Perish Song || A Pokémon Fanfiction

Chapter 8

"You have power over your mind-not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
- Marcus Aurelius

⚔️

"Dawn, I'm sorry to say that's not how you do it," Lily said calmly, folding her arms. "You don't spin while you're throwing a knife."

"Well, in contests, you spin and dance and such," Dawn replied. "So, it's kind of in my blood. What can you do about it?"

"If your life matters to you, I wouldn't spin," Lily said. "Really, Dawn, spinning wastes about two seconds of your time and those two seconds could mean the difference between life and death."

"Fine," Dawn grumbled, positioning herself in front of Gary again, who stood leaning against a pillar on the other side.

"3...2...1...go!" Lily cried. Gary had turned out to be decent at the bow; it had only been a week and he was able to shoot with precision an accuracy.

"Gary, remember not to aim for the upper-half of Dawn's body unless you want her to experience hallucinations," Lily reminded him. Gary nodded in reply, withdrawing an ebony arrow the shooting it within two centimeters of Dawn's arm.

Dawn gritted her teether, disgusted that Gary was doing better than her, tried harder to hit him. Blue energy started weaving its way around her arms, forming intricate designs. Suddenly, her motions become swifter and agiler. Her daggers were flying so quickly that Gary barely had time to dodge one before another came soaring in his direction. A final dagger cut a gash in his leg, which started bleeding faint wispy clouds of silver. Gary winced as Lily hurried over to him, placing a hand on the cut and healing it immediately.

"Thank Arceus that was a minor cut," Lily said. "If it had been deep, it would have stolen your memories."

"What?" Gary asked, astounded.

"Yeah, didn't I mention?" Lily asked, frowning. "That is what Dawn's daggers can do." Changing her serious air, she said, "Dawn, that was excellent!" 

When she received no reply, she turned to face the navy-haired girl and her eyes widened. Dawn was swaying dangerously and she hurried over to support the girl. "There now, what you did took a lot of energy. Come on, let's take a break."

Meanwhile, Serena was struggling to practice with Ash. While she was okay, Ash's standards were so high that she could barely even fathom reaching them.

"Serena, you were supposed to dodge that, not parry it. My strength is too great for you to do that," Ash said, lowering his sword as he faced Serena, whose cheeks were bright pink from all the exertion. "Go again."

Serena sighed and blew a strand of hair out of her face, showing signs of giving up. She steeled herself, apparently, and readied her two swords again. Swinging them once, she launched herself into battle. Ash was about to yell at her for not using his style at all when she caught him by surprise, kicking him in the face with the heel of her shoe. He landed on the ground as she placed the two swords around his neck, grinning maliciously at him.

"That...wasn't bad," Ash said sheepishly.

"Wasn't bad?" Serena asked, smirking at him. "Look, I don't know what this looks like to you, but to me, it looks like defeat."

"Actually," Ash replied, returning her smirk. "It looks like a win for me." He disappeared but Serena, guessing his intentions, swiftly turned around to see Ash's sword pressed against her throat. "And since you can't get away, Miss Kalos Queen, what do you have to say now?"