Fencing [Albrecht/Lisa]

A blade flashed from side to side and up and down. Sometimes from differing angles as its wielder's body shifted accordingly to her will. A young woman was busy applying herself to the number of drills her brother taught her. Sometimes she would switch to imagining a real enemy in front of her. No matter the purpose of each type of practice, it was meant laying down the path towards improvement. Her footwork varied from a basic gait to increasingly complex shuffles and lunges. The path of her blade was basic enough, but each had their own purpose that wasn't easily seen to  an amateur-ish eye. As of now, Lisa was applying herself to an imaginary enemy with a significant long reach... and with frightening power to boot. She continued to slash, parry, and evade as best as she could, but the exchange would continue as beads of sweat began to appear on the fringes of her forehead. As she was still busy with the show of make-believe, she wouldn't notice anyone else entering the gym. Like now.

A Knight should be constantly training his body and combat techniques, school occupied some of his time with academic pursuits but they also provided a gym and time to use said gym. Albrecht had thought it would be worth to try out the school gyms for training instead of what the Church of Freaks provides for the sake of variety, he was in his usual training attire and on his way to the gym. Immediately he noticed Lisa's presence at the Gym upon arrival, she seemed absorbed in her match against an imaginary rival. Curiously he watched her technique from afar in silence, while he was not familiar with the style he could tell from his own experience as a swordsman she knew what she was doing. Perhaps there were a handful techniques he could learn while sparring with her.

"Good morning." He announced his presence with a greeting. "Those were some impressive moves." He added with an approving nod.

Normally Albrecht would have been wary of interacting with the Princess after Maria had warned him of her stand offish behavior, but after seeing her skills he was willing to look beyond that.

"I'm Albrecht Frost by the way." They had been in a mission together but they never had interacted with each other, he fully expected her to not know his name.

The imagined enemy she was facing was tough. She required so much focus and attention that it was paramount she wasn't disturbed. Funny how that worked in real life. Because someone was there just to get her attention. She broke off an irritable slash to the side and gave a pointed glare at Albrecht. At one end, she wasn't quite sure how to take his compliment. He seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it until he introduced his name. "Lisa Lamecia, good morning. So you're the recent Cadet Maria was talking about."

She gave one hard look at his entire appearance. He seemed strong. Tough, it reminded her of Maria in several ways. Were all the Cadets from that "Church" usually strong? She wanted to ask her Brother about it, but he said very little.  As curious as she may be, she instead  showed her back to him while backing to her spot with sword in hand to continue practicing as usual. "It looks like you're here to train. The gym's big enough for both of us. Just don't interrupt me."

And then she was back to swinging like earlier.

Clearly she was not happy with Albrecht's interruption, the knight should have seen that coming considering what Maria had told him and the current situation, she only said a few words and shot him a glare. He wasn't phased but now he knew to mind his own business, a shame he'd have to train by himself again. Perhaps inviting Maria to train together next time.

"As you wish, Lisa." He then stepped away from her, keeping a good distance from the Princess so he could start his own training. The Lion would open it with a few simple stretches, can't afford to have a sprain ankle or muscle during training. He'd move on to a series of push ups, first with both arms and later using just one arm.

1, 2, 3... Eventually the knight would find himself absorbed in his activities. 54, 55, 56... Wondering how far he could push himself this time, he knew he could do a few hundred non stop if he really set himself to it but there was no need for that right now.

87, 89, 90 and so on. The Knight would remain like that a for a good while.

"Thanks." She was content enough to continue her training. There was once an enemy she couldn't beat on the field. The source of her failure, save for her own recklessness and weakness. Serenity made sure to lecture her thoroughly about being the former. Julius didn't say too much about the latter, but he did look disappointed. But her Mother, oh her Mother, there was nothing to be said about her. Lisa went on to slash, thrust, and parry until finally finishing up with a thrust to stop there.

