Noah saw the massive fist coming at his face, displacing air in its wake.
He moved his head left. The fist passed through where he’d been standing half a second ago, Seraleth’s knuckles creating a visible shockwave that made the recruits standing twenty feet away lean back instinctively.
She didn’t pause. Her other hand ca up in an uppercut aid at his ribs. Noah twisted, felt the wind from her strike brush against his tactical suit. Before he could reset his stance, she was already pivoting, her leg sweeping low to take out his footing.
Noah jumped over the sweep, and Seraleth was waiting. She’d anticipated the jump, was already moving to intercept his landing. Her fist drove toward his chest.
He blinked.
Purple energy flared, and Noah vanished, reappearing five feet to her left.
Seraleth’s head snapped toward the sound of his reentry, her elven hearing picking up the spatial displacent. She was on him before reality fully caught up with his position, her palm strike already in motion.
Noah blocked with his forearm, felt the impact reverberate through his bones despite the reinforcent from white chi. She was strong—ridiculously strong. Eight tis the strength of an average awakened human, her physiology giving her advantages that no amount of training could replicate.
She pressed forward, each strike calculated and precise. Not the wild swings of soone relying on superior strength, but the disciplined attacks of military training refined over years. Her movents were fluid, economical, no wasted motion. Every punch created openings for the next, every feint set up actual attacks.
Noah gave ground, dodging and weaving. He could feel the recruits watching, could sense their attention locked on this exchange. Seraleth moved like water, adjusting to his defensive patterns, adapting mid-combination when he blocked or evaded.
Her fist ca at his face again. Noah ducked, blinked behind her.
She spun before he fully materialized, her elbow already driving toward where his head would be. He barely got his arms up in ti, took the strike on his crossed forearms. The impact sent him sliding backward across the training mat.
"You’re predictable," Seraleth said, not even breathing hard. "You favor blinking to your opponent’s rear. Left side specifically."
Noah reset his stance. She was right. He did have patterns.
She ca at him again, faster now. Her combination was textbook perfect—jab, cross, hook, uppercut—each strike flowing into the next with chanical precision. Noah blocked the first two, evaded the third, but the uppercut caught him in the solar plexus.
Not hard enough to really hurt. She was pulling her punches too, keeping this within sparring paraters. But the impact was solid enough to make him grunt.
He created distance, blinked again. This ti to her right, breaking the pattern she’d identified.
Seraleth’s ears twitched, tracking the sound. She pivoted, but Noah was already moving, throwing a combination of his own. Jab, jab, low kick.
She blocked the punches, caught his kick with her hand, and used his extended leg to pull him off balance. Noah hit the mat, rolled, ca up in a crouch.
"Better," Seraleth said. "But you’re still holding back."
She was right. He wasn’t using his full speed, wasn’t channeling dark chi to amplify strikes, wasn’t fighting like he would against an actual threat. This was sparring, practice, ant to teach rather than dominate.
But Seraleth clearly wanted more.
She closed the distance in two steps, her speed making the recruits gasp. Her fist ca at Noah’s face, and this ti he didn’t dodge. He caught her wrist, twisted, tried to use her montum against her.
Seraleth went with the throw, turned it into a roll, ca up behind him. Her arm wrapped around his neck, her legs hooking his waist, putting him in a rear choke.
Noah grabbed her arm, tried to break the hold. Her grip was iron, her elven strength making the position nearly unbreakable without using abilities that would cross the line from sparring to actual combat.
He could feel her breath against his ear, could sense her muscles tense as she prepared to apply pressure that would end the match.
Then he hesitated.
Just for a second. Just long enough for his brain to register that this was Seraleth, that applying the force needed to break this hold might actually hurt her, that—
She tightened the choke, her legs squeezing his midsection. "Yield."
Noah tapped her arm twice.
Seraleth released him imdiately, rolling away and standing in one fluid motion. Noah got to his feet, rubbing his neck where her arm had been.
The recruits burst into applause. Diana, standing at the edge of the training mat with her arms crossed, was smiling.
"Kelvin!" Diana called out, not looking away from Seraleth. "Pay up!"
From sowhere near the door, Kelvin groaned. "He let her win! That doesn’t count!"
"A win’s a win," Diana replied cheerfully. "Hand it over."
