Emilia came back up and threw a knife, catching him in the leg, but he managed to still run back behind another table. With the room situated the way it was, one couldn't run up to one of the tables being used for cover without being seen by the person behind it, as they were elevated such that one would have to climb a small wall to perform a frontal approach, but Emilia had no intention of going into melee. She vaulted over her cover into the open, landing at the base of her wall with a dull thud, spears in hand. Doug was lighting the bomb, but she knew he would wait to throw it. She saw a small amount of smoke rise from behind one of the tables and moved so she was facing it straight on. With that, she threw a spear with all of her might a few feet below the smoke to be answered by a shriek of pain and the dull thud of the bomb falling from Doug's hands. Doug seemed to have forgotten how thin the tables were, and had forgotten Emilia's strength. “Surprise!” She threw another, and was answered by another yelp. The put one more in her right hand, then raising both, she took a step and threw the final two spears at the table, impaling Doug from behind once more. He was a skilled thrower, but couldn't take a hit very well, and probably didn't have the strength of body nor will to pull the barbed spears out of himself. Emilia cackled sadistically. “So long Doug, I know this place brought you from your grave, and it's about time you went back there.” Emilia said, starting to walk towards one of the stairways up the wall as the bomb exploded, scattering bits of spears, the table, and Doug about a small area. A hole was blown in the wall as well, revealing, of course, another portal to her next mentor. Who would it be? Cestus, her axe tutor? Ulfr, the one who trained her to use a mace or flail? Her mother? No, she would probably be one of the last ones, and for that she would likely have her magic... and be using daggers. She scowled, that was not exactly a good mix for her, but still, she would be able to fight her mother fairly well, given her fighting style. It tended to be thrown off a bit when explosions were introduced. This was getting tiresome, though, she wanted to fight her father and get this over with. She stepped through the portal.
No surprises greeted her through the portal, no combatant ready to fight. In front of her stood her mother, in plain clothes, just as Emilia was. She smiled to her daughter. “You've grown... well a bit anyway.” Emilia said nothing, but made a face of disapproval over the comment about her height. Her mother just chuckled. “Come now, sit down and have a rest.” She gestured to a chair nearby. “You've been fighting for over two days now, and the time gem can only do so much to prevent damage,” She grinned, “and we know you're going to need its protection when fighting me.” Aysen sat down, not waiting for Emilia to sit. “Go on, I'm not going to fight you yet. You need time to recover. Patience never was your strong suit, was it?” Emilia looked at the chair a moment before sitting down.
“So, did you have a good time with Zwei, Aisha, and Doug?”
“Yeah, I suppose. Doug was annoying as always, but it was still good to see him again. Still, I don't get why the hell Dad is making me go though this crap. There's more to it than making sure I'm 'worthy'.”
Aysen smiled knowingly, “You already know our plans for you.”
“Yeah yeah, revive the Union and all that.”
“This will help. There's a lot you have to learn.”
“By beating my old tutors? And when they're barely trying?!?!”
“Ah, so you realized it.”
“Realized it? Aisha was a pushover. This bullshit is just pissing me off.”
“Good. Keep that anger, you'll need it for your father.”
“But WHY aren't you guys trying?” Emilia demanded.
“Well, some of us are.” Aysen winked at Emi. “Aisha was, Zwei wasn't, and Doug wasn't, he was just forgetful regarding your strength and the thickness of those tables. I probably won't, since you'll have your magic for this fight.”
“Good. I'm eager to have an actual fight.”
“You will soon enough, eat for now, rest. Zwei, Aisha, and Doug will join us. We'll have a nice meal, get caught up, and then fight, sound good?”
Emilia just grunted in affirmation. That sounded okay, though she was getting impatient. She came here to fight, not tell stories to dead people. Soon the others arrived and sat down with them. A table appeared, damn this place was trippy. They had some dinner: steak, mashed potatoes, beans, and of course, beer.
“So, go on Missie, tell us what ya've done.”
