The heiress spoke out about her happiness from that day just before the sound of a loud clap - a bit too loud just for gaining attention, but Rezzue had never really done sothing forceful like that before. But the field of illusions beca only mories of Qat... and she was pretty sure that she wasn’t ant to be seeing even half of the things she was seeing. A lot of the kissings scenes were very private and she *fully intended* to ask for more advice about ’seduction’ later due to a specific two or three were burned into her mind, but-
"Tell more about this chemistry you think I will like. Then we will go and see if you can show those children a thing or two about their swordsmanship."
"But I had a lesson plan that-"
"I want to see you wield a blade again. These two also didn’t see you that day. Having been married into this family longer than you, I believe you are underestimating the value of allowing them to respect your martial prowess in a way that they completely understand."
Humming in thought, Elua *had* considered that option and it was indeed ’on the schedule’ - if only from the angle of comparative processing. Showing them her skill now, allowing them to feel crushed by the display and using it as fodder to ditate on... and then when they reach Enchanter and gain their Astralisms, start their physical training again while having a quicker mind to latch onto whatever comnts she may drop in explanation of heavy blade chanics...
"First of all, most people tend to think of the corrosion and destruction caused by Acid too much like ’burning’. As if it is just so kind of liquid fire. But that’s not it at all - well, though so reactions can very much catch on fire but that’s beside the point. The reactive chemical is instead acting on an otherwise stable state of a given substance by introducing-"
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
"Really? We get to use our blades?!"
Ajoreal seed extra happy at this news, but Kaland felt quite tempered - and almost suspicious from the mont she appeared. After all, their cousin’s wife was standing there following the Goltbred heiress with an almost far away look in her eyes. Like soone who had been taught forcefully that the world they lived in was far simpler and far more complex than they ever imagined. Of course, the boy could only see it as a student that had just been broken by an instructor.
Deciding correctly that such was the intent behind today’s surprise lesson, the older sibling was not looking forward to whatever the plan was. Even if it ant he would get to swing his weapon for the first ti in weeks.
"You can. I’ll allow you your essential warm-up so neither of you can claim you were rusty. And then we will duel."
"...Duel?"
"A practice bout sounds fun! You want to see against my brother, I guess?"
Giggling so much at Ajoreal that it almost turned into a cackle, the illusionist rapidly shot her hand to the side. Fingers clearly gripped around sothing in the air that her palm struck beside her. The brunette brushed back her brown bangs as a rippling wave ’erased’ the illusion from where she held the weapon she had designed.
A thirteen inch hilt of black leather wrapped in a spiral of taut sinew, with the first sign of tal being the giant mahogany-toned copper ring poml. A similar colored tal ford the lunette style crossguard, a thick block of tal ready to catch what could not be parried... and successfully hiding copious amounts of sigilscript etched within its structure.
While she was proud of the functional leatherwork ’artistry’ below, extending from the guard was the blade she was extrely proud of. Retaining the thick, extra long spatha style of the Yecine’s blades, the beryllium copper alloy was browned along the flat of the blade but shiny reddish-gold along the ground and polished edge profiling. However, the twin fullers were sothing else entirely.
Etched ticulously along their entirety using her ’essence chiseling’ technique, the resulting channels had been stuffed full of both fine and coarse powdered stone. Specifically, malachite and azurite mixed in resin... with the latter’s fine powder given so silver - sourced of course from her dress - into the mix to bring the color closer to a pigeon blue to pair with the mint green.
Poured carefully at the sa ti, the colors wrapped and spiraled like natural ore veins growing inside the recessed area. Giving the entire blade the quality of a ceremonial relic instead of a true warblade. Sothing she expected others may also mistake it for in the future, to her benefit.
If sothing could actually harm it, the tal was more likely to roll than chip. The alloy she used could be heat-treated to temper it closer to the properties of high-carbon steel while also making the tal even less likely to spark. And importantly for a recent cultivator eting of hers, which is usually how the whimsical scher decided to plan for things... the entire thing was unable to be magnetized like a iron bearing weapon.
At least, so long as she didn’t run the ritual that would surge energy and turn it into a temporary electromagnet. A trick she knew from experience was useful to throw off that sort of cultivator. Almost like a sudden flash that could blind sight, a sudden burst of their own Elent they were fully unprepared for was a great way to buy so distracting seconds.
’So is pulling a giant sword out of nowhere.’
"You’d rather do sothing that you’ve probably done countless tis with each other? No will at all to test yourself against the young woman who passed your family’s little unfair test? Or did you think I could not tell your faults from amid the heat of battle on my own and would need to stand on the sidelines to gather them?"
Resting the flat of the blade on her shoulder, with the sharpened axe-like beveling right against the skin of her neck, the ancient cultivator sneered at her two students that only earned the qualification through nepotism!
"I bet you also think I ant one at a ti. You will both fight at once. And you will lose. And learn. But absolutely lose."
