The look in Celaine's eyes changed, causing the atmosphere to turn deadly. Mira smiled as this was what she was looking forward to. It wouldn't be much of a practice if they continued at their current pace!
The only way she would truly grasp the essence of the scythe is by putting her life on the line!
Without any warning, Celaine charged at Mira, but this time her footwork and the way she held her saber were much harder to read.
Mira could feel danger from the current Celaine, but she had no intention of backing down. Instead, her smile grew, and she prepared herself for the onslaught of attacks that were soon to come.
Mira kept her eyes trained on Celaine like a hawk. She didn't want to miss a single movement, even down to the tiniest muscle! Unfortunately, she vastly underestimated what it meant to comprehend an Intent.
Comprehending an Intent means one has perfectly understood the fundamentals of their weapon and can execute them on command without fail. This doesn't simply mean knowing the correct way to swing the weapon and knowing what stance to use for each action, but it also comes down to proper muscle usage, timing, and knowing the limits of each strike.
Celaine has reached this point and is able to focus on which muscles to use for which action while also controlling the power she can unleash and the timing in which she releases it.
To put it simply, there were little to no flaws Mira was able to take advantage of during this fight.
Sometimes, Mira would sense an attack incoming, only for it to slow down right when she moved her scythe to block it, then speed up when it was about to hit her.
Mira could also barely read Celaine's moves as the girl was just trying to make contact with Mira's body. She wasn't focused on a particular area, making it hard for Mira to read her eyes. Besides that, Mira also couldn't read Celaine's moves based on her muscles, as Celaine was just too good at controlling them.
Therefore, Mira was now the one being pushed back while simultaneously sustaining injuries.
All sorts of cuts started appearing on Mira's body, but the woman in question couldn't care less about this level of injuries.
In fact, with her enhanced regeneration, these superficial wounds will recover by the time she gets new wounds. Not that it mattered much to Mira in the first place. Even if her bones were fractured and her muscles torn, she would still fight until one of them fell.
Seeing injuries appear on Mira's body excited Celaine, but she didn't let this get to her. She knew the consequences of acting hastily against Mira because just one mistake, one slip-up, is all Mira needs to take advantage of the situation.
Patience is the name of the game against Mira. As long as she can keep this momentum going, hopefully, she'll be able to create an opening where she can take Mira down in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, no matter how many steps ahead she planned, Mira would always be able to adapt to the situation to make sure she suffered as minimal damage as possible.
The battle raged on like this for another 15 minutes, with Celaine constantly pushing Mira back but never able to go further.
However, it was then that Mira was able to enter a hyper-focused state, thus using her pseudo-enlightenment ability.
Celaine could feel the change in Mira's demeanor as soon as she entered that state, but there was nothing she could do.
Even if Mira suppressed her instincts and physical strength and didn't use any abilities or Qi other than her raw scythe skills and footwork, her battle prowess combined with her experience is too high.
With every strike, Mira is able to learn and grow, and even though Mira's scythe skills aren't nearly as good or refined as Celaine's saber skills, Mira's raw combat ability is higher than Celaine's.
This is the product of 1,000 years of first-hand experience along with many more millennia of experiences gained through the F.LD.I.L trials and those parallel lives she witnessed.
A mere pup who has wielded a saber for barely 2 decades can't easily surpass that gap just because her fundamentals are perfect.
Although now that Mira has entered a pseudo-enlightened state, she still didn't begin to take the initiative in the fight against Celaine.
It's not that she doesn't want to, but for one, Celaine really is skilled. Using only her scythe, Mira would be hard-pressed to defeat Celaine in her current state. The difference in skills in this area, although not vast, is more than enough for Celaine to control the state of the fight.
However, Mira also knew that this would be a good time to get a decent grasp on how to defend against an enemy like Celaine, who has a perfect grasp over her abilities while only using a scythe, a weapon that isn't particularly good for defense.
So, on Celaine's next strike, Mira was able to block it, but due to the state she was in, she was able to clearly understand what she could do better.
Her stance was slightly off, decreasing the efficiency and sturdiness of the block by a few percent, while she also didn't control the muscles used to block perfectly.
She also had a feeling that she could be holding the scythe better. All of this wasted precious time and energy while reducing the power behind her defense. It may have only wasted a split second or so, but these split seconds can add up, especially after hundreds or even thousands of exchanges.
However, that wasn't all Mira was able to gain from that single block. Something told her that she could've handled that strike much better, to the point where she might've even been able to take advantage of the situation, but she just didn't know what it was.
All these thoughts only took a split second as her mind was working at speeds she's never experienced before. Luckily, she was able to subconsciously process all this information before the next strike came in.
It was another weird strike where Celaine controlled the speed of the strike as it was incoming to catch Mira off guard. Once again, Mira wasn't able to block it completely and a cut formed on the side of her neck.
Mira was also able to gain valuable information from this strike, like how she could've positioned herself better.
However, what Mira truly learned was what she learned from watching Celaine. Each attack is well-planned and comfortably flows into the next attack with minimal effort. She's using the angle of her sword swings, the control over her muscles, her understanding of how much momentum she's carrying, and the power of each strike to lead to the next strike, which will hopefully be slightly faster and more powerful.
There were no fancy techniques involved or any outside power. She was only using her understanding of the Saber and how it suited her body.
To Mira and the others watching, it was like Celaine was dancing, and they were entranced by it. Who wouldn't? It's not often they get to someone this skilled!
Mira also thought that maybe the only way she could achieve this level of fluidity and power would be through her martial arts. She's always been much more talented with her legs and fists. And with her martial art skills, she is probably at the same level as Celaine. If it was possible, it probably wouldn't take much effort to reach something like 'Fist Intent' or something like that.
Well, it's also for this reason that Mira hasn't lost to Celaine yet. Her perception and control over her body are too high for that to happen in the short run.
It's this level of grace, fluidity, and raw power that Mira wanted to be able to wield with her scythe, but unfortunately, martial arts are vastly different than scythes. She's already learned and implemented all she can from her experience as a martial artist into her scythe skills.
Celaine continued to slash, hack, and stab at Mira, but to her, it seemed like every time she attacked, Mira grew stronger. She was not physically growing stronger, but her control over her scythe grew at a speed that it felt like she was getting stronger.
Seeing how Mira was just using her as a whetstone to sharpen her skills and had no intention of attacking, she decided to 'force' Mira to attack. Of course, she wasn't going to just retreat and lose all the momentum that she had gained up until this point.
No, she had to get Mira to attack her!
And what's the best way to do that? To purposefully leave openings that even Mira won't be able to ignore.
Naturally, Mira will be suspicious, but by now, she's pretty much grasped Mira's intention behind this defensive stance.