Emilia sighed, she hadn't done a whole lot. “Well... let's see, I saved a puppy from vulcans, stopped a vulcan and a goblin from holding up the train to clover town, got my passport, aaand fought some weird monster thing that tore up a troop of Rune Knights. A few other jobs here and there, not much really. Being in a guild ain't all people crack it up to be. Still, they give me room and board for free, so I got that going for me, which is nice. I suppose part of the reason for the insignificant jobs is my eh... lack of focus on magic. They always go on and on about how you need to be a more powerful mage to handle certain jobs. I call bull, you guys did plenty of mage's jobs without any magic. Bah, whatever.”
“Don't worry about it, Emilia, just practice magic, then you can smash their faces in.” Aisha reassured her with a rather unexpected smile.
“Says the one who held back in a fight against me.”
“A spear and staff only fight. We both know you're not so good with those. At least not the way I taught you. You're far better off with a spear and shield, but you learned that on your own.”
Emilia grunted again, not having much else to say. “So... how long do we have to wait here?”
“A few more hours.”
Emilia sighed. They had talked about everything they wanted to already and apparently she was just supposed to sit here for “A few more hours”. This was bullcrap. She wanted to fight now. More importantly, she wanted to fight Jax, not Aysen. Zwei, or any of her other mentors. She wanted to beat her father here and now and watch him hobble all the way down the mountain on that peg leg of his. She fidgeted impatiently as they waited, evoking a smile from Aysen, who knew full well that this impatience was a good thing. Not in regards to her being able to defeat Emilia, but in regards to Emilia's future. That impatience, that lust for battle would be needed if she was to unlock her full potential. She would learn to use it somewhat in this fight, the way of the berserker, though a different sort of beserker than one might think. The technique Emilia would learn would be to use her emotions to tap into her soul to grand her strength. But that was only the beginning, her father would have to take it further, to teach her not only to use her own soul, but to use her enemy's soul as well. Still, that was for him to teach her. For now Aysen had to elicit a strong enough emotional response from Emilia for her to tap into its energy. It shouldn't be too hard. That really was the wonderful thing for this magic technique, Emilia was such a hothead that it should work perfectly.
Aysen rose from her seat, her armor and knives appearing in her hands.
“Well, I do believe it's time.”
((Aysen's armor, Emilia's armor, Fight theme))
“Finally.” Emilia responded, rising as well. Leather armor took the place of the clothes on her body and a dagger appeared in her hand. She felt the weight for a moment before taking a ready stance. The tables disappeared and the walls narrowed, leaving them in a close-quarters fight. Her other mentors disappeared as well to god knows where. She felt her magic return to her as well and grinned. The close quarters would make it difficult for her mother to avoid her spells. She waited for her mother's approach now. The woman took a few steps and was gone. Shit... Emilia knew where she was. She didn't have time to turn around, she simply cast a Force Pulse from her back and heard a satisfying grunt as her mother was launched away from her. She turned and grinned at the woman. “You didn't think you could get behind me that easy, did you?” She and her mother began circling each other now. Both held their knives forward, taking an offensive stance. Aysen because she was never defensively focused, and Emilia because she knew this about her mother. The woman's weakness was in defense, and as such, pressing the offense would be the best way to beat her. Emilia went in for a slash, feinting, but using Projection to still attack. The small blue wave of force magic took Aysen by surprise, cutting her across the leg, eliciting a groan of pain from her. The two continued to dance around each other, making feints and testing each other's defenses. Aysen lashed out, cutting Emilia twice before Emilia could grapple her. Neither were able to get any stabs or slashes in during their grapple, but they were able to trade punches and kicks, though Emilia's were more effective given her increased strength. Still, they both recovered from the attacks quickly, given the nature of the Time Gem. It wouldn't let any fight blow over quickly, that's for sure.
