Jia sidestepped Yenna's strike with precision, her movements fluid and controlled. Yenna landed lightly on her feet, her posture tense, her mana coiling around her like armor.
"I said, back off!" She growled, her voice low and guttural, more animal than human. She lunged again, her hands began glowing with energy.
Jia clicked her tongue, her annoyance evident. "You really want to do this?" she asked, stepping backward, easily avoiding another strike. "Fine, if you insist."
She twisted, her leg snapping out in a sweeping kick aimed at Yenna's torso. She dodged with an almost unnatural agility, landing a blow against Jia's arm, though it did nothing.
"ugh, well that was something, seems i forgot power needs to be stored in core before you can use it properly." He rubbed his head in pain, standing up using the wall as support. His vision was a little blurry but as it clear up, he saw Yenna getting punched into the wall, blood coming from her mouth.
"What the hell?" His blood went cold as he took in the scene. He didn't know the context but that wouldn't matter. His power went wild as he leaped and instantly appeared in front of them.
"H-Huma-" He grabbed her head and swatted her away like a bug. The force was enough to make her nose bleed as she regained her balance.
'...'She glanced and the blood on her hand and then back at Vell, 'that power...its the same from before but its more stable now.' She was not angry about being hit, she knew she had it coming after beating up a weak girl.
"What possessed you to do such a stupid thing?" He asked, gently lowering her to the ground. His voice was calm, but the weight behind his words was undeniable. The mana swirling around him was erratic, an outward reflection of the fury he was trying to suppress. His hands trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the effort of holding himself back.
She looked at him with barely open eyes and a warm smile, "she attacked you, it made me so angry that i leaped without thinking straight, I am sorry." She closed her eyes completely, her mind entering the dream world.
'She attacked me?...when did that happen?' He smiled as he got up with a chuckle, his power vanishing as he looked at Jia. "sorry about that, seems she got the wrong idea when my power went out of control."
"Hmph, whatever, it's not like your attack hurt anyways." She crossed her arms and walked away. She acted tough but her limping said otherwise.
'she has a soft side to her....maybe it won't be too bad to form a friendship with her.' He thought, also walking away to seat at the other side of the room. 'Ok, i have control over it but its still too stable, which means i need to make a new core, i doubt this power will mix with corrupted mana and i do not feel like risking that so let's just make a new one.'
This was not hard for him, he created multiple cores before, this was no different. He took portions of the power and used it to form the core, a pure black core giving off a strong presence. 'heh, easy work.' He filled it with the mana and he could feel his body becoming less tense, it was as though a huge weight was being lifted.
The energy all entered the core and yet....the core was barely filled, not even half way through. 'did i make the core too big? its around the same size as the other so it should be fine, maybe i have less of that power than i thought.' He relaxed his body against the wall, looking up at the ceiling.
"So much has happened this week, can't believe i am the same guy who was on the street, barely making it through the day. One encounter changed everything...." He thought of Kana, "i hope she is doing well, i do hate them, even if their are being controlled, i can't help but hate them." He closed his eyes, getting lost in thought.
Next day came fast and after they ate breakfast, they went back to training. Vell spared with Yenna, teaching her some pointers on how she can use her mana more sparingly. She was a quick learner so she picked up on his lessons fast. Jia watched, boredom written all over her face, there was nothing for her to do.
"Ok, that's enough for now, you can proceed to train on you own, come up with a fighting style unique to you." He said, his eyes shifting to Jia who was seating, polishing her daggers.
"Ok," She looked proud, this was something no one had ever done for her so she was trying her best, its the only way to truly thank him.
Vell picked up a small stone and threw it at Jia, hitting her on the head. "Hm?" She looked up, seeing Vell standing there, telling her to bring it on with a cocky look on his face. Jia smirked as she jumped into her fighting pose.
"Finally, I was beginning to get bored in here. Let's pick up where we left off." She was excited, eager to fight but Vell held up his hand.
"before we start, do you have an extra blade? if not fair to fight someone with dagger barehanded after all."
She looked at him for a while and took an extra dagger from her back, "sure, here. Now let's start." As soon as his hands grabbed the dagger, Jia had already closed the distance, her smile showing how much she enjoyed the challenge. He barely had time to block her swift strike, the clash of metal ringing through the room. He grinned, stepping back to create some space.
"My my, so impatient." His fingers where barely holding the dagger, it looked like it could slip out of his hands at any moment but despite this, Jia did not attack, she was on guard and very cautious. "A real blade," A crazy open smile appeared on his face, he looked like he had finally lost it.
"you are so fucked."