It became quiet as Aisling and Brant faced each other. The red head gripped the sword’s hilt and took a deep breath. Across the ring the knight stood silently his sword raised in front of him. While they waited for who was going to make the first move Aisling started to wonder what Brant looked like without his mask. For a few seconds she was lost in thought but hearing the swish of a sword brought her back to earth—figuratively speaking.
Aisling parried Brant’s sword before it hit her on the side of her head. The force of the swords clashing was so strong Aisling was pushed a few centimeters backwards and she felt her feet drag across the ground. She gritted her teeth and managed to separate their blades and swung hard at Brant’s side which Blocked with ease, his blade flashed and cut through the air smoothly. Brant attacked again he never made it easy for the little girl. Aisling realized this however it did not encourage her to back down rather it was the opposite. Brant strike Aisling but she dodged by swiftly side stepping. The knight saw an opening and advanced forward. Aisling step back and their swords clash again.
The spectators, the card spirits, noticed that the two opponents were right in the center of the circle when before Brant seemed to push Aisling out of the ring. The red head swung her sword and tried to hit Brant’s armored torso but saw that Brant barely brushed his sword to Aisling’s neck. “Brant made a hit (not really),” shouted the spirit of the Page of Swords, Sindri. The fiery haired fairy took Puck’s place as referee. “So that ends this round.”
Aisling panted and walked out of the ring to rest.
“That was amazing!” Kelpie flew over along with Puck. Aisling looked up at them and finally noticed that Aiba was in the room attacking hanging wooden planks with a spear. She blinked and understood that he was training as well. She looked back at the two fairy spirits.
“What are you talking about? I barely hit him.” She said rubbing her arms they felt sour but when she focused on them the pain surprising went away. “And I know he’s holding back but he’s not making it easy for me.”
“Of course he isn’t!” Puck said crossing his arms in front of him. “He wants to test your strength and skill you accomplish over training.”
“I know he’s impressed by how strong you’ve become,” Kelpie said encouragingly. “You learned swordsmanship in such a short amount of time.”
“Brant shadowed me and so did the others. That’s how I learned so quickly.”
Puck nodded, “So Brant knows what you’re capable of.” He looked over at Brant who was still standing in the ring. He whispered to Aisling, “But he’s not holding back so watch out.” Puck and Kelpie flew away. Aisling blinked and gulped nervously.
“Second round start, enter the ring!” Sindri shouted looking at Aisling as Brant was already standing in the circle, ready to fight.
They faced each other their swords drawn out. Aisling watched the knight carefully as she side stepped, Brant step forward and Aisling moved forward. Brant moved as well this time he moved so fast he was blur. Aisling swung her sword and parried with Brant’s. The clash of swords created red hot sparks that danced around them. Aisling’s arms shook and went numb from the force. She was surprised by how much strength that Brant was using this time. Brant step back and strike for Aisling’s head. She duck down quickly and moved to the side. She tried to strike his side before he could turn around but Brant saw it coming and parried her attack.
In a blur Brant raised his sword above his head and brought it down swiftly. Aisling moved to slow to block and Brant knocked her sword out of her hands and stopped his blade centimeters from her head. She froze and stared up at Brant’s masked face.
“Whoa…” Sindri stared and snapped out of it quickly. “Brant knocked Aisling’s sword, second round ends!”
Brant moved his sword away and walked to the other side of the ring. Aisling took a deep breath and went to her side of the ring. She saw Aiba was still training and decided to go over and talk to him. She walked out of the ring and went over to Aiba. “Aiba!” She said waving her hand to get his attention.
Aiba stopped and looked over at Aisling. “Watch out!” He suddenly shouted. Aisling stopped and saw a hanging wooden board coming at her. There was a slashing sound and the lath was cut in half. Aisling blinked and looked at the sword that appeared in her hand. Did I do that?
“That was cool Aisling!” Puck cheered clapping his hands.
“Are you alright?” Aiba asked her resting the end of the spear on the ground. Aisling looked at the spear and sensed Ookami’s presence. She realized he had turn into the spear.
“Yeah I’m okay,” Aisling said relaxing her arm and let the sword point to the floor. “I see your training too. That’s good. How are you doing?”
Aiba rubbed the back of head, “It’s harder than I thought,” He said and then he grinned at her. “But I’m not giving up. I want to become stronger.”
Aisling smiled and nodded. “How long have you practiced sword fighting?” Aiba asked her.
“Um…well in Earth terms since last night.”
Aiba looked surprised. “Really? You looked like you’ve been training for years.”
“That’s because time moves differently here.”
“It does???”
“Yeah but it’s tricky to control than changing the landscape. I can only make time move for months while on Earth it’s only been a few minutes.” Aisling explained. “But while we’re here we don’t have to eat or sleep unless we want to and if we’re tired it only takes a few minutes to get our strength back.”
“Wow,” said Aiba. Then his face turned to a look of determination. “I’m going back to training!”
Aisling nodded, “Okay.” She walked away to give Aiba room.
“You’re getting use to the way of the swords,” Puck said nodding at her admirably. “It’s almost coming naturally to you.”
Aisling looked at the sword. She twirled it around swiftly and raised it till it was vertically straight and the sword pointed at the ceiling. She saw her face reflected in the blade. “You know I never thought I was the fighting type. When I was little I imagined I was the princess or damsel in distress.”
Puck shook his head, “That’s not like you at all. You never should of watch those silly old fairy tales humans made up. Girls can be fighters too.”
Aisling smiled at him and looked at the sword again. “I never liked fighting to begin with. I was more of the peace maker. I guess that was the angel in me or something.” She turned the sword around and looked at her reflection on the other side. “And I never thought I would fight demons or meet so many amazing and interesting people.” She paused and looked at Aiba. She suddenly remembered what Puck told her last night.
She remembered Puck explained to her about Vessels and that Nino, Matsu, Sho, and Ohno were Vessels. It made her very sad that they were trained to be sacrifices in order to destroy the Demon Lords when the need arises. She wondered if Aiba was also a Vessel. Before she could make up her mind to ask Aiba about it Sindri called her from the ring.
“Break’s over! Time for round three!”
Aisling sighed and turned to Puck. “Well here we go again.”
“Good luck!” Puck said. “Turn that Tin Man into scrap metal!”
“Puck!”
“Kidding, kidding, just do your best.” He said crossing his arms behind his head and grinned at her.
Aisling smiled and walked back to the ring.
“Okay,” Byron said hovering outside the ring as Brant and Aisling faced each other once more. “Ready set go!”
~*~
I hate writing fight scenes although it’s fun it drains me @___@
I might post again might not who knows.