Emilia attacked again, feinting, then charging into Aysen with Bullheaded, sending her flying into a wall. She followed up with Ricochet, bashing into her again before charging in on her stunned mother, getting two good stabs in, but she was able to retaliate with attacks of her own. Emilia stepped back after the scuffle, both of them were bleeding, but grinning, not in pain, but in a mixture of adrenaline, excitement, and bloodlust. They moved in on each other once more, the pace of their fight accelerating. Another slash, another stab, another feint. Her mother teleported and used her shadow magic to fakeout and strike at Emilia several more times. An hour or two of fighting later, they stood across from one another, grinning and bloodied. The more injured Aysen was, the harder she seemed to fight, and better she could withstand the wounds. The respite was brief before they began circling once more. Aysen was taking the offensive now, trying to push Emilia against the wall. The Force Mage wouldn't let that happen though. Again, she used Force Pulse, blasting Aysen away, who responded by teleporting back into position, only to take a bullrush from Emilia's bullheaded spell. With Aysen on the ground, Emilia took an opportunity to deal a good bit of damage. She ran and leaped, landing on top of Aysen with her 200 lbs of weight, painfully striking her stomach, and leaped off before the woman could react. Aysen was quick to get back up though, despite the damage that had been done. She spat out some blood from biting her tongue and wiped her face. “Is that all you've got, my girl? I must say I'm disappointed in you.”
“Less talking, more fighting.” Was Emilia's only response as she slashed with her knife, projecting it with her magic, moving in just behind it. Aysen took the hit in order to properly defend herself against Emilia's assault, ducking and dodging around her and creating shadows to block her blade. Emilia was a bit too aggressive now, and left an opening. Aysen took it, aiming to slide her knife neatly between Emilia's ribs and into her heart, but as the blow landed, the knife stopped dead, not penetrating in the slightest. Emilia wasted no time in grabbing hold of Aysen's arm and headbutting her, utilizing the force of her own attack against her through Redirection. Emilia tried to stab her mother in the stomach, but she managed to teleport out of it, leaving a shadowy copy of herself that struck at Emilia with a set of claws, tearing at her face before disappearing. Aysen stabbed Emilia in the back now. With a growl, Emi reached behind her back, her arm tightening around her mother. She leaned forward and threw her down onto the ground in front of her with a painful thud. She dropped to her knees now and raised her own to try to bring it down into her mother's chest, but her mother intercepted it by raising her hands and creating spikes from shadow. Emilia's arm was impaled on them as she brought it down. Emilia groaned before punching Aysen hard in the face with her other hand after empowering it with Power Play. She smashed her again and again before getting up and staggering back, then reaching behind her to remove the knife, having dropped her own.
They both rested for a moment, both too injured to want to take any risks. Aysen spoke up. “How about we call this the end of round one?”
Emilia scowled, but nodded. “Fine. I suppose I could use a rest.”
Their armor and weapons disappeared. Emilia sat down on the floor, resting and waiting for her wounds to heal, and her mother sat across from her.
“Not a bad fight. You still have a lot to learn.”
“I'd say I'm holding my own pretty well.”
“Explosions make it easy for one to hold her own.”
“Oi! I did fine without them... mostly.”
Aysen just blinked and shook her head. “Fine, whatever. How are your wounds? Mine are almost healed.”
“Getting there.” They waited a few minutes before Aysen stood up. Emilia stood up after her mother.
