Training (3)

Running laps around the field, Sammy couldn't help but always turn his head to the center, watching Princess Nika and Elian fight. Or... in this case, their Commander trashing Elian over and over again.

"Get up!" Shouted Nika, her white training outfit still immaculate, while Elian was looking like a pig out of a mudbath, his face turning orange from the amount of clay sticking to it.

"A moment..." He groaned just before rolling to the side, dodging Nika, who had landed right where he had been a second before. If not for his quick reflexes, his head would have been stomped open; he was sure of it. "Is she trying to kill me?!" He asked himself the eleventh time, wanting to cry.

"A moment?" Nika scoffed, watching him get up, just to aim a kick at his head that Elian blocked by raising his hands, yet still got sent flying. "Will you yell the same thing in a battle? A moment? Please, dear enemy, wait a second until I catch my breath!"

"This is not a battle..." Elian moaned, feeling his body was aflame, burning, hurting everywhere, as if a fire was raging in his chest, looking for a way out, unable to find its outlet. Or he was simply hurting all over from being used as a punching bag... Maybe both.

"That's the problem. Take it as one!" Nika sneered, attacking again, her body surrounded by flashes of lightning here and there, exploding with speed whenever Elian was about to successfully dodge her punches and kicks, accelerating and making sure all her attacks landed.

She had been doing it since the beginning, noticing that although Elian had no training in any kind of martial arts, his reflexes were frightening. Too fast... too responsive... His body always twisted, turned, and adapted to her attacks in the most optimal way. If not for using her Aspect powers and increasing her speed when needed, he would be able to dodge them. Worse, he was showing signs of adapting to her enhanced speed, forcing Nika to use increasingly more power every time, making it exhausting to constantly adjust her own limiter. She was afraid that if this kept going on, she would seriously injure him or let him dodge... It would make him think he had achieved something when not... And that would be just as bad. False success could lead to dire consequences later on, resulting in death due to carelessness.

"I told you to try and hit me, but you are just going around, dodging."

"You call this dodging?" Elian moaned, pushing himself back up, gasping for air.

"Are you refusing your order now? Is that it?" Nika continued asking, beginning to smile, which scared Elian more than when she looked angry.

"I don't know how to fight. I never got myself into a brawl, not even as a kid. Sorry!"

"Haaah, what is there not to know?" She moaned, rubbing her forehead, showing her frustration, "You throw punches and kicks, for heaven's sake! Newborns can do that! You can't be this dense!"

"I know enough that trying to hit someone who is clearly trained would open me up for a counterattack that can kill me instantly." He argued, "If I can dodge, why would I offer myself up to a more experienced warrior with a lousy punch? You are shorter than I by two heads, yet you can still aim a kick at my face! You can kill me twice over while I try to kick your shins!"

"..."

The sudden silence on the field was tangible immediately, and while Sammy admired Elian's bravery in talking to the Princess like that, Sakku was holding her head in great distress. Yet none of them could imagine what made Nika really stop speaking and look so annoyed: She couldn't argue about his logic. True enough, no matter what attack he would try, she was confident in evading and countering it in one step. On the battlefield, that would be an offer of 'come and kill me.' But... How would she train him then? He was clearly a very adaptive person; she was sure that his body would remember the experience, making it hard for her to repeat the same things twice on him. So... He must attack her. That was the only option left to them.

Right now, that was her sole goal. Teach him through experience, leveraging his innate adaptability to guide his training.

"Do it. Now." She said slowly and calmly, breaking the silence and leaving Elian no way to refute it. "Do it... Or I am breaking bones the next time."

"..."

In the end, he knew he had to. Gathering all the knowledge he had from the movies he saw... He did his best. But the way he approached her and threw a punch was amateurish. It made the Princess sigh, acknowledging that Elian didn't lie; he genuinely hadn't fought anybody before and had no experience in combat. It was sloppy, laughable... pathetic. While thinking about it, she had already sidestepped his punch, delivering her own into the side of Elian, making him kneel over, gasping for air.

