章 11: The First Day
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"You won't be getting any stronger just standing there."
Aisha narrowed her eyes, hand tightly gripping her sword as she gazed intensely at the tall, black-clad man, unwilling to even acknowledge his words.
Above all else, she needed to exercise caution. Being so weak meant that she had to take a lot more time learning. Studying. Watching.
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"I'm not going to make the same mistake those others did." Aisha finally said, after what felt like minutes of waiting.
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"You're not." Xelos admit, nodding. "But you are still arrogant, and blind."
"Wh-"
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"If you wanted to avoid danger, then you should have just stayed home." The tall man said quietly, gazing downwards on the shorter girl. "What do you think you're accomplishing, just standing there?"
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"I'm watching you." Aisha grit out of her teeth.
"You aren't learning anything." Xelos said, blinking slowly. "You aren't watching anything. I'm not doing anything. What do you think can come of that?"
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Aisha just grimaced bitterly, Xelos's words true, AGAIN. She wanted desperately to spite the man, but she would literally just be proving his point.
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"You're still holding that same arrogance." The tall man said lazily. "You've come here with a strategy in mind, but you have failed to THINK. You are too focused on execution that you cannot evaluate why your strategy might work or fail. You have failed to evaluate the NOW, what is actually important, because you are too focused on your 'strategy'. Look at yourself, you're already almost tired, and you haven't learned anything, haven't done anything, haven't-"
"Shut up!" Aisha shouted, grip tightening on her sword, shaking her head. "I-"
"And" Xelos whispered, his voice cutting through Aisha's like steel. "You have let your guard down."
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It took a split second for Aisha to pull her attention from her beating heart, the rushing blood, the heat in her head, to watch Xelos again - but as she saw the hand pointed at her head, blackness was already creeping up on her vision.
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"Get Up."
The wound on her head began to close up, the tissues beginning to mend themselves and rejoin. Aisha's eyes widened once again as she regained control of her motor functions, taking a deep, gasping breath.
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Was that... death? Did she die? What the hell happened?
(His lesson!) A voice screamed at her, in her head.
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Aisha didn't make the mistake of thinking too long and dodged pre-emptively. strength surging into her legs as she scrambled to her feet and dove away, seeing movement in the corner of her eye. The pure adrenaline running through her veins was like a drug - every single sense heightened to 1000% - how could it not be, seeing as she had died just a few seconds ago.
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(Evaluate the now.) Aisha panted. (Don't think about that. What's happening right now?)
There was blood. Running down her face in a river - Aisha tried to reach a hand up to touch, to feel, but found that her body was numb from the adrenaline. Fumbling around clumsily, though, she could feel something... missing, namely, she couldn't feel parts of her jaw anymore.
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Aisha frowned bitterly. That had been... it hadn't been much, but adapting so fast had filled her with a sense of accomplishment. Something she didn't experience often, hadn't experience in a long time.
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But she had still gotten hit.
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The next shot of black magic shot true, going straight through her eye, despite her best efforts to juke and jive. And when she awoke again, there was that same sting of humility, of being reminded that she was still nothing, still useless.
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Again, again and again, Aisha lost consciousness, so many times that she could barely even keep track. But more than the bizarre feeling of losing something, of life draining from her body, and rushing back in all at once, Aisha felt the sting of dissapointment.
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She should have been happy with modifying the trajectory of the first shot, but now she was unable to reproduce even that - every single shot was true, killed her.
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(I have to try something different. There's something keeping me alive, but... I have no idea how long it will last, or how many hits I can take.)
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She tried rolling away from him. She tried dodging to the side. It was almost comical how nothing she did worked.
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At this point, she wasn't even watching Xelos, just trying random things, that all didn't work. It was frustrating, made Aisha want to tear her hair out, to tear into the floor tiles, PUNCH something...
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Give up...
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But no, she couldn't give up. If there was one thing that she absolutely couldn't do, it was give up. That was the one thing separating the Aisha of now from the Aisha of the past - if she gave up now, she might as well throw herself back into the cages, or hell, lay in the street, bleeding out.
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It wasn't just good enough to try things. She had to evaluate - evaluate - begrudgingly, she had to actually listen to Xelos, despite how furious the man made him, how he managed to tear down her ego so easily.
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Think. Think. What was wrong about her approach? Well, everything - she wasn't learning anything.
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So, change. How could she learn something from every attempt?
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By watching. She had to watch Xelos, but this time, watch how he reacted to her. Use her own actions to provoke something actually useful.
.
And then what?
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(I'll think about that later.)
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Gritting her teeth, Aisha got up from her prone position again, this time watching carefully. She took a deep breath, attempting to act past the rushing blood in her head, past the beating in her chest.
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(Don't just act. Think about why you're acting. Think about why he's reacting!)