“Now let's see how you do with something a bit more advanced.” A smile stretched across her mother's face as a short sword, about two feet in length appeared in her right hand and a smaller dagger in her left. A similar pair of weapons appeared in Emilia's hands. “Less grabbing this time.” Her mother teased, knowing full well that grappling was part of the reason Emilia was able to hold up so well. She and Emilia both raised their weapons and waited a moment for the other to move. It was Aysen that made the first move, stepping closer to Emilia, who then thrust with her short sword, using Projection to transmit the force at her mother, but she managed to sidestep it. Aysen was unable to capitalize on the movement, though, since it was swift and simple, Emilia was back into a defensive position before the woman reached her. She swung at Emilia anyway, who parried with her dagger and tried to counter-attack, though this was blocked by her mother's own dagger. Emilia quickly brought up a foot, giving her mother a firm kick to the stomach, sending her staggering back. She followed up on the opening, attacking with both the short sword and the dagger, but her mother teleported behind her to avoid it, forcing Emilia to block her attack with Redirection. She attempted to slash her as she turned around, unleashing the force she absorbed from the attack, but her mother moved backwards to avoid it. The two circled each other once more. Emilia had to use the force she stored soon or it would detonate on her. With this in mind, she took the offensive with both weapons once again, slashing at her mother several times. She parried or dodged each strike, and went to try to counter Emilia. As soon as her mother's blade made contact with her, she released the force she had absorbed. With that force being approximately equal to her current strike, the blade stopped dead. Caught with her arm extended, her shortsword harmlessly pressed against Emilia's side, Aysen tried to defend herself, but was unable to properly do so, as Emilia brought the dagger up, cutting a deep gash into Aysen's arm. Emilia thrust forward with her short sword, but her mother managed to barely dodge out of the way. She was on the defensive now, as Emilia immediately followed up with strike after strike from her short sword and dagger. She drove Aysen against the wall before detonating a Force Pulse, blasting her back against it and breaking what little defenses she could keep up, she slammed into the wall with a grunt and looked up at Emilia, a sly grin on her face as her daughter moved to deliver the killing blow as she invoked their bloodline: The Curse of the White Witch. A pulse of white chaos energy burst from her eyes, slamming Emilia in the chest, stopping her in pain as the unstable mana wreaked havoc on her body for a second or two, but that was all Aysen needed to get back in the fight. She blinked behind Emilia and slashed at her as she tried to turn around. The tables had turned, Emilia was now being pressed against the wall. Strike followed strike from Aysen, Emilia's defenses were barely able to keep up with her attacks.
Her mother laughed as she continued her relentless assault, relishing in the thrill of battle. “Come on, Emilia, aren't you having fun?!” She cackled again as she began to use more of her magic, creating disembodied hands with weapons or claws to attack in addition to her own, breaking through Emilia's defenses and giving her multiple lacerations through her leather armor. “Are you just going to sit here and take it?” She punched Emilia, sending her staggering along the wall before continuing her assault. Emilia growled viciously, angry that she couldn't defend herself properly, and had barely gotten any good hits on her mother. “That's right girl, get angry!” Aysen said as she swung at her daughter, slashing her once more. Emilia tried to cast Force Pulse to get out of it, but it was now that she realized, under her mother's assault, that her blades were not the same as Emilia's. No, the weapons she used were her own in life, and specially enchanted to help her to kill other mages should she enter a drawn-out fight with them. They accomplished this by sapping their magical power with each hit. Emilia managed to parry most of the attacks against her, still, the few that had landed were enough to sap nearly all of her mana. She didn't have enough energy left to get out of this using a Force Pulse. “You... bitch!” Her mother cackled again as she went in for a stab that was barely deflected by Emilia. She had been expecting a relatively fair fight, with equal equipment. Granted, she shouldn't have. No one in her family was known for fighting fair. Still, she seethed with rage over it. Her mother knew just how advantageous Emi's magic would be in their duel, so she chose her weapons to counter it. “Fuck YOU!”
And then she did it. Emilia cast a spell. With almost no magical power left, she cast Bullheaded. This spell wasn't powered entirely by mana. Some other source of energy fueled it. Something from her soul, not her body as rage clouded her thoughts. And that was just it, just what her mother was trying to teach her. The energy of the soul, harnessed through strong emotions. This was the way of the berserker. With no room for Aysen to react, Emilia slammed into her mother, the impact almost equivalent to being in a car accident, without a seat belt, hitting a tree at around 60 miles per hour. Emilia's rage-empowered spell sent her mother flying backwards as she continued on with a small amount of momentum. Her mother slammed into the opposite wall with a sickening thud. Emilia wasn't done though, in her frenzy, she followed after her mother with Ricochet, aiming to crush her between her own body and the wall, or impale her with her blades. As she charged at the wounded woman, she disappeared. Emilia expected Aysen to appear behind her to try to take her by surprise again. She quickly shifted herself to bounce off the wall, flipping over in midair only to see her mother was gone. She landed and looked around, but she saw nothing. The room they were in had suddenly gotten a lot darker. “You learn quickly. I guess I'm going to have to really step up my game.”
