Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Return of the Aegis

Chapter 8: A New Nopon Friend

"How...how has Perun won on her own 5 times in a row?" I say panting on the ground with T-elos standing next to me. I look up and she looks agitated, not to mention I can feel her anger too.

"T-elos is a powerful blade indeed. On her own, she probably would be able to overpower me most of the time. The problem is you, Nick." Could she have put that more nicely? "A Blade is as good of a fighter as her Driver. You have potential Nick, Zenobia has taught you well when it comes to the basics. I want you to train with Amara for today to improve your combat abilities. T-elos, you have a free day today, but don't get carried away, I still don't fully trust you yet."

"Hmph, I don't need your trust. I know how to control myself." T-elos replied as Perun walked away. Amara comes into view as Amara gets up from sitting down on the sidelines.

"Okay Nick let's get down to business, You have a good grasp on offensive attacks and defense, your problem is your reaction speed. The only true way to work on that is to spar with me. So let's do this!" T-elos then walks off to the side while I stand face to face with Amara, who was slightly taller than me now that look at her. Alright, let me get in my stan-.

"Huh" The next thing I knew, I was on the ground.

"The opponent won't wait for you to be ready when attacking" Wow she's really fast, no wonder Perun paired me up with her. I get up and brush the dust off my jacket. My side was throbbing in pain from that throw. I decide to take the offensive and rush at her with a punch. She blocked it and countered by grabbing my extended arm and pushing me away. I regained my stance and try again, I rush at her again but this time instead of running straight on, I dart left at the last second and throw a punch at her side. She tanked it as expected, but she has a delighted look on her face. "Good job, you're able to adapt to a situation well. I didn't expect that move, but it won't work twice. Now it's my turn." Oh no.

*Time skip brought by Amara doing a backflip*

After about five hours of nothing but sparring, I feel like my reaction time is getting better. During that time, we also trained with weapons, more specifically with the sword I have. I managed to genuinely beat Amara a few times, but I feel that I would still lose if my opponent was Zenobia or Raye.

"Not bad, you improve fast," Amara says we clean up from our sparring with different weapons. "Just practice what I told you with T-elos and you'll get even better in no time. Oh by the way T-elos, KOS-MOS wanted to be here to spar you but had to help with research at Tora Industries."

"Tell her I'm ready to fight anytime," T-elos said confidently. I then wondered about something.

"Why is KOS-MOS helping out a tech organization?" I asked out loud.

"Well, Tora industries helps all the nations with security, since the founder wanted to be able to help everyone in need, with their biggest project being artificial blades. With light being such a rare element for blades to have, the organization asked me if I could lend KOS-MOS help with the development of artificial blades that have the light element. There's only been one in the history of artificial blades, the first one. The founder decided to keep that sort of power a secret, but with the technology we have now, we can now recreate it."

"I don't know, maybe it was kept a secret for a reason," I replied.

"That's what I think as well, but there's no evidence that the head of research is doing anything devious, so the royal capital can't interfere. I've tasked KOS-MOS to alert me if anything seems suspicious. So far she said everything went fine, why don't you guys go over there now? I've heard that they wanted to see you anyway after rumors spread that T-elos was in town."