Seraleth approached Noah, her expression serious despite the victory. "You went easy on ."
"It’s sparring—"
"No." She cut him off. "Not just pulling punches. You hesitated at the end. You could have broken that hold with your strength alone, but you chose not to."
Noah opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. She was right.
"In a real fight, that hesitation gets you killed," Seraleth continued. "Your enemy will not show rcy because you are friends. They will use every opening, exploit every mont of weakness."
"I know—"
"Do you?" Her pale eyes held his gaze. "Because from where I stood, it felt like you were more concerned with not hurting than with winning the engagent."
The recruits had gone quiet, sensing this had shifted from post-sparring banter to actual instruction.
"You didn’t use any of your abilities besides the spatial displacent," Seraleth said. "No energy manipulation, no chi enhancent, none of the tools that make you dangerous. In a real fight, you are much more annoying for your enemies. But here, you showed only what you thought was safe."
Noah felt heat rising in his cheeks. Being lectured on combat by soone he’d been going easy on was embarrassing, but she wasn’t wrong.
"Even in sparring, there must be a certain degree of lethality," Seraleth continued. "Not to harm, but to teach. To prepare. Your recruits need to understand what real combat feels like, not sanitized versions where everyone holds back."
She turned to address the watching recruits. "Your leader is powerful. Stronger than most of you will ever be. But in this match, he showed you his weakness—he cares too much about not hurting his allies. In battle, that compassion is a liability."
Diana snorted. "She’s got you there, Noah."
"Thanks for the support," Noah muttered.
Seraleth’s expression softened slightly. "I am not criticizing you as a person. Your compassion is admirable. But as a warrior, you must learn to separate training from friendship. When we spar, we are not friends. We are opponents. Treat it as such."
"Point taken," Noah said.
"Good." Seraleth turned back to the recruits. "Who wants to go next?"
Several hands went up imdiately, the recruits eager to test themselves against soone who’d just beaten one of their faction leaders.
Noah stepped off the mat, moving to where Diana stood. She handed him a water bottle with a knowing smile.
"She’s good," Diana observed.
"She’s military trained. Seven-foot space elf with ridiculous biological advantages and decades of combat experience." Noah took a drink. "Of course she’s good."
"Which is why—" Noah raised his voice so everyone could hear, "—Seraleth and Diana will be taking over primary combat training from here on out."
The announcent drew surprised looks from the recruits. Seraleth’s expression shifted to sothing between honor and uncertainty.
"I’ve got other duties to handle," Noah continued. "Faction leadership, contract coordination, the usual administrative garbage. Diana’s been handling tactical instruction anyway, and Seraleth—" he gestured to the elf, "—is a captain in her howorld’s military. She has more extensive hand-to-hand combat experience than anyone in this building."
"Happy to serve," Seraleth said, her formal military bearing returning.
One of the newer recruits, a guy maybe nineteen years old, raised his hand hesitantly. "Captain Seraleth, how old are you? I an, you ntioned decades of experience, and—"
"That’s inappropriate," Diana cut in sharply. "You don’t ask a woman her age, especially not your commanding officer."
"I apologize," the recruit said quickly.
Seraleth smiled slightly. "It is fine. By your human standards, I am considered young for my species. But our lifespans are longer, so ’young’ ans sothing different."
She didn’t elaborate, and nobody was brave enough to push for specifics.
The past week had been productive. Eclipse Faction was moving from concept to reality faster than Noah had expected. Everyone had roles now, clear responsibilities that kept the organization functioning.
Sophie handled contracts and external relations, her diplomatic skills making her perfect for negotiating with settlents and other factions. Diana managed tactical operations and training. Kelvin split ti between his workshop and field deploynts. Sam coordinated logistics and recruitnt.
And the recruits—now forty strong—were beginning to gel as a unit. The original ten had proven themselves capable enough to start ntoring newer mbers. Teams were forming naturally, people gravitating toward others whose abilities complented their own.
The faction building humd with activity. Teams returned from contracts, processed their kills through Sam’s systems, collected paynt, and headed out again. The armory was better stocked now. dical had actual supplies instead of basic first aid kits. Even the living quarters felt less like temporary housing and more like actual hos.
Everything was moving well.
Except one thing.
It had been days, and Lila hadn’t shown up yet.
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