"Again, Crystal," Black retorted, towering the Aruba teenager. His back was turnt toward her with his sword in hand. "Release it, Crystal. Release every drip drop of anger and rage that you've kept bottled up for the last seven years. Lola never cared enough to tell you anything about your past. What did you expect from her?"
Crystal gritted her teeth as she grasped the other end of the sword and bolted her way toward the Bloodlust ringleader. Her speed was on point, but was opposed by Black's counter attack, driving his foot down on the sharp end of the blade, forcing the gal to having her hand slip from the weapon and seven feet away from Black.
"Why do you lack to strike for a kill? You're scared of harming others when you know there's a limit of how much a person is capable of doing. Certain obstacles won't even let you advance to next phase unless you barrel your way through it," Black spoke, returning the sword by tossing it sky high and a few moments later, it landed right in between Crystal's pinky and ring-finger. "Nothing in life comes to you. Respect from Sonya, Alex and Hitachi, that won't happen unless you stand up for yourself. There's no other excuses as to why they're jealous of you."
Crystal had thought long and hard about it. Some theories that people have always had of her character are endless. Some suggest that she's doesn't intentionally put herself in a position to where she'll have to face her problems head-on. Most claimed that it's because she's too weak and nice to resist others. But Lola saw it differently; she knew what the reason was, but just never thought about explaining it to anyone.
"You realized that Lola knows you have the potential to do anything that comes into that clear, but strong mind of yours," Black retorted walking passed Crystal's sword. "The true meaning of being mature is making the right choices and not fooling around with those who doesn't want anything to do with life."
Both her azure eyes widened in horror. Knowing her own personality, Crystal is too kind and too irresistible toward the likes of those that intent to exploit her kindness for their own pleasure.
"Listen, Crystal. I had decided to allow two of my members demonstrate properly of how combat goes when it comes to swords. I know you're not the best at hand-to-hand combat, but sometimes, you'll need more than mere weapons to survive a battle," Black retorted.
"What do you mean?" Crystal asked, obtaining her weapon and grasping it tightly. "I thought that my skills run through my sword."
"There's more to battles than just wielding a sword before your opponent. Some people expect for others to follow the rules in the Art of Combat. But in my book, I've trained several people back in my time. In a fight to the demise, the boundaries of a warrior's potentials are excruciatingly limitless." Black reacted while turning around. "Now, if you're still unable to follow me, it's more than an understanding that Marscilla and Lisa demonstrate it through actions."
"Oh, OK," Crystal stated calmly. She seemed motionless as the two appeared before the Reaper. "Is there something that I was doing wrong?"
"Oh, trust me, young lady. There were plenty of things that you messed up on," Black commented on Crystal's confusion. "You're in need of intense physical training. Doesn't matter if you're good with swords, in a world like this, you're powers lie not only within or without your sword, they also enhance some of their natural abilities in your body."
"Don't bother asking too much questions, Crystal. That's something Lola loved doing when she was your age. I had always figured that having a lot of fun toying with that bitch was much more appealing," Lisa laughed while spreading her wings from inside her spine. "Now, it appears that you are too damn kind."
"I never said that I was comfortable with training this little bitch, Black. So, don't expect me to take this training too lightly," Marscilla threatened.
"Come on, Marscilla. Do as Black says and everything will be good," Lisa replied with a giant grin. "Plus, what good is a fifteen year-old in combat, so it's not like you have to use your full potential."
Marscilla tilted her head sideways before looking over at Lisa. She replied, "Shut up."
"Why should she shut up?" Black asked standing in front of Marscilla, who wasn't even looking in his direction. "I asked you a question."
"Why answer when you already know how I feel about people from the Aruba family," Marscilla said, looking deep into the reaper's facial apperance. "Black, I can't stand the sight of them anymore. It just boggles my mind. Prolonging their bloodline is such a mirage."
