The Fantasy Games (Final Fantasy Fanfiction)

Chapter Six: New Weapon, New Ally, New Enemy

To say that the three weeks, which would probably be her last three weeks of living in civilisation, flew by would be an understatement. Yuna didn't know where the time went to but she did know that she had worked harder than ever before in those few weeks. Not even Isaaru's long training sessions could match it.

Each day was more or less the same, that's probably why they all blurred together and went by so quickly. She spent her mornings and afternoons in the training centre where all the tributes trained together. Paine had suggested trying some new things such as using daggers or a bow and arrow, something light and easy to manoeuver since she wasn't exactly the strongest tribute.

She had been nervous on the first day, she didn't like training in public for fear of what the other tributes would think of her. However Tidus had never left her side and that had managed to calm her nerves down as well as the familiar feel of her aeons stirring within her soul. At least she knew that they hadn't completely given up on her.

No weapon had really taken her fancy at the start. Broadswords were out of the question, she couldn't shoot an arrow to save her life, she kept cutting herself with the revolving daggers and she couldn't get a good grip on the spear or lance or whatever you called those pointy things. Sector Four's male tribute seemed to like them. He spun the weapon with such strength and elegance, long blonde hair whipping as he tore apart a dummy. Yuna had simply walked away from the lances after watching him for a few minutes; there was no way she could do that.

She knew she had probably looked like a lost soul, roaming around the training centre and heaving sighs of impatience. Paine had insisted that none of the other tributes know their strengths so Tidus was banned from sparring with a sword and Yuna was banned from practising any magic and summoning so she was at a loss of what to do. Tidus had busied himself by practising setting up traps and refreshing his knowledge of plants and fiends but Yuna knew most of that from hunting with him, so she had continued her search.

She had finally found something that suited her at the end of the first day. Guns. Small hand pistols that were light, easily stored in her back pocket, quickly reloaded and efficient to aim with. She trained mostly with them through the three weeks, though she did practise her climbing and also focused on getting her fitness up. She had figured she'd be doing a lot of running and scaling trees when she got into the games and since she didn't have much strength she'd need speed to make up for that loss.

Evenings were spent on private training with either Paine or Lulu, sometimes both. Lulu was technically her make-up artist and stylist but Yuna had to admit she knew her stuff about magic and gladly accepted her help. Lulu would lend her books of black magic and talk her through some of the basic spells. They had mainly focused on water spells as she seemed to be able to control them better and they also reminded her of her home. One or two evenings Lulu and Paine had insisted that she take a break so they either chatted and joked about small things in life and helped Yuna forget about the Games for a bit or they snuck out of the hotel and showed Yuna a bit more of the Capitol and its people.

Evenings spent with Paine were challenging for Yuna. Though Paine was a very patient woman and didn't seem to mind going through things with Yuna more than once, Yuna still struggled slightly. Most of the other tributes would be wielding swords so her mentor had decided to show her the basic movements of the sword and how to protect herself from them. After a small amount of explaining, Paine would unsheathe her sword and come at Yuna mercilessly; forcing Yuna to cast white magic spells to protect herself and using black magic to attack the oncoming warrior.

The first few times Yuna had been beaten within a few seconds, but then Paine had calmly explained how she should block and dodge and even counter-attack. The warrior had even gotten her a pair of guns and showed her how to block a sword with them and how to fire while running and jumping.