Beautiful Monster

Sparring

When Evelyn walked into the sparring room the first thing she noticed was that it was lit by moonlight and this was because the far wall was made entirely out of glass.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Eveyln asked, stepping forward onto the hardwood floor and looking around at the pairs of people fighting.

“Is what dangerous?” Leviathan asked.

“The glass wall.”

“Very, but that’s what makes throwing someone through it all the more fun.” Lebiathan said, and as if to underscore her words someone, from one of the pair of combatants, threw his partner through the glass.

Evelyn looked on in horror. “Will he live?” She asked Leviathan

“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.”

Evelyn turned towards Leviathan in disbelief. “But he just fell how many feet. You can’t even see the forest from all the way up here. How could he survive such a fall?”

“We demons are a tough lot, he’ll live.” Leviathan said, walking towards a wall that was covered in all different types of weapons.

“Okay.” Evelyn said, still not sure about his chances of survival.

As Evelyn turned to follow Leviathan she saw something shift on the glass out of the corner of her eye. So she turned back around and what she saw had her staring in shock.

The glass was literary growing back right before her eyes. The jagged edges of the giant hole in the glass got closer and closer until they were touching and then they seamlessly fused back together leaving behind flawless glass.

Evelyn turned to ask Leviathan how exactly that happened, but when she did she realized Leviathan was all the way across the room in front of the sword section of the weapons wall, so she hurried over to her.

“How did the glass fix itself?” Evelyn asked once she was beside Leviathan.

“Magic.” Leviathan replied, never taking her eyes off the weapons in front of her.

“So what are you looking at?” Eveyln asked after a moment of awkward silence.

Leviathan looked at her and turned back around to take a sword off the weapons wall. It was a katana.

“Do you know what this is?” Leviathan asked, removing the scabbard and handing Evelyn the 26 in. blade.

“A katana.” Evelyn said, taking a hold of the sword and wondering where Leviathan was heading with this.

Leviathan nodded her head. “Good.” She said, circling Evelyn. “I’m going to teach you the basics of how to fight with a sword.”

“Why?”

“In case you are ever attacked, you would hopefully be able to stay alive long enough for someone to come along and help you.” She said, stopping in front of Evelyn. “That’s not how you hold the sword. You place your right hand directly below the guard and place your left hand halfway off the handle.” She walked to the side. “And your stance is wrong. Your feet need to be farther apart.”

“Is this better?” Evelyn asked once she had done everything Leviathan had said.

“Yes.” Leviathan said, sighing. “And do try not to kill yourself when swinging the sword.”

*************************

“How the fuck did you stab yourself in the arm with goddamn sword?! The edge faces outward for god’s sake!” Leviathan yelled.

“I don’t know.” Evelyn said meekly.

“Give me that before you accidently slit your throat.” Leviathan said, grabbing the Katana away from Evelyn and putting it back on the wall. “At the rate your going the person you’re fighting wouldn’t have to kill you. You’d probably trip over your own feet and impale yourself on your sword, doing the job for them.”

“Maybe we should try something else.” Evelyn said quietly.

Leviathan glared at her.

“It was merely a suggestion. No need to get angry.”

Leviathan closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose and took slow, deep breaths.

“Okay.” She said after a few second of doing this. “How about this.” She said taking a short blade off of the wall and passing it to Evelyn.

The handle was made from white jade and as she removed it from its dark leather sheath she saw that the blade was forged in a style similar to the katana.

“What is this?” Evelyn asked, still examining the weapon.

“It’s called a tantō and it’s a knife.”

“It looks pretty long for a knife.” Evelyn said, eyeing the 12 in. long blade. “And why a knife, why not a sword again?”

“Because I don’t want to have to mop up your blood when you slit your throat.” Leviathan snapped.

“I can’t be that bad.” Evelyn grumbled. “And I highly doubt you would have been the one to mop up my blood.” She added under her breath.

“Yes you were.” Leviathan said. “Besides you couldn’t move the sword very fast, with a knife you would be able to move much faster, and that would hopefully give you an edge in a fight. Also with a knife you only need one hand to wield it as opposed to a sword where you need two. So you can use the other hand to strike as well.”

“Cool.” Evelyn said, swinging the knife around.

Leviathan rolled her eyes. “Let’s get started, shall we.” She said, grabbing the katana from earlier that she had put away.

Evelyn eyed the katana wryly. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to attack you and you have to block my blows.” Leviathan said getting into the proper stance.

“And if I don’t manage to block you?”

“You get a cut.” Leviathan said. “And later we are going to do some hand-to-hand combat.”

“Awesome.” Evelyn said sarcastically.

Leviathan smirked. “Are you ready?”

“Sure.” Evelyn said getting into fighting stance.

“Good.” Leviathan said, charging.

************************

Evelyn dragged her bloody and battered body into Asmodeus’s room, with the tantō strapped to her side. Too damn tired to clean herself up, she collapsed onto the bed and kicked off her shoes. She removed the tantō from her side and placed it on the bedside table. She then laid her head down on the pillow and within a matter of seconds she was asleep.

----------------------------------

A/N: To the right is an image of what a tantō knife looks like