A Sword In Making [Lisa SL/Lupin]

Slash. Sidestep. Exploit.

Her feet glided across the polished wooden floor in the quiet morning residing in the gym. Each step was like a staccato of movement dancing in a regular tempo in one moment and irregular the next as her heels and soles of her feet pounded against the floor. The polished wood of her practice blade whistled through the air with each swing. Lisa retained her focus as she saw the outline of an enemy hurtling themselves after her. Her every movement was practiced and precise as each swing ripped forth another imagined enemy to deal with.

Thrust. Retreat. Gauge.

Try as she might, the thoughts and worries continued to weigh on her. She has already failed her family once and they were paying the price for it. This wouldn't be a problem if she was better than this, if she was perfect. Aye, that was the rub. She was not and she stood out all the more for it. She loved her family as they loved her. But that was not enough, it was never going to be enough...

With one last slash, Lisa held her posture as if glaring into the dimming eyes of her imagined foe before relaxing her shoulders and stance. She swung the blade to the side in ritualistic chiburi before sheathing it inside its plastic scabbard and sighing to herself. "Too slow, he would've already hit me by now..."

Lupin walked into the gym on this fine morning to find Lisa doing some more of those expert sword swings. Lupin just sorta sat at the side while he watched her go. Lupin was amazed how quick Lisa was going, Lupin was left somewhat speechless.

So he figured the best use of his mouth would be to start sucking on the lemon he had in his pocket. Yeah being a student who donates to a small town to the south of Endymion is great. As Lupin was sucking on his tasty lemon keeping straight face. As he was watching it unfurl Triboulet started talking again in Lupin's head. "This is your competition Lupin, this is a cadet, she is fast, isn't she. We wouldn't last long, that's for sure."

Lupin just kept sucking on his lemon until he heard Lisa spoke, too slow? Lupin is a little freaked out about the prospect of something moving faster than Lisa. Because damn she fast as hell. Lupin is justing thinking about how much he would need to train in order to keep up. Well, there is no time like the present. Even though Lupin's soulbound isn't a sword he could probably get some mileage outta being taught sword skils. Lupin decided to let his presence be known. "If that's what you call slow, I am a little scared to think who you are referring to."

Lupin sucked on his lemon a little more with a straight face before continuing to speak. "Good morning Lisa." Lupin seems to be in a happy mood. He had a tasty lemon, he was ready to do some swordplay, for now, all is good in the world.

She was just taking another breath to steel and empty her mind for another session of bouts. But a familiar voice intercepted her intentions and caused her to warily lay her hues upon the one and only Lupin Topplson, the weird kid from before with the pogo stick. The displeasure was barely hidden as she coolly regarded the arrival with hand on her hip. "Morning. I see you're not bouncing on that stick this time... Did you come to train again?"

Lupin looked determined. "Yeah I am ready to do some more training." Lupin was ready to go, there was nothing like fighting exercises, he could feel his blood rushing whenever he was doing stuff like this. "So what techniques are we going to go over today? I am pretty much ready for anything."

Lupin got up from his spot and walked over, Triboulet is starting to get a little worried. "Lupin I get that you like this girl and all that mushy teenager stuff but are you sure this a good idea, she is the daughter of the queen you are trying to overthrow. If it was some normal cadet girl, while still a bit iffy it would probably be fine. But no you are trying to get into the good graces of a princess. A princess who looks angry with you."

Lupin noted Triboulet's concerned and just continued to walk until he reached a respectable distance to Lisa, within striking range of a sword. "I am willing to accept any challenge you throw at me."

Lupin was excited, to say the least, but what Triboulet said did linger at the back of Lupin's mind. Maybe having feelings for a despot
s daughter isn't the greatest thing ever. Lupin tried to get those thoughts out of his head, he wants to learn swordplay.

But first comes first, Lupin needs to learn how to handle a blade.

Just in case Lisa wants to hit Lupin:

"Swing a hundred times without stopping. It's a start if you want to get any good at handling a blade. Remember what I taught you last time. Focus on form, not speed." Concise and succinct. The Lamecia Princess didn't waste any time to hand him another practice place to use. Most beginners would find it a challenging exercise. It was one that stresses the biceps and triceps to ungodly levels. And to speak of the balls of the feet getting roughened up through footwork, it was a grim memory for many aspirants of the blade alike. But above all, Lisa knew it would keep him busy, keeping her own training undisturbed. She simply went back to taking her own stance and back to her own reverie as her wooden blade drew out of the sheathe. Under her breath, the Princess murmured to herself. "...Again."

The air whistled with the blade slicing through the space once more facing away from Lupin and leaving him to his devices.

