In one of the training rooms, Mira and Celaine were currently standing opposite of each other, ready for battle.
"Are you sure you're fully healed, Mira? I would find no satisfaction in beating you if you weren't in perfect health." Celaine asked while pointing her saber at Mira.
"Heh. There's no need to worry about me. You should know me by now. Even if I were injured, my battle prowess would only take a slight drop, which would still be more than enough to beat you." Mira sneered as she took out her scythe.
"Yeah, yeah. So, how do you want to do this? I know that our spars can get a little… out of hand, but I assume the whole reason you want to spar with me is to hone your scythe skills. Therefore, would you prefer we go all out, or do you just want to start out with our weapon skills?" Celaine asked as she wasn't given much information.
Maria only told her to stop by their home when she was free. Of course, Celaine figured that it was because Mira wanted to spar with her, but that was about it.
"It wouldn't be much fun if we went all out from the start, and I'd really like to see how far you've come with your saber," Mira said, and Celaine nodded.
Celaine could instinctively feel how dangerous the current Mira was. She had the feeling that if they were to go all out, she'd need to defeat Mira on the first strike, or else her chances of winning would basically crumble to nothing.
However, no matter how amazing her Saber Intent is, defeating Mira on the first strike is also nearly impossible. Mira's instincts are just too strong, and even if she was caught and forced to take a hit, it's almost guaranteed that Mira would be able to avoid damage to her vitals.
On the contrary, in a spar only involving weapon skills, Celaine felt she had a pretty good chance of beating Mira! The only thing she has to worry about in this kind of fight is Mira's overwhelming amount of combat experience.
Mira, though, was excited about this spar. She's been looking forward to this day for a while now, and now that Maria has that godly healing technique, it doesn't matter if they get hurt! As long as they don't lose any limbs or anything like that, she should be able to be as brutal as she wants!
Mira unconsciously released a demonic smile that showed off her canines, causing the surrounding people to feel a chill run down their spines. This goes for Maria, Dominique, Alice, and a few others who are watching on the side. Asami was also watching, but she hadn't been tortured-ahem, trained by Mira before, so she wouldn't understand the terrors that come along with that smile.
"Try not to do too much damage to each other, especially you, Mira. You just finished healing from all those serious injuries! If things get too dangerous, I'll step in to stop you guys." Maria said while looking at Mira in concern.
Mira glanced at her and winked, "You say that, but I bet you're looking forward to taking advantage of my weakened and vulnerable state like you did the other day."
Maria's face turned a bit red, but she's always been quite shameless, so this level of embarrassment wasn't much to her.
"T-That's right! It's fine if you get a little injured. Celaine, I'm counting on you! Just make it so she'll be bedridden for a few hours!"
Celaine suddenly had the urge to beat up Maria instead, but she figured the best course of action would be to just ignore Maria's words entirely and focus on the spar with Mira.
So, she just focused all of her attention on Mira, and she could tell that Mira was doing the same thing.
Soon, the tension in the air seemed almost palpable, but neither Mira nor Celaine said anything.
That's because the spar has already started.
Asami, who was watching from the side, was surprised by the sudden change in atmosphere. It almost felt like the two were ready to kill each other!
'Aren't they supposed to be friends? What's up with this tension? Also, is this how their spars usually are? Where's the countdown or referee? I thought they were just going to have a friendly clash where they test out each other's skills!!' Asami thought to herself in a slight panic.
So, to try and understand what exactly is going on, she asked Maria.
"Oh? Are you confused about what's going on? Ah! I almost forgot that you don't really know Mira that well. You see, Mira's spars are a bit different. Actually, calling them 'spars' isn't exactly correct. It's more like a death match. No countdown, no referee, and no limits. The match isn't over until… actually, since Mira always wins, it's not over until she says it's over or until you're dead! But at least so far, nobody has died! Hahaha~" Maria's carefree laugh resounded throughout the training hall, but nobody paid attention to her.
Well, nobody but Asami, who felt like she might have just entered a lion's, no, a dragon's den by becoming friends with Celaine.
Before she could say anything else, Mira and Celaine finally made a move!
To the weaker people watching, it was almost like the two of them had disappeared, but as Asami and Maria had similar strength to Mira and Celaine, they were able to see what had happened. However, Asami was still shocked by their speed. She knew that if she were in either one of their places, she'd nearly have to go all out just to match that speed!
Mira and Celaine's first clash ended in Celaine's favor as she was able to close the distance between the two quite fast. That's one of the downsides to using a scythe; if the distance is closed, then it's just an oddly shaped spear.
Mira knew this, but she wasn't sparring with Celaine to win. She was doing so to learn. Ever since she was reincarnated into this world, her scythe skills have barely increased. She's gotten a bit more familiar with the weapon, but that's about it. Aside from that, Mira hasn't used her scythe in her current body.
Even when she was fighting against that man a few days ago, she had only taken her scythe out at the end to execute him. At that time, she was just slamming her scythe into his body; absolutely no skill was involved.
Now, things are different. She wants to get a firm grasp on the scythe's weaknesses and strengths during this spar while also thinking of ways she can reinforce her fundamentals.
To focus solely on her scythe skills, Mira has to nerf the rest of her abilities, such as her overwhelming physical strength, instincts, and battle experience.
Essentially, she has to act like a total newbie, so she can hopefully build a firm foundation that she can build on now that she has a proper goal in sight: Scythe Intent!
Celaine was surprised by the sudden clash as she assumed Mira would try and keep her distance, but it seemed Mira wanted to do things a bit differently during this spar.
'No matter. As long as I can put you in the dirt, nothing else matters! This will be the time I'm finally able to get revenge for all those times you nearly killed me!' Celaine inwardly thought to herself as a faint smile crept up on her face.
Not giving Mira any time to prepare, she launched another attack, much quicker than the previous one. She aimed the attack at Mira's off-hand, and just as she was about to slash it, Mira stepped aside and counter-attacked from the opposite side.
Celaine was expecting something like that and casually blocked Mira's attack, but Mira did something unexpected and tried to pull her saber out of her hands with the blade of the scythe.
Celaine wasn't expecting such an action, but she reacted immediately and was able to move her saber out of the way before Mira took it with her.
Unfortunately, this action allowed Mira to gain some momentum in the fight, but Celaine wasn't too worried.
Now that Celaine was in perfect striking range of her scythe, Mira decided to take advantage of that to keep her there.
Mira went in for a slash from Celaine's left side, but the latter was able to deflect it. However, before Celaine could counter the attack, Mira had already taken a step back to continue building up her momentum.
This kind of back and forth lasted for a while where Mira would advance, but as soon as Celaine was about to advance, she'd retreat.
Normally, Mira wouldn't do such a thing as she tends to only focus on attacking rather than defending, but this time, Mira was barely attacking.
It felt like the two were evenly matched to the ones watching, and in truth, they were. However, it could also be said that this was merely a warm-up. Mira was trying to learn more about how to fight with a scythe, while Celaine was trying to figure out what Mira was trying to do since she felt like Mira was acting a little different today.
To Celaine, who has fought with Mira countless times, it almost felt like Mira was trying to get a feel for a new weapon she's never used before.
'Alright, Mira. I've let you have your fun for a while. Now, let's take it up a notch!'