It became ultimately clear that the only few people in this world that cared, morally, about Crystal Aruba, were Lola Mizuka and Black Hinura. As strange as it seems, Black's been the only member, ringleader, whose been willing to release the potential the young Aruba's foiled up for and extended period of time.
"Now, you're going to train her and help her gain the courage and will to fight back. Am I clear?" Black's voice grew darker with his sword faced sideways at his associate's neck.
Marscilla's eyes showed nothing but intimidation and lack of courage to stand behind her opinion.
Instead of refuting his orders, Marscilla took the different route and did what he asked of her, "OK. I understand. I will train Crystal Aruba at your request. As long as you're willing to keep your promise that you made for me."
"Smart move. I haven't forgotten, but if you continue to defy me, then I'll have no choice but to break it without hesitation," Black lowered his weapon but very slowly, trying his best to not let his concentration with Crystal derail his plot. "I'll be upstairs, train her for at least two hours."
"Two hours," Lisa complained.
"Is there a problem?" Black asked.
"Yes, there is a problem. How do you know that she'll last only two hours?"
"If she's able to be trained verbally and physically at the Ujikadaka Academy for at least nine years, then I'm more than certain that you can last her for a hundred-twenty minutes," Black stated. "After all, you were the one who wanted to teach her a few things about combat, remember, Lisa?"
Lisa needed some remembrance of when she said what Black claimed she said.
"OK, this is confusing my mind," Lisa uttered, scratching the top of her head with the index finger.
"When isn't there a day that you're confused?" Marscilla asked with her left eye cocked.
"Don't forget, Crystal may be a fast learner, but she's too hesitant to take control of her own emotions and yet graduated at a young age," Black beamed his eyes back at all three females. "She's a skippable student when it comes to grades. As much as I hate to admit it, I could never do what she could."
***
Coming to her senses of retaining herself, Lola had left the room with the cast still in place and wanting to apologize to the others, even though it wasn't the right thing for her to do at the moment.
I just need to let them know that I'm the Queen Bee of this Army still, Lola thought metaphorically. Sonya's should've been able to calm herself down after all this is over and be able to move on.
Upon entering the room, she saw Sonya standing outside in the hallway alone. Sonya was having her right foot against the wall, struggling to find the right words to make it up to the General.
"Hey, Sonya, why aren't you on the plane with the others?" Lola asked while walking pass.
"I wanted to talk with you about earlier," Sonya admitted. "About what I said."
"No, Sonya. You had a right to speak your mind. You're a human being like I am, so it was appropriate for you be angry with me. I may have put too much effort into getting Crystal to be as strong-minded as you three," Lola claimed.
"So, is it too late for apologies," Sonya asked, which seemed a bit too unorthodox for Lola to hear.
"That's only if you decide that it is. So only you get to decide when you ultimately mean the words you say the next time you see Crystal," Lola applied calmly. "Right now, we must get going. We don't have a lot of time."
Sonya seemed dense about the answer Lola gave to her and didn't think that it was the right time to back down from doing t
he right thing for once. After seven years and lacking the meaning to knowing what a warrior is all about, Sonya came to a conclusion and thought of training harder, and becoming more accountable for the things she do for future events.
Crystal, I sure hope that you're alright. I'd hate to see anything bad happen to you, Sonya thought, feeling a bit zoned out by the way she was thinking. She sighed before Lola call her name out to get on the plane before it took off.
***
Chapter 15 - No Excuses In Battles
***
Despite all the time and effort she's devoted into hurting Crystal back in their younger days, Sonya was having a harsh dream of that could soon become a reality if things were to go into a catastrophe. In the meantime, Hitachi and the others didn't know what else to do but pray for Crystal's behalf and think about the conditions that she's going through as of right now.
Lola and Tornado were in the middle of speaking about the conversation they had before they left the Facility a few hours earlier. The Core General was looking at a window without having her head turned in the other direction. Tornado thought about having a word with her in the back office of the plane.
