The Darkness Within

42 - A Success and a Failure

Ciara took a moment to relax her body, to calm her erratic heart rate and breathing patterns. She flexed and then relaxed the muscles in her body, preparing herself, just as she had learned to do for track, and then hunting, long ago. She needed to be calm and focused, ready.

With her exhale, she uncoiled her magic from within her and allowed it to flow. Her shadows seeped from her and filled the training field with calm waves, feeding off her own calm demeanor. Her wind magic added a gentle breeze, bringing new scents to her nose that told her about her surroundings. Her water magic affected the water near her similar to how the moon affects the oceans: pulling the water in her direction, small ripples forming on the surface of the well-placed barrels of water; barrels that had been brought to the training field to allow her to use her whole arsenal of magic against her opponent. Her shapeshifting flowed beneath her skin, ready to change her body to better suit her needs.

Finally, releasing the last hold on her magic, she used the power of creation to feel the magic that sustained the existence of every particle around her. She could feel as it intertwined with her power-bound's magic, the sensation heightened by Lucienne's close presence off to the side of the training field. The Goddess stood beside Evelyn and Princess Oriel, her presence both welcome and unwelcome to Ciara. On one hand, she liked having her power-bound so close and she appreciated the female's support, while on the other hand, she wanted to make Lucienne proud, feeling an odd need to prove herself equal to the much-older female.

She pushed thoughts of Lucienne away in favor of another deep, calming breath. She needed to focus on her opponent whose fighting style she knew nothing about: General Lilian.

It had been three and a half weeks since she had begun training, three weeks since Evelyn and Oriel had joined the witch's training, and a half week since she had recognized and corrected an oversight in her future troops' training. In that time, she had become extremely adept at throwing witches, Evelyn, and Oriel into the ground. She had begun to fight some of the training instructors themselves, beating them also. Apparently, because of her successes, General Lilian deemed Ciara ready to fight her herself.

They were to fight without weapons, using magic and whatever natural weapons their bodies gave them instead, only Ciara had never seen the General use any magic other than flight. She didn't know what magic the female wielded, or what her fighting style was, or even how much magic the General had to begin with. Considering that Lilian was both the witch's head general and mated to one of the three High Priestesses, it was safe to say the witch was powerful, but that didn't tell Ciara much.

The Dark Goddess allowed her lips to turn upwards into a small smile. She understood why the General had put her in this exact position of cluelessness, and she couldn't help but want to win. She didn't know, and likely wouldn't know, the traitor demon General's magic type, or his fighting style besides the fact that he was powerful, and she wouldn't know what magic any other random opponents had beforehand either. Ciara's magic was strong, and while her body had its physical limitations, she was determined to push through, to win, and to take this experience into the future with her.

So, finally indicating that she was ready to fight the already-prepared General, Ciara smiled wickedly, showing off all eight of her sharp canine teeth that could tear out throats, and prepared to fight.

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Lilian attacked first, immediately, shocking Ciara with the ferocity of the attack. Fire had manifested around her body, close to burning her, and only her magic's own reaction had saved her from new burn scars. Ciara's air magic pushed the fire away from her body just in time for her to process a deadly accurate swipe of talon-like nails at her throat. She stepped back, narrowly avoiding the witch's nails.