When Kingdom Goes

Act I - Chapter 3

Their training continued and Rose grew by leaps and bounds each day. As the last day of training approaches, Rose can feel herself getting stronger. Not only was she stronger physically, but also ethereally. She could stay in her hyper speed mode for increasingly longer periods of time as well as being able to speed up even faster than she could initially. She had also become an exceptionally capable fighter under Rex's tutelage. She has the greatest level of mastery over hand-to-hand combat, but she is also adept with most weapons, with her better weapons being throwing knives, daggers, and shortswords. Once they enter the days following they're training week, they notice that Hiro hasn't returned yet. Rex shrugs his shoulders saying, "It's not like him to be late. However, I doubt he's in any trouble, seeing as it was just a meeting. Negotiations are probably just taking a bit longer than expected.". Seeing how they have a bit of extra time, Rex asks her to partake in one more phase of training.

"Umm... Mr. Rex? What is this... thing?" Rose says skeptically as she sits and stares in confusion at the poorly made replica of Hiro.

"Look, I'm not the best artist in the kingdom. I'm good with my hands in a fight, but that doesn't translate well to other things." He says, slightly embarrassed at the terribly made practice dummy. "This is a dummy version of Hiro that we'll use to train you. This will also be the last phase of your training."

"But I thought the last phase of training was the last one?"

"Not quite. There was something else that I nearly forgot. Do you remember what I said to you the first time we met?" Rex asks.

"Something about messing up, right?" She says, struggling to remember.

"Yes, but the more important part that you were supposed to take away was to protect Hiro. Specifically, when you are with Hiro, 'Regardless of location or situation, you are to put his safety above your own.'. It's a saying that the Palace workers have been using since Hiro's ascent to the throne. It's important that you start to act in the same manner." Explains Rex.

"Makes sense. So this is supposed to help me with that?" She says pointing to the dummy.

"Yes. For the next three hours, you will be tasked with protecting this dummy. For every successful hit on the dummy, an additional thirty minutes will be added to your time, so be sure to defend using everything in your arsenal. I'll be attacking, but I will be attacking both of you. Helen will conjure a clock momentarily. Once it starts ticking, your training will begin."

"Yes sir." She says, preparing herself for the challenge. She readies a few throwing daggers and a knife for combat and awaits the start. After a few moments, she sees a massive analog clock begin to fade into existence with a red line at noon, indicating the trial's end time. A couple of seconds pass by, and then it starts to tick.

Immediately following the first tick, a knife comes rocketing towards her from over her shoulder. She dodges, but it flies directly into the dummy's chest area.

"He'd be dead if that were actually him. That's an extra thirty minutes." Rex says, without moving from the spot he was in prior to the challege's start.

Seeing this, Rose enters Hyper Speed, and attempts to engage Rex.

They exchange a few blows in close quarters, with Rex dodging weapon attacks and blocking her other attacks. After a few exchanges like this, he parries a knife swing, steps in mere inches from her, and grabs one of the knives off of her hip and throws it at the dummy.

"Good job engaging me, but you can't get too far away from him." He says as he jumps backwards, away from Rose. As he jumps back, Rose quickly turns around and lunges at the thrown knife. After turning, she increases the amount of ether being consumed by her Hyper Speed to catch up to the knife, catches it, and throws it back at Rex. "All according to plan!" She says after throwing the knife back. Afterwards she reduces her ether consumption back to what it was prior.