"Lola, come to the back with me," Tornado said calmly and respectfully. "I'm not angry at you anymore, but it's just something else on my mind that I would like for you to hear."
Lola ignored him, not even considering or thinking about the discussion they had earlier.
"Lola. Did you hear me?"
"I heard you, but I just don't feel like talking right now, I'm trying to rest," Lola replied, flopping her spare hand back at the canine. "If it has anything else to do with my mentality, then I clearly don't feel like talking about it."
"Then we should talk about the Avarian Beast of the Aruba family. Maybe that'll give us an idea on how we can prevent it from being reborn completely, since it's going to take a whole lot more than just Crystal and the Diary Symbols to trigger it," Tornado suggestion, still standing in the same position with a plain face. "Otherwise, we'll have no chance against Black and his group."
Lola realized he had a point and should be far more concerned about saving the world from the brink of destruction. Hence that she gained more information from the S.R.I (Sacred Rationalized Information), it's more appropriate for this particular topic.
"OK. I guess it's the only way for me to avoid hurting anymore of my comrades," Lola uttered. "I need to get something to eat though. Haven't been able to feast on anything for the last few hours."
"That would be fine. I've already had Chef Teru in the back to take care of the meal for us," Tornado replied while walking away, but waited patiently on the other end of the plane. "Hitachi, Alex, Hiba and Sonya are already waiting for you to give them their first mission."
Coming down the aisle, Lola felt pleased that she could have people working alongside her. It's become more than an exception that Hitachi and the others would be good assets to her and the other three Generals. As well as more warriors coming to form an alliance with them. Some people from the Ujikadaka Academy had even graduated the same year as them but a bit earlier.
***
Lisa and Marscilla stood before one another. However, Marscilla seemed emotionally trashed by the fact that she's training an enemy of her group. Pressuring herself to not become aggressive with Lisa for the sake of Black's orders, she unsheathed her sword with her eyes growing tiresome.
Crystal saw with both her knees bent and palms on knee caps. She kept her eyes opened as she watched.
"Now if you don't seem to understand the elements of combat, since you haven't been in as much as we all thought you would these last seven years, Crystal, you'll get the hang of it," Lisa replied, but sinisterly. Her smile soon vanished instantly into a look of hunger for flesh.
Marscilla's body stormed dramatically with her sword blazing at Lisa's scythe. Both figures had vanished immediately with Crystal's body cringing, due to the amazing quality of the two vile vixens' abilities.
Lisa head turnt the other way as she saw Marscilla moving even faster, altering the sharp ending into three extrace shapes. The scythe had formed back into a long sword, releasing an antique fuchsia-purple barrier around the blade to repelling all of the swinging blows of Marscilla's weapons.
Marscilla triggered another ability she recently mastered; Fuarikado. This technique grants her the ability to duplicate the abilities that her opponent used and adds them to her own. But soon afterward, her sword is released with dark mist that spreads a somewhat virus addition to each slash she'd deliver to her enemy. The ability only lasted for only two minutes, due to the stamina the user has within their body.
Lisa moved back quickly and didn't want to be contacted with it. Seeming that her body wouldn't be caught on the receiving end of the attack. The Amili succubus released Viajoki, an ability that extends Lisa's speed to move demeterialize from one area to another after each physical blow she'd exchanged; thus triggering an afterimage.
Marscilla purposely let Lisa hit her, only to turn the weapon around, but nearly realized that Lisa had more strength than she did. The Erisa member's speed was above Lisa's, motioning herself downward. Lisa continued floating in the air with both wings coming to a blitz stop, storming out a load of bats that spun after spilling through her wings by each flop she performed.
Without even looking upward at the flying creatures, a tremendous amount of ash gray energy steam bled through her weapon, moving at high-speed. Once Lisa slashed the steam to prevent herself form getting touched, it spanned intentionally through the air, giving the Erisa the advantage to storm up into the air.
Within minutes, her body disappeared into the smoke after activating her Qushiboro Smoker. Marscilla's body surged through the large pillar of gray smoke, using her sword to span the clouds out even farther.
