Athra

Chapter 9 - Change of plan

As the Atlas games got closer the intensity of Lucina's training grew exponentially, she had Emily and Eric to thank for that. She couldn't remember the last time she hadn't woken up sore. However, she couldn't be too ungrateful due to the training with everyone, her magical abilities had soared, and her body had vastly improved in both physicality and appearance, which she thought was a nice bonus.

Lucina slumped onto one of the black benches beside the wall, almost sliding off it due to the sweat that clung to her skin. The rhythm of her heavy breathing filled her head, and she mindlessly watched her sweat drip onto the gymnasium floor.

The gymnasium was property of the military and was an enormous box. The ceiling was a solid white surface that radiated light that bounced off the smooth grey walls and black matted floor.

The bench lightly shuddered as someone took a seat next to her. She turned to see Emily Jager leaning back against the wall, similarly to Lucina, sweat drenching her body however, her breathing was a lot lighter.

"Three-minute rest and we go a few more rounds?" Emily suggested.

"Yeah sounds good" Lucina panted, but if she was being honest that was the last thing she wanted.

"Do you want to up it to five?" Emily grinned.

"Nah three is good" she lied through a wheeze. In truth she wanted at least thirty. Emily got up from the bench she went and stood next to Arhtur who was observing Eric spar with Ike, the sparks of their blades flying through the air as gold and black metal clashed. They both had really cool swords that Lucina was extremely jealous of, her sword was by no means boring but theirs both seemed strangely unique. Eric spent a lot of his time in the gymnasium with Ike as he was one of the only people here that could match him, as if it came to pure swordsman ship not even Emily stood a chance never mind Lucina. However, if the princess came to train, when she wasn't in any private sessions at the palace, she'd always spar with Ike, and it'd would also make for some fun battles to watch. Lucina could efficiently use a sword however, her brother had trained her in a way to optimize her magic and long-chained whip.

Eric and Ike's clash wasn't the only battle in the gymnasium across the room where a group of people, that she only really knew as Emily's friends, were sparring against each other. Normally Emily would be with them however, ever since the group battle team got decided she started trying to train a lot more with them to help improve their team synergy and understanding of each other's abilities.

Turning her attention back to the sword fight she examined as Ike quickly stepped into Eric and attempted to disarm him however, using his superior size, Eric was able overpower his attempt swatting away his sword and flipping Ike of his leg, at a such a speed that Lucina almost missed it. Ike crashed in the matted floor and looked up to meet a black blade hovering by his neck. Ike raised his hands in surrender he was defeated but, not without a smile. Eric sheathed his sword on his back and pulled Ike to his feet, who instantly hunched over trying to recover the air that Eric knocked out of him. Guessing her rest time was about to be up, Lucina left the safety of the bench and made her way over to the others.

"Your swordsmanship is getting even better. You were even overwhelming me then near the end however, you start to crumble when you get into close quarters against someone who knows their way around marital arts" Eric informed him "Understandably you've put hand to hand type combat on the back burner while you've been improving your specialty but it's starting to hold you back now. I'd recommend getting help from Emily and Arthur and try reinforcing your weak areas before the Atlas games". Ike responded with a nod as he straightened his posture, she assumed he was too exhausted to muster a response. Fighting Eric was never fun, well unless you are someone like Lewis.