Buds of Despair

12. Training

Training

Tsubaki was waiting for them, the arena was empty aside from people that were there working out on their off time and they were sectioned to one area. "The arena is mostly ours, I am coming at you without holding back so today you guys will work on defensive maneuvering to protect each other or at the very least stay out of each others way to give the targeted a chance to dodge. If you can attack please entertain me with it."

Tsubaki could feel their auras, they were being serious as their gazes stayed locked on him and they stood several feet away. Isabella stood about seven feet behind Noctis slightly to his right, Tsubaki started attacking with his chains. They both spread opposite directions forcing him to spread his attacks and merely running around, he wouldn't tangle his chains if that's what they were thinking, Noctis warped in front of Tsubaki as Isabella's chains clashed with his entangling hers with his to stop the movement. He barely dodged Noctis's attack as he warped away landing opposite side of Isabella. Tsubaki charged at Noctis as he blocked the attack Isabella's chains attacked Tsubaki's back and sides, Tsubaki warped back out of the fray, her attacks were accurately only aimed at him.

He changed his attack to Isabella who dodged his attacks with minor movements. She only ever dodged just enough, if he could time out a bigger swing he could catch her, Noctis's blades rained down on him and he was forced to warp away again, Isabella's chain gripped his ankle where he warped to and she whipped him toward Noctis's blades that were swirling around him. Tsubaki used his chains to form a shield blocking the blades before he went through the blender he had created. He didn't have time to think as Isabella reeled him back towards her as she charged forward blades drawn he blocked it with his swords breaking her chain with his sword he warped away swinging his chain down at Noctis, he dodged the attacks.

Tsubaki stopped for a moment and stood there looking at them, they were perfectly in sync. When one was taking the attack the other attacked from other angles accurately avoiding damage to their partner. People trained for years and still only few could manage to work as partners, was it because of the shared cryst he had heard about? They had an unheard of compatibility rate of over eighty percent, most people were lucky to have thirty-five percent and if you could be fifty percent with someone you were partnered and usually married. The higher the compatibility rate the stronger the pair, after a few years of training they would be a two man wrecking crew able to take over countries on their own. He wouldn't be surprised if they were married just for the sake of them producing a baby, especially with Noctis's royal blood and Bella-chans unique healing abilities.

Countries pushed for reproduction among high end cryst users, marriage and babies usually happened right after and sometimes before graduation. Their futures were already set, jobs already set, STDs were no longer existent thanks to the virus that wiped out eighty percent of the world's population a couple hundred years ago. Cryst evolution had eradicated STD's, cognitive and physical disabilities, cancers, birth defects, people were naturally more active due to having to do manual labor and ate from the earth since there was constant supplies of fresh produce and animals stayed well populated. There were still no mass production of food products everything was traded between countries for variety since some things flourished where others didn't. Most countries had cities that had skilled trade workers and local farmers to go to for supplies. The only thing mass produced was entertainment, holographic tablets, phones, magazines, TV, cars. They didn't have a college they shadowed and did their own research with already highly skilled cryst users in their field of practice.

He warped and ran attacking them from every angle trying to wear them down as they constantly dodged, they weren't attacking anymore. Conserving energy? He smiled he wouldn't let them, his chains rained down on them in combination with throwing knives, he was warping in and out attacking head on as well. This continued for two hours until both children finally collapsed from exhaustion of running and warping so much. Blocking those heavy attacks weren't easy on the joints. Isabella and Noctis were laying side by side breathing heavily. "I cant move anymore" Noctis closed his eyes, bones had to be broken from blocking some of those attacks, he hurt everywhere.