War For Underworld

The Lodell Desert

Five months ago, Mia

"Haaa, haaa..." Mia raises her to her face, feeling the heat stream of blood that flows down her nose. Her bastard master punched her square in the face. How rude! If this is how he treats women, it's no wonder he isolated himself here in the Dark Territory! Then again, he has avoided the advances of many women here...and the only three that have gotten close enough to touch him are her, the supreme commander's wife, and the sister of the leader of the mage guild.

Still, as brutal as his training is, it has improved Mia's skills with the sword by years. The Emperor's "Aincrad Style" is an unorthodox sword style, made even more unorthodox by the plate of gold he calls a shield on his left arm. For someone only three years her senior, he's several years ahead of her in ability. Then again, this is the warrior who fought the former Emperor Vecta twice and won in the end.

Today he isn't using the shield, a "gift" to her to equal their ability and see how much she's grown. Having been a knight in training already, she was already confident in her skill, but in just one month, she feels her skill has jumped ahead by years. It would be nice to have a true demonstration of that feeling, though, if she can land a damn hit on the Emperor!

"Giving up, Mia?"

"As if!" Mia stands up and charges Jaymes. "Seeiiiii!" She leaps and swings for his hand, his form frozen in place. And just when her confidence was at its highest, her certainty that her sword would strike his neck, her downward oblique slice cut through the indoor training ground's air. She trips over her two feet and falls on her belly, face planting on the hard, smooth flooring. Embarrassment and anger swirl in her head as she turns over and glares at her amazed-face mentor. Embarrassed that she fell in the manner she did, angry that he didn't make a move until the literal last second. "What was that?"

"I can't believe it worked! Yes! That skill has been hard to pull off since it's not a sword skill, but an active ability. Unlike Gun Gale, though, I can't just call out 'Hyper Awareness' and it'll keep me from danger. Seems I have to totally concentrate on avoiding danger, no other thoughts. That's gonna be tough to master. Would have been useful when Quinella trapped me in the Main Visualizer-"

"HEY!" Mia steadies her blade on her mentor's neck, enough for him to feel its chilly temperature. He yelps and turns around, scratching his neck. Sighing, Mia sheathes her sword and crosses her arms, fixating her rage on him. "You were toying with me again! You promised to not do that!"

"I wasn't toying around. As a matter of fact, I was testing myself with a new skill."

"...Really?"

"Mhm. But I was taking you seriously. You're improving rapidly. If I must say, you're farther ahead in skill than other people I've trained, but then again, you had years of training already, plus your sister was a knight too. As a matter of fact, you're better than I am, all things considered."

Mia shakes her head and walks to the benches that border the grounds. "I could never beat Lipia, and I haven't beaten you at all."

Jaymes shrugs and twirls his sword. "Lipia was the

eleventh rank in the knights, right?"

"Yeah. But she was more than a knight. She had an institution for orphaned kids from remote regions, where slave trafficking used to be rampant. I think she would have loved to know you're planning to put an end to it. I think she would have liked you a lot, had she not loved Commander Shasta."