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Xelos raised his hand, and Aisha lunged leftwards, but watched carefully, even as the beam pierced her head. She used the adrenaline - that time slowing effect, watched as his hand moved with her, pointing at where she was going to be, before she was even there. Watched as he stopped moving before she lost consciousness.
.
And she got up again. With the same body, the same brain, but more information.
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And this time, when she saw that hand raise - instead of lunging violently to the side, she took a large step - and when Xelos moved pre-emptively, she jerked her body sideways as best as she could - not much, only a few centimeters.
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But when she felt the pain of searing flesh, of missing bone, paradoxically, Aisha felt overjoyed. Good enough to laugh. More than being just proud of her improvement, Aisha was proud of herself - she had managed to change herself! Through her own efforts - her own conscious efforts to accomplish something, she had managed to succeed, not through blind luck, but through careful thought.
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It felt good! It felt amazing! It-
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.
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"That one hurt!" Aisha complained.
"Maybe it hurt because you're getting too full of yourself again."
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Aisha brushed off the scathing comment, because, well, she felt good, proud, for one of the first times, well... ever. It was like a high, despite how little she had actually accomplished.
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But the words did have a kind of sobering effect on her. She was still celebrating over, objectively, very little. She could be happy when she had actually completed her goal - for now, she had to continue working, continue refining her thought process.
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A minute later, her arms and legs were dripping with blood and sweat, Aisha herself gasping, panting for air. At this point, Aisha's eyes were trained on Xelos like a laser beam, catching every single movement, every single twitch - but it still wasn't enough - she could get a good few minutes out of every 'reset,' but she wasn't even close to getting close enough to hit the bastard.
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The hand pointed at her again, and this time, Aisha took a cool, controlled slide, bracing her body on the ground with her hands as the momentum carried her - and as the hand stopped, she instantly used that leverage to spring away, a torrent of black energy rushing past her head, through her hair and part of her neck, but nonlethal.
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(I have to attack.) She thought resolutely, hand squeezing the hilt of her blade. (I can't just dodge forever. I need to provoke something new.)
This one. This time she would get in close! Her form was good - every movement was fine-tuned, lending herself the greatest amount of speed she could muster while still keeping her balance. She rolled and weaved hurriedly, frantically - dodging arcane blast after blast, until, finally - she was in striking distance!
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She was getting tired. It needed to be now. She was so close! She was right there, just another step, and she could get in a swing!
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But, in her rush, she failed to see the fist coming at her head.
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Aisha laid on the floor, gasping for air at the excruciating pain. The sensation was unimaginable, like the worst headache she had ever received. The worst part - she hadn't even died. She could feel every little painful spike, every lance of pain, vividly.
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"Aren't you going to kill me?" She groaned, panting. The magic didn't heal her when she wasn't dead, so all of a sudden, as the adrenaline left her body, she could FEEL. Every missing part of flesh began to sting all at once, every missing tendon began to ache. It was a pain that Aisha could barely even stay conscious through.
"You can't even move anymore. There's no point in killing you again."
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She looked at Xelos out of her one good eye. He stretched his arm out, his palm facing her this time. A red mist began to flow out of it, entering her minor wounds.
Slowly she began to regain sight in her eye. She could feel the wounds on her skin beginning to close themselves... she regained feeling in the left index finger. Even her gloves and uniform began to mend.
(What is this magic..?)
"Get up."
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Begrudgingly, Aisha complied. Her muscles still felt tired.. but somehow she could still move as if they were in perfect condition.
Xelos raised his hand again, marking the resumption of their training.
"I KNEW YOU WOULD BE BACK HERE!"
Aisha, startled by the voice, dodged incorrectly and took a hit straight through her thigh, sending her to the ground again. Her "teacher" had stopped firing beams, so she looked at the girl who had interrupted them.
It was the little priest girl. She was back, trembling and holding a thin staff in her hands. Aisha kind of wished Xelos had killed her. She was beginning to think that her voice was permanently stuck in that annoying shriek.
A foot planted itself in her ribs, sending her flying towards the girl. She coughed, and Xelos's voice sounded.
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"Heal her."
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The girl trembled, but she put down her staff and placed her hands over Aisha's ribs, a familiar wispy white magic emitting out of her hands.
"What are you doing here... Are you... training? Look at you! You're so beat up... Why are you so desperate to become stronger?"
Aisha did not answer, and after she healed her thigh, she got up, ready to die again.
(Damn it.. I lost the range advantage. I have to get close!)
She started to run at Xelos, squinting at his right hand. It was useless though, she could not make out where he was pointing, and another beam sent it's way through her skull.
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"Oh my god! You killed her! You actually- huh?"
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Aisha returned to her charge at Xelos, annoyed at the sound of the girl's voice. She would use her immortality as a resource to get closer to him, and eventually land a hit. Another beam landed in her forehead. The sensation was starting to get more annoying, than shocking, at this point.