At best it was just a flimsy scenario to the real thing and couldn't even hold a candle to it, she had to admit. But the memory machine wasn't something that could be used in the day and this was all she can do during this time. When she grasped at her water bottle near the bleachers, she noticed the Knight partaking in push-ups. One-hand and two-hand, not many people can do those and not many can do the same frequency either.  

If she had to compare the two, it looked like Maria was stronger and little surprise to that because of that hulking weapon she always carries around. But still, whatever was inside the bag of his was bothering her. Was it some weird weapon like Maria's?

Once he was done with his series of push ups, he'd move on to the next exercise. A few sets of simple abdominal that he'd perform steadily and at a moderate pace. The more he trained the more he would shut off to the outside world, not only his body but also his mind were dedicated to this. His primal rage and drive seemed too spark up, motivating him to push himself to the limit. And then he was done, his perception returned to the gym in a sudden "snap". It was a productive warm up, but now he could focus on his sword technique. The Knight moved towards his bag and swiftly take out his Holy Relic from inside, a large and black two handed sword.

"It's good to be outside again, give your best, Lion!" The Angel could communicate with the Knight through their mental bond.

A deep breath and then a single swing followed, cutting the air in a swift and powerful motion. Each of Albrecht's movement carried his anger translated into sheer power and ferocity. Sometimes he couldn't help himself but lowly growl and bare his teeth in rage, much like a wild animal. He didn't limit himself to this savage style however, they would be alternated with him training half-swording imagining an enemy in full plate and attempting to poke the gaps in the armor or just attempting to pummel the weak points of the imaginary armor with the handle of the sword. While those techniques were not of much use against demons he still felt compelled to hone them.

She blinked as Albrecht drew his weapon from the bag. He was a Cadet and everyone usually had a weapon, that was true. But it really did register to her that this was the same guy who came to the Cadets in armor. Unlike what seemed to be most of the Cadets of her generation, this one used a sword just like her. Her eyes were glued on him. Expectations were rising and peak it did when he began slashing around and showed off the extent of his prowess.

Being the wielder of swords, the movements weren't absurdly different despite their different styles. In the end, they were swords. But Lisa had to raise an eyebrow when he started that odd movement and stance she's never seen before. There may have been something similar in Koryu styles, but this seemed odd. Without thinking she blurted out, "What are you doing?"

"Huh?" His arms stopped midway through one of his motions, his gaze would shift from the imaginary target and set on Lisa who had called him out. She didn't want to be interrupted yet she interrupted his training, it was amusing but Albrecht wouldn't hinge or even mention that as he didn't care enough. "You mean me holding the sword 'backwards' or gripping the blade with both hands? It's called half-sword, it's a technique when dealing with armored opponents. A blade can't cut through full plate, thrusting the gaps with the tip of the blade or bashing the enemy is more effective."

The Knight's stance would become more casual and relaxed as he explained. Talking about swords and sword fighting was a bit of a soft spot for him.

"It was pretty common in medieval Europe warfare, not sure how useful it is now days..." He took a small pause. "You use a katana sword, right? I'm not very familiar with Japanese sword fighting but you seem pretty good, think we could exchange some techniques and tips?"

Armored opponents? Lisa failed to recall if there were such opponents that had any strong exteriors. But it did kind of make sense in a historical context. They may have the same kind of weapon, but the armored exterior these blades had to go through in their time were definitely different. There was something she could learn here in this modern age. When Albrecht suggested in exchanging techniques, she realized she talked abruptly and bothered him unnecessarily. An embarrassing flush began to spread through her cheeks while quickly trying to deliberate what she wanted to do here. But in spite of herself, she stuttered-blurted out. "I-I, Y-yeah! Sure, we can! Yes! We can!"

Oh God, why? The path of being a Lamecia was tough, alright. Why did she keep bothering others when they were training? Dumbass! She tightly kneaded her own fist against her hips while assuming a confident facade. Or at least, she tried after pulling the hairband on her wrist and letting it go to cause her to wince slightly. "But if we're going to do that, we need live targets to show our techniques to for observation. How do you like the idea of crossing blades with each other? First clean hit wins."

