Akashic Arcana Arcadia Kenjutsu Club

Artoria raised an eyebrow as Jayden left, seeming to join with a group of other students. Wow, he has friends? That has to be the most shocking thing I've learned today. She let out a sigh, and looked to Wu, listening to his comment. "Noted. Though if he's Vice President, I have a feeling that he will be even harder to avoid." She wasn't too happy on learning there was someone even more unbearable than Jayden.

Following Wu out to the dueling grounds, the Princess grinned with anticipation, thinking she was finally going to be able to do what she wanted from the start. She'd take in Wu's words, then nods in acknowledgement. "Think we can start off with a spar of our own?" She gave him a cute little smile, one that he surely couldn't refuse. Then she'd think about something, then ask "How strong are these training swords? Like.. how hard can I swing them?"
 
Wu couldn't help letting out a chuckle at Artoria's words. "Eager to get started, eh? I like that. I'll be happy to take you on." He said, moving over to grab some training swords for the two of them. "They call these kendo sticks, I'm not sure why but they are woven together from thick and strong bamboo making them extra tough and flexible at the same time. They can take quite a bit of punishment but will eventually break if too much for is put on them."

He threw one to Artoria, knowing she'd catch it and stepped in between some students who'd stayed behind for extra lessons. "Alright everyone, this is Artoria. She's gonna be joining Kenjutsu club and wanted to have a sparring session with me. Can I have a volunteer referee please?" He asked, picking out a red haired American boy who'd raised his hand. Standing across the field from Artoria, Wu gave a respectful bow. "Be warned that I take sparring seriously and wont be holding back on a beginner." He stated before entering a traditional stance.
 
Catching the thrown stick with ease, Artoria looked it over, gave a few practice swings to judge its balance and weight. She inspected the craftsmanship of the weapon, testing its flexibility, then shrugged. "Guess I'll see just how much punishment it can take."

Once Wu picked out a sparring ring, she would take her place at the other side of it, also giving a respectful bow. Once the formalities were out of the way, she dropped into her stance. Feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent. Her sword was angled at a 60 degree angle in front of her torso. While she said nothing, it would be clear to Wu that this was no beginner. She took in a deep breath, steadying her focus, and nodded to her opponent. "Shall you take the first move?"

Artoria's blue eyes were glowing an intense gold. What could be the cause of this? Whatever it may be, she was very ready for a fight.
 
Wu nodded, noting the intense golden glow exuding from Artoria's eyes. He knew this girl was a very capable swordswoman, so he needed to keep her on her toes. He circled her from the right, his sword arm rotating in a windmill like fashion from left to right, as if in a sort of dance. After a one handed cartwheel that landed him on her left flank, he spun to a contorted spinning position with a sword strike aimed at the back of her left knee.
 
Watch his movements, not his weapon. His body will give away where he intends to strike. With Wu, easier said than done. His motions were fluid, and seemingly without purpose, flourishing his sword. The closer he got, the tighter her grip got, and the more her entire body tensed up, ready to defend herself. She kept her front guard towards him at all times.. until he flipped over her.

Artoria spun in place, arcing her sword into a downward sweeping block, while in the same motion sliding her left foot back, guiding her knee away from the incoming strike.. The two sticks clashed with a loud CLACK, stopping Wu's weapon from continuing forward. Fast and agile. I will certainly need to be on my toes. Let's see how strong his defense is.

While their swords were still meeting, the Princess flicked her wrist out, batting away Wu's weapon and lunged forward. Pushing off with her right foot, she stepped forward with her left, getting inside his guard and bringing her sword down in a diagonal manner, from his right shoulder to his left hip. If Wu were to block, he'd find himself clashing with a strength that a girl her size shouldn't have.
 
The clash resounded through the courtyard they were sparring in. Some Wushu students gasping at the sound and turning some of the kendo students' heads. Wu was suitably impressed by the strength held in the little princess, as he was having a difficult time holding his sword in the clash.

The parry was what he was waiting for, letting the momentum of the deflected blade turn him to his left, a 360 degree spin into a roll past her right side, evading the blow entirely. He sprung to his feet, entering a new stance. His sword hand high above his head, free hand aimed at her with his palm out, left foot planted on the side of his left leg. It required quite a lot of balance, and yet he looked sturdy as a tree. "Excellent opening." He encouraged.

With a quick flourish, he put his left foot forward and pushed off into the air. Another 360 degree spin as his sword aimed for her left clavicle bone. Each movement flowed like water, no wasted movement, his momentum never breaking.
 
