Maki woke the next morning at 5 and got out of bed into her normal routine. Every morning before her day, she worked out to maintain her well toned physique, then went into her training simulator to keep her skills in the arena honed to perfection. Her workout consisted of a 4 mile run, 50 press ups, 50 press ups and 50 burpees, then stretching, then straight into the simulation.
The simulation has a number of difficulties, the hardest of which actually has 3 artificial fighters. Maki has made improvements to the program herself and making the solo fighter much harder so it's more realistic. She had made the fighter so hard that she found it harder than most of her real opponents. She entered the simulation and turned it on. Everything around her went black and an orange figure appeared before her.
She produced her her sword, an elegantly decorated katana twice the length of her arm, and bowed to the hologram. The hologram formed 2 knives, similar to Rins, and reciprocated the bow. Maki started forward, slowly moving to the right to start in a circle fashion. The orange figure observed and moved back, facing Maki. After a minute of this, it launched forwards in a flurry of attacks. Maki span her katana catching the attacks and dodged passed the swinging for an attack of her own which was deflected by a knife. Maki ducked under the second one that went throw for her throat.
She shifted her leg placing it behind that of the fighter and rammed her shoulder into its chest causing it to fall back. Maki went and swung her sword and took off one of its hands, breaking its defence. She then finished the fight by bringing her sword down into the chest of her opponent. "Hmm, must need some tuning" Maki thought as the simulation faded. She exited the simulation and went to shower and continue the rest of her morning routine.
She ate breakfast, dressed in some casual clothes and packed her gear for the fight later in the day. The fight was late in the afternoon, so she would spend the time before researching her opponent. "Eli the dancer, why are you called a dancer?" Maki mused aloud. She activated he holo screen and entered her name into it. She was presented with 17 videos.
She saw all were relatively short with only 3 being over 2 minutes. She clicked on the most watched video, which only lasted 37 seconds. The fight title was "Combat Duel Arena: Eli the dancer vs Anju the clawed". The fight showed a girl with gauntlets with long, sharp blades who was clearly Anju. The other showed a tall blonde with a slender but clearly strong build, wielding a twin-bladed sword that was the same height as her. The video opened with them both bowing. Then Eli revealed her name.
She started spinning the sword around her head, slowly picking up speed. She moved so fluidly, Maki was almost hypnotised by the beauty at which she controlled her huge sword. Anju wasn't fazed however and moved forward. Eli saw and made the sword arc around her forcing Anju back. She then resumed her sword art. Maki was impressed at her stamina, her breathing still looked relaxed.
Anju darted forward, in an attempt to dodge through. Eli intercepted with a flash of her sword that took of both Anju's hands. She feel back onto the floor, a look of shock on her face. Before she could scream, eli jumped onto her and buried the blade into Anju's chest. 37 seconds. A flawless victory. Maki was in awe at the grace and skill showed by Eli. Although a brilliant fight though, Maki registered Anju's weapons were far smaller and limited than Elis. She decided to watch one of the longer videos, in hope of finding a weakness in Elis form.
The fight she selected was called "Combat Duel Arena: Eli the dancer vs Yukiho the hammer". This video last roughly 2 minutes and Maki saw instantly why Yukiho had earned the nick name of hammer, by the giant hammer she wielded. It was as tall as her and the head of the hammer was intricately decorated with gorgeous white gold and ruby perfectly imbedded. The both bowed to one another.
Eli again started her dance, but this was different, her movements were as liquid, but the move themselves different, instead of the just spinning it around her, she walked, and jumped, instead of remaining still, her sword play complimenting the movement. Again, there was a wary look on Elis opponent, clearly daunted by Elis clear skill. She moved in slowly, warily, paying attention. She lifted the hammer of her shoulder and held it, ready to strike. Eli feinted an attack by stepping into what looked like a lunge, causing Yukiho to step back, though she kept her cool, an her eyes remained zeroed in on Eli.
In response, she did an over head attack an brought the hammer down hard. The ground shook from the impact, and Maki was surprised Eli didn't take advantage and win. That's when she saw why. The ground shaking had unbalanced Eli slightly, but long enough to bring the hammer into a ready defensive position which Eli did not see. She stepped in to an attack and was met with a hammer coming straight up, knocking the twin blade high into the air, whilst Eli fell back. She watched as Yukiho kept an eye on Eli whilst waiting for the twin blade to land. She span the hammer round as the twin blade came down and knocked it to the far edge of the arena, opposite from Eli and stood between her and it. She flashed Eli a smile as she walked forward.
Eli responded by resuming her dance, feet light, arms loose, and eyes focused, she danced in leaps and bounds, trying to find a way past Yukiho, at least, that's what she made it look like, as Maki observed, she could tell something else was happening. Her thoughts were confirmed when she went to side step yukiho, who moved her hammer in the way, only for Eli to slip at the last second and snatch the hammer from Yukiho a grasp.
She then kicked her with the flat of the foot on her chest knocking her over, Before spinning the hammer round behind her then bring it down on the girl with a bone shattering crash. She walked and picked up her twin blade then left the arena. "I'll have to watch out for any such trickery" Maki said to herself, making a mental note. She decided to watch one more episode before packing her gear and heading to the arena. She moved down to one of Elis longer fights, to see how the others had survived so long and, if possible, improve their technique. She choose the longest lasting fight, and viewed the title. "Combat Duel Arena: Akiru the knight vs Eli the dancer" Maki opened the file and watched as both fighters bowed.
Akiru was called a "knight" due to her attire and weapon choice. She wielded a short sword in one hand, a shield about the size of her torso in the other, adorned with a worn image of 2 crossed swords. She wore armour similar to that of the Knights of old. The battle began and she charged into Eli before she could begin her sword movement properly. Eli didn't expect this move and was caught unprepared. Akiru smacked the sword aside with her shield and Eli fell with it to the floor. Eli was on her back as Akiru moved in for a down stab. She bought up her sword, aiming for Akitas throat, but her attempt was batter aside. Akiru rammed her sword down.
Eli rolled to the side and jumped up, only to be battered back to the ground by Akiru when she rammed into her with her shield. This time Akiru tried to move in closer before trying to finish Eli. Eli was clearly feeling the pressure in this fight, her form was far off. "It must have been the failure to enter the dance immediately" Maki thought to herself. She would remember this tactic. She continued to watch however, curious as to how Eli won. Akiru moved in closer, shield taking all of Elis attacks.
Maki saw an opening in Akirus defence though, and Eli saw it to, and stabbed her twin blade through Akirus undefended thigh. Akiru cursed and fell backwards, barely staying on her feet. Eli got up and span around, swinging her sword in a wide arc, forcing Akiru back further. Eli began to move, anger clearly fuelling her movements, despite trying to maintain control. Akiru quickly tried to stem the bleeding from her leg, grunting in pain. Eli wasn't having it though and ran forward, blade ready and began a brutal assault on akiru, who struggled to keep her shield up.
Eli kept slashing and stabbing, trying to knock the shield aside. She knocked it to the side slightly, but instead of going straight for another attack, she kicked it to the side, leaving Akiru wide open. Akiru worn out from taking all of Elis hits couldn't do anything but watch as Eli span and rammed the twin blade clean through the chest. She slowly fell backwards off the sword onto the ground. Eli did not linger, and walked out of the arena. Maki formulated a tactic in her head. She knew what she would have to do to beat Eli. She stood up and packed her bag, and headed to the arena.