As much as she wanted to be ashamed of herself, Lisa wanted to assess this man personally like she did with Maria. Coming from the same Church, this should make for not only an interesting exchange, but a challenging one too.

A duel? Now his interested had been sparked, it had been quite some time ever since his last sword fight, even if it was just a quick spar this should be good exercise. He had yet to see a swordsman demon or Psyche Terrorist, they seemed to mostly rely on their foul magics for combat.

"That sounds good, much better than an imaginary opponent." It was easy to be fooled by your own imagination, gives a false sense of security and it's also limited by your own personal experiences. It helped you not lose your edge, but it was inferior to having a training partner.

"The Princess seems quite prideful... Almost ashamed for suggesting to practice together."

"Well, that's her problem."

The Black Lion would take a few steps away to create some distance between the two and get himself in his battle stance.

"Ready when you are."

Lisa allowed a pleased smirk to spread throughout her features. Finally someone to actually fight. She was itching for one for some time after that last mission with the train. Having some of the newbie Cadets and Maria stealing the spotlight miffed her. But here was someone who was willing to be the object of her frustration. The Cadet swung her blade to the side before taking a deep breath. Once Albrecht Frost stepped far enough away and stated that he was ready, it began.


She quickly closed the distance with a lunge to slash him at the right side of his head. Lisa was resolute and would not back down. Would Albrecht be the same?

She had a quick footwork and was just as quick with the blade. The cadet firmly gripped his sword and made an upward motion to stop Lisa's incoming attack, his teeth were bared and gritted, there was wolfish grin forming on his face. Should the blades connect he'd slide his sword horizontally trying to catch her blade his sword guard and follow it immediately with a forceful push to the left. With violence and anger he performed a horizontal slash from left to right at the abdomen's height while performing a short hop back to create distance of half a meter.

Strengths(idk if it's relevant):

She expected resistance. He had impressive strength in him to force her blade to her right, but it was nothing she couldn't deal with. The Cadet noticed he was going to follow up with a slash by the movement in his shoulders. Even while forcefully pushing her blade to the side like that and following up with a slash from that angle, there wasn't going to be as much cutting power without enough follow up. And with Albrecht retreating away to create distance, it's easier to see where his blade was going.

Lisa quickly reacted by flipping her blade upside down with her hands still gripping its tsuka and bringing it close against her side as she leaned and stepped more to her left. She felt Lamina Sanctus deflect off the edge of her katana as it harmlessly missed hitting her. And as Albrecht's blade made contact and was swung away from her, the Princess lunged and swung down her blade towards his head again as the Knight retreated... Or so he thought. Instead of actually targeting his head in the swing, its trajectory suddenly jutted towards his neck in a vicious decisive thrust as she kicked off her hind leg against the floorboards for extra force to deliver the blow.

She was quick and relentless. Having parried his attack with ease she quickly gave pursuit and kept on the offensive. A blow aimed at his head. The knight would have to keep in the defensive for now, use his longer reach to keep himself safe until the right moment. The limitation of just one hit forced him to be more careful and take less risks than he usually would.

With haste he raised his sword, making an upward motion and aiming at the base of the Princess' katana in hopes of stopping her from bringing it down on his head and yet again he'd try to push her away, this time back. He wouldn't follow with another attack however, instead he adopted a defensive stance and continued to try to keep distance.

"You... are pretty good." He muttered and snarled, the bloodlust was beginning to build up now.

A part of her was beginning to feel impatient and frustrated. Even with that, the Knight was able to hold his ground and force her back. He was becoming more and more of a challenge alright. Those defenses he was showing off annoyingly cut off her attack trajectory. If he liked to keep blocking like that, so be it. If he called that good earlier, then what will he called the next attack?

She took initiative again like last time. And just like last time, Lisa moved to raise her blade again as it to strike him in the head. Having done this several times, she expected him to react the same way, but similarly. But this time, she quickly dropped down the blade so that it'd deftly travel in an U-like trajectory to finally hit Albrecht in his leading wrist. If he was going to make the same kind of block, then she was going to take advantage of other openings instead.