Elua knew she was laying it on thick, but it was another good lesson she was sure they would find a lot of value in. After all, the reason the Yecine were considered dominant enough in the region was the way they held themselves. You looked at one and you felt like they would take you down.
’Battles don’t begin when blades are drawn. In fact, battles are always in motion - with everyone at all tis. So getting into soone’s head before a weapon takes it... hm, maybe I *am* being too much.’
Turning to look at Rezzue, El found the woman nodding vigorously with hands clenched into fists at her chest height. So the reincarnator could only shrug... and give at least one of the people there what they wanted.
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
His sister-in-law was not a witch. She was a sword-demon. One that made their father seem like he was giving them kindhearted scuffles by allowing them to close any distance. Kaland was pretty sure... that he would never look at any girls or defenseless looking won the sa way ever again.
’I guess I’d already thought that after what she did at the competition. After learning our eldest brother was a sister. But it really... sunk in, now.’
The boy was swimming in the cobalt lake three weeks after the day of the duel. From that event until now, both of them were allowed so special compensation in their training thanks to what Elua called a ’massive error of judgent’. Or in other words... after the crying mint eyed girl beca far more upset than them after hearing that the two training blades she wrecked were given to them by Qatrand to serve as Exclave-temporary stand-ins for the weapons they had not yet gotten from their family.
’I thought my brother was upset when he saw his blade shear in half. But he didn’t bawl like she did...’
Ajoreal was given a special spot to sit in while he ditated that contained a zone of ionized air which left an indigo glow of static potential wreathing him. He’d gotten over the various losses easy enough after that, especially when being told the space would serve as spiritual training, safe essence accumulation, and also a place to test out his Lightning Elent once the breakthrough ca.
But Kaland... had only gotten thrown into the lake for his ’spot’ - deep down within it. Not because he pulled a Madrigil and interrupted her! As she explained it (or didn’t), he would know what an Aquatic Physique really was after experiencing it in action. In five seconds of struggle, he went from barely knowing how to swim based on reading a book once to gliding through the water like a human-shaped dolphin.
The physical energy techniques for improving almost every aspect of underwater survivability were all but hardcoded into his body. The first dive, his breath had even lasted a whole four minutes despite the early panic. Now, he had been underwater for nearly thirty-three minutes just floating against a rockface... and staring at the Silver Altar in the distance he had been told not to ’play’ with. Just thinking again, as he had constantly these weeks, about how they had been shown a dim truth.
She’d used their family’s forms - perfectly executed. Every stance by the manual, every transition smooth and restricted to the style they used. Being a cultivator, the weight of her blade hadn’t even slowed her in the slightest... though when he had lifted it afterwards with her permission, the thing seed to be a fifth or more heavier than his own which sohow stuck in his craw.
Ajoreal had tried to capitalize on an opening early, moving exactly as they’d been drilled to do when fighting alongside another. She’d parried his blade with enough force to send him stumbling, then swept his legs with the flat of the blade without breaking training form. When Kaland committed to the aggressive downward strike from the seventh kata while she was busy with that... she’d stepped back inside his guard and put her poml against his solar plexus before he could recover.
Twelve seconds, with half of that being their hesitation to approach the girl emitting bloodlust.
The second bout went differently, longer, only because they’d tried to adapt as she criticized the very style she was using without error. That round was when the blade of the youngest brother snapped in half - caught between her dense crossguard and a twist that leveraged on a notch she created when parrying in the first round. Because he’d tried to force through the et instead of yielding and backing away.
Elua had told him to pick up the broken pieces and sit while finishing with Kaland. His did not co apart in two large pieces, but was still ruined as she bullied him since what followed wasn’t words of comfort or blows held back... neither in his jellied arm muscles or their Yecine pride.
She’d walked them through with an illusory recording of every mont they’d reacted as their training prescribed and explained why each reaction had created an opening for her. Aggressive commitnt which their father praised left them overextended. The partnered advances they’d drilled for years together made them predictable. The power-focused strikes that were supposed to overwhelm an opponent... only worked if the opponent was weaker or unprepared for the even match.
The girl stressed that their style assud they’ll be stronger or aner than the opponent. And posed the question to them - what happens when they were not?
Worse for them was seeing her sword dance around in confusing paths while she critiqued... making it clear she hadn’t fought like herself from the start. She’d fought like a Yecine intentionally with twice their physical cultivation - and that had been more than enough to dismantle them completely. This implication sat heavier on his shoulders than even the water around him.
Deep inside Kaland’s spirit, he was sure... that against the Copper Blade of the Ogre Fairy, they would not last a single exchange. That is, should his amazing but incredibly terrifying sister-in-law even *bother* to use it.
’Thinking of the hand-to-hand training is going to make throw up underwater again. I should think happy thoughts. Think... happy... urk!’
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