Her mother's voice spoke from all around her. What the hell was this? She'd never seen Aysen do anything like this. She looked around, readying her blades, adrenaline pumping through her system, sending every nerve alight with activity. Her muscles were tense, ready to spring at even the slightest signal. She heard her mother again, now laughter echoing in the dark corridor. “What's the matter, never seen me use this before?”
Suddenly, the darkness itself lashed out at Emilia, slashing and bludgeoning her with blades and club-like tendrils. She staggered back, but luckily no followup came. She tried to slash out at them, but her blades simply passed through harmlessly. More laughter. “You didn't really think I was going all out on you, did you?” Beads of sweat dripped down Emilia's face. Her mother was never this powerful, was she? If she was then... then just how strong was her father really? Nevermind that. She could deal with that later, she had to deal with her mother right now. Where the hell was she? Was she the darkness or somehow hiding inside of it? Or was she just farther away controlling it?
The shadows struck again, but this time Emilia attacked the tendrils that moved in, her blade deflecting them instead of just passing through. It seemed when they solidified to attack, it also meant they could be blocked. Both attacks had come from the same direction. She looked and noticed that the shadows coming from her other side were separated from the other by a small amount of light, while everything now in front of her was connected. That must be her limit, and the direction she teleported in. Emilia grit her teeth and charged, bellowing out her rage a she did so. The shadows congealed around her, trying to hold back her movement, but she had become a rage-filled juggernaut. It would take more than enchanted shadows to keep her at bay. The darkness quickly went from binding to grating to cutting, but the battle-euphoric pain-train that was Emilia could not be stopped. By now she was bleeding from many cuts along her face and body, but she did not mind the pain, no, it only fueled her to fight even harder. She reached her mother now. The foolish woman was still trying to use her shadow technique to stop Emilia. Her eyes were closed, channeling the spell. Emilia didn't even think, she simply acted. She threw her knife and short sword at Aysen, who only now opened her eyes and tried to dodge them. The sword nicked her arm while the dagger buried itself in her leg. Emilia pounced, tackling her mother. Knives were no longer necessary. The much heavier, stronger daughter easily toppled her slim, agile mother, knocking the wind out of her. Her head slammed against the floor with a sickening crack. Emilia raised a fist and brought it down on Aysen's face. Again now, with her other hand. Her merciless beating did not last long, however, as Aysen's own rage-fueled vigor left her able to somehow tolerate it. Her dagger still in hand, she raised it and plunged the blade into Emilia's side, slipping it between her ribs with expert precision. Emilia paused a moment as her lung was punctured by the dagger before it slid out of her, then back in, puncturing the lung a second time. The knife remained inside as Aysen's hand released it and curled into a fist to reach up, striking Emilia in the face, knocking her off. Emilia's rage was spent. Only fatigue remained as the true extent of her injuries seeped into her. Aysen stood up. “Not bad, for your first blood rage.” She said. “But still not enough.” She raised a foot to take a step towards her short sword, then another, staggering in pain, dizzy from blood loss and concussion. She took one more step before collapsing somewhat. She held her upper body up with her hands. Her head lolled around for a moment “Damn... you hit me harder than I thought.” Her arms gave way now and she collapsed completely.
The two fighters now lie on the ground, panting with exhaustion and pain. The bloodlust spent within both of them, the fury that had kept them going far beyond their normal capabilities as not only humans, but mages as well, had died down. Both of them lost consciousness, their world going dark. Emilia awoke slowly, Aysen with her. They both stood up, their weapons gone. Her mother grinned at her. “You technically haven't beaten me.”
“Fuck you.”