"Shit..." Both of them were repeating the same word at that moment, but in Nika's case, she was surprised that Elian's body didn't show the same response as before. It didn't react in time, and now he ate the full force of her punch, pushing all the air out of him.

"I... told... ya..." He groaned, trying to gasp for air, holding his ribs, feeling they were screaming for mercy.

"Stop being a crybaby and stand up. You have the reflexes; why didn't you dodge?!"

"What reflexes?" He argued, pushing himself back up, "I couldn't dodge anything before, and you move way too fast!"

"His focus is too singular..." Nika exhaled, thinking to herself, "He needs to learn how to switch between attack and defense seamlessly. He will never make it if his mind doesn't adapt in time. Tsk."

"No need to look at me like that; I know I'm no good."

"You are untrained." She answered, giving no more explanation but surprising Elian with her words. He knew it did not mean he couldn't be trained or improved... So he wasn't a lost cause. That is why they came here, after all... To train. "Do it again, but this time expect my counterattack! I will do it from the left."

With the advanced information, Elian was doing his best to try to punch her while also getting ready for the inevitable. He saw it this time, how she seemingly flowed alongside his punch, like water bending, her fist already aiming towards the same point she had hit previously. Even though he saw it all because he knew it would happen, he found it hard to switch between attack and dodging. His focus was like a single-minded bull, seeing the red cape, too slow to listen to his command, and readjust his stance to dodge it. It was a dissonant feeling between his mind and body that he hadn't realized was there before.

"Well... fuck..."

It was Elian's last thoughts before the hit made contact, sending pain through his body as he heard multiple of his ribs cracking and breaking. The sudden pain finally short-circuited his brain, making him fall over and knock himself unconscious when his head banged against the ground like a sack.

"Elian!" Shocked, Sakku finally couldn't sit still, rushing in and placing her front paws where he had been hit, letting a golden light surround their bodies and heal him.

"I can't believe it..." Nika whispered, her crimson eyes enlarging to twice their size, her fingers slowly unfurling as she looked down at it, slightly trembling.

She hit him with a punch that was backed up by a slight amount of her Aspect. The moment her fist made contact, she could feel his muscles tensing up and inner energy trying to withstand her strike, but it had no way to explode outwards. This was the first indication that someone was on the verge of awakening their Aspects. It was yet to manifest, yet to be controlled and used, but it was ready to burst forth. That meant Elian did not yet have a mature, formed Aspect, and his unnatural reflexes and speed were all that was... something innate. The intrinsic maximum of what his body was capable of without accessing his nascent Aspect.

"..."

Looking at Sakku, who was nervously using her magic to heal Elian, who was already coming back to consciousness and groaning, she couldn't help but remember what happened all those years ago. There was a man with physical powers very similar to Elian's, also coming without an Aspect. The difference was in their specialties... While Nika felt that Elian was more about speed, defenses, and precision, that man was all about raw power from the start. He was slower than Elian, even with his Aspect awakened, his speed would have put him where Elian was now... but the wind behind his one punch alone sent others flying. He was the manifestation of his future Aspect the moment he appeared, taking on hits without faltering, forcing himself through all obstacles before him. Just like a damned dragon...

"We will stop here." She exhaled, her voice steely and strict as if she were doing her best to stifle her shaken mood. "After you are up, go join Sammy in running. I will come back when you can stop."

"Yeah... sure..." Elian wheezed through the pain, trying to just lie there, hearing Nika's steps as she left the training field. "Fuck... I'm weak, aren't I? A disappointment..."

"No, you are not!" Sakku harrumphed, climbing atop of him, purring. "You just need training, that's all; I believe in you! We all are! Um, um!"

"Thanks... for the healing, too. Ugh... Let me gather my breath and start running."

"But!"

"It's what I am here for, no?" he asked, stroking his head. "And I won't lie, discovering my limits is kind of fun..."