The Blacksmith and the Warrior

Swimsuit Day in SAO

July 10th, 2024, Floor 48, Lisbeth

"Go Silica go!" Lisbeth sits outside her shop as the younger girl engages in combat with Jaymes. Having watched Jaymes fight in practice and actual combat several times in the past, she can tell he's holding back but not letting Silica have an easy time. However, his shield is taking quite a beating from Silica's knife arts. Thankfully they're using gear from the first level, so they're able to hit each other without damaging their health much. They're been going at this for a few minutes, both not at full health but still in the green.

Silica unleashes a slashing art, but Jaymes deflects it nearly perfect. However, it serves as a distraction as Pina, Silica's faithful familiar, descends behind Jaymes, pecking him on the head. "Ow, ow, Pina, wait!" Defenses dropped, Silica strikes Jaymes in his chest with a shoulder charge, causing him to fall. She sits on top of him, knife to neck.

"Yield?"

"Yeah." Happy, Silica gets off and helps her mentor to his feet. Jaymes fist bumps her and pats the Pina's head as the pair walks over to Lisbeth. "Good work. Using Pina was smart. But remember, it'll only work once, so use that move when you know you could win. A single-minded opponent is susceptible to sudden changes in her environment, such as Pina."

Silica nods. "I'll remember that."

"Great. Grab a portion, we'll take a breather." As Silica comes over, Lisbeth stands and high-fives her as she walks over to the potion-gulping hero. She softly bumps his shoulders as she looks at the sitting Beast Tamer. "So...did you really not see that move coming or did you let her win?"

"I actually didn't. I thought Pina was still with you. She must have made a subtle signal that I would not notice." He sighs and raises the empty glass to Silica. "She has the smarts to be deceptive, just not the strength. I hope to give her that. Maybe you should help her."

Ever since returning from the Town of Beginnings, Jaymes has taken each morning for them to practice on Lisbeth's combat skills. While neither of them expects her to be as good as him given their different experiences, Jaymes wants her to be prepared in case she encounters this "Annihilator" pervert. So between his duties as part of the assault team with Kirito and Asuna and training Lisbeth and Silica, he's got a full plate. She hates he's stressing himself on this, but if she can fend for herself, even if it's for a few minutes, it's a few minutes longer she's safe and he can come to her aid. If he's busy on the front lines, she has a teleport crystal on her, in which she may escape and warp to either the floor he's on or the Town of Beginnings and hide out with Argo. They even designated a message in case she encounters trouble, "A".

Thankfully, his tutelage the last two weeks has done wonders. He can fight to his fullest without holding much back against her. She is going to lose, but she's lasting longer and longer, exploiting more skills against him than she could have before.

Smiling, she equips her practice mace, bonking it lightly on her friend's shoulder. Walking behind him, she assumes her battle stance, body slanted with her left side towards the front, both hands on the hilt of the mace. Jaymes walks around her, inspecting her posture. "Good. Very good." She tries not to blush under his focused gaze, but she can't help herself. Between him and Kirito, she's a mess of emotions. She wish she knew why she was attracted to both boys at the same time. But she knows who she's more comfortable being around, although considering Jaymes is always around, that's an unfair comparison. His mere presence, even the slightest touch, it's enough to frustrate her. And last week, when he was adjusting her posture...Lisbeth couldn't look at him for the rest of the day. Her teasing of Asuna is a perfect nullification of her feelings for the Black Swordsman; no such thing exists for the Crimson Warrior except her guilt that doesn't allow her to further the relationship.