Artoria's counterattack swung and hit nothing but air. Looking to her right for her opponent, she likewise spun in place and faced him again, taking the same stance as usual. "That agility..." She muttered to nobody in particular. It did become clear that Wu would be a fierce opponent, which she couldn't help but grin because of it. As Wu moved like the wind, Artoria stood her ground like a mountain. However, the young knight suspected that playing defensively would not do her well against this opponent. She would need to meet his fierceness with hers.

She tensed up as though ready to charge, but Wu would the first to make his move like last time. Her sword dropped to near her hip, pointing out perpendicular from it. Then when Wu's attack came towards her left shoulder, she swung up strong, again clashing her sword against his. The sheer force of the impact would leave him midair for a split second, with which Artoria would take advantage of by slicing across his belly, from his left to right.
 
The impact resounded once again, her force halting him in midair. He was open to an attack, but her mistake was directing it horizontally. It was a lot more difficult to dodge a vertical or diagonal swing, but he had an easy solution for horizontal.

He thrust his stomach back, away from her blade, the rest of his body forming a C in midair, the tip of Arty's sword just missed grazing him. It caused him to land slightly disgracefully on his butt, but he made up for it by quickly kipping up to his feet again.

She's like a brick wall. I should try getting her to attack first. He started circling her again, moving to his left while keeping his windmill motions flowing. He made sure to slow the pace back down whenever she got momentum, it'd help frustrate her. He'd wait until he'd done a half circle around her, and if she didn't attack, he'd perform a feint, a slash aimed at her right hip, only to be retracted in a spin at the last moment before sending a piercing strike to her left shoulder.
 
Once again her counter attack missed, but this time, Artoria wasn't going to sit and wait. Not soon after Wu would recover, the little Princess was acting. Pushing off with her left, she spun counter clockwise, using the momentum to deliver a strong attack to his left side.

If Wu blocked this, Artoria would push forward more, using what little body weight she had to force him back, and attempt drive her left knee forward into his chest.

If Wu avoided it again, Artoria would press the attack further, and try to unleash a flurry of attacks to batter at his guard and send unpleasant vibrations rippling through the kendo stick and into his arms. As young as she was, she had plenty of energy to spare.
 
He never got the chance to begin circling as the little ball of energy charged forward. Her spin was certainly impressive, though slower than his, which he could understand seeing as she's used to fighting in armor.

He decided to move in, jumping up with his right foot. His jump was pretty high for a man his size, and moving his left foot in front of him, he stepped onto her left shoulder, which at that point in Artoria's spin, should've been facing him, then fell forward, turning in midair to swipe at her sword arm. From there he would tumble into a roll and wind up behind her once again.
 
Wu's display of dexterity had gone underestimated by the young knight. Yet again her attack would be a swing and a miss, and this time, Wu decided to show off by jumping onto her shoulder, vaulting off and twirling midair. Shoot! This guy's really nimble!

Thankfully, footwork was something that was drilled into Artoria's mind ever since she started training under Lancelot. Her right foot shot back, and she spun in place on the ball of her left foot until she was facing Wu once more. The swords clashed again, and this time Artoria would lunge forward, aiming to stab right at the middle of his chest as a counter attack. She would take one step forward, ending with her right foot in front, so as not to overextend.
 
He'd underestimated her speed and footwork, and that was almost his undoing. As she parried his swipe, he found himself completely vulnerable. A stab was coming towards his solar plexus and if he tried to spin, she'd just stab the sword into his spine.

His only instinct was to reach out with his left hand and try to grab the sword. If successful, he would use all the strength he had to try and move it slightly to her right and out of his way before letting go and tumbling to the ground. If he missed, he'd turn enough so that it stabbed into the left side of his ribs, the force of her attack causing him to land in a heap, clutching his side as he got to his feet.
 
Wu's speed and reflexes was impressive, but he wasn't quite quick enough to catch Artoria's sword. Her attack would finally hit its mark, striking against his left ribcage. Quite proud of herself, Artoria grinned and strolled forward as Wu worked to get himself up to his feet. She would offer her hand to help him up. As she did so, Wu would be able to notice her eyes were back to normal, as was her normal friendly and bubbly attitude. "You okay?"
 
Wu gladly took the hand that helped him up, wincing slightly as he rubbed the area where her sword hit. "I'm good. This is gonna be quite the bruise when I wake up tomorrow though." He said with a laugh before giving her another bow. "I concede this match to you. Thank you for a great fight."

