Chapter 116: Chapter 116
"So, Miss Dahlia, you have enough strength to carry a sword, which is a great start, most girls of your size can't even lift one with two hands, but you are much tougher than what you look like from what I see." Elliott, The old but veteran trainer who used to be one of Taghit's best soldiers looked at the black haired girl with little appreciation in his eyes, At first, he was irked by the princess who was now the regent to the throne request of training her "soon to be her personal knightess", Not understanding why wouldn't she just choose an already trained and skilled knight, not to mention, the one she wanted him to train was actually a lass, a young frail looking lass, he couldn't wrap his head on what was the princess thinking to want this girl as her knightess, but of course, he couldn't refuse her orders for she was the princess and the regent of the kingdom.
The old Elliott swallowed his preconceptions and decided to train the girl like he would do with any boy, starting from the very start, he did hear some positive words about her, of how she stood up to the Manrast soldiers, saved the villagers from the plagued villages and led them to safety, not to mention how she has been a good advisor for the inexperienced princess, all for the benefit of the people, which at least granted her the benefit of the doubt from his side, the first exercises were those of strength and endurance, he wanted to test the girl's limits first and then decide what weapon would suit her more and serve her best, Knights always had long swords but the girl wasn't the typical knight material he was used on working with.
For their first day of training, Old Elliott took the black haired girl into a big storehouse of seeds that a rich family of his acquaintances owned, some sacks, unlike the others which were organized and stocked in shelves, were piled up into what looked like a hill of sacks right in the middle of the storehouse, "As your first training , You must sort out this pile and put each sack where it belongs, I will not put a deadline but how fast you finish would decide our next training" And if we are going to have a next one that is, Old Elliott mumbled the last part to himself, " You are not allowed to have any kind of help from anyone, You can start now, I will be back to check on you when the sun sets" Giving the girl his back, Old Elliott made his way out of the storehouse, hearing the girl already in motion, he didn't turn back until he was about to close the door and then he saw it, the frail looking girl was holding three of the big heavy sacks at once, taking them from the pile to place them a few steps away...
Not two hours passed and the old man was curious to see the girl's progress, to his utter surprise the girl was done with her mission and was instead written something down in a small notebook.
"How did you finish so soon? " Elliot narrowed his eyes at the girl, wondering if she had some help, but then he was watching the storehouse and no one but him walked in or out of it, yet with how heavy the sacks were, he thought the girl would give up after trying to move the first one, not in his dreams he thought that she will be finishing a task that would take a fully grown man at least a day to finish.
"I just organized them into smaller piles of the same kind, after that all I had to do was just take them to their shelves" Elliot stared at the girl who was back on writing something on her small notebook, it took him a second to understand that she was answering the part of his question where he said ‘so soon’, thinking it was her speed that impressed him and not her strength and ability to lift such weights.
"Just take them to their shelves you telling me? Alright, what are you writing down?"
"This stock wasn't declared by its owners to the taxes department, and nor were the ones before, it was supposed to be empty.", And that is when Elliott knew he had put his acquaintances in a serious problem.
“Listen here, you little lass, you can’t…”
“I will not tell the taxes department as they are not doing anything useful with the taxes money anyway, they are spending it on unnecessary items for the castle, items the princess find to be necessary, however, in exchange of my silence, I want your acquaintances to provide the barracks with more food, less than what they would have paid to the taxes department.” The barracks where the refugees were, Elliot thought for a second before smiling at the weird girl.
After few more tests about her strength and speed, Elliott concluded that the lass was ready to start the actual training.
" You are both fast and strong, and have great natural reflexes, which is mandatory in each combat, however, There is no point in lifting a sword if you can't fully control it, otherwise it would be the weapon that will kill you, Your sword must be a part of you, a part of your body, just like a limb, you can stretch it, pull it, tighten it, loosen it, but never lose it, it must always be a part of you, your grip on it handle must always be one of iron or flesh, as if you two are made of the same substance."
"You never stand up facing your opponent with your entire body, that would make your moves slower and give your opponent more space to attack, always stand by the side, minimizing your opponent target space, it would also make you faster, and give you many opportunities to attack. "
"Your stability doesn't come from your feet, your feet need to be constantly moving as if you are stepping on burning coals, your stability comes from your abdomen, that is your core which you need to keep stable, always keep it tucked and tensed as if it was the solid ground you are stepping on."
"You are strong, I know, but you will face much stronger men, with larger bodies and more muscles, while you are too small, which can be both a bane or a boon, use what you have for your own advantage instead of letting it be your weakness, be agile and swift, never stay still, find openings, jump them them then retreat quickly, evade but never dodge, when you dodge, you are blocking one of your limbs, or your sword in the ravel, you waste an opening, you waste a time and a chance, not to mention you waste strength in dodging the attack which can be stronger than you to dodge, Always try to evade, and take advantage of the openings, the moment your enemy attacks, evade, let him waste his attack all while you take that split of the second that he takes to retreat to attack, remember, the moment they attack they open themselves, they become vulnerable, evade then use that chance to attack."