For three hours, the three continued to follow in their pattern. Aisha would die, until she had sustained enough injury to be unable to fight. The priest would heal her. Then Aisha would die again.
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.
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How many deaths had it been? She had lost count. She didn't even have to time to count them, if she wanted to dodge the black beams of magic. How long had it been... She had not landed a single hit on Xelos. She could get close, dying multiple times, but Aisha could not get a hit in on the man. Not once did she see the red hexagons.
Aisha got up again, the hole in her side closing up. She ran at Xelos, but he didn't raise his arm. She stopped running.
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"Training's done for now. You died 4985 times today."
"That's 4984 more times than the average person dies in their lifetime."
"You're not funny."
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Xelos opened a portal and stepped out of it. Aisha soon got up and followed, who was followed by the shocked priest girl, who hadn't said a word the entire time.
"You're really just going to keep training with that guy... why?"
"You need to stop asking me that question, girl. I'm not going to answer it."
"Don't call me girl! I have a name... and I'm the same age as you!"
"You're 6 cycles younger than me."
"What? You're 24? But you're so short!"
"Yeah, well... so are you."
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With that Aisha began to make her way to the leatherworking shop.
Urg... The fatigue of the last 3 hours seemed to hit her all at once. So that was also the product of his magic...
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"...Why are you following me, girl?"
"My name is Chiel! And I'm going to make sure you don't kill yourself!"
"...Whatever."
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They arrived at the leatherworking shop, Chiel still following Aisha. The girl from the counter was there, waiting for her, in a floral dress and a sun hat. She waved at Aisha, but her face turned sour when she saw the priest girl hanging off her.
"Who is this?"
"Some beggar girl from the str-"
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Chiel slammed her hand into Aisha's back. It didn't hurt, but it was startling.
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"You're so rude! I'm her guardian! I'm protecting her!"
She hugged onto the side of Aisha's arm.
The clerk girl looked shocked at the gesture. Her face lit up with determination.
"W-well, she's going out with me! Don't get in our way!"
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The clerk girl hung off Aisha's other arm.
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What the hell was happening? When had she attracted the attention of so many strange girls?
Many passerby on the streets stared at the fey girl, and the two girls hanging off her with jealousy. Some at Aisha, but others at the girls on her arms...
Aisha did not realize it, but her training and proper eating had given here a slim, toned body. While she kept her cute attributes, she could be considered a very attractive young woman. She had attracted the attention of the two girls, oblivious to their affections...
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(What a waste of time.)
They had been to many dress shops, and various antique shops... but she still had no idea where anything important was...
She had asked them where she could buy potions, where swordsmiths were... mages...
How could they not know?? Did they not live here!? They knew the locations of tens of clothing and dress stores, but not of a single smith?
She could have been cuddling with mistress...
Speaking of which, it was late. Time to leave. She would just have to make up for lost time with extra cuddles.
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"Bye!"
"Bye!"
The two girls waved at Aisha's retreating back, who of course did not return the gesture, as she ran hurriedly up the hill, eager to get the hell out of there and back to her mistress. Two sets of eyes stared at her back, with hints of jealousy, belonging not to the two girls, but to Lushien and Varis.
"Two girls... not just one, but two..." Lushien moaned.
"She didn't even seem to like them..."
"This sucks man! I've been here for 20 years... She's been here for not even a month!" Lushien cried in despair. "Two girls! Without even trying! 20 years and I don't have a girlfriend!"
"Calm down man, people are looking at you."
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Aisha shook her head as she opened the door to the house, the warm air wafting out from the house, suffusing into her limbs and soothing her tired mind. Her mistress, as always, was waiting for her, sitting on the couch and absentmindedly flipping through the pages of the borderline-pornographic comics that she enjoyed reading. At the sight of Aisha, she sprang up from the couch, her face lighting up in delight.
Aisha shuffled her feet nervously, but on the inside, she was just as happy to see her mistress.
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(Why do I still feel so nervous when I see her?) She thought nervously, blushing.
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Aisha smiled softly as her mistress ran up to her and wrapped her arms around Aisha's small frame, slightly lifting the girl up as she squeezed her, hard. Aisha returned the little hug, enjoying the feeling of-
Lorian frowned, and her face darkened. "Hey. What's this?"
"mmh?"
"You've got the mana of two other girls on you!"
"w-what? Oh, yeah... I went out with the clerk at the leather shop... and then that annoying priest girl from - aaaah!"
Lorian made a displeased noise in her throat, releasing her hands from around her to grip Aisha's cheeks with both of her hands. She then began to pull Aisha's cheeks away from her face, stretching the poor girl's mouth side to side.
"Wha dih I do??!?" She wailed, but her cries of help seemed to only make her mistress pull on her cheeks harder, and make the woman angrier.
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As Lorian's fists pounded on the top of her head, Aisha changed her mind. All girls were trouble.
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Lithkren
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