After she bowed in turn, he invited her over to a water cooler to grab a drink. "You're quite the little fighter. I should've expected as much when I saw you go toe to toe with the SCP, but I have to say I underestimated you. That thing where your eyes turned gold, what was that?" He suspected it had something to do with enhancing her fighting abilities, he merely wished to know the nature of the ability.
 
Artoria smiled and returned the respectful bow. "You were a formidable opponent. I thank you as well, Mr. Fei-Long." She took a couple long breaths, steadying her heartbeat after such a spar had it racing. She would accept the invitation, and poured herself a cup of water.

The little princess' cheeks blushed slightly from the praise, though she took the compliments in stride. "Learning under one of the best fighters in the world will do wonders for your skill. But you were just as impressive, those spins and stuff you were doing was pretty cool." When he asked about her eyes, she would look confused, then appear as though she were trying to recollect a memory. "Oh! That. I believe that my eyes turning gold is related to one of my Divine Blessings. My Battle Instinct, as it's called. What it does is warn me of incoming lethal attacks when my mind is, uh.. in 'combat mode', I suppose would be the way to put it." She even did finger quotes around the words 'combat mode', then let out a low giggle. "Though, I suppose it's a pretty pointless ability to have during a sparring match, huh?"
 
As he took a long sip of his cup of water, he listened to her describe her teacher as 'one of the best fighters in the world. Respect for your master was always a plus in Wu's eyes, so he gave a big smile as she mentioned it. Nodding as she threw praise to him as well. "Thank you. It's not very often I get to use a weapon other than my Jian in a sparring match, so this was a fun change of pace. Don't think these swords are our only method of sparring though. I can teach you hand-to-hand, and how to use a staff as well. A versatile arsenal can prove quite useful."

He listened to her explanation of her 'Battle Sense' with great intrigue. "Fascinating. Though I wouldn't say it's useless. Accidents can happen in training exercises. Sometimes you get overzealous, or you misjudge your own strength. It's good to have something that warns you when an opponent is going to far. If you sense it go off, be sure to stop the sparring match and alert me immediately." He was already in teaching mode, a soft but wise visage showing his experience in combat.
 
Artoria nodded her head vigorously, apparently extremely eager to learn. "I'm ready to learn anything you wish to teach me. My mind is an open book!" Her eyes were practically twinkling with stars, she was so amped up."Right now, my hand-to-hand experience is kinda limited, as I mostly use basic punches and kicks and the sort as a follow-up to my swordsmanship." She paused for a moment, then added "Or when I'm going for a non-lethal takedown."

As Wu gave a small lecture regarding her Battle Instinct in normally harmless spars and such, Artoria's expression would change. Perhaps she was recalling an incident regarding an accident during a training exercise, as Wu had just explained. Whatever it was, she didn't speak on it, merely nodding "Yes, I understand." She glances at the other students in the dojo and asks "Do you think that would be a problem? Everyone seems so.. disciplined."
 
He hummed in consideration for a moment as she brought up a valid point. "Thankfully you are correct. But the year is still young, imagine what would happen if someone with that Jayden kid's arrogance actually wanted to join our club. The same could be said for next year as well. Even then, all it takes is one misjudgment for things to go wrong." He said, his eyes shaded a bit as if he's also reliving a training accident he'd witnessed.

He quickly brightened again, and finished off his drink. "Regardless, we're glad to have you in the club. I hope you have as much fun as we all do here. Now I've gotta go put some ice on this, but I'll see you back here tomorrow for your first official lesson?" He said as he prepared to take off and hit the showers.
 
And the mention of Jayden's name soured Artoria's mood once again. She grumbled, but couldn't help but agree. "Yeah, I see what you mean." She glanced at the massive gate that was so haphazardly put back in its place, and sighed. "I suppose we can only hope that doesn't happen." And her gaze seemed to go unfocused again when Wu spoke about misjudgments, as though recollecting an unpleasant memory. She'd snap out of it as quickly as she entered it, thankfully.

Grinning widely, Artoria bowed to Wu again "And I'm grateful to be accepted." She nods "Yes, I look forward to it," and goes to change back into her normal clothes. The Princess carefully opened the gate to head out of the dojo, unsure of where to go next. She looked at her ORB to check the time, shrugged, and headed off to wander aimlessly around the massive campus grounds.

FIN~
 
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