Chapitre 12: Rebirth

"Aaaaahn."

"Aaaaaaaahn."

"Aaaahn."

"Come on Aisha! Say aaaaaaaaahn for me!"

Aisha chose not to oblige her mistress, instead stewing in her humiliation as she stared down into her lap, hands balled up and small. She tried to not acknowledge the orange slice in front of her, despite how good it looked. She tried to not acknowledge the hand that was holding it up, despite how pretty it was. She tried to ignore the arm around her waist, and the warm body curled up around her -

"Pleeeeease?" Lorian pouted. "I peeled this orange just fow youwwww...."

Aisha turned bright red at the baby talk. Honestly, she could understand the feeding, but...

"Why did you peel the pulp off?" She whispered meekly.

"Huh?" Lorian cooed. "Do you like the stringy parts?"

"N-no," Aisha muttered shyly, "But... why-"

"Coz I don't want to feed you anything but the best!" Lorian beamed, smiling brightly as she rubbed her cheek on the top of Aisha's head, simultaneously nuzzling and patting her, in a gross, ridiculously sweet show of affection, that made Aisha's tummy turn into an inferno.

Not even sure how to react, she couldn't help it as her lips parted to breathe heavier, a small little "auuu" leaking out of her mouth in pure brainlessness. And deciding that it was close enough, Lorian took the opportunity to slide the little orange slice into Aisha's mouth, caressing her jaw with the palm of her hand.

Aisha couldn't help but let herself be played like a puppet. It was less that she wanted to be good for her mistress, and more that - it just felt too good to resist. Even now, as those fingers danced along her jaw, she found herself unconsciously leaning into the hand, wishing so badly that they would go just a little up and start stroking.

Aisha rolled to the right, dodging another beam of black light. She swung at Xelos's waist with her pale green short sword. Xelos dodged, raising his foot and kicking Aisha in the head, who turned her head at the last second, avoiding a fatal blow.

She was getting better at this. She still died... a lot, counting 245 so far. But the frequency of her death was getting lower and lower, and she had more and more opportunity to swing at Xelos more. He dodged every time, but every swing... brought her closer and closer to a hit. Yesterday, she had been a full meter away from his body.. Today... she had brought it closer to 90 centimeters.

Her jaw felt funny. It was dislocated. The fatal wounds didn't hurt, but these minor injuries she received when she dodged a hit hurt like hell. She welcomed the pain. Every jolt through her body was another death that she avoided. Speaking of death though...

A beam shot through her head, disabling her movements. It no longer blacked her out; it had turned into just an inconvenience. During these periods of death, she couldn't move her body, but she was aware... she was conscious. She could remain standing, too, no longer having to get up so often.

She had a strategy. Xelos could only kill her with the beam accurately, about one and a half arm's lengths away from him. If she stepped beyond that length, she could dodge them almost consistently. But if she did, Xelos would start to use his body to attack physically. His kicks and punches were undodgeable- they came faster than Aisha could even react, and almost without fail they would send her body into the stasis.

So she would skirt on the edge of the radius. She still died a lot, and she often stepped too close and took a hit, but it made sure that she would not be tanking a beam.

Well, in theory, anyway. She did not account for the fact that Xelos would also move. She had to strike a balance of pursuing him when he stepped back, and making sure she didn't take a melee hit.

Another slash. Another fist to the face. 246. She looked up at Chiel, who crawled over to heal her. She didn't know why she kept coming. Xelos was perfectly capable of healing him by himself.

Why did Xelos keep her al- urk!

The side of her skull was shattered, blood flying everywhere. She didn't have opportunity to think about those things. She had to focus on the battle.

Focus. Bait out a beam. Dodge. Attack. Retreat. Repeat.

As if sensing her complacency, Xelos began to change his attack pattern.

(Beam. Dodge. Attack. Ret-AARGH!)

As she stepped back to avoid the next beam, Xelos instead stepped forward, waiting for Aisha to finish her roll. His fist slammed into her head full force.

(Damn it! I almost forgot he could move... All he's been doing is dodging.)

Aisha quickly backtracked to get out of the range of his attacks. This, however, left her vulnerable to another beam.

(My strategy isn't going to work! Damn it! Even if I go to the new radius, I can't dodge the beam.)

Over and over, she died, she could no longer get any swings in, and she quickly began dying at the same frequency as before. She could not dodge the magic from so far away, but any closer and Xelos would overwhelm her with his vastly superior speed and strength.

She fell to the floor, her minor injuries piling up. Once again Chiel knelt over her, and the wispy white magic began to do it's work.

(haa... I don't know what I'm going to do.)

"If you're going to give up, I can remove the immortality field."

"I'm thinking."

"In a real battle, the enemy will not be as so generous as to let you lay down and think. Get up."

She began to stand.

"Don't worry! You managed to find a way to dodge the magic! You'll find a way to win!"