Lisa witnessed Marscilla's training, granted that she's been able to learn a few new techniques through the process of six months. She saw Marscilla's body moving in once she increased the vision of her eye sight using the Succubus Vivid Sight. For a limited time of five minutes, Lisa can see everything in sight from five to ten miles. But at a price she'll be blind in combat, depending on how much stamina her sight has.
I figured that she'd try to do something like that. Making her wear it off would seem too obvious to me; so I'll have to get into that rice-size brain of hers, Marscilla thought, breaking through the smoke and drilling her sword into Lisa's chest. Lisa didn't think that it was possible for her comrade to deliver an instant blow. "You're not fooling anyone, Lisa. I know that you're faster than that."
Lisa felt her stomach impaled, exposing every ounce of searing pain as the blood dropped from the edge of the sword. She then smiled, driving pushing herself to floating away into a huge crowd of bats and going in various direction. Spreading wildly around the area of the field, Crystal was astounded, wondering sadly why Lola and Shizuka never trained like this before.
"I'll let you have this win for the time being, woman," Lisa's voice was heard, but her apperance was nowhere to be seen. "Now do you understand, Crystal Aruba."
I've... I've never seen anything like this before. Now I understand what Black was trying to tell me about not underestimating or overestimating my opponents strategies, Crystal finally became understood by the performance of both women.
Marscilla landed on the the ground with her sword in hand and pointing the sharp end in the air. Sheathing her sword, she stood up and gawked at the young Aruba without the intention of smiling or showing any sympathy.
That's something that I should have done to that bitch a long time ago when I was working for her, Marscilla's thoughts weren't as kind as she could expect by looking at the resemblence of Diamond Aruba. "Don't expect any fucking courtesy from me when I think about hurting you, Crystal. Just be lucky and happy that Black's even protecting your spoiled ass."
Marscilla's anger had crossed the line; misjudging Crystal's traits and character. She went toward the stairway of Dragon Fortr
ess and returned upstairs to get rest and think about her past.
Here I am trying to show the bitch's child in how to fight when she knows she's too light-hearted to even be trained as a warrior, Marscilla's mind was distracting her, screaming loudly before thrusting her fist against the wall. Lisa heard her, but decided to not care much for the woman's emotions.
"Ah, don't worry about that woman's, Crystal. She's she doesn't like you because Black gives you the type of sympathy she's never gotten since she came to this organization," Lisa mimicked the woman's jealousy. "I would show you some more abilities of my own, but I got a load stuff that must be done, sweet cheeks. So, you'd be wise not to forget your place in all this."
"I have heard the say that silence was golden, so I guess I have no choice to make myself a tail to everyone else, huh?" Crystal said, unhappy with her choice of words.
"I wouldn't say that, no one in this group is a tail. Black sometimes gives us missions that are very crucial and vital to the plots that we create," Lisa stated, patting Crystal's shoulders. "After all, if Marscilla can see you as a darker half of Diamond, then I'm more than certain she'd reconsider herself in trying to kill you. Besides, it's not like you're an official member and you haven't gained all the knowledge of the Avarian Beasts, those Diary thingies or whatever."
Crystal stood up without looking back at Lisa.
"Bye, sweet ass," Lisa spanked Crystal's left ass cheek without hesitation, mind-pounding Crystal in terms of how she was being touched. "Oh my, you do have Diamond's booty. No wonder I did that."
Lisa laughed hysterically while flying away to the upper entrance of Dragon Fortress, leaving the fifteen year old in a world of solitude.
Standing at the top of the upper level was Black. He saw his Bloodlust Revelation trainee standing alone, falling to her knees and crying in disbelief and utter despair of the things that he's exposed her to. The truths that Lola's never told her, and the reality of what the Mizuka family were truly capable of when it came to the Aruba Bloodline.
Intoxia Warriors - Mizuka Blood (Book One) Page 16