The Demon's Travels. Sanctum.

I Try To Make Friends By Hitting Them.

"What the hell am I doing out here?" Medi grumbled as yawned and trudged outside, wooden katana in tow as he followed Hellbi. 

I was waiting for them atop one of the hills where me and Hellbi usually had our training sessions. Oddly enough, in spite of wearing my Valkyrie armor, I did not feel cold out here in the white snow. Though I could feel the wind run pass my skin, which gave me chills, the temperature hadn't changed that much. 

According to Hellbi, Valkyrie Armor was enchanted to trap heat in your body whenever the weather reached a certain level, though I wish the enchantment translated over to fall weather and not just snow, because I still felt quite chilly with my bare skin against the air. 

The chills were only enhancing the nerves I still felt. However, in spite of those nerves, I didn't feel bad. No, I just felt like I knew what I was going to do. It didn't matter if I got beaten up, this time I was going hit him, no questions asked. I would use what I learned and hit him.  It was time to take this guy to the cleaners. 

"You're sparring today." said Hellbi.

"What?" grumbled Medi. "This early?"

"Well since we're treating this week like a Christmas Holiday and we've got nothing else to do, I figured I would honor request to continue sparring for maybe at least just one more day." said Hellbi.

"Where's Gaver?" growled Medi. 

"Sleeping, this one's just between you and Mira." said Hellbi.

"I'm going to bed then, sparring's only fun when there's somebody worth fighting." Medi muttered, turning around and starting to head back to the house. 

"It's understandable if you're scared." said Hellbi.

Medi stopped walking. He stood there frozen for a bit, before slowly turning his head to look over his shoulder

"What?" growled Medi, glaring back at his mother. 

"I only meant that I've been seeing quite an improvement in Mira in the past few weeks, and if I noticed it, you must have noticed it too. You wouldn't want to break your perfect winning streak with her would you?" asked Hellbi.

Medi grinded his teeth furiously, literal flames ignited in his irises. "There won't be a broken winning streak because demons are dumb fucks who don't have anything else other than elf strength. "

"Then there shouldn't be any problem." said Hellbi. "Surely you'll be able to win as always.. right?"

That did it, Medi faced me, twirling his bamboo sword skillfully. "Well then, let's have it shall we? Demon."

"My name's Mira." I said. 

"Names this names that, in the end it's no different from naming a dog or cat, not like they identify with the name, it's just a signal for 'come here there's food.'  said Medi.

I didn't let Medi's insult get to me this time. I just continued to stare at him with determination, holding my stick out in front of me in a signature Valkyrie combat pose that Hellbi had drilled into me hundreds of times. 

Medi didn't wait for a confirmation of readiness as I expected. He immediately pounced and proceeded to attempt one of his strongest strikes to my head. 

But this time, I hurled my pot lid up and parried the attack, causing his blade to knock back and for him to veer off balance in surprise.  I felt a little astonished too, I had never managed to parry a single attack before. 

But my surprise was also my undoing, as Medi took the opportunity to leap back when I should have used the opening to cleave at him with my stick.