(Don't be stupid... dodging the magic required me to get into close range. Dodging the physical attacks is completely different.)

No... There had to be a way. Every fighting style had its limits. Surely there was a way to dodge extremely fast physical attacks. If there wasn't there would be no point to the exercise.

The magic also came out too fast to react to... How did she dodge it? She had looked at his finger to see where the attack was going. Observe her enemy... to look for a tell, a weakness.

It was easier said than done. She had to keep an eye on his hand, and now she had to split her attention to search his body for something that might not even be there.

A fist collided with her head. Death.

A beam pierced her heart. Death.

Move into his range, to bait a physical attack. There! As his hand pierced through her throat, she could see it. His shoulder would move slightly before an attack!

She backed up to the edge of where Xelos would start using the beam. She kept a eye on his shoulder, as he began to walk towards her. Left or right? If it was neither.. It would be a kick.

His right shoulder moved, and Aisha moved to his left side to dodge. Her head collided perfectly with Xelos's left fist.

(What the hell was that! He faked the tell? But his left didn't move either!)

(The tell is wrong! He was faking it!)

(But he must have used a fake tell only if he was trying to hide a real tell!)

She looked again, closer this time. Death after death...

His neck twitched. His eye moved. Neither of them were real tells.

This would never work. Unlike the magic, his physical attacks didn't have to move through some conduit. It was so frustrating... She could dodge the magic, but she couldn't dodge physical attacks, the type of attack she could actually perform.

Wait. It was so obvious.

Aisha made a punching motion with her left arm. She had to tense the left side of her body in order to do so.

Xelos's movements began to speed up, starting to take longer steps.

By the end of the session, Xelos had began to start moving his entire body to fight Aisha. He moved masterfully, smoothly moving from one attack to another, with various turns to transition into the next movement. His coattails flowed wildly as his body moved to kill Aisha, moving almost too fast for Chiel to keep up.

Aisha was able to dodge, somehow, but her amateurish movements often ended up in her death, after an awkward movement put her in a position where her body was unable to move to dodge. She could dodge the first, but the second attack would often send her into the stasis. The problem was now not that they came too fast, but too frequently.

"You have died 2789 times today."

Aisha looked up at Xelos. He had not broken a sweat, and she had not even made contact with her sword a single time.

Aisha was breathing deeply. Beads of sweat made their way into her eyes. Her vision was blurry, and she was so tired that even the fatigue-reducing magic could not hold her up anymore.

The next day, Aisha teleported in to see Xelos as usual, except…

He had a long, steel dagger in his hand.

Aisha warily took a stance with her swortsword.

(Damn… This sucks… I barely figured out the last time how to dodge... )

Xelos's fighting style had changed significantly. He shifted his weight constantly, moving fast as usual, but he would retreat after one or two swipes of the dagger, giving Aisha no time to attempt to counterattack. She had countless cuts and nicks on her chest, arms, face and legs.

(With the dagger, his range should only be slightly longer… but... )

He was using the same tactics as her. He would dart around, right at the edge of Aisha's range with her sword, which already was small, given her size. He would still cast the beams at her, but when she would get close he would slash her with the dagger, often leaving deep wounds in her chest. Unlike being killed instantly by the beams or his fists, bleeding out from the cut wounds was slow and painful.

Aisha made a frustrated noise in her throat. Every time she got close to figuring out how to touch him, he would change his fighting style and she would have to figure it out again.

He had said that at the end of the cycle, only one person would remain. She had no doubt in her mind that if she didn't kill Xelos, he would remove the immortality and kill her. A failed student...

Could she wait for him to run out of fighting styles? Unlikely. Also… not a safe thing to bet on.

Aisha sighed bitterly. Even if she found a way to figure it out, there was no doubt in her mind that he could use more magic than just the black beam. She would be naiive, and stupid, if she thought that this was the only obstacle in her way.

Success just seemed so far away, like always, and like always, those ugly thoughts resurface in her head, that had plagued her for so long.

It would be so much simpler if she could just use magic. She could have so many more options, so many more chances.

The desire to give up was overwhelming. What was the point of even trying, when the odds were stacked against her?

(I hate this.)

But again, just like the girl herself, the accursed thought of her mistress kept nagging at her, in the back of her mind. The frustration of defeat was paralyzing, but even more debilitating, were her feelings towards that woman.

(I don't want her to be sad.)

(I don't want her to worry about me.)

(I want to come home to her.)

(I want her to be proud of me.)

Aisha snarled. The frustration of failure burned deep, like scaling hot water on her skin. But what stung even more, was the thought of a sad Lorian, of watching her cry.

Dammit, was that all her life was good for? For pleasing this one girl? For making her happy, for being a thing for her to love?

And if so, why did that thought fill her with such determination, such desire?

"Remove the immortality magic." She muttered.