"She’s pretty good," Remarked Aria, as Superbia unfurled a couple of rapid slashes with her spear, Rio evading them before getting low and zipping forward, inflicting a shallow gash across Superbia’s left calf.
She then quickly raised her blade up defensively as Superbia drove the bottom of the handle of her spear towards Rio, a sharp clang ringing out as Rio narrowly blocked the attack with her blade, before backing away and getting so distance.
She was covered in cuts and bruises all over, but she’d landed a fair number of hits on Superbia too. Neither of them had sustained any direct hits, they’d only been grazing each other.
But, to be fair, Superbia is definitely going a bit easy on Rio. She isn’t pulling her punches, but she isn’t attacking as aggressively as she normally would, she’s been a lot more passive.
Normally, she attacks pretty relentlessly and likes to try and overwhelm her opponents with a flurry of consecutive strikes, but she’s only been chaining two or three attacks with each exchange in this battle.
"Yeah, she’s been improving really fast lately, I spar against her pretty often, and I can’t take it easy against her anymore," Replied Ciel, as Rio continued to keep her distance, eyeing Superbia warily.
"Which is a problem. Like that ti you got carried away and blasted her with a big explosion," Responded Rex dryly.
"Seriously?" Chid in Aria in bemusent.
"I-In my defense, it was an intense sparring match, it started to feel like a real fight, so...yeah," Muttered Ciel, averting her gaze.
"It’s kind of a miracle you haven’t killed anyone yet," I laughed in response.
"If it wasn’t for the safety barriers, she probably would have by now," Rex sighed wistfully, before I turned my attention back to the training area as Superbia shot towards Rio.
Her expression’s changed, looks like she’s done ssing around. It seems Rio had realized that too, she’s looking a lot more tense.
"[High Accel Triple Wind Slash]!" Exclaid Rio, whipping her blade across at Superbia’s chest.
Superbia tilted her body across, the tip of the blade grazing the right side of her chest, before Rio seamlessly shifted the trajectory of her blade and swung it back horizontally in the opposite direction, the blade whipping towards Superbia’s head.
She nicked the bridge of Superbia’s nose, before gritting her teeth as she halted her swung and raised her blade straight up, swinging it down with a roar of exertion...hm, she’s losing her form a bit, she’s starting to get desperate and it’s disrupting her technique.
Superbia easily blocked the slash as she raised her spear above her head, before a sharp gasp rang out as Superbia drove her right foot out and slamd it against the middle of Rio’s stomach, sending her flying back through the air.
Rio hit the ground with a thud and skidded back, quickly scrambling back onto her feet with a pained grimace and starting to back away.
She tensed as Superbia shot towards her rapidly, glancing back as she realized she was cornered by the barrier.
Superbia unleashed a rapid, powerful thrust of her spear towards Rio’s head as she closed in, grazing her left cheek and thudding against the barrier as Rio quickly tilted her head across to the right.
Rio began to step forward and whip her blade up, before she suddenly stumbled across to the right as a thunk rang out, as Superbia swiftly snapped her wrist across and struck the side of Rio’s head with the middle of the handle of her spear.
It wasn’t a very strong hit, since she exerted a lot of montum forward with her thrust, but she still managed to generate enough force through her wrist to hit Rio hard enough to startle and slightly dazed her.
Superbia jerked her arm back as she loosened her grip on the spear, the handle sliding through her hand. She clutched it just below the blade and rapidly flicked her wrist, whipping the bottom of the handle up.
It slamd onto the middle of Rio’s chin before she could react, a dazed groan ringing out as she stumbled back, before shakily slashing at Superbia’s head as she lunged at Rio.
Superbia easily ducked under the slash, before driving her spear up with a rapid, twisting thrust, chanting as the tip of the blade closed in on the middle of Rio’s chest...
"."
A imnse burst of power erupted out of the tip of her spear as Rio vanished from sight, reappearing outside the training area right as Superbia’s attack blasted a hole through the safety barrier.
"Hey, can I blow her up? Or one of the other Apostles? I an, they can’t die, so it’s fine, right?" Remarked Ciel hopefully.
"Co on, you’re still on that?" I sighed in exasperation, before adding, "No. Yes, they can’t die, but that doesn’t an I’m going to let you use them as practice dummies for target practice."
"I just want to blast soone, is that really too much to ask for?" Sighed Ciel, a forlorn look on her face.
Yes. Yes it is.
"She isn’t satisfied with blasting rocks and stuff anymore, so of the Earth Mages in our Guild tag along with her outside the Sanctuary, create big targets for her to blast out of Earth Magic, and that was usually enough. But that doesn’t satisfy her anymore, she wants to blast living targets," Grumbled Rex, looking worn out.
Yeah, he’s got it pretty rough, he probably has to deal with this every day.
"Guess I’ve still got a lot of room for improvent," Ca Rio’s voice, as she dragged her feet over wearily, adding, "Well, at least I know that I can get stronger for a while yet, since I still have a ways to go before I realize my Potential."
"," Remarked Superbia encouragingly.
"I know, but...I can’t help feeling like I need to reach my peak as soon as possible."
Actually, she might have the right idea. I don’t an that she should get reckless, of course. But with the ever-present, looming threat of the Demon Lord and his forces, taking things slow and steady might not be a luxury we can afford right now...
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