"Alright sure." Lupin immediately got to work, he grabbed one of those wooden swords and a dummy. He did some quick stretches and did the feet thing. One foot forward and the other at a 90-degree angle with a wide stance just like last time. Lupin started to wonder how he can translate this into using his soul bound. Triboulet offered some potential insight "Lupin buddy it's worth remembering the cadets are the ones protecting stuff, terrorist, on the other hand, are usually on the offensive."

Lupin started his two-handed wooden sword barrage on the dummy. Triboulet seeming a little miffed said "You could at least acknowledge me, Lupin." Lupin gave Triboulet a mental zap. "Never mind."

If Lisa thought this 100 attack exercise will strain Lupin biceps and triceps, jokes on her, Lupin bounced on a pogo stick for 13 years he is used to exercising those parts of his glorious body. Lupin started swinging away as taught. with Triboulet counting in the background "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14....." This would keep going on until Lupin hits 100 strikes. Once he gets to 100 strikes unless Lisa decides to stop him, Lupin figured he continues till he was feeling exhausted. Lupin just thought to himself "The people who said bouncing on a pogo stick was a waste of time was dead wrong."

Triboulet was snickering at the fact that Lupin was serious about that. Yeah, the divide wasn't all that bad. The greatest joke ever but Lupin & Triboulet are the only ones who will ever hear it. Nice one guys.

Sidestep. Sidestep. Sidestep.

Her feet squeaked across the floor to evade an attack from the front to the side and to the front again. She quickly countered with slashing back at the specifically armored enemy she was fighting. It would only seem as if Lisa was retaliating as much as she could give with the flurry of blows striking the air. This would continue for a while as the time slowly crawled by. Eventually, the Princess found herself at a pause after that one last decisive slash ending her dance followed by light panting. It was only then that she noticed that Lupin was still going after wiping off a sliver of sweat from her brow. It was odd, that kid was still going on without even bothering to stop at the hundred mark. Did he have prior training? No way that jumping on that stick alone did that. Her brows knitting together, she called out to him. "You can stop if you want. Don't force yourself or you'll end up opening up blisters from bad form... Surprised you didn't stop at the fifty-mark. Guess that fencing helped you?"

Lupin was somewhat in a trance when he was swinging with Triboulet counting his swings. Lupin somewhat snapped out of it when Lisa spoke, Lupin stopped swinging and spoke back. "You sounded busy when I got to the hundred mark and since I wasn't really exhausted, I figured I keep going until you were ready to give me the next set of instruction." Lupin then turned around to properly face Lisa. "I guess Spencer teaching me how to fence did help, but there was a bunch of other factors about my childhood that would probably play a role. The bouncing I do on my pogo stick while does improve my biceps and triceps, which I definitely felt those muscles being tested in this particular exercise."

Lupin paused for a little bit just to let Lisa process that, he was able to accomplish this sword challenge thanks to bouncing on a pogo stick. Yeah, not something you would expect. "While its a miserable aspect of my life, being an orphan has taught me a few important lessons about life. There is no point moping about your loses when you can learn from them and improve yourself to do better next time." This was pretty much the way Lupin lived, so what if JOKER got Lupin's friend brainwashed, Lupin would find a way to turn that into his favor. He can make any bad situation work for him.

Well time to shift the mood into something happier. "I don't want to come off as rude in any way but do you have anything more challenging for me to do? I was thinking we could have a sparring match unless you have something better in mind?" Lupin would wait in anticipation for her answer. Triboulet teased in Lupin's head. "Oh aren't you coming off as strong." Lupin just responded back to Triboulet "It will give me a better understanding about the gap between a terrorist and a cadet in the terms of potential" Triboulet snarkily responded with "If she accepts."

Lupin is curious about what will happen next.

Fencing is one thing, despite having to work with different styles, but pogo-stick jumping? The askance on her face was obvious. She didn't opt to continue down that line of discussion any further. Her memory didn't fail her that he was some kind of weirdo. Her brow, however, slightly raised up at his cryptic comment that came out of nowhere. But, as much as she didn't want to admit it, he wasn't wrong. She had losses of her own and had to drive herself even further...


Her violent hues regarded him with faint amusement with her hands on her hips. She wasn't one to pick on others, but this guy was getting a little cheeky to be sure. If one hundred swings were all it took for him to get cocky, he had another thing coming. The Princess drew her wooden blade and leisurely tapped its backside against her shoulder before taking a relaxed stance towards him and bid the Psyche-Terrorist to start. "First strike with the blade wins. After you."

Lupin was all set to fight he had his left foot pointing forward and his right foot facing 90 degrees as he was taught. Lupin had a confused look on his face, Lisa wasn't in a battle stance at all, she looked relaxed. Maybe this was some sort of secret technique to catch opponents off guard. Lupin had a more serious look on his face as he started to focus more on the fight. He had a silent realization that he has a 99% of losing and looking like a complete idiot. Lupin was at a distance to Lisa. Since the two are using swords one could reasonably assume that they would need to get closer.