Aysen just grinned and chuckled. “You came close enough, though, so I guess I'll let you pass. Besides, you learned what you needed to from me. You can go on. You won't have your magic for your next opponents, but you'll still have what you learned here, well some of it. Rage isn't entirely magical. Now go on, and good luck. You might be better with the other weapons, but the other guys are gonna be less of pushovers than I am.” Emilia nodded, she knew what was coming, well not what was coming immediately, but what would come eventually. She guessed she'd have three people to fight before her father, three more mentors. The one that taught her to use an axe, the one who taught her swordsmanship, and the one who taught her to wield hammers and maces.
A portal opened up behind Aysen, appearing exactly the same as the ones she had gone through before. These upcoming mentors would be for weapons she focused on more, and as such, would have more to talk to her about. They also knew her style better, and were more skilled warriors, despite the fact that they didn't have any magical abilities, Emilia would likely need her own magic, or her newly found rage to defeat them. She wondered which would come first: Tristan, the swordsman, Cestus, her axe mentor, or Ulfr, the man who taught her how to use blunt weapons. She took a deep breath and stepped through. Her wounds were healed as she did so.
As she stepped through the portal, she was greeted by a young man, only a year or two older than her. His brown hair was cut short and he had some scruff on his face, a short, though somewhat poorly trimmed beard. It was Tristan, the one who first taught Emilia to use a sword. He wasn't nearly as skilled as her father, and fought with a different style. He preferred to be lighter on his feet and more lightly armored, unlike Emilia and Jax who dressed in full heavy armor, preferring to be able to better take hits rather than to simply dodge and block. “Your mama give you some trouble, Emi?” He asked with a grin. “You were in there for a while.”
“Well, she had me rest, first. And you know her, she's slippery. Wasn't too hard of a fight, she was just annoying to catch.”
“Heh, right. Well, let's see what you've learned. I hope she taught you something new, if not, then I'll have to be the one to do that, and you know how shitty of a teacher I am.” He rocked back and forth on his heels. His hands rested on the pommel of his longsword, the tip of which rested in the ground. Emilia looked around the location. They were in a town, Dawn City to be exact. Her home, and the home of the Union. They were just outside the company hall, in the dirt ring in its back yard. “I figured most people were having their fights indoors. I decided to let us get some fresh air... or whatever the hell it is inside this crystal thing.” He chuckled. “So, are ya ready to get started or do you need rest? Maybe need me to rile you up first?” Tristan said with a grin, knowing what Aysen had taught her daughter. He moved a hand from the pommel onto the hilt, then tossed the sword up in the air to flip it before catching it and swinging quickly before falling into the Vom Tag guard. “Oh right, you need a sword, don't ya? Maybe some armor? Done.”
((Fight Theme))
Emilia looked down at herself as she was now the sort of armored clothing , similar to the clothing she wore around normally or on an easy job that didn't require her to wear plate. She twirled and swung her sword a few times to get a feel of the weight, then raised it into the Ochs guard. The two circled each other slowly, making a few feints towards each other, testing their guards. Emilia swung first, stepping forward as she did so. Tristan easily blocked it, swinging his sword not to block, but to strike at Emilia in such a way that it would also intercept Emilia's blade: a master stroke. Emilia responded by half-swording, gripping the blade of her sword and pushing Tristan's blade back. She jabbed at him as he himself went half-sword to block and respond. Emilia parried, moving to grab her opponent's blade to try to disarm him. Having none of this, Tristan thrust their weapons out of the way and ran into her: big mistake. He collided with her harmlessly before she headbutted him in the face, then brought the hilt of her sword up to strike him in the stomach with the guard. He staggered backwards, but quickly righted himself. “Not bad. Now let's see if you can keep that up.”
![Grand Master [2000]](https://i.imgur.com/SGD5XSW.png)
![Master [1000]](https://i.imgur.com/AQXM4xC.png)
![Senior [500]](https://i.imgur.com/Nmfn8cD.png)
![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
