The Heroes of The Elemental Academies Book 3 The Tides of War

Chapter 23: One's Mastery of the Sword

   Rylee

    "So where do you want to do this," Rylee asked as she made her way through the encampment, Seth slightly behind her kept a brisk pace clearly attempting to match her own. The two Elementian Knights followed close behind her keeping a respectful but watchful eye on them.
"I didn't really have place in mind but I thought I'd be a good idea to get some practice with my blade, I was clearly lacking in the last battle."
It made a certain amount of sense to her that he would want to practice since he was bested by Orion so easily. On the other hand he still had much to learn when it came to elemental power and she wished he would be practicing that.
   They kept walking until they came upon a open field just to the north of the main entrance. Currently nothing was being built here but there was a lot of buildings around the area.
   "This will work," Seth said as he began stretching rolling his shoulders as he moved to the middle of the tiny open area. In his hand he still held the leaf shaped light sword he'd been holding since he had asked her for this spar. Why he was carrying it instead of his sword Sonfang she had no idea, but it was inconsequential to her either way. She summoned her normal companion in battle a four foot staff with a two foot straight double edged blade at the end. Some called it  a staffsword, however she called it something else. She called it Songbird. She was fond of the name too. Because much like a bird she was quick but when her blade sang death came with it.
"First, dull your weapon," she instructed. She placed a hand over the blade of her weapon and willed it to lose its edge. She felt the familiar drain on her Fey pool slight as it was, and the edges of her summoned weapon blurred for a second as if it was coming undone, then it cleared and the edge was noticeably blunted. She looked up to discover Seth doing the same.
"Alright let's get this over with." She quickly moved onto the field and took up a position opposite of Seth. She watched as he lowered himself into an offensive stance. No clear openings in his stance, that was good. She too dropped into her lower stance opting to be defensive. She held Songbird at about waist height horizontally with both hands. Then she raised herself into the balls of her feet in anticipation for the coming attack.
"Start when you want." She trained her eyes on Seth's golden pupils. His usual playful demeanor had vanished and now a cold pale look was directed at her. He seems to be gauging her weakness and trying to find the best way to attack her. Rylee up until this point had never sparred with Seth not like this, sure she'd seen him fight but she'd never had the chance to observe his movements up close. She had heard that he was a natural with a sword.
"Let's see what you've got."
   Seth was the first to attack. He closed the distance at a speed that she almost couldn't follow... almost. She raised Songbird and sparks flew as the impact against their blades caused her to take a step back. She deflected his sword to the side and down before pulling her own into a fierce thrust. At first she thought she had him but somehow he managed to sidestep smack
Her on the side of her knee with the flat of his blade. She hissed at the sudden pain before stepping back swinging her sword horizontally intending to distance. It worked. Seth backed up.
   She stood straighter lowering her blade as Seth danced back to his original position a smile of satisfaction on his face. She had to admit it, he was impressive with a blade.
"I might not be as skilled as you with the elements but with a sword at least I am better than you," he said.
  She didn't answer him. She didn't need to, she raised Songbird and dashed towards him. She almost smirked at the surprised look on his face. She feinted high and at the last second switched her grip flipping the weapon around so that she was now striking from the bottom. Again Seth block the strike but she wasn't done. She slashed outward causing Seth to duck underneath her strike and she pivoted on her foot. Twirling away and behind him. He attempted to follow her but he was much too slow. She swung the haft of her weapon around and swept Seth off his feet. He landed with a thump on his back. She pressed Songbird underneath his chin before he could move.
    Now she could feel her own smile, probably closer to a smirk appear on her face. She was breathing hard and she noticed her hand was still trembling from receiving Seth's blows but for some reason she felt a swelling in her chest. Was she truly proud of defeating relatively new agent when she had over fifty years of combat training? The shocked look on Seth's face melted and just as she thought he would begin to sulk. He surprised her by bursting into laughter instead.
    "I deserve that," he said after calming down enough to speak.  "I've been so proud of my sword play even though I've neglected it. It was only a matter of time before I got humbled."
  Rylee managed a smile of her own, not sure how to respond. It was funny she had obtained immortality almost fifty year ago during the previous demon outbreak. It was a gift she had accepted all to quickly. But it was times like these she realized that mentally she was still very young. It was moments like these that made her long life worth living.
   She reached down offering Seth her hand and he took it gracefully allowing her to pull him to his feet. Once he stood he shook his hand and the blade of light he had been carrying dissipated.
   "So," she began looking into his eyes. "Do you know where you messed up? More importantly do you know where you have to improve." She could've just told him but if he was half as skilled as he just showed her he was. He would've seen his own shortcomings.
His eyes lost some of their glint of humor before he answered.
"Yeah I know what I have to work on." She wondered if he truly did but she said nothing. They stood there for an awkward second neither speaking and a thousand thoughts lingered in her mind. They were close enough that she could see that Seth dwarfed her in both height and width. His shoulders while quite broad were taunt and if she had to guess quite flexible. The piercing stare of his golden eyes seemed to look right through her. Yet there was something about those eyes that drew her in. Like miniature suns his eyes made her feel that if she stared too long she'd go blind. His brown hair blew into his face breaking whatever hold they seemed to have on her.She looked away.
She wanted to apologize for the previous day and before the battle. She had had no idea of how little he had been trained. It was actually quite a miracle he had made it this far. His Fey core was still quite small but given what she had seen his capacity for growth was unknown. She opened her mouth to apologize but then closed it. Apologies would mean very little now.
"I've got a mission for you and your squad starting tomorrow," she said instead. He didn't seem all that surprised instead he just stepped back and crossed his arms across his chest waiting for her to explain.
" Is it a long or short term mission?" It wasn't uncommon for scouting missions to be the top priority when setting up a base. Such mission could last anywhere from two days to two weeks depending on the target they had to scout. This was all something she knew, but she still dreaded giving him the news.
"Long term, you and your team will depart tomorrow morning to scout the city of Durindal."