Lupin remained quiet analysising Lisa's movements

Lupin's first action:

Lupin immediately goes for defense position with sword preparing to get hit from Lisa

Second action:

if the fight is still going at this stage Lupin had an epiphany, they really should have safety equipment, this is going to be fun fun fun fun. Lupin remained silent. as the battle raged on.

As relaxed as she was, the swordswoman's attention continued to focus on Lupin. She gauged the distance and watched out for the tells in his movement. True, he had his hand in practicing. However, she could easily read the telegraphing from each movement and breath he took. Lisa simply stepped back and tilted her side away from the slash before smacking away the subsequent attack to her head at the last moment to interrupt the flow of his attack.

This was the moment where she could've riposted, but she simply allowed him to regain poise from going on the defense. It was not a good idea to simply remain in one place as finally initiated a response. The first slash directly aimed at his head, to provoke a reaction. Most amateurs were conditioned to protect their face, that was a human reaction.

However, even as he went to guard against it, the blade would swerve towards his forearms that would be in the middle of raising up to guard against the initial slash. They were much closer to reach than the rest of his body and held his blade. If he were trying an amateurish defensive posture, it was unfortunately going to leave his wrists more open as all amateurs ended up doing. If it hit, Lisa was careful enough to have the hit be no damaging than a simple rap against the skin as opposed to a smashing strike. This wasn't a fistfight. After all, a battle with the blade was more centered on the first strike landing since that's what it normally took to take down an enemy.

Whether or not it hit, Lisa was quick to return back outside of his range and remained composed as usual to see what else Lupin had to offer.

Triboulet was just yelling in Lupin's head "Movement Lupin, move you stupid piece of shit." Lupin held both hands doing a Chuudan (mid) guard and tries to use the blade to shove Lisa back, possibly denying her the hit, hit or not Lupin would get out of Lisa's range, trying to think of a way to hit her, Triboulet spoke up in Lupin's mind "Lupin next time Lisa's goes for your head I want you to strike her side, she would have no choice but to block or get out of the way and once she starts moving keep going at her. If she tries to hit your side go for the head. Give her no choice but to block."

Lupin gave Lisa a startled expression if one would have to interpret what the face said it would be along the lines, What have I gotten myself into. However, this couldn't be further from the truth, Lupin was now the man with a probably good plan.

Lupin gauged Lisa for a minute before coming in close for another strike, if Lisa chose to strike at Lupin's head, Lupin would just respond with hitting her sides, if she tried hitting Lupin's side, Lupin will aim for the head. If Lisa blocked Lupin would attempt to do a second strike, regardless of the outcome Lupin would kick the floor jumping back.

Yeah, he is pretty much set for any bad situation. Lupin thought to himself, "Maybe fighting a Lamecia was a bad idea." Triboulet just responded with a simple "So your telling me fighting Julius is a bad idea?" Lupin angerly responded to Triboulet "I am going to beat Julius's stupid ass. If he thinks he can brainwash my friend and get away with he has another thing coming." Lupin was extremely thankful that Lisa couldn't hear any of his thoughts.

Lupin was uncertain was Lisa had in store for him, while he did have contingencies a lot of that could be thrown out the window at any given moment. Lupin felt like he was fine for as long Triboulet was at his side, doing nothing. Triboulet kinda useless in a lot of ways to Lupin right now, he didn't want a backseat driver, but he also doesn't want to lose...... yet.

Lisa noticed Lupin tried to quickly regain his poise and composure upon taking up a normal stance again to avoid being hit on his forearm. Even if she did miss, there was a lot she could have done in reaction. But, she opted to still retreat back anyway to avoid being pushed back. And so, they were back in a stalemate again. But the Princess wasn't too worried or concerned. She still had control over the situation. When he didn't even bother to attack her this time, a smirk began to flit across her features. In fact, her blade tip was lowered below her hips and above her knees before beginning to walk towards him with an unflinching smile.

Lupin was not in a good spot but he had a plan. Lupin readied his sword and started to walk closer to Lisa, he was getting in her range Lupin was busy analyzing the best spot to hit her since she has her below her waist and above her knees....... wait a minute is Lisa doing a dick joke? This has messed up Lupin's confidence. Lupin figured hitting her on the head would be the best solution so he did just that.

1st Action:

Lupin would follow up with another sword aiming to hit Lisa's left side. Lupin focused on hit hard not fast, maybe raw physical strength is the key not speed. Only one way to find out.

2nd Action:

Lupin is trying his best to hold his ground againist, Lisa. It doesn't look good.