She's Sunshine, She's Grace, She'll Punch You in the Face

Chapter 89: Sword Play

Marinette squeaked loudly as she just barley managed to duck out of the way of Damian's strike.

"Wow. You're really going for it." Marinette said as she backed up a few steps.

Damian didn't answer, but instead kept a strong and determined face as he assessed her. After circling her a few times he went in for another strike right at her hip, which she just managed to slap away with her hand.

"No." Damian stood up strait and relaxed his stance to look at her. "That's a good way to lose a hand. What if this were a real sword?"

"Oh, right." Marinette shook her head. "My bad. Let's try that again."

"Don't forget you have your own sword as well." Damian got back into his stance. "You ready?"

"Ready."

Again, Damian went for her without hesitation only this time Marinette seemed to be more ready for it as she rolled away with a bit more style. She found herself in an almost dance like state with Damian as he led with his attacks. Keeping in mind with what he said, she used some of the fencing techniques Adrien and Kagami had taught her to parry his blows. After a few minutes of this back and forth, Damian finally called for a break.

"You never told me you fenced..." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well I don't really. Adrien and Kagami do and they have taught me some things here and there. If you want to see some real fencers you should go and talk to them. Kagami's even training for the Olympics next year."

"I see." Damian nodded. "Fencing is a great basis for sword play. It's nice to know that you aren't a complete beginner."

"When it comes to fighting anybody with any sort of weapon, I would say that I'm not a beginner. I've seen a lot of akumas with all types of weapons in my day."

"Okay." Damian smirked at her. "Then I won't hold back this time."

"Oh, finally showing me your true strength, huh?" She smirked right back. "Bring it."

"Don't you hold back either. Show me what you got, Angel." Damian got back into his stance.

"Wouldn't dream of it, boy wonder."

This time, their dance was a whole lot more intense. Every strike was done with purpose and precision as well as every parry. It almost seemed like everything was perfectly choreographed. Marinette would even pick up on Damian's moves and mirror them later. After about ten whole minutes of this, Damian called for a break again.

"You are a brilliant woman, you know that Marinette?" He smiled at her, a little out of breath.

"Well I am learning from the best. You really do know how to keep a lady on her toes. All of you do." She points over to where Jason and Bruce are fighting with Selina and Tim.

Damian nods as he looks over at the group sparring. "I guess we should move on from striking and parrying then. You seem to have a rather good concept on all of that. Let's move on to distance fighting."

"Distance fighting? With swords?" She looks at him with confusion.

"Sure." He gently takes the practice sword away from her. "Think of it as knife throwing or axe throwing but with swords. It takes a bit more skill to get use to it but it can be very useful in many different circumstances." He walked over to the weapon wall to put up the practice swords and take off one of the real ones.

"We are going to be throwing a real sword around in here?"

"No, not in here. We aren't crazy." Damian pushes a hidden button on the wall, similar to the one Marinette used earlier to get to the surveillance room. A second later, a door shaped hole in the wall swung open to reveal another room. "This room is specifically for target practice with different weapons. Father even made it bullet proof and sound proof so Todd can blow off some steam with his guns." He waved for her to go in first.

"Wow. How many secret rooms does this place have?" Marinette walked through the two-foot-thick door way to see a long room with a few glass dividers towards the very front which were most likely used to divide the throwing places up for multiple people and dummies at the very back. She also noticed surveillance cameras in every corner of the room, which was odd because she didn't see them in the surveillance room earlier.

"Well counting the cave downstairs I'm pretty sure we have 9? Father could be hiding more though. We mainly just have a lot of shortcuts to other rooms though and not necessarily whole hidden rooms."

"I would love an actual blueprint of the manor one day." Marinette jokes sarcastically as she walked over to one of the throwing stations.

"You and me both." Damian closes the door behind him as he follows Marinette in.

"I was in the surveillance room earlier and I didn't see the live feed from these in there." She points to one of the cameras in the corner of the room.

"You probably wouldn't because they are motion censored." He explained as he walked to the end of the room to set up a rather simple circular target.

"We aiming for the bullseye, are we?" She asked as he was walking back.

"Yep. I want you to watch my form so you can understand exactly how to throw it. Swords aren't weighted the same as an axe or a knife so you have to throw them a bit differently to get them to stick. My way of throwing isn't the only way too, so keep that in mind."

"Okay." Marinette nodded. "Got it." She stepped back to give him some room as he approached.

Marinette watched in absolute amazement as he threw his sword with uncanny accuracy, hitting the target directly in the center.

"Did you get that?" He looked over his shoulder at her.

"Uhh, I think?" She smiled at him.

"Okay. Let's see you give it a try." He walks back over to the sword to retrieve it from the target.

Handing the sword hilt first at her, she gently takes it from him and steps up to where she needs to throw it. She looks back at her soulmate for a moment to see him give her an encouraging smile. Taking a deep breath, she thinks back to Damian's movements and tries her hardest to mimic them as she finally throws the sword. She watches as the sword sticks at the very bottom of the target.

"Well..." She looks over to Damian. "I actually hit the target at least."

"That's far better than my first time throwing a sword." He chuckles.

"Yeah but weren't you like 5 when you threw your first sword?" She rolls her eyes.

"6 actually. But I get your point." He looks over at the sword. "You still did very well. The target is at max distance in here after all. I think with some more practice you'll get it in no time."

"What do you think I did wrong?" She asked as she watched him go and retrieve the sword again.

"Well its all a learning experience. Trial and error. Aim a little higher next time.

"That's simple enough I guess." She nodded as she took the sword from him again. "Let's try this a few more times."