"Always observe your enemy, everyone has a weakness, Miss Dahlia, and you can find it if you observe them well, don't just look with your eyes, you need to see, with your mind just as you do with your eyes, analyze, read their movement, figure out why they do what they do, why attack the way they attack, why retreat when they retreat.... Observe, read, analyze, figure out the weakness, and use it."
....
....
Sara was grateful for Old Elliott for all his lessons, right then more than ever, and just like he told, she wanted to know the demoness’ weakness, charging forward, Sara was met by a slicing ray of fire that came out of the demoness's palm in a long thick line, evading it swiftly by jumping over it, Sara took the time the demoness used to reorient her fire beam to charge at her, in a blink of an eye she was at the face of the demoness, with her short sword held tightly in her hand, she swung it right at the demoness, but at the same time, the demoness brought up a good amount of energy to her head just to spit it out of her mouth.
Even with her speed, Sara couldn't evade the flames, they hit her right on her front sending her flying away from the demoness before hitting the cave's wall brutally, she gasped at the horrible pain of her burns, some parts of her outfit were burned, her skin was red with some blisters here and there, the side of her head, right above her right ear was severely burned, it felt like the skin on that area was completely removed, but her healing was quick to minimize the pain by healing her burns and injuries, her skin was reforming and closing, as if nothing happened in the first place, unlike the red demoness who stood on the other side of the cave.
Sara gave herself a mental pat for her discovery, Her attack might have been a little unsuccessful, the demoness obviously had no problems in mastering her powers, she played them perfectly and the last attack was the proof, she was an assailant, but not much of a defender, not to mention her regeneration abilities were barely existent, the long bleeding slash she caused on Emilia's chest, which ran from her left shoulder to her right hip, was forming small dark scales but the process was very slow compared to how fast Sara who stood back on her feet, still holding her sword and staring at the bleeding demoness with the ripped dress and exposed body with confidence, knowing exactly what to do to take her down.
Sara knew she was still quite far from the demoness' level when it came to controlling her powers but in terms of speed and fast healing she was way ahead, those were her strengths and at the same time, her enemy's weaknesses.
Not giving the demoness any other second to attack, Sara lunched again at the demoness who was still catching her breath with full speed, aiming at the same spot, the demoness even though she surrounded herself with fire to stop the assault of Sara wasn't fast enough to form counter attack, Sara slashed her wound open again before jumping away swiftly, the pain and energy rushing through her body making her moves even faster and more agile, moving from one spot to the other, Sara kept on attacking the demoness who couldn't even see the attacks coming, it wasn't seconds before her body was filled with bleeding cuts that refused to heal no matter how much dark magic she put on healing them.
Falling to her knees when Sara attacked her from behind, Emilia let out a savage scream that made Sara halt for a second and even take a step back, it was way too animalistic even for a demoness, sensing something was off, Sara stood far enough from the demoness whose eyes started bleeding, the flame in the pit of her abdomen burst suddenly and grew, it was, damaging, Sara thought, the fire was feeding on her life force, her aura was growing smaller while the flame in her core became larger, making her eternal organs suffer, the demoness was gasping for air, tearing blood while her face contoured with pain, Something bad was coming, Sara thought.
Not much time was needed for her thoughts to be confirmed when the demoness dug her fists in the ground pouring whatever energy she had in it, causing it to melt into Lava all around her, the circle started to grow dangerously fast, melting rocks and soil on it way, Sara rushed toward her sister's unconscious body, lifted her with her left arm before jumping to the furthest point away from Emilia, Looking around her, Sara tried to find a single opening so she can escape the scene but it was all closed up with fire, the air was becoming unbreathable and the heat was becoming unbearable as well, Nara whimpered in her unconscious state for even the shadows shell she was wrapped in was no longer enough to protect her, Sara's skin was burning everywhere and the ground was soon to melt under her feet, Sara tried to search for another exit but her eyes were met with disappointment, Looking back at the demoness, she noticed how her dress was fully burned, her bare skin was slowly turning ashy and scaly, like an extinguished coal, her eyes rolled to the back of her hair, her jaw dropped and her cheeks were being hollowed, Sara noticed how faint her aura had become compared with how big the flame grew and wondered what was so precious in this whole ordeal for the demoness that deserved to die for, because from what she was seeing, the demoness was dying, she was burning herself up, her life force, and taking everything else in her way.
For what?
Pride?
Love? The demoness was doing so for her lover? Demons were capable of loving someone that much?
Seeing the fire only few feet away from her, Sara became beyond panic, there was nowhere to run, so solution in hand to stop the fire, she knew that killing the demoness was pointless at this point as her powers were running passively and most of the room was swimming in lava anyway, the lack of breathable air wasn't making easy it to breathe, she needed air, her sister